Water | Penn IUR

Podcasts December 5, 2025 Special Briefing on AI in Government—More Efficiency but Fewer Workers? The launch of ChatGPT in 2022 sparked an “AI arms race” with trillions of dollars in investment and profound implications for productivity and employment. Join William Glasgall, Penn IUR Fellow and Volcker Alliance Public Finance Adviser, and Susan Wachter, Co-Director of Penn IUR and Wharton professor, and our expert panel as we discuss how generative AI and related technologies are reshaping public sector operations, workforce needs, and infrastructure planning. Panelists include Jon Hartley, Policy Fellow, Hoover Institution; Leigh Palmer, Vice President, Google Public Sector LLC; Megan Kilgore, City Auditor, City of Columbus, Ohio; Howard Neukrug, Executive Director, The Water Center at Penn and Professor of Practice, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania; and Thomas Sanchez, Professor, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University. Jon Hartley Leigh Palmer Megan Kilgore Howard Neukrug Thomas Sanchez State & Local Finance

News August 13, 2025 The Global Threat of Salt Contamination to Water Supplies Penn IUR Faculty Fellow Allison Lassiter is featured in Penn Today for her work on rising salt levels in freshwater sources. Climate Change & Resilience

Article October 24, 2024 Faculty Spotlight: Allison Lassiter Penn IUR Faculty Fellow Allison Lassiter is adapting drinking water systems to climate change. She tells Penn IUR about a tool her lab is developing, SaltCast, and her role in serving on Penn’s delegation to the UNFCCC Conference of Parties. Climate Change & Resilience

Fellow in Urban Leadership Griffin Pitt

Climate Change & Resilience

Podcasts April 25, 2024 Special Briefing: America's $900 Billion Water Crisis While the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $50 billion to upgrade America’s drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems, much more will be needed to address the nation’s water infrastructure needs amid a changing climate and shifts in population. Susan Wachter William Glasgall Howard Neukrug Reese Tisdale Nicole Lick Doug Evanson William W. Bradley State & Local Finance

Apr 25 2024 Past Event Special Briefing: America's $900 Billion Water Crisis State & Local Finance

Affiliated PhD Student Rachel Bondra

Fellow in the Initiative in the History of the Built Environment Doctoral Student in City and Regional Planning

Urban Development

Affiliated PhD Student Benjamin (Benji) Smith

PhD Candidate in Wharton's Applied Economics Program

Climate Change & Resilience Urban Development + 1

Article September 19, 2022 Penn IUR Faculty Fellows’ Summer Research Advances Urban Water Management How to sustainably manage urban water? That question took Penn IUR Faculty Fellows to cities like Pittsburgh, where improving water quality and access are critical issues; to the Netherlands, where 93 percent of the population lives in urban areas and all are at risk of rising seas; and to Malawi, where innovative methods of measuring climate adaptation may one day be applied to cities around the world. Climate Change & Resilience

Publication May 26, 2022 Rethinking the Heavy Hand of Flood Prevention in Informal Settlements: An Investigation of Retreat-Related Practices in the Philippines Researchers and decision-makers increasingly favor managed retreat as an adaptation to address urban floods exacerbated by climate impacts. In the informal settlements of the Global South, national governments, development banks, and other knowledge brokers choose relocation over slum upgrading in their retreat-related activities. They disproportionately relocate informal settlers—who lack legal land tenure— despite the fact that the risk profiles of many places is similar to those that the UN and other global bodies recommend in-situ climate-sensitive upgrade projects. Climate Change & Resilience Urban Development

Faculty Fellow Matthijs Bouw

Professor of Practice, McHarg Center Fellow for Risk and Resilience, Landscape Architecture, Weitzman School of Design

Climate Change & Resilience

Sep 23 2021 Past Event Special Briefing on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Clean Water, Better Broadband, Resilience, and Equity Climate Change & Resilience

Research Paper July 13, 2021 5th Guangzhou Award Report on Local Implementation of SDGs Climate Change & Resilience Housing + 1

Faculty Fellow Allison Lassiter

Assistant Professor

Climate Change & Resilience

Faculty Fellow Simon Richter

Class of 1965 Endowed Term Professor of German, Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies, School of Arts and Sciences Chair, Department of Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies

Climate Change & Resilience

Fellow Aromar Revi

Co-Chair of Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IHHS)

Climate Change & Resilience Urban Development + 2

Fellow Angela Glover Blackwell

Professor of Practice, and Chief Vision Officer Democracy Policy Initiative, The Goldman School, University of California, Berkeley Founder in Residence, PolicyLink

Faculty Fellow Howard Neukrug

Professor of Practice, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania

Climate Change & Resilience

Scholar Chunxia Yang

Associate Professor of Architecture, Architecture, Tongji University

Climate Change & Resilience Urban Development + 1

Fellow Seung Ah Byun

Executive Director, Chester County Water Resources Authority

Climate Change & Resilience

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