UC Davis CWEE Accelerates Water Conservation Research with Secure, Compliant Data Storage on AWS

To solve some of the most pressing water and energy challenges, scientists and engineers need access to robust, reliable data that is often sensitive and protected. Data providers, researchers, and host institutions need to adhere to strict requirements for protecting and securing this data. The Center for Water-Energy Efficiency (CWEE) at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) used Amazon Web Services (AWS) to create a centralized, secure data repository that streamlines data sharing.

Researchers at CWEE quantify how much energy is used in various elements of the water sector, including potable water, irrigation, and wastewater. This research helps water utilities, energy utilities, and policy makers decide how to invest in and promote water use efficiency, energy efficiency, and electric load shifting in the water sector. This research is critical particularly in California, where drought and other climate change outcomes, like heat waves and forest fires, have been an issue for decades and are growing more severe.

CWEE’s research heavily depends on large amounts of data that must be used in compliance with data privacy requirements. To date, data acquisition has been a largely manual process with strict security agreements and standards that can make it challenging to obtain.

To overcome these challenges, Dr. Frank Loge, director of CWEE and a professor in the UC Davis Civil and Environmental Engineering department, worked with UC Davis’s information technology departments to develop a new secure, shared system using a range of AWS services. The new system protects sensitive research data, makes clear who is responsible for protecting it, and verifies compliance. The system has garnered new interest and funding opportunities and has the potential to help spur new innovations in the water sector, driven by broad access to data.

 

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Testing Different Configurations of Do-It-Yourself Portable Air Cleaners

A recent case study by the Western Cooling Efficiency Center (WCEC) seeks to answer: does making your own portable air cleaner match the cleaning performance of off-the shelf products and do so in a cost effective way?

Portable air cleaners are increasingly in demand to reduce concentrations of particulates and respiratory aerosols indoors. Researchers at the UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center (WCEC) tested two types of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) portable air cleaners (standard box fans modified with added filtration on the suction side of the box fan) and documented the power draw, airflow, and noise for each configuration. Researchers calculated the clean air delivery rate based on filter test reports and reported energy efficiency and cost metrics for each configuration.

Note that while DIY portable air cleaners are a useful and easily accessible tool to reduce particulates in buildings, they should not be considered a substitute for ensuring adequate ventilation and filtration is provided by central building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

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How Water Conservation can Help Save Energy, Too

Watering the lawn less, taking shorter showers, and switching to a low-flow toilet all conserve water. And they also reduce carbon pollution. “About 20% of the state of California’s energy use is associated with the water system,” says Frank Loge of the University of California, Davis.

He explains that every step of a water system uses energy: pumping water from lakes and reservoirs, treating it to make it safe to drink, and pumping it into homes and businesses. Then, if it’s sent down a sink or toilet, it’s usually processed at a wastewater treatment plant, which Loge says takes a tremendous amount of energy.

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Global Energy Manager’s Workshop 2021 (Online)

On October 19-20, 2021, UC Davis will host the third Global Energy Managers Workshop, where facility managers, students, and faculty from around the world will meet to share and learn about energy-saving, cost management, and carbon reduction strategies.

This year’s event will be online via Zoom. We have an exciting agenda and hope you can participate.

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The Pandemic Has Suddenly Shined Light On Long-Neglected Indoor Air Concerns

For more than 25 years, Tom Smith has run 3Flow, a company whose sole mission is to make sure people don’t get sick from airborne hazards in their workplaces.

He suddenly has the attention of a lot of employers who never really gave thought to it before the pandemic.

Typically, Smith’s team focuses on how the air moves through places like labs or factories, but since the pandemic started, his business has been getting calls about open layout offices, conference rooms and auditoriums.

“A lot of people have found out that their systems are dysfunctional,” Smith said.

Office spaces are often a lot harder to work with than labs, Smith said, because they weren’t designed with floating pathogens in mind, and the systems have not been well maintained. He says there’s a simple reason for that: it wasn’t required.

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Is California Ready for Brown Lawns and Shorter Showers? Drought Requires Less Water Use

In the face of rapidly worsening drought conditions this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom urged all Californians to voluntarily cut their water usage by 15% — but what exactly does that mean for the average California household?

The governor made his plea Thursday as he extended a regional state of drought emergency to 50 counties, comprising about 42% of the state’s population. For many, the talk of water reductions reminded them of the shriveled lawns, attenuated showers and water-bucket toilet flushing of the last devastating drought.

It also prompted some to wonder just how much more water Californians can conserve, since they continue to use substantially less water than they did before the 2012-2016 drought.

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U.S. West faces little-known effect of raging wildfires: contaminated water

Early this spring, water bills arrived with notes urging Fort Collins Utilities customers to conserve. The Colorado customers may have thought the issue was persistent drought in the U.S. West.

But the problem was not the quantity of water available. It was the quality.

Utilities are increasingly paying attention to a little-known impact of large-scale fires: water contamination.

Huge forest fires last year denuded vast areas of Colorado’s mountains and left them covered in ash – ash that with sediment has since been washed by rains into the Cache la Poudre River. The river is one of two sources for household water in this college town of 165,000. With more and fiercer storms expected this year, officials worry about water quality worsening beyond what treatment systems can handle.

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Worried About Returning to the Office? What to Ask Your Boss to Ensure You’re Safe

As employees and students prepare for their return to offices and classrooms, an NBC Bay Area investigation reveals a surprising lack of oversight regarding indoor air quality, which may have led to more COVID-19 infections and deaths.  Experts argue the problem existed well before the pandemic and continues to threaten workplaces and schools across the country.

A lack of education, awareness, and accountability may be leading to hazardous indoor air conditions inside a wide array of buildings throughout the nation.  One study found 85% of classrooms had inadequate air ventilation, allowing toxins to accumulate.

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Dessouky, Nermin

Nermin is a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Geography at the University of California, Davis. Nermin has an M.Sc. in Sustainable Development, focusing on urban policy from the American University in Cairo and a Bachelor of Architecture. Prior to joining UC Davis, Nermin worked with the Research Institute for a Sustainable Environment to examine the quest for urban sustainability in the MENA region. Nermin uses systems thinking to navigate conflicts in design and use values between different actors. Her work examines the interrelations between branding, communication, and the performance of sustainable neighborhoods. Nermin design studies to explore perceptions, expectations, and use values of sustainability and the built environment. Since coming to UC, Davis Nermin has served as a grant application advisor for The Green Initiative Fund. Nermin also worked with the Energy and Efficiency Institute on several projects related to micro-mobility, non-energy impacts, and building user interfaces.

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nermin-Dessouky-2

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nermin-dessouky/