Collaborative Research: IRES Track I: Post-hurricane recovery of island freshwater lenses: Understanding the impact of social and hydrological dynamics

该项目的目标是每年为六名学生提供国际合作机会，通过在大巴哈马岛为期六周的国际研究经验，探讨与小岛屿淡水复原力有关的更广泛的气候变化挑战。该项目将促进我们目前对社会和水文动态对飓风后小亚热带岛屿淡水资源恢复的综合作用的理解。一群来自不同背景的美国学生将与来自巴哈马大学、大巴哈马公用事业公司、巴哈马林业部门和四所美国大学的教师和学生密切合作（加州州立大学、萨克拉门托、怀俄明州大学、奥伯林学院和罗格斯大学），由社会科学家、水文学家、土壤科学家、植物专家。学生将学习如何研究本地，全球和跨文化问题，理解和欣赏不同的观点，并与来自不同文化和背景的个人互动。通过这种国际合作获得的经验将是学生在日益全球化的经济中取得未来成功的关键，并将进一步发展多元化，具有全球竞争力的劳动力，能够解决社会水文学中的跨领域挑战。该项目还将对东道机构的学生产生积极影响，获得他们原本无法获得的研究经验和培训。除了对学生的影响外，当地水资源管理部门还将受益于新数据和建模工具的生成，该项目将帮助当地社区了解气候和社会挑战及其对水资源可持续性和复原力的作用，预计这将增加他们对气候变化减缓战略的参与和适应水平。水文学在提高我们对水和人类系统之间相互作用的理解方面，涉及社会水文学交叉性质的跨学科学生培训并不常见。该项目将通过收集、整合和分析被确定为大巴哈马飓风后水资源恢复主要驱动力的社会和水文过程的独特信息，调查社会水文动态对亚热带小岛屿飓风后淡水资源恢复的重要性。我们的研究将产生关于社会和水文因素的相对重要性和复合作用的新数据和知识，并将最终有助于提高小岛屿在不断变化的气候下的水资源可持续性和复原力。学生将参加实地活动，收集岛上不同地点的地下水和土壤盐度、地下水位和土壤湿度数据。此外，还将进行渗透实验，以评估土壤上的盐分积累及其对土壤渗透能力的影响。上述数据将用于改进现有岛屿尺度模型地下水流和盐运移模型的校准和验证。该模型将根据气候预测模拟各种补给情景下的FWL恢复。土壤含盐量数据还将用于评估飓风后植物/森林生物多样性的损失和森林结构的变化。还将通过重点小组和访谈，对社区成员对大巴哈马水管理的看法进行社会学调查。除了个别项目外，国际研究机会将在年度跨学科研究项目中达到高潮，该项目提供了对风暴引起的盐碱化事件后FWL恢复的社会水文动态的见解。学生将在年度项目虚拟研讨会上展示他们的研究成果，通过外展项目和科学出版物交流他们的研究，并获得重要的写作和演讲技巧。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The goal of this project is to provide international collaborative opportunities to six students per year to explore broader climate change challenges related to freshwater resilience of small islands through a six-week long international research experience in the island of Grand Bahama. The project will advance our current understanding of the combined role of social and hydrological dynamics on post-hurricane recovery of freshwater resources on small sub-tropical islands. A group of U.S. students from diverse backgrounds will work closely with mentors and students from the University of the Bahamas, Grand Bahama Utility Company, the Bahamian Forestry Unit, and faculty from four US Universities (California State University, Sacramento, University of Wyoming, Oberlin College, and Rutgers University), comprising a diverse, interdisciplinary team of social scientists, hydrologists, soil scientists, and plant experts. Students will learn how to study local, global, and intercultural issues, understand and appreciate different perspectives, and interact with individuals from different cultures and backgrounds. The experiences gained through this international collaboration will be key to student's future success in an increasingly global economy, and will further the development of a diverse, globally competitive workforce, able to address cross-cutting challenges in socio-hydrology. This project will also have a positive impact on students from the host Institution, gaining research experiences and training that they would otherwise not have access to. Beyond the impacts on students, local water management authorities will benefit from the generation of new data and modeling tools and the project will help inform local communities about climate and social challenges and their role on the sustainability and resilience of their water resources, which is anticipated to increase their involvement and level of adaptation to climate change mitigation strategies.Despite the recognized importance of socio-hydrology in increasing our understanding of the interactions between water and human systems, interdisciplinary student training addressing the cross-cutting nature of socio-hydrology is not common. This project will investigate the importance of socio-hydrological dynamics on post-hurricane recovery of freshwater resources of small sub-tropical islands by collecting, integrating, and analyzing unique information on the social and hydrological processes that are identified as the main drivers of post-hurricane recovery of water resources in Grand Bahama. Our research will generate new data and knowledge on the relative importance and compound role of social and hydrological factors and will ultimately contribute to increased water resources sustainability and resilience of small islands under a changing climate. Students will participate in field campaigns to collect groundwater and soil salinity, groundwater levels and soil moisture data on various locations on the island. In addition, infiltration experiments will be conducted to assess salt build-up on the soil and its impact on the infiltration capacity of the soil. The above data will be used to improve the calibration and validation of an existing island scale model groundwater flow and salt transport modeling. This model will simulate FWL recovery under various recharge scenarios based on climatic projections. Soil salinity data will also be used to assess the loss in plant/forest biodiversity and changes in forest structure post-hurricane. Sociological investigations of community member’s perceptions on water management in Grand Bahama will also be conducted through focus groups and interviews. In addition to individual projects, the international research opportunity will culminate in an annual interdisciplinary research project that provides insights into the socio-hydrological dynamics of FWL recovery after storm induced salinization events. Students will present their research findings at an annual project Virtual Symposium, communicate their research beyond the program through outreach projects and scientific publications and gain important writing and presentation skills.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.