ULTRA-Ex: Human-Nature Interactions in an Urbanized Island Setting: Hilo and Kailua-Kona, Hawai'i as Model Socio-Ecological Systems

该奖项是根据2009年《美国恢复和再投资法》(公法111-5)资助的。人类对生态系统功能的普遍和日益增长的影响，以及“自然”区域范围的同时减少，促使对生态系统的长期研究进行重新构思，将人的因素包括在内。人类系统通过物质、水和能源的开采和处置直接与“自然”系统相互作用，并通过土地利用和土地覆盖的变化间接地与“自然”系统相互作用。这些相互作用在城市地区集中和放大。人类主导的社会生态系统的特点往往是资源流动和景观变化的复杂模式、由于资源可能经过的多个出入口点而难以跟踪、量化并与生态影响挂钩的过程、许多城市地区的快速增长以及获得代表性数据的普遍困难。在这种情况下，夏威夷这个“大岛”提供了一个模型环境，用来检验有关人类对地球系统的影响以及有关资源限制对城市发展的理论。资源管理问题对夏威夷来说是一个严重的问题，该岛只有10天的粮食储备，并且保持着全国最高的电价。通过关注该岛的两个主要城市地区，希洛和凯卢阿-科纳，这一跨学科研究项目将对通过资源交流、地理位置接近以及历史和当代文化配置而联系在一起的两个社会生态系统的结构和功能进行比较分析。这些地区虽然在人口和面积上相似，但具有明显不同的社会经济和生物物理特征。近年来，希洛一直在艰难应对甘蔗产业的消亡和从种植园经济向更多元化基地的转型，而凯卢阿科纳作为国际游客和第二故乡的吸引力推动了爆炸性增长。基于夏威夷岛清晰的自然边界、有限的入口点数量、相对较小的地理面积、生物的丰富和脆弱性以及相对孤立，希洛和凯卢阿-科纳为该项目的两个主要目标提供了一个可理解的活实验室，这两个主要目标是：(1)定量分析过去200年来这两个城市地区的物质、水和能源吞吐量；(2)从地理空间上分析这些地区过去、现在和潜在的人类引起的景观变化。物质和能量流分析是从工业生态中提取的工具，将用于跟踪每个城市系统中物质、能量和选定物质的输入、输出、转化和积累。将结合遥感卫星图像、统计人口数据和生物物理数据来分析这两个城市的土地利用和土地覆盖动态。这些目标的信息和数据将从历史档案、统计数据库和一些利益攸关方收集，包括县机构、当地企业和社区成员。通过明确衡量人类社会活动影响生态系统的方式以及生态系统变化在人类系统中产生反馈的方式，对资源流动和景观修改的理解有可能改变社会与“自然”世界互动的方式。这一进程的关键是将科学发现与当地社区及其特殊的可持续性挑战联系起来。该项目有两个致力于夏威夷科学教育的当地合作伙伴，将成为一个平台，通过为当地和国家的学生、教师和决策者提供跨学科和多文化的教育活动，提高对夏威夷面临的问题的认识。除了为鼓励生态和社会经济繁荣的政策提供信息外，该项目还将通过应用一种新的比较方法来定量分析人与自然的相互作用，从而促进社会生态和土地变化科学理论的进步。该奖项是由美国国家科学基金会和美国农业部林业局联合支持的一项特别竞赛的结果，作为城市长期研究区域探索(ULTRA-EX)奖的资助。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The pervasive and growing influence of humans on ecosystem functioning and the concurrent decrease in the extent of "natural" areas have prompted a reconceptualization of the long-term study of ecosystems to include a human dimension. Human systems interact with "natural" systems directly through the extraction and disposal of material, water, and energy resources and indirectly through changes in land use and land cover. These interactions are concentrated and magnified in urban areas. Human-dominated socioecological systems often are characterized by complex patterns of resource flows and landscape alteration, processes that can be difficult to track, quantify, and link to ecological impacts as a result of the multiple entry and exit points through which resources may pass, the rapid pace of growth in many urban areas, and the general difficulty in obtaining representative data. In this light, the "big island" of Hawai'i provides a model setting to test theories about human impacts on the earth system and about resource constraints on urban growth. Resource management issues are of critical concern for the island of Hawai'i, which holds only a ten-day reserve of food supplies and maintains the highest electricity rates in the country. By focusing on the island's two major urban areas, Hilo and Kailua-Kona, this interdisciplinary research project will provide a comparative analysis of the structure and function of two socioecological systems related through resource exchanges, geographic proximity, and historical and contemporary cultural configurations. Although similar in population and area, these areas have markedly different socioeconomic and biophysical characteristics. In recent years, Hilo has struggled with the demise of the sugarcane industry and the transition from a plantation economy to a more diversified base, while Kailua-Kona has experienced explosive growth fueled by its attractiveness as an international tourist and second-home destination. Based on the island of Hawai'i's clear physical boundaries, limited number of entry points, relatively small geographic area, biological wealth and fragility, and relative isolation, the Hilo and Kailua-Kona provide a comprehensible living laboratory for the two principal objectives of this project, which are (1) to analyze the material, water, and energy throughput of these two urban areas quantitatively over the past 200 years; and (2) to analyze past, present, and potential human-induced landscape change in these areas geospatially. Material and energy flow analysis, a tool drawn from industrial ecology, will be used to track the input, output, conversion, and accumulation of materials, energy, and selected substances through each urban system. Land-use and land-cover dynamics will be analyzed by coupling remote satellite imagery, statistical demographic data, and biophysical data for both cities. Information and data for these objectives will be collected from historical archives, statistical databases, and a number of stakeholders, including county agencies, local businesses, and community members. An understanding of resource flows and landscape modification has the potential to transform the ways in which society interacts with the "natural" world by explicitly measuring the ways in which the activities of human society affect ecosystems and the ways in which ecosystem changes produce feedback in the human system. Essential to this process is the linkage of scientific findings with local communities and their particular sustainability challenges. With two locally embedded partners devoted to science education in Hawai'i, this project will be a platform for developing awareness of the issues faced on the island of Hawai'i by providing cross-disciplinary and multi-cultural educational initiatives for a diverse group of local and national students, teachers, and decision makers. In addition to informing policies that encourage ecological and socioeconomic prosperity, this project will also contribute to the advancement of socioecological and land-change science theories by applying a novel, comparative approach to the quantitative analysis of human-nature interactions. This award was funded as an Urban Long-Term Research Area Exploratory (ULTRA-Ex) award as the result of a special competition jointly supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.