IRES Track-1: Sustainable Water Resource Management in Eastern Nile Basin Countries: What works? What needs to be improved?

IRES Track-1：东尼罗河流域国家的可持续水资源管理：什么有效？

• 批准号: 2107603
• 负责人: Mekonnen Gebremichael
• 金额: $ 29.93万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2107603&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IRES; Track; Sustainable; Water; Resource

Although Africa is considered the future breadbasket of the world, it currently remains a net food importer primarily due to inefficient agricultural water management. The program will contribute to improving the efficiency of agricultural water management through performance evaluation of current water resource management projects, identifying critical bottlenecks and opportunities, and proposing appropriate solutions. The program will use the food-energy-water-livelihood nexus approach, which is the state-of-the-art approach for water resource management that takes into account the co-benefits and tradeoffs in managing interconnected resources (land, water, and energy). The program will train U.S. students in multidisciplinary and community-based research in water resources, agriculture and climate, and help advance their understanding of agricultural water management issues in developing countries. U.S. students, mentored by international researchers, will undertake practical student-led projects in Gezira Irrigation Project (Sudan), Nyanza-23 Irrigation Project (Rwanda), and Meila & Haiba Irrigation Projects (Ethiopia). Students will be trained in all aspects of research (from proposal preparation, to implementation, and communication), and involved in co-academic activities, such as, social activities with local communities and stakeholders, and visits to key cultural, touristic, and educational sites.U.S. students will study water resource management issues in the Eastern Nile Basin countries from the food-energy-water-livelihood nexus perspective, using irrigation projects as case studies. The proposed research examines the linkages, trade-offs, and co-benefits among the nexus components, and propose nexus-based solutions to improve agricultural water resource management. The program represents a partnership between University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Hydraulic Research Center in Sudan, University of Rwanda, and Mekelle University. Over three years, a total of 18 students (12 undergraduates and 6 graduates) from U.S. institutions, including underrepresented colleges and universities, will participate in one-year of training structured around an 8-week Summer research in Sudan (year 1), Rwanda (year 2), and Ethiopia (year 3), with Spring preparation and Fall follow up. During Spring, students will enroll in a seminar course jointly delivered by the participating faculty mentors. During Summer, students will go to East Africa for eight weeks to undertake student-led projects. Examples of student projects include: understanding the dynamics between water supply and demand, characterizing water footprint and productivity, quantifying the impact of access to irrigation water on irrigator’s food and livelihood security, assessing water quality and sedimentation, and developing pilot crowdsourcing project for data collection and dissemination. During Fall, students will continue to do their research culminating in undergraduate senior/Honors thesis or Master’s thesis. Then, students will present their research work at an international scientific conference, such as, American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting. The intellectual merit of this work lies in the integration of field data, remote sensing, and modeling to understand relationships between the food, energy, water, and livelihood nexus components. The project specifically addresses the following science questions: (1) What are the nexus hotspots and key interactions in the social and ecological dynamics of food, water, and livelihood systems at multiple scales and levels? (2) In what ways can we extend methodologies traditionally used to analyze water resource systems to nexus systems? (3) What nexus-based solutions (technological, management, governance, and marketing) are needed to improve current water productivity and to guide future new developments? Results will be disseminated through pilot crowdsourcing project, policy briefs, scientific presentations in the USA and Eastern Nile basin countries, and peer-reviewed publications.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.

虽然非洲被认为是未来的世界粮仓，但目前仍是粮食净进口国，主要原因是农业用水管理效率低下。该计划将通过对当前水资源管理项目的绩效评估、确定关键瓶颈和机会并提出适当的解决方案，帮助提高农业水资源管理的效率。该项目将采用粮食-能源-水-生计联系方法，这是最先进的水资源管理方法，考虑到管理相互关联的资源（土地、水和能源）的共同利益和权衡。该项目将培训美国学生在水资源、农业和气候方面进行多学科和基于社区的研究，并帮助他们加深对发展中国家农业用水管理问题的理解。在国际研究人员的指导下，美国学生将在苏丹的Gezira灌溉项目、卢旺达的Nyanza-23灌溉项目和埃塞俄比亚的Meila & Haiba灌溉项目中进行由学生主导的实践项目。学生将在研究的各个方面（从提案准备到实施和沟通）接受培训，并参与联合学术活动，如与当地社区和利益相关者的社会活动，以及参观重要的文化、旅游和教育场所。学生将从粮食-能源-水-生计关系的角度研究东尼罗河流域国家的水资源管理问题，使用灌溉项目作为案例研究。本研究考察了关联要素之间的联系、权衡和协同效益，并提出了基于关联的解决方案，以改善农业水资源管理。该项目是加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）、苏丹水利研究中心、卢旺达大学和Mekelle大学的合作项目。在三年的时间里，来自美国机构（包括代表性不足的学院和大学）的18名学生（12名本科生和6名研究生）将参加为期一年的培训，围绕在苏丹（一年级）、卢旺达（二年级）和埃塞俄比亚（三年级）进行为期8周的暑期研究，并进行春季准备和秋季跟进。在春季期间，学生将参加由参与的教师导师共同授课的研讨会课程。在夏季，学生将前往东非进行为期八周的学生主导的项目。学生项目的例子包括：了解水供需之间的动态关系，表征水足迹和生产力，量化获得灌溉用水对灌溉者粮食和生计安全的影响，评估水质和沉积，以及开发用于数据收集和传播的试点众包项目。在秋季，学生将继续做他们的研究，最终完成本科毕业论文/荣誉论文或硕士论文。然后，学生将在国际科学会议上展示他们的研究成果，如美国地球物理联盟（AGU）秋季会议。这项工作的智力价值在于整合了实地数据、遥感和建模，以了解食物、能源、水和生计关系组成部分之间的关系。该项目具体解决以下科学问题：(1)在多个尺度和水平上，食物、水和生计系统的社会和生态动态的联系热点和关键相互作用是什么？(2)我们如何将传统的水资源系统分析方法扩展到关联系统？(3)需要哪些基于网络的解决方案（技术、管理、治理和营销）来提高当前的水生产力并指导未来的新发展？结果将通过试点众包项目、政策简报、美国和东尼罗河流域国家的科学报告以及同行评议的出版物来传播。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。