NSF Convergence Accelerator Track K: Unraveling the Benefits, Costs, and Equity of Tree Coverage in Desert Cities

NSF 融合加速器轨道 K：揭示沙漠城市树木覆盖的效益、成本和公平性

• 批准号: 2344472
• 负责人: Alex Mayer
• 金额: $ 65万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at El Paso
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-01-15 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2344472&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Convergence; Accelerator; Track; Unraveling

The “project,” consisting of Convergence Accelerator Phase 1, will produce decision-making tools that optimize tree canopy coverage in desert cities. It will balance three central concerns: tempering the effects of heat on health and well-being, water consumption, and environmental justice (equitable benefits of water devoted to trees). These effects pull in different directions, so end-user-oriented decision-making tools will help decision-makers at multiple scales, from householders to community organizations to city and county planners. The overall deliverables for this project are to produce decision-making tools for stakeholders to select and distribute trees while optimizing justice and effectiveness in water-heat tradeoffs. In Phase 1, the team will develop, test, and deliver use-inspired prototype tools, driven by the convergence of community partner discussions with key research questions about urban trees, water, heat, and social equity. Phase 1 components include: tree selection and distribution decision-making tools for planners in desert cities; use of thermal data to assess tree water-heat-health tradeoffs; fine resolution environmental justice mapping of tree benefits and costs, especially water; improvement of software for assessing household energy and water conservation measures with focus on trees; and community health worker training programs for household and neighborhood tree planning. The project will use the large, arid, and relatively low income/high Hispanic city of El Paso as its test bed. The broader impacts are substantial. First, this addresses environmental justice in terms of the trade off of limited water and urban heat. It strengthens procedural justice by putting user-oriented planning tools and promoter training in the hands of community organizations and householders, as well as wider agencies. It strengthens distributive justice by directing limited water resources toward reducing urban heat inequalities most effectively. This set of prototype tools will be made openly available; they will be immediately useful for semi-arid and arid areas of the United States and have implications for water and tree planning across the country. Second, four of the five academic institutions in the proposed project are Hispanic Serving Institutions with especially high fractions of Hispanic students and high classifications for social mobility. Third, the Phase 1 project will include community organizations in the heavily Hispanic (84%) city of El Paso, Texas, where the poverty rate is nearly twice that of the national figure. The project will target low-income portions of El Paso and census tracts that have been determined to be vulnerable by the US Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该“项目”由融合加速器第一阶段组成，将生产优化沙漠城市树冠覆盖率的决策工具，它将平衡三个核心问题：减轻热量对健康和福祉的影响、用水量和影响。环境正义（用于树木的水的公平利益）会产生不同的影响，因此面向最终用户的决策工具将帮助从住户到社区组织到城市和县规划者等多个层面的决策者。该项目的可交付成果是为利益相关者提供决策工具，以选择和分配树木，同时优化水热权衡的公正性和有效性。在第一阶段，该团队将开发、测试和交付受使用启发的原型工具。社区合作伙伴的讨论与有关城市树木、水、热量和社会公平的关键研究问题相结合，第一阶段的组成部分包括：为沙漠城市规划者提供树木选择和分布决策工具；利用热数据来评估树木水分。热健康权衡；对树木效益和成本（尤其是水）进行精细环境正义绘图；改进以树木为重点的家庭能源和节水措施评估软件；以及针对家庭和社区树木规划的社区卫生工作者培训计划。首先，它通过权衡有限的水和城市热量来解决环境正义问题。将面向用户的规划工具和促销员培训交给它通过引导有限的水资源最有效地减少城市热量不平等来加强分配正义。这套原型工具将立即对半干旱和干旱地区有用。其次，拟议项目中的五个学术机构中有四个是西班牙裔服务机构，其西班牙裔学生比例特别高，并且社会流动性较高。一期工程将包括德克萨斯州埃尔帕索市的社区组织，该市的贫困率是全国贫困率的近两倍，该项目将针对埃尔帕索的低收入部分和已确定的人口普查区。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。