The University of Georgia Office of Research recently featured research surrounding water quality and supply in the Interstate 85 corridor, a region that stretches from Alabama to Virginia and crosses two of the South’s largest urban centers, Atlanta, GA and Charlotte, NC. This work, a collaborative effort between the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS) and the River Basin Center, weighs the impact of long-term urban growth on water resources.
Affiliates Rhett Jackson, Seth Wenger, Brian Bledsoe, Marshall Shepherd, Krista Capps, Amy Rosemond, Meredith Welch-Devine, Ke Li and Todd Rasmussen co-authored a recent paper in the Journal of American Water Resources Association that knitted together their various threads of research into a set of recommendations to mitigate the negative impacts of these developments:
- Increase water-use efficiency.
- Adopt indirect potable reuse or closed-loop water systems.
- Allow for water sharing during droughts while regulating inter-basin transfers to protect aquatic ecosystems.
- Increase nutrient recovery and reduce discharges of carbon and nutrients in effluents.
- Employ green infrastructure and better stormwater management.
- Apply the UNESCO Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis framework into water planning.
The Office of Research article provides summaries of some of the work informing their recommendations, demonstrating how UGA research is being applied to directly benefit the millions of residents along the I-85 corridor. Read the full story here.