Collaborative Research and Education Center for Transformative Water Solutions
National Science Foundation
Collaborators: Institute of Resilient Infrastructure Systems; River Basin Center; Center for Integrative Conservation; Vanderbilt University; Oak Ridge Associated Universities; Southern University of New Orleans; Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice
The provision of sustainable and reliable water services is under growing strain worldwide and is disproportionately failing many of the most vulnerable and underserved populations. Water scarcity, for example, currently affects over 2 billion people worldwide and over 2 million in the U.S. Projections suggest that the number impacted by unreliable water services will rise as global populations face a growing threat due to increasing urbanization, aging infrastructure, and climate change, among other pressures. The far-reaching consequences of failing water management services encompass challenges such as insufficient access to clean drinking water, increased prevalence of water-related diseases, increased flood events, and the inadequate treatment of wastewater. These consequences erode human and ecosystem well-being and underscore the urgency to develop transformative solutions.
This planning grant will refine a vision for a Collaborative Research and Education Center for Transformative Water Solutions, which will center people and communities to explore current and future water challenges and will help answer the question of what are the critical and fundamental knowledge and data gaps and workforce needs that can be addressed through a research center? Answering this question will contribute to a research agenda that promotes equitable and just water services adaptations which provide for a sustainable and resilient future.
Delivering transformative solutions to water services management problems will require novel research-policy-practice linkages, which we will develop by adopting integrative systems thinking and design approaches that fully address the complexities associated with water services management. We will co-develop new models of inclusive decision-making, along with decision structures that transcend jurisdictional boundaries, to foster effective collaboration, coordination, and integration to dramatically improve overall water governance, and human and ecosystem well-being. We will focus planning activities within the Southeast U.S., which has received less attention than other parts of the country, but which epitomizes many of the dynamic pressures that diminish effective water governance nationally and globally.
This planning grant will refine a vision for a Collaborative Research and Education Center for Transformative Water Solutions, which will center people and communities to explore current and future water challenges and will help answer the question of what are the critical and fundamental knowledge and data gaps and workforce needs that can be addressed through a research center? Answering this question will contribute to a research agenda that promotes equitable and just water services adaptations which provide for a sustainable and resilient future.
Delivering transformative solutions to water services management problems will require novel research-policy-practice linkages, which we will develop by adopting integrative systems thinking and design approaches that fully address the complexities associated with water services management. We will co-develop new models of inclusive decision-making, along with decision structures that transcend jurisdictional boundaries, to foster effective collaboration, coordination, and integration to dramatically improve overall water governance, and human and ecosystem well-being. We will focus planning activities within the Southeast U.S., which has received less attention than other parts of the country, but which epitomizes many of the dynamic pressures that diminish effective water governance nationally and globally.