EAGER: Operationalization of the Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) Network

超过39%的美国人口居住在大西洋和墨西哥湾沿岸的沿海县，这些县暴露于飓风等气象灾害，太平洋沿岸则暴露于地震和海啸等地球物理灾害。与此同时，该国内陆的大部分剩余人口每年都受到雷暴下击暴流和龙卷风的破坏性影响，此外还有潜在灾难性地震的威胁。 将财产和人类生命集中在该国一些最易受灾害影响的地区不可避免地导致灾难性损失，正如2017年飓风季节的哈维，伊尔玛和玛丽亚系列所有力说明的那样，这造成了有史以来最高的保险损失。 每一场灾害都提供了一个重要机会，可借以评估导致重大生命和财产损失的建筑物和其他已建民用基础设施的性能和脆弱性。减少自然灾害事件对民用基础设施风险的研究（知识）进展得到了记录事件后建筑环境性能的实地证据的有力指导和信息。由于自然灾害发生时几乎没有预警，侦察队必须立即在广大的地理区域内动员起来，收集大量关于民用基础设施性能的易腐研究数据，这些数据必须通过有限数量的实地观察有效地获取。虽然美国国家科学基金会使用快速反应研究（RAPID）资助机制的赠款，以支持结构工程研究人员收集事后易腐数据，结构工程界对这种极端事件的反应是临时的，导致现场响应时间缓慢，数据收集不协调，并错过了机会，以最大限度地从灾害中学习。EARLY概念探索性研究（EAGER）通过建立结构极端事件侦察（StEER）网络来应对这一挑战，以协调结构工程研究社区对自然灾害的快速反应，并建立其更有效，系统和一致的灾后快速侦察和数据收集能力。其目标是利用收集到的事件数据进行后续研究调查，以减少已建民用基础设施的风险，从而通过在未来灾害中拯救生命和减少财产损失来促进国家福利和繁荣。该EAGER将指导社区主导的StEER网络的设计和启动，并确立其使命，以（1）促进社区驱动的标准、最佳实践和协调RAPID现场工作的培训，（2）向其他联盟组织代表结构勘察社区的愿景，以及（3）与其他利益相关者合作协调官方事件响应。StEER将建立在区域节点之上，这些节点提供召集点，表达风暴和地震工程界的需求，同时建立共同点以促进它们之间的互动。更重要的是，这些节点将使人们能够对灾害作出迅速和具有成本效益的反应。为结构工程研究界建立一个单一的协调点，也将使其与岩土工程和社会科学领域更广泛的极端事件（EE）联盟建立更好的联系，以促进真正跨学科勘察的更大潜力。StEER将通过以下目标运作：（1）建立其治理结构、政策和数据标准，以便通过利用其地理上分散的网络，实现更有效、协调的实地侦察;（2）为各种评估技术实施标准工作流程，以迅速、可靠地获取、管理和传播大量易腐烂的研究数据;（3）通过标准化、严格的质量保证和基于网络的培训计划，提高社区进行高质量损害评估的能力;（4）通过更广泛的EE联盟内的协调和混合侦察工作，促进跨灾害和学科边界的更大合作;以及（5）促进高质量侦察结果向不同受众的广泛传播，以使研究人员、从业人员、学生和广大公众受益。 StEER还将与NSF支持的自然灾害工程研究基础设施（NHERI）RAPID设施协调其侦察工作，并与NHERI网络基础设施侦察门户网站（https：//www.example.com）进行数据存档。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。www.DesignSafe-ci.org

Over 39 percent of the US population live in coastal shoreline counties exposed on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to meteorological hazards like hurricanes and on the Pacific Coast to geophysical hazards like earthquakes and tsunamis. Meanwhile, much of the remaining population at the interior of the country is subject annually to the damaging effects of thunderstorm downbursts and tornadoes, in addition to the looming threats of potentially catastrophic earthquakes. Concentrating property and human life in some of the country's most hazard-prone areas inevitably results in catastrophic losses, as powerfully illustrated by the 2017 Hurricane season's sequence of Harvey, Irma, and Maria, which caused the highest insured losses ever. Each disaster provides an important opportunity to evaluate the performance and vulnerabilities of buildings and other constructed civil infrastructure that led to dramatic losses of life and property. Research (knowledge) advances to reduce risks to civil infrastructure from natural hazard events are strongly guided and informed by field evidence documenting the performance of the built environment after the event. As natural disasters occur with little warning, reconnaissance teams must immediately mobilize over large geographical areas to gather large quantities of perishable research data on civil infrastructure performance that must be effectively captured through a finite number of field observations. While the National Science Foundation uses the Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) funding mechanism to support structural engineering researchers to collect post-event perishable data, the response of the structural engineering community to such extreme events has been ad hoc, leading to slowed in-field response times, uncoordinated data collection, and missed opportunities to maximize learning from disasters. This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) responds to this challenge by establishing the Structural Extreme Event Reconnaissance (StEER) network to coordinate the structural engineering research community's rapid response to natural disasters and build its capacity for more effective, systematic, and consistent post-disaster RAPID reconnaissance and data collection. The goal is to use the event data collected for subsequent research investigations to reduce risks to constructed civil infrastructure and thus promote national welfare and prosperity by saving lives and reducing property losses in future disasters. This EAGER will guide the community-led design and launch of the StEER network and establish its mission to (1) promote community-driven standards, best practices, and training for coordinated RAPID field work, (2) represent the vision of the structural reconnaissance community outwardly to other aligned organizations, and (3) coordinate official event responses in collaboration with other stakeholders. StEER will be founded upon regional nodes that provide convening points to give voice to the needs of the windstorm and earthquake engineering communities, while establishing common ground to foster interaction between them. These nodes more importantly will enable swift and cost-effective response to disasters. Creating a single point of coordination for the structural engineering research community will also enable better connectivity with the wider established extreme events (EE) consortium in geotechnical engineering and social sciences to foster greater potentials for truly interdisciplinary reconnaissance. StEER will be operationalized through the following objectives: (1) establish its governance structure, policies and data standards to enable more effective, coordinated field reconnaissance by leveraging its geographically distributed network; (2) implement standard workflows for a wide array of assessment technologies to swiftly and reliably capture, curate and disseminate large volumes of perishable research data; (3) increase the community's capacity for high-quality damage assessments through standardization, rigorous quality assurance, and web-based training programs; (4) foster greater collaboration across hazard and disciplinary boundaries through coordination and blended reconnaissance efforts within the wider EE consortium; and (5) promote broad dissemination of high-quality reconnaissance findings to diverse audiences to benefit researchers, practitioners, students, and the public-at-large. StEER will also coordinate its reconnaissance with the NSF-supported Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) RAPID facility and its data archiving with the NHERI cyberinfrastructure Reconnaissance Portal (https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org).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.