CoPe RCN: Resilient Rural Infrastructure

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1940319 (Feiock). The RCN for Resilient Rural Infrastructure will explore and achieve adaptive capacity and resilience for Gulf coastal communities, which has the potential to extend to infrastructure resilience of other rural communities in the United States. Understanding the factors that foster and support the efficacy of hurricane resilience in varying urban and rural settings can lead to strategies and policies that will optimize successful and all-inclusive future and long-term strategic adaptation and implementation plans. The initial focus is on the Florida Panhandle and will be expanded in years two and three to communities and institutions along the Gulf of Mexico coast. The activities of the new RCN include: Collectively develop a consensus-based mechanism for rural reliance; create a networking mechanism to recruit additional participants and update working groups; develop new research directions for identified subareas; evaluate the success of the network; and develop an innovative learning program for graduate students of diverse backgrounds.This RCN aims to foster a new understanding of the complex interactions among the key elements of community resilience in rural coastline areas. The RCN will work towards a set of new theories to explore hypotheses regarding how to achieve adaptive capacity and resilience in coastal communities. The RCN will bring together researchers from different fields, who otherwise would not be able to network together, to form working groups focusing on understanding within three thematic frameworks: Resilient rural infrastructure capacity and innovation; Governance and planning; and Community engagement. The network's research agenda will allow researchers to work towards solutions impacting people, their communities, and the future of lives in the communities. Through co-production of knowledge with the RCN's organizational and community partners, the development of new theories and methods will be enabled that could help community leaders and local officials planning capacity building and implementation decisions in preparing for and responding to shocks and in developing balanced sustainable solutions for both the human and natural environments. The network management team will implement a mechanism to promote diversity by recruiting graduate assistants and network participants. The network participants will contribute to the development of a unique interdisciplinary learning program, based on the concept of an outcome-driven, diverse, and individualized learning mechanism.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.