SRS-RN: Hybrid Water Infrastructure and Regional Sustainability - Planning a Convergence Science Approach in Greater New Orleans

Traditional water infrastructure systems like drainage pumps, flood walls, and levees are increasingly incorporating nature based, or green infrastructure, features. Many water governance agencies and private landowners are planning and implementing these hybrid systems in the Greater New Orleans (GNO) area in response to flooding vulnerabilities and environmental changes.

These infrastructure programs that blend natural and built features are some of the most significant investments in the United States. At present, however, a lack of performance standards, coordinated monitoring, regionally applicable modeling tools, and strategies to tailor such tools to new localities present important limitations for climate change adaptation efforts.

For example, should new investments in drainage pumping systems factor in newly constructed green stormwater catchments in infrastructure plans? If so, what performance metrics can be developed to integrate these combined natural and engineered approaches? Major investments in sustainable and natural infrastructure lack clear system definitions and scientific coordination across jurisdictions and projects.

Indeed, few investments in hybrid infrastructure occur at the regional scale, and difficulties in blending and optimizing natural/traditional approaches persist. This project brings together regional water infrastructure authorities, scientific experts, and community organizations to assemble a full Sustainable Regional Systems Research Network (SRS-RN) proposal to tackle these conjoined challenges of water governance and water science of hybrid infrastructure systems.

The results of this planning grant, if successful, could lead to better methods of infrastructure improvement across the US.

The overarching objective of this planning process is the development of a novel transdisciplinary program to integrate regional scientific and infrastructure management activities and create standards, metrics, and tools of environmental monitoring, evaluation, and modeling for regions instituting hybrid water infrastructure systems. Scientific efforts related to water infrastructure will be developed relative to current and projected local environmental, social, and built environment conditions.

This planning process presents an opportunity to develop an approach to regional water science that incorporates key disciplines (e.g., geomorphology, hydro-ecology, urban and regional planning, urban development, civil engineering, urban ecology) and provides a road map for diverse civic collaboration to accelerate equitable transitions towards regional sustainability. The planning process is comprised of a sequence of activities designed to foster broad community outreach and engagement with diverse participants and stakeholders, and for knowledge co-production amongst team members to ground partners in a shared understanding of how water infrastructure impacts the region.

The project is pursued through five phases: 1) Network outreach, diversification, and engagement 2) Data collation workshops, 3) Field and site visits 4) Formation of environmental competency groups, and 5) Full proposal preparation. Regional sustainability problems and research approaches that address local problems will be identified and contextualized within theoretical challenges and frontiers in sustainability science and engineering more broadly.

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.