Sustainability and Water at Michigan Technological University

Overview

The sustainability of water resources is an area of highly active, cross-disciplinary research, education, and outreach efforts throughout Michigan Technological University. The main areas of emphasis include aquatic ecosystem science, physical hydrology, drinking and waste water treatment, engineered water resources systems, integrated watershed science, restoration of aquatic systems, fate and transport mechanisms in aquatic systems, water resource economics, analysis of water resource policy, and human perceptions of water resources issues. Michigan Tech's Center for Water and Society, which includes 40 participating faculty and staff from 10 academic units, acts as an umbrella for fostering initiatives that cut across disciplines.

Major Initiatives

The sustainability of the Great Lakes basin, especially the Lake Superior basin, is an area of intensive activity at Michigan Tech. Faculty and students study topics such as carbon cycling, air-water exchange of pollutants, food web dynamics, transport of chemical and particulate material, watershed dynamics, policies on resource protection and extraction, climate change impacts, ballast water treatment, invasive species, and interactions between these topics. This work includes collaboration with government agencies and other universities within the region.

A highly interdisciplinary PhD program on the sustainability of Lake Superior has been proposed recently and funding is being sought to support this program. A new NSF/MUSES-funded project on modeling and analyzing the use, efficiency, value, and governance of water as a material in the Great Lakes region will begin this Fall, and will include faculty from environmental engineering, geology, and economics. A new, Lake Superior Coastal Research Laboratory has been proposed and is expected to be funded at a $20 million level this year. Faculty, staff and students are involved in intensive K-12 and community outreach efforts on water related issues around the Great Lakes.

Michigan Tech faculty and students are engaged in research and education activities in lesser-developed countries around the world. Environmental Engineering Peace Corps Master's, International Senior Design, Engineers without Borders, and other related programs have largely focused on water sustainability issues in developing countries. These activities garnered significant national and international recognition. Activities involving research and education on water sustainability issues in Sonora state, Mexico have been funded to the level of more than $1 million to date. These activities have included more than 10 Michigan Tech faculty from four Michigan Tech units and diverse disciplines from within those units.

Opportunities

We are seeking faculty that will move us into new directions, complement existing strengths, and continue to build bridges between disciplines. Example topic areas of interest include: public health issues associated with water quality and scarcity, impact of climate change on aquatic systems and water availability and quality for human usage, water supply and sewer infrastructure; human behavior with regard to water use, water quality, and aquatic ecosystem issues; applications of sustainability concepts/systems analysis for managing water resources; development of technologies for sustaining and assessing water resources (i.e. water conservation, water treatment, sensor networks); interactions between water sustainability and materials, energy, and manufacturing sustainability; water compartment and hydrosphere-terrestrial-biosphere-atmosphere interfaces, and engineering and policy advances toward achieving United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Contact

Dr. Kathy Halvorsen, Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences & School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, 906-487-2824, kehalvor@mtu.edu.