Part 1 - The Urban-WATER project will create a unique interdisciplinary extracurricular certificate program at Dillard University that will enhance diversity and community problem-solving in the geosciences, particularly related to urban water issues. The purpose of this program is to train students in real world water-related environmental issues within an urban setting in order to grow the next generation of scientists and an urban water workforce. The intransigent environmental issues in the city of New Orleans touch on a building crisis for our nation amidst urban growth, the removal of watersheds and accelerating climate change. Thus, this program targets a central problem of critical national importance for economic prosperity and human welfare. The program will be based at Dillard University, a historically black university and college In New Orleans Louisiana, and a key training pipeline for African American students and females in science. In light of the results of Hurricane Katrina and other recent weather events, New Orleans is an ideal a test bed to engage and interest students toward a key scientific and urban/economic problem. Notably, in 2005, there were over 50 failures of the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans, exemplifying the tremendous vulnerability of urban homes and businesses to rising water, with other major cities across the U.S. facing similar challenges. Utilizing the Gulf Coast as a backdrop, this project will center on experiential approaches to environmental teaching and research, infusing GIS mapping, economic analyses, and community participation, to improve and advance undergraduate STEM education pathways into the geosciences.
Part 2 - Twenty advanced students per year in their final two years of studies at Dillard University will be selected to participate in the Urban-WATER certificate program. These students will form a social/academic cohort and will pursue activities in the biological sciences, computer sciences, urban studies and economics to build a new community at Dillard for developing interest, awareness and competencies in key environmental issues affecting New Orleans. Topics will include: urban water geoscience, urban hydrogeology, the science of runoff, water usage, water management, and protection as well as the political and economic issues involved in urban water systems. In sum, this certificate program will interweave the study of geographic information systems (GIS), geography, cartography, spatial analysis, and fields such as geo-visualization, geodesy, geo-computation, modeling, and computer science to establish a new transdisciplinary field in urban water studies. This skill set will be brought to bear on the long-standing problem of urban water in New Orleans as a port city facing another potential catastrophic water-related event within this century. Dillard faculty will mentor students to develop independent research topics for the capstone course of the certificate with their research activities including water toxicology, flood assessment, GIS applications and other topics. Partners involved in this project include Dillard's School of STEM, the Department of Urban Studies, and the College of Business. In addition recruitment will also leverage and engage students from the NSF-funded Louis Stokes Louisiana Alliance for Minority Participation (LS-LAMP), an alliance of 12 institutions across Louisiana. Methods involve a transdisciplinary team-based approach to courses/activities as well as a place-based approach through a unique certificate program that will draw community interest in geosciences across the university and in the region.
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.
