Disaster Continuity for Businesses and Communities in Rural Texas: Investigating Infrastructure, Communication, and Planning Needs

Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to weather shocks. While there is a plethora of publicly available resources on how to prepare for natural disasters, information tailored specifically for small business owners and their business operations and assets is more limited. This project studied the most disaster-vulnerable areas in Texas, particularly the Texas Gulf Coast’s Coastal Bend and Rio Grande Valley regions, with the goal of making small businesses and communities along the coast more disaster resilient. A primary goal of this project was to develop resources for small businesses in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV). They were developed with extensive community input, and the local Chambers of Commerce and the Agrilife Extension Agents have agreed to distribute these materials.IC2 Institut

Energy loss modeling of water main breaks : a hybrid system dynamics-agent based modeling approach

According to the United States Government Accountability Office Energy-Water Nexus Report, the water pipeline infrastructure system is nearing the end of its service life. Up to 50 percent of water is lost, as evidenced by the 240,000 water main breaks that occur each year, estimated by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Water loss in the distribution system leads to additional expenditures for extracting water from natural resources, treatment, pumping, and transporting water into the distribution pipeline network system. Minimizing water losses has the potential to curb the increase in operating costs throughout the distribution system. This paper describes a conceptual System of Systems (SoS) framework for estimating the energy footprint resulting from water main breaks that considers the full cycle of providing drinking water to customers. The paper focuses on the interactions between the water loss in the distribution system and the energy-intensive operational components of the water infrastructure. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge and practice by developing a methodology to quantify the impact of water main breaks on energy consumption and by creating a tool that assists the water utilities as decision-makers in their assessment of the effects of water main breaks on the satisfaction of customers and the revenue loss of water utilities.Non UBCUnreviewedFacultyOthe

Statistical modeling of public attitudes towards water infrastructure retooling alternatives in shrinking cities

Many US cities, such as Gary, Indiana and Detroit, Michigan, have and continue to experience substantial population decline. The footprint of the built infrastructure in these cities does not contract with urban decline, but remains relatively unchanged, consequentially resulting in underfunded and underutilized infrastructure. Right sizing the physical footprint for the current and projected population needs has the potential to stabilize or reduce the rising per capita cost of services. While unilateral infrastructure decisions may save time and money, they pose risks, such as inefficient or unsuccessful implementation or unsustainable infrastructure projects, due to public opposition. The objective of this paper is to assess the public attitude concerning water infrastructure management alternatives. In November 2013, a voluntary survey was deployed to residents of 21 medium or large US shrinking cities. Binary probit models were estimated to determine the demographic and geographic variables influencing the support (or opposition) of five water infrastructure management alternatives. The statistical models indicated that different alternatives have different probabilities of support (or opposition) in varied geographic locations. Demographic variables, such as age, employment status, and income, have a propensity towards (or against) select management alternatives. This study demonstrates a method for understanding and incorporating public opinion into the pre-planning process for potentially reducing public opposition. Potential opposition regarding infrastructure management decisions may be alleviated through participatory processes and targeting identified demographic groups for involvement in new infrastructure projects and decisions.Non UBCUnreviewedFacultyOthe

Legitimization of the Inclusion of Cultural Practices in the Planning of Water and Sanitation Services for Displaced Persons

During large and rapid influxes of displaced persons, hosting communities may face challenges in accommodating incoming populations. This study seeks to assess the institutional response to international displacement in developed urban contexts through exploring how stakeholders (de)legitimized (i.e., either withheld or attributed legitimacy to) the inclusion of cultural practices in the planning of water and sanitation for displaced persons. This study is enabled by 28 semi-structured interviews of individuals involved in the accommodation of displaced persons in Germany conducted in 2016. The interview content was qualitatively analyzed to identify the types of decisions made, legitimacy types used to (de)legitimize those decisions, and information used to assess cultural practices. Results indicate that the institutional response to international displacement was most commonly reactive rather than proactive. However, the interviewees demonstrated a willingness to adapt, primarily using their experiences (comprehensibility legitimacy) and moral considerations (procedural legitimacy). Recommendations to stakeholders arising from this study include: (1) improve access to information about displaced persons’ practices and needs in water and sanitation, (2) collect more information by communicating with displaced persons, (3) promote collaborations between involved organizations, (4) monitor organizational changes during the response, and (5) enhance discussions about integration through the built environment

Regulatory Enforcement Approaches for Mass Population Displacement

During the European Refugee Situation in 2015, Sweden received an influx of forcibly displaced persons seeking asylum, the highest number of asylum seekers per capita among European Union member states. A challenge existed in providing accommodations within the Swedish built environment, in contrast to other housing solutions such as geographically distinct refugee camps. Regulations are one method of maintaining consistent standards of buildings, but they are effective only if they are enforced. During uncertainty, compliance decisions can be based on cognitive understanding (cognitive legitimacy). Otherwise, deterrence-based regulation is rooted in direct consequences (pragmatic legitimacy), and responsive regulation relies on normative motivation (moral legitimacy) for compliance. This study explored the normative aspect of regulatory enforcement through inspections. In 2017, 34 semistructured interviews were conducted with individuals involved with providing temporary accommodations in Sweden during 2015-2016. From these, six interviews with employees of regulatory enforcement agencies were qualitatively analyzed to discover how regulators legitimized. Findings show that regulators justified their inspections predominantly based on what is considered as a socially acceptable approach (procedural legitimacy) and what is understandable based on their personal experience (comprehensibility legitimacy). This study provides practical insight to regulators regarding the benefits for using responsive regulation during institutional responses to mass population displacement in urban communities. Findings will assist in ensuring that the quality of buildings is consistent for the general population and reduces variation in the safety provided by buildings. Additionally, this analysis contributes to the literature addressing mass population displacement and provides new knowledge of organizational legitimacy in technical applications

Regulatory exemptions illustrate the humanitarian-development nexus in highly developed cities

In recent years, forcible displacement has increased around the globe, with significant numbers of people seeking shelter in urban areas. However, increased densification has added pressure to housing in these urban host communities, creating a situation where temporary accommodation is not always readily available. The integration of humanitarian response and pre-existing sustainable development activities is necessary to avoid disruptions to the provision of infrastructure services. This humanitarian-development nexus (HD-nexus) has proven to be difficult to operationalize. Using the experience of Sweden in 2015, this study looks at the provision of temporary accommodation for asylum-seekers within the existing regulatory framework as a place to explore the HD-nexus. Results show that humanitarian actors justify circumventing government institutions to achieve short-term response while development activities operate within these same institutions. Regulatory exemptions are one pathway by which we can observe this fundamental difference between the two approaches. Interviews with 19 individuals from government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private companies were qualitatively analyzed to relate legitimacy with humanitarian response and development logics in the context of providing temporary accommodation. Results show that although formal regulatory definitions of temporary for temporary accommodations exist, this is not always adopted by stakeholders, leading to regulatory exemptions and non-compliance. Findings support decision-makers in improving response time and coordination for future events, and development goals of sustainable urban development

Assessing the Impact of Water Contamination Events on the Willingness to Pay for Improved Water Quality in Shrinking Cities

The underutilization of water infrastructure in shrinking cities can decrease water quality and impact public perceptions of water safety. To better understand this issue, we explore the influence of water contamination events on the consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for improved water quality. This study is enabled by a survey distributed to 21 U.S. shrinking cities in 2019 (n = 521) and an evaluation using qualitative content analyses and statistical modeling. Respondents with knowledge of water contamination events within their city had a WTP (15.4%) higher than that of those without knowledge of such events (9.1%). Additionally, respondents aware of nationwide water contamination events had a WTP (14.6%) that was higher than that of those unaware of such events (13.8%). The most referenced water contamination events were “do-not-drink” advisories or reports of chemical contamination. Tobit regression models were used to determine statistically significant parameters affecting the WTP for improved water quality. Notably, statistically significant parameters impacting WTP were different for those aware of water contamination events versus those that were unaware, highlighting the impact of water contamination events on residents’ WTP. These results can help water utilities enable public participation in decision-making processes and gain support for policy changes for water quality improvements

A stakeholder-systems analysis of water provision in rural Alaska

People are paramount in the operations of water infrastructure systems. While such processes are similar throughout most communities in the United States, including treatment and distribution, each community encounters localized challenges. In the Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) Delta of Alaska, specifically, water sector professionals (e.g., water plant operators and water haulers) encounter unique and extreme challenges. The harsh arctic weather makes road navigation dangerous for water haulers, and water plant operators must contend with a precarious supply chain when ordering supplies for maintenance. Such challenges can disrupt water provision for communities. In this study, we analyze semistructured interviews with 24 Alaska water sector professionals, using qualitative content analysis and semicognitive mapping. We built a conceptual integration of systems and stakeholder theory to identify barriers to water provision and leverage points for improvement. We examine three components of the water provision process in rural Alaska communities: water treatment, hauled water distribution, and piped water distribution. We show that to increase workforce retention, limit worker burnout, and ensure reliable water provision, practices including training and certification need to become more localized. Moreover, working conditions and operating environment around the worker need to be more central in water system considerations, especially for water hauling, where workers play a critical role in water distribution. This analysis reveals a key conclusion that underlies all our propositions: people are a leverage point for water provision improvement. In so doing, we contribute to the literature in public administration and bureaucracy, sociotechnical systems, and stakeholder theory as applied to infrastructure systems, more generally, and water systems, more specifically

Ethical Development in Undergraduate Engineering: Results from a Multi-University Survey

During undergraduate engineering education, curriculum often focuses on technical knowledge rather than ethical development. The role of ethics within the engineering profession, whether broadly or as it applies to specific circumstances, is often given a cursory lesson rather than being woven throughout the curriculum for optimal understanding. When ethics is incorporated into curriculum, programs tend to focus on microethics concerning issues that arise in particular contexts and interactions between individuals, rather than macroethics that address societal concerns more broadly. Notably, students often obtain an informal ethics education—i.e., education outside of the classroom— through involvement in student organizations, internships, or daily interactions with peers. For instance, a student interning at a water resources engineering firm might visit the project site of a stormwater revitalization. Upon visiting, the student can recognize the disparities between communities that typically receive these services fist and those communities of color and lower socioeconomic status that are often ignored. Witnessing this unjust system firsthand can encourage that student to consider systemic inequities in future work. Experiences such as this contribute to a student’s ethical development and can impact their work as an engineering professional. In this study, we aim to understand the differences in ethical development among students based on sociodemographic factors. In April 2020, we deployed a survey to undergraduate students at two universities to assess ethical development using the Defining Issues Test (DIT). The results of this test include a numeric rating indicating the student’s level of ethical development based on Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development. By using the DIT, we were able to produce a standardized metric to evaluate ethical development across universities, majors, and sociodemographic factors. We used statistical inferencing to explore how sociodemographics were associated with ethics. Here we present the survey analyses, showing that certain demographics may impact a student’s ethical development. For instance, the preliminary results of this study show that women scored higher on the DIT than men. Additionally, those students who identified as liberal had a higher score than those who identified as conservative, and those who identified as less religious scored higher than those who identified as very religious. These results suggest that ethical decisions are grounded in political and religious beliefs. Further research can identify why and how political and religious views influence ethical decision-making.This conference proceeding is published as LaPatin, Michaela Leigh, Cristina Poleacovschi, Kate Padgett Walsh, Scott Grant Feinstein, Luan Minh Nguyen, and Kasey M. Faust. "Ethical Development in Undergraduate Engineering: Results from a Multi-University Survey." In 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access. 2021. https://peer.asee.org/37099. ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2021 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. Posted with permission

Standardization versus situatedness: a gray literature metasynthesis of how guidance for Alaska’s water infrastructure management varies by government level

The success of water system operation, maintenance, and management (OMM) critically depends on the local workforce. Extreme environmental conditions, limited financial resources, challenging supply chains, and increased technological requirements especially challenge the workforce to equitably and reliably deliver such OMM services in Alaska. To better understand these challenges, this paper presents a metasynthesis of the gray literature regarding water system management in Alaska, with a particular focus on workforce development and OMM regulation. This synthesis was conducted based on qualitatively coding 49 documents that were representative of the full corpus of 183 documents identified on this topic. While prior work tends to focus on a single regulatory level (national or state), this metasynthesis reveals important differences that occur between regulatory levels of government. More specifically, we find federal and state governments focus more on standardization (one size fits all), while regional and local governments focus more on situatedness (tailoring for every circumstance). This may have equity implications for water utilities in Alaska and other Arctic regions where national and state standards drastically differ and overlook local needs. We find that this theme of standardization versus situatedness may generalize to other state water systems, especially those with similar conditions as Alaska (such as Wyoming and Montana), as well as in other sectors in Alaska beyond water (such as environmental management, nursing, and aviation). Given the multilevel governance of water system OMM, these findings suggest that training materials and programs, certification processes, financial support, and policy decisions could be more effective if they consider the local context in which these water systems are situated more, especially when local conditions markedly differ from national norms. Such an approach may help better ensure more reliable and equitable access to safe drinking water in extreme settings such as those in Alaska and in the Arctic, more generally