T3-D: Dominican Republic Research, Service, and Teaching: Drinking Water and Indoor Air

Location

Richard Petty

Start Date

5-3-2018 3:45 PM

Description

Teaching, research, and service in the Dominican Republic and on-campus led by the Engineering for Development program at Mercer University are presented. The research and service focus is improved health and livelihoods among rural populations, through improving environmental health conditions (e.g. access to water, less-polluting cooking practices, etc.). Research, service, and training are performed in the field in the El Cercado area of San Juan province, Dominican Republic. The experiences are shared back at Mercer University, where additional research is performed and examples from the field are used to stimulate and complement the teaching of fundamental engineering concepts, as well as principles of sustainable development.

The water activities focus on improving access to safe drinking water to local communities through: construction, expansion, and rehabilitation of gravity flow systems; pilot action research for improving spring protection through low-cost drilling of horizontal wells using portable drills; and building the capacity of stakeholders at the local level. Through household surveys, the potential for household rainwater harvesting is assessed, as is the potential for reducing indoor air pollution caused by the burning of biomass (e.g. wood) in enclosed or semi-enclosed kitchens. These field research and service activities are used as examples in the teaching of various technical concepts in undergraduate engineering classes at Mercer University, e.g. using gravity flow water systems to help teach students about flow through pipes, rainfall data to size water storage tanks, and indoor air pollution data to calculate typical inhalation dosing for a child vs. adult.

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Mar 5th, 3:45 PM

T3-D: Dominican Republic Research, Service, and Teaching: Drinking Water and Indoor Air

Richard Petty

Teaching, research, and service in the Dominican Republic and on-campus led by the Engineering for Development program at Mercer University are presented. The research and service focus is improved health and livelihoods among rural populations, through improving environmental health conditions (e.g. access to water, less-polluting cooking practices, etc.). Research, service, and training are performed in the field in the El Cercado area of San Juan province, Dominican Republic. The experiences are shared back at Mercer University, where additional research is performed and examples from the field are used to stimulate and complement the teaching of fundamental engineering concepts, as well as principles of sustainable development.

The water activities focus on improving access to safe drinking water to local communities through: construction, expansion, and rehabilitation of gravity flow systems; pilot action research for improving spring protection through low-cost drilling of horizontal wells using portable drills; and building the capacity of stakeholders at the local level. Through household surveys, the potential for household rainwater harvesting is assessed, as is the potential for reducing indoor air pollution caused by the burning of biomass (e.g. wood) in enclosed or semi-enclosed kitchens. These field research and service activities are used as examples in the teaching of various technical concepts in undergraduate engineering classes at Mercer University, e.g. using gravity flow water systems to help teach students about flow through pipes, rainfall data to size water storage tanks, and indoor air pollution data to calculate typical inhalation dosing for a child vs. adult.