LTER: CAP IV - Investigating urban ecology and sustainability through the lens of Urban Ecological Infrastructure

人类正在迅速成为城市物种。因此，了解城市生态系统是极其重要的。城市是能源和资源的消费者，也是废物的生产者。它们也是创造创新、效率和解决方案的社交网络。亚利桑那州中部-凤凰城LTER计划(CAP)使环境和社会科学的研究人员能够将城市作为社会生态系统进行研究。CAP研究的科学目标是：1)使用长期数据来阐明和回答关于需要长期视角的城市的新问题；2)开发和使用未来情景来帮助回答研究问题；3)应用和创造关于城市生态系统的新知识；以及4)建立广泛的合作伙伴关系，使城市更具弹性和可持续发展的居住地。此外，CAP的首要教育项目生态探索者将把教师和大学预科学生与CAP的科学家联系起来。CAP还通过与社区合作伙伴和市政机构合作，让凤凰城居民参与科学研究。最后，CAP丰富的数据库对科学家、学生、教师和决策者来说是一个宝贵的、不断增长的资源。了解城市生态系统仍然是CAP事业的核心。核心问题阐述了人类动机、行为、行动和结果与城市生态系统结构和功能的相互联系：城市生态基础设施(UEI)提供的生态系统服务如何影响人类结果和行为，以及人类行为如何影响城市生态系统结构和功能的模式，并最终影响城市的可持续性和弹性？CAP的一个新的理论焦点是城市生态基础设施(UEI)，它是连接系统生物物理和人类/社会领域的重要桥梁。因此，UEI在指导所有履约协助方案活动的概念框架中处于核心地位。CAP研究人员在居住景观、城市水体、沙漠公园和保护区、河岸化沙漠城市的动植物和气候以及城市设计和治理等方面探索跨学科城市生态的新的社会生态前沿。CAP研究围绕八个跨学科问题组织，研究人员被组织成八个跨学科研究小组来解决这些问题。CAP现在包括对更广泛的社会影响的研究，理论上侧重于生态和设计之间的关系，以增强城市的可持续性和复原力。这一重点，与正在进行的CAP情景工作相结合，是社会生态研究成果和城市机构之间的转换链接，最终使凤凰城和整个城市成为更好的居住之地。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。

Humans are rapidly becoming an urban species. It is profoundly important, therefore, to understand urban ecosystems. Cities are consumers of energy and resources and producers of waste. They are also social networks that create innovation, efficiency, and solutions. The Central Arizona-Phoenix LTER Program (CAP) empowers researchers from the environmental and social sciences to study cities as social-ecological systems. The scientific goals of the CAP research are: 1) to use long-term data to articulate and answer new questions about cities that require a long-term perspective; 2) to develop and use future scenarios to help answer research questions; 3) to apply and create new knowledge about urban ecosystems; and 4) to build broad partnerships to make cities more resilient and sustainable places to live. In addition, Ecology Explorers, CAP's premier education program, will connect teachers and pre-college students with CAP scientists. CAP is also involving Phoenix residents in scientific research by working with community partners and municipal agencies. Finally, CAP's rich database is a valuable and growing resource for scientists, students, teachers and decision makers.Understanding urban ecosystems remains central to the CAP enterprise. The central question articulates the interconnectedness of human motivations, behaviors, actions, and outcomes with urban ecosystem structure and function: How do the ecosystem services provided by urban ecological infrastructure (UEI) affect human outcomes and behavior, and how do human actions affect patterns of urban ecosystem structure and function and, ultimately, urban sustainability and resilience? A new theoretical focus for CAP is on Urban Ecological Infrastructure (UEI) as a critical bridge between the system's biophysical and human/social domains. UEI is thus central in the conceptual framework that guides all CAP activities. CAP researchers explore new social-ecological frontiers of interdisciplinary urban ecology in residential landscapes, urban waterbodies, desert parks and preserves, the flora, fauna, and climate of a 'riparianized' desert city, and urban design and governance. CAP research is organized around eight interdisciplinary questions and researchers are organized into eight Interdisciplinary Research Teams to address these questions. CAP now includes research on broader societal impacts, with a theoretical focus on the nexus of ecology and design to enhance urban sustainability and resilience. This focus, combined with ongoing CAP scenarios work, is the translational link between social-ecological research outcomes and city institutions, ultimately making Phoenix, and cities in general, better places to live.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.