CAREER: Toward Sustainable Urban Water Management through a Twofold Approach: Enhanced Landscape Modeling and Strategic Spatial Placement of Stormwater Control Measures

全球城市人口正在迅速增长，可持续发展和水资源管理对于确保生态和人类健康至关重要。这项职业生涯研究提出了一个创新的，双重的方法来管理城市流域。该方法的前提是在现场和流域尺度上改进景观建模，并使用地理空间技术来定位和处理那些最有助于地表水退化的地区。所提出的方法的性质集成了传感器技术，地理空间工具和建模，以通知绿色基础设施在城市系统中的位置的设计和优化。随着健康的水道越来越受到重视，这些水道的退化城市雨水径流得到更好的理解。 目前正在努力恢复美国各地的分水岭功能。由于这些努力在很大程度上依赖于粗径流模型和经验方法来实施绿色基础设施，因此迫切需要改进流域恢复方法。在开展流域恢复工作时往往不了解潜在影响。本CAREER提案的核心假设是，城市流域内的不透水区域根据其空间配置对雨水生成和输送的贡献不同。因此，针对最具影响力的不透水地区的恢复方法将产生最佳的环境结果。该研究主题将解决严重限制雨水控制措施策略有效性的缺陷，这些策略可以管理雨水并减轻对流域的影响。具体目标是：（1）使用传感器技术来表征生物滞留细胞功能，并为场地尺度模型的改进和参数化提供信息，（2）将场地尺度和流域尺度模型耦合起来，以更好地了解累积的绿色基础设施效应，（3）使用全球唯一的实验流域来测试耦合模型，（4）利用同一试验流域，将机会主义绿色基础设施选址与地理空间信息方法进行比较，（5）将成果纳入跨越多个目标群体的长期教育计划。通过综合研究和教学计划，主要研究者（PI）将成为美国和全球可持续城市水管理的主要贡献者。 改进的景观建模和布局方法是变革性的，因为它们建立了对不同地理空间尺度上控制雨水控制措施功效的因素的科学理解。这些将构成在优化位置将其实施提升为合理工程方法的基础。耦合模型将允许在执行之前制定和测试情景，促进优化方法和现实的期望。随着绿色基础设施日益成为流域恢复方法的核心组成部分，优化其布局以实现最大成果至关重要。例如，仅在切萨皮克湾实施雨水改善以减少营养物质的估计就达数十亿美元。通过允许在实施之前进行设想和测试，可以最大限度地发挥这些努力的作用。本文介绍的研究计划将与PI的长期教育目标相结合，即增加对目标群体（从K-12到普通公众）多层次流域水文和水质过程的了解，特别是针对代表性不足的个人。PI建议通过USFS赠款在当地高中建立一个生物滞留设施，用于教育目的，以跟踪树木生长作为设计配置的函数。这将是田纳西大学本科生和格拉德生的良好学习环境。对4-5所已经或将要拥有生物滞留设施的高中的外联令人印象深刻。这些设备将配备压力传感器、土壤湿度传感器、雨量计和气候传感器阵列。教师将接受有关传感器使用的教育，并协助制定课程计划，将传感器融入开发图形，统计和其他学习目标的课程中。

1553475HathawayGlobal population in urban areas is burgeoning, and sustainable development and water management are critical to ensuring ecological and human health. This CAREER research proposes an innovative, twofold approach to urban watershed management. The approach is predicated on improved landscape modeling at both the site and watershed scales, and the use of geospatial techniques to target and treat those areas that contribute most to surface water degradation. The nature of the proposed approach integrates sensor technology, geospatial tools, and modeling to inform the design and optimization of the placement of green infrastructure in urban systems.As healthy waterways are increasingly valued, and the degradation of these waterways by urban stormwater runoff is better understood. Major efforts are underway to restore watershed function across the United States. With these efforts largely relying on coarse runoff models and empirical approaches for green infrastructure implementation, there is a dire need for improved approaches to watershed restoration. Watershed restoration efforts are often undertaken without an understanding of potential impacts. The central hypothesis in this CAREER proposal is that impervious areas within urban watersheds differ in their contribution to stormwater generation and transport based on their spatial configuration. Thus, restoration approaches that target the most impactful impervious areas will result in optimized environmental outcomes. The research topic will address deficiencies that seriously limiti the effectiveness of stormwater control measure strategies that can manage stormwater and mitigate the impact on watersheds. Specific objectives are to: (1) use sensor technology to characterize bioretention cell function and inform improvement and parameterization of a site scale model, (2) couple site scale and watershed scale models to better understand cumulative green infrastructure effects, (3) use a globally unique experimental watershed to test the coupled model, (4) compare opportunistic green infrastructure site selection to geospatially informed approaches using the same experimental watershed, and, (5) integrate outcomes into a long lasting educational plan spanning multiple target groups. Through an integrated research and teaching program, the principle investigator (PI) will become a leading contributor to sustainable urban water management in the United States and globally. The improved landscape modeling and placement methodology are transformative because they establish a scientific understanding of the factors controlling the efficacy of stormwater control measures at different geospatial scales. These will form the basis for elevating their implementation to a rational engineering approach in optimized locations. The coupled model will allow scenario development and testing prior to implementation, facilitating optimization of approaches and realistic expectations. As green infrastructure increasingly becomes a core component of watershed restoration approaches, optimizing its placement to achieve maximum outcomes is critical. For example, estimates of implementing stormwater improvements to reduce nutrients in the Chesapeake Bay alone are in the billions. These efforts can be maximized by allowing scenario development and testing prior to implementation. The research program presented herein will integrate with the PI's long-term educational objective of increasing the understanding of watershed hydrologic and water quality processes at multiple levels of targeted groups, from K-12 to the general public, specifically targeting underrepresented individuals. The PI proposes creating a bioretention facility at a local high school through the USFS grant for educational purposes to track tree growth as a function of design configurations. This will be a good learning environment for the University of Tennessee undergrad and grad students. Outreach to 4-5 high schools that have or will have bioretention facilities is impressive. These will be equipped with pressure transducers, soil moisture sensors, rain gages, and climate sensor arrays. Teachers will be educated on the use of the sensors and aided in the development of lessons plans that integrate the sensors into lessons on developing graphics, statistics, and other learning goals.