CAREER: Equitable Adaptation to Drinking Water Salinization from Seawater Intrusion with Smart Water Portfolios

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project aims to improve resilience and equity of the nation’s water infrastructure system and to advance the uptake and implementation of smart city technologies for climate adaptation, with a specific focus on methods of understanding how smart water technologies can be used to adapt drinking water supply systems at high risk of salinization due to seawater intrusion from sea level rise. The research specifically focuses on systemic methods of understanding how smart water technologies can be used to adapt drinking water supply systems at high risk of salinization due to seawater intrusion from sea level rise. This integrated research and teaching will improve resilience of the nation’s infrastructure and access to high-quality water, two grand engineering challenges, by addressing gaps in knowledge on: vulnerabilities and risks to critical water infrastructure; system-level opportunities and constraints in possible adaptation strategies; the possibilities of smart water to aid in salinity adaptation; replicable methods for integrating smart water technologies into a water portfolio; and development of professionals with expertise in implementing smart city solutions. The outcomes of this CAREER plan align with NSF’s mission to advance national health, prosperity, and welfare. Through an interdisciplinary approach that blends methods from water resource planning, systems engineering, behavioral economics, and smart city planning, the PI will integrate the following four research and education tasks. Task 1 aims to examine how sea level rise interacts with sociodemographic and other physical vulnerabilities to contribute to spatiotemporal clusters of risk. Though many coastal aquifer and estuarine systems have been studied in isolation, there are few studies on broad patterns of drinking water risk. Task 2 focuses on evaluating the use of smart water technologies for salinity adaptation, in search of scalable, affordable methods to build salinity resilience. Alternative smart water portfolios, alongside empirically measured water supplier attitudes and preferences, will be modeled in a Multi-Agent System modeling framework. Task 3 will develop a replicable method for improving uptake and implementation of smart water technologies by examining a method known as technology roadmapping. Task 4 aims to create a novel curriculum and community of practice within the discipline of City Planning on technology planning. This will be accomplished through: a pedagogical research paper that compares existing smart city curricula to market needs; tracking professional outcomes of graduates; the introduction of a community-based, technology planning studio; and development of new pedagogical materials focusing on smart technology uptake and implementation for climate adaptation. 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.