Planning: SCC-CIVIC-PG Track A: Securing the Future of the Great Salt Lake Basin Through Effective Water and Land Use Partnerships

由于持续和史无前例的干旱条件，美国西南部和西部山区的大部分地区面临着严重的水危机。大盐湖盆地位于山间西部的中心地带，面临着危及其生态完整性、人类健康乃至地区安全的压力。人口的快速增长、不可持续的城市发展、社会对用水和可获得性的期望，以及不适当的减少用水机制，都加剧了这些因素。国家机构、研究机构和立法者已经围绕着几项条款来解决这个问题，但个人和机构的雄心和行动之间仍然存在差距。这项研究通过发展一个由社区和民间组织和行为者组成的正式网络来弥合知识和资源差距，以促进积极和及时地改善土地开发和水资源保护。该网络引导一个社区级别的研究驱动型项目，将地方政府、环境管理人员和用水用户直接连接到技术、分析和场景建模工具。更广泛的影响包括改善大盐湖流域的土地和水资源管理和规划，减少城市/郊区的无序扩张，公共教育和参与评估与用水和可获得性有关的问题，以及改善大盐湖的生态系统服务。该项目汇集了一个跨领域的多机构团队，以制定跨行业、非政府组织、国防组织、商业企业和政府机构的水资源管理共同愿景。该项目利用了犹他州州立大学土地、水和空气研究所与预期情报中心、犹他州地区水区以及在分水岭工作的环境非营利组织之间的关系。研究将解决各种重要的问题，包括：限制以安全为中心的长期、全面的土地开发和水资源利用方法的主要障碍，以及长期干旱、城市发展、土地利用变化和最近的水资源政策如何相互交织，影响大盐湖流域的长期成果。为了解决这些问题，研究小组及其合作伙伴将主办各种研讨会和专题讨论会，以确定组织之间的联系，并衡量对现有和过去的政策、社会规范和环境条件如何影响分水岭的认识。该项目采用了一种新的社会交互方法，称为以系统为中心的威胁和复原力评估工具。该工具评估区域、国家和全球事件汇聚可能造成的前所未有的威胁和意想不到的后果。项目目标是更清楚地了解实际用水量以及影响这一行为的因素；改进减少室外用水量的政策和工具；提高室外用水效率；增强该地区的水安全和社区复原力；以及衡量权衡和调整整个犹他州供水系统管理的通用方法。如果成功，该方法的结果可以被转化到干旱或其他受水影响地区的其他社区和城市环境。该项目是对公民创新挑战计划的回应-轨道A。生活在不断变化的气候：围绕适应、恢复和缓解的灾前行动-是NSF、国土安全部和能源部的合作。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。

Southwestern United States and much of the Intermountain West face a major water crisis due to persistent and unprecedented drought conditions. The Great Salt Lake Basin lies at the heart of the Intermountain West and is confronted with pressures that put its ecological integrity, human health, and even regional security at risk. Many of these factors are exacerbated by rapid population growth, unsustainable urban development, social expectations toward water use and availability, and improper mechanisms to reduce water use. State agencies, research institutions, and lawmakers have rallied around several provisions to address the problem yet a gap still remains between ambitions and actions by individuals and institutions. This research bridges the knowledge and resource gaps through development of a formal network of community and civic organizations and actors to facilitate positive and timely movement toward improving land development and water conservation. This network pilots a community-level, research-driven project that connects local government, environmental stewards, and water users directly to technology, analytics, and scenario modeling tools. Broader impacts include improving land and water management and planning in the Great Salt Lake Basin, reducing urban/suburban sprawl, public education and engagement in the process of evaluating issues involved with water use and accessibility, and improved ecosystem services of the Great Salt Lake.The project assembles a cross-cutting, multi-institutional team to craft a shared vision for water resource management that spans industry, non-government organizations, defense organizations, commercial enterprises, and government agencies. The project leverages relationships between Utah State University’s Institute for Land, Water, and Air and the Center for Anticipatory Intelligence, Utah Regional Water Districts, and environmental non-profits working in the watershed. Research will address various issues of important including: major barriers that limit a systematic and comprehensive approach toward long-term, security-centric, future land development and use of water resources and how prolonged drought, urban growth, land use change, and recent water policies intersect to impact long-term outcomes of the Great Salt Lake Basin. To tackle these issues, the research team and their partners will host various workshops and charettes to identify organizational connectedness and gauge awareness of how existing and past policies and social norms and environmental conditions influence the watershed. The project adopts a novel new social interaction methodology called the System-Centric Threats and Resilience Assessment Tool. This tool assesses possible unprecedented threats and unintended consequences resulting from the convergence of regional, national and global events. Project goals are a clearer knowledge of actual water use and what influences this behavior; improved policy and tools for reducing outdoor water use; improved outdoor water efficiency; greater water security and community resilience in the region; and generalizable methods for measuring tradeoffs and adjusting water systems management throughout Utah. If successful, the results of the approach can be translated to other communities and urban settings in drought or other water impacted areas.This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program—Track A. Living in a changing climate: pre-disaster action around adaptation, resilience, and mitigation—and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy.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.