Fanni Barocsi / en Improving water equity in India: Research team one of 17 to receive support from U of T's Data Sciences Institute /news/improving-water-equity-india-research-team-one-17-receive-support-u-t-s-data-sciences-institute <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Improving water equity in India: Research team one of 17 to receive support from U of T's Data Sciences Institute</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-04/GettyImages-1152953727-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=BgoB49ff 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-04/GettyImages-1152953727-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=cUUeTdAO 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-04/GettyImages-1152953727-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=llxFXJOI 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-04/GettyImages-1152953727-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=BgoB49ff" alt="Water barrels outside a building in India."> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-02-16T15:29:17-05:00" title="Wednesday, February 16, 2022 - 15:29" class="datetime">Wed, 02/16/2022 - 15:29</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p>(Photo by Atul Loke via Getty Images)</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/fanni-barocsi" hreflang="en">Fanni Barocsi</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/6738" hreflang="en">Safa Jinje</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/data-sciences-institute" hreflang="en">Data Sciences Institute</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/resarch-innovation" hreflang="en">Resarch &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/factor-inwentash-faculty-social-work" hreflang="en">Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/geography-and-planning" hreflang="en">Geography and Planning</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A multidisciplinary team at the&nbsp;University of Toronto&nbsp;is&nbsp;developing tools and metrics to&nbsp;improve water equity in India by empowering water planners, communities and activists.</p> <p>While India has made gains in expanding access to water distribution networks, rapid urbanization and inadequate infrastructure have resulted in systems that provide water for less than four hours per day in some regions, impacting 390 million people.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>To cope, residents invest in water storage infrastructure and seek alternative water sources, imposing significant financial, environmental, educational, health and time costs, especially on women and girls.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The level of complexity and inequality is staggering,” says&nbsp;<strong>David Meyer</strong>, an assistant professor in the department of civil and mineral engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering.&nbsp;“Since 2018, I have been exploring options for visualizing and learning from water supply schedules.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Meyer is leading the project alongside&nbsp;<strong>Nidhi Subramanyam</strong>, an assistant professor in the department of geography and planning in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science,<strong>&nbsp;</strong>and&nbsp;<strong>Carmen Logie</strong>, an associate professor in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.</p> <p>&nbsp;It is&nbsp;<a href="https://datasciences.utoronto.ca/data-sciences-institute-catalyst-grants-support-transformative-data-science-research/">one of&nbsp;17 projects receive Research Catalyst Funding Grants</a>&nbsp;through U of T’s&nbsp;<a href="https://datasciences.utoronto.ca/">Data Sciences Institute</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p>With their project, “Harnessing Data to Visualize and Mitigate Urban Water Inequities within the Cauvery River Basin, India,” Meyer, Subramanyam and Logie bring together diverse disciplinary perspectives on water and data&nbsp;–&nbsp;including a deep understanding of water engineering, water governance and equity.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“Water is a cross-cutting theme that flows through so many disciplines, geographies, technologies and aspects of our lives,” says Subramanyam. “Any study about water must engage different kinds of data, expertise and knowledge systems.” &nbsp;</p> <p>“Professor&nbsp;Subramanyam&nbsp;has helped me realize that data cannot be interpreted properly without considering the data generation process and the data generators themselves,” adds Meyer. “Understanding the context and incentives for water utilities to report and curate data will prove key to leveraging it on an ongoing basis.” &nbsp;</p> <p>All projects supported by the Catalyst Grants fund multidisciplinary research teams focused on using the development of new data science methodology or the innovative use of data science to address questions of major societal importance.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The Data Sciences Institute is committed to fostering new opportunities to cultivate multi-disciplinary collaborations between data science methodologists and researchers in various application domains,” says&nbsp;<strong>Timothy Chan</strong>,&nbsp;a professor in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering who is the Data Sciences Institute’s associate director of research and thematic programming.&nbsp;“This is just the beginning. With this inaugural round, we received 70 highly competitive proposals,&nbsp;which were carefully assessed by a multidisciplinary review panel.”&nbsp;</p> <p>The Data Sciences Institute Catalyst Grants are supported by the U of T&nbsp;<a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a> program and external funding partners, with two of the 2022 Catalyst Grants co-funded by <a href="https://mbd.utoronto.ca/">Medicine by Design</a> directed to finding solutions to challenges in regenerative medicine.&nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="https://datasciences.utoronto.ca/data-sciences-institute-catalyst-grants-support-transformative-data-science-research/">See the full list of grant recipients at the Data Sciences Institute</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 16 Feb 2022 20:29:17 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 301149 at