IRES Track-1: Sustainable Water Resource Management in Eastern Nile Basin Countries: What works? What needs to be improved?

虽然非洲被认为是未来世界的粮仓，但它目前仍然是一个粮食净进口国，主要原因是农业用水管理效率低下。该计划将通过对当前水资源管理项目的绩效评估，确定关键瓶颈和机会，并提出适当的解决方案，为提高农业水资源管理效率做出贡献。该计划将采用粮食-能源-水-生计关系方法，这是最先进的水资源管理方法，考虑到管理相互关联的资源（土地，水和能源）的共同利益和权衡。该计划将培训美国学生在水资源，农业和气候方面的多学科和以社区为基础的研究，并帮助提高他们对发展中国家农业水资源管理问题的理解。在国际研究人员的指导下，美国学生将在盖济拉灌溉项目（苏丹），尼扬扎-23灌溉项目（卢旺达）和Meila Haiba灌溉项目（埃塞俄比亚）中开展实际的学生主导项目。学生将在研究的各个方面接受培训（从提案准备，到实施和交流），并参与联合学术活动，如与当地社区和利益相关者的社会活动，以及参观主要的文化，旅游和教育场所。美国学生将从粮食-能源-水-生计关系的角度研究东尼罗河流域国家的水资源管理问题，以灌溉工程为例进行研究。拟议的研究审查的联系，权衡和共同利益之间的关系的组成部分，并提出基于关系的解决方案，以改善农业水资源管理。该项目代表了加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）、苏丹水利研究中心、卢旺达大学和Mekelle大学之间的合作。在三年内，共有18名学生（12名本科生和6名毕业生）来自美国机构，包括代表性不足的学院和大学，将参加为期一年的培训，在苏丹（第一年），卢旺达（第二年）和埃塞俄比亚（第三年）进行为期8周的夏季研究，春季准备和秋季跟进。在春季，学生将报名参加由参与教师导师联合提供的研讨会课程。在夏季，学生将前往东非进行为期八周的学生主导的项目。学生项目的例子包括：了解水的供应和需求之间的动态，表征水足迹和生产力，量化获得灌溉用水对灌溉者的粮食和生计安全的影响，评估水质和沉淀，并开发试点众包项目的数据收集和传播。在秋季，学生将继续做他们的研究最终在本科高级/荣誉论文或硕士论文。然后，学生将在国际科学会议上介绍他们的研究工作，如美国地球物理联盟（AGU）秋季会议。这项工作的智力价值在于整合实地数据，遥感和建模，以了解粮食，能源，水和生计关系组成部分之间的关系。该项目具体解决了以下科学问题：（1）在多个尺度和层次上，食物、水和生计系统的社会和生态动态中的核心热点和关键相互作用是什么？(2)我们可以通过哪些方式将传统上用于分析水资源系统的方法扩展到关系系统？(3)需要哪些基于关系的解决方案（技术、管理、治理和营销）来提高当前的水生产率并指导未来的新发展？研究结果将通过众包试点项目、政策简报、美国和东尼罗河流域国家的科学报告以及同行评审的出版物进行传播。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来获得支持。

Although Africa is considered the future breadbasket of the world, it currently remains a net food importer primarily due to inefficient agricultural water management. The program will contribute to improving the efficiency of agricultural water management through performance evaluation of current water resource management projects, identifying critical bottlenecks and opportunities, and proposing appropriate solutions. The program will use the food-energy-water-livelihood nexus approach, which is the state-of-the-art approach for water resource management that takes into account the co-benefits and tradeoffs in managing interconnected resources (land, water, and energy). The program will train U.S. students in multidisciplinary and community-based research in water resources, agriculture and climate, and help advance their understanding of agricultural water management issues in developing countries. U.S. students, mentored by international researchers, will undertake practical student-led projects in Gezira Irrigation Project (Sudan), Nyanza-23 Irrigation Project (Rwanda), and Meila & Haiba Irrigation Projects (Ethiopia). Students will be trained in all aspects of research (from proposal preparation, to implementation, and communication), and involved in co-academic activities, such as, social activities with local communities and stakeholders, and visits to key cultural, touristic, and educational sites.U.S. students will study water resource management issues in the Eastern Nile Basin countries from the food-energy-water-livelihood nexus perspective, using irrigation projects as case studies. The proposed research examines the linkages, trade-offs, and co-benefits among the nexus components, and propose nexus-based solutions to improve agricultural water resource management. The program represents a partnership between University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Hydraulic Research Center in Sudan, University of Rwanda, and Mekelle University. Over three years, a total of 18 students (12 undergraduates and 6 graduates) from U.S. institutions, including underrepresented colleges and universities, will participate in one-year of training structured around an 8-week Summer research in Sudan (year 1), Rwanda (year 2), and Ethiopia (year 3), with Spring preparation and Fall follow up. During Spring, students will enroll in a seminar course jointly delivered by the participating faculty mentors. During Summer, students will go to East Africa for eight weeks to undertake student-led projects. Examples of student projects include: understanding the dynamics between water supply and demand, characterizing water footprint and productivity, quantifying the impact of access to irrigation water on irrigator’s food and livelihood security, assessing water quality and sedimentation, and developing pilot crowdsourcing project for data collection and dissemination. During Fall, students will continue to do their research culminating in undergraduate senior/Honors thesis or Master’s thesis. Then, students will present their research work at an international scientific conference, such as, American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting. The intellectual merit of this work lies in the integration of field data, remote sensing, and modeling to understand relationships between the food, energy, water, and livelihood nexus components. The project specifically addresses the following science questions: (1) What are the nexus hotspots and key interactions in the social and ecological dynamics of food, water, and livelihood systems at multiple scales and levels? (2) In what ways can we extend methodologies traditionally used to analyze water resource systems to nexus systems? (3) What nexus-based solutions (technological, management, governance, and marketing) are needed to improve current water productivity and to guide future new developments? Results will be disseminated through pilot crowdsourcing project, policy briefs, scientific presentations in the USA and Eastern Nile basin countries, and peer-reviewed publications.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.