Thanks to all who attended and made this conference possible!

Establishing the Research Agenda
March 26-27, 2008

Overview

On March 26-27 2008, the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute (GESI) will sponsor a conference to identify research needs and opportunities in support of regional, national, international, and global issues concerning water, human health, and the environment.

The relationships between water and human health, as well as the broad goals of sustainability, are becoming more complex, and problems associated with them more urgent. The issues span multiple spatial and temporal scales, and solutions require multidisciplinary approaches. Areas of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Increased demand and competition for water among industrial, agricultural, and municipal users
• Equitable pricing and access to safe water
• Degraded water-protecting habitats, such as wetlands and watersheds
• Increased prevalence of persistent pollutants in drinking water
• Increased water-borne infectious disease
• Growth of cyanobacteria and production of toxins such as microcystins
• Lack of potable water in poor communities and developing nations
• Impacts of global warming on water availability and probability of flooding and droughts
• Rehabilitation of aging water/wastewater treatment infrastructures
• Effective strategies for potential biological, chemical, and radiological threats
• Cost-effective water and wastewater treatment in developed and developing nations
• Advanced technologies for reclamation/re-use of compromised water supplies

The conference goal is to provide a forum for scientists, engineers, policy, and health researchers to engage each other as well as government, industrial, and non-governmental organization leaders to craft multidisciplinary approaches that address water and related human health concerns.


Conference Goals

• Identify research challenges that require collaborative, multidisciplinary approaches
• Highlight research underway in the field
• Present and refine "white papers" that lead to potential proposals for GESI and external funding agencies

Symposium Costs

Attendance to the symposium is free for U-M researchers. Individuals external to the U-M are encouraged to attend, but are required to pay a $100 registration fee. Please follow the link on the left side of this page to complete the online registration process.




Conference Topics:

In response to the opportunity to contribute to the conference, the Graham Institute is pleased to announce the following topics have been selected to serve as conference focal areas:

• The Energy-Water Nexus: Climate Change Impacts on Energy Production and Water Allocation
  PI: C. M. Lastoskie, College of Engineering, University of Michigan


• Sustainable Control of Water-Associated Diseases: A Systems Approach
  PI: S. Batterman, School of Public Health, The University of Michigan


• Spread of Antibiotic Resistance in Water Environments and Impacts on Human Health
  PI: O. Jolliet, School of Public Health, The University of Michigan


• Emerging Biological and Chemical Contaminants in Rural Water Systems
  PI: I. Xagoraraki, College of Engineering, Michigan State University


• Global Sustainable Water Systems: Acknowledging Wastewater as a Resource
  PI: N. Love, College of Engineering, The University of Michigan


• Cyberinfrastructure for Risk Forecasting and Communication: Application to the Great Lakes Observatory Systems
  PI: P. Adriaens, College of Engineering and Ross School of Business, The University of Michigan

These submissions, from multidisciplinary research teams, will be highlighted at the conference through plenary presentations as well as being the topic of a conference breakout session.

The purpose of these breakout sessions are to:

1. Highlight specific research issues integral to these topics
2. Foster the exchange of ideas with an emphasis on promoting cross-disciplinary, multi-sector discussions

Specifically, one of the major goals of the conference is to give experts in water/health research across the country the opportunity to discuss these topics, provide feedback, as well as foster the development of new interdisciplinary approaches on these issues.

A distinguished panel of experts on water and health research selected these topics. The Graham Institute would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their efforts:

Thomas Burke, Ph.D., MPH
Professor and Director, Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University

Kimberly A. Gray, Ph.D.
Professor and Director, Environmental Programs Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Northwestern University

Joan B. Rose, Ph.D.
Homer Nowlin Endowed Chair of Water Research Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Michigan State University

A preliminary agenda of conference activities can be found here. Please refer back to this site for updates.


Conference Sponsors

The Graham Institute graciously thanks the following sponsors for the support of this conference:

Gold Sponsors
NSF International
U-M College of Engineering

Silver Sponsors
Civil and Environmental Engineering, U-M College of Engineering
Environmental Law and Policy Program, U-M Law School
Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise
U-M School of Public Health
Shell Group

Updates & Questions

Updates will be posted to this Web site. Comments and/or suggestions are welcome. Please direct them to the Graham Fellow for Research Development, Jeremy D. Semrau, at jsemrau@umich.edu.





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