GCR: Coevolution of Social and Physical Infrastructure and Improved Access to Clean Water in Informal Water Sharing Systems

在美国，超过200万人生活在没有清洁水的家庭中。这种家庭用水无保障的情况大多发生在农村和贫穷的小社区。 这就是“水获取差距”，该项目的目的是制定一个更好、更趋同的科学方法，为缩小这一差距提供信息。 来自人类学、工程学、计算机科学、水文学、法律、经济学和教育等领域的研究人员将评估社会和物质水基础设施之间更强的联系如何缩小美国水资源获取差距。 社会基础设施包括体制能力-规范和标准、技术能力和提供符合公共卫生标准的水的有效商业模式。 有形基础设施包括技术-水处理技术、分享水供应和水质信息的信息技术，以及培训和维持当地劳动力以操作水处理技术的学习平台。 该项目将评估如何通过改善社会基础设施与有形基础设施之间的联系，将非正规供水系统转变为正规的、财政健全的系统，从而促进社区发展。拟议工作的中心论点是，要从非正式的水共享系统过渡到更大的家庭用水安全，就需要在基础设施的一个或多个方面进行干预（“中断”），以促进更好地整合这一基础设施的社会和物质组成部分。 研究人员进一步指出，最合适的破坏（原因）和协同进化的速度（效果）是依赖于上下文的，随着起始条件或非正式水资源共享系统的稳健性而变化。 该研究计划包括两个工作包（WP），使研究人员能够测试这些假设的深度和广度。 在WP 1中，将测量从德克萨斯州到加州的殖民地（或非正式定居点）现有社会和物质基础设施的状况及其与家庭用水安全的关系。 在这里，我们的目标不仅是测试研究假设（中断，上下文依赖），但也要了解社会和物理基础设施和水安全之间的关系的区域变化作为气候（极端）和国家法律的功能。在WP 2中，将在参与性实验框架内对亚利桑那州的四个殖民地进行社会和物质基础设施方面的干预。 研究假设将通过改变社会和物质基础设施中断的时间来测试（当社会基础设施领先两年时，与实物基础设施同一年实施时相比）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评估被认为值得支持。影响审查标准。

In the United States more than 2 million people live without household access to clean water. Much of this household water insecurity occurs in small rural and impoverished communities. This is the “Water Access Gap” and the purpose of this project is to develop a better, more convergent, science approach that informs the path towards closing this gap. A convergent team of investigators — from the fields of anthropology, engineering, computer science, hydrology, law, economics and education — will evaluate how stronger connections between social and physical water infrastructure can close the US water access gap. Social infrastructure includes institutional capacity— norms and standards, technical capacity and an effective business model for delivering water that meets public health standards. Physical infrastructure includes technology — water treatment technology, information technology for sharing information about water availability and quality, and a learning platform for training and sustaining a local workforce to operate water treatment technology. This project will evaluate how improving the connection between social and physical infrastructure can transform informal water systems into formalized, financially sound systems that enable better community development. The central thesis of the proposed work is that to transition from informal water sharing systems to greater household water security, there is a need for intervention (“disruption”) in one or more aspects of infrastructure in a way that catalyzes better integration of the social and physical components of this infrastructure. The investigators further posit that the most appropriate disruption (cause) and the rate of coevolution (effect) are context dependent, varying with starting conditions, or the robustness of the informal water sharing system. The research plan consists of two work packages (WP) that allow the investigators to test these hypotheses with depth and breadth. In WP1, the state of existing social and physical infrastructure, and its relationship to household water security in colonias (or informal settlements) from Texas to California, will be measured. Here, the goal is not only to test the research hypotheses (disruption, and context dependence) but also to understand regional variation in the relationship between social and physical infrastructure and water security as a function of climate (extremes) and state law. In WP2, interventions will be made in both social and physical infrastructure to four colonias in Arizona in a participatory experimental framework. The research hypotheses will be tested by varying the timing of social and physical infrastructure disruption (when social infrastructure leads by two years, vs. when implemented the same year as physical infrastructure) and by applying these interventions to colonias with different antecedent social capital.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.