CURes joined University of Maryland researchers Paul Leisnham and Amanda Rockler on their collaborative project entitled “Stakeholder Inclusive Water Management in a Changing Mid-Atlantic: Alternative Water Sources, Related Socioeconomic Factors, and Sustainability.” This transdisciplinary study aims to facilitate the use of nontraditional water sources and implementation of water conservation practices in agriculture. Dr. Romolini provided social science expertise to better understand stakeholders’ experiences and perceptions regarding freshwater and reusable water resources. She and CURes’ undergraduate research assistants Lily Maddox (EVST ’23) and Alexa Siglar (ENVS ’25) developed interview protocols and a sampling framework to conduct 17 interviews with agricultural professionals from May-December 2023. Preliminary results were reported at the LMU Undergraduate Research Symposium in March 2024 and at the Chesapeake Community Research Symposium in Annapolis, MD in June 2024, with final results reported in Frontiers in Environmental Science.
CURes produced the following research products:
- Romolini M, Siglar AC, Leisnham PT, Rockler AK, Negahban-Azar M and Shirmohammadi A (2026). Agricultural water management in a changing Maryland: stakeholder experiences and attitudes towards weather variability, alternative water sources, and related factors. Front. Environ. Sci. 14:1650298. doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1650298
- Siglar, Alexa and Romolini, Michele, "Agricultural Water Management in a Changing Mid-Atlantic: Stakeholder Experiences and Attitudes Towards Alternative Water Sources, Weather Variability, and Related Factors" (2024). Center for Urban Resilience Research Posters. 48.