Sowmithra M's Senior Project Blog

Project Title: Sustainable Transitions Across Urban Water Systems 
BASIS Advisor: Wendy Sandor
Internship Location: ASU
Onsite Mentor: Dr. Margaret Garcia



Project Abstract

This project aims to understand the push and pull factors of transitions to more sustainable urban water systems by looking at Phoenix, Miami, and Detroit. All 3 cities have various rates of success in implementing sustainable methods such as water conservation, climate resilient infrastructure, and water source diversification. I am focusing on the following questions: how comprehensive are current sustainability frameworks of urban water systems and how can they be improved in the context of various environmental and human factors such as nature based solutions, migration, and climate change? Presently, the federal government is setting aside more money than it ever has before for water infrastructure. Making efficient and effective use of this money is highly important for the betterment of not only society itself, but also urban city planning. The intended result is to operationalize and identify three to five major sustainable transition markers. Additionally, it hopes to highlight regional differences and explain why one general system is inefficient.

    My Posts:

  • Conclusion

    Hi everyone! I’ve come a long way since my first introduction post for this project. As I am putting the finishing touches on my final project and presentation, I’d like to start by thanking a few individuals. First off, Dr. Garcia has been an amazing guiding figure and has given me several opportunities to explore.... Read More

  • Final Touches

    Hi everyone! Since last week, I have received feedback from Dr. Garcia on the Phoenix data narrative. I made those edits and sent in first drafts of the data narratives for Miami and Detroit. I am currently waiting to get feedback on those 2 drafts. Next, there has been a change in my final project.... Read More

  • Continuing the Data Narrative

    Hi everyone! Last week, Dr. Garcia was unfortunately out sick, so I am still waiting on some feedback from her. I will be meeting with her in person on Wednesday to discuss the final project and give her an update on due dates and such as the senior project is wrapping up.  Since then, I’ve... Read More

  • Writing a Data Narrative

    Hi everyone! Last week, I met with Sara, a PhD student, and she taught me a lot about using ggplot in RStudio and other general things about the program. Afterwards, I had my meeting with Dr. Garcia and discussed my final project with her. I realized a major barrier for me would be time. I... Read More

  • Constructing the Timeline

    Hi everyone! This past week I finished watching the recorded meetings for each city and got a feel for what each one is presently focusing on. Phoenix has thus far utilized voluntary measures and public education for water conservation, but now, with the Colorado River Shortage, the City has begun to explore requirements and rebates... Read More

  • Drawing Connections

    Hey everyone! I’d like to start off by talking about my discussion last week with Koorosh, the post-doc student. We talked about his work and what he looks at. Unlike Dr. Garcia who looks at the acceleration period of a transition, Koorosh looks at post-transition and how changes affect the community. I also asked him... Read More

  • Identifying General Themes

    Hey everyone! I have now finished sifting through Dr. Garcia’s data for an initial comparison. I looked at a lot of different documents from city charters and annual financial reports to water infrastructure design plans and drought reports. One challenge I faced was that there often was yearly data of the same type of reports.... Read More

  • Looking Into Data Part 2

    Hey everyone! This will be a shorter blog post as I’m continuing much of what I was doing last week. I’ve finished sorting through the initial data for Miami and Detroit. Today, I will get started on data on Phoenix’s urban water system. Dr. Garcia has the most data on Phoenix out of the 3... Read More

  • Looking Into Data

    Hi everyone! My ASU Seminar from last week went well. We had a guest speaker, Nathan Miller from Matrix New World Engineering, present on groundwater modeling for water resources management in Arizona. He talked about groundwater flow models, Arizona water policy, and if Arizona is running out of water. After this seminar, I gave Dr.... Read More

  • Standardized Measures for Assessing Sustainability

    Hi everyone! Last week, I left off on going in person to meet Dr. Garcia. In that meeting, Dr. Garcia explained different parts of her project and the variables they use. She shared that standardized measures are important for empirical analysis. Keeping that in mind, we discussed the Vanderbilt Water Conservation Index, Treuer et. al’s... Read More

  • Exploring Sustainable Urban Water Management

    Hello everyone! In this blog, I’ll talk about existing literature, tutorials on R (a programming language), and other work I’ll be doing.    I’ve been reading papers, project summaries, and articles about sustainable urban water management (SUWM). I mainly want to highlight a few things. Delivering Sustainable Urban Water Management: a review of the hurdles we... Read More

  • Introduction

    Hey everyone! My name is Sowmithra Muthulakshmi Prakash. Welcome to my first senior project blog post. I am interested in going into environmental engineering and public policy with a focus on urban and rural water systems. This interest was sparked by personal and educational experiences. I have spent hours on my grandparent’s rural farms and... Read More