Seminar: Kristina Hopkins & Matthew LaFevor

Exploring Controls on Stormwater Infrastructure Transitions From Gray to Green Approaches

Kristina Hopkins, SESYNC Postdoctoral Fellow

Kristina Hopkins’ research interests straddle the fields of hydrology, land use planning, and political science. She is broadly interested in coupled human-natural systems, particularly as they relate to water management in cities. At SESYNC, Krissy will focus on characterizing how stormwater management strategies change over time and what socio-political factors facilitate transitions in management styles. This work will identify policies and governance structures that catalyze transitions towards resilient, sustainable stormwater management systems. Krissy comes to SESYNC from the University of Pittsburgh Department of Geology and Planetary Science, where she earned her PhD in the summer of 2014. With collaborators, she conducted research aimed at characterizing hydrologic changes following urbanization in nine U.S. cities. During her graduate work, she used historical datasets to reconstruct the location and intensity of development during the last century and stream flow records to assess hydrologic alterations. In Pittsburgh, she was also engaged in watershed planning efforts to reduce the occurrence combined sewer overflows through the installation of green infrastructure. Krissy also holds a BS in Biology and a BA in Geography from Syracuse University.

Cross-Slope Earthworks for Ecosystem Services: A Global Perspective

Matthew LaFevor, SESYNC Postdoctoral Fellow

Matthew LaFevor received his PhD in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014; his MA from la Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico; and his BA from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. Matt’s research interests include agriculture, watershed sciences, conservation and sustainability, and environmental history, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean. For his dissertation he examined the impacts of different forms of hillslope terracing on soil and water conservation in Tlaxcala, Mexico. At SESYNC Matt will compile and assess large datasets on government-sponsored terracing projects, examining both human and environmental aspects of their design and sustainability. His work seeks to bridge the gap between the agronomic and conservation sciences to better understand where growing food and producing environmental services overlap or diverge on the landscape.