Aggie Research Programs

Texas A&M University

Spring 2020 – Pathways to Sustainable Urban Water Security

Affiliations:
DeBakey Executive Research Leadership Program; X-Grant: Pathways to Sustainable Urban Water Security
Project Leader: Amanda Fencl
alfencl@tamu.edu
Geography
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Wendy Jepson, Ph.D.
Meeting Times:
 Weekly meetings TBD based on team members availability (anticipate in-person and zoom)
Team Size:
 4 (Team Full)
Open Spots: 0
Special Opportunities:
Potential to present information at research symposiums, co-author academic manuscripts, depending on progress present at the Aggie Student Research Week
Team Needs:
 Qualifications:

  • highly motivated students that can work independently but don’t hesitate to ask for clarifications and support as needed
  • familiarity with (or interest in) qualitative and social science research methods Likely project tasks will include:
    • identifying news and media articles across four case sites (California, Texas, Australia, and Israel) -systematic coding of qualitative data (media + interview transcripts) in MAXQDA, which means you should be interested and willing to learn this software and related Q-Method analyses (GUI based, not computer coding language)
    • background research to support the development of an online survey mechanism e.g. building the database of survey participants
    • other research activities as negotiated between the team lead and undergraduate researchers
Description:
This is an interdisciplinary project for investigating the challenges of urban water insecurity. Desalination of seawater and brackish groundwater and wastewater reuse are seen as major technological interventions that can address the increased pressure on water resources in the context of growing global demand for freshwater for domestic and productive uses. While offering new sources of water, critics highlight several impediments to their sustainable implementation and negative impacts across regions and environments. The research group you will be apart of is focused on understanding stakeholder perspectives of re-use and desal, and this project ends summer 2021, so involvement could potentially extend beyond Spring 2020. Interested students can learn more here: learn more: https://urbanwaterpathways.org