CNH2-S: Long Term Perspectives on Water Security, Food Security, and Land Management Among Pastoralists Experiencing Change

CNH2-S：经历变革的牧民对水安全、粮食安全和土地管理的长期看法

• 批准号: 1924322
• 负责人: Matthew Douglass
• 金额: $ 74.89万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1924322&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CNH2; Long; Term; Perspectives; Water

Changing weather patterns and globalization affect the long-term sustainability of communities. Arid and semi-arid grasslands and ranching/herding communities are particularly affected by uncertainty regarding the availability of water, food, forage, and grazing land. This research project investigates long term perspectives on water security, food security, habitat loss, cultural change, and land management among pastoralists experiencing change in a rangeland ecosystem. Using archaeological, historical aerial imagery, remote sensing techniques, ethnography, and generative modeling, this project will contribute to a more nuanced understanding of complex interactions within pastoralist/grazing socio-environmental systems in semi-arid lands globally. It will test the hypothesis that the current intersection of development, land management, and changing environmental circumstances represents a recent phenomenon that deviates from long-term trends and if left unchecked will ultimately lead to environmental degradation. Project results will be widely disseminated to increase access to clean water and healthcare among the focal pastoralist community. The project will also produce data that is useful for understanding the resiliency of grazing practices relevant to cattle-ranchers in the United States and globally, and teaching materials (e.g. computer simulations, a roleplaying boardgame) to educate US students about systems thinking, resiliency, and conservation. Teaching materials will be made available for free through University of Nebraska teaching initiatives and websites.This project will document the resiliency of traditional land use systems in semi-arid lands and the changes they face in an increasingly globalized world with shifting weather patterns. Currently, the local ecosystem faces land degradation and loss of wildlife, while increases in waterborne illness and food insecurity threaten the pastoralist community. The investigators hypothesize that the current intersection of development, land management, and changing environmental circumstances represents a recent phenomenon that deviates from long-term trends and if left unchecked will lead to widespread environmental degradation. Reviews of the archaeology and paleoecology of the region indicate a long-term coupling between pastoralist societies and the natural environment, yet current ethnographic and health indicators suggest stress in the socio-ecological system. The overall project aim is to integrate environmental and human data spanning 10ka to gain a deep perspective on the system and its adaptive capacity through time. This will be accomplished by merging data from ongoing paleoecological, archaeological, and ethnographic research over the last several decades with new research targeted at understanding social-ecological interactions and their implications for the modern community. Archaeological study, historic aerial imagery, and remote sensing data will provide a longitudinal perspective onto land use patterns and ecology through time. Ethnographic interviews will help to characterize traditional land use and conservation practices and their recent changes, while investigations of health, nutrition, water quality, water and food insecurity, human and livestock energetics, and contemporary land cover will provide a baseline for understanding the impacts of recent developments. Finally, generative modeling will help to establish linkages between contemporary observations and historic proxies and allow projection of current trends forward. Results will provide an important tool for communicating with stakeholders (e.g. pastoralists, land managers, NGOs) and will have relevance for understanding the complex interactions of pastoralist/grazing coupled natural human systems in semi-arid lands globallyThis 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.

不断变化的天气模式和全球化影响社区的长期可持续性。干旱和半干旱草原以及牧场/放牧社区特别受到水、食物、饲料和牧场供应不确定性的影响。该研究项目调查了在牧场生态系统中经历变化的牧民对水安全，粮食安全，栖息地丧失，文化变化和土地管理的长期观点。利用考古学、历史航空影像、遥感技术、人种学和生成建模，该项目将有助于更细致地了解全球半干旱地区牧民/放牧社会环境系统内的复杂相互作用。它将检验这样一种假设，即目前发展、土地管理和不断变化的环境状况相互交织，是一种偏离长期趋势的最近现象，如果不加以控制，最终将导致环境退化。将广泛传播项目成果，以增加重点牧民社区获得清洁水和保健的机会。该项目还将产生有助于了解美国和全球牧场主放牧实践弹性的数据，以及教育美国学生系统思维，弹性和保护的教学材料（例如计算机模拟，角色扮演棋盘游戏）。教学材料将通过内布拉斯加大学的教学计划和网站免费提供，该项目将记录半干旱土地传统土地使用系统的复原力，以及它们在日益全球化的世界中面临的气候模式不断变化的变化。目前，当地生态系统面临着土地退化和野生动物丧失的问题，而水传播疾病的增加和粮食不安全威胁着牧民社区。研究人员假设，目前的发展，土地管理和不断变化的环境条件的交叉代表了一个最近的现象，偏离了长期趋势，如果不加以控制，将导致广泛的环境退化。对该地区考古学和古生态学的审查表明，牧民社会与自然环境之间存在长期的耦合关系，但目前的人种学和健康指标表明，社会生态系统面临压力。该项目的总体目标是整合跨越10 ka的环境和人类数据，以深入了解系统及其随时间变化的适应能力。这将通过将过去几十年来正在进行的古生态学，考古学和人种学研究的数据与旨在了解社会生态相互作用及其对现代社区的影响的新研究相结合来实现。考古学研究、历史航空影像和遥感数据将提供一个纵向视角，了解土地利用模式和生态。人种学访谈将有助于描述传统土地使用和保护做法及其最近的变化，而对健康、营养、水质、水和粮食不安全、人类和牲畜能量学以及当代土地覆盖的调查将为了解最近发展的影响提供基线。最后，生成模型将有助于建立当代观测和历史代理之间的联系，并允许预测当前的趋势。研究结果将为与利益相关者（如牧民，土地管理者，非政府组织）的沟通提供重要工具，并将有助于理解全球半干旱地区牧民/放牧耦合自然人类系统的复杂相互作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。