Human Dimensions of Water Resilience

The human dimensions of water resilience refer to the social, behavioral, and institutional factors that shape how communities and the systems they depend on respond to water-related stresses. Grounded in environmental design and informed by hydrology, urban planning, geospatial science, environmental psychology, public policy, and data science, this work treats water systems and human systems as deeply intertwined, each continually reshaping the other. Whether examining how neighborhoods adopt and steward green stormwater infrastructure, how compound heat and flood events disrupt daily mobility, or how data-driven tools can better reflect community needs, the goal is to advance understanding of these coupled dynamics so that communities, agencies, and designers can shape water futures that are both technically sound and locally meaningful.

Present Issues

As floods, intensifying storms, and watershed degradation place mounting pressure on communities, nature-based solutions have emerged as a promising path toward resilience. Yet their success depends as much on social acceptance and stewardship as on technical design. Bridging this gap between biophysical performance and human behavior remains a central challenge.

Intensifying Water Extremes: Floods, intense storms, and prolonged droughts are becoming more frequent and severe, overwhelming aging infrastructure and stressing the natural systems communities depend on.
Compound Climate Hazards: Concurrent events, such as heat layered onto flooding, reshape how communities move and access essential services, with the heaviest burdens falling on those most exposed.
Coupled Human–Water Systems Under Strain: Natural water systems and human infrastructure continually reshape one another, yet rapid urbanization and climate change are pushing these interactions beyond what historical experience can guide.
Data-Driven Tools Without Human Context: AI and modeling approaches increasingly shape decisions about water infrastructure and risk, yet often overlook the local knowledge, behavior, and stewardship that determine whether solutions succeed.
Behavior-Infrastructure Mismatch: Technical designs often assume idealized maintenance and use, but real-world stewardship depends on social norms, institutional capacity, and shifting community priorities that are seldom built into project planning.

Our Research Focus: Human Dimensions of Water Resilience

Participatory Decision Support: Coupling hydrologic and land-use data with community preferences through participatory GIS and co-design.
Behavioral and Social Analysis: Drawing on environmental psychology and policy analysis to understand the factors that shape adoption and long-term stewardship.
Compound Hazards and Mobility: Modeling how concurrent heat and flood events reshape community movement and access to services.
Human-Integrated AI: Developing machine learning tools for stormwater forecasting and green infrastructure siting that incorporate local knowledge and stewardship behavior.

This research enables agencies, municipalities, and communities to co-design adaptation pathways that are technically sound, socially legitimate, and locally actionable.

Why It Matters

Water resilience is one of the most urgent challenges facing communities in the 21st century. As climate change intensifies floods, storms, and compounding extremes, the tools and infrastructure meant to protect us will only succeed if they account for how people live, move, and respond to a changing environment.

Addressing this challenge requires interdisciplinary collaboration across environmental design, hydrology, urban planning, geospatial science, environmental psychology, public policy, and data science to translate research into real-world solutions.

Team Leadership

Team Lead:

Dr. Mahsa Adib

Dr. Mahsa Adib is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture in the School of Planning, Design, and Construction at Michigan State University. Her research operates at the intersection of environmental planning and design, geospatial science, and machine learning, advancing the human dimensions of water resilience. She studies the coupled dynamics of natural water systems and human infrastructure, examining how communities and institutions adopt and steward nature-based solutions for stormwater management, flood mitigation, and watershed protection; how compound heat and flood events reshape community mobility and access to essential services; and how machine learning tools for stormwater forecasting and green infrastructure siting can better incorporate local knowledge and stewardship behavior. Drawing on environmental psychology and policy analysis, she also investigates the social and institutional factors that shape adoption and long-term stewardship. Across these threads, this research enables agencies, municipalities, and communities to co-design adaptation pathways that are technically sound, socially legitimate, and locally actionable.

Contact:

Email: adib@msu.edu
Office: 552 W Circle Dr., Room 201J, East Lansing, MI 48824

Partners:

Dr. Jun-Hyun Kim - School Director and Professor, School of Planning, Design and Construction

Dr. Jun-Hyun Kim is the director and professor in the School of Planning, Design & Construction (SPDC) at Michigan State University. His research focuses on the impacts of environments on human and ecological health, spanning environmental perception, mental and physical health measurement, and environmental assessment, with planning and design outputs aimed at improving resilience in high-risk populations. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, he extends this work across the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of community resilience.

Contact:

Email: junhkim@msu.edu

Dr. Hong Wu - Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Penn State University

Dr. Wu is an Associate professor of Landscape Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Wu’s research bridges scales to advance sustainable and resilient water systems. At regional and watershed scales, she applies computer-based modeling, including agent-based landscape change simulations and hydrological modeling, to support natural resource decision-making related to water. Her work examines the effectiveness of stormwater best management practices and alternative urban development patterns in conserving stream ecosystem health amid urbanization and climate change, with a current emphasis on optimizing green stormwater infrastructure planning to maximize multiple ecosystem benefits under deep climate uncertainty. At the site scale, she explores innovative design strategies that integrate sustainability into urban landscapes, investigating the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of green stormwater infrastructure across diverse social and ecological contexts.

Contact:

Email: huw24@psu.edu

Collaborative Vision

Together, we examine the coupled dynamics of water resilience, from the behavior of natural systems to the decisions of the communities that depend on them. This integrated approach:

Advances the science of coupled human–water systems under climate stress
Links hydrologic and infrastructural performance with community knowledge, behavior, and stewardship
Produces actionable insights for agencies, municipalities, and the communities they serve

Our shared vision is to develop evidence-based strategies that strengthen water resilience, reduce inequitable exposure, and sustain the natural and built systems communities depend on for generations to come.