My research centers on sustaining clean and safe drinking water systems for communities around the world. By examining water’s journey from its source to our taps, I focus on how land use, a changing climate, and microbial communities influence water quality—and I also investigate the impacts of chemical pollution on these systems. My work explores the intricate ways water supply practices shape microbial and chemical dynamics, as well as how social and environmental factors affect water access. Ultimately, my goal is to provide insights and strategies that strengthen water infrastructure, protect public health, and ensure reliable, long-term access to safe water for everyone.
Advancing Water Access: Water Treatment and Delivery Challenges in Resource-Limited Settings
In many developing regions, delivering consistently safe drinking water remains a significant challenge, particularly in Intermittent Water Supply (IWS) systems, due to limited resources, rapid population growth, and inadequate infrastructure. These pressures are magnified by droughts, seasonal precipitation shifts, and energy insecurity, all of which can disrupt water availability and quality. While traditional culture-based methods are widely used to detect fecal indicators, newer molecular assessment techniques—common in higher-income countries—could help fill critical monitoring gaps in these dynamic systems. Relying solely on chlorine residual and fecal indicators often proves insufficient, highlighting the need to better understand microbial and chemical contaminants in peri-urban and urban water supplies. Such insights can guide more resilient water infrastructure designs, especially as rapid urbanization continues worldwide. Moreover, lessons learned from IWS in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) can inform strategies in wealthier nations, enhancing their water systems’ resilience to outages and other disruptions.
Publications
Community Responses: Coping and Adaptive Strategies for IWS Drinking Water Supplies
In many cities in LMICs where IWS makes piped networks unreliable, households often rely on multiple water sources of varying quality—such as trucked water or rainwater harvesting—at different times and for different purposes. Household water storage becomes especially critical to ensure availability when needed. However, most research focuses solely on the primary drinking water source, overlooking the broader impacts of these supplemental sources and storage practices. While such coping strategies can bolster resilience to water insecurity, they can also compromise water quality and pose health risks. Understanding how climate factors drive these adaptation methods—including how climate variability shapes both the need for and effectiveness of household strategies—remains essential for safeguarding public health.
Publications
Gonzalez, C.I., Erickson, J., Chavarría, K.A., Nelson, K.L. and Goodridge, A., 2020. Household stored water quality in an intermittent water supply network in Panama. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 10(2), pp.298-308.
Safeguarding Water Resources: Investigating Microbial Contamination and Watershed Management for Enhanced Water Quality
Watersheds play a vital role in delivering ecosystem services that support livelihoods and the well-being of nearly three billion people worldwide. Yet, surface water contamination remains a serious threat to the provision of safe drinking water. Understanding how climate shifts and human activities shape the microbiology and chemical composition of these ecosystems is essential for guiding efforts to safeguard drinking water sources. By examining the impacts of land use, a changing climate, and the benefits of forest regrowth and targeted management, researchers can better balance agricultural practices with the need for water quality protection in tropical landscapes.
Publications
Mika, K.B., Chavarria, K.A., Imamura, G., Tang, C., Torres, R. and Jay, J.A., 2017. Sources and persistence of fecal indicator bacteria and Bacteroidales in sand as measured by culture-based and culture-independent methods: a case study at Santa Monica Pier, California. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, 228, pp.1-15.
Other collaborations related to a changing climate
Publications
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