CESI/JEDI’s next lecture is entitled “When Things Don’t Go as Planned: Population Dynamics and Water Infrastructure.” Check it out on April 27th at 1:30 pm PST. Get the zoom link here.

Learn more about the lecture by continuing to read.

This talk explores the consequences of population dynamics and our city infrastructure through a systems lens, with a focus on vulnerable populations. Our cities—both in the US and worldwide— are designed to support a certain number of people and follow a pre-planned growth trajectory. When cities do not follow this plan over the long-term, we are challenged to continue to provide quality services (e.g. water, sanitation, housing) to the existing residents, with catastrophic consequences when we fail to effectively adapt. What happens when, overnight, we have 250,000 people arrive due to disaster migration like seen in Houston after Katrina, or Berlin during the refugee crisis in 2016?  What role does culture play in hosting these displaced persons and the provision of services provided to them on arrival? What if these displaced persons are coming from developing communities from different cultures, to a developed nation with entirely different infrastructure, causing rapid international mass migration? On the other hand, What happens to our cities when half of the population moves away like seen in Detroit or Flint leaving behind a community with poverty rates of upwards of 40% or more? These questions and others will be answered in this talk to understand how cities persist worldwide in dynamic environments.

Dr. Kasey Faust is an Assistant Professor in Construction Engineering and Project Management in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (2015-present). Her research on sociotechnical systems—primarily water sector infrastructure—aims to improve service to communities. Dr. Faust’s work spans the project phase during construction through the operations phase, exploring human-infrastructure interactions, infrastructure interdependencies, and the institutional environment. Current studies within her research group include: human-water sector infrastructure interdependencies in cities experiencing urban decline; disaster migration and the resilience of the built environment; incorporating equity into water infrastructure decision-making; sociotechnical modeling of infrastructure systems; the impact of policies and regulations on the built environment; understanding the impact of institutional elements on projects; and modeling of public perceptions.