The COVID-19 pandemic caused uncertainty and changing public health recommendations across the world as our understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 virus changed. Following a preliminary assessment by the World Health Organization, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were said to worsen symptoms and should be avoided before the recommendation was subsequently revoked. There also was pain associated with infection, leading to the hypothesis that use of over-the-counter pain medication increases may correlate with increases of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Wastewater samples were collected from two communities in Tempe, AZ from December 2019 to July 2020 (n = 35) and were analyzed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to identify levels of acetaminophen, ibuprofen and their metabolites, acetaminophen sulfate and carboxy-ibuprofen. Results showed 100% detection frequency of all analytes in all samples across the duration of the study. Mass loadings of acetaminophen (918.4 g day-1 +/- 354.8 g day-1) were higher than ibuprofen (182.9 g day-1 +/- 49.8 g day-1), potentially driven by flushing behaviors rather than consumption activities. However, ibuprofen was more heavily consumed than acetaminophen across all days of the study period. Comparisons to COVID-19 clinical cases data showed increased use in ibuprofen with increases in clinical cases loads, while acetaminophen showed no change, suggesting ibuprofen was the over the counter (OTC) medication of choice during the first wave of the pandemic.

Urban heat island effect is caused by the built environment and impervious surfaces in urban areas causing the local air temperature to be significantly higher than that of near-by rural areas. This effect continues to worsen and spread nationwide as urban sprawl increases through land development. As more land gets paved over, more heat energy is produced and radiated into the local atmosphere. In Phoenix, urban heat island effect is expected to be the most prominent when the city has been the fastest growing metro area in the United States in this decade and continues to grow at a rapid pace. As urban heat island effects increase, climate change caused by anthropogenic activities continues to worsen. This causes drought conditions to worsen all across the American Southwest. California was the first state to enact water restrictions in response to the current drought conditions in 2015, with Nevada and Colorado following in 2021 in efforts to preserve water. Sustainable urban water systems management and design have been an emerging research area. One of the most effective systems being the reuse of greywater in irrigation. With this use of greywater for all outdoor water needs, excluding swimming pools, there is the ability to use equal amounts of outdoor water as indoor water. This increases the amount of available water for all landscaping. With increased amounts of available water, plants and vegetation will most often grow fast and larger. Larger and healthier vegetation both increase shade as well as evaporative-transpiration. Both of these can decrease the local air temperature. This research aims to investigate if and how the reuse of greywater for landscape irrigation can ultimately lead to cooler air temperatures, decreasing the urban heat island effect. In Spring 2022, I partnered with a local landscape architecture firm to examine a case study of a pilot greywater reuse system. The pilot was the basis for a larger greywater reuse system integrated into a multifamily apartment complex, currently under construction, in downtown Phoenix.

Climate change risks such as rising sea-levels, prolonged droughts, and extreme coastal weather events, are devastating for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) where both their homes and livelihoods are highly interdependent upon the ocean. These SIDS have no other viable choice but to adapt to their ever-changing environments and the rising disaster risks compounded by climate change. Although SIDS tend to receive significant attentions for the adverse impacts of climate change, less is known about the place-based adaptation measures as well as people’s lived experiences with sea-level rise, inundation, tropical storms, droughts, and more. Considering the vast area that the SIDS’ nations cover, the type of climate adaptation measures adopted may vary due to the respective country’s vulnerability and adaptive capacity, as some are more comprehensive and effective than others. This study directly responds to the existing gap in our understanding of how different nations within SIDS are prioritizing and strategizing their adaptation measures with the following research questions: “What are key adaptation strategies practiced in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to address impacts of climate change? Are there similarities or differences in the adaptation strategies pursued by SIDS?” This study uses a conceptual framework of disaster risk and climate change adaptation developed by the IPCC AR5 (2014) to systematically review over 107 peer-reviewed journal articles, scientific reports, and a few videos. Using a systematic literature view approach as the primary research method, this study assembled, categorized, and analyzed the national as well as sub-national adaptation measures—social, institutional, and structural--of two representative countries: 1) Kiribati (a small, low-lying island with the higher level of exposure and vulnerability to climate change), and 2) Fiji (the second biggest island in the South Pacific known for bigger economy and “High Islands”). The results of the study suggest that the adopted adaptation measures were reflective of the country’s historical legacy and the existing adaptive capacity. While Kiribati has historically focused more on external migration of displaced people and more recently has prioritized structural adaptation practices (e.g., construction of coastal seawall), Fiji has been able to leverage its bigger economy and technical resources to develop more comprehensive institutional, social, and structural adaptation measures. However, it is also important to recognize that the other internal and external factors, mainly geophysical setting (low elevation of Kiribati vs the high islands of Fiji) also contribute the level of vulnerability these nations face.

Since the 1980’s, there has been a growing interest in the concept of sustainability. The prime directive of sustainability is to balance the needs of economics, environmental health, and human society. The change in the global climate, loss of biodiversity, increased levels of pollution, and general trend toward resource scarcity have all increased the momentum of the contemporary sustainability movement. Simultaneously, poverty and nutrition scarcity have attracted many to sustainability’s principles of resource equity. What one can gather from the diversity of sustainability’s intended functions is that it’s meant to solve several problems at once. In another sense, the most impactful sustainability solutions are multipurpose. This is not to say that any given solution is a panacea. On the contrary, sustainability advocates often dispute the existence of so-called “silver bullets” for these global issues. While this tends to reign true, it does not stop policy makers, communities, or researchers from attempting to employ multifaceted solutions. One such example is the myriad of sustainability issues associated with industrial agriculture. With the compounding issues of high water consumption, habitat destruction via land use change, biodiversity loss and climate change, industrial agriculture appears to be a damaging system. Areas like Arizona are projected to be affected by many of these issues. It thus stands to reason that if Arizona is to aggressively address its long-term drought, as well as global sustainability issues, a systematic change in farming practices needs to be made. Firstly, an analysis of the agricultural and water histories of Arizona will highlight the events most relevant to the region’s contemporary issues. Following this, the analysis will frame the greater problem through specific pieces of evidence associated with water scarcity in Arizona. Then, a summary of findings will illustrate the fundamental theories surrounding regenerative agriculture and three of its alternative forms: permaculture, dryland farming, and carbon farming. These theories will be instrumental in recommending a useful conception of regenerative agriculture for Arizona; it will be known as a Regenerative Dryland Farming System (RDFS). The extent and utility of current solutions will then be explored. The remainder of the section will illustrate the principles of the RDFSs, explore their potential weaknesses, and recommend policy for their successful deployment. Overall, it will be argued that RDFSs should fully replace industrial agriculture in Arizona. This will be vital in addressing the nine planetary boundaries and freshwater reality of the region.