RAPID: Assessment and treatment of flood-contaminated water sources and hot-spots of microbial contaminants in post-Harvey Houston

需要进行研究，以了解飓风哈维在休斯顿地区的极端洪水对化学和微生物污染物的动员的短期和长期影响，以及它们在受影响地区持续多久。在这项研究中，研究人员将这些发现与之前的洪水研究结果进行了整合和比较，以了解洪水后疾病传播和极端洪水导致的微生物群落结构变化的一般原理。本研究的假设是，化学和微生物污染物的显著动员将是明显的，导致污染的饮用水源和沉积物中富含粪便指标和致病微生物。研究结果被用于为nsf支持的NEWT ERC的应急响应处理技术的设计和部署提供信息，这些技术针对关注的特定污染物，特别注重为社会经济弱势群体提供服务。这项研究的结果有助于改进流行病学研究，以评估洪水调动和沉积的污染物对人类健康的影响。这项研究的社会影响包括提供有关水、土壤和沉积物质量的数据，以便评估因哈维造成的极端洪水而加剧的潜在人类健康和生态系统风险。此外，研究结果增强了我们对洪水条件下疾病传播的微生物生态学的理解，并为应急响应处理系统的设计提供了信息，这些系统可以部署到受未来极端洪水事件影响的弱势群体中。该研究项目涉及研究生和本科生。所有的研究结果都将通过莱斯大学的金德研究所城市数据平台向公众公布，这是一个安全的数据存储库，为休斯顿大都市区的研究提供地理编码数据，促进跨学科研究和社区调查。此外，调查人员正在将调查结果整合到课程中，并开发一个案例研究，其中包括将向公众提供的教学材料。

Research is needed to understand both the shorter- and longer-term impacts of Hurricane Harvey's extreme flooding in the Houston region on the mobilization of chemical and microbial contaminants, as well as how long they persist in impacted areas. In this research, the findings are being integrated and compared to the investigators' findings for previous flood studies in order to understand generalizable principles associated with disease propagation post-flood and microbial community structure changes as a result of extreme flooding. The hypothesis of this study is that significant mobilization of both chemical and microbial contaminants will be evident, resulting in contaminated drinking water sources and sediments enriched in fecal indicators and pathogenic microorganisms. The results are being used to inform the design and deployment of the NSF-supported NEWT ERC's emergency-response treatment technologies that target specific contaminants of concern, with a particular focus on serving socioeconomically vulnerable populations. The results of this research help to improve epidemiologic studies that evaluate the human health impacts of contaminants mobilized and deposited by floodwaters. The societal impacts of this research involve providing data on water, soil and sediment quality that permits assessment of potential human health and ecosystem risks that have been enhanced due to the extreme floods caused by Harvey. Furthermore, the results enhance our understanding of the microbial ecology of disease propagation under flood conditions and inform the design of emergency response treatment systems that can be deployed to vulnerable populations impacted by future extreme flooding events. The research project involves both graduate and undergraduate students. All results are being made available to the public through Rice's Kinder Institute Urban Data Platform, a secure data repository of research-ready geocoded data for the Houston metropolitan area that facilitates cross-disciplinary research and community investigations. Furthermore, the investigators are integrating the findings into courses and developing a case study that includes teaching materials that will be made publicly available.