HSD: RUI: Collaborative Research: Interdisciplinary Research and Methods for Assessing Dams as Agents of Change in China

为了可持续地满足对水、能源和环境质量的同时增长的需求，同时保护受影响社区的福利和传统，需要对大坝有更广泛的认识。 为了满足这一需求，这一跨学科的研究项目将采用一种新的工具，用于评估基于多目标规划技术的大坝建设的相对成本和效益。综合大坝评估建模（IDAM）工具旨在将生物物理，社会经济和地缘政治观点整合到大坝建设的单一成本/效益分析中。 大坝建设的27种不同影响中的每一种都将被客观地评估（例如，防洪）和主观（即，对所述防洪的评估）。 通过提供与两个或多个大坝相关的成本和收益的直观表示，IDAM工具将使决策者能够评估替代方案，并阐明与大坝项目相关的优先事项，使决策过程更加知情和透明。 IDAM工具将是大坝评估的一个进步。 再加上事件年表和冲突热点地图，家庭调查，公众参与的地理信息系统，水文建模，拟议的过程将用于调查有关评估，最小化，和分布水电的影响，在文化和组织层面，并参与利益相关者在设计过程中，通过一个决策剧场。该项目的重大智力贡献将包括使用独特的多学科综合模型，通过对中国复杂的社会和环境系统的对照研究来了解大坝的影响。 该项目将通过学科和跨学科的调查，对政策和决策作出若干务实的贡献。 因此，该项目将增加对大坝建设在各种地理环境中的多重影响的相互作用的理解。 由于这一合作努力将包括在本科院校的研究机会，该项目将支持高质量的研究，由教师在两个本科院校，并鼓励研究和教育的整合。 将在各组织、各经验层次和各学科之间进行实质性的协调和能力建设。 一项广泛的传播战略旨在加强美国社会环境相互作用的研究、教学和公众宣传，亚洲和其他地方。 最后，这一决策支持进程将产生新的知识和可获得的工具，以提高各机构管理与作为变革媒介的水坝有关的社会和环境动态的能力。 2008财政年度NSF范围内的人类和社会动力学（HSD）竞赛产生的一个奖项支持了这个项目。 NSF的所有董事会和办公室都参与了HSD竞赛和HSD奖项组合的协调管理。

To sustainably meet the simultaneous and growing demands for water, energy, and environmental quality while protecting the welfare and tradition of affected communities, a broader view of dams is needed. To address this need, this interdisciplinary research project will apply a new tool for evaluating the relative costs and benefits of dam construction based on multi-objective planning techniques. The Integrative Dam Assessment Modeling (IDAM) tool is designed to integrate biophysical, socioeconomic, and geopolitical perspectives into a single cost/benefit analysis of dam construction. Each of 27 different impacts of dam construction will be evaluated both objectively (e.g., flood protection) and subjectively (i.e., the valuation of said flood protection) by a team of decision makers. By providing a visual representation of the costs and benefits associated with two or more dams, the IDAM tool will allow decision makers to evaluate alternatives and to articulate priorities associated with a dam project, making the decision process more informed and more transparent. The IDAM tool will be an evolutionary step in dam evaluation. Coupled with event chronologies and hotspot mapping of conflicts, household surveys, public-participatory geographic information systems, and hydrologic modeling, the proposed process will be used to investigate hypotheses regarding the assessment, minimization, and distribution of hydropower impacts across cultural and organizational levels and to engage stakeholders in the design process through a decision theater.Significant intellectual contributions of this project will include the use of a uniquely multidisciplinary, integrative model to understand the effects of dams through a controlled study of a complex social and environmental system in China. The project will make several pragmatic contributions related to policy and decision making through disciplinary and interdisciplinary investigation. The project therefore will increase understanding about the interplay of multiple impacts of dam construction in a variety of geographic contexts. Because this collaborative effort will includes opportunities for research in undergraduate institutions, this project will support high-quality research by faculty members at two undergraduate institutions and encourage the integration of research and education. Substantial coordination and capacity building will occur across organizations, levels of experience, and disciplines. A broad dissemination strategy is aimed at strengthening research, teaching, and public outreach about society environment interactions in the U.S., Asia, and elsewhere. Finally, this decision-support process will yield both new knowledge and accessible tools for improving institutions' ability to manage the social and environmental dynamics associated with dams as agents of change. An award resulting from the FY 2008 NSF-wide competition on Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) supports this project. All NSF directorates and offices are involved in the coordinated management of the HSD competition and the portfolio of HSD awards.