CNH-L: Stormwater Management Across Urban Ecosystems: Diagnostic Tools and Community Engagement for Ecological Restoration, Equitable Community Development and Revitalization

城市化带来的过量氮、磷和沉积物对许多地区的水质和环境健康构成威胁。该项目将研究如何通过更好的雨水管理来改善城市流域。这项研究将考察两个流域在华盛顿，DC和巴尔的摩，马里兰州，拥有不同程度的城市衰退和振兴。它将比较不同干预措施的有效性，包括技术和社会干预措施，以减少环境和人之间的不健康过程和反馈。具体的研究目标和活动是：（1）记录邻里的问题和需要，在通知雨水最佳管理做法;（2）评估雨水量和质量，洪水风险，垃圾堆积，和蚊子生产的流域内;（3）开发一个工具，使用地理信息系统（GIS），以指导流域管理;（4）提高社区改善水质和保护城市绿色空间的意识和积极行为。该项目将制定和评估促进可持续水资源的做法，并帮助教育参与者，从教师到学生到所有居民，其中许多人是种族和族裔少数群体，在社会、经济和教育方面处于不利地位，了解解决水可持续性的过程和战略。它将培养跨学科的研究生和本科生在互动的社会，生物和生态系统科学，因为它们涉及到水资源的可持续性，邻里规划，蚊子生态学和环境正义。该项目涉及流域营养物污染的主要生物物理和社会驱动因素，以及与建成环境的社会生态矩阵、城市衰退和振兴以及居民态度和行为有关的相关因素。耦合的雨水-人类动力学有可能成为一个签名模型，用于开发新的社会生态理论，城市生态系统，提高生活质量和环境正义，并启动可持续的社区为导向的管理自然系统。该项目整合了社会科学，城市规划，水文科学，生态学，成人和青年教育以及环境正义所需的专业知识和理论，以明确描述雨水-人类系统。这项研究结合了人类行为和雨水的数量和质量的社会人口统计措施，动态模拟污染热点，评估干预措施的有效性，并明确量化这些变量的反馈。它代表了在城市环境中耦合污染-人类动力学知识的进步，并为城市规划、补救和公共卫生提供了有价值的信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

AbstractExcess nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment associated with urbanization is a threat to water quality and environmental health in many locations. This project will investigate how urban watersheds can be improved through better stormwater management. The research will examine two watersheds in Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland that possess different degrees of urban decay and revitalization. It will compare the effectiveness of different interventions, both technical and social, at reducing unhealthy processes and feedbacks between the environment and people. Specific research objectives and activities are to: (1) document neighborhood issues and needs in informing stormwater best-management practices; (2) evaluate stormwater volume and quality, flooding risk, trash accumulation, and mosquito production within the watersheds; (3) develop a tool that uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to guide watershed management; and 4) enhance community awareness and positive behaviors to improve water quality and protect urban green space. This project will develop and evaluate practices that foster sustainable water resources and help educate participants, from teachers to students to all residents, many of whom are racial and ethnic minorities and socially, economically, and educationally disadvantaged, on processes and strategies involved in addressing water sustainability. It will train interdisciplinary graduate and undergraduate students in interactive social, biological, and ecosystem sciences as they relate to water resources sustainability, neighborhood planning, mosquito ecology, and environmental justice. This project addresses key biophysical and social drivers of nutrient pollution in watersheds, and the associated factors related to the socio-ecological matrix of the built environment, urban decay and revitalization, and resident attitudes and behaviors. Coupled stormwater-human dynamics have the potential to become a signature model for developing new socio-ecological theory about urban ecosystems, improving quality of life and environmental justice, and initiating sustained community-oriented management of natural systems. This project integrates the required expertise and theory from social science, city planning, hydrological science, ecology, adult and youth education, and environmental justice to explicitly characterize stormwater-human systems. This research combines socio-demographic measures of human behavior and stormwater quantity and quality to dynamically model pollution hot spots, assess the efficacy of interventions, and explicitly quantify the feedback of these variables. It represents an advance in the knowledge of coupled pollution-human dynamics in an urban context and provide valuable information for urban planning, remediation, and public health.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.