Water Affordability and Shutoffs Project (2020-2021)
The project is developing a database to collect utility level and county-level policies of water shutoffs, disconnection and reconnection fees, census data on complete plumbing, data on utility service areas, and zip code level COVID-19 cases and death rates, where available, initially in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Supported by Texas Water Resources Institute and led by Dr. John Casellas-Connors and Dr. Wendy Jepson.
Pathways to Sustainable Urban Water Security: Desalination and Water Reuse in the 21st Century (2018-2022)
In the face of growing populations and climate change, existing freshwater sources and water infrastructure projects are not sufficient or adequate to address the challenges of urban water insecurity. This project examines desalination and water reuse globally and across case study sites in Texas, California, Australia, and Israel. A key challenge is to identify how new technological interventions can be channeled into pathways towards sustainable water security and, in particular, to consider how anticipatory governance can be fostered to support that process. Supported by the TAMU President’s Excellence Grants (X-Grant) program.
Household Water Insecurity Experiences – Research Coordination Network (2018-2023)
HWISE-RCN is a community of scholars and practitioners who research and work in the interdisciplinary field of water insecurity. The RCN is dedicated to building a community of practice that fosters key analytics and theoretical advances coupled with the development of research protocols and standardized assessments to document, benchmark, and understand the causes and outcomes of water insecurity at the household scale. The RCN is supported by the National Science Foundation.
Water Security Initiative
The Lab developed the Water Security Initiative in July 2016, supported by the College of Geosciences as part of the Institute for Sustainable Communities (IfSC) at Texas A&M University, a result of the university’s Environmental Grand Challenge Program. IfSC is a university-level institute that reports to the Texas A&M University Office of the Provost
Urban Household Water Insecurity in Brazil
The objective of this research is to evaluate the vulnerability of rural communities located in Brazil’s semiarid region, aiming to develop strategies that guarantee water, food, and energy security, enhance sustainable resource use, and reduce socio-environmental vulnerability. This project is in collaboration with researchers at the Federal University of Ceará and Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology in Brazil. Supported by Edital CNPq/ NEXUS I.
Non-material Dimensions of Water Insecurity
This project aims to address this gap to better capture and understand non-material aspects that might be important as ‘conversion factors’ to enable capabilities and entitlements to overcome household water insecurity. Team members include L. Harris, M. Galvin, S. Walsh, W. Jepson, D. Splichalova. The project is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
STUDENT PROJECTS
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