Spearing Lab

Focus

Identify the barriers and drivers of the use of alternative water sources or water reuse technologies in the chemical sector using cognitive mapping.

*Funded by the National Alliance for Water Innovation

Focus

Understand how water utilities were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and assess water and electricity demand changes at the building-level.

Key Publications

Spearing, L.,… and Faust, K. (2020). “Implications of Social Distancing Policies on Drinking Water Infrastructure: An Overview of the Challenges to and Responses of US Utilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Environmental Science and Technology Water, 1. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.0c00229

Spearing, L.,… and Faust, K. (2021). “Human-Infrastructure Interactions during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding Water and Electricity Demand Profiles at the Building-Level.” Environmental Science and Technology Water. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.1c00176

Berglund, E. Z.,..Spearing, L.,..Kadinski, L. (2021). “Water and Wastewater Systems and Utilities: Challenges and Opportunities during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 147 (5). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001373 *Editor’s Choice, Issue 147(5)

Focus

Understand infrastructure resilience gaps using a systems-of-system lens to capture interfaces between social, natural, and technical systems  (contexts include Winter Storm Uri and the Jackson Water Crisis).

Key Publications

Tiedmann, H., Spearing, L., Castellanos, S., Stephens, K., Sela, L. and Faust, K. (2021). “One Year Later: Water Infrastructure Resilience and the 2021 Texas Winter Storm.” (Under Review)

Focus

Document the cascading impacts of population displacement to hosting communities and study the social and sheltering systems to improve response.

Key Publications

Spearing, L., Stephens, K., and Faust, K. (2021). “Shelter Shopping: Where the Built Environment and Social Systems Meet.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102161

​Spearing, L., and Faust, K. (2020). “Cascading System Impacts of the 2018 Camp Fire in California: The Interdependent Provision of Infrastructure Services to Displaced Populations.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101822

Focus

Understand what factors cause water-sector challenges in rural Alaska by integrating perspectives from a variety of stakeholders and study water access decline.

Key Publications

Spearing, L., Mehendale, P., Albertson, L., Kaminsky, J., and Faust, K. (2022). “Improving Water Infrastructure Systems in Alaska: Identifying Vulnerabilities at the Intersection of Social, Natural, and Physical Systems.” Journal of Cleaner Production. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.134596

Brown, M., Spearing, L., Roy, A., Kaminsky, J., and Faust, K. (2022). “Drivers of Declining Water Access in Alaska.” Environmental Science and Technology Water. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.2c00167

Focus

Study various challenges in the water and construction sectors, including water affordability, qualitative analysis for construction engineering, and public perceptions towards the built environment.

Key Publications

Spearing, L., Dias, F., Faust, K., and Bhat, C. (2020). “Determining Multi-level Drivers of Perceiving Undesirable Taste and Odor in Tap Water: A Joint Modeling Approach.” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 147 (3). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001326

Spearing, L., Bakchan, A., Hamlet, L., Stephens, K., Kaminsky, J., and Faust, K. (2022). “Comparing Qualitative Analysis Techniques for Construction Engineering and Management Research: The Case of Arctic Water Infrastructure.” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management Special Collection on Research Methodologies. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0002313