SCC-CIVIC-FA Track B: Rural Resiliency Hubs: An Integrated, Community-Centered Approach to Addressing the Resiliency Divide through Rural Public Libraries

灾难性自然灾害日益频繁，加上“复原力鸿沟”-灾害对弱势群体的影响不均衡-要求建立抗灾中心。公共图书馆通常被称为农村基础设施的“皇冠上的宝石”，提供一系列信息和社会服务，使其成为农村复原力中心的理想设施。在这个项目中，一个跨学科的研究人员团队将与佛罗里达卡尔霍恩县的不同社区合作伙伴合作，该地区继续受到2018年飓风迈克尔的破坏，以建立一个可转移的基于社区的评估和设计过程，利用给定区域的资产，同时还确定了与健康相关的需求差距，将农村图书馆转变为弹性中心。扩大的能力可能包括，例如，绘图技术，以通知灾害规划，包括选址的避难所，援助分配，和其他资源;社区行为健康干预措施，以解决灾后创伤;以及图书馆、学校、教堂和其他重要的地方机构的共同努力，以提高人们对家庭级灾难准备的认识。通过一项联合社区成员、图书馆员、该项目小组将与研究人员共同设计设在公共图书馆的复原力中心，并为自然灾害的级联影响制定解决方案。共同设计过程将包括对图书馆、居民、当地政府和其他机构之间复杂互动的深入定性研究。多网络弹性措施和多元优先风险地图将评估社区弹性，以指导准备和响应，包括图书馆如何进一步支持脆弱社区。研究团队将定量评估经验教训的可推广性，并开发多社区迁移学习算法，以实现整个地区的可迁移和可扩展解决方案。研究设计带来了最先进的优化和数据分析方法，同时由一系列丰富的定性和社区数据源驱动，这些数据源将导致可实施的行动。从这个项目中获得的知识将提高我们对应急响应行动的理解，并有助于为美国各地的公共图书馆制定新的灾害相关政策和计划。佛罗里达政府研究所将与研究小组和民间利益攸关方合作，向所有67个佛罗里达县和其他地方传播研究结果和建议。该项目是CIVIC创新挑战赛的一部分，该挑战赛是NSF、能源部车辆技术办公室、国土安全部科学技术局和联邦应急管理局的合作项目。该奖项反映了NSF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。

The increasing frequency of catastrophic natural disasters, together with the “resilience divide”—the uneven impact of disasters on vulnerable populations—calls for development of disaster Resiliency Hubs. Public libraries, often called the “crown jewels” of rural infrastructure, provide a range of informational and social services that make them ideal facilities to serve as rural Resiliency Hubs. In this project, an interdisciplinary team of researchers will collaborate with diverse community partners in Calhoun County, Florida, a region that continues to be devastated by 2018’s Hurricane Michael, to establish a transferable community-based assessment and design process that leverages the assets of a given area while also identifies the gaps in resiliency-related needs to transform rural libraries into Resiliency Hubs. The expanded capabilities may include, for example, mapping technologies to inform disaster planning including the siting of shelters, aid distribution, and other resources; community behavioral health interventions to address post-disaster trauma; and joint efforts by libraries, schools, churches, and other key local institutions to increase awareness about home-level disaster preparedness.With a collaborative strategy that unites community members, librarians, and researchers, the project team will co-design resiliency hubs sited in public libraries and develop solutions to the cascading impacts of natural disasters. The co-design process will include an in-depth qualitative study of the complex interactions among libraries, residents, local government, and other agencies. Multi-network resiliency measures and multivariate prioritized risk maps will assess community resiliency to guide preparedness and response, including how libraries can further support vulnerable communities. The research team will quantitatively assess the generalizability of lessons learned and develop multi-community transfer learning algorithms to achieve transferrable and scalable solutions for the entire region. The research design brings state-of-the-art optimization and data analytics approaches to bear while being driven by a range of rich qualitative and community data sources that will lead to implementable actions. Knowledge gained from this project will improve our understanding of emergency response operations and contribute to the development of new disaster-related policies and plans for public libraries throughout the United States. The Florida Institute of Government will collaborate with the research team and civic stakeholders to disseminate research findings and recommendations to all 67 Florida counties and other localities. This project is part of the CIVIC Innovation Challenge which is a collaboration of NSF, the Department of Energy's Vehicle Technology Office, and the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate and Federal Emergency Management Agency.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.