Grand Challenges and Opportunities in Environmental Engineering and Science for the Twenty-first Century

1643182约翰逊美国国家科学院、工程和医学研究院水科学和技术委员会正在进行一项研究，以确定环境工程和科学的广泛领域面临的高度优先的挑战。该委员会将确定未来几十年环境工程和科学面临的重大挑战。这些应该是重大的社会挑战，需要环境工程和科学的专业知识来解决或管理。该报告将塑造大学院系的发展，激励下一代工程师和科学家应对最紧迫的全球环境挑战，并改进环境工程师和科学家的培训，以更好地应对这些挑战。该委员会将至少举行三次会议，听取简报，收集信息，审议关键问题，并撰写报告。这项研究应该产生一份有远见的文件，并导致随后18个月的密集传播/推广工作，对全美和世界各地的环境工程和科学项目具有价值。干旱、石油泄漏和食品价格上涨等事件清楚地表明，美国不能再孤立地看待环境系统。这些事件表明，美国不能再孤立地看待环境系统。对这些紧迫挑战的综合解决方案需要环境工程和科学的新的教育方法和研究战略，并与广泛的工程师、科学家和社会科学家建立伙伴关系。NRC 2014年的一份报告《融合：促进生命科学、物理科学、工程学和其他学科的跨学科整合》阐明了这些新问题如何需要新的思维模式和方法。因此，这项研究还将探讨将跨学科和系统方法融入环境工程和科学的方法。这些都是促进创新解决方案以应对这些全球环境工程重大挑战的重要步骤。

1643182JohnsonThe Water Science and Technology Board of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is undertaking a study to identify high priority challenges for the broad fields of environmental engineering and science. The committee will identify grand challenges for environmental engineering and science for the next several decades. These should be significant societal challenges that will require the expertise of environmental engineering and science to resolve or manage. The report will shape the growth of university departments, inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists to address the most pressing global environmental challenges, and improve the training of environmental engineers and scientists to better meet these challenges. The committee will hold a minimum of three meetings to receive briefings, gather information, deliberate critical issues, and write its report. The study should produce a visionary document and result in a subsequent 18-month intensive dissemination/outreach effort of value to environmental engineering and science programs throughout the United States and worldwide. Events like droughts, oil spills, and increasing food prices, illustrative of the "food-energy-water nexus", make it clear that the United States can no longer view environmental systems in isolation. Integrative solutions to these pressing challenges necessitate new educational approaches and research strategies for environmental engineering and sciences and partnerships with a wide array of engineers, scientists, and social scientists. A 2014 NRC report, "Convergence: Facilitating Transdisciplinary Integration of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Beyond", illustrates how these new problems require new thought modalities and approaches. Thus, this study will also examine ways to integrate interdisciplinary and systems approaches into environmental engineering and sciences. These are essential steps to facilitate innovative solutions to these global grand challenges for environmental engineering.