IRES Track 1: Exploring Surface Water Contamination and Links to Disease Risk in Costa Rica

IRES 第 1 轨道：探索哥斯达黎加地表水污染及其与疾病风险的联系

• 批准号: 2153558
• 负责人: Thomas Shahady
• 金额: $ 29.93万
• 依托单位: University of Lynchburg
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-15 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2153558&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IRES; Track; Exploring; Surface; Water

Costa Rica, a Central American country world-renowned for its biodiversity and unique ecology, is very active toward conservation but with growing concerns about water health. The entire country is sectioned into Conservation Units called “Biological Corridors” serving to protect and conserve sensitive areas. But while these corridors protect wildlife and forest communities, they also serve as water purifiers labeled “Ecological Services” for the towns and cities in these corridors. Drinking water is extracted directly from wells or springs while sanitation occurs in the very same groundwater discharged from septic tanks. This creates water stress as concerns over changing precipitation patterns emerge, agricultural use intensifies, conservation work continues and disease risk is addressed. These concerns have world-wide implications as rural communities in the United States battle similar problems balancing water use with conservation and associated disease risk in our population.The interaction between personal (septic systems), with municipal sanitation (waste water treatment plants) and pollution of surface waters, groundwater and aquifers, is a poorly understood yet highly relevant area of study in Costa Rica because there is growing concern over high incidence of disease, such as peptic ulcers, gastritis, and stomach cancers potentially attributable to poor drinking water conditions. Through coordinated and integrated student research projects, linkages between surface waters, groundwater and sanitation are explored. The student research will more clearly link incidence of illness to water sources, concerning pollutants and will begin to generate new, innovative methods for understanding and predicting the condition of underwater drinking supplies. Not only will this research address a critical knowledge gap for communities where surface water conditions present health risk, it will provide outstanding opportunities for professional development of both undergraduate and graduate students pursuing careers in the environmental health and sciences field.This highly coordinated student work will support the need to integrate student experience among very diverse, underrepresented groups of students with international collaborators solving needed community issues. This work further integrates diverse scientific expertise, international competencies, and diversity among future U.S. water quality professionals through a concerted effort to recruit and train undergraduate and graduate students, including those from underrepresented groups, and foster research collaboration in an international setting. It expands applicable water quality partnership work in Costa Rica and provides critical decision-making capacity for local water professionals. This project is funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE).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.

哥斯达黎加是一个中美洲国家，以其生物多样性和独特的生态环境而闻名于世，它非常积极地致力于保护，但对水健康的关注日益增加。 整个国家被划分为称为“生物群落”的保护区，以保护和养护敏感地区。 但是，虽然这些走廊保护野生动物和森林社区，他们也作为水净化器标记为“生态服务”的城镇和城市在这些走廊。饮用水直接从威尔斯或泉水中抽取，而卫生设施则从化粪池排出的同一批地下水中获得。 这造成了水资源紧张，因为人们对降水模式的变化感到担忧，农业使用加剧，保护工作继续进行，疾病风险得到解决。 这些问题具有全球性的影响，因为美国的农村社区正在努力解决类似的问题，即平衡用水与保护以及我们人口中相关的疾病风险。（化粪池系统），有市政卫生设施（废水处理厂）和地表沃茨、地下水和含水层的污染，是哥斯达黎加一个了解甚少但高度相关的研究领域，因为人们越来越关注可能归因于饮用水条件差的疾病，如消化性溃疡、胃炎和胃癌的高发病率。 通过协调和综合的学生研究项目，地表沃茨，地下水和卫生之间的联系进行了探讨。学生的研究将更清楚地将疾病的发病率与水源联系起来，涉及污染物，并将开始产生新的、创新的方法来理解和预测水下饮用水供应的状况。这项研究不仅解决了地表水条件存在健康风险的社区的关键知识差距，它将为追求环境健康和科学领域职业生涯的本科生和研究生提供出色的专业发展机会。代表性不足的学生群体与国际合作者解决所需的社区问题。 这项工作进一步整合了不同的科学专业知识，国际竞争力，以及未来美国水质专业人员的多样性，通过共同努力招募和培训本科生和研究生，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体，并促进国际环境中的研究合作。 它扩大了哥斯达黎加适用的水质伙伴关系工作，并为当地水资源专业人员提供了关键的决策能力。该项目由国际科学与工程办公室（OISE）资助。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。