Networking for Environmental Sustainability in Arid Region Urban Communities

中小型城市中心（人口在5万至50万之间）的可持续性正日益受到威胁。这些社区往往缺乏财政、技术和人力资源来充分应对这些威胁。中小型城市中心比受到更多关注的特大城市更为普遍，并逐渐成为更多人的家园。此外，美国农村依靠小城市中心来推动农村经济，满足重要的基本需求，如卫生服务。研讨会的主要目标是概念化作为农村社区支柱的许多城市中心所面临的可持续性挑战。此外，该讲习班将侧重于干旱和半干旱地区的城市中心，在这些地区，足够质量和数量的水是一种决定性的环境需求。讲习班的概念框架是“同一个健康”，它假定环境、人类和野生动物的健康密切相关，通往可持续未来的道路需要满足人类、经济和环境的需要。拟于2019年8月14日至16日在德克萨斯州拉伯克举行的研讨会将吸引来自干旱西南部社区的研究人员和其他利益相关者，以确定这些社区的需求以及满足这些需求的研究途径。通过讲习班获得的知识可以应用于面临类似挑战的社区。讲习班的一个重要目标是为全球可持续城市系统研究网络奠定基础，该网络可以制定协调一致的国际研究议程，以解决中小型城市社区的需要。本次研讨会是一个让研究人员、学生和利益相关者参与的机会，以确定研究的需求和满足这些社区需求的途径。本次研讨会将汇集一个由学者、从业人员、政策制定者和其他利益相关者组成的多学科团队，以确定这些社区面临的挑战和潜在的研究途径，为这些挑战制定解决方案。研讨会还寻求更有效地让美洲原住民和少数民族社区参与定义和开展旨在解决其社区面临的挑战的研究。这些可持续性挑战将在四个讲习班主题中分别进行评估：环境可持续性、城市设计、水和公共卫生。环境可持续性主题侧重于城市发展与自然环境同步的问题。城市设计主题在与环境可持续性主题相辅相成的同时，更侧重于建筑环境的设计如何尊重自然环境，同时满足人类栖息地的需求。“水”主题侧重于所有干旱地区在满足环境用水需求、人类饮用水需求以及农业、制造业和能源发展等相互竞争力量的用水需求方面面临的共同挑战。公共卫生主题认识到，小城市和周边地区的人口不容易获得保健服务，特别是大城市常见的精神保健服务。这四个主题各自都很重要，但都以关键的方式相互交叉，需要在长期环境可持续性和与周围农村矩阵整合的背景下进行探索。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

The sustainability of small- to mid-sized urban centers (population between 50,000 and 500,000 residents) is increasingly under threat. These communities often lack the financial, technical, and human resources to adequately address those threats. Small to mid-sized urban centers are much more common than the megacities that receive more attention, and cumulatively serve as home for more people. In addition, rural America depends upon small urban centers to drive the rural economy and meet important basic needs such as health services. A workshop is proposed with an overarching goal to conceptualize the sustainability challenges that face the many urban centers that serve as the backbone of rural communities. Additionally, this workshop will focus on urban centers in arid and semi-arid regions where water of adequate quality and quantity is a defining environmental need. The conceptual framework of the workshop is that of "One Health", which posits that environmental, human, and wildlife health are closely intertwined, and the path to a sustainable future requires meeting human, economic, and environmental needs. The proposed workshop, scheduled for August 14-16, 2019, in Lubbock, TX, will engage researchers and other stakeholders from communities in the arid southwest to identify the needs of these communities and a path for research to meet those needs. Knowledge gained through the workshop can be applied to communities facing similar challenges. An important goal of the workshop is to build a foundation for a global Sustainable Urban Systems Research Network that can formulate a coordinated and convergent international research agenda to address the needs of small- to mid-size urban communities. This workshop is an opportunity to engage researchers, students, and stakeholders in identifying the requirements of and a path for research to meet those community needs. This workshop will bring together a multidisciplinary team of academics, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders to identify challenges these communities face and potential research avenues to develop solutions for these challenges. The workshop also seeks to more effectively engage Native American and minority communities in the definition and conduct of research directed toward addressing the challenges faced by their communities. These sustainability challenges will be evaluated in each of the four workshop themes: Environmental Sustainability, Urban Design, Water, and Public Health. The Environmental Sustainability theme is focused on the problems of urban development in sync with the natural environment. The urban design theme, while complimenting the Environmental Sustainability theme, is more focused on how the design of the built environment respects the natural environment while meeting the needs for human habitat. The Water theme focuses on the common challenge that all arid regions face in meeting the water needs of the environment, human potable water needs, and water for the competing forces of agriculture, manufacturing, and energy development. The Public Health theme recognizes that the population in small cities and surrounding areas do not have easy access to health care, particularly mental health care, common in large cities. The four themes are each individually important, but all intersect in key ways that need to be explored in the contexts of long-term environmental sustainability and integration with the surrounding rural matrix.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.