SRS RN: Connecting Rural and Urban Environments for Equitable Access to Transportation, Telecommunications and Energy (CREEATTE)

美国面临着气候变化、基础设施老化以及发电、运输和高速电信领域快速技术变革所带来的经济转型和中断等日益严峻的挑战。这些挑战相互作用，因为气候变化和老化的基础设施威胁着经济福祉，而不同类型的技术基础设施和服务之间的协调为经济增长提供了机会，减少了对气候变化的脆弱性，并减少了温室气体排放。东南部各州特别容易受到气候变化的影响，因为许多工作需要户外工作，而且农业对这些州的经济很重要。与该地区快速发展的城市相比，东南部的农村社区也经历了高度集中的贫困，许多人现有的基础设施服务很差。在这个项目中，一个由工程师、自然科学家和社会科学家组成的团队将与州和地方政府、企业和社区的代表合作，了解他们正在经历的挑战。与这些团体的计划将制定一个研究网络，以调查协调新的电力，交通和通信基础设施和服务的机会，以满足整个东南部社区的需求，重点是田纳西河流域管理局服务的地区。在这个项目中，一个跨学科的研究人员团队将与代表政府，企业，社区，与民间组织合作，提出建立大规模研究网络的建议，以确定和应对服务于农村和城市社区的可持续配套基础设施系统面临的重大挑战。这项研究将促进对电力，交通和宽带电信基础设施之间的相互作用和联系的理解。该团队将基础设施定义为一种技术，它涵盖了人们使用基础设施的方式的社会、行为、政治和经济方面，以及他们在访问基础设施服务时面临的障碍。该项目将应用社会技术和社会生态视角，对城乡社区整合电力、交通和电信基础设施的挑战和机遇提出新的见解。该项目还将记录其过程，并对具有不同专业的研究人员团队如何学习有效地相互合作以及与来自政府，企业，公民和社区组织的不同利益相关者合作产生新的理解。该项目将制定一项研究网络计划，为不同选区的成员提供实际和有用的结果，该奖项反映了NSF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。

The United States faces growing challenges from the combination of climate change, aging infrastructure, and the economic transformations and disruptions driven by rapid technological change in electricity generation, transportation, and high-speed telecommunications. These challenges interact because climate change and aging infrastructure threaten economic well-being, and coordination between different kinds of technological infrastructure and services offers opportunities for economic growth, reducing vulnerability to climate change, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Southeastern states are especially vulnerable to climate change because many jobs require outdoor work and because agriculture is important to these states’ economies. In contrast with the region’s rapidly growing cities, rural communities in the Southeast also experience high concentrations of poverty and many are poorly served by existing infrastructure. In this project, a team of engineers, natural scientists, and social scientists will work with representatives of state and local governments, businesses, and communities to understand the challenges they are experiencing. With these groups a plan will be developed for a research network to investigate opportunities for coordinating new electricity, transportation, and communications infrastructure and services to address the needs communities across the Southeast, with an emphasis on the region served by the Tennessee Valley Authority.In this project, an interdisciplinary team of researchers will engage with a diverse group of stakeholders representing government, business, community, and civic organizations to develop a proposal for a large-scale research network to identify and address grand challenges to sustainable coupled infrastructure systems serving rural and urban communities. This research will advance understanding of interactions and connections among electricity, transportation, and broadband telecommunications infrastructure. The team frame infrastructure as technology that encompasses social, behavioral, political, and economic aspects of the ways people use infrastructure and the barriers they face in accessing infrastructure services. This project will apply socio-technical and socio-ecological perspectives to developing new insights into the challenges and opportunities of integrating electricity, transportation, and telecommunications infrastructure across urban and rural communities. This project will also document its process and produce new understanding about how teams of researchers with diverse specialties learn to work effectively together with one another and with diverse stakeholders from government, business, civic, and community organizations. The project will produce a plan for a research network that will deliver practical and useful results for members of diverse constituencies, and will develop new tools for education and public outreach so that members of different stakeholder groups will be able to understand and fully participate in planning for the future.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.