CAREER: Science for Sustainable and Resilient Groundwater Management

1351558(米勒)。地下水的可持续管理需要明智地分配资源，以满足当前和长期的社会、生态和环境需求。从历史上看，地下水的可持续性被狭义地定义为保护含水层不受污染和限制抽水以匹配地下水的使用和补给。然而，更广泛的范例是必要的，这种范例要考虑到包括地下水依赖生态系统在内的多个有时相互冲突的地下水消费者的不同需求，并促进含水层对水文气候变化的适应能力。为了发展这种模式，PI的长期职业目标是通过推进对地下水依赖生态系统的科学理解，并通过为工程和水资源专业人员提供将可持续性纳入其决策过程的工具，促进地下水资源的可持续管理。这项CAREER资助旨在通过三个特定项目的研究目标进一步实现这些目标：1)将gde的表示纳入陆地表面和地下水可用性模型；2)测试并创建用于量化地下水资源可持续性和恢复力的改进指标；3)探索优化地下水提取的管理策略，以减少对gde的影响，防止水系统故障。这些将由三个特定项目的教育目标来补充：1)在土木工程课程中教授可持续工程实践；2)提高地下水专业人员对可持续性原则的应用；3)通过使用可持续性概念作为工具来吸引那些代表性不足的群体，从而增强工程劳动力的多样性。该项目解决了阻碍对地下水资源的可持续性及其对气候和人为压力的适应能力进行全面评估的关键差距。它的目标是改进gde的建模，并创建新的指标来评估地下水管理决策对这些敏感生态系统的影响。利用这些指标，它将探索新的优化方法，以创建更具可持续性和弹性的地下水系统。该项目测试了一个假设，即教学和研究可持续性有利于招收、留住和参与工程领域代表性不足群体的学生，尤其是女性学生。PI的职业规划将土木工程师专业发展的现有框架内的研究和教育整合在一起，他们有望在获得许可之前能够定义，解释，应用和分析与工程设计相关的可持续性原则。在学生层面，该项目将开发课程模块，在整个土木工程课程中教授可持续性；材料会从PI中提取吗？地下水模型和可持续性指标的研究。学生将通过课程项目参与研究，学生志愿者将领导这些结果的发表。这些活动将直接影响到德州农工大学多达1900名本科生和50名研究生的教育，以及项目资助的1名博士生和5名本科生的教育。课程材料将通过PI正在进行的外展活动和现有的国家科学基金会赞助的网站传播给更广泛的受众，这可能会改善全国大学土木工程可持续性教学的教学方法。在专业一级，该项目将为地下水管理者、顾问和决策者创造两个新的继续教育机会，这将有助于广泛传播研究成果，以增进了解并造福社会。关于预期的未来条件与含水层的可持续性和复原力之间关系的讲习班将邀请利益攸关方在该研究项目开始时指导该项目，并将编写一份关于地下水管理的研究和教育需求的报告。关于地下水可持续性指标和建模的短期课程将向专业人员讲授可持续地下水分配的决策工具，包括本项目开发的决策工具。

1351558 (Miller). Sustainable management of groundwater requires the judicious allocation of resources to meet societal, ecological, and environmental needs, both now and over the long-term. Historically, groundwater sustainability has been narrowly defined in terms of protecting aquifers from contamination and limiting pumping to match groundwater use with recharge. However, a broader paradigm is necessary, one which considers the diverse requirements of multiple, sometimes conflicting consumers of groundwater, including groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs), and one which fosters aquifer resilience to changes in the hydroclimate. In order to develop this paradigm, the PI has the long-term career goals of promoting the sustainable management of groundwater resources by advancing the scientific understanding of groundwater dependent ecosystems and by providing engineering and water resources professionals with tools to incorporate sustainability into their decision making processes. This CAREER grant aims to further these goals through three project specific research objectives: 1) integrate the representation of GDEs into land-surface and groundwater availability models; 2) test and create improved metrics for quantifying sustainability and resilience of groundwater resources; and 3) explore management strategies for optimizing groundwater withdrawals to reduce impacts on GDEs and prevent water system failures. These will be complemented by three project specific educational objectives: 1) teach sustainable engineering practices across the civil engineering curriculum; 2) improve the application of sustainability principles by groundwater professionals; and 3) enhance the diversity of the engineering workforce by using sustainability concepts as a tool to engage those from underrepresented groups. This project addresses critical gaps that prevent a holistic assessment of the sustainability of groundwater resources and their resilience to climate and anthropogenic stressors. It targets to improve the modeling of GDEs, as well as create new metrics for assessing the impact of groundwater management decisions on these sensitive ecosystems. Using these metrics, it will explore new optimization methods to create more sustainable and resilient groundwater systems. The project tests the hypothesis that teaching and researching sustainability is beneficial to the recruitment, retention and engagement of students from under-represented groups in engineering, particularly women. The PI's CAREER plan integrates research and education within the existing framework for the professional development of civil engineers, who are expected to be able to define, explain, apply, and analyze sustainability principles, in relation to engineering design, before they are licensed to practice in the field. At the student level, the project will develop course modules for teaching sustainability throughout the civil engineering curriculum; materials will be drawn from the PI?s research on both groundwater modeling and sustainability metrics. Students will participate in the research through course projects, and student volunteers will lead the publication of these results. These activities will directly impact the education of up to 1900 undergraduates and 50 graduate students at Texas A&M University, as well as that of the one Ph.D. student and five undergraduates funded by the project. Course materials will be disseminated to a wider audience through the PI's ongoing outreach activities and through existing NSF sponsored websites, potentially improving pedagogic approaches for teaching sustainability in civil engineering at universities across the country. At the professional level, the project will create two new continuing-education opportunities for groundwater managers, consultants, and policy makers which will aid in broadly disseminating research to enhance understanding and benefits to society. A workshop on the relationship between desired future conditions and the sustainability and resilience of an aquifer will invite stakeholders to guide this research project at its start and will produce a report on research and education needs for groundwater management. A short-course on groundwater sustainability metrics and modeling will teach professionals about decision making tools available for sustainable groundwater allocation, including those developed by this project.