Water Systems at the Rural-Agricultural Interface

Most weeks, my research lived on my laptop screen: maps, models, and more Python scripts than I wanted to admit. Every so often, though, it stepped into a room of students eager to learn about water systems, and this AWWA student chapter presentation was one of those moments. At the intersection of rural communities, agriculture, and water infrastructure in places like West Virginia, greater Appalachia, and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, I have been trying to make sense of how small utilities could make long-term decisions with limited staff, budgets, and data while still being good neighbors to local farms and responsive to new development pressures. Sharing that work turned the research from something abstract into a real conversation about tradeoffs, priorities, and how to make difficult decisions feel a little less abstract.

Guest Lecture description

Small water utilities in rural areas face interconnected questions that rarely have simple answers: Should we expand infrastructure when a large infrastructrure developer requests service? How do we account for upstream agricultural impacts on our source water? Why do conservation practices work in some parts of the watershed, but not others? And critically, how do we make these decisions with limited staff, budgets, and data? This presentation will explore how my research looks into these practical questions through an integrated geospatial assessment framework. Drawing on my projects in West Virginia, Appalachia, and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, I’ll explore how spatial analysis, hydrological modeling, and economic assessment can provide evidence-based tools for utilities managing complex rural-agricultural water systems.