RCN-SEES: Climate, Energy, Environment, and Engagement in Semi-Arid Regions (CE3SAR)

该奖项由美国国家科学基金会的可持续发展科学、工程和教育（SEES）活动资助，旨在解决创造一个可持续发展世界的挑战。CE3SAR（半干旱地区的气候、能源、环境和参与）是南德克萨斯州地区机构和其他地区主要研究型大学的研究人员的全面合作伙伴关系，旨在推进可持续发展（SEES）的科学、工程和教育知识。该网络将开发和测试一种创新模式，以开展跨学科、特定区域的可持续性研究，与高度参与的当地利益攸关方的需求和利益密切相关。RCN CE3SAR将集中区域研究能力，专门研究墨西哥湾附近半干旱气候的可持续性，同时利用来自该地区以外的研究专业知识。地理信息科学（GIS）将在整合多层科学数据、产生科学见解以及向区域利益相关者和科学界提供新思想、新研究方向和新科学知识的过程中发挥关键作用。该网络将整合迄今为止基本上脱节的区域能力，并为一系列将深刻影响该地区及其社会经济未来的研究带来重点和协同作用。该网络将在整个过程中让区域社区、政府和私营部门利益攸关方参与并进行教育。南德克萨斯州由28个县组成，其中8个县与墨西哥接壤，8个县与墨西哥湾接壤，那里的沿海海洋和河口环境很快变成半干旱地区，历史上易受干旱影响。气候变化及其连锁反应，从海平面上升到河床干涸，将深刻影响南德克萨斯州的社会经济结构、地理分布模式以及教育和文化机构。虽然许多可持续发展科学关注的是全球范围，但南德克萨斯州和其他地方的当地社区和机构在未来20年面临着与水、能源和空间利用有关的可持续发展问题的关键决策。必须在适当的范围内提供科学知识，以便这些决定能从可持续性研究中得到信息；此外，科学必须被社区理解和接受，这对于将研究成果应用于其决策和基础设施起着至关重要的作用。经验表明，从区域外引进与社区联系很少或没有联系的研究人员会导致当地决策者和整个社区对研究成果的接受程度较低；此外，南德州历来是孤立的，其居民对“外来者”持怀疑态度。为了使可持续性研究对当地产生有益和实质性的影响，必须由区域研究人员推动，这些研究人员也利用国家和国际专门知识。

This award is funded under NSF's Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES) activities, which aim to address the challenges of creating a sustainable world. Research Coordination Network (RCN) CE3SAR (Climate, Energy, Environment, and Engagement in Semiarid Regions) is a comprehensive partnership of researchers at South Texas regional institutions and major research universities elsewhere advancing knowledge of science, engineering and education for sustainability (SEES). The network will develop and test an innovative model for conducting interdisciplinary, region-specific, sustainability research closely tied to the needs and interests of highly-engaged local stakeholders. RCN CE3SAR will aggregate regional research capacities specific to sustainability in semiarid climates contiguous to the Gulf of Mexico while leveraging research expertise infused from outside the region. Geographic information science (GIS) will play a key role in the process of integrating layers of scientific data, producing scientific insight and presenting new ideas, new research directions and new scientific knowledge to regional stakeholders as well as the scientific community. The network will align regional capacities that heretofore were largely disconnected and bring focus and synergy to a range of research that will profoundly impact the region and its socioeconomic future. The network will engage and educate regional communities, government and private-sector stakeholders throughout the process.South Texas comprises 28 counties, eight of which border Mexico and eight the Gulf of Mexico, where coastal marine and estuarine environments quickly become semiarid regions historically susceptible to drought. Climate change and its ripple effects, from rising seas to parched riverbeds, will profoundly affect South Texas socioeconomic structures, geographic distribution patterns and educational and cultural institutions. While much sustainability science focuses on global scales, local communities and institutions in South Texas and elsewhere face crucial decisions over the next 20 years driven by sustainability issues related to water, energy and use of space. Scientific knowledge must be available at relevant scales for those decisions to be informed by sustainability research; moreover, the science must be understood and accepted by the community, which plays a vital role in implementing the research results into its decision making and infrastructure. Experience has shown that importing researchers from outside the region with little or no connection to the community results in low acceptance of research results by local decision-makers and by the community at large; moreover, South Texas has been historically isolated and its residents suspicious of 'outsiders'. In order for sustainability research to have a salutary and substantive local impact, it must be advanced by regional researchers who also draw on national and international expertise.