IRES: International Paradigms for Managing Hydrologic Extremes in a Shifting Climate

水可以跨越国界，不受政治差异的限制，而水在经济和生态活力方面的作用比以往任何时候都更加重要。然而，水管理、研究和工程在很大程度上仍然是在当地本土的范例中运作。水资源管理人员和研究人员通常熟悉他们自己的方法、地点和工具包。然而，以地方为重点是有后果的，如果我们不从其他地区的成功和失败中吸取教训，就会失去机会。夏普和莱什纳（2014）认为，“寻找解决方案需要利用世界各地科学家、工程师和社会领袖的才能和创新思想，以克服迄今为止不足以应对这些挑战的传统和民族主义范式。”该项目的目标是为解决未来与水有关的挑战贡献美国的专业知识。加州大学戴维斯分校和代尔夫特高等教育学院将联手将三批美国高级研究生带到欧洲，并为他们提供对水科学、政策和管理的不同国际方法进行批判性分析的沉浸式体验。第一年：国际洪水风险管理方法；第二年：干旱和地下水管理；第三年：极端气候下的淡水生态系统。STEM劳动力发展成果将包括接受以下培训的学生：在国际问题和国际环境中跨国界合作，跨多个学科和国际范式整合，将水科学融入管理和决策，基于团队的问题解决方案，并接受培训以促进包容性和支持性环境，将多样性和包容性作为核心价值观。总的来说，这个项目将有助于美国在解决未来国内和世界范围内与水有关的挑战方面的专业知识。该项目有三个主题。1. 洪水风险管理的国际方法：随着气候变暖，大气降水和风暴强度增加，大多数地区的洪水规模、频率和影响正变得越来越严重。洪水风险管理领域利用各种技术和社会措施，将洪水风险评估和降低到可容忍的水平，从而提高了抗灾能力和适应能力。综合洪水风险管理旨在减少洪水造成的人类和社会经济损失，同时考虑洪水和洪泛平原或沿海地区的利用所带来的好处。干旱和地下水管理的国际方法：长期以来，地下水资源一直用于缺乏地表水的家庭、灌溉和工业供水，无论是季节性的、长期的，还是由于异常气候事件导致降水和径流相对缺乏（干旱）。不断减少的地下水资源不仅威胁到农业生产和家庭供水的长期可持续性，而且还造成昂贵的、有时是无法承受的抽水成本增加、油井停产、地面沉降、海水入侵和水质退化等。气候变化导致干旱、地下水补给和地下水水库用水需求的模式和强度发生变化。3. 极端气候下的淡水生态系统：流域和河流环境是复杂的生态系统，其中地质结构与水文过程相互作用，以支持生态功能和相关的水生和河岸栖息地。作为淡水生态系统和社会使用的可再生水源，河流和湿地提供了重要的支持、供给、调节和文化生态系统服务。河岸带占美国西部陆生动物的75%以上。生态系统衰退的全球范围和严重性引发了全球范围的响应，形成了生物多样性和生态系统服务政府间科学政策平台（IPBES），并启动了联合国恢复十年（2021-2030）。就像生态系统本身一样，解决这些威胁需要能够跨学科、跨技术和跨领域工作的科学家。要了解淡水系统的复杂生态，学生必须了解其跨学科和综合的性质，最终学会对生物、物理、化学和人为相互作用进行协同思考。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。

Water flows across national borders, unfettered by political distinctions, while water's role in economic and ecological vitality is more important than ever. However, water management, research, and engineering still largely operate within local homegrown paradigms. Water managers and researchers are typically familiar with their own methods, sites, and toolkits. However, local focus has consequences, and opportunities are lost when we do not learn from successes and failures in other regions. Sharp and Leshner (2014) argue that "the search for solutions needs to draw upon the talents and innovative ideas of scientists, engineers, and societal leaders worldwide to overcome traditional and nationalistic paradigms that have so far been inadequate to meeting these challenges." The goal of this project is to contribute to US expertise in solving future water-related challenges. UC Davis and IHE Delft will join forces to bring three cohorts of US advanced graduate students to Europe and provide them immersive experiences in critical analysis of differing international approaches to water science, policy, and management. Year 1: international approaches to flood-risk management, year 2: drought and groundwater management, and year 3: freshwater ecosystems in a climate of growing extremes. STEM workforce development outcomes will include students trained in: collaborating across international boundaries on international problems and in international settings, integrating across multiple disciplines and across international paradigms, to integrate water science into management and policy-making, team-based problem solving, and trained to promoted an inclusive and supportive environment that advances diversity and inclusion as core values. Overall, this project will contribute to US expertise in solving future water-related challenges domestically and worldwide.The project has three themes. 1. International approaches to flood-risk management: Flood magnitudes, frequencies, and impacts are becoming more severe in most areas as a warming climate increases atmospheric precipitation and storm intensity. The field of flood risk management integrates flood risk assessment and its reduction to a tolerable level using diverse technical and social measures, leading to increased resilience and adaptation capacity. Integrated flood risk management aims to reduce the human and socioeconomic losses caused by flooding while at the same time taking into account the benefits from floods and the use of flood plains or coastal zones.2. International approaches to drought and groundwater management: Groundwater resources have long been used for domestic, irrigation, and industrial water supplies where access to surface water is lacking, either seasonally, long-term, or due to unusual climate events leading to relative lack of precipitation and runoff (drought). Dwindling groundwater resources not only threaten long-term sustainability of agricultural production and domestic water supplies, they also cause expensive and sometimes unaffordable increases in pumping costs, well outages, land subsidence, seawater intrusion, and water quality degradation, among others. Climate change leads to changing patterns and intensity of drought, of groundwater recharge, and of water demands on groundwater reservoirs. 3. Freshwater ecosystems in a climate of growing extremes: Watersheds and river environments are complex ecological systems where geologic structures interact with hydrologic processes to support ecological functions and associated aquatic and riparian habitats. As the chief source of renewable water supply for freshwater ecosystems and societal use, rivers and wetlands provide vital supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services. Riparian zones account for more than 75% of terrestrial animals in the western U.S. The global extent and severity of ecosystem decline has stimulated a worldwide response in the formation of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and launch of the UN Decade on Restoration (2021-2030). Like ecosystems themselves, addressing the threats requires scientists capable of working across disciplines, technologies, and landscapes. To understand the complex ecology of freshwater systems, students must understand their interdisciplinary and integrative nature, ultimately learning to think synergistically about biological, physical, chemical, and anthropogenic interactions.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.