Forty-four percent of the world's population resides in coastal communities and this number will continue to grow. The shoreline and coastal waters are highly valued natural resources providing society with food, revenue, and numerous ecosystem services. To maintain healthy coastal ecosystems and clean coastal waters for future generations under increasing anthropogenic pressures, we need to develop sound management practices and policies for coastal margins. The proposed work addresses this need by elucidating anthropogenic and environmental factors that control densities of FIB along the shoreline. The proposed research activities will benefit society as a whole by providing information that will allow for better management of human health risks at recreational beaches. The integrated research and education plan presented in this CAREER proposal aims to provide the next generation of environmental engineers with skills to solve multi-disciplinary coastal water quality problems. The students who participate in the proposed research/education activities will be environmental engineers trained in fundamentals with breadth in microbiology, coastal oceanography, policy, and law, and thus well educated to tackle complex coastal water quality problems. As environmental problems of the future will require well-versed multidisciplinary investigators, the students will be well prepared for a future in environmental problem solving. The education plan focuses on coastal water quality as a theme and uses field projects and hands-on experiences as vehicles for learning. Middle and high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, and high school teachers are targets for the education plan. Specific objectives include the implementation of a novel, interdisciplinary environmental engineering class to be co-taught with lawyers, and a service learning class to be taught with a local wastewater treatment plant as the community partner. The PI will mentor under-represented high school students from East Palo Alto, create a 1-day module on water quality for Stanford0s Upward Bound program for under-privileged middle and high school students, and work with a high school teacher to develop field and lab projects for high school science classes.
