IRES Track 1: Exploring Surface Water Contamination and Links to Disease Risk in Costa Rica

哥斯达黎加是中美洲国家，以其生物多样性和独特的生态而闻名于世，它非常积极地保护环境，但对水健康的担忧日益加剧。整个国家被划分为保护单位，称为“生物走廊”，服务于保护和养护敏感地区。但是，在这些廊道保护野生动物和森林社区的同时，它们也是这些廊道中城镇的净水器，被贴上了“生态服务”的标签。饮用水直接从井或泉水中提取，而卫生设施则是从化粪池排出的地下水中提取的。随着对降水模式变化的担忧浮出水面，农业利用加剧，保护工作继续进行，疾病风险得到解决，这造成了水资源压力。这些担忧具有世界范围的影响，因为美国的农村社区正在与类似的问题作斗争，以平衡我们人口中的用水与保护和相关的疾病风险。个人(化粪池系统)与城市卫生设施(废水处理厂)以及地表水、地下水和含水层污染之间的相互作用，在哥斯达黎加是一个知之甚少但具有高度相关性的研究领域，因为人们越来越关注高发病率，如消化性溃疡、胃炎和胃癌，这些疾病可能是由糟糕的饮用水条件引起的。通过协调和综合的学生研究项目，探索地表水、地下水和卫生设施之间的联系。学生的研究将更清楚地将疾病发生率与水源和污染物联系起来，并将开始产生新的创新方法，以了解和预测水下饮用水供应的状况。这项研究不仅将解决地表水状况带来健康风险的社区的关键知识差距，还将为在环境健康和科学领域寻求职业生涯的本科生和研究生提供绝佳的专业发展机会。这种高度协调的学生工作将支持将非常多样化、代表性不足的学生群体的学生经验与解决所需社区问题的国际合作者相结合的需求。这项工作进一步整合了不同的科学专业知识、国际能力和未来美国水质专业人员的多样性，通过共同努力招聘和培训本科生和研究生，包括那些来自代表性不足群体的学生，并促进国际环境下的研究合作。它扩大了哥斯达黎加适用的水质伙伴关系工作，并为当地水专业人员提供关键的决策能力。该项目由国际科学与工程办公室(OISE)资助。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。

Costa Rica, a Central American country world-renowned for its biodiversity and unique ecology, is very active toward conservation but with growing concerns about water health. The entire country is sectioned into Conservation Units called “Biological Corridors” serving to protect and conserve sensitive areas. But while these corridors protect wildlife and forest communities, they also serve as water purifiers labeled “Ecological Services” for the towns and cities in these corridors. Drinking water is extracted directly from wells or springs while sanitation occurs in the very same groundwater discharged from septic tanks. This creates water stress as concerns over changing precipitation patterns emerge, agricultural use intensifies, conservation work continues and disease risk is addressed. These concerns have world-wide implications as rural communities in the United States battle similar problems balancing water use with conservation and associated disease risk in our population.The interaction between personal (septic systems), with municipal sanitation (waste water treatment plants) and pollution of surface waters, groundwater and aquifers, is a poorly understood yet highly relevant area of study in Costa Rica because there is growing concern over high incidence of disease, such as peptic ulcers, gastritis, and stomach cancers potentially attributable to poor drinking water conditions. Through coordinated and integrated student research projects, linkages between surface waters, groundwater and sanitation are explored. The student research will more clearly link incidence of illness to water sources, concerning pollutants and will begin to generate new, innovative methods for understanding and predicting the condition of underwater drinking supplies. Not only will this research address a critical knowledge gap for communities where surface water conditions present health risk, it will provide outstanding opportunities for professional development of both undergraduate and graduate students pursuing careers in the environmental health and sciences field.This highly coordinated student work will support the need to integrate student experience among very diverse, underrepresented groups of students with international collaborators solving needed community issues. This work further integrates diverse scientific expertise, international competencies, and diversity among future U.S. water quality professionals through a concerted effort to recruit and train undergraduate and graduate students, including those from underrepresented groups, and foster research collaboration in an international setting. It expands applicable water quality partnership work in Costa Rica and provides critical decision-making capacity for local water professionals. This project is funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE).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.