Joanne Sobeck (United States of America)
Wayne State University
Social Work
Joanne Sobeck, Ph.D., is an Associate Dean for Research and Director of the Center for Social Work Research in the School of Social Work at Wayne State University. In this capacity, she directs strategies for maintaining an infrastructure to support faculty research and community partnerships to develop and evaluate best practices in community-based interventions. She has developed a collaborative model for research that leverages university resources and builds capacity of communities and organizations. Her research interests include capacity building, child welfare workforce development, and health and environmental justice. Most recently, she has been involved in an inter-disciplinary study to examine the relationship between the Flint water crisis and the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. Currently she is involved with an NSF funded study on Water, Health, Infrastructure, Resilience and Learning. Dr. Sobeck has published on capacity building and sustaining grassroots organizations, antibiotic knowledge and beliefs, the Flint Water Crisis, child welfare policy, and Native American health. Her combined experiences and publications in community-based research, community engagement, and capacity building provide a strong basis for her research, teaching, and commitment to fulfilling her School’s urban mission.

Presenter of 1 Presentation

 Conference Calendar

HEALTHY CITIES NEED INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN WATER SYSTEMS AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN A COVID-19 WORLD

Session Name
0600 - Pecha Kuchas - Healthy 01: Food and diets, COVID-19 7 co-creation (ID 81)
Session Type
Pecha Kuchas
Date
02/23/2022
Session Time
02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Room

Hall D

Presenter
Lecture Time
02:10 PM - 02:15 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

The United States relies on a complex, nested, and interconnected system of governance to deliver clean water and promote public health. While there are many opportunities for interaction between drinking water systems and public health, the mechanisms we have created are vulnerable to exogenous and endogenous shocks, or disruptions. In complex systems, tensions exist between efficiency, responsiveness, effectiveness and resilience, which is the ability to absorb and manage critical infrastructure to recover and adapt after adverse events. Less is known about interactions during a global pandemic that has exposed the need for coordinated and interconnected responses. The experience of COVID-19 provides an opportunity to better understand how disruptions impact interactions between systems, adequacy of disaster responses, and how systems interface differently because of disruption.

This presentation summarizes work from a study funded by multiple sources that examines data from a nationwide survey of water systems and local public health departments that explores their interactions with each other during the COVID-19 crisis. The presentation will examine the different types of interactions between water and public health systems, such as exchanging information and data; coordinating messages and trainings; changing policies; and planning for recovery. We will also report the degree to which formal and informal communications, coordination of resources and institutionally supported planning, processes, and procedures have been altered during the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic has also created opportunities for policy changes to reduce water-related health risks and illustrates the willingness of systems to engage with one another. For instance, we will discuss policy changes related to water shutoffs, water quality monitoring, water access points and coordinated flushing of buildings with extended vacancies.

To sustain healthy cities, policymakers must adapt and learn how to increase system resilience. Massive disruptions will continue to happen, so thriving ecocities will require resilient interdependent systems to continually interact, evolve, and respond to both internal and external pressures. This presentation offers data on the intersection of drinking water and public health systems to enhance understanding of system interdependencies through the COVID-19 pandemic.

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