RCN-SEES: Finding Common Ground: Developing Sustainable Networks of Women Scientists for Addressing Issues of Environmental Hazards

减轻自然环境灾害和气候变化的影响是一项重大挑战。减少社会脆弱性不仅仅是了解地震和气象数据，还必须综合考虑对风险评估、备灾和灾害应对的人类、经济和社会影响。为了提高预测和减轻环境危害影响的智力，本项目将发展一个多学科研究网络，以增加妇女（一个代表性不足的群体）参加环境危害奖学金的人数。这项国际努力将把美国地球科学、大气科学、经济学和其他社会科学领域的从业人员与拉丁美洲和加勒比地区的从业人员结合起来，这两个地区由于快速城市化、工程设计不良、基础设施不足、贫困和其他因素，特别容易受到自然灾害带来的风险。通过参与研究研讨会和使用协作网络工具，我们将(1)创建一个对环境危害有共同研究兴趣的妇女国际网络；(2)通过活动拓宽环境危害科学和社会科学研究的知识，利用该网络建立本领域的智力领导能力；(3)促进网络的发展并评估其对参与者的影响。该网络将促进研究思想的交流，建立强大的多学科研究小组，建立网络关系，并扩大人文科学和地质科学参与者的知识基础（即风险评估、管理和准备以及与环境危害有关的社会经济和政治因素）。研讨会将为长期的网络支持网络奠定基础，该网络将促进和加强参与者的研究活动，并维持跨学科对话。了解在发展和维护分布式、跨学科、国际研究网络方面最有效的因素（包括网络活动）将为其他学术团体提供信息，并提高技术领域社会网络的有效性。扩大妇女在科学、技术、工程和数学领域的参与，对于提高国家竞争力和解决对我们社会有重大影响的环境危害问题至关重要。该网络的目的是增加妇女研究人员、学生和博士后在该领域的人数、保留人数和领导能力，在环境危害研究的多学科方面对她们进行教育，并使她们参与活动，向处境危险社区的公民提供外联服务，在这些社区，环境危害是造成死亡和疾病的主要原因之一，特别是对妇女和幼儿，妇女在备灾和减轻灾害方面发挥关键作用。该项目将对飓风、风暴、干旱和洪水等气象现象造成的广泛环境危害产生巨大影响；地球物理活动，如地震、火山爆发、山体滑坡、泥石流和海啸。它将改善我们的备灾工作，加强减轻灾害的努力，并提供更有效的灾害应对措施。通过精心设计的团队建设活动吸引不同的参与者，将产生强大的合作研究和持久的学者网络，从而为危害和可持续性科学领域做出持久的贡献。

Mitigating the impact of natural environmental hazards and climate change is a major challenge. Reducing societal vulnerability goes beyond understanding seismographic and meteorological data and must integrate the human, economic and social influences on risk assessment, hazard preparedness and disaster response. To increase the intellectual capacity to anticipate and mitigate the effects of environmental hazards, this project will develop a multidisciplinary research network to increase the number of women (an underrepresented group) in environmental hazards scholarship. This international effort will couple practitioners in the fields of geosciences, atmospheric science, economics and other social sciences in the U.S, with those in Latin America and the Caribbean, two areas that are particularly vulnerable to the risks posed by natural hazards due to their rapid urbanization, poorly engineered construction, inadequate infrastructure, poverty and other factors. Through engaging research workshops and the use of collaborative cybertools, we will (1) create an international network of women with common research interests in environmental hazards; (2) use this network to build intellectual leadership capacity in this area through activities that broaden knowledge of the scientific and social science research on environmental hazards, and (3) promote network growth and assess its impact on participants. The network will facilitate the exchange of research ideas, build strong multi-disciplinary research teams, create networking relationships and broaden the knowledge base of participants in both the human and geological sciences (i.e. risk assessment, management and preparedness and socio-economic and political factors associated with environmental hazards). Workshops will lay the foundation for the longer-term cyber enabled network that will facilitate and enhance the research activities of the participants and sustain cross-disciplinary dialogue. Understanding the factors (including the cyber enabled activities) that are most effective in developing and maintaining distributed, interdisciplinary, international research networks will inform other scholarly communities and improve the effectiveness of social networks in technical fields. Broadening the participation of women in science, technology, engineering and math is central to increasing national competitiveness and addressing environmental hazards issues that have significant implications for our society. The network is designed to increase the numbers, retention and leadership of women researchers, students, postdocs in the field, to educate them in multidisciplinary aspects of environmental hazard research and to engage them in activities that provide outreach to citizens in at-risk communities where environmental hazards are among the major causes of death and disease, particularly for women and young children, and women play a key role in preparing for and mitigating disasters. This project will have an enormous impact on a wide range of environmental hazards posed by meteorological phenomena, such as hurricanes, storms, droughts and floods; and geophysical activity, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, mudslides, and tsunamis. It will improve our disaster preparedness, enhance hazard mitigation efforts, and provide for much more effective hazard response. Engaging a diverse participant pool through well-designed team-building activities will result in strong collaborative research and an enduring network of scholars that will make a lasting contribution to the field of hazards and sustainability science.