NSF Convergence Accelerator Track K: Equity in water information for community capacity building

The Water Consciousness Accelerator project will address the need to support communities in their efforts to mitigate water equity and management issues that are becoming more complicated due to the intersection of increasing climate variability and rapid urbanization. The primary goal of this project is to proactively respond to these mounting challenges by supporting sustainable watershed management strategies through community engagement and provide water education and capacity building that are responsive to community needs. The project will have a pivotal role in increasing collective water consciousness through the development of a mobile application, and a feature-length documentary film. By doing so, the effort will increase community capacity to adopt sustainable water resources management practices. This project will accelerate and raise collective water education and engagement by increasing public scientific literacy, improving access to important water data, and inspiring action. By leveraging multidisciplinary science, education, technology and film-making, in conjunction with community partners, this project will build capacity for equitable water education and sustainable watershed stewardship strategies. The objectives of the Water Consciousness Accelerator are to 1) synthesize community perspectives and values about water use using qualitative and quantitative socioeconomic methods 2) design innovative community education to increase community water consciousness, 3) develop an engaging user-friendly mobile Water Wise application in response to community needs and facilitate equitable water data governance, 4) create a feature length documentary film to accelerate convergence of socioeconomic water resources research and community capacity building. The convergence of these objectives will be a catalyst for community education and engagement in sustainable and equitable water resource management that will mobilize communities in the West and across the country. This project will integrate various hydrologic data streams and use mixed-methods research to collect information about public perceptions and economic valuations of the beneficial uses of water. This will allow the research team to improve access to locally relevant water information and hydrologic data, particularly in watersheds that are navigating water issues. This knowledge will also inform development of relevant innovative community education materials and tools that use information and communication technologies to leverage hydrologic data. Phase 1 of the project will result in a prototype of the mobile water application developed from regional stakeholder engagement, and Phase 2 will implement the research design at a larger scale with a focus on communities facing water equity issues that will be identified in Phase 1. This project will have broader impacts at various stages and scales, including engaging American communities, making hydrologic data user-friendly and accessible, assessing and articulating community values around water use, developing and providing educational resources, and building overall community capacity to improve sustainable water resources management and stewardship. 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.