NSF Convergence Accelerator Track K: Unraveling the Benefits, Costs, and Equity of Tree Coverage in Desert Cities

该“项目”由融合加速器第一阶段组成，将产生优化沙漠城市树冠覆盖率的决策工具。它将平衡三个核心问题：缓和高温对健康和福祉的影响、用水和环境正义(用于树木的水的公平利益)。这些影响指向不同的方向，因此面向最终用户的决策工具将帮助多个级别的决策者，从家庭所有者到社区组织，再到市县规划者。该项目的总体成果是为利益攸关方提供决策工具，以选择和分配树木，同时优化水热权衡的公正性和有效性。在第一阶段，团队将开发、测试和交付受使用启发的原型工具，推动社区合作伙伴的讨论与关于城市树木、水、热和社会公平的关键研究问题的融合。第一阶段的内容包括：为沙漠城市的规划者提供树木选择和分配决策工具；使用热量数据评估树木的水-热-健康权衡；对树木的效益和成本，特别是水，进行精细的环境公正测绘；改进以树木为重点的家庭节能和节水措施评估软件；以及针对家庭和社区树木规划的社区卫生工作者培训计划。该项目将使用大型、干旱、收入相对较低/西班牙裔人口较多的城市埃尔帕索作为试验田。更广泛的影响是巨大的。首先，它从有限的水和城市热能的取舍方面解决了环境正义问题。它通过将面向用户的规划工具和推动者培训交给社区组织和户主以及更广泛的机构来加强程序正义。它通过引导有限的水资源最有效地减少城市供热不平等来加强分配正义。这套原型工具将公开提供；它们将立即对美国的半干旱和干旱地区有用，并对全国的水和树木规划产生影响。其次，拟议项目中的五所学术机构中有四所是为拉美裔服务的机构，其中拉美裔学生的比例特别高，社会流动性等级也很高。第三，第一阶段的项目将包括德克萨斯州埃尔帕索市(西班牙裔人口占84%)的社区组织，那里的贫困率几乎是全国数字的两倍。该项目将针对埃尔帕索的低收入地区和被美国气候与经济正义筛选工具确定为脆弱的人口普查区域。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。

The “project,” consisting of Convergence Accelerator Phase 1, will produce decision-making tools that optimize tree canopy coverage in desert cities. It will balance three central concerns: tempering the effects of heat on health and well-being, water consumption, and environmental justice (equitable benefits of water devoted to trees). These effects pull in different directions, so end-user-oriented decision-making tools will help decision-makers at multiple scales, from householders to community organizations to city and county planners. The overall deliverables for this project are to produce decision-making tools for stakeholders to select and distribute trees while optimizing justice and effectiveness in water-heat tradeoffs. In Phase 1, the team will develop, test, and deliver use-inspired prototype tools, driven by the convergence of community partner discussions with key research questions about urban trees, water, heat, and social equity. Phase 1 components include: tree selection and distribution decision-making tools for planners in desert cities; use of thermal data to assess tree water-heat-health tradeoffs; fine resolution environmental justice mapping of tree benefits and costs, especially water; improvement of software for assessing household energy and water conservation measures with focus on trees; and community health worker training programs for household and neighborhood tree planning. The project will use the large, arid, and relatively low income/high Hispanic city of El Paso as its test bed. The broader impacts are substantial. First, this addresses environmental justice in terms of the trade off of limited water and urban heat. It strengthens procedural justice by putting user-oriented planning tools and promoter training in the hands of community organizations and householders, as well as wider agencies. It strengthens distributive justice by directing limited water resources toward reducing urban heat inequalities most effectively. This set of prototype tools will be made openly available; they will be immediately useful for semi-arid and arid areas of the United States and have implications for water and tree planning across the country. Second, four of the five academic institutions in the proposed project are Hispanic Serving Institutions with especially high fractions of Hispanic students and high classifications for social mobility. Third, the Phase 1 project will include community organizations in the heavily Hispanic (84%) city of El Paso, Texas, where the poverty rate is nearly twice that of the national figure. The project will target low-income portions of El Paso and census tracts that have been determined to be vulnerable by the US Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool.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.