Water Resources & Infrastructure
Similar to the field of epidemiology, we only notice a disaster when it happens. Sadly, as a result, success in this field often feels unquantifiable –we can’t say we’re doing a good job because x many people didn’t have their homes flooded this past summer.
In water resources, it’s all about risk probability and predictions. But water infrastructure is the domain of basic human rights, and there is a psychological disconnect about the ripple effects good infrastructure can have on individual well-being and the quality of life in a community. It often takes a long time to see benefit from a serious infrastructure investment, and return on investment is typically the factor that drives the work.
My technical rigor and analytical expertise are both rare and essential for non-profit and policy work. The work I’ve done around water resources and interconnected water and wastewater challenges has guided engineers and organizations across sectors.
Climate Science & Justice
Through my experiences in climate work I’ve found that science and the lived experiences of communities often tell the exact same story.
Climate change research shows us that hundred year events are soon to be fifty year events, making innovative community-centered solutions all the more pressing. Integrating humility and balance with a creative research process positions me to support community-based organizations in backing up their work with strong science.
A map can serve as a central communication piece, often the main way for communicating climate models and engineering concepts to the public, government, or whoever else is looking. With engineers, nonprofits, and academics, I have utilized and analyzed a variety of economic, climatic, hydrologic, and social data and created compelling maps, presentations, and reports based on these analyses to communicate complex topics.
Outreach I’ve done in the communities we were researching across multiple projects show that the people we talked to felt that they were disinvested in, and that their community suffers from flooding because of poor infrastructure and planning. It illuminated the other half of the same truth: that lived experience comes from the observation of one’s own life. Unbiased logic and unbiased emotion both arrived at the same conclusion.
Civil Engineering & the Public Duty
Engineering is a business, not a science. Urban planners and policy makers can sometimes see science and engineering as the same, when in reality, the role of the engineer is quite similar to that of a physician. They synthesize the work of researchers and scientists and serve as the last link between the work and the people. Like physicians, they are the ones left to deal with liability.
Civil engineers get orders from the government to affect change. Those government contracts steer budget directives, meaning policy makers and the government set engineering standards and priorities. The political implications of this is that design standards can take a while to catch up to pressing community needs and climate impacts, and civil engineering is often done just as it has been for the last 100 years.
My role is to function as an innovator by informing decision makers how our public infrastructure is designed and impacts people of all backgrounds.
I have used data and mapping skills to create demand projections for water use, combed through dense policy documents to source data around resource allocation, and have done the crucial networking with engineering firms and government agencies. I employ a blend of investigative research, engineering analysis, and stakeholder engagement in this work.
Organizational Consulting
My private and public experience allow me to identify blind spots on both the technical and/or justice sides of a project. By providing analysis on the scientific approach of a project or policy through thought partnering and strategizing with colleagues, I have helped refocus teams and redirect strategic priorities around research, implementation, or community engagement.
I have conducted the public outreach component on behalf of environmental consulting and engineering companies, and have provided technical expertise to non-profits who lack that position in-house through data modeling, database management, and as a project manager.
SN Climate Consulting 