RCN-SEES: Climate, Energy, Environment, and Engagement in Semi-Arid Regions (CE3SAR)

RCN-SEES：半干旱地区的气候、能源、环境和参与 (CE3SAR)

• 批准号: 1140196
• 负责人: Luis Cifuentes
• 金额: $ 74.98万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M University Corpus Christi
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-01-01 至 2019-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1140196&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RCN; SEES; Climate; Energy; Environment

This award is funded under NSF's Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES) activities, which aim to address the challenges of creating a sustainable world. Research Coordination Network (RCN) CE3SAR (Climate, Energy, Environment, and Engagement in Semiarid Regions) is a comprehensive partnership of researchers at South Texas regional institutions and major research universities elsewhere advancing knowledge of science, engineering and education for sustainability (SEES). The network will develop and test an innovative model for conducting interdisciplinary, region-specific, sustainability research closely tied to the needs and interests of highly-engaged local stakeholders. RCN CE3SAR will aggregate regional research capacities specific to sustainability in semiarid climates contiguous to the Gulf of Mexico while leveraging research expertise infused from outside the region. Geographic information science (GIS) will play a key role in the process of integrating layers of scientific data, producing scientific insight and presenting new ideas, new research directions and new scientific knowledge to regional stakeholders as well as the scientific community. The network will align regional capacities that heretofore were largely disconnected and bring focus and synergy to a range of research that will profoundly impact the region and its socioeconomic future. The network will engage and educate regional communities, government and private-sector stakeholders throughout the process.South Texas comprises 28 counties, eight of which border Mexico and eight the Gulf of Mexico, where coastal marine and estuarine environments quickly become semiarid regions historically susceptible to drought. Climate change and its ripple effects, from rising seas to parched riverbeds, will profoundly affect South Texas socioeconomic structures, geographic distribution patterns and educational and cultural institutions. While much sustainability science focuses on global scales, local communities and institutions in South Texas and elsewhere face crucial decisions over the next 20 years driven by sustainability issues related to water, energy and use of space. Scientific knowledge must be available at relevant scales for those decisions to be informed by sustainability research; moreover, the science must be understood and accepted by the community, which plays a vital role in implementing the research results into its decision making and infrastructure. Experience has shown that importing researchers from outside the region with little or no connection to the community results in low acceptance of research results by local decision-makers and by the community at large; moreover, South Texas has been historically isolated and its residents suspicious of 'outsiders'. In order for sustainability research to have a salutary and substantive local impact, it must be advanced by regional researchers who also draw on national and international expertise.

该奖项由美国国家科学基金会的科学、工程和可持续发展教育(SEES)活动资助，旨在应对创造一个可持续发展世界的挑战。研究协调网络(RCN)CE3SAR(气候、能源、环境和参与半干旱地区)是南得克萨斯州区域机构和其他地方的主要研究型大学的研究人员建立的全面合作伙伴关系，旨在促进科学、工程和可持续发展教育(SEE)的知识。该网络将开发和测试一种创新模式，以开展与高度参与的当地利益攸关方的需求和利益密切相关的跨学科、特定区域、可持续发展研究。RCN CE3SAR将汇集专门针对毗邻墨西哥湾的半干旱气候的可持续性的区域研究能力，同时利用从该区域以外输入的研究专门知识。地理信息科学将在整合层层科学数据、产生科学见解并向区域利益攸关方和科学界提出新的想法、新的研究方向和新的科学知识的过程中发挥关键作用。该网络将协调迄今基本上互不相连的区域能力，并为一系列研究带来重点和协同作用，这些研究将对该区域及其社会经济未来产生深远影响。该网络将在整个过程中接触和教育地区社区、政府和私营部门利益攸关方。南得克萨斯州由28个县组成，其中8个县与墨西哥接壤，8个县位于墨西哥湾沿岸，那里的沿海海洋和河口环境迅速成为历史上容易受到干旱影响的半干旱地区。气候变化及其连锁反应，从海平面上升到干涸的河床，将深刻影响南得克萨斯州的社会经济结构、地理分布模式以及教育和文化机构。虽然许多可持续发展科学关注的是全球规模，但南得克萨斯州和其他地方的当地社区和机构在未来20年面临着与水、能源和空间利用有关的可持续发展问题所推动的关键决定。科学知识必须在相关的尺度上可用，可持续发展研究才能为这些决策提供信息；此外，科学必须被社区理解和接受，这在将研究成果落实到其决策和基础设施中起着至关重要的作用。经验表明，从与社区几乎或根本没有联系的地区以外引进研究人员，会导致当地决策者和整个社区对研究结果的接受度较低；此外，南得克萨斯州历史上一直与世隔绝，其居民对“外来者”持怀疑态度。为了使可持续性研究对当地产生有益和实质性的影响，必须由区域研究人员推动这项工作，这些研究人员也要利用国家和国际的专门知识。