A Transdisciplinary Workshop: Linking Research and Practice for More Resilient Drinking Water Systems

爱德华井架水是我们这个星球上最重要的资源之一。管理、监测和处理水以支持人类和环境福祉是一项系统挑战，需要许多学科的投入。然而，将科学和工程方面的突破转化为对社会的好处是复杂的。它需要跨领域的知识集成和跨部门的协作。为了促进这些互动，该奖项将支持一个为期一天的研讨会，该研讨会将召集来自四个地区和华盛顿特区的研究人员、研究翻译人员和从业人员，以确定改善饮用水系统弹性的具体机会。在美国，人们理所当然地认为随时可以获得足够、清洁、负担得起的水。然而，老化的基础设施、降水的变化、人口增长和环境污染正在给各地的供水系统带来压力。新技术和研究进展将有助于应对这些挑战。虽然环境工程和其他领域的研究人员正在推进水系统知识的前沿，但将知识转化为实践需要研究人员和致力于帮助饮用水系统适应不断变化的条件的过程、政策或产品的专业人员之间的双向学习和合作。根据科学和创新政策领域的研究，新信息的使用通常是通过人际关系和交流，通过面对面的互动形成的。此外，翻译工作需要具有翻译技能和能力的人--如系统思维、沟通和管理--帮助撮合这些关系并以有用的格式共享信息。这次研讨会由美国科学促进会主办，将以四个区域论坛的研究结果和对100多名饮用水研究人员和从业人员的访谈所提供的需求评估为基础。讲习班的第一部分将通过多学科受众的研究报告和案例研究，增进对质量、数量和饮用水获取方面的挑战的共同理解。在讲习班的后半部分，与会者将提出建议并建立联系，以帮助解决四个区域论坛与会者确定的具体饮用水挑战。各种真实世界的情景将为研究人员提供机会进行“思维实验”，在一系列条件下测试他们的理论或模型，并潜在地开发新的假设。从环境工程到社会科学等领域的参与者之间也可能出现关于饮用水的新的跨学科研究合作。美国科学促进会的新兴科学与社会领导者计划(ELISS)正在通过一个培养研究生广泛专业能力的项目来培养下一代研究型翻译人员。通过竞争申请，Eliss从多个校区挑选跨学科的研究生团队。学生通过服务学习项目(称为“创意实验室”)培养自己的领导力、协作和翻译能力，帮助当今的领导者创造性地思考我们社区面临的复杂挑战。研讨会编写的报告将概述：未来50年饮用水质量、数量和可获得性面临的主要挑战；可为这些挑战的解决方案提供信息的新兴研究和技术；描述饮用水系统复原力的区域挑战的具体案例研究，并为研究人员和从业者提出应对这些挑战的建议方法。

1654978PI Derrick, EdwardWater is one of our most important resources on our planet. Managing, monitoring, and treating water to support human and environmental well-being is a systems challenge that requires input from many disciplines. However, translating breakthroughs in science and engineering into benefits for society is complicated. It requires integration of knowledge across domains and collaborations across sectors. To catalyze these interactions, this award will support a one-day workshop that will convene researchers, research translators, and practitioners from four regions and Washington, D.C. to identify concrete opportunities to improve the resilience of drinking water systems.In the United States, people take for granted that sufficient, clean, affordable water is readily available. Yet aging infrastructure, changes in precipitation, population growth, and environmental contaminants are stressing water systems everywhere. New technologies and research advances will be instrumental for addressing these challenges. While researchers in environmental engineering and other fields are advancing the frontiers of knowledge about water systems, translating knowledge to practice requires bi-directional learning and collaboration between researchers and professionals working on processes, policies, or products that will help drinking water systems adapt to changing conditions. According to research in the field of science and innovation policy, use of new information most often occurs through personal relationships and communications, formed through in-person interactions. Further, translational work requires people with translational skills and capacities--like systems thinking, communication, and management--who help to broker these relationships and share information in useful formats. This workshop, hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, will build upon findings from four regional forums and a needs assessment informed by interviews with more than 100 drinking water researchers and practitioners. The first part of the workshop will develop a shared understanding of challenges in quality, quantity, and access to drinking water through research presentations and case studies for a multi-disciplinary audience. In the second half of the workshop, participants will generate suggestions and make connections that could help to address specific drinking water challenges identified by participants of the four regional forums. A variety of real-world scenarios will provide researchers the opportunity for "thought experiments" to test their theories or models under a range of conditions, and potentially develop new hypotheses. New interdisciplinary research collaborations on drinking water could also emerge among participants from fields ranging from environmental engineering to the social sciences. Emerging Leaders in Science and Society (ELISS), a program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is building the next generation of research translators through a project that develops broad professional capacities in graduate students. Through competitive application, ELISS selects interdisciplinary teams of graduate students from multiple campuses. The students develop their own leadership, collaboration, and translation capacity through service learning projects (called an "Idea Lab") that helps today's leaders think creatively about complex challenges facing our communities. The report developed from the workshop will outline: the major challenges to the quality, quantity, and availability of drinking water in the next 50 years; emerging research and technology that could inform solutions to those challenges, and; specific case studies describing regional challenges to the resilience of drinking water systems, and suggested approaches for researchers and practitioners to address them.