DISES RCN: SWISLR - Saltwater Intrusion and Sea Level Rise in rural landscapes: Assessing Risk and Identifying Mitigation and Adaptation Options for Rural Coastal Plain Communities

该项目将把各学科专家、社区领袖和政策制定者聚集在一起，形成一个研究协调网络，解决海平面上升和沿海地区海水入侵的问题。几乎所有的北美沿海平原都受到海平面上升、地面下沉、更严重的飓风和更严重的干旱的影响。所有这四种变化轨迹都导致海盐更频繁和更大规模地进入沿海平原土壤。地下水的开采和遍布农村大部分地区的农业运河和沟渠的高密度加剧了盐分对沿海内陆的渗透。由此产生的盐水入侵和海平面上升对整个北美沿海平原的大部分农村景观和小型社区构成了重大挑战。保护区内农业生产力的丧失和栖息地的迅速变化可能对处境不利的农村人口和社区产生不同程度的影响。这些环境正义问题涉及几代人，涉及土地供应、银行和机构的贷款做法以及种族。从事海平面上升和海水入侵研究和管理的学者和实践者团体将有助于制定适应这种不断扩大的环境变化的计划。沿海社区为应对快速的环境变化而做出的决定将塑造美国沿海平原景观未来的社会生态轨迹。盐水入侵和海平面上升（SWISLR）研究协调网络的主要重点是建立一个综合概念框架，以扩大对整个北美大西洋和墨西哥湾沿岸农村社区的影响进行预测和准备的能力。除了外海岸平原的海平面上升速度不同之外，地貌环境、水资源基础设施和管理以及极端气候的差异也产生了非常不同的盐水入侵模式。记录这种快速环境变化的绝对规模及其时空变化的原因和后果，为构建将方向性气候变化与时间和空间动态社会环境影响联系起来的新机制模式提供了机会。对各种景观的不同影响为研究具有特别强的社会生态反馈的系统中生态系统状态变化的现代理论提供了机会。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。

This project will bring together a cross-section of disciplinary experts, community leaders, and policymakers as a research coordination network to address the problems of rising sea-level and salt-water intrusion into coastal regions. Nearly all of the North American Coastal Plain is subject to rising sea levels, land subsidence, more severe hurricanes, and more intense droughts. All four of these trajectories of change are leading to more frequent and higher magnitude inputs of marine salts into coastal plain soils. The penetration of salinity into the coastal interior is exacerbated by groundwater extraction and the high density of agricultural canals and ditches throughout much of the rural landscape. The resulting saltwater intrusion and sea-level rise represent significant challenges for the largely rural landscape and small communities throughout the North American Coastal Plain. Loss of agricultural productivity and rapidly changing habitats in conservation areas may differentially impact disadvantaged rural populations and communities. These environmental justice issues are multi-generational, involving land availability, bank and agency lending practices, and race. The community of scholars and practitioners engaged in research and management of sea-level rise and saltwater intrusion will help develop plans to adapt to this expanding environmental change. The decisions that coastal communities make in response to rapid environmental change will shape the future socioecological trajectory of US coastal plain landscapes.The primary focus of the Saltwater Intrusion and Sea Level Rise (SWISLR) Research Coordinating Network is to build an integrated conceptual scaffolding that will expand the capacity to forecast and prepare for impacts throughout the rural communities of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America. In addition to variable rates of sea-level rise across the outer coastal plain, differences in geomorphic setting, water resources infrastructure and management, and climate extremes are generating very different patterns of saltwater intrusion. Documenting both the absolute magnitude of this rapid environmental change, and the causes and consequences for its spatial and temporal variation, represent an opportunity to construct new mechanistic models that link directional climate change to temporally and spatially dynamic socio-environmental impacts. The diverse effects on various landscapes provide opportunities to examine modern theories of ecosystem state change in systems with exceptionally strong socioecological feedbacks.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.