Congratulations, Clara and Sam, for their first Osman Lab article in ERL!

We are thrilled to share that Clara and Sam published their first Osman Lab article focused on green stormwater infrastructure in ERL!

In their own words, “our recent ERL publication, Evaluating perceptions of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) through a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, was written in collaboration with our community partners in Houston, Bayou City Waterkeeper (BCWK) as part of an effort to emphasize the importance of lived experience in engineering research. This paper discusses our exploratory data collection process, where we traveled to Houston and Baytown, TX, to conduct focus groups with community flood experts – including long-time residents, business owners, and former local government employees – to gauge their perceptions of green stormwater infrastructure as a potential nature-based solution for urban flooding.

Using community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods, we emphasized the importance of partnering with well-established community partners to build trust in historically marginalized communities, which also allowed us to collect detailed and meaningful accounts of locals' experiences with flooding. We urge others in engineering to adopt not just community-engaged methods, but ones that are thorough and support community needs through enhanced research accessibility efforts.”