SCC-CIVIC-FA Track B: Rural Resiliency Hubs: An Integrated, Community-Centered Approach to Addressing the Resiliency Divide through Rural Public Libraries

灾难性自然灾害日益频繁，加上“抗灾能力鸿沟”--灾害对脆弱人群的影响参差不齐--要求发展抗灾能力中心。公共图书馆通常被称为农村基础设施的“皇冠上的明珠”，它们提供了一系列信息和社会服务，这使它们成为农村复兴中心的理想设施。在这个项目中，一个跨学科的研究团队将与佛罗里达州卡尔霍恩县的不同社区合作伙伴合作，建立一个可转移的基于社区的评估和设计流程，利用特定地区的资产，同时识别与弹性相关的需求缺口，将农村图书馆转变为Resilience中心。例如，扩展的能力可能包括绘制技术地图，为灾害规划提供信息，包括避难所的选址、救援物资的分发和其他资源；社区行为健康干预措施，以应对灾后创伤；以及图书馆、学校、教堂和其他主要当地机构的联合努力，以提高对家庭层面备灾的认识。通过将社区成员、图书馆管理员和研究人员团结在一起的协作战略，项目团队将共同设计位于公共图书馆的复原力中心，并为自然灾害的连锁影响开发解决方案。联合设计过程将包括对图书馆、居民、地方政府和其他机构之间的复杂互动进行深入的定性研究。多网络复原力衡量标准和多变量优先风险图将评估社区复原力，以指导准备和应对，包括图书馆如何进一步支持脆弱社区。研究小组将定量评估经验教训的普适性，并开发多社区转移学习算法，以实现整个区域可转移和可扩展的解决方案。研究设计采用了最先进的优化和数据分析方法，同时由一系列丰富的定性和社区数据源驱动，将导致可实施的行动。从这个项目中获得的知识将提高我们对应急行动的了解，并有助于为全美公共图书馆制定与灾害有关的新政策和计划。佛罗里达州政府研究所将与研究小组和民间利益攸关方合作，向佛罗里达州所有67个县和其他地区传播研究结果和建议。这个项目是公民创新挑战的一部分，该挑战是由NSF、能源部车辆技术办公室、国土安全部科学和技术局以及联邦应急管理机构合作的。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。

The increasing frequency of catastrophic natural disasters, together with the “resilience divide”—the uneven impact of disasters on vulnerable populations—calls for development of disaster Resiliency Hubs. Public libraries, often called the “crown jewels” of rural infrastructure, provide a range of informational and social services that make them ideal facilities to serve as rural Resiliency Hubs. In this project, an interdisciplinary team of researchers will collaborate with diverse community partners in Calhoun County, Florida, a region that continues to be devastated by 2018’s Hurricane Michael, to establish a transferable community-based assessment and design process that leverages the assets of a given area while also identifies the gaps in resiliency-related needs to transform rural libraries into Resiliency Hubs. The expanded capabilities may include, for example, mapping technologies to inform disaster planning including the siting of shelters, aid distribution, and other resources; community behavioral health interventions to address post-disaster trauma; and joint efforts by libraries, schools, churches, and other key local institutions to increase awareness about home-level disaster preparedness.With a collaborative strategy that unites community members, librarians, and researchers, the project team will co-design resiliency hubs sited in public libraries and develop solutions to the cascading impacts of natural disasters. The co-design process will include an in-depth qualitative study of the complex interactions among libraries, residents, local government, and other agencies. Multi-network resiliency measures and multivariate prioritized risk maps will assess community resiliency to guide preparedness and response, including how libraries can further support vulnerable communities. The research team will quantitatively assess the generalizability of lessons learned and develop multi-community transfer learning algorithms to achieve transferrable and scalable solutions for the entire region. The research design brings state-of-the-art optimization and data analytics approaches to bear while being driven by a range of rich qualitative and community data sources that will lead to implementable actions. Knowledge gained from this project will improve our understanding of emergency response operations and contribute to the development of new disaster-related policies and plans for public libraries throughout the United States. The Florida Institute of Government will collaborate with the research team and civic stakeholders to disseminate research findings and recommendations to all 67 Florida counties and other localities. This project is part of the CIVIC Innovation Challenge which is a collaboration of NSF, the Department of Energy's Vehicle Technology Office, and the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate and Federal Emergency Management Agency.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.