CoPe EAGER: Using Undergraduate Engineers and Community Engagement to Build Resilient Coastal Communities

与拥有应对海平面上升的资源的大都市地区相比，许多服务不足的小型沿海社区没有资源来设计和实施工程解决方案来应对海平面上升带来的挑战。在这个项目中，社区成员的专业知识将与工程专业本科生的专业知识联系起来，创建一个框架，帮助一个小社区制定适应海平面上升的计划。研究小组和学生将通过各种社区参与技术与社区成员互动。由此产生的可推广模型有可能改善社区参与设计过程，以建设更具弹性的沿海社区。此外，该架构有助以较低的财政成本设计规划，进一步促进社区的可持续发展。这个社区驱动的设计框架将为本科工程专业学生提供设计具有社会效益的现实项目的经验。该项目还将展示将大学专业知识与社区工程需求联系起来的价值。该项目将把沿海农村社区的知识与本科生的工程专业知识结合起来，设计出能够增强抵御能力并促进边缘化社区参与适应规划的解决方案。通过工程师和社会科学家的跨学科努力，这项工作的目标是：(1)开发一个框架，研究团队与社区成员和工程专业学生合作，推进以社区为基础的设计过程，重点是为海平面上升引起的问题提供解决方案；(2)记录当地社区成员对框架对复原力的贡献的看法；(3)评估社区互动如何影响工程专业学生的成绩。这一框架将使公民参与识别关键问题，并决定如何最好地解决社区需求。研究小组将举行小型焦点小组，以促进与知识渊博的利益相关者进行详细讨论，与代表社区众多利益相关者的核心利益相关者小组频繁举行会议，并举办季度公开会议，以使更广泛的社区了解情况并收集更多反馈。工程专业学生的参与和社区参与技术的进步将为资源有限的沿海社区带来一种低成本的方法，从而提高社区的复原力。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。

In contrast to large metropolitan areas that have resources to prepare for sea level rise, there are many small underserved coastal communities that do not have the resources to design and implement engineering solutions to address the challenges caused by sea level rise. In this project, the expertise of community members will be linked with the expertise of undergraduate engineering students to create a framework to help a small community develop plans for adapting to sea level rise. The research team and students will interact with members of the community through various community engagement techniques. The resulting generalizable model has the potential to improve community involvement in the design process for building more resilient coastal communities. Additionally, the framework will support the design of plans at a significantly reduced financial cost, which will further promote sustainability in the community. This community-driven design framework will provide undergraduate engineering students experience designing real-world projects with societal benefit. This project will also demonstrate the value of linking university expertise and community engineering needs. This project will link the knowledge embedded in rural coastal communities with the engineering expertise of undergraduate students to design solutions that build resilience and bolster the participation of marginalized communities in adaptation planning. Through the interdisciplinary efforts of engineers and social scientists, the objectives of this work are: (1) develop a framework where the research team engages community members and engineering students to advance a community-based design process focused on generating solutions to issues caused by sea level rise; (2) document local community members' perceptions of the contributions of the framework to resiliency; and (3) assess how community interaction affects engineering student outcomes. This framework will involve citizens to identify the critical problems and determine how to best address community needs. The research team will hold small focus groups to foster detailed discussions with knowledgeable stakeholders, conduct frequent meetings with a core stakeholder group that represents the many interests in the community, and host quarterly public meetings to keep the broader community informed and gather additional feedback. The involvement of engineering students and community engagement techniques to advance engineering design will result in a low-cost approach for resource-limited coastal communities that will promote community resilience.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.