CIVIC-FA Track A: Codeveloping local flood thresholds and high tide flooding predictions with community science and innovative technology

这项公民创新挑战由海洋科学部和地球科学局助理主任办公室以及既定的激励竞争性研究计划(EPSCoR)共同资助。这项研究解决了海平面上升和沿海洪水对缅因州沿海社区的影响，以增强他们对气候变化影响的适应能力。近期和长期洪水预测结合了当地对水位和洪水影响的观测，对于社区适应新的气候和海平面现实的能力至关重要。在全国范围内，海平面上升适应研究通常集中在财产价值损失最大的城市中心。然而，沿海农村社区由于地处偏远、与中央规划机构隔绝、资源有限以及代际贫困，面临着独特的适应挑战。根据美国人口普查局的数据，缅因州是美国农村最严重的州，只有11%的市政当局拥有城镇规划师。这些社区中有72%因缺乏地方规划师或没有足够的区域规划支持而受到影响。为了帮助这些社区，缅因湾研究所领导了一个由公民、社区、教育和行业合作伙伴组成的团队，共同设计和建设社会和技术基础设施，以扩大当地潮汐洪水数据的收集，并利用这些数据在缅因州沿海小型和农村社区建立复原力。合作伙伴包括缅因州的四个沿海社区，这些社区将安装低成本潮汐测量仪，以收集洪水易发地区的当地水位。该项目还将支持当地的能力建设，以运行和维持一个社区科学计划，该计划收集对当地洪水事件和影响的地理和时间基准观测，开发供社区使用的数据产品，并提供小额赠款，以利用新数据支持正在进行的抗洪项目。这项工作的一个组成部分是让当地青年参与进来，试行一个由三部分组成的课程，其中包括参与社区科学计划，并与当地市政领导人就气候适应问题开展合作。支持沿海抗洪能力的本地化和共同开发的数据将为广大社区利益攸关方面临的多层面、多部门、气候适应规划问题提供基础信息。该项目还将涉及和培训一名女性博士后和两名职业早期项目工作人员，为新一代韧性研究人员和实践者做出贡献，他们可以与公民领袖和社区成员合作。公民创新挑战是与能源部、国土安全部和国家科学基金会合作的。海平面上升在缅因州的许多沿海社区造成了例行洪水泛滥的局面。这种洪水预测结合了当地对水位和洪水影响的观测，对于社区适应这一新的现实至关重要。缅因州在建立沿海洪水复原力方面面临重大障碍，原因是验潮仪覆盖范围稀少，加上基于观测的洪水阈值，以及缺乏一个由研究人员、民间领袖、积极参与的社区成员(特别是青年)和复原力实践者组成的网络，随时准备利用这些数据支持沿海规划和复原力。为了满足这一需求，缅因湾研究所组建了一支由公民、社区、教育和行业合作伙伴组成的团队，以创建社会和技术基础设施，以扩展关键的沿海洪水数据，并利用这些数据帮助提高社区的复原力。试点项目将在缅因州的四个沿海社区(波特兰、布斯贝港、圣乔治和马奇亚斯)启动，这些社区正在经历经常发生的洪水，并且具有一系列人口统计和市政能力。要解决的研究问题包括：潮汐测量仪的最佳位置在哪里，以便它们能够为市政规模的复原力规划提供信息？一个结构良好的社区科学计划能否产生数据，支持复原力活动并促进社区参与，特别是在年轻人中，以推动洪水适应？项目的成功依赖于与社区组织的合作，以发展当地运行和维持沿海洪灾社区科学计划的能力，这些计划收集与地理和时间相关的洪灾影响数据。这是通过与年轻人合作，并与初中和高中教师一起创建一个由三部分组成的科学课程来实现的，这些教师将在他们的课堂上进行试点。目标是培养学生对沿海洪灾的科学和物理驱动因素的概念性理解，让他们参与到沿海洪灾社区科学计划中并为其贡献数据，并支持他们与成人社区成员导师一起参与促进海岸复原力学习的练习。科学团队将使用通过这种方法获得的数据和信息来开发和提供定制的数据产品。它还将发放社区迷你补助金，以支持每个目标社区正在进行的抗洪项目。这一奖励反映了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。

This Civic Innovation Challenge is jointly funded by the Division of Ocean Science and the Office of the Assistant Director in the Directorate for Geosciences and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). The research addresses the increase in sea level and coastal flooding, that is affecting Maine’s coastal communities, to enhance their resilience to climate change impacts. Near and long-term flood projections, that combine local observations of water level and flood impacts, are critical to communities’ abilities to adapt to the new climate and sea level reality. Nationally, sea level rise adaptation-research commonly focuses on urban centers where the greatest losses in property value occur. Rural coastal communities, however, face unique adaptation challenges due to their remoteness, isolation from central planning agencies, limited resources, and intergenerational poverty. According to the US Census Bureau, Maine is the most rural state in the US with only 11% of its municipalities having a town planner. The absence of a local planner or insufficient to no regional planning support affects 72% of these communities. To help these communities, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute leads a team of civic, community, education, and industry partners in co-designing and building social and technological infrastructure to expand the collection of local tidal flooding data and leverage it to build resilience in small and rural Maine coastal communities. Partners include four coastal Maine communities where low-cost tide gauges will be installed to collect local water levels in flood prone areas. The project will also support local capacity development to run and sustain a community science program that collects geo- and time-referenced observations of local flood events and impacts, develop data products for use by the community, and provide mini-grants to leverage the new data to support ongoing flood resilience projects. An integral component of the work is the engagement of local youth by piloting a three-part curriculum that includes participation in the community science program and working with local municipal leaders on climate adaptation. Localized and co-developed data supporting coastal flood resilience will provide information that is foundational to multi-dimensional, multi-sector, climate adaptation planning issues faced by a broad array of community stakeholders. The project will also involve and train a female postdoc and two early-career project staff, contributing to a new generation of resilience researchers and practitioners who can work collaboratively with civic leaders and community members.The CIVIC Innovation Challenge is a collaboration with Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and the National Science Foundation. Sea level rise has created a situation of routine flooding in many of Maine’s coastal communities. Such flood projections that combine local observations of water level and flood impacts are essential for communities to adapt to this new reality. Maine faces significant barriers to building coastal flood resilience due to sparse tide gauge coverage combined with observation-based flood thresholds and the absence of a network of researchers, civic leaders, engaged community members (particularly youth), and resilience practitioners ready to leverage such data to support coastal planning and resilience. To address this need, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute has assembled a team of civic, community, education, and industry partners to create social and technology infrastructure that expands critical coastal flooding data and leverages it to help with community resilience. The pilot project will be initiated in four coastal Maine communities (Portland, Boothbay Harbor, St. George, and Machias) that are experiencing regular flooding and that have a range of demographics and municipal capacities. Research questions to be addressed include: What is the optimal location for tide gauges so they can inform resilience planning at the municipal scale? Can a well-structured community science program yield data that supports resilience activities and catalyzes community engagement, particularly among youth, to drive flood adaptation? Project success relies on partnering with community organizations to develop local capacity for running and sustaining coastal flooding community science programs that collect geo- and time-referenced flood impact data. This is done by working with youth and creating a three-part science curriculum with middle and high school teachers who will pilot it in their classes. Goals are to develop students' conceptual understanding of the science and physical drivers of coastal flooding, have them participate in collecting and contributing data to the coastal flooding community science program, and support their participation in a facilitated coastal resilience learning exercise alongside adult community member mentors. The science team will use data and information obtained through this approach to develop and provide customized data products. It will also issue community mini-grants that support ongoing flood resilience projects in each targeted community.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.