IRES: Interdisciplinary student research on urban resilience in Latin America

非技术摘要：世界各地的城市居民正在经历洪水和热浪等极端事件的增加。城市决策者需要在科学理解的基础上找到应对这一挑战的方法。这项面向学生的国际研究经验（IRES）资助与城市极端应变能力（UREx）可持续发展研究网络（SRN）相关联。该奖学金每年将资助三名研究生和一名本科生在智利瓦尔迪维亚工作十周（2017年）；墨西哥埃莫西约（2018）；以及多米尼加共和国圣多明各（2019年）。共有九名UREx IRES研究生将在三年内接受培训，拓宽他们在合作、跨学科研究方法和指导方面的技能。他们将认识到拉丁美洲城市所面临的独特挑战，同时受益于有机会参与决策者直接使用的研究，并在促进与当地决策者和社区的讲习班方面获得培训和经验。三名UREx IRES本科生也将在国外获得研究经验，不仅通过开展自己的研究项目，而且通过与研究生密切合作进行研究，了解科学的过程，并获得研究设计，数据分析和管理以及演示的技能。这种经历将帮助所有这些学生学会在不同的社会和政治文化中工作，从而使他们更有效率。参加该项目的学生将通过阅读小组、博客和社交媒体，以及将于2020年由UREx研究员组织的顶点研讨会，与UREx项目的其他成员分享他们的经验。技术描述：由于城市位于海岸线和旱地，因此极易受到极端天气事件的影响。随着城市化继续成为世界人口的主要趋势，越来越多的人口面临危险。关于拉丁美洲城市的研究很少，由于文化、政治或生物物理的差异，拉丁美洲城市在面对此类事件时提高抵御能力的策略可能与美国城市不同。UREx SRN是一个由科学家和当地从业人员组成的多城市网络，包括拉丁美洲城市，研究、设想和开发应对这些极端事件挑战的创新解决方案。与UREx SRN相关联，UREx IRES项目将培养学生在跨文化、跨学科以及与当地决策者合作方面的能力。主办机构的导师是UREx SRN的合作者，正在这些城市开展城市复原力研究。UREx IRES将为九名UREx研究员提供机会，将他们的论文研究扩展到这些拉丁美洲城市，使项目能够用于比较美国和拉丁美洲城市之间的弹性解决方案。三名UREx IRES本科生将被选中与研究生密切合作，在导师的指导下进行研究项目。学生的创造力被强调：作为UREx SRN的一部分，他们将有跨学科研究的经验，拉丁美洲城市的培训，并将撰写一份简短的研究计划，解释他们的IRES项目如何与他们的论文研究相结合，并为主办城市的整体知识到行动的努力做出贡献。UREx IRES研究员将与实践者和东道主导师进行跨学科研究，这将促进对城市地区总体特征，特别是基础设施特征的基本科学理解，从而使未来的城市更具弹性，并最终实现可持续发展。

Non-technical abstract: People living in cities in all regions of the world are experiencing increases in extreme events like floods and heat waves. Urban decision makers need help to develop ways to meet this challenge that are based in scientific understanding. This International Research Experience for Students (IRES) grant is linked to the Urban Resilience to Extremes (UREx) Sustainability Research Network (SRN). The grant will support three graduate students and one undergraduate student each year for ten weeks work in Valdivia, Chile (2017); Hermosillo, Mexico (2018); and in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (2019). A total of nine UREx IRES graduate students will be trained over three years, broadening their skills in collaboration, transdisciplinary research methods, and in mentoring. They will gain appreciation for the unique challenges of Latin American cities, while benefiting from the opportunity to participate in research that is directly used by decision makers, and receive training and experience in workshop facilitation with local decision-makers and communities. Three UREx IRES undergraduate students will also gain research experience in a foreign country, learn about the process of science through not only conducting their own research project but working closely with graduate students conducting research, and gain skills in research design, data analysis and management, and presentation. This experience will help all of these students learn to work across diverse social and political cultures so that they might be more effective. The students who participate in this program will share their experiences with others in the UREx program through a reading group, blogs, and social media and at a capstone symposium to be organized in 2020 by UREx fellows.Technical description: Cities are highly vulnerable to extreme, weather-related events, given their location along coastlines and in drylands. As urbanization continues as the main demographic trend worldwide, an ever-greater proportion of the population is exposed to hazard. Little research has been done on Latin American cities, where strategies to enhance their resilience in the face of such events may differ from US cities owing to cultural, political, or biophysical differences. The UREx SRN is a multi-city network of scientists and local practitioners, including Latin American cities, which studies, envisions, and develops innovative solutions to the challenges of these extreme events. Linked to the UREx SRN, the UREx IRES program will train students in working across cultures and disciplines and with local decision-makers. Mentors at the host institutions are collaborators in the UREx SRN and are conducting urban resilience research in these cities. The UREx IRES will afford opportunities for nine UREx fellows to expand their dissertation research into these Latin American cities, enabling projects that can be used to compare resilient solutions between US and Latin American cities. Three UREx IRES undergraduates will be selected to work on research projects in close collaboration with the graduate students, supervised by host mentors. The students' creativity is emphasized: as part of the UREx SRN they will have had experience with interdisciplinary research, training on Latin American cities, and will write a short research proposal that explains how their IRES project will integrate with their dissertation research and contribute to the overall knowledge-to-action efforts in the host city. UREx IRES fellows will be conducting transdisciplinary research with practitioners and host mentors that will advance basic scientific understanding of the characteristics of urban areas in general and infrastructure in particular that will lead to more resilient, and ultimately sustainable, cities in the future.