NNA Research: Collaborative Research: Responding to Energy Insecurity in Arctic Housing Using a Community-Based Participatory Research

航行新北极(NNA)是NSF的十大想法之一。NNA项目解决了快速变化的北极地区汇聚的科学挑战。这项北极研究需要为国家、更大区域和全球的经济、安全和韧性提供信息。NNA增强了从地方到国际的新的研究伙伴关系，使下一代北极研究人员多样化，加强正式和非正式教育的努力，并在适当的情况下整合共同创造知识。该奖项通过在以下NNA重点领域解决社会系统、自然环境和建筑环境之间的相互作用来实现这一目标的一部分：北极居民、数据和观测、教育、预测和弹性基础设施。这项研究旨在解决阿拉斯加农村社区目前面临的重大现有和新出现的住房挑战。具体地说，这些社区的许多房屋能源效率很低；其他许多房屋不是为阿拉斯加恶劣的气候而设计的；许多房屋陈旧且过度拥挤。电力和取暖燃料的高成本加上这些住房挑战，使许多阿拉斯加农村家庭的能源负担非常沉重(即家庭收入的很高比例用于能源成本)。据估计，最脆弱的家庭将近一半的收入花在能源账单上。气候条件的变化使这些挑战雪上加霜。政府资助的提高住房效率的计划已经进行了很多年，然而，在某些情况下，这些提高效率的措施并没有被家庭使用，和/或没有像预期的那样发挥作用。目前，关于这种情况发生的原因以及有助于解决这一问题的解决方案的研究有限。因此，这项研究试图与阿拉斯加的三个农村社区以及各种关键的非营利组织和其他利益攸关方合作，找出更好、更符合文化的方法来适应阿拉斯加的农村住房，以减轻能源负担。许多人将从这一努力的结果中受益，包括阿拉斯加的房主、整个社会和科学界。具体地说，这些社区当前和未来的房主将受益于能效计划，这些计划的设计更符合他们的文化价值观和利益，使房主更有可能从参与中受益。这还将通过支持社会文化和环境联系的方法减少与能源成本有关的压力，从而改善社区的福祉。社会将从旨在实现最大限度长期能源和排放减排的计划中受益，从而最大限度地利用公共资金的好处。通过更好地了解影响提高能效长期成功的关键因素，科学界将从这项研究中受益。拟议的研究努力试图回答以下研究问题：如何对现有的阿拉斯加土著住房进行改造，以更好地缓解能源不安全问题？现有的能效改造方法有多有效，如何改进以减轻长期的能源负担？对这些研究问题的答复是通过在Unalakleet、Nome和Quinhagak村庄进行的基于社区的参与性研究得出的。通过六项相互关联的任务，研究小组将合作制定改进战略，纳入文化信仰和价值观、实地数据收集和综合建筑能源模型，共同解决现有住房能源负担的已确定原因。任务1将确定与社区共同生产和协作知识的方法。任务2将使用气候模型输出和地面气象站数据以及社区访谈，为每个社区构建未来的气候情景。任务3将评估房屋的特点、效率和长期性能，包括那些翻新和不翻新的房屋。通过建筑物验证的能源模型，它还将量化驱动能源负担的因素，以及能源效率提高对能源负担的影响。任务4将评估阿拉斯加农村社区成员在能源使用和节能技术方面的文化价值观和信念，从而了解文化障碍和提高能效的机会。任务5将确定既考虑到未来气候情景而减少能源负担，又符合阿拉斯加土著文化价值观和信仰的改造战略。它还将建议改进能效实施的必要性，包括设计变更和/或能源教育。最后的任务是开发能源工程课程，该课程将在K-12和高等教育课堂上实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) is one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA projects address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. This Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. NNA empowers new research partnerships from local to international scales, diversifies the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhances efforts in formal and informal education, and integrates the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award fulfills part of that aim by addressing interactions among social systems, natural environment, and built environment in the following NNA focus areas: Arctic Residents, Data and Observations, Education, Forecasting, and Resilient Infrastructure.This research seeks to address the substantial existing and emerging housing challenges that rural Alaskan communities currently face. Specifically, many homes in these communities are highly energy inefficient; many others were not designed for the harsh Alaskan climate; many are old and overcrowded. The high cost of electricity and heating fuel combined with these housing challenges makes many rural Alaskan homes highly energy burdened (i.e. a high percentage of household income is used for energy costs). The most vulnerable households are estimated to spend nearly half of their income on energy bills. These challenges are worsened by the changing climate conditions. Government-funded programs to improve the efficiency of homes have been ongoing for many years, however, in some cases these efficiency improvements are not being used by households, and/or are not performing as intended. There is currently limited research on why this occurs, and solutions that can help to address this. Therefore, this research seeks to, in collaboration with three rural Alaskan communities and a diversity of key non-profits and other stakeholders, identify better, more culturally appropriate ways to adapt rural Alaskan housing to alleviate energy burden. Many will benefit from the results of this effort, including Alaskan homeowners, society as a whole, and the scientific community. Specifically, current and future homeowners in these communities will benefit from energy efficiency programs that are better designed to fit their cultural values and interests, making the homeowners more likely to benefit from participation. This will also improve the wellbeing of communities by reducing stresses related to energy costs through methods that support socio-cultural and environmental connections. Society will benefit from programs designed to achieve the maximum long-term energy and emissions reductions, thus maximizing the benefits of the use of public money. The scientific community will benefit from this research through the better understanding of key factors influencing the long-term success of energy efficiency improvements. The proposed research effort seeks to answer the following research questions: How can existing Alaska Native housing be adapted to better alleviate energy insecurity? How effective are existing energy efficiency retrofit methods, and how can they be improved to reduce long-term energy burden? The response to these research questions is obtained using a community-based participatory research in the villages of Unalakleet, Nome, and Quinhagak. Through six interlinked tasks, the research team will collaboratively develop improvement strategies that incorporate cultural beliefs and values, field data collection, and integrated building energy models which together address identified causes of energy burden for existing housing. Task 1 will establish the methods for knowledge co-production and collaboration with the communities. Task 2 will use climate model outputs and surface weather station data along with community interviews, to construct future climate scenarios for each community. Task 3 will assess the characteristics, efficiency, and long-term performance of homes, including those with and without retrofits. Through buildings validated energy models, it will also quantify the factors driving energy burden, and the impacts energy efficiency improvements have had on energy burden. Task 4 will assess the cultural values and beliefs that members of rural Alaskan communities have around energy use and energy efficient technology, resulting in an understanding of cultural barriers and opportunities for energy efficiency improvement implementation. Task 5 will identify retrofit strategies which both reduce energy burden considering future climate scenarios, and fit Alaska Native cultural values and beliefs. It will also recommend the need for improvements to energy efficiency implementation, including design changes and/or energy education. The final task will develop energy engineering curriculum which will be implemented in K-12 and higher education classrooms.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.