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

堪萨斯州立大学（KSU）将与内布拉斯加州大学（UN-L）和华盛顿州立大学（WSU）合作，为农村弹性工程解决方案工程研究中心进行规划-确保：食品，能源，环境和基础设施。ENSURE旨在通过工程创新和与农村利益相关者合作，创建可持续的农村社区。农村地区分布在全国各地，其分散的性质可以实现粮食、清洁能源和健康环境的有效分配。这一点尤其重要，因为80%的美国人口生活在易受气候变化影响的城市，比如海平面上升、风暴潮和热浪。农业是许多州的主要经济驱动力，因此也是许多农村社区的核心。sure研究的一些例子包括可持续和有利可图的粮食生产，利用风能和使用固体氧化物燃料电池的微电网，以及从动物粪便中回收营养物质。ERC的计划活动包括秋季在华盛顿州立大学举办的研究展望会议，三个专注于研究主题的网络研讨会，以及春季在堪萨斯州立大学举办的便利研讨会；所有会议将汇集学术界、工业界和农村利益相关者，如小企业主和农民。这项ERC规划拨款从根本上质疑了当前向城市迁移是理想资源分配的社会假设；对农村地区基础设施和系统的投资可以创造更具抵御力的整体基础设施（例如粮食系统、能源资源、健康环境）。ERC sure的愿景是与农村利益相关者一起产生有弹性的工程系统，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，团队将对乡村景观进行更全面的规划，包括社会、政治、人文和文化资本与自然、建筑和金融资本之间的差异和关系。拟议的团队包括工程（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、推广代理、地理以及区域和社区利益相关者。通过聚合的方法，团队将创造新的智力价值，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。通过促进讨论获得的资料将用于建立一个详细的数据库。该数据库将描绘农村景观的当代图景，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。规划活动的结果包括：1)提出收敛性的、基础性的研究问题；2)用b谷歌组队？亚里士多德计划框架；3)就ERC目标达成共识；4)生成信息地理空间数据库，作为故事地图的基础，实现故事地图信息的传递。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。

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.