A History of Data Practices in the Water Sciences

这个项目是对水文学中数据实践的历史研究，水文学是一门研究地球表面和地表以下水的性质、分布和循环的科学。今天，科学家们继续使用其中的许多方法来研究和管理侵蚀、洪水、缺水和其他一系列与水有关的问题。该项目将阐明地球和环境科学家继续使用的数据收集、管理、分析和共享做法的历史渊源。申请的资金将用于档案研究以及本科生和研究生研究助理的旅费。它将产生一本学术书籍和期刊文章，一门关于环境数据的新本科课程，本科生和研究生的研究机会，以及对数据实践史的洞察，这可能有助于改进科学教学，数据共享倡议，以及在政策制定中使用科学数据。从20世纪40年代到70年代，美国水科学史上的关键时期，水文学和河流地貌学变得越来越定量、数学、实验和数据密集型。为了建立水与陆地相互作用的数学模型，水文学家和河流地貌学家发现有必要收集新类型的数据，并开发新的组织、分析和共享方法。在一些情况下，他们改变了现有数据来源的用途，而在另一些情况下，他们发起了全新的数据收集企业，包括新类型的实地调查和实验室实验。他们还建立了新的协议和机构，以标准化数据和鼓励数据共享。事实证明，这些数据做法对于快速发展的美国西部以及世界其他干旱地区的水资源管理至关重要。它们也被证明是有争议的；不同的利益相关者争先恐后地确定哪些数据是相关的，它们是否可以信任，以及它们应该如何解释。该项目将展示水科学如何对新出现的水问题做出明智的反应，并反过来受到这些问题的影响。它将有助于我们理解定量、数学和数据密集型技术的兴起，以了解地球和管理人类环境。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is a historical study of data practices in hydrology, the science dealing with the properties, distribution, and circulation of water on and below the earth's surface. Many of these practices continue to be used by scientists today to study and manage erosion, flooding, water scarcity, and a wide range of other water-related problems. This project will shed light on the historical origins of practices of data collection, management, analysis, and sharing that continue to be used by earth and environmental scientists. The requested funds will support travel for archival research, and for undergraduate and graduate student research assistants. It will result in a scholarly book and journal articles, a new undergraduate course on environmental data, research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and insights into the history of data practices that may help to improve scientific pedagogy, data-sharing initiatives, and the use of scientific data in policy making.Hydrology and fluvial geomorphology became increasingly quantitative, mathematical, experimental, and data-intensive from the 1940s to the 1970s, a critical period in the history of the water sciences in the United States. To develop mathematical models of interactions between water and land, hydrologists and fluvial geomorphologists found it necessary to gather new kinds of data and to develop new ways of organizing, analyzing, and sharing them. In some cases, they re-purposed existing sources of data, while in other cases they launched entirely new data-gathering enterprises including novel kinds of field surveys and laboratory experiments. They also established new agreements and institutions to standardize data and encourage data sharing. These data practices proved critical to the management of water resources in the rapidly developing U.S. West as well as in other arid regions around the world. They also proved controversial; various stakeholders fought to determine which data were relevant, whether they could be trusted, and how they should be interpreted. This project will show how the sciences of water informed responses to emerging water problems and were in turn shaped by them. It will contribute to our understanding of the rise of quantitative, mathematical, and data-intensive techniques for understanding the Earth and managing the human environment.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.