Water is a natural resource all of us rely on, but there's a lot of thought and work that goes into being able to turn on your tap. How do we make sure water is accessible to everyone? Who does a water source belong to? And why is getting water out West so complicated?

This month, hosts Alysha and Todd are joined by Dr. Ben Rachunok, an assistant professor at the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at NC State University. Rachunok studies how communities evaluate and respond to water rights, climate risk and natural hazards. Costs of water and climate action are not equally distributed across space, and low-income households often pay a higher price for water access- and during periods of water scarcity.

With examples from the Carolinas to California, the group explores the surprising interconnections in the world of water rights and affordability, the role of policy in risk management, and how at-risk communities manage climate threats.

Check out the recent paper they discuss in this episode: Socio-hydrological drought impacts on urban water affordability (https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-022-00009-w)

And this "companion paper" for more context: The unequal burdens of water scarcity (https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-022-00016-x)


Ben's haiku:

Droughts raise water's price
Low-income homes bear the cost
Thirst deepens the gap


Bio: https://ise.ncsu.edu/people/barachun/

Introducing Dr. Brian Bledsoe, Director of the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Georgia and farmer, guitar player, and dad (not in that order.)

Our hosts Alysha Helmrich and Todd Bridges join Bledsoe in reviewing his lifelong commitment to research and interdisciplinary collaboration. His career has largely focused on river management and hydrology, leading him to work not just with engineers but ecologists, economists, geologists, lawyers and more. When he proposed a new institute at UGA focusing on natural solutions for infrastructure problems, he found a large community of interest that confirmed just how critical interdisciplinary expertise was for resilience.

Bledsoe described the "tremendous potential" nature-based solutions have to change how we approach development. His own mission in the movement is "to act as a connector of people who are committed to rethinking infrastructure." IRIS itself is meant to adapt to needs of the researchers, stakeholders and students that comprise it, but Bledsoe hopes that the institute can act as a lighthouse for natural infrastructure solutions.

He explains how IRIS is promoting this work for their large community of students and partners, and calls on practitioners of the IRIS mission to be "relentless listeners," sharing knowledge while learning from others. Listen now to learn more about IRIS's ongoing work on nature-based solutions!


Brian's poems:

When in doubt,
Don’t just build it stout-
Spread it out!

Bend, don’t break
Hard and strong will fail
Green sapling.


Dr. Brian Bledsoe, UGA IRIS: https://iris.uga.edu/iris-people/brian-bledsoe-p-e/

Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems: https://iris.uga.edu/

IRIS's new Natural Infrastructure Certificate: https://iris.uga.edu/natural-infrastructure-certificate/

ASCE's statement on NbS: https://www.asce.org/advocacy/policy-statements/ps575---nature-based-solutions

IRIS's NbS Job Board: https://iris.uga.edu/the-iris-job-board/

Check out this past episode that also discusses interdisciplinary resilience:
https://iris.uga.edu/2023/11/15/resilient-futures-podcast-episode-2-promoting-resilience-interdisciplinary-expertise-and-collaboration/

This month, our host Alysha Helmrich and her guest Lynn Abdouni are coming to you live from halfway across the world.

This pair of UGA engineering professors recently visited Doha, Qatar for a meeting about the Proactive Resilience Plan (PReP), a collaboration between UGA, Texas A&M, and the Qatar Foundation. During their trip, they took a moment to chat about urban morphology: "the study of the buildings, the streets, and the spaces in between them."

"We're talking about the urban fabric- it's alive," Dr. Abdouni said. "The streets are for walking, but they're also for meandering to shop, for having impromptu conversations, for chasing after pigeons- whatever you want to do, it's for multiple uses."

Abdouni's interest in this topic started early. She grew up in a semi-rural area of a postwar Lebanon, and noticing where features like sidewalks were (or weren't) placed inspired her to connect to places through urban design. By designing public spaces with humans in mind, we can foster personal connections to place and more flexible, long-lasting cities.

"I'm obsessed with anything mundane and boring- gas stations, take me there; parking lots, I love them- anything boring," she said. "You take some of these mundane places where we spend a lot of time, and you start thinking about them as, 'what else could this be?'"

Listen now to hear all the thoughts, feelings, and even some controversial takes on urban design, such as the correct parking-spots-per-bowling-lane ratio and why the San Antonio Riverwalk is the best riverwalk.

Lynn's Haiku (co-authored by Alysha):

Flex the space, anew
Human is the center, now:
Past, future, combined.


Lynn's other poem, "Urban Morphology: A Checklist":

Urban morphology, a checklist:
Flex,
humanize,
imagine.


Links:

Dr. Lynn Abdouni: https://engineering.uga.edu/team_member/lynn-abdouni/

Dr. Abdouni's new publication, "Bridging the Gap: Morphological Mapping of the Beqaa’s Vernacular Built Environment": https://cpcl.unibo.it/article/view/16887/17779

Read more about the Proactive Resilience Plan (PReP): https://research.uga.edu/research-insights/proactive-resilience-plan-prep-an-integrated-framework-applied-to-critical-economic-sectors-bjorn-birgisson/