GP-EXTRA Urban-Wide Advanced Transdisciplinary Environmental Research (Urban-WATER) program

urban - water项目将在迪拉德大学创建一个独特的跨学科课外证书课程，该课程将增强地球科学的多样性和社区解决问题的能力，特别是与城市水问题相关的领域。该计划的目的是在城市环境中培养学生在现实世界中与水有关的环境问题，以培养下一代科学家和城市水劳动力。新奥尔良市顽固的环境问题触及了我们国家在城市发展、流域消失和加速气候变化中面临的建筑危机。因此，该计划的目标是对经济繁荣和人类福利至关重要的国家中心问题。该项目将以迪拉德大学（Dillard University）为基地，这是路易斯安那州新奥尔良市一所历史悠久的黑人大学，也是培养非裔美国学生和女性科学专业的重要渠道。鉴于卡特里娜飓风和其他近期天气事件的结果，新奥尔良是一个理想的试验台，可以让学生对一个关键的科学和城市/经济问题感兴趣。值得注意的是，2005年，保护新奥尔良的防洪堤和防洪墙有50多处破裂，这表明城市住宅和企业在水位上涨面前是多么脆弱，美国其他主要城市也面临着类似的挑战。以墨西哥湾沿岸为背景，该项目将以环境教学和研究的经验方法为中心，注入GIS制图，经济分析和社区参与，以改善和推进本科STEM教育进入地球科学的途径。第二部分-每年将有20名在迪拉德大学最后两年学习的高级学生被选中参加Urban-WATER证书课程。这些学生将组成一个社会/学术群体，并将从事生物科学、计算机科学、城市研究和经济学方面的活动，在迪拉德建立一个新的社区，以培养对影响新奥尔良的关键环境问题的兴趣、意识和能力。主题将包括：城市水地球科学、城市水文地质学、径流科学、水的使用、水的管理和保护，以及涉及城市水系统的政治和经济问题。总而言之，该证书课程将地理信息系统（GIS）、地理学、地图学、空间分析以及地理可视化、大地测量学、地理计算、建模和计算机科学等领域的研究交织在一起，建立一个新的城市水研究跨学科领域。作为一个港口城市，新奥尔良面临着本世纪内另一场潜在的灾难性水相关事件，这一技能将被用于解决长期存在的城市水问题。迪拉德学院的教师将指导学生通过他们的研究活动，包括水毒理学、洪水评估、地理信息系统应用和其他主题，为证书的顶点课程开发独立的研究课题。参与该项目的合作伙伴包括迪拉德的STEM学院、城市研究系和商学院。此外，招募还将利用和吸引来自美国国家科学基金会资助的路易斯·斯托克斯路易斯安那州少数民族参与联盟（LS-LAMP）的学生，该联盟由路易斯安那州的12所院校组成。方法包括以跨学科团队为基础的课程/活动方法，以及通过独特的证书课程来吸引整个大学和该地区社区对地球科学的兴趣的基于地点的方法。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Part 1 - The Urban-WATER project will create a unique interdisciplinary extracurricular certificate program at Dillard University that will enhance diversity and community problem-solving in the geosciences, particularly related to urban water issues. The purpose of this program is to train students in real world water-related environmental issues within an urban setting in order to grow the next generation of scientists and an urban water workforce. The intransigent environmental issues in the city of New Orleans touch on a building crisis for our nation amidst urban growth, the removal of watersheds and accelerating climate change. Thus, this program targets a central problem of critical national importance for economic prosperity and human welfare.The program will be based at Dillard University, a historically black university and college In New Orleans Louisiana, and a key training pipeline for African American students and females in science. In light of the results of Hurricane Katrina and other recent weather events, New Orleans is an ideal a test bed to engage and interest students toward a key scientific and urban/economic problem. Notably, in 2005, there were over 50 failures of the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans, exemplifying the tremendous vulnerability of urban homes and businesses to rising water, with other major cities across the U.S. facing similar challenges. Utilizing the Gulf Coast as a backdrop, this project will center on experiential approaches to environmental teaching and research, infusing GIS mapping, economic analyses, and community participation, to improve and advance undergraduate STEM education pathways into the geosciences.Part 2 - Twenty advanced students per year in their final two years of studies at Dillard University will be selected to participate in the Urban-WATER certificate program. These students will form a social/academic cohort and will pursue activities in the biological sciences, computer sciences, urban studies and economics to build a new community at Dillard for developing interest, awareness and competencies in key environmental issues affecting New Orleans. Topics will include: urban water geoscience, urban hydrogeology, the science of runoff, water usage, water management, and protection as well as the political and economic issues involved in urban water systems. In sum, this certificate program will interweave the study of geographic information systems (GIS), geography, cartography, spatial analysis, and fields such as geo-visualization, geodesy, geo-computation, modeling, and computer science to establish a new transdisciplinary field in urban water studies. This skill set will be brought to bear on the long-standing problem of urban water in New Orleans as a port city facing another potential catastrophic water-related event within this century. Dillard faculty will mentor students to develop independent research topics for the capstone course of the certificate with their research activities including water toxicology, flood assessment, GIS applications and other topics.Partners involved in this project include Dillard's School of STEM, the Department of Urban Studies, and the College of Business. In addition recruitment will also leverage and engage students from the NSF-funded Louis Stokes Louisiana Alliance for Minority Participation (LS-LAMP), an alliance of 12 institutions across Louisiana. Methods involve a transdisciplinary team-based approach to courses/activities as well as a place-based approach through a unique certificate program that will draw community interest in geosciences across the university and in the region.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.