SEES Fellows: Pathways & Partnerships in Adaptive Drought Communication in the Great Plains

该项目由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）科学、工程和教育可持续发展研究员（SEES研究员）计划支持，其目标是帮助实现必要的发现，为导致环境、能源和社会可持续发展的行动提供信息，同时创造必要的劳动力来应对这些挑战。可持续发展科学是一个新兴的领域，它解决了在不损害环境的情况下满足人类需求的挑战，同时又不牺牲后代满足其需求的能力。一支强大的科学队伍需要在跨学科研究和思维方面受过教育和训练的个人，特别是在可持续性科学领域。在SEES奖学金的支持下，该项目将使有前途的早期职业研究人员能够在与可持续发展相关的独立研究生涯中建立自己。本项目以弹性理论和应用社区参与理论为基础，探索科学-社会界面中参与式交流的两种具体背景（即集体学习和共享意义的过程）：(1)新墨西哥州和俄克拉荷马州的适应性共同管理会议，(2)两所大平原大学（俄克拉荷马州立大学和内布拉斯加州-林肯大学）干旱科学家的现有教育努力。一种混合方法（包括家庭调查、口述历史、关键信息访谈和试点测试）将模拟西马隆县（OK）和联合县（NM）的社区伙伴关系适应干旱的能力，并评估社区学术伙伴关系对大平原地区干旱扫盲和适应能力的影响。适应性共同管理会议和互动媒体的研究（作为科学家和公民之间参与式交流的背景）为关于公众科学交流在社区干旱适应中的作用的创新案例研究提供了背景。与Host Mentor Vadjunec的案例研究合作，以及与合作机构Mentor Thomas （UNL）的拓展工作，为研究极端干旱的人类和气候驱动因素的参与式传播和科学素养的交叉点提供了一个独特的机会。本提案解决的核心研究问题是：(1)科学家和公民之间关于干旱脆弱性和适应的参与性沟通存在哪些正式和非正式的途径、参与者和伙伴关系；(2)关于干旱风险和恢复的沟通如何为大平原干旱扫盲工作的有效传播和转化提供信息；(3)我们如何设计论坛和空间进行持续的互动(即：参与适应性干旱沟通的利益相关者之间的参与和集体学习？该项目的目标与推进可持续发展科学与教育交叉领域的研究独特相关：(1)确定干旱教育的社区和伙伴关系能力的维度，以及跨尺度的适应性干旱沟通途径；(2)推进动态参与模式，协助当地社区水资源的适应性共同管理(即增加公民科学对话，动员社区领导人；(3)根据可持续发展科学家在社区决策各个阶段的投入，设计和衡量干旱扫盲工作的成功程度。NM和OK的适应性干旱共同管理研讨会为利益相关者互动提供了空间，这可能会为这些地区的社区带来新的方法、创新和学习成果。与联合国大学的外联伙伴关系最大限度地传播用户友好和与文化相关的干旱外联产品，包括一个项目网站，以巩固关于大平原干旱的科学知识和互动媒体模板。跨学科合作和研究成果将为跨许多nsf支持学科的可持续实践的学术社区伙伴关系的努力提供信息。

The project is supported under the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows) program, with the goal of helping to enable discoveries needed to inform actions that lead to environmental, energy and societal sustainability while creating the necessary workforce to address these challenges. Sustainability science is an emerging field that addresses the challenges of meeting human needs without harm to the environment, and without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. A strong scientific workforce requires individuals educated and trained in interdisciplinary research and thinking, especially in the area of sustainability science. With the SEES Fellowship support, this project will enable a promising early career researcher to establish herself in an independent research career related to sustainability. This project builds upon Resiliency Theory and theories of applied community participation to explore two specific contexts of participatory communication (i.e., processes of collective learning and shared meaning) at the science-society interface: (1) adaptive co-management meetings in New Mexico and Oklahoma, and (2) existing education efforts by drought scientists at two Great Plains universities (Oklahoma State University and University of Nebraska-Lincoln). A mixed methods approach (including, household surveys, oral histories, key informant interviews, and pilot tests) will model community-partnership capacity for drought adaptation in Cimarron (OK) and Union (NM) Counties, and assess the impact of community-academic partnerships on drought literacy and adaptive capacity across the Great Plains. Research in adaptive co-management meetings and interactive media (as contexts for participatory communication between scientists and citizens) provides the context for innovative case study research on the role of public communication about science in community drought adaptation.Collaboration in case study research with Host Mentor Vadjunec and outreach efforts with Partner Institution Mentor Thomas (UNL) offers a unique opportunity to research the intersections of participatory communication and scientific literacy about the human and climatic drivers of extreme drought. The core research questions addressed by this proposal are, (1) What formal and informal pathways, players, and partnerships exist for participatory communication between scientists and citizens about drought vulnerability and adaptation, (2) How does communication about drought risk and recovery inform the effective diffusion and translation of drought literacy efforts in the Great Plains, and (3) How can we design forums and spaces for sustained interaction (i.e., engagement and collective learning) between stakeholders involved in adaptive drought communication? The project objectives uniquely related to advancing research at the intersections of sustainability science and education are, (1) to identify dimensions of community and partnership capacity for drought education and pathways of adaptive drought communication across scales, (2) to advance dynamic participatory models which assist in the adaptive co-management of water resources in local communities (i.e., increasing citizen-science dialogue, mobilizing community leaders, and fostering the drought education partnerships), and (3) to design and measure the success of drought literacy efforts based on inputs from sustainability scientists at various stages of community decision-making. The adaptive drought co-management workshops in NM and OK provide spaces for stakeholder interaction, which may lead to new approaches, innovations, and learning outcomes for communities in those regions. Outreach partnerships with UNL maximize dissemination of user-friendly and culturally-relevant drought outreach products, including a project website to consolidate scientific knowledge about drought in the Great Plains and interactive media templates. Interdisciplinary collaborations and research findings will inform efforts in academic community partnerships for sustainable practices across many NSF-supported disciplines.