Sustainable Housing & Protective Building Materials: Masonry as a Link Between Accessible Construction, Energy, Human Comfort and Mosquito Control in Rural Tanzania

研究表明，气候变化的影响将极大地增加农村社区的脆弱性，在这些社区，以土地为生的人受到热浪、饥荒和干旱等极端天气事件的风险越来越大。此外，世界上80%以上的地区面临至少一种媒介传播疾病的风险，疟疾是发展中国家的主要死亡原因。然而，这一领域的大多数研究都是以杀虫剂、化学干预和转基因蚊子的形式解决这一公共健康危机，很少考虑建成环境的作用，特别是在资源有限的情况下。然而，最近加强住房保护的努力往往会导致住房减少空气传输，提供不符合标准的空气质量和室内舒适条件。此外，现代的、可持续的建筑可能技术复杂，而且价格昂贵。然而，砖是世界上最常用的建筑材料，世界上三分之一的人口生活在完全或部分由土建造的建筑中。通过研究这种不起眼的材料的物质方面，以及构成城市公共服务的热、能源、排放、水、信息和资源的协同关系，一种新型砖有可能成为城市弹性和公共卫生战略的更大部分。美国工程和建筑专业的学生将在课堂上和国外合作，设计创新的方法来协调模块化的土材料，以挑战现有的建筑和材料科学规范。这项多学科的提案联合了来自四个不同专业--建筑、工程、昆虫学和社会人类学--的教师导师，以解决国内环境对坦桑尼亚农村地区公共健康和复原力的重大影响。来自建筑和工程的美国学生研究人员将合作探索由可获得的低影响资源制成的砖石建筑材料的能力，以控制坦桑尼亚农村房屋中的热量、湿度和蚊子的传播，探索设计、疾病和快速变化的气候之间的交集。IRES项目的主要目标是：(1)在蚊虫肆虐的快速发展和湿热地区，为可获得且可立即部署的模块化建筑材料制定战略；(2)扩大适应气候变化的建筑材料的作用，使其具有潜在的蚊虫保护作用，以支持农村社区的复原能力和公共卫生工作；以及(3)为美国学生提供社区研究和设计经验，以促进在快速变化的气候中的跨学科环境中的技能发展、技术知识的应用和专业发展，这些环境具有复杂的文化和科学关系。这个由学生组成的跨学科小组将与当地材料和地区专家合作，开发低成本建筑的原型和建筑技术，以提高居住者的舒适度，同时减少携带疾病的蚊子入侵的可能性。虽然这个项目集中在一个蚊子肆虐的国家，但我们希望病原体与宿主的相互作用和热缓解策略将适用于其他热带地区，使那些可能在不断变化的气候中受到快速发展影响最大的人受益。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。

Studies indicate that climate change impacts will dramatically increase vulnerabilities in rural communities where those living off the land are at increasing risk from extreme weather events such as heat waves, famine and drought. Additionally, more than 80% of the world is at risk from at least one vector-borne disease, and Malaria is a leading cause of death in the developing world. However, most research in this field addresses this public health crisis in the form of pesticides, chemical interventions and genetically modified mosquitos with little consideration for the role of the built environment, particularly in limited resource settings. Recent efforts to make housing more protective, however, often lead to dwellings that have reduced air transmission and provide substandard air quality and interior comfort conditions. Additionally, modern, sustainable buildings can be technologically complex and prohibitively expensive. The brick, however, is the most commonly used building material in the world and one third of the world’s population lives in buildings which are totally or partially made from earth. By studying the material aspects of this humble material in tandem with the synergistic relationships of heat, energy, emissions, water, information and resources that make up a city’s public services, a novel brick has the potential to become a greater part of the urban resiliency and public health strategy. Working collaboratively in the classroom and abroad, U.S. engineering and architecture students will design innovative ways to reconceive modular earthen materials to challenge existing norms of construction and material science. This multidisciplinary proposal joins faculty mentors from four diverse specialties – architecture, engineering, entomology, and social anthropology – to address the significant impact of the domestic environment on public health and resiliency in rural Tanzania. U.S. student researchers from architecture and engineering will work collaboratively to explore the capability of masonry construction materials made from accessible, low-impact resources to control the transfer of heat, moisture and mosquitos in rural housing in Tanzania, exploring the intersection between design, disease and a rapidly changing climate. The primary objectives of this IRES effort are to (1) develop strategies for accessible and immediately deployable modular building materials in rapidly developing, hot-humid regions afflicted by mosquitoes, (2) expand the role of climate-adapted building materials with the potential for mosquito protection to support the resiliency and public health efforts of rural communities, and (3) provide community-based research and design experience for U.S. students in a hands-on context that promotes skill development, application of technical knowledge and professional development in an interdisciplinary environment with complex relationships of culture and science in a rapidly changing climate. This interdisciplinary group of students will work with local materials and regional experts to develop prototypes for low-cost buildings and construction technologies that improve occupant comfort while reducing the potential for intrusion of disease-carrying mosquitos. Though this project focuses on one mosquito-stricken country, it is our hope that the pathogen host interaction and thermal mitigation strategies would be applicable to other tropical regions, benefiting those who are likely to be most impacted by rapid development in a changing climate.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.