RAPID: Characterizing the Sedimentary Archive of the Longest Mississippi River Flood on Record, while Implementing a New Model for Inclusive Undergraduate Geoscience Research

密西西比河三角洲的大片地区由于地面沉降、沉积物供应减少和海平面上升而迅速消失。数十亿的联邦资金目前被投入到减轻路易斯安那州沿海地区土地流失的战略中。这些战略包括建造工程改道，将载有泥沙的洪水沃茨引到海平面以下的地区。为了满足这些迫切需要，必须迅速推进支撑这些战略的基础科学。2019年的春季洪水持续了几个月，促使邦尼特·卡雷溢洪道（Bonnet Carre Spillway）开放，以保护新奥尔良免受洪水侵袭。改道的洪水在溢洪道里堆积了一个大的存款。该补助金支持17名本科生研究人员和4名早期职业调查人员收集，存档和分析该存款的沉积物数据，作为工程土地建设的模拟。查询2019年填充Bonnet Carre溢洪道的密西西比河洪水沉积物将：1）推进我们对洪泛平原沉积物沉积结构的水动力控制的理解，2）支持使用这些水动力变量预测沉积物分流出口处盆地填充动态的模型。分析这个存款的数据将使调查人员能够解决海岸恢复科学中的基本问题。为多元化社会提供创造性的科学解决方案需要多元化的科学工作者。地球科学界必须创造可获得的研究机会，其中包括非裔美国人、西班牙裔和美洲原住民学生，这些学生目前占地球科学研究生课程所有学生的不到9%。这笔赠款将通过有针对性的招聘工作和与服务不足社区的机构建立联盟，提高未来地球科学工作队伍的多样性。该基金通过为学生提供财政援助和在学生社区中的家庭机构分析收集的数据的机会，促进了包容性的实地研究经验。这个本科研究框架旨在作为一个模板，促进地球科学的多样性和包容性。该研究将为本科生研究人员提供传统沉积学方法和数字数据收集和定量分析先进技术的培训，从而为准备加入STEM劳动力的多样化学生群体提供数据分析培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Vast areas of the Mississippi River Delta are rapidly disappearing due to subsidence, dwindling sediment supply, and rising sea levels. Billions of federal dollars are currently invested in mitigation strategies to combat land loss in coastal Louisiana. These strategies include the construction of engineered diversions to direct sediment-laden flood waters to regions that have sunk beneath sea-level. In response to these urgent needs, the basic science that underpins these strategies must be advanced apace. The spring flood of 2019 lasted several months and prompted the opening of Bonnet Carre Spillway to protect New Orleans from flooding. The diverted floodwaters constructed a large deposit in the spillway. This grant supports 17 undergraduate researchers and 4 early-career investigators to collect, archive and analyze sediment data from this deposit, which serves as an analog for engineered land construction. Querying the 2019 Mississippi River flood deposits that fill Bonnet Carre Spillway will: 1) advance our understanding of the hydrodynamic controls on the sedimentary architecture of floodplain deposits, and 2) bolster models that predict the dynamics of basin filling at the outlets of sediment diversions using these hydrodynamic variables. Analyzing data from this deposit will allow the investigators to address fundamental questions in coastal restoration science. Creative scientific solutions for a diverse society require a diverse scientific workforce. The geoscience community must create accessible research opportunities that will include African American, Hispanic and Native American students, who currently comprise less than 9 percent of all students enrolled in geoscience graduate programs. This grant will improve diversity in the future geoscience workforce through targeted recruiting efforts and alliances with institutions in under-served communities. The funding facilitates an inclusive field research experience by providing financial assistance for students and opportunities to analyze collected data at home institutions amongst students’ communities. This undergraduate research framework is intended as a template for fostering diversity and inclusion in Earth science. This research will provide training for undergraduate researchers in traditional methods in sedimentology and advanced techniques in digital data collection and quantitative analysis, thereby delivering training in data-analysis to a diverse cohort of students preparing to join the STEM workforce.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.