Research

Our Approach

As we think about the effects of climate change and systemic inequities, it is often the vulnerable populations that are impacted the most. Our lab’s philosophy centers on using data and innovative technologies to create a future where all communities have access to safe and reliable infrastructure services, without any barriers. We develop interdisciplinary infrastructure systems approaches that consider social factors as core drivers of technical solutions. We leverage tools and frames from different areas of STEM and employ them to improve the performance, resilience, and equitability of pre-existing and upcoming infrastructures, with particular focus on water infrastructure systems through an equity and environmental justice lens.

Ongoing Projects

Strengthening Community Self-Advocacy Through Ecosystem Services Evaluation

Partner Organization: Bayou City Waterkeeper

Funder: Environmental Ventures Project (Woods Institute)

  • In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, it was revealed that flood damage was greater in communities with disproportionately high populations of marginalized people (i.e. low-income, people of color). As Houston re-evaluates its flood control and mitigation plans, the project team seeks to provide insight into the utility and public demand for nature-based solutions. In partnership with a local community-based organization, this project will generate ecosystem service valuations focused on the restoration and conservation of upstream wetlands that are hydrologically connected to downstream marginalized communities.

Advancing Sanitation Justice: Linking Climate-Exacerbated Nitrogen, Cyanotoxins, and Parasites with Reimagined Sanitation Infrastructure and Services in African-American Communities

Partner Organizations: Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ), Baylor College of Medicine

Funder: Environmental Protection Agency

  • Although access to sanitation infrastructure in the U.S. is widespread, it is still not equitable, particularly for underserved African American communities. To meet the urgent needs of these communities, the project team plans to pursue three objectives: (i) comparing sanitation-related exposure to environmental contaminants for an urban and rural community, (ii) prioritizing effects of climate change stressors on sanitation infrastructure and contaminant health impacts, and (iii) designing and evaluating improved sanitation infrastructure to reduce exposure while maximizing economic viability and community engagement.

Partner Organizations: The Water Research Foundation, University of Colorado Boulder, Southern Nevada Water Authority, Colorado School of Mines, The WateReuse Association, University of Washington

Funder: Environmental Protection Agency

Unlocking the Nationwide Potential of Water Reuse

  • The recent adoption of the National Water Reuse Action Plan (WRAP) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has resulted in an effort to advance the adoption of water reuse at a national scale. This effort envisions numerous forms of reuse as supplementing existing water supply portfolios (e.g., municipal, agricultural, industrial, and on-site reuse) and the integration of stormwater into local water resource supplies. Utilizing state-of-the-art natural language processing methods, Osman Lab is performing a Media Analysis on news articles over the past 47 years across the US to gauge how water reuse has been framed in the media within differing spatialand temporal contexts. Additionally, we are developing quantitative models to assess whether there are spillover effects between spatial boundaries where the sentiment of water reuse articles may be more or less favorable. This project seeks to show decision-makers and community leaders where opportunities exist for various types of water reuse and how reuse can address environmental and social needs in their communities.

Assessing the Energy, Water Consumption, and Conservation Nexus in an Urban US Household 

  • The growing water shortage problems fueled by climate change, equity barriers, and increasing energy rates, warrant the need for understanding water and energy conservation problems as a complex challenge. Understanding this nexus at a household level, where common people have greater control over the water and energy consumed, is important for achieving equitable access to water. By developing a sensor-based device and performing a controlled study, this study would help us quantify the water and energy losses that occur due to the lack of a proper heating system in a typical US household. The outcomes of this work would enable us to bring necessary household-scale infrastructure changes that would improve equity as well as water and energy conservation.

Funder:  UPS Foundation 

Advancing Water Systems Failure Identification: Using Humans as Sensors to Reduce Inequities at the Tap

Partner Organizations: UCLA Luskin Center, Nuestra Casa, We The People of Detroit

Funder: Stanford Impact Labs

  • This project will target recording residents’ interactions with and observations of household drinking water quality, use them to identify spatial and temporal trends at the tap, and assess residents’ trust in their water, perception of risk, and associated health and welfare impacts.

Partners

Osman lab works closely with community partners and grass-root organizations to identify community needs, work on pressing socio-environmental issues, and incorporate end-user inputs and perspectives into infrastructure and policy planning.