Seminar: Stormwater Infrastructure as a Coupled Human–Natural System: Spatio-Temporal Dynamics & Effects on Water & Nutrient Fluxes

Rebecca Hale is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah, where she is studying changes in stormwater and flood management over time and across UT cities. Rebecca is an ecosystem ecologist who works in social–ecological–technological systems (SETS). Her research focuses on the effects of human activities on the movement of nutrients and water through watersheds and changes in social–ecological–technological systems over time. She takes a watershed approach to understand how engineered flowpaths (e.g., stormwater and flood control infrastructure) affect fluxes of nutrients, carbon, and water from watersheds, as well as how social, environmental, economic, and technological drivers affect the use of nutrients. Her work spans local to global scales, and she uses a mix of field sampling, data mining, and document analysis to conduct her research.