REU Site: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Disaster Resilience Spatial Thinking

该项目由SBE理事会的本科生研究经验（REU）站点计划资助。因此，它具有科学效益和社会效益，并将研究和教育结合起来。这个由罗切斯特理工学院（RIT）主办的为期10周的前沿跨学科REU站点将首次关注地理信息系统（GIS）对灾害恢复空间思维的影响。项目目标是(1)使学生能够研究，创建和评估灾害恢复空间思维的严肃GIS游戏，以及(2)在地理信息科学，灾害管理，信息技术（IT），社会科学和游戏开发的交叉点创建和评估跨学科STEM研究环境。该网站将招收地理、社会科学和信息技术专业的学生。预期的影响是为未来的科学家在gisscience，灾害管理，IT和游戏开发的交叉点进行跨学科研究创造智力，方法和交流基础。RIT REU站点将推进发现和理解，同时通过解决迫切的国家教育和培训需求，促进教学、培训和学习，为下一代科学家提供能够进行跨学科、面向空间的STEM研究，重点是GIS和社会灾害恢复能力。该网站还具有一些社会效益，如：(1)通过REU网站专注于空间计算技能发展的努力，解决地理空间技术能力模型中确定的紧迫的国家地理空间软件开发劳动力需求，(2)传播REU学生抗灾情景、数据集和用于抗灾教育、培训和能力建设的严肃游戏智力产品，以及(3)展示GIS的重要性。空间思维，严肃的游戏，以及灾难恢复能力，这些都是早期职业科学家在灾难发生时可能拯救生命的能力。REU网站特别强大，通过与RIT的国家聋人技术研究所的整合，扩大了代表性不足的群体的参与，该研究所将招募聋人和重听学生和教师参与研究。鼓励所有学生围绕特殊需要人群探索灾害恢复问题。该站点将加强研究和教育的基础设施——该站点被设想为一个为期10年的关于GIS、空间思维和灾害管理的国际项目的开端，该项目将利用PI现有的国际NSF研究资金和网络。灾害的基本空间性质需要对GIS如何推进灾害恢复空间思维进行更深入的科学理解。严肃游戏以灾难管理训练和模拟而闻名，但在空间思维研究方面却未得到充分利用。拟议的REU站点将是第一个研究环境，通过三个未解决的科学研究问题来探索灾害恢复力、空间思维、GIS和严肃游戏之间的新联系：(1)哪些空间思维组件与抗灾能力相关，(2)哪些GIS工具和视觉表征最好地将抗灾能力与空间思维联系起来，以及(3)结合空间思维GIS工具和视觉表征来实现抗灾能力的最佳严肃游戏设计实践是什么。指导学生的活动包括通过识别、设计和创造灾难恢复空间思维严肃的GIS游戏来进行中心假设检验。拟议的REU网站将为本科生提供许多机会来推进这一研究议程，同时他们自己也将从研究经验中受益。

This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the SBE Directorate. As such, it has both scientific and societal benefits, and it integrates research and education. This cutting-edge ten-week interdisciplinary REU Site hosted at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) will be the first to focus on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for disaster resilience spatial thinking. Project objectives are to (1) enable students to research, create, and evaluate serious GIS games for disaster resilience spatial thinking, and (2) create and evaluate an interdisciplinary STEM research environment at the intersections of Geographic Information Science, disaster management, Information Technology (IT), social science and game development. The Site will recruit Geography, social science and IT students. Intended impacts are to create intellectual, methodological and communication foundations for future scientists to conduct interdisciplinary research at the intersections of GIScience, disaster management, IT, and game development. The RIT REU Site will advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning by addressing pressing national education and training needs for next-generation scientists capable of conducting interdisciplinary, spatially-oriented STEM research focused on GIS and societal disaster resilience. The Site also has several societal benefits such as (1) addressing pressing national geospatial software development workforce needs identified in the Geospatial Technology Competency Model through REU Site efforts focused on spatial computing skill development, (2) disseminating REU student disaster resilience scenarios, datasets and serious game intellectual products for disaster resilience education, training and capacity building, and (3) demonstrating the importance of GIS, spatial thinking, serious games, and disaster resilience to early career scientists to potentially save lives when disasters occur. The REU Site is particularly strong with broadening the participation of underrepresented groups through integration with RIT's National Technical Institute for the Deaf that will recruit and engage Deaf and Hard of Hearing students and faculty in the research. All students will be encouraged to explore disaster resilience issues surrounding special needs people. The Site will enhance infrastructure for research and education - the Site is envisioned as a start to a 10-year international program on GIS, spatial thinking and disaster management that will leverage the PI's existing international NSF research funding and networks.The fundamental spatial nature of disasters necessitates deeper scientific understanding of how GIS can advance disaster resilience spatial thinking. Serious games are well known for disaster management training and simulation but underused for spatial thinking research. The proposed REU Site will be the first research environment to explore the novel linkage between disaster resilience, spatial thinking, GIS, and serious games via three unanswered scientific research questions: (1) Which spatial thinking components are relevant to disaster resilience, (2) Which GIS tools and visual representations best connect disaster resilience with spatial thinking, and (3) What are the best serious game design practices that incorporate spatial thinking GIS tools and visual representations for disaster resilience to achieve learning outcomes. Mentored student activities involve central hypothesis testing by identifying, designing and creating disaster resilience spatial thinking serious GIS games. The proposed REU Site will provide undergraduate students numerous opportunities to advance this research agenda while themselves benefiting from the research experience.