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

第1部分-城市水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，这将提高地球科学的多样性和社区问题解决能力，特别是与城市水问题有关的问题。该计划的目的是培养学生在城市环境中与水有关的真实的世界环境问题，以培养下一代科学家和城市水工作者。新奥尔良市顽固的环境问题触及了我们国家在城市发展、流域消失和气候变化加速中的建设危机。因此，该计划针对的是一个对经济繁荣和人类福利至关重要的国家核心问题。该计划将设在迪拉德大学，这是一所历史悠久的黑人大学和学院，位于路易斯安那州新奥尔良市，是非洲裔美国学生和女性科学的关键培训管道。鉴于卡特里娜飓风和其他最近的天气事件的结果，新奥尔良是一个理想的试验台，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，在2005年，有50多个堤坝和防洪墙保护新奥尔良失败，体现了城市家庭和企业的巨大脆弱性上升的水，与美国其他主要城市面临类似的挑战。该项目将以墨西哥湾沿岸为背景，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，以改善和推进本科生STEM教育进入地球科学的途径。第2部分-每年有20名在迪拉德大学学习最后两年的高级学生将被选中参加Urban-Water证书课程。这些学生将形成一个社会/学术群体，并将在生物科学，计算机科学，城市研究和经济学方面开展活动，在迪拉德建立一个新的社区，以发展对影响新奥尔良的关键环境问题的兴趣，认识和能力。主题将包括：城市水地球科学、城市水文地质学、径流科学、水利用、水管理和保护以及城市水系统中涉及的政治和经济问题。总之，该证书课程将交织地理信息系统（GIS），地理学，制图学，空间分析和地理可视化，大地测量学，地理计算，建模和计算机科学等领域的研究，以建立一个新的跨学科领域的城市水研究。这套技能将被带到承担长期存在的问题，城市水在新奥尔良作为一个港口城市面临着另一个潜在的灾难性的水有关的事件在本世纪。迪拉德教师将指导学生为证书的顶峰课程开发独立的研究主题，其研究活动包括水毒理学、洪水评估、GIS应用和其他主题。参与该项目的合作伙伴包括迪拉德STEM学院、城市研究系和商学院。此外，招聘还将利用和吸引来自NSF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所机构组成。方法涉及跨学科的团队为基础的方法来课程/活动，以及通过一个独特的证书计划，将吸引整个大学和地区的地球科学社区的兴趣为基础的方法。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.