Environmental, Water Resources, and Coastal Engineering Seminar Series

Virtual seminar link: https://ncsu.zoom.us/j/92010077484?pwd=aFlOQmp5dHVKMmNnK0w0Qi9hREJWdz09

Abstract:
Sanitation systems fail globally at high rates. Researchers and practitioners attribute causes of sanitation success and failure to numerous factors that include both technical and non-technical issues. A comprehensive understanding of what leads to sanitation failure, and how to achieve sanitation success, is imperative to prioritize the use of limited resources. To this end, first, I will discuss how sanitation sustainability is currently measured and identify improvements to current approaches. Next, I will discuss a new approach created by my research group that harmonizes current efforts and better supports context-specific sustainability assessments. This will include opportunities for improving measurements of environmental and human well-being
associated with sanitation access and quality. Finally, a case study of sanitation systems in a hazard-prone area will be evaluated to improve the understanding of the understudied area of sanitation resilience. The overarching goal of this set of works is to progress towards sustained global sanitation coverage and access that is both sustainable and resilient.

Biography: Dr. Sherri Cook is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan, and her B.S. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. Dr. Cook’s research and teaching interests include the design and implementation of sustainable and resilient water, sanitation, and civil systems. Her research group is currently investigating biological treatment technologies for water reuse, recovering resources (such as energy and nutrients) from organic solid wastes, and developing sustainability frameworks to identify the most appropriate implementations of existing technologies and to set sustainability targets for technology development, especially for PFAS water remediation and water reuse treatment technologies.