UW Engineering Fall 2019 Lecture Series

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The Future of Food: Protecting Human and Environmental Health

By 2050, the earth’s population is estimated to reach nine billion which will intensify a growing food security crisis, exacerbated by current agricultural processes, climate change and economic inequality. This fall, hear from three UW professors, including Freshwater faculty Faisal Hossain (civil & environmental engineering) and Gordon Holtgrieve (aquatic & fishery sciences), about how engineers and scientists are working to improve the quality and quantity of food we eat and grow. This lecture series will take place in Kane Hall, and is free to attend.

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Growing More with Less: Smart Tech Solutions to Feed the World

Thursday, October 10 | 7:30 PM

Kane Hall 130

Faisal Hossain, Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering

Asia has some of the fastest growing economies in the world, but it is also home to two-thirds of the global hunger population. Regional monsoons impact efficient water management and reduce agricultural yield. Professor Hossain is utilizing global weather models and satellite data to develop technology that will help farmers increase crop yield through sustainable water management.

Human and Ecosystem Health: Arsenic in Food, Water, Plants and Animals

Wednesday, October 23 | 7:30 PM

Kane Hall 130

Rebecca Neumann, Associate Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering

Arsenic is a naturally occurring but carcinogenic pollutant. Its ubiquitous presence in natural and agricultural environments threatens global food security and negatively affects the health of millions of people worldwide. Professor Neumann, an arsenic expert, is advancing knowledge of how arsenic in local and global settings affects food and water quality, and the health of ecosystems.

Floods, Fish and People: Challenges and Opportunities in the Mekong River Basin

Thursday, November 7 | 7:30 PM

Kane Hall 130

Gordon Holtgrieve, H. Mason Keeler Associate Professor, Aquatic & Fishery Sciences, College of the Environment

Freshwater ecosystems provide food security, energy and water to people in the Mekong River Basin. Habitat alterations, pollution, climate change and over-exploitation are putting the health and livelihood of communities at risk. Professor Holtgrieve is working in the Mekong River Basin to address how energy policy, watershed hydrology and ecosystems interact, in order to mitigate the effects of hydrologic and climatic change around the globe.

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Find out more about the speakers’ research in the UW feature Fueled by Floods.

SIFF Science Documentary Features FWI Faculty

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Engineering with Nature: An Ode to Wood, Water, and Stone
Poster for “Engineering with Nature: An Ode to Wood, Water, and Stone”

By Brooke Shields, UW Civil & Environmental Engineering

If Thornton Creek could tell a story, it would not only be surprising— it would be surprisingly good.

To help tell the powerful story about a once-polluted and neglected creek that is becoming a flourishing home for spawning salmon, the documentary Engineering with Nature – An Ode to Water, Wood, and Stone, was selected to premiere at the 2019 Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) on Saturday, June 8.

Edward Kolodziej, associate professor of civil & environmental engineering at UW and at UW-Tacoma School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences and Center for Urban Waters
Edward Kolodziej, UW associate professor of civil & environmental engineering and UW-Tacoma associate professor of science and mathematics at the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences and Center for Urban Waters

Documenting the water quality changes in the creek, which is Seattle’s largest urban watershed and winds its way through north Seattle, are UW associate professor of civil & environmental engineering Edward Kolodziej and UW-Tacoma Center for Urban Waters postdoc Kathy Peter.

Watch the trailer

“The filmmakers, Leaping Frog Films, are very excited about the film being selected for SIFF,” said Kolodziej, also an associate professor of science and mathematics at the Center for Urban Waters and UW-Tacoma’s School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences (SIAS). “It’s quite difficult to get into SIFF, as there is a low acceptance rate.”

Filmed on location at Thornton Creek last year, Kolodziej and Peter discuss a water quality study they conducted for Seattle Public Utilities in 2017; they later published a paper with the results. In the film they discuss how the engineered streambed used modified natural processes to remove pollution.

Four years in the making, the documentary highlights the success of Seattle’s Thornton Creek Project. Initiated by Seattle Public Utilities as a neighborhood flood control project, the effort entailed rebuilding 1,600 feet of the creek’s channel. Workers realigned the channel, tore out the fill from development and repositioned the creek back into its natural flood plain.

Following the radical redevelopment project that revitalized the creek and cleaned up the water by removing pollutants through streambed filtration, adjacent neighborhoods no longer flood, water quality has improved, and, most surprisingly, Chinook salmon have returned to the creek to spawn. Researchers say the project could be an example for how to design cities with healthy ecosystems despite human-caused pollution.

According to the filmmakers, Leaping Frog Films, “This visionary project successfully demonstrates a fresh new approach to urban land use planning, storm water treatment, water quality management, and stream restoration, all of which have ‘real-life’ implications for coping with the increasing effects of climate change and urbanization.”

Free film premiere

The film will premiere at the 2019 Seattle International Film Festival on Saturday, June 8, 2pm at Seattle Central Library, located at 1000 4th Avenue, Seattle. The premiere was selected for a free public screening, but it’s best to arrive early as tickets (for 260 seats) will be given out on a first come first served basis. The doors open at 1:30pm, but the film maker recommends arriving between 12:30-1pm. Following the premiere, the project’s key participants will participate in a Q&A session, including Kolodziej.

Learn more about the premiere