DISES-RCN: Developing new strategies for urban-rural systems to overcome interconnected social, environmental, and technological challenges

这个城乡系统研究协调网络将解决美国许多地区面临的挑战。这些挑战包括城市和郊区的扩张，断开的食物，能源和供水系统。其他挑战包括频繁的洪水和不受控制的水径流，城市热引起的住院治疗，以及生态系统服务的失败。这些情况对弱势群体造成了不成比例的影响，在整个密西西比河流域都很常见。该项目将汇集一个跨学科的研究人员和利益相关者小组，以开发新的研究合作和方向，解决城乡交界处社区面临的多维自然和人为挑战。将研究密西西比盆地内的五个大都市区。这一中型城市网络，连同其卫星社区和邻近的农村地区，构成了从河流源头到路易斯安那三角洲的一个庞大的、相互联系的社会和环境系统。在中等城市应对这些社会环境挑战将产生重大的社会影响。RCN将为STEM教育创新奠定基础，为学生在区域，跨学科系统科学中工作做好准备。项目成果将促进研究，从而制定新的区域政策和政府行动，为生活在区域流域景观中的人们创造更有复原力和可持续的城乡环境。该网络将侧重于明尼阿波利斯/圣保罗、达文波特、圣路易斯、孟菲斯和巴吞鲁日都会区。 它将建立一个比较分类系统，描述地理上相连的城市与附近农村和农业地区的相似性。相似性和独特性将通过与密西西比河的地理接近程度、历史发展时间表和社会经济质量来界定。将通过四个工作组、其相互交织的活动和一个公正的透镜，制定城乡类型学的分类方法。小组将涵盖; 1）土地使用住房、粮食生产和能源使用; 2）城乡跨界流动; 3）空置土地和城市生态系统服务的提供;以及4）城市热岛和气候变化影响。网络活动将以系统理论为基础。其目标是在这一景观范围内对大都市地区的城乡梯度进行系统的系统解释。 本次RCN的参与者将考虑土地使用和分区、城市密度/建筑面积比率、土地使用模式、城市性质、城市扩展计划、建筑设计和基础设施等土地政策社会系统与生态系统、生物多样性和气候等城市环境系统之间的联系。此外，该网络将检查居民的看法和行动，导致系统之间的反馈和系统内的变化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This Urban-Rural Systems Research Coordination Network will address challenges facing many regions of the United States. These challenges include urban and suburban sprawl, disconnected food, energy, and water systems. Other challenges include frequent floods and uncontrolled water runoff, urban heat induced hospitalizations, and failure of ecosystem services. These situations have disproportionate impacts on vulnerable populations and are common throughout the Mississippi River Basin. This project will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and stakeholders to develop new research collaborations and directions that address the multi-dimensional natural and human-made challenges faced by communities at urban-rural interfaces. Five metropolitan areas within the Mississippi basin will be studied. This network of mid-sized cities, together with their satellite communities and adjacent rural areas, constitute a large, interconnected social and environmental system from the headwaters of the river to the Louisiana delta. Addressing these social-environmental challenges in mid-sized cities will provide significant societal impacts. The RCN will establish a foundation for innovation in STEM education, preparing students to work in regional, transdisciplinary systems science. Project outcomes will facilitate research that leads to new regional policies and government actions to create more resilient and sustainable urban-rural environments across scales for people living within regional watershed landscapes. The Network will focus on the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Davenport, St. Louis, Memphis, and Baton Rouge metro areas. It will create a comparative classification system describing the similarity of geographically linked cities and nearby rural and agricultural places. Similarity and distinctiveness will be delineated by geographic proximity to the Mississippi River, historical development timelines, and socio-economic qualities. A classification method for urban-rural typologies will be developed across four working groups, their interwoven activities, and a justice lens. The groups will cover; 1) land use housing, food production, and energy use; 2) urban-rural transboundary flows; 3) vacant land and urban ecosystem services delivery; and 4) urban heat island and climate change impacts. Network activities will be based on systems theory. The goal will be development of a system-of-systems interpretation of urban-rural gradients across metropolitan areas within this landscape. Participants in this RCN will consider linkages between social systems governing land policy such as land use and zoning, urban density/floor area ratios, land use patterns, urban nature, urban expansion plans, building designs, and infrastructure, as well as urban environmental systems such as ecosystems, biodiversity, and climate. Further, the network will examine residents’ perceptions actions leading to feedbacks between and changes within systems.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.