Track 1 - Center Catalyst: Center for Land Surface Hazards (CLaSH)

山体滑坡和河流洪水是对社会产生巨大影响的地表灾害的常见例子，因为它们在世界各地的广泛环境中频繁发生。气候变化、人类活动造成的地表改变以及与人口增长和城市发展相关的暴露增加，都加剧了这种危害的后果。然而，地质灾害研究的综合科学方法滞后于其日益增长的影响。为了应对地质灾害带来的威胁，我们资助的Catalyst中心将在科学界建立一个共同的愿景，围绕灾害研究和教育的贡献，包括加强学术界、政府、非营利组织和当地社区之间的联系。这一愿景将成为拟议的陆地表面危害中心（CLaSH）的基础。该中心的详细形状将通过Catalyst活动塑造，它将为涉及不同类型的陆地表面危害对社会的影响的前沿工作提供试验。Catalyst的试点活动将包括科学社区规划会议，参与现有的国家科学基金会设施和中心的教育和推广项目，以及加强政府机构的伙伴关系。中心催化剂活动将为一个成熟的中心的战略计划提供信息，该中心能够对相互关联的陆地表面灾害进行创新研究，增加地球科学家的多样性，并为公众更好地应对灾害事件做好准备。催化剂中心将特别强调一个危险事件的一个事件如何引发更多事件，从而产生连锁危害，例如野火引发的风暴导致泥石流和洪水。这种关注的动机是主要的研究挑战，即个别的陆地表面危害往往孤立地受到关注。虽然它们本身确实值得研究，但我们从根本上缺乏跨学科的科学来解决地貌过程如何作为一个相互关联的系统的一部分共同作用，从而产生级联危害。这一差距代表了危害与基础科学之间的重要联系。在成熟的基础科学框架（如关键带科学、构造/气候耦合、人类世的影响）、计算建模能力的增强以及成像和传感技术的发展为综合努力提供了全新的机会的推动下，对级联灾害的研究是一个即将取得重大进展的前沿领域。地质灾害科学的另一个主要差距是由受地表灾害不成比例影响的社会、经济和种族社区来定义的。这些社区在地球科学研究和支持灾害规划和应对的国家机构中代表最少。考虑到这些差距，中心催化剂将考虑：(1)通过围绕危害科学中的社会和环境利他主义和公平主题制定劳动力招聘和保留计划，解决地球科学中代表性不足群体缺乏的潜在方法；(2)确定推进基础知识的机会的相关方法，这些基础知识很容易转化为危害研究领域的应用；(3)社会自身如何通过改变地表增加灾害暴露的研究方向。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Landslides and river floods are common examples of land-surface hazards that have enormous impact on society because they occur frequently and in widespread environments around the world. The consequences of such hazards are magnified by climate change, modification of the land surface due to human activity, and increased exposure associated with population growth and urban development. Yet an integrated scientific approach to geohazards research lags to their growing effects. In response to the threats posed by geohazards, our funded Center Catalyst will develop a shared vision within the scientific community around contributions to hazards research and education, which will include strengthening ties between academic, government, non-profit groups, and local communities. This vision will be the basis of a proposed Center for Land-Surface Hazards (CLaSH). This Center, the detailed shape of which will be sculpted via Catalyst activities, would provide a trial for frontier work involving the impact of different types of land-surface hazards on society. Pilot activities of the Catalyst will include scientific community planning meetings, engaging existing NSF facilities and centers on education and outreach projects, and strengthening government agency partnerships. Center Catalyst activities will inform the strategic plan for a fully-fledged Center that enables innovative research on interconnected land-surface hazards, increases the diversity of geoscientists, and better prepares the public for disaster events.A particular emphasis of the Center Catalyst will be on how one incident of a hazardous event triggers more events creating a cascading hazard, such as storms that follow wildfire causing debris flows and floods. This focus is motivated by the major research challenge that individual land-surface hazards often receive attention in isolation. While they certainly merit study on their own, we fundamentally lack transdisciplinary science that addresses how geomorphic processes work together as a part of an interconnected system to generate cascading hazards. This gap represents an important link between hazards and fundamental science. Research on cascading hazards is a frontier poised for major advancement, fueled by maturing basic science frameworks (e.g., critical zone science, tectonic/climate coupling, impacts of the Anthropocene), increased computational modeling capabilities, and technological developments in imaging and sensing that promise a wholly new opportunity for integrated efforts. Another major gap in geohazard science is defined by the social, economic, and racial communities disproportionately affected by land surface hazards. These communities are the least represented in geoscience research and national agencies that support hazard planning and response. With these gaps in mind, the Center Catalyst will consider: (1) potential ways to address the lack of underrepresented groups in geoscience by developing workforce recruitment and retention programs around themes of social and environmental altruism and equity in hazard science, (2) related approaches to identify opportunities for advancing fundamental knowledge that readily translates to application in the hazards research space, and (3) the scope for developing research directions on how society itself increases hazard exposure through modification of the land surface.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.