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

减轻自然环境危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理解地震学和气象数据，还必须结合人类、经济和社会对风险评估、备灾和救灾的影响。为了提高预测和减轻环境危害影响的智力能力，该项目将开发一个多学科研究网络，以增加环境危害学术研究中的妇女人数(代表人数不足的群体)。这一国际努力将把美国的地球科学、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、工程建设落后、基础设施不足、贫困和其他因素，特别容易受到自然灾害构成的风险的影响。通过举办研究讲习班和使用协作网络工具，我们将(1)创建一个在环境危害方面有共同研究兴趣的妇女的国际网络；(2)利用这个网络，通过开展活动，扩大关于环境危害的科学和社会科学研究的知识，培养该领域的知识领导能力；(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团队，建立网络关系，扩大人文科学和地质科学(即风险评估、管理和备灾以及与环境灾害有关的社会经济和政治因素)参与者的知识库。讲习班将为更长期的网络网络奠定基础，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散的、跨学科的国际研究网络方面最有效的因素(包括网络活动)将为其他学术界提供信息，并提高社会网络在技术领域的有效性。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的社会具有重大影响的环境危害问题至关重要。该网络旨在增加实地女研究人员、学生、博士后的数量、留住和领导能力，在环境危害研究的多学科方面对她们进行教育，并让她们参与活动，向处于危险之中的社区的公民提供外联服务，在这些社区，环境危害是导致死亡和疾病的主要原因之一，特别是对妇女和幼儿而言，而且妇女在备灾和减灾方面发挥着关键作用。该项目将对飓风、风暴、干旱和洪水等气象现象以及地震、火山喷发、山体滑坡、泥石流和海啸等地球物理活动造成的广泛环境危害产生巨大影响。它将改善我们的备灾能力，加强减灾努力，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，将产生强有力的合作研究和持久的学者网络，为灾害和可持续发展科学领域做出持久贡献。

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.