CAREER: Characterizing the Unseen Water Quality Consequences of Sunny-Day Floods in Nearshore Waters

海平面上升在美国和世界各地的沿海地区造成了频繁的潮汐或“晴天”洪水。当涨潮涨到下水道、街道和人行道时，就会发生潮汐洪水。在这一过程中，洪水会将污染物从陆地转移到沿海水域。尽管这种污染极有可能影响人类和生态健康，但潮汐洪水造成的沿海水质危害尚未得到很好的了解。这一职业项目的目标是研究潮汐洪水对沿海水质的影响，特别是排泄物污染。这一目标将通过使用高度新颖的传感和建模系统来实现，这些系统将被开发用于监测、解释和预测潮汐洪水后的水质。该项目的成功完成将帮助工程师、地方政府和政策制定者了解和缓解持续的潮汐洪水造成的风险。科学教师和本科生将参与这项研究，并让中学生参与环境工程、沿海可持续发展和数据科学。这些努力将提高科学素养，并建立国家的STEM工作队伍。该项目的总体目标是对潮汐洪水和雨水径流如何相互作用影响近岸水域的污染负荷有一个基本的了解。这项研究的具体重点是粪便指示菌(FIB)，这是一种常用的污水污染标志，以开发解释性和预测性模型，为可持续沿海雨水基础设施的设计提供信息。为实现这一目标，该项目将开展以下研究目标：(1)利用新的传感技术以高频测量近岸FIB浓度；(2)开发机制和统计模型，以解释潮汐洪水和风暴事件期间以及多个潮汐周期的较长时间尺度上的FIB浓度动态；以及(3)开发预测模型框架，以生成近岸水域细菌污染风险的短期预测。该项目的成功完成将促进对风暴和潮汐洪水如何影响近岸FIB负载的基于过程的理解，这些信息是开发减轻气候变化造成的危害的工程解决方案所需的信息。FIB浓度(一种广泛使用的污染标记)的使用将促进不同的监管者、自然资源管理者和其他决策者使用这项研究。此外，研究人员将开发教育规划，将：(1)通过参与研究，培训本科生和中学科学教师海岸观测和数据科学的基本原理，(2)让约12,000名初中生和高中生参与海岸和数据科学，以及(3)创建一个开放获取的编程课程数字存储库，其学习目标侧重于环境工程基础和数据分析技能。招聘工作将集中于吸引来自代表性不足群体的学生参与环境工程，以及服务于来自历史上被边缘化群体的大量学生群体的教师。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Sea level rise has caused frequent tidal or “sunny-day” floods in coastal areas in the USA and around the world. Tidal floods occur when high tides rise up into sewers, streets, and sidewalks. During this process, the floods can move pollutants from land into coastal waters. In spite of the strong potential for this pollution to impact human and ecological health, coastal water quality hazards caused by tidal floods are not well understood. The goal of this CAREER project is to study the ways in which tidal floods impact coastal water quality specifically focusing on fecal contamination. This goal will be achieved through the use of highly novel sensing and modeling systems that will be developed to monitor, explain, and predict water quality following tidal floods. Successful completion of this project will help engineers, local governments, and policymakers understand and mitigate risks caused by persistent tidal floods. Science teachers and undergraduate students will participate in the research and engage middle and high school students in environmental engineering, coastal sustainability, and data sciences. These efforts will increase scientific literacy and build the Nation’s STEM workforce.The overall goal of this project is to develop a fundamental understanding of how tidal floods and stormwater runoff interact to influence pollution loading in nearshore waters. The specific focus of this research is on Fecal Indicator Bacteria (FIB), a commonly used marker of sewage pollution, in order to develop explanatory and predictive models to inform the design of sustainable coastal stormwater infrastructure. To achieve this goal, the project will carry out the following research objectives: (1) measure nearshore FIB concentrations at high frequencies using novel sensing technologies, (2) develop mechanistic and statistical models to explain FIB concentration dynamics during tidal floods and storm events, as well as over longer timescales of multiple tidal cycles; and (3) develop a predictive model framework for generating near-term forecasts of bacterial contamination risk in nearshore waters. Successful completion of this project will advance process-based understanding of how storms and tidal floods influence nearshore FIB loading, information that is needed to develop engineering solutions to mitigate hazards caused by climate change. The use of FIB concentrations (a widely used pollution marker) will facilitate the use of this research by a diverse group of regulators, natural resource managers, and other decision-makers. Additionally, the investigator will develop educational programming that will: (1) train undergraduate students and secondary school science teachers in foundational principles of coastal observation and data science through involvement in research, (2) engage ~12,000 middle and high school students in coastal and data sciences, and (3) create an open-access digital repository of coding lessons that have learning objectives focused on environmental engineering foundations and data analysis skills. Recruitment efforts will focus on engaging students from underrepresented groups in environmental engineering, as well as teachers who serve large student populations from historically marginalized groups.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.