NNA Research: Collaborative Research: Towards resilient water infrastructure in Alaska Native communities through knowledge co-production

航行新北极(NNA)是NSF的十大想法之一。NNA项目解决了快速变化的北极地区汇聚的科学挑战。这项北极研究需要为国家、更大区域和全球的经济、安全和韧性提供信息。NNA增强了从地方到国际的新的研究伙伴关系，使下一代北极研究人员多样化，加强正式和非正式教育的努力，并在适当的情况下整合共同创造知识。该奖项通过在以下NNA重点领域解决社会系统、自然环境和建筑环境之间的相互作用来实现这一目标的一部分：北极居民和弹性基础设施。气候变化对阿拉斯加原住民社区的水安全构成重大威胁。虽然地方、州和联邦机构花费了大量资金在阿拉斯加农村社区设计和建设管道供水系统，但其中许多系统都建在永久冻土上，假设地面将常年冻结。现在，气温上升导致北极永久冻土融化，进而导致地下供水管道破裂和泄漏。这些管道爆裂导致持续的供水中断，以至于近80%的受访阿拉斯加原住民将管道泄漏或破裂作为影响他们生活质量的最紧迫问题之一。新的传感技术使运营商能够先发制人地检测泄漏并防止停电，从而有可能缓解供水问题。同时，给水系统的设计需要牢记赋予这些系统的文化内涵，并将阿拉斯加原住民社区充分纳入其共同设计中。整合新技术需要一种协调的方法，承认传统和当地知识，并在基础设施设计过程中增强阿拉斯加原住民社区的能力。为了实现这一目标，该项目弥合了阿拉斯加原住民社区在水系统方面面临的环境、技术和社会挑战。项目团队将与阿拉斯加土著社区密切合作，通过知识联合生产、部署新型实时供水监测系统、表征北极土壤条件及其对管道结构完整性的影响，共同开发新的气候适应性水基础设施。为了为阿拉斯加土著社区开发气候适应性供水系统，该研究项目将汇集一个由工程师和社会科学家组成的多学科研究团队，与阿拉斯加西部诺顿湾地区的村庄居民、部落议会领导人、公用事业工作人员和代表阿拉斯加土著社区的非营利组织合作。使用融合研究方法，该项目将解决社会系统、工程系统和自然系统交叉处的基本知识差距。首先，将应用知识联合制作方法来理解水的文化意义，并确定影响工程设计过程的社区特定视角。其次，将部署用于供水监测的新型无线传感器网络，并与多类数据驱动和基于模型的泄漏检测技术相结合，以了解它们缓解现实世界供水中断的潜力。最后，对北极土壤的实验室和现场实验将与数据驱动的模型相结合，以表征土壤基础的长期性能，并预测未来土壤对水系造成破坏的可能性。与这些研究目标相辅相成的是，旨在培训社区成员使用传感设备的外展工作，以及旨在提高对阿拉斯加原住民社区面临的供水问题和社会差距的认识的教育项目。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。

Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) is one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA projects address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. This Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. NNA empowers new research partnerships from local to international scales, diversifies the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhances efforts in formal and informal education, and integrates the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award fulfills part of that aim by addressing interactions among social systems, natural environment, and built environment in the following NNA focus areas: Arctic Residents and Resilient Infrastructure.Climate change poses a major threat to the water security of Alaska Native communities. While local, state, and federal agencies have spent considerable funds to design and build piped water supply systems in rural Alaskan communities, many of these systems were built on permafrost soils assuming the ground would remain frozen year-round. Now, rising temperatures are causing arctic permafrost to thaw, which in turn is causing underground water supply pipes to burst and leak. These pipe bursts have led to persistent water supply outages, to the extent that nearly 80% of interviewed Alaska Native residents cite pipe leaks or breaks as one of the most pressing issues affecting their quality of life. New sensing technologies have the potential to mitigate water supply problems by enabling operators to pre-emptively detect leaks and prevent outages. At the same time, water system designs need to be mindful of the cultural meaning assigned to these systems and fully include Alaska Native communities in their co-design. Integrating new technologies requires a coordinated approach that recognizes traditional and local knowledge and empowers Alaska Native communities in the infrastructure design process. Towards this goal, this project bridges the environmental, technological, and social challenges that Alaska Native communities face with regard to their water systems. The project team will work closely with Alaska Native communities to co-develop new climate-resilient water infrastructure through knowledge co-production, the deployment of novel real-time water supply monitoring systems, and characterization of Arctic soil conditions and their effects on pipeline structural integrity.To develop climate-resilient water supply systems for Alaska Native communities, this research project will bring together a multidisciplinary research team of engineers and social scientists working in coordination with village residents, tribal council leaders, utility staff, and nonprofit organizations representing Alaska Native communities in the Norton Sound region of western Alaska. Using a convergent research approach, this project will address fundamental knowledge gaps at the intersection of social, engineered and natural systems. First, knowledge co-production methods will be applied to understand the cultural significance of water and identify community-specific perspectives that affect the engineering design process. Second, a novel wireless sensor network for water supply monitoring will be deployed and paired with multiclass data-driven and model-based leak detection techniques to understand their potential for mitigating real-world water supply disruptions. Finally, lab and field experiments on Arctic soils will be combined with data-driven models to characterize the long-term performance of soil foundations and predict the potential for future soil-induced damage to water systems. These research objectives will be complemented by outreach efforts aimed at training community members in the use of sensing equipment, as well as educational programs designed to raise awareness of water supply issues and social disparities facing Alaska Native communities.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.