By Carmen Atchley, Civil Engineering Major, Mentors Dr. Anjali Mulchandani and Matt Russell. In the case of natural disasters in rural communities, traditional methods of providing people with water, like municipal water sources or trucking in water, are unsustainable and often regarded as an afterthought. Solutions being created in the atmospheric harvesting water lab seek to address these issues. In the atmospheric water harvesting lab, researchers use dehumidifiers to remove water from the atmosphere, filter it, and test it for practical uses. My creative input may be in the form of making a stylistically fun and simple infographic to present this information. Part of the infographic will discuss water scarcity, climate change in New Mexico (especially rural areas), and threats that urbanization poses to the climate. In another part, I will communicate the various objectives from the atmospheric water lab, including air monitoring, water harvesting, and drinking water solutions. I hope to educate people about this work in a way that seems approachable and engaging, while also underlining the severity that climate change poses to water resources, and why we must work toward solutions.
