IRES: International Paradigms for Managing Hydrologic Extremes in a Shifting Climate

水跨越国界流动，不受政治差别的限制，而水在经济和生态活力中的作用比以往任何时候都更加重要。然而，水管理、研究和工程在很大程度上仍在当地自主模式下运作。水资源管理人员和研究人员通常熟悉他们自己的方法、站点和工具包。然而，专注于当地会产生后果，如果我们不从其他地区的成功和失败中吸取教训，就会失去机会。夏普和莱什纳(2014)认为，“寻找解决方案需要利用世界各地科学家、工程师和社会领袖的才华和创新思想，以克服到目前为止不足以应对这些挑战的传统和民族主义范式。”该项目的目标是为美国在解决未来与水有关的挑战方面提供专业知识。加州大学戴维斯分校和代尔夫特国际基础设施学院将联手将三批美国高级研究生带到欧洲，为他们提供身临其境的体验，对不同的国际水科学、政策和管理方法进行批判性分析。第1年：洪水风险管理的国际办法，第2年：干旱和地下水管理，第3年：气候日益极端的淡水生态系统。STEM劳动力发展成果将包括在以下方面接受培训的学生：在国际问题和国际环境中跨越国际边界进行合作，跨多学科和跨国际范式整合，将水科学纳入管理和政策制定，以团队为基础解决问题，并接受促进包容和支持性环境的培训，以促进多样性和包容性作为核心价值观。总体而言，该项目将有助于美国在解决国内和世界范围内未来与水有关的挑战方面的专业知识。该项目有三个主题。1.洪水风险管理的国际办法：随着气候变暖增加大气降水和风暴强度，洪水的规模、频率和影响在大多数地区变得更加严重。洪水风险管理领域利用各种技术和社会措施，将洪水风险评估和减少到可容忍的水平结合起来，从而提高复原力和适应能力。综合洪灾风险管理的目的是减少洪灾造成的人类和社会经济损失，同时考虑到洪灾的好处和对洪泛区或沿海地带的利用。国际干旱和地下水管理办法：长期以来，地下水资源被用于缺乏地表水的家庭、灌溉和工业供水，无论是季节性的、长期的，还是由于不寻常的气候事件导致相对缺乏降水和径流(干旱)。不断减少的地下水资源不仅威胁到农业生产和生活用水的长期可持续性，还会导致昂贵的、有时难以承受的抽水成本增加、停井、地面下沉、海水入侵和水质恶化等。气候变化导致干旱、地下水补给以及对地下水库的用水需求的模式和强度发生变化。3.极端气候下的淡水生态系统：流域和河流环境是复杂的生态系统，其中地质结构与水文过程相互作用，以支持生态功能和相关的水生和河岸生境。作为淡水生态系统和社会用途可再生水的主要来源，河流和湿地提供重要的支持、供应、调节和文化生态系统服务。河岸带占美国西部陆地动物的75%以上。生态系统衰退的全球范围和严重程度促使全球响应，成立了生物多样性和生态系统服务政府间科学政策平台(IPBES)，并启动了联合国恢复十年(2021-2030)。就像生态系统本身一样，应对这些威胁需要科学家能够跨学科、跨技术和跨领域工作。要了解淡水系统的复杂生态，学生必须了解它们的跨学科和综合性，最终学会协同思考生物、物理、化学和人为的相互作用。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。

Water flows across national borders, unfettered by political distinctions, while water's role in economic and ecological vitality is more important than ever. However, water management, research, and engineering still largely operate within local homegrown paradigms. Water managers and researchers are typically familiar with their own methods, sites, and toolkits. However, local focus has consequences, and opportunities are lost when we do not learn from successes and failures in other regions. Sharp and Leshner (2014) argue that "the search for solutions needs to draw upon the talents and innovative ideas of scientists, engineers, and societal leaders worldwide to overcome traditional and nationalistic paradigms that have so far been inadequate to meeting these challenges." The goal of this project is to contribute to US expertise in solving future water-related challenges. UC Davis and IHE Delft will join forces to bring three cohorts of US advanced graduate students to Europe and provide them immersive experiences in critical analysis of differing international approaches to water science, policy, and management. Year 1: international approaches to flood-risk management, year 2: drought and groundwater management, and year 3: freshwater ecosystems in a climate of growing extremes. STEM workforce development outcomes will include students trained in: collaborating across international boundaries on international problems and in international settings, integrating across multiple disciplines and across international paradigms, to integrate water science into management and policy-making, team-based problem solving, and trained to promoted an inclusive and supportive environment that advances diversity and inclusion as core values. Overall, this project will contribute to US expertise in solving future water-related challenges domestically and worldwide.The project has three themes. 1. International approaches to flood-risk management: Flood magnitudes, frequencies, and impacts are becoming more severe in most areas as a warming climate increases atmospheric precipitation and storm intensity. The field of flood risk management integrates flood risk assessment and its reduction to a tolerable level using diverse technical and social measures, leading to increased resilience and adaptation capacity. Integrated flood risk management aims to reduce the human and socioeconomic losses caused by flooding while at the same time taking into account the benefits from floods and the use of flood plains or coastal zones.2. International approaches to drought and groundwater management: Groundwater resources have long been used for domestic, irrigation, and industrial water supplies where access to surface water is lacking, either seasonally, long-term, or due to unusual climate events leading to relative lack of precipitation and runoff (drought). Dwindling groundwater resources not only threaten long-term sustainability of agricultural production and domestic water supplies, they also cause expensive and sometimes unaffordable increases in pumping costs, well outages, land subsidence, seawater intrusion, and water quality degradation, among others. Climate change leads to changing patterns and intensity of drought, of groundwater recharge, and of water demands on groundwater reservoirs. 3. Freshwater ecosystems in a climate of growing extremes: Watersheds and river environments are complex ecological systems where geologic structures interact with hydrologic processes to support ecological functions and associated aquatic and riparian habitats. As the chief source of renewable water supply for freshwater ecosystems and societal use, rivers and wetlands provide vital supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services. Riparian zones account for more than 75% of terrestrial animals in the western U.S. The global extent and severity of ecosystem decline has stimulated a worldwide response in the formation of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and launch of the UN Decade on Restoration (2021-2030). Like ecosystems themselves, addressing the threats requires scientists capable of working across disciplines, technologies, and landscapes. To understand the complex ecology of freshwater systems, students must understand their interdisciplinary and integrative nature, ultimately learning to think synergistically about biological, physical, chemical, and anthropogenic interactions.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.