Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for ENgineered Solutions for rUral REsilience--ENSURE: Food, Energy, Environment, and Infrastructure

规划资助：农村恢复工程解决方案工程研究中心--确保：食品、能源、环境和基础设施

• 批准号: 1937013
• 负责人: Stacy Hutchinson
• 金额: $ 9.99万
• 依托单位: Kansas State University
• 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: 2019-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1937013&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Planning; Grant; Engineering; Research; Center

Kansas State University (KSU) will partner with the University of Nebraska (UN-L) and Washington State University (WSU) to plan for the Engineering Research Center for ENgineered Solutions for rUral Resilience - ENSURE: Food, Energy, Environment, and Infrastructure. ENSURE seeks to create sustainable rural communities through engineering innovations and in partnership with rural stakeholders. Rural areas are distributed across the country, and their spread out nature can enable efficient distribution of food, clean energy, and healthy environments. This is particularly important since 80% of the U.S. population lives in cities that are vulnerable to climate change, such as rising sea levels, storm surges, and heat waves. Agriculture is a key economic driver in many states and, subsequently, at the heart of many rural communities. Some examples of ENSURE's research include sustainable and profitable food production, micro-grids which harness wind energy and use solid oxide fuel cells, and recovery of nutrients from animal waste. ERC planning activities include a Research Visioning Meeting hosted at WSU in the fall, three webinars focusing on research themes, and a Facilitated Workshop hosted at KSU in the spring; all meetings will bring together academia, industry, and rural stakeholders, such as small business owners and farmers.This ERC planning grant fundamentally questions the societal assumption that the current migration towards cities is the ideal resource distribution; investment in infrastructure and systems in rural areas could create more resilient infrastructure overall (e.g., food systems, energy resources, healthy environments). The vision of the ERC ENSURE is to generate resilient, engineered systems in conjunction with rural stakeholders, creating sufficient capacity in rural communities - across the U.S. and worldwide - to adapt and respond to shocks and adverse conditions. Using this planning grant, the team will develop a more complete vision of the rural landscape including the differences in, and relationships between, the social, political, human, and cultural capitals in conjunction with the natural, built, and financial capitals. The proposed team includes engineering (i.e., bio/ag, civil, chemical, electrical, environmental, and mechanical), public health, sociology, agricultural economics, agronomy, extension agents, geography, and regional and community stakeholders. Through a convergent approach, the team will create new intellectual merit that would not exist through parallel, discipline-based studies and disparate connections to stakeholders. This project will capture a more complete understanding of the rural landscape as defined by a wide range of stakeholders, allowing the team to understand the challenges and create better engineered solutions. Information gained through the facilitated discussions will be used to create a detailed database. This database will paint a contemporary picture of rural landscapes, highlighting the differences in human and natural capital, and providing the information needed to make informed decisions. The database will be used to develop multi-criteria decision support models, planning and analysis tools, and a story map. Outcomes of planning activities include 1) asking convergent, fundamental research questions; 2) forming the team using Google?s Project Aristotle framework; 3) creating a consensus regarding ERC goals; and 4) generating an informational geospatial database to serve as the foundation of story maps to communicate the information.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.

堪萨斯州立大学(堪萨斯州立大学)将与内布拉斯加州大学(联合国L)和华盛顿州大学(华盛顿州大学)合作，规划农村复原力工程解决方案工程研究中心-确保：食品、能源、环境和基础设施。确保通过工程创新并与农村利益攸关方合作，努力创建可持续的农村社区。农村地区分布在全国各地，其广布的自然可以有效地分配食物、清洁能源和健康的环境。这一点尤其重要，因为80%的美国人口生活在容易受到气候变化影响的城市，如海平面上升、风暴潮和热浪。在许多州，农业是关键的经济驱动力，因此也是许多农村社区的核心。一些确保研究的例子包括可持续和有利可图的食品生产，利用风能和使用固体氧化物燃料电池的微型电网，以及从动物粪便中回收养分。环境与资源中心的规划活动包括秋季在西苏里州立大学主办的一次研究展望会议，三次以研究主题为重点的网络研讨会，以及春季在科罗拉多州立大学主办的一次促进研讨会；所有会议都将汇集学术界、工业界和农村利益攸关方，如小企业主和农民。这笔环境与资源中心规划赠款从根本上质疑了当前向城市迁移是理想的资源分配这一社会假设；对农村地区基础设施和系统的投资可以创造整体上更具弹性的基础设施(例如，食品系统、能源资源、健康环境)。ERC确保的愿景是与农村利益相关者共同开发具有弹性的工程系统，在美国和世界各地的农村社区创造足够的能力，以适应和应对冲击和不利条件。利用这笔规划拨款，该团队将制定更完整的乡村景观愿景，包括社会、政治、人力和文化首都以及自然、建筑和金融首都之间的差异和关系。拟议的团队包括工程学(即生物/农业、土木、化学、电气、环境和机械)、公共卫生、社会学、农业经济学、农学、推广机构、地理以及区域和社区利益攸关方。通过一种融合的方法，团队将创造新的智力优势，这是通过平行的、基于学科的研究和与利益相关者的不同联系所不存在的。该项目将更全面地了解由广泛的利益相关者定义的农村景观，使团队能够了解挑战并创建更好的工程解决方案。通过协调讨论获得的信息将用于建立一个详细的数据库。该数据库将描绘一幅当代农村景观图景，突出人力资本和自然资本的差异，并提供做出明智决策所需的信息。该数据库将用于开发多标准决策支持模型、规划和分析工具以及故事地图。规划活动的成果包括1)提出趋同的基础研究问题；2)使用谷歌？S项目亚里士多德框架组建团队；3)就ERC目标达成共识；4)生成一个信息地理空间数据库，作为故事地图的基础来交流信息。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智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。