The next time you look at the Great Lakes or wonder about Arctic communities, you will think about them a little differently because of the research of engineering students Vrashesh Vipul Karkar and Kwaku Gyau Gyamfi.

Karkar examined the water in Great Lakes Basin watersheds to assess the amount of microplastics that are present in the water. His research focuses on the quantities of microplastics humans are releasing into rivers and the Great Lakes, developing cutting edge modelling tools to quantify the microplastics being released.

Gyamfi works on climate change resilience of water supply systems in Arctic Indigenous communities. He is developing modelling tools to assess the current availability of water through snowmelt runoff modeling for the hamlet of Pangnirtung and how climate change may affect water availability in future.

These were among 30 posters presented by undergraduate and graduate students of civil and environmental engineering at the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation on Friday, March 22, to mark World Water Day. The posters had to address one of the following topics:

• Sustainable Development Goals
• Water resources and water quality
• Nutrient loading in the Great Lakes
• Water conflicts, economics, and public policy
• Urban stormwater management
• Climate change impacts and adaptation

“I am impressed by the breadth and depth of the topics chosen by the undergraduate and graduate students,” says professor Tirupati Bolisetti, whose classes have presented posters of their water-related research for 11 years. “It is heartening to note that these projects dealt with water problems from British Columbia to Ontario to Nunavut.”

In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly declared March 22 the annual observance of World Water Day. To learn more, visit the UN’s World Water Day website.