SCC-Planning: Building resilient coastal cities through smart and connected communities

沿海社区特别容易受到海平面上升以及沿海、河流和城市洪水增加的风险的影响。事实证明，老化的城市基础设施不足以保护社区免受这些事件的影响。灾难清楚地表明，故障不仅发生在已建成的基础设施中，也发生在工程师和决策者用来准备和应对的信息基础设施中。信息和数据系统的局限性限制了城市学习、适应和降低人口对各种极端事件的脆弱性的能力。公民领袖、数据科学家、企业家和非营利组织越来越有兴趣使用“智能城市”技术来优化城市运营；然而，它们的有效性取决于多种技术、认知、社会和制度因素。这笔SCC规划补助金将用于设计一项研究计划，以促进S和CC对促进沿海恢复和转型的社会政治、生态和技术条件的了解。该团队将培育新的、综合的和跨学科的研究合作，发展研究能力建设活动，并在迈阿密、圣胡安和巴尔的摩的沿海社区开展有意义的社区参与。总体而言，这些沿海社区覆盖了100多万将从该项目中受益的人口。具体目标是：1)发展多样化的研究社区，以促进对智能和互联社区的基本了解；2)吸引多名从业者和利益相关者为规划和确定研究计划的方向做出贡献；以及3)通过创新网络研讨会、对话和实验室发展和促进研究从业者的互动和研究能力。SCC规划基金的总体战略包括在迈阿密、圣胡安和巴尔的摩三个沿海城市中的每一个城市，将研究人员、主题专家和社区利益相关者聚集在一起，开展各种创新和协作活动。将组建一个跨学科团队，涵盖社会科学、自然科学和工程领域，包括风险传播、科学和技术研究、数据和计算科学以及传播。将利用三个沿海城市的数据资源和产出，从社会-生态-技术系统的角度促进对智能和互联社区的基本理解。用于虚拟交流、数据共享、创意培育和产品生成的创新工具将促进互动并为交流奠定基础。将采用最大限度地让每个城市的学生和初出茅庐的科学家参与的战略，以加强他们在城市信息和技术需求的社会和技术方面的研究能力。研究人员和社区将共同制定未来智能城市框架的综合研究计划的愿景，其中包括：1)通过研究机构用来产生、共享和使用信息以在其社区设想和实施战略的社会实践，在知识共同生产理论方面的进展；2)收集、管理、分析和可视化更多样化的数据的新方法，以帮助社区从综合的角度探索其弹性和展望可持续的未来；3)理解智能和互联技术的社会、政治、生态和伦理影响；4)考虑到气候系统和城市的动态性质的复杂基础设施的建模和设计的新方法。

Coastal communities are particularly vulnerable to increased risk from sea-level rise and coastal, riverine, and urban flooding. An aging urban infrastructure is proving inadequate for protecting communities from the impacts of these events. Disasters make evident that failures take place not just in the built infrastructure, but also in the information infrastructure that engineers and decision-makers use to prepare and respond. Limitations in information and data systems constrain the ability of cities to learn, adapt, and reduce the vulnerability of their populations to various extreme events. Civic leaders, data scientists, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit organizations increasingly are interested in using "smart city" technologies to optimize city operations; however, their effectiveness depends on multiple technological, cognitive, social, and institutional factors. This SCC Planning Grant will be used to design a research program that advances understanding of the socio-political, ecological, and technological conditions for S&CC that promote coastal resilience and transformation. The team will nurture new, integrative, and interdisciplinary research collaborations, develop research capacity-building activities, and undertake meaningful community engagement in the coastal communities of Miami, San Juan, and Baltimore. Collectively, these coastal communities cover a population of more than a million people that will benefit from this project. Specific objectives are to: 1) develop a diverse research community to advance fundamental understanding of smart and connected communities; 2) engage multiple practitioners and stakeholders to contribute to planning and establishing direction of the research program; and 3) develop and foster research-practitioner interactions and research capacity through Innovation Webinars, Dialogues, and Labs. The overall strategy of this SCC Planning Grant consists of bringing together small groups of researchers, subject matter experts, and community stakeholders in a variety of innovative and collaborative activities in each of three coastal cities: Miami, San Juan, and Baltimore. A transdisciplinary team will be assembled that encompasses social science, natural science, and engineering fields, including risk communication, science and technology studies, data and computation science, and communication. Data resources and outputs from the three coastal cities will be used to advance fundamental understanding of smart and connected communities from a social-ecological-technological systems approach. Innovative tools for virtual communication, data sharing, idea nurturing, and product generation will facilitate interaction and underpin communication. Strategies for maximizing participation of students and early-career scientists in each city will be employed to enhance their research capacities on social and technical aspects of the cities' information and technology needs. Researchers and communities will co-develop a vision for an integrated research program for a smart city framework of the future that includes: 1) advances in theories of knowledge co-production by examining social practices that institutions use to produce, share, and use information for envisioning and implementing strategies in their communities; 2) novel methodologies for collecting, managing, analyzing, and visualizing more diverse data to assist communities in exploring their resilience and envisioning sustainable futures from an integrative perspective; 3) understanding of the social, political, ecological, and ethical implications of smart and connected technologies; and, 4) new approaches in the modeling and design of complex infrastructures that take into account the dynamic nature of climate systems and cities.