ULTRA-Ex: Collaborative Research: Reconciling Human and Natural Systems for the Equitable Provision of Ecosystem Services in the Triangle of North Carolina

ULTRA-Ex：合作研究：协调人类和自然系统，以公平地提供北卡罗来纳州三角地区的生态系统服务

• 批准号: 0948047
• 负责人: Dean Urban
• 金额: $ 8.07万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-10-01 至 2013-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0948047&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: ULTRA; Ex; Collaborative; Research; Reconciling

Human well-being is tied inextricably to the delivery of ecosystem services, which provide a key connection between human and natural systems. Urban populations are simultaneously increasing demand on and reducing the capacity of natural systems to provide valued ecosystem services, contributing to an urgent call for local and regional policy and management solutions to be at the forefront of scientific investigation. The boundaries of human institutions rarely coincide with natural boundaries, however, making the management of coupled human and natural systems a challenge. These two systems also are scaled differently: human institutions tend to make decisions that are "fast and local,"? while the environmental consequences of these decisions tend to be regional and long-term. The overarching goal of this collaborative research project is to begin to reconcile the spatial and temporal disparities between human and natural systems, with a focus on social and environmental equity issues that arise when markets and policy instruments control the supply and demand of ecosystem services. This project will focus on the Triangle Region of North Carolina, which has 45 municipal and 7 county governments with an institutional mechanism for collaborative management. The region is experiencing high population growth, putting increasing demands on ecosystem services and the human institutions responsible for managing their supply and distribution. The investigators will use a three-part framework that addresses (1) the production of ecosystem services by ecological systems; (2) their valuation and monetization by people; and (3) the design, implementation, and evaluation of policies to pay for and allocate these benefits equitably. Project objectives are to apply this framework in a case study of the ecosystem service of clean water production in collaboration with state and local government agencies; to further develop a network of collaborators through a series of four community workshops focused on ecological, economic, policy, and synthesis topics; and to develop an integrated data platform that will serve researchers, government agencies, and ultimately the public at large. The investigators will employ empirical and process-based modeling, field sampling, remote sensing, geographic information systems, social surveys, and geo-demographic analyses to achieve their objectives.This project is expected to contribute to a richer understanding of the production of ecosystem services as a function of spatially integrated built and natural environments and to set the foundation for a multi-disciplinary and policy-relevant program focused on managing coupled human and natural systems. The initial case study on land use and water quality will embrace many of the central challenges in urban ecology today, including issues of scale, spatial processes, and system-level feedbacks. Over the longer term, the effort to map the flow of ecosystem services from where they are produced to where they are consumed will set a new standard for spatially explicit valuation. This project will help resolve questions about feedbacks between human behavior and institutions and ecosystem processes in the spatially structured environment of urban systems. The information produced during the course of this project will help land-use planners and policy makers to identify the most appropriate areas for land-use controls aimed at protecting water quality, to more equitably distribute the costs of producing clean water, and to create policy to support the equitable distribution of the costs and benefits of clean water. Overall, project results will help provide the scientific basis for emerging policy instruments and markets for ecosystem services and to help guide land-use planning decisions in the Triangle Region. This award was funded as an Urban Long-Term Research Area Exploratory (ULTRA-Ex) award as the result of a special competition jointly supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

人类福祉与生态系统服务的提供密不可分，生态系统服务是人类与自然系统之间的关键联系。 城市人口对自然系统提供宝贵的生态系统服务的需求不断增加，但同时也在降低自然系统提供这些服务的能力，因此迫切需要将地方和区域政策和管理解决方案置于科学研究的前沿。 然而，人类制度的边界很少与自然边界重合，这使得管理耦合的人类和自然系统成为一项挑战。 这两个系统的规模也不同：人类的机构往往作出决定，是“快速和本地"，？而这些决定的环境后果往往是区域性和长期性的。 这一合作研究项目的总体目标是开始调和人类和自然系统之间的空间和时间差异，重点关注当市场和政策工具控制生态系统服务的供应和需求时出现的社会和环境公平问题。 该项目将侧重于北卡罗来纳州的三角区，该地区有45个市政府和7个县政府，有一个协作管理的体制机制。 本区域人口增长迅速，对生态系统服务和负责管理其供应和分配的人类机构提出了越来越高的要求。 研究人员将使用一个由三部分组成的框架，解决（1）生态系统的生态系统服务生产;（2）人们对其进行估值和货币化;（3）设计，实施和评估政策，以公平地支付和分配这些利益。 项目目标是与州和地方政府机构合作，在清洁水生产的生态系统服务的案例研究中应用该框架;通过一系列四个社区研讨会，重点关注生态，经济，政策和综合主题，进一步发展合作者网络;并开发一个综合数据平台，为研究人员，政府机构，并最终为广大公众服务。 调查人员将采用经验和基于过程的建模，实地采样，遥感，地理信息系统，社会调查，该项目预计将有助于更深入地了解生态系统服务的产生是空间上一体化的人造环境和自然环境的一个功能，并为多学科和政策奠定基础，相关计划侧重于管理耦合的人类和自然系统。 关于土地利用和水质的初步案例研究将涵盖当今城市生态学的许多核心挑战，包括规模、空间过程和系统级反馈等问题。 从长远来看，绘制生态系统服务从生产地到消费地的流动图的工作将为空间上明确的估值制定新的标准。 该项目将有助于解决城市系统空间结构环境中人类行为和制度与生态系统过程之间的反馈问题。 在本项目执行过程中产生的信息将有助于土地使用规划者和决策者确定最适当的土地使用控制领域，以保护水质，更公平地分配生产清洁水的成本，并制定政策，支持公平分配清洁水的成本和收益。 总体而言，项目成果将有助于为新兴的生态系统服务政策工具和市场提供科学依据，并有助于指导三角区域的土地利用规划决策。 该奖项是由美国国家科学基金会和美国农业部林务局联合支持的一项特别竞赛的结果，作为城市长期研究领域探索（ULTRA-Ex）奖获得资助。