Building on a successful water quality partnership, Water UCI has been awarded $1.39 million from the Cyrus Tang Foundation for a three-year research initiative to combat agricultural and urban runoff pollution in the United States and China.
The new funding follows a $1 million grant the foundation awarded in 2023 for a project focused on best management practices of disinfection byproducts from wastewater treatment that pose serious risks to human health. The previous Phase I project, created a decision-support tool for practitioners, analyzed the policy instruments of BMPs of DBPs across states in the US and China and generated a survey result from interviews with experts in China, involving researchers from UC Irvine, Fudan University and Tsinghua University in China.
“Our initial project examined pollutants emanating from the wastewater treatment process itself,” said Water UCI Director David L. Feldman, emeritus professor of urban planning and public policy. “This new phase expands our scope to address what may be an even more critical challenge: non-point source pollution from agriculture and urbanization that is pushing some ecosystems toward irreversible tipping points.”
More than 40 percent of the world’s population lives in regions where uncontaminated water is scarce, a figure likely to rise in the future. The new project will address a looming environmental crisis: runoff pollution from intensive agriculture and urban development that is causing severe contamination of lakes, rivers, and groundwater in both nations, said Feldman and Changdeok Gim, Water UCI associate director.
The research will focus on regions facing severe contamination:
Agricultural runoff laden with phosphorus and nitrogen from crops, animal waste, and fertilizers, combined with urban pollutants from roofs and roadways, is causing severe eutrophication (where a body of water becomes over-rich in nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, leading to excessive growth of algae and aquatic plants) of waterways and harmful algal blooms. In some cases, the health impacts include carcinogenic risks.
“These runoff flows contain large quantities of nutrients which cause severe environmental damage,” Feldman explained. “Without concerted action by policymakers – and soon – the consequences may be nearly irreversible.”
The research team will apply the policy analysis frameworks and decision-support tools developed in their first project to this broader challenge, Feldman added.
“Designing effective water pollution programs to protect public health and the environment requires sound regulation, engagement of affected stakeholders, and assured compliance across levels of government,” he said. “We proved this in our wastewater treatment study. Now, we’re tackling the more complex problem of diffuse pollution sources across entire watersheds.”
The researchers will address what they identify as a systemic breakdown between national and local governments in managing pollution.
“Mismatched administrative priorities, financial disparities between central and local levels and disagreement over accountability have reduced the effectiveness of pollution management,” Gim said.
The research team includes UC Irvine faculty members Nicola Ulibarri and Valerie Olson, Lingyi Zhou of Fudan University, and Yixin Dai and Chao Chen of Tsinghua University.
They will examine how best management practices already adopted by some communities can be scaled up, ranging from land use restrictions to sustainable agricultural techniques that reduce pesticide and fertilizer runoff.
They will employ comprehensive methods, including water science studies of harmful nutrients in runoff, analysis of climate variability and flash flooding impacts, and explore advanced AI detection assistance tools.
Case study interviews will be conducted with local officials managing Taihu Lake, city officials in Wuxi and Suzhou, and Great Lakes water managers to understand real-world implementation challenges and best management practices.
Developing decision-support frameworks that leverage artificial intelligence to help local officials make evidence-based decisions and prevent environmental tipping points will be key, Feldman said, adding that the researchers are committed to sharing knowledge directly with communities throughout the project.
Doing so continues the “give back” approach from their initial work.
“In our first project, the team in China worked with several agencies, and our US team shared insights on PFAS contamination with local water agencies,” Feldman noted. “We also shared our survey data and best practices with various expert groups. We'll expand these knowledge-sharing venues significantly in this new phase.”
The research will explore practical remedies including water pricing reform, enhanced public engagement methods, cross-sector collaborative governance, and improved knowledge communication platforms. Officials from Taihu Lake, Wuxi, Suzhou, and US freshwater jurisdictions will be engaged as principal stakeholders and key collaborators throughout the project.
A joint US-China workshop is being planned to facilitate knowledge exchange and ensure research outcomes benefit both nations.
“Every day, nearly 1,000 children die from preventable water-borne and sanitation-related diseases,” Feldman said. “This is exactly the kind of international scientific cooperation needed to address these global water challenges. We’re grateful to the Cyrus Tang Foundation for their continued support of this vital work.”
— Mimi Ko Cruz