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

全球城市人口迅速增长，可持续发展和水资源管理是确保生态和人类健康的关键。这项职业研究提出了一种创新的、双重的城市流域管理方法。这一办法的前提是改进场地和流域规模的景观建模，并利用地理空间技术瞄准和处理那些对地表水退化影响最大的地区。该方法的本质是集成传感器技术、地理空间工具和建模，为城市系统中绿色基础设施的布局设计和优化提供信息。随着健康水道越来越受到重视，人们对城市雨水径流对这些水道的退化有了更好的理解。美国正在进行重大努力，以恢复分水岭的功能。由于这些努力在很大程度上依赖于粗略径流模型和实施绿色基础设施的经验方法，迫切需要改进流域恢复的方法。流域恢复工作往往在不了解潜在影响的情况下进行。这份职业提案的中心假设是，城市集水区内的不透水区域根据其空间配置对雨水产生和运输的贡献不同。因此，以影响最大的不透水区域为目标的修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战略的有效性的缺陷，这些战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阻力细胞的功能，并为站点尺度模型的改进和参数化提供信息；(2)耦合站点尺度和流域尺度模型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分水岭来测试耦合模型；(4)比较机会主义的绿色基础设施选址与使用相同实验分水岭的地理空间信息方法；以及(5)将结果整合到跨越多个目标群体的长期教育计划中。通过一个综合的研究和教学计划，首席调查员(PI)将成为美国和全球可持续城市水管理的主要贡献者。改进的景观建模和放置方法具有变革性，因为它们建立了对在不同地理空间尺度上控制雨水控制措施效力的因素的科学理解。这些将构成在优化位置将其实施提升为合理的工程方法的基础。结合的模型将允许在实施之前进行情景开发和测试，促进方法和现实期望的优化。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有数十亿美元。通过允许在实施之前进行场景开发和测试，可以最大限度地提高这些努力。本文介绍的研究计划将与国际水文计划的长期教育目标相结合，即在从K-12到普通公众的多个层次的目标群体中增加对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拨款在当地一所高中建立一个生物保护设施，用于教育目的，以根据设计配置跟踪树木的生长。这将是田纳西大学本科生和研究生的良好学习环境。已经或将要拥有生物保育设施的4-5所高中的覆盖面令人印象深刻。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，将传感器整合到开发图形、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.