A Transdisciplinary Workshop: Linking Research and Practice for More Resilient Drinking Water Systems

American Association For The Advancement Of Science, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

1654978 PI Derrick, Edward Water is one of our most important resources on our planet. Managing, monitoring, and treating water to support human and environmental well-being is a systems challenge that requires input from many disciplines. However, translating breakthroughs in science and engineering into benefits for society is complicated. It requires integration of knowledge across domains and collaborations across sectors. To catalyze these interactions, this award will support a one-day workshop that will convene researchers, research translators, and practitioners from four regions and Washington, D.C. to identify concrete opportunities to improve the resilience of drinking water systems. In the United States, people take for granted that sufficient, clean, affordable water is readily available. Yet aging infrastructure, changes in precipitation, population growth, and environmental contaminants are stressing water systems everywhere. New technologies and research advances will be instrumental for addressing these challenges. While researchers in environmental engineering and other fields are advancing the frontiers of knowledge about water systems, translating knowledge to practice requires bi-directional learning and collaboration between researchers and professionals working on processes, policies, or products that will help drinking water systems adapt to changing conditions. According to research in the field of science and innovation policy, use of new information most often occurs through personal relationships and communications, formed through in-person interactions. Further, translational work requires people with translational skills and capacities--like systems thinking, communication, and management--who help to broker these relationships and share information in useful formats. This workshop, hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, will build upon findings from four regional forums and a needs assessment informed by interviews with more than 100 drinking water researchers and practitioners. The first part of the workshop will develop a shared understanding of challenges in quality, quantity, and access to drinking water through research presentations and case studies for a multi-disciplinary audience. In the second half of the workshop, participants will generate suggestions and make connections that could help to address specific drinking water challenges identified by participants of the four regional forums. A variety of real-world scenarios will provide researchers the opportunity for "thought experiments" to test their theories or models under a range of conditions, and potentially develop new hypotheses. New interdisciplinary research collaborations on drinking water could also emerge among participants from fields ranging from environmental engineering to the social sciences. Emerging Leaders in Science and Society (ELISS), a program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is building the next generation of research translators through a project that develops broad professional capacities in graduate students. Through competitive application, ELISS selects interdisciplinary teams of graduate students from multiple campuses. The students develop their own leadership, collaboration, and translation capacity through service learning projects (called an "Idea Lab") that helps today's leaders think creatively about complex challenges facing our communities. The report developed from the workshop will outline: the major challenges to the quality, quantity, and availability of drinking water in the next 50 years; emerging research and technology that could inform solutions to those challenges, and; specific case studies describing regional challenges to the resilience of drinking water systems, and suggested approaches for researchers and practitioners to address them.