NNA Research: Collaborative Research: Meq unguvatkarput (water is our livelihood) - building community resilience for the future

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、教育、预报、数据和观测以及弹性基础设施。沿海三角洲社区是最容易受到气候变化影响的社区之一，这让大多数社区想知道，他们的土地和水道在未来几十年会是什么样子。阿拉斯加州的报告指出，育空-库斯科维姆(YK)三角洲的村庄在基本政府服务方面服务不足，并强调了受到海平面上升、海岸侵蚀、洪水和永久冻土退化威胁的地区。同样，由于三角洲的低海拔，社区和传统生活方式受到海平面上升、盐碱化和风暴潮的威胁。此外，沿海海冰持续时间和范围的减少导致更大的风暴影响，增加了YK三角洲在沿海灾害中的脆弱性。这些变化迫使阿拉斯加原住民社区在日常生活中面临新的现实。气候变化导致的水循环变化正在给健康、卫生和基础设施带来风险。居住在YK三角洲地区农村的人口在饮用水和卫生服务的质量、可获得性和可靠性方面面临挑战。气候和水预算的变化越来越多地影响北极的水循环，加剧了这些影响。随着像Kongiganak和Mekoryuk这样的社区一起在不断变化的北极航行，至关重要的是绘制一条从整体上考虑这些新现实的物理和人类层面的路线。这项研究将：评估在环境变化(侵蚀、永久冻土融化和洪水灾害)背景下提供安全、负担得起、有弹性和当地可接受的饮用水、卫生和卫生服务的短期和长期前景；测量、量化和建模海平面上升和用于传统生计的已建成环境和景观中的永久冻土崩塌造成的景观变化和水文变化的速度；利用与社区合作伙伴通过水深测量、水位计和沿海海浪浮标收集的新的基线水文数据，开发高分辨率的风暴潮洪水三维水动力模型，为其他社区提供预测性洪水风险图和工作流程；对阿拉斯加农村社区与水/卫生相关的应对成本进行初步估计，并量化不同景观和气候情景下各种水/卫生服务提供模式的效益/成本；共同制定基于社区的监测方案，以便确定当前环境变化率与历史趋势和土著知识观察结果的比较。我们将记录有效的融合工作流程/联合制作技术，在YK三角洲和其他地区广泛应用，这些地区正在上演同样的快速气候变化挑战。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, Education, Forecasting, Data and Observations, and Resilient Infrastructure. Coastal delta communities are among the most vulnerable to climate change, causing most communities to wonder what their lands and waterways will look like in decades to come. State of Alaska reports identify villages of the Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) Delta as underserved with respect to basic government services and highlight areas threatened by sea level rise, coastal erosion, flooding, and permafrost degradation. Likewise, communities and traditional ways of life are threatened by sea level rise, salinization, and storm surge because of the low elevation of the delta. Additionally, the decrease in duration and extent of coastal sea ice has contributed to greater storm impacts increasing the vulnerability of the YK Delta to coastal hazards. These changes are forcing Alaskan Native communities to face new realities in their day-to-day lives. Changes in the water cycle driven by climate change are generating risks to health, sanitation, and infrastructure. Populations living in rural villages in the YK Delta region experience challenges in the quality, accessibility, and reliability of drinking water and sanitation services. These effects are exacerbated by changes in climate and water budgets that are increasingly influencing water cycles in the Arctic. As communities, like Kongiganak and Mekoryuk navigate the changing Arctic together, it is essential to chart a course that holistically considers the physical and human dimensions of these new realities.This research will: evaluate near-term and far-term prospects of providing safe, affordable, resilient, and locally acceptable drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene services in the context of environmental change (erosion, permafrost thaw, and flood hazards); measure, quantify, and model rates of landscape change and altered hydrology caused by rising sea level and the collapse of permafrost across the built environment and landscapes used for traditional livelihoods; utilize new baseline hydrographic data collected with community partners through bathymetric surveys, water level gauges, and coastal wave buoys to develop high-resolution 3D hydrodynamic models of storm surge flooding delivering predictive flood hazard maps and workflows for other communities; develop the first estimates of water/sanitation-related coping costs for rural Alaskan communities and quantify benefits/costs of various water/sanitation-service delivery models under different landscape and climate scenarios; co-develop community-based monitoring programs that allow for determination of how current rates of environmental change compare to historical trends and Indigenous Knowledge observations. We will document effective convergent workflows/co-production techniques to be applied broadly in the YK Delta and beyond where the same challenges of rapid climate change are playing out.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.