Planning: CRISES: Building a Center for Resiliency in Rapidly Developing Communities

The United States is experiencing new rapid population shifts. High housing prices, the lingering impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pending retirement of many individuals within the Baby Boomer generation are underlying factors to population migratory patterns. The impact of such population shifts is of concern given that many of the areas that are and have experienced rapid growth are those with historically lower costs of living, are identified as or near Justice40 disadvantaged areas, and are perceived to have more desirable climates. Communities experiencing rapid population growth must reconcile the numerous challenges of development associated with growth and establish appropriate and timely environmental, economic, and social policy responses. The proposed planning activities will explore, identify, and establish interdisciplinary mechanisms for understanding resiliency in rapidly developing complex systems. Planning participants for the proposed Center for Resiliency in Rapidly Developing Communities (CCRDC) come from a diverse range methodological perspectives and disciplines. Population growth is a contemporary and system level concern for appropriately and adequately addressing climate change. Rapid population growth, whereby a region or community experiences a drastic increase in positive net migration, is particularly concerning given the potential to create or exacerbate climate change challenges. While the wicked problems concept and the work of Limits to Growth (e.g., socio-ecological systems or socio engineered-ecological systems) guides the initial planning efforts, the planning activities establish a basis for structuring sound basic-science research protocols and plans that can bridge across various theories and potentially lead to novel contributions to existing theoretical bases or lead to the creation of new theoretical constructs for understanding resiliency responses to rapid population growth's effects on impacted and surrounding communities. The planning activities for the CCRDC platform provide an opportunity for participant researchers to help define the scope and approach of the Center’s future research and outreach activities. This helps to strengthen the ability to achieve the long-term goal for the CCRDC, which is to provide timely and appropriate resiliency-based recommendations and support to communities undergoing current or anticipated future growth. The project will engage an interdisciplinary set of researchers with the intent to later engage in transdisciplinary and co-produced research. 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.