NNA Research: Collaborative Research: Infrastructure Interdependencies in the Arctic: Reframing the Urban-Rural Interface

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。该奖项通过解决社会系统、自然环境和建筑环境之间的相互作用实现了这一目标的一部分，并属于弹性基础设施NNA重点领域。关键基础设施服务(CI)，如水、交通、能源、通信、公共卫生和废物，对阿拉斯加社区的福祉和经济生计至关重要。然而，由于极端和不断变化的气候，以及枢纽社区和阿拉斯加土著村庄的偏远性质，提供这些服务是具有挑战性的。我们目前还不了解CI在北极社区中是如何相互联系的；然而，我们确实知道，这些相互联系是复原力和脆弱性的来源。此外，不同的独联体组织复杂，对人民的生命安全负有责任，并具有我们必须进一步了解的特点。该项目探讨了CI如何相互支持(例如，增加阿拉斯加农村的宽带使远程医疗成为可能)并带来挑战(例如，当地供应链经常延误基础设施维修)。与毗邻的美国大多数农村社区不同，在阿拉斯加，空中服务网络比公路网更密集。反过来，枢纽社区--即商业飞机或港口可以到达的社区--对周围的偏远村庄至关重要，因为它们提供包括运送燃料和劳动力支持在内的服务。这个项目考虑了城市中心社区和邻近的阿拉斯加原住民村庄之间的接口，探索了中心城镇的挑战如何级联到村庄。与阿拉斯加的三个枢纽社区合作，跨学科研究团队整合了系统工程、组织科学、土木工程和公共卫生，以改善CI的提供，不仅使城镇本身受益，也使阿拉斯加土著村庄受益。该项目旨在设计枢纽社区内以及城市枢纽和阿拉斯加土著村庄之间的基础设施相互依赖关系。通过这样做，这项工作为未来的研究铺平了道路，提供了新的经验数据，并创建了一套管理方法，可以帮助社区立即改善他们的CI。利用与独联体利益攸关方的半结构化访谈、业务数据收集和利益攸关方协作研讨会，项目第一阶段确定并绘制了中心城镇的独联体相互依存关系。这一阶段使用模糊认知图谱和因果循环图将利益相关者的专业知识和观点结合在一起。第二阶段通过评估最终用户对其基础设施服务的看法以及他们如何使用中心城镇的服务，分析在中心城镇提供CI如何级联到邻近村庄。最终用户的观点是通过半结构化访谈和运输需求调查获得的。由于北极社区的独联体组织很复杂，对人们的生命和安全负有责任，它们被认为是高度可靠的组织(HRO)；因此，该项目使用HRO理论在社会和技术问题之间提供了一座坚实的桥梁。第三阶段对参与的组织进行评估，并为利益相关者提供具体的评估，以了解他们所处的位置以及如何成为更强大的组织，从而建立更具弹性的组织体系。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 and is within the Resilient Infrastructure NNA focus area.Critical infrastructure services (CISs), such as water, transportation, energy, communications, public health, and waste, are essential for the well-being and economic livelihood of Alaskan communities. However, providing these services is challenging due to the extreme and changing climate, as well as the remote nature of hub communities and Alaska Native villages. We do not currently understand how CISs are interconnected in Arctic communities; however, we do know that these interconnections are sources of both resilience and vulnerability. Furthermore, the different CIS organizations are complex, are responsible for people’s lives and safety, and have characteristics that we must understand further. This project explores how CISs support each other (e.g., increasing broadband in rural Alaska enables telehealth) and create challenges (e.g., local supply chains often delay infrastructure repairs). Unlike most rural communities in the contiguous US, in Alaska, the air service network is denser than the roadway network. In turn, hub communities—i.e., communities that can be reached by commercial airplanes or ports—are critical for surrounding, remote villages as they provide services including delivery of fuel and workforce support. This project considers the interface between urban hub communities and neighboring rural Alaska Native villages, exploring how challenges in hub towns cascade to villages. In collaboration with three hub communities in Alaska, the interdisciplinary research team integrates systems engineering, organizational sciences, civil engineering, and public health to improve the provision of CISs, not only benefiting the towns themselves, but also Alaska Native villages.This project aims to architect infrastructure interdependencies within hub communities and at the interfaces between urban hubs and rural Alaska Native villages. In doing so, this work paves the way for future research by providing new empirical data and creating a set of management approaches that can help communities immediately improve their CISs. Leveraging semi-structured interviews with CIS stakeholders, operational data collection, and collaborative stakeholder workshops, Phase 1 of the project identifies and maps CIS interdependencies in hub towns. This phase uses fuzzy cognitive mapping and causal loop diagrams to bring together stakeholders’ expertise and perspectives. Phase 2 analyzes how the provision of CISs in hub towns cascade to neighboring villages by assessing end-users’ perceptions towards their infrastructure services and how they use services in hub towns. End-users’ perspectives are captured through semi-structured interviews and transportation demand surveys. As CIS organizations in Arctic communities are complex, and are responsible for people’s lives and safety, they are considered High Reliability Organizations (HROs); thus, this project uses HRO Theory to provide a solid bridge between social and technical issues. Phase 3 evaluates the organizations involved and provides stakeholders with a concrete assessment of where they stand and how they can become more robust organizations, and thus a more resilient system of organizations.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.