Seminar

World Water Day 2025

Julie Grant — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 19:27:55 +0000

World Water Day 2025 Julie Grant Wed, 02/05/2025 - 14:27

Celebrate World Water Day 2025 with the Water Institute! Join us for a full-day conference featuring inspiring keynote speakers, a showcase of innovative student research, award presentations, networking opportunities, and a complimentary lunch. Don't miss this exciting event!

Friday, March 21, 2025 - 10:00 am - 3:30 pm
University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, ��ݮ��Ƶ Centre (SLC) Black and Gold Room,
200 University Avenue West, ��ݮ��Ƶ, ON, Canada N2L 3G

Agenda

10:00 am - 10:30 am

Registration and Refreshments

10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Dr. M Jackson
The Secret Lives of Glaciers

Join Dr. M Jackson, a National Geographic Explorer and glaciologist, as she shares tales of her expeditions of glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic, and explains how our changing climate is impacting these icy giants and the communities that rely on them.

12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Lunch and Student Research Showcase

2:00 pm - 2:15 pm

Presentation of the Collaborative Water Program 2025 Alumni Award

2:15 pm - 3:15 pm

Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Re-Imagining a New Way Forward with Intention

Join Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and author of The Right To Be Cold, as she explores challenges that the Arctic and Inuit communities face in a globalized world and how ancient cultures can help inform sustainable futures.

3:15 pm - 3:30 pm

Closing Remarks and Awards

4:00 pm

SWIGS Evening Social

Join the Society of the Water Institute Graduate Students (SWIGS) for an opportunity to network and have fun!

This is a free, in-person event open to U��ݮ��Ƶ and community members.
Registration is required and space is limited. Should you register and no longer be able to attend, please email water.institute@uwaterloo.ca

World Wetlands Day 2025

Julie Grant — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 19:52:37 +0000

World Wetlands Day 2025 Julie Grant Fri, 01/24/2025 - 14:52

13^th Annual World Wetlands Day at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ

About World Wetlands Day

World Wetlands Day (WWD) is celebrated each year on February 2^nd, which marks the day when the Convention on Wetlands was adopted in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran. The Convention is an international government agreement acknowledging the importance of wetlands and plays a central role in the wise use and conservation of these critical ecosystems. To learn more about the Convention, visit: www.ramsar.org

World Wetlands Day 2025 Registration

The University of ��ݮ��Ƶ’s WWD event will be held in person in the Federation Hall (FED) on Monday, February 3rd, 2025 from 4:00 to 7:00 pm EST.

The event will consist of a poster session and reception followed by a distinguished lecture by Dr. Hilary Dugan, entitled:

"Should we care about freshwater salinization?"

Registration for World Wetlands Day 2025 is open! Click here to register.

Water infrastructure in resource-constrained shrinking and expanding cities: The impact on water quality and public health

Julie Grant — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 19:35:27 +0000

Water infrastructure in resource-constrained shrinking and expanding cities: The impact on water quality and public health Julie Grant Mon, 01/20/2025 - 14:35

As part of the Water Institute's WaterTalks lecture series, Dr. Nancy G. Love, JoAnn Silverstein Distinguished University Professor, Borchardt and Glysson Collegiate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, will present: Water infrastructure in resource-constrained shrinking and expanding cities: The impact on water quality and public health.

This event is in person in DC 1302 with a networking lunch reception to follow in DC 1301 (The Fishbowl). Registration for the networking lunch is now closed.

More information

Across the world, in both the Global North and Global South, rapid shifts are occurring where people reside. Today, approximately 15% of the U.S. population, or 48 million people, live in what are called “shrinking cities” while the majority of the world’s population growth is occurring in the expanding cities of the Global South. In both these cases, the population shift has a direct impact on the performance of urban water infrastructure and create situations where extended water storage is the norm. This can impose risks upon public health due, in part, to reduced microbial stability in distributed drinking water and enhanced microbial regrowth of opportunistic pathogens that pose a risk for selected sectors of the population. In both cases, residents often migrate toward point-of-use water management strategies, which may solve some public health challenges and introduce others. In this talk, I will lay out the challenges in these urban cases, discuss case studies from field campaigns in Michigan (USA) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) that demonstrate these challenges, and offer discussion points for future opportunities.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Nancy G. Love is the JoAnn Silverstein Distinguished University Professor and the Borchardt and Glysson Collegiate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University Michigan. In collaboration with her students, Dr. Love works at the interface of water, infrastructure, environmental quality, and public health in both domestic and global settings. The group is focused on understanding how engineering design and operation of water systems influence sustainability and equitable access to healthy water services and advancing methods to achieve a circular nutrient economy. Their core work centers on identifying and translating fundamental understanding into practical solutions for water utilities and communities. She has co-authored about 140 peer-reviewed papers and around 350 book chapters, major reports, editorials, conference abstracts and papers, and a textbook on biological wastewater treatment. Dr. Love has held leadership positions in multiple organizations, including the Water Environment Federation (WEF), the International Water Association (IWA), and the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), and is a Fellow of all three. She is a licensed professional engineer (P.E.) in the State of Michigan and a Board Certified Environmental Engineer (BCEE).

On the swamp: Indigenous environmental justice across North Carolina’s coastal plain

Julie Grant — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 15:42:49 +0000

On the swamp: Indigenous environmental justice across North Carolina’s coastal plain Julie Grant Fri, 01/17/2025 - 10:42

As part of the Water Institute's WaterTalks lecture series, Dr. Ryan Emmanuel, Associate Professor of Hydrology, Duke University, North Carolina, US, will present: On the swamp: Indigenous environmental justice across North Carolina’s coastal plain.

This event is in person in DC 1302 with a networking lunch reception to follow in DC 1301 (The Fishbowl).

More information

Despite centuries of settler colonialism, Lumbee people and their Indigenous neighbors still occupy parts of their ancestral homelands among forested swamps, sandy plains, and blackwater streams of present-day North Carolina. Amid these backwaters, Indigenous communities have adapted to a radically transformed world while preserving cultures and connections to place. In recent decades, pollution, unsustainable development, and climate change have quickened the transformation of their homelands and threatened the future of their communities. In this talk, I share stories from about Indigenous survival, adaptation, and resurgence across North Carolina’s Coastal Plain in a time of rapid environmental change. These stories convey broader lessons about environmental justice and Indigenous rights, including lessons for environmental scientists whose work may benefit from deeper consideration of these concepts.

Speaker Bio

Ryan Emanuel is an associate professor of hydrology at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, and he is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. At Duke, Emanuel leads a research group that studies the impacts of climate change, pollution, and unsustainable development on water, ecosystems, and society. His group also partners with Indigenous communities to understand environmental change through the lenses of environmental justice and Indigenous rights. Before joining Duke in 2022, Emanuel was a professor of hydrology at North Carolina State University. His book, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice was published in 2024 by the University of North Carolina Press.

WaterTalk | Unbottled: Plastic Water, Inequality, and Water Justice

Julie Grant — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 18:32:57 +0000

WaterTalk | Unbottled: Plastic Water, Inequality, and Water Justice Julie Grant Thu, 12/05/2024 - 13:32

As part of the Water Institute's WaterTalks lecture series, Daniel Jaffee, Professor of Sociology at Portland State University, Oregon, US, will present Unbottled: Plastic Water, Inequality, and Water Justice.

This WaterTalk will be held online via Zoom.

More information

In only four decades, bottled water has transformed from a luxury niche good into a ubiquitous consumer product, representing a $320 billion market led by global food and beverage firms. It sits at the nexus of the crises of single-use plastic waste and affordable access to safe drinking water, and struggles over the fate of public water systems. This talk explores the dynamics of packaged water’s rapid growth in the global North and South and considers the implications for sustainability, social inequality, and the human right to water. It addresses how bottled water consumption and spending in the U.S. vary along lines of class, race, and ethnicity, how they relate to uneven threats to and trust in tap water safety, and how the bottled water industry has responded. It also examines the diverse social movements that have emerged to challenge bottled water’s growth and their impact on the industry’s fortunes.

Speaker Bio

Daniel Jaffee is an environmental and rural sociologist and Professor of Sociology at Portland State University. His research examines conflicts over water commodification and privatization; the social, environmental, and economic impacts of bottled and packaged water; and social movements around bottled water and water justice in the global North and South. His most recent book, Unbottled, was published by University of California Press in 2023. He received his Ph.D. in 2006 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Website: https://www.danieljaffee.net

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative – Challenges and opportunities for freshwater cities in an era of transformation

Julie Grant — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 18:36:03 +0000

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative – Challenges and opportunities for freshwater cities in an era of transformation Julie Grant Fri, 11/15/2024 - 13:36

As part of the Water Institute's Webinar Series: The Value of Water in Canada

Phillipe Murphy-Rhéaume, Chief Development Officer and Max Hayet, Canada Policy Manager, The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, present:

Opportunities and Challenges for Fresh Coast Cities

Value interactions between water and hydropower in Ontario Power Generation

Julie Grant — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 17:35:01 +0000

Value interactions between water and hydropower in Ontario Power Generation Julie Grant Fri, 11/01/2024 - 13:35

As part of the Water Institute's Webinar Series: The Value of Water in Canada, Kurt Kornelsen, Director, Environment and Climate Change, Ontario Power Generation, presents:

Value interactions between water and hydropower in Ontario Power Generation

Wastewater process intensification: Using biological process design to increase the hydraulic and treatment capacity of a municipal wastewater treatment plant

Julie Grant — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 12:45:08 +0000

Wastewater process intensification: Using biological process design to increase the hydraulic and treatment capacity of a municipal wastewater treatment plant Julie Grant Tue, 10/29/2024 - 08:45

As part of the Water Institute's WaterTalks lecture series, Dr. Belinda Sturm, Director Kansas NSF EPSCoR, Professor and Ross McKinney Faculty Fellow, University of Kansas, Kansas, US, will present: Wastewater process intensification: Using biological process design to increase the hydraulic and treatment capacity of a municipal wastewater treatment plant.

This event is in person in DC 1302 with a networking lunch reception to follow in DC 1301 (The Fishbowl).

More information

Municipal water and resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) serve as a catchment for urban water systems, with influent loads of carbon, nutrients, pathogens and emerging contaminants, such as microplastics. These facilities are under pressure to expand capacity due to urbanization, climate change, and increasingly stringent discharge requirements. The treatment capacity of wastewater treatment plants is often limited by the settling properties (clarifier operation) of the sludge rather than the conversion/removal capacity, especially during wet weather conditions. Sludge densification or the formation of granular sludge aims to provide a biological process in which slow-growing populations (nitrifiers, polyphosphate-accumulating organisms, and anaerobic ammonia oxidizers) can be maintained within a fast-settling particle. While the majority of AGS research has focused on factors that affect granule formation and efficient biological nutrient removal, the AGS matrix has significant advantages for removing pathogens and other contaminants, which make this technology even more impactful for WRRFs. This presentation will provide an overview of design approaches within continuous flow and sequencing batch reactor systems that have been shown to improve sludge settleability and form granules. The resulting solids flux curves have been measured to determine the implications for clarifier and overall plant capacity. The presentation will address how sludge densification or granular sludge can be used for process intensification and improved plant resiliency.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Belinda Sturm is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering at the University of Kansas and the statewide Director of the Kansas National Science Foundation EPSCoR program. Belinda joined KU in 2006 and served as the Associate Vice Chancellor of Research from 2018 to 2022. At the national and international level, Belinda serves as on the Board of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, Chair of the Water Environment Federation’s Municipal Design Symposium, and as Past-Chair of the International Water Association’s USA National Committee Executive Board.

Belinda earned her B.S. in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her PhD in Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Sturm’s primary research interest is the use of microbial communities in water reclamation and resource recovery from municipal wastewater. In 2012, the American Academy of Environmental Engineers awarded Belinda an Excellence in Environmental Engineering honor award for her research on coupling nutrient removal with algae-mediated energy recovery. In 2022, the Water Research Foundation awarded Belinda the Paul L. Busch Award to further research on aerobic granular sludge.

Mapping and quantifying health effects of inequities in community water service in North Carolina, USA

Julie Grant — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 18:34:54 +0000

Mapping and quantifying health effects of inequities in community water service in North Carolina, USA Julie Grant Mon, 09/23/2024 - 14:34

As part of the Water Institute's WaterTalks lecture series, Dr. Jackie MacDonald Gibson, Department Head and Professor, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, NC State University, Raleigh, NC, US, will present: Mapping and quantifying health effects of inequities in community water service in North Carolina, USA.

This event is in person in DC 1302 with a networking reception to follow in DC 1301 (The Fishbowl).

Speaker Bio

Dr. Jackie MacDonald Gibson is Head of the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University. Dr. Gibson’s research has characterized and sought solutions to eliminate inequities in access to safe, reliable drinking water services in North Carolina and beyond. She also has conducted citizen science research with environmental justice communities to characterize exposure to environmental hazards and the resulting health effects. She was selected for the Community-Based Participatory Research Partnership Academy 2022-2023 cohort, a program funded by the National Institutes of Health and administered by the University of Michigan. Her research develops quantitative methods to characterize environmental risks to human health and to identify optimal technical and policy solutions. She earned a dual PhD from the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University; an MS from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign; and a BA in mathematics from Bryn Mawr College. She is currently a topic editor for Environmental Science & Technology.

Fixing Water

Julie Grant — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 13:52:47 +0000

Fixing Water Julie Grant Wed, 09/18/2024 - 09:52

As part of the Water Institute's Webinar Series: The Value of Water in Canada, Derek Davy, CEO, Econse Water Technologies Inc., presents:

Seminar

World Water Day 2025

Agenda

10:00 am - 10:30 am

Registration and Refreshments

10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Dr. M JacksonThe Secret Lives of Glaciers

12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Lunch and Student Research Showcase

2:00 pm - 2:15 pm

Presentation of the Collaborative Water Program 2025 Alumni Award

2:15 pm - 3:15 pm

Sheila Watt-CloutierRe-Imagining a New Way Forward with Intention

3:15 pm - 3:30 pm

Closing Remarks and Awards

4:00 pm

SWIGS Evening Social

World Wetlands Day 2025

13th Annual World Wetlands Day at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ

About World Wetlands Day

World Wetlands Day 2025 Registration

Water infrastructure in resource-constrained shrinking and expanding cities: The impact on water quality and public health

More information

Speaker Bio

On the swamp: Indigenous environmental justice across North Carolina’s coastal plain

More information

Speaker Bio

WaterTalk | Unbottled: Plastic Water, Inequality, and Water Justice

More information

Speaker Bio

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative – Challenges and opportunities for freshwater cities in an era of transformation

Opportunities and Challenges for Fresh Coast Cities

Value interactions between water and hydropower in Ontario Power Generation

Value interactions between water and hydropower in Ontario Power Generation

Wastewater process intensification: Using biological process design to increase the hydraulic and treatment capacity of a municipal wastewater treatment plant

More information

Speaker Bio

Mapping and quantifying health effects of inequities in community water service in North Carolina, USA

Speaker Bio

Fixing Water

Fixing Water

Dr. M Jackson
The Secret Lives of Glaciers

Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Re-Imagining a New Way Forward with Intention

13^th Annual World Wetlands Day at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ