Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience (HMCR)

包括国家科学基金会（NSF）在内的许多联邦和州机构在减灾研究以及改善与灾害有关的社会方面投入了大量资金。然而，在最近的灾难之后展开的后果证实，过去的研究在提高自然灾害后社区恢复力方面的影响是有限的。这被认为是由于对减灾和社区恢复力（HMCR）的研究没有全面进行。解决工程问题可以保护基础设施免于崩溃。然而，在灾难发生后立即保持其功能并尽量减少相关中断对受影响社区至关重要。为了克服这一挑战，并对传统做法进行变革，HMCR项目正在启动，利用在最近的灾难中发现的复杂社会问题，并根据这些问题推动研究议程。将HMCR倡议转变为研究中心的一个关键要素是设计和实施一项融合研究计划以及综合教育和培训工作，以创建更具弹性的系统和社区。这个国家科学基金会工程研究中心（ERC）规划项目促进了HMCR中心设计议程的创建。建设合理、资金充足的HMCR ERC，并开展集中研究项目，可以使社区和组织更好地为灾害做好准备，明智地利用资源减轻影响，并迅速从灾害中恢复过来。减灾作为一种适应性复原力战略，深深植根于复杂和相互关联的结构、社会、经济和政策背景中。这些进程的动态影响着减灾战略的有效性、灾害的影响、社区的复原力以及灾后重建的方向。了解这一现实成为研究和教育的跨学科议程，并对社区产生直接影响。将涉及多个学科的研究和教育结合起来，以解决灾害易发地区的当前问题，重点放在社区恢复能力上，这是至关重要的，因为它将丰富劳动力，并指导未来灾害和恢复的决策过程。这个项目的重点是更好地理解社区中不同系统的过程和相互依赖关系。为了推动对社区恢复力有直接影响的基础研究，将为来自多个学科（如工程，城市规划，商业，计算机科学，政治学，经济学和社会学）的教师组织研讨会，与利益相关者一起开展合作研究，解决HMCR中的重要问题。一个融合工程与其他学科的研究议程将包括多个重点领域。主题可以集中在：(1)灾害建模和制图；(2)弹性设计；(3)弹性系统分析；(4)社会经济模式和政策。通过在HMCR方面获得广泛的知识，该团队将使利益相关者更好地了解他们的作用，并将能够沟通融合研究议程及其成果将如何提高灾害易发地区的社区恢复力。它将促进趋同性研究合作，以调查HMCR问题，并加强代表性不足的群体和利益攸关方的参与。它还可以增加整个工程学术社区开发想法、促进团队形成和培育利益相关者社区网络的能力。在此背景下，研究人员将加强正在进行的伙伴关系，并将与行业领导者和其他组织建立更多的伙伴关系，以提高创新能力和研究成果的更广泛的社会影响。该项目将通过在不同的学生群体中招聘来吸引代表性不足的学生，并将为具有不同背景的教师提供机会，共同努力，发展他们的学术事业，并支持HMCR中心的成立。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。

Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience (HMCR)Many federal and state agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), have significantly invested on hazard mitigation research as well as on improving the societal aspects associated with disasters. However, the aftermath that unfolded following the recent disasters confirm that the impact of past research in terms of improving community resilience following a natural disaster is limited. This is believed to be due to the research on Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience (HMCR) not being conducted holistically. Solving engineering problems protects infrastructure from experiencing collapse. However, maintaining their functionality immediately following a disaster and minimizing associated disruptions have paramount importance for the affected communities. To overcome this challenge and introduce transformative changes to the traditional practice, an HMCR program is being initiated by using the complex societal problems that have been identified in recent disasters and driving the research agenda based on the identified problems. A key element of the effort to transform the HMCR initiative into a research center is to design and implement a convergence research program and integrated education and training efforts that will create more resilient systems and communities. This NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) Planning project fosters the creation of an agenda to design the center for HMCR. The properly constructed and well-funded ERC on HMCR with a convergent research program can enable communities and organizations to be better prepared for disasters, spend resources wisely to mitigate impacts, and recover quickly from disasters.Hazard mitigation, as an adaptive resilience strategy, is deeply embedded in complex and interconnected structural, social, economic, and policy contexts. Dynamics of these processes influence the effectiveness of hazard mitigation strategies, impacts of disasters, community resilience, and directions of the post-disaster reconstruction. Understanding this reality becomes a transdisciplinary agenda for research and education as well as to create direct impact to the communities. The integration of research and education involving multiple disciplines to solve current issues in disaster prone areas with emphasis on community resilience is crucial as it will enrich the workforce and guide the decision making process in the presence of future disasters and recovery. This project focuses on better understanding the processes and interdependencies of the different systems in the community. In order to propel fundamental research with direct impact to community resilience, a workshop will be organized for faculty from multiple disciplines (e.g., engineering, urban planning, business, computer science, political science, economics, and sociology) together with stakeholders to generate collaborative research that solve important problems in HMCR. A convergence research agenda that integrates engineering with several other disciplines will consist of multiple thrust areas. The topic may focus on: (1) hazard modelling and mapping, (2) design for resilience, (3) system analysis of resilience, and (4) socioeconomic patterns and policy. By gaining broad knowledge in HMCR, the team will provide stakeholders with an improved understanding of their role, and will be able to communicate how the convergence research agenda and its outcomes will improve community resilience in disaster prone areas. It will promote convergence research collaboration to investigate HMCR problems and enhance the participation of underrepresented groups and stakeholders. It can also increase the capacity across the engineering academic community to develop ideas, facilitate team formation, and foster stakeholder community networks. In this context, researchers will strengthen on-going partnerships and will build additional ones with industry leaders and other organizations to increase the innovative capacity and broader societal impacts of the research outcomes. The program will engage underrepresented students by recruiting among the diverse student population and will provide opportunities for faculty with diverse background to work together and grow their academic careers and support the formation of the HMCR Center.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.