Award Abstract # 2133334
SCC-CIVIC-FA Track B: Low-Cost Efficient Wireless Intelligent Sensors (LEWIS) for Greater Preparedness and Resilience to Post-Wildfire Flooding in Native American Communities

NSF Org: CNS
Division Of Computer and Network Systems
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
Initial Amendment Date: September 16, 2021
Latest Amendment Date: January 10, 2024
Award Number: 2133334
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Vishal Sharma
vsharma@nsf.gov
 (703)292-0000
CNS
 Division Of Computer and Network Systems
CSE
 Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date: October 1, 2021
End Date: December 31, 2024 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $1,000,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $1,032,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2021 = $1,000,000.00
FY 2022 = $16,000.00

FY 2023 = $16,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Fernando Moreu (Principal Investigator)
    fmoreu@unm.edu
  • Mark Stone (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Carolyn Hushman (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Su Zhang (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Yolanda Lin (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of New Mexico
1 UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
ALBUQUERQUE
NM  US  87131-0001
(505)277-4186
Sponsor Congressional District: 01
Primary Place of Performance: University of New Mexico
210 University Blvd NE Universit
Albuquerque
NM  US  87131-0001
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
01
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): F6XLTRUQJEN4
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Special Projects - CNS
Primary Program Source: 01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002122RB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 042Z, 9150, 9178, 9251
Program Element Code(s): 171400
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.070

ABSTRACT

The combined impacts of wildfires and subsequent post-wildfire floods have changed the lives and landscapes of New Mexico?s Native American Communities over the past 20 years. Native American communities, national and state agencies, university researchers, and others, have all stepped up to contribute to recovery efforts. Beyond recovery, researchers have also begun to initiate the process of fundamentally changing our approaches to building resilient communities and landscapes by learning from our tribal partners and civic partners. Specifically, tribal communities have indicated that they can benefit from building and designing their own sensor networks at a low cost, as opposed to using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sensors. This paradigm shift empowers the community as the sensor designer and builder: a new approach to enhancing community resilience. Community members of the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo will co-design, co-build, and implement their own Low-Cost Efficient Wireless Intelligent Sensors (LEWIS) networks. This self-built, customized, and distributed sensor network will inform the community of trends and thresholds in landscapes that can help to prevent wildfires and provide critical information to early warning systems when floods occur. Our long-term vision is to develop scientific practice and evidence that will enhance the resilience of communities. The Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in New Mexico will co-plan this project with researchers from four academic units of the University of New Mexico, consultants and evaluators, educators, national labs, the New Mexico Department of Transportation represented by the Tribal Liaison, and Native American Leaders in Native American Resilience in New Mexico.

This research in action project addresses a critical area of need in the American Southwest ? building resilience of tribal communities to the natural hazards of wildfires and post-wildfire floods. This community-based project will create a blueprint and framework for incorporating sensor data into decision support platforms. Participation from tribal youth will also increase the long-term sustainability of this project by building technical capacity within the community, which enables workforce development and training. The research will contribute to the following fields: (1) advancement of knowledge of the processes and outcomes for co-generation of knowledge between Native American communities and academic researchers; (2) incorporating place-based knowledge for co-developing resilience indices from LEWIS networks developed by the community, and decision support platforms; and (3) exploration of novel approaches to management, security, and selective sharing of data in ways that support the advancement of science, build community resilience to natural hazards, and respect concerns over data sovereignty. This project is part of the CIVIC Innovation Challenge which is a collaboration of NSF, the Department of Energy's Vehicle Technology Office, and the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

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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ALAMPALLI, SANDEEP and MALEK, KAVEH and MOHAMMADKHORASANI, ALI and MOREU, FERNANDO "LOW-COST EFFICIENT WIRELESS INTELLIGENT SENSOR (LEWIS) DEPLOYMENT FOR COMMUNITY DRIVEN DECISION MAKING" , 2023 https://doi.org/10.12783/shm2023/36747 Citation Details
MOREU, FERNANDO and THIERGART, TIMOTHY JACOB and MOHAMMADKHORASANI, ALI and MALEK, KAVEH "SMART SENSING TECHNOLOGY AND ITS AID IN FLOOD DATA ANALYSIS FOR NORTHERN NEW MEXICO" , 2023 https://doi.org/10.12783/shm2023/36969 Citation Details
Mukerji, Ria and Lin, Yolanda C and Zhang, Su and Stone, Mark and Hushman, Carolyn and Moreu, Fernando and Vigil, Lauren and Eshelman, Tyler and Rotche, Lindsey and Baca, Anistasia and Nodine, Marisa and Faulkner, Megan and Johnson, Chalon "Co-design as participation: Creating meaningful pathways for collaboration in flood risk adaptation in Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo" International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction , v.113 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104843 Citation Details

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

The combined impacts of wildfires and subsequent post-wildfire floods have changed the lives and landscapes of New Mexico’s Native American Communities over the past 20 years. Native American communities, national and state agencies, university researchers, and others, all stepped up to contribute to recovery efforts. Beyond recovery, researchers also fundamentally changed previous approaches regarding building resilient communities and landscapes by learning from our tribal partners and civic partners in this CIVIC project. Tribal and rural communities informed the building and designing of sensor networks at low-cost. This paradigm shift empowered the community and ultimate user as the sensor designer and builder: a new approach to enhancing community resilience. Community members of the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo co-designed and implemented their own approach to Low-Cost Efficient Wireless Intelligent Sensors (LEWIS) networks. This self-built, customized, and distributed sensor network was tested during two years to inform the community of trends and thresholds in landscapes after wildfires. The new approach included testing and validating critical information to early warning systems when floods occurs such as high rain or high water levels. The Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in New Mexico co-planned this project from the start with researchers from four academic units of the University of New Mexico, consultants and evaluators, educators, national labs, the New Mexico Department of Transportation represented by the Tribal Liaison, and Native American Leaders in Native American Resilience in New Mexico, led by founder and CEO of High Water Mark (HWM) LLC, Phoebe Suina, who guided and directed the project.

 

This research in action project addressed a critical area of need in the American Southwest – building resilience of tribal communities to the natural hazards of wildfires and post-wildfire floods. This community-based project created a first step of a framework by incorporating low-cost manufacturing, design and collection of data into the success of implementing sensors in communities. Participation from tribal youth increased the long-term sustainability of this project by building technical capacity within the community, which enables workforce development and training. An important outcome was that the interns from UNM from Ohkay Owingeh joined HWM LLC and now are working under Phoebe Suina. The research contributed to the following fields: (1) advancement of knowledge of the processes and outcomes for co-generation of knowledge between Native American communities and academic researchers; (2) incorporating place-based knowledge for co-developing LEWIS networks developed by the community, and enabling examples of simple data collected in the field that can inform decision support platforms; and (3) exploration of novel approaches to manufacturing, data validation, energy sustainability, and validation methods in ways that support the advancement of science, build community resilience to natural hazards, and respect concerns over data sovereignty.

 

 


Last Modified: 04/30/2025
Modified by: Fernando Moreu

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