Award Abstract # 2127353
Collaborative Research: NNA Research: Capturing Indigenous Knowledge to Co-Design more Effective Operations, Maintenance and Management of Water Infrastructure

NSF Org: RISE
Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER)
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
Initial Amendment Date: July 12, 2021
Latest Amendment Date: April 24, 2023
Award Number: 2127353
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Colleen Strawhacker
colstraw@nsf.gov
 (703)292-7432
RISE
 Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER)
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: September 1, 2021
End Date: August 31, 2026 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $846,899.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $876,899.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2021 = $846,899.00
FY 2022 = $9,000.00

FY 2023 = $21,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Kasey Faust (Principal Investigator)
    faustk@utexas.edu
  • Lynn Katz (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Suzanne Pierce (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Texas at Austin
110 INNER CAMPUS DR
AUSTIN
TX  US  78712-1139
(512)471-6424
Sponsor Congressional District: 25
Primary Place of Performance: University of Texas at Austin
3925 W Braker Lane, Ste 3.340
Austin
TX  US  78759-5316
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
37
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): V6AFQPN18437
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): NNA-Navigating the New Arctic
Primary Program Source: 01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 072Z, 102Z, 115E, 116E, 7218, 9102, 9131, 9178, 9231, 9251
Program Element Code(s): 104Y00
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) is one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA projects address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. The Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. NNA empowers new research partnerships from local to international scales, diversifies the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhances efforts in formal and informal education, and integrates the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award fulfills part of that aim by addressing interactions among social systems, natural environment, and built environment in the following NNA focus areas: Resilient Infrastructure and Education.

A challenge for rural water infrastructure systems in the Arctic is how to operate, manage, and maintain them successfully. Operations, maintenance, and management (OMM) that ensures continuous water access is difficult in these remote areas for many reasons, such as limited access to technical resources and to training across a broad range of skills. Building local workforce capacity and training has been recommended to address this OMM gap. However, underlying these recommendations is the assumption that the knowledge used to build the water systems matches the local knowledge of people operating and interacting with said systems. In rural Alaska, this is not always the case. This project seeks to bridge this gap between expected engineering know-how and the actual know-how of the local community. The approach supports local operators through developing water system OMM training material that is better grounded in local knowledge. At a systems scale, the project also develops educational material describing rural Alaskan water systems, aimed at educating the non-technical user community more broadly. Through bridging the connection between engineering and social context, this project empowers and broadens participation of the current and potential future engineering workforce.

To make inroads into this challenge, this interdisciplinary research team engages in a three-phased approach that integrates principles from civil and environmental engineering, sociology, anthropology, and human computer interaction. Phase I characterizes the knowledge landscape between socio-cultural-technical knowledge domains. This is accomplished using ethnographic interviews that seek to understand daily practices that pertain to water, as well as how relevant local natural resources are classified and understood. This phase also uses artificial intelligence approaches, such as natural language processing, to assess the engineering knowledge expected for OMM as derived from existing water operator training and OMM support material. Phase II consists of mixed-modality focus groups to understand end-user valuations and expectations of water services and the development of cross-cultural information resources by mapping the mixed knowledge structures together to produce accessible OMM resources for operators. Phase III evaluates the knowledge transfer across domains of understanding with the hopes of developing protocols and materials that can scale across water systems and to other remote communities.

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.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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LaPatin, Michaela and Ritsch, Nicola and Armanios, Daniel Erian and Albertson, Leif and Katz, Lynn E and Faust, Kasey M "A Stakeholder-Systems Analysis of Water Provision in Rural Alaska" ACS ES&T Water , v.4 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.3c00612 Citation Details
LaPatin, Michaela and Ritsch, Nikki and Armanios, Daniel and Albertson, Leif and Katz, Lynn and Faust, Kasey M "Addressing Workforce Attrition, Retention, Absenteeism, and Recruitment in the Rural Alaska Water Sector" , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784485293.021 Citation Details
Ritsch, Nicola and Tariq, Miriam and LaPatin, Michaela and Armanios, Daniel and Faust, Kasey and Albertson, Leif "Understanding Differences in User Preferences across Water Systems in Rural Alaska" World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2023 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784484852.049 Citation Details

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