RCN-SEES: Sustainable Adaptive Gradients in the Coastal Environment (SAGE): Reconceptualizing the Role of Infrastructure in Resilience

沿海环境可持续适应梯度(SAGE)研究协调网络(RCN)的核心目标是建立一个以加勒比海和美国东北部为重点的研究人员和政策制定者的跨学科网络，该网络将提出一个共享框架，以便更好地根据自然、自然和社会条件制定有弹性的沿海基础设施决策。由美国、加勒比和欧洲的工程师、地球科学家、生态学家、社会科学家、规划者和政策制定者组成的网络旨在不同学科之间建立联系，并改善世界各地致力于这些主题的领先研究人员之间的信息流动。RCN的产品将是为期三到四天的年度密集研讨会、网络研讨会、综合我们研究结果的培训模块、弹性基础设施教育途径调查、期刊出版物和政策制定者将我们的研究成果翻译成可理解语言的白皮书。所有这些活动都旨在促进一个多样化和全面的研究网络，以促进与政策相关的变革性研究倡议的未来发展。一个新的恢复力强的基础设施框架是这一区域气候网络的基础，包括理解社区是在适应梯度内存在和发展的，解决基础设施决策的溢出效应和公平效应，利用关于快速发生的灾害(例如飓风、海啸)的影响的证据来改进针对慢性、缓慢发生现象(例如海平面上升)的做法和政策，并将我们的理论的应用与越来越多可用的气候变化和当地条件指标联系起来。加勒比地区的研究人员和政策制定者是这项工作的关键合作伙伴，因为他们带来了在管理灾害风险方面的广泛实践和研究经验，以及最近适应气候变化的高度创新的地区方法。美国东北部最近发生的风暴事件表明，迫切需要对沿海基础设施对当前灾害和气候变化不断变化的影响的弹性进行协调研究。这里的基础设施包括物理结构、生态服务和影响飓风和沿海洪水等灾害影响的社会实践。加勒比社区在规划和应对沿海灾害方面有很长的经验，而东北地区在这方面拥有先进的基础设施和研究能力。该项目将建立一个由美国、加勒比和欧洲的工程师、地球科学家、生态学家、社会科学家、规划者和政策制定者组成的网络，以制定和促进一个强有力的跨学科分析框架，以应对各种可能的沿海灾害基础设施，包括社会、生态和工程/技术因素。这将使政策制定者对适合地点和适应气候的可持续沿海基础设施政策有更明确的选择标准。这两个区域之间的研究协调为改善关于有效和可持续的新基础设施的决策，改善两地沿海社区的长期可持续性提供了可能。该项目将使美国少数族裔学生和研究人员更多地参与沿海弹性基础设施设计、规划和政策制定方面的培训，并改善学生和专业人士获得培训的机会。

The core objective of the Sustainable Adaptive Gradients in the coastal Environment (SAGE) Research Coordination Network (RCN) is to develop a transdisciplinary network of researchers and policymakers focusing on the Caribbean and U.S. Northeast that will put forward a shared framework for better informing resilient coastal infrastructure decisions based on physical, natural, and societal conditions. The network of US, Caribbean and European engineers, geoscientists, ecologists, social scientists, planners and policymakers is designed to build connections among diverse disciplines and improve the flow of information among leading researchers worldwide who are working on these topics. The RCN's products will be annual, intensive three- to four-day workshops, webinars, a training module synthesizing our findings, a survey of educational pathways in resilient infrastructure, journal publications and white-papers for policymakers translating our research findings into accessible language. All of these activities are intended to promote a diverse and comprehensive research network that fosters the future development of transformative, policy-relevant research initiatives. A new resilient infrastructure framework serves as the basis for this RCN, and includes understanding communities as existing and evolving within adaptive gradients, addressing spill-over and equity effects of infrastructure decisions, using evidence regarding the impacts of fast-onset disasters (e.g., hurricanes, tsunamis) to improve practices and policies for chronic, slow-onset phenomena (e.g. sea level rise), and tying the application of our theory to increasingly available indicators of climate change and local conditions. Caribbean region researchers and policy-makers are key partners in this effort as they bring extensive practical and research experience in managing disaster risk and recent highly innovative regional approaches to adapting to climate change.Recent storm events in the U.S. Northeast demonstrate that there is a pressing need for coordinated research into the resilience of coastal infrastructures to current hazards and the evolving effects of climate change. Infrastructure here includes physical structures, ecological services, and the social practices that influence the impact of hazards such as hurricanes and coastal flooding. Caribbean communities have long experience with planning for and responding to coastal hazards, while the Northeast has sophisticated infrastructural and research capacity on this topic. This project will create a network of US, Caribbean and European engineers, geoscientists, ecologists, social scientists, planners and policymakers to develop and promote a robust interdisciplinary analytic framework for the wide range of possible infrastructure responses to coastal hazards, including social, ecological, and engineering/technical factors. This will allow policy-makers to have clearer selection criteria for location-appropriate and climate-adapted sustainable coastal infrastructure policy. Coordination of research between the two regions opens possibilities for improving the long-term sustainability of coastal communities in both locations by improving decision-making regarding effective and sustainable new infrastructure. The project will generate greater participation among US minority students and researchers in, and improve student and professional access to, training in coastal resilient infrastructure design, planning and policy-making.