Progress 01/01/24 to 12/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:There are three basic audiences for our work on this project: 1) Scholars addressing community impacts of water and sanitation. These include rural sociologists, development anthropologists and geographers, development economists, water and sanitation engineers, and related scholars. We presented findings at the Rural Sociological Society annual meeting, as well as at conferences of the Society for Applied Anthropologists, the annual meeting of NC-1190, the USDA Regional Research group working on "catalysts of social transformation to protect water quality" and theMichigan Water Alliance, a multidisciplinary meeting of water scholars and professionalsin the Great Lakes region. 2) Technical Assistance and other practitioners aiming to provide access to rural communities in need of water and sanitation upgrades. We have been engaged in conversations with technical assistance providers working with regional affiliates of the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP), and with other non-profits working on water and sanitation including DigDeep (which works with communities to improve water services in Appalachia, the Texas borderlands, the Deep South, and the Navajo Nation), and the American Water Works Association. 3) Consulting Engineers and others providingrural communities in need of water and sanitation upgrades. Among other things, we conducted an interview for an article featuring our work in the Magazine of the Amerincan Society of Civil Engineers. 4) Government agencies and foundations aiming to enhance access to potable water and functional sanitation espcially in low income rural communities. Mentioned our research in a presentation at the Great Lakes Drinking Water Conference in Novi, Michigan in September 2024. Changes/Problems:1) the RCAP data turned out to be corrupted in ways that made analysis of impacts over time difficult. Therefore, we are simply producing an assessment of community water and sanitation infrastructure financing from WWII to present. 2) The site visit expenses were greater than anticipated, so we have exhausted that part of the budget after three site visits. We may be able to conduct one additional visit with matching funds, but may have to be content with three site visits. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?1) we have hired one graduate student who assisted in field site visits, conducting of interviews, and compilation of reports. 2) we have engaged in trainings with water NGOs, such as RCAP and DigDeep, to train water professionals about the challenges of implementing water and sanitation infrastructure upgrades in rural communities, and the economic benefits of successful water and sanitation infrastructure improvements. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated to communities of interest through: 1) manuscripts are currentlyin development to go to the scholarly community 2) presentations at academic professional meetings -- including presentations at the Rural Sociolocial Society Annual Conference, and the American Association of Geographers annual conference 3) presentations to practitioner meetings -- both government and non-governmental -- including UNC Water Conference, and the Great Lakes Drinking Water Conference 4) site visit and research reports that will go back to organizations and communities that were studied. 5) Development of the Beta for a dashboard on community water and sanitation infrastructure by county What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period we will: 1) complete analysis of community water and sanitation infrastructure financing and devleop this into a paper for Rural Sociology 2) complete analysis of interviews with technical assistance advisors and the community intermediaries and develop into a manuscript 3) complete analysis of site visits and produce reports for each community 4) development of site visit data into manuscripts to peer review journals, and into shorter articles for rural communtiy development and water and sanitation practitioner journals. 5) finalize an assessment of water and sanitation infrastructure dashboard and distribute to publics for use. The Dashboard is AI enabled and therefore can pull government data continuously for an up to date assessment of all US and territories at the county-equivalent level.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This reporting period we successfully carried out the activities that will allow us to report on goal 3 and the beginning of goal 4. Our activiites and outputs for the year include: 1) We conducted interviews with 24 RCAP TAPs and have analyzed that data. This helps us better analyze the opportunities and challenges of acheiving improved access to water and sanitation infrastructure in rural communities. 2) We have presented it twice and a manuscript from the findings is currently in draft. We have also conducted site visits in 3 rural community settings -- one in Ohio, a second in Texas, and a third in New Mexico. We have a fourth scheduled in Kansas. These interviews have been transcribed and analyzed and reports are going back to each of the communities. We are also planning to present findings at the Rural Sociological Society this summer and have a research manuscript in draft. 3) We have developed a Beta for a Dashboard that will help identify community water and sanitation issues in counties across the United States, link to funding opportunities, and report on the economic development and social impacts of improved water infrastructrure over time.
Publications
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Progress 01/01/23 to 12/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences for this section included: 1) Intermdediary organizations and staffworking in rural communities to address access to water and sanitaiton issues 2) Academics working on rural communityon water and sanitation issues 3) non-governmental organizations (NGOs) interested in rural water and sanitation issues in the United States 4) Scholars working working on water and sanitation issues Changes/Problems:No major changes in approach. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have worked with graduate students at University of Oklahoma and Michigan State University, in trainings to better understand the complexity of rural community infrastructure development estpecially related to water and sanitation. We presented initial findings at the Annual Conference of the Rural Community Assistance Partnership in Boston, MA, helping them to better understand the economic impacts of infrastructure work in rural communities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?1) publication in scholarly peer review venues 2) presentations at scholarly professional meetings 3) presentations to communities of interest including: a) key organizations including: i) Rural Community Assistance Partnership; ii) DigDeep and US Water Alliance; iii) Kansas Water Research Institute; iv) Michigan State University Water Research Institute. 4) interviews with news media publications and water industry publications. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?(3) Working with RCAP, conduct a series of case studies in rural communities who have received major water infrastructure projects across the United States; We began this process by conducting interviews with RCAP technical assistance providers at the RCAP Annual Meeting in Boston, MA in October 2023 We will build on that by analyzing the results from those interviews and then working with RCAP staff to identify communities for site visits in Spring-Fall 2024 (4) Prepare a toolkit for policy makers, planners, and rural economic development leaders outlining the impacts of poor water infrastructure on economic development, as well as how to best improve that infrastructure to stimulate economic growth. We are beginning to identify partners for the development of an interactive, web-based Dashboard on water and sanitation, and economic indicators by county.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
(1) analyze the relationship between investments and improvements in water access and quality and economic development in rural American counties from 2000 to 2020; (2) Merge existing RCAP data on water infrastructure investment with the dataset used in Objective 1 to analyze the associations between specific rural water infrastructure projects and economic development in rural America; We produced these findings in peer review journals, but have also talked with news media including Kansas NPR, Reuters, andthe magazine of the American Society of Civil Engineers. We have also presented findings at the Rural Sociological Society Annual Conference
Publications
- Type:
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Mueller, T. and S. Gasteyer. 2023. The ethnically and racially uneven role of water infrastructure spending in rural economic development. Nature Water 1, 7482: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-022-00007-y
- Type:
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Mueller, J. T., Gasteyer, S. 2021. The Unaddressed Household Water Crisis in the United States of America. Nature Communications 12: 1-8, https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/ZPQR9
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Progress 01/01/22 to 12/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:1. Scholars concerned with the impacts of water infrastructure and rural community development Our efforts to date have reached this population through 1) presenting early findings at professional meetings, with presentation of a poster at the Population Association of America Annual Conference in April, 2023; 2) apresentation at the Southern Rural Sociological Association Annual Conference (Feb 2-7, 2023); 3) Presenting at thethe Rural Sociological Society Annual Conference (July 27-30, 2022) We also published Phase 1 analysis in: Mueller, T. and S. Gasteyer. 2023. The ethnically and racially uneven role of water infrastructure spending in rural economic development. Nature Water 1, 74-82: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-022-00007-y 2. Nongovernmental organizations advocating for water equity in Rural communities We have been in constant communication with our research partner (RCAP) as well as with others in in the NGO world such as DigDeep, Food and Water Watch, US Water Alliance. 3. Government agency staff who aim to address water infrastructure gaps in rural communities We also presenting for the Water Science and Technology Board of theNational Academy Sciences in November 2022. We have also done multiple interviews with media such as Time, Newsweek, the Guardian Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?1) We have already provided substantial training to one GRA on demographic techniques, report development, manuscript development, and presentation. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?1) findings have been shared with the RCAP through their research director 2) findings have been disseminated through presentations at professional meetings 3) findings have been disseminated verbally in meetings with non-governmental organizations working on water issues: US Water Alliance; For the Love of Water (FLOW); Food and Water Watch; DigDeep; National Rural Water Association; and NC Environmental Finance Center (EFC) are all organizations with whom we have shared findings. 4) Gasteyer has also shared findings with Michigan actors working on water infrastructure 5) Mueller has also shared findings with Oklahoma and Kansas stakeholders working on water infrastructure What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During this coming period: 1) we will finalize access to RCAP's dataset, and integrate findings of analysis impacts of RCAP interventions 2) we will develop and carry out interviews with RCAP technical assistance providers and begin case studies. 3) we will begin creation of the toolkit for policy makers on community investment
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
On goal 1 -- our paper published in Nature Water demonstrates that based on analysis of existing government data, the magnitude benefits of investment in water and wastewater infrastructure in the United States,vary by race and class. According to this data, there is always benefit to improving water and wastewater infrastructure, but communities with a higher proportion of African American and Latino/a/Hispanic residents benefit less on a variety of economic growth measures. In other words, improving access and quality of water and sanitation is always beneficial, but the economic return on investment are statistically greater in White communities. We are currently working on a paper that looks at the relationship between federal investment and access to complete plumbing facilities from 1940-2020. On goal 2 -- We are currently working with RCAP to integrate their database and analyze findings. They have had some issues with migrating the historical part of the dataset. On goal 3 -- We are beginning discussion with RCAP about the case studies. On goal 4 -- We have begun some discussions about the toolkit, but they are VERY preliminary.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Mueller, T. and S. Gasteyer. 2023. The ethnically and racially uneven role of water infrastructure spending in rural economic development. Nature Water 1, 7482: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-022-00007-y
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
A Spatial and Historical Analysis of Plumbing Hardship in the United States from 1940 to 2020. Madelyn Verno, The University of Oklahoma; Stephen Gasteyer, Michigan State University; J. Tom Mueller, The University of Oklahoma
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
The relationship between local government spending on water infrastructure and rural economic development in the United States. Dr. J. Tom Mueller, University of Oklahoma Dr. Stephen Gasteyer, Michigan State University
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