Research Overview
History is laden with stories of unintentional consequences from focused drinking water treatment approaches that do not holistically consider health risk reduction. Understanding and highlighting these risk tradeoffs is the foundation of Dr. Alfredo's research at USF. Across these contributions, she has advanced understanding of water treatment performance, uncovered hidden health risks, and developed tools to guide equitable policy. Dr. Alfredo's work bridges engineering, microbiology, and public health, ensuring that safe water is not just a technological promise but a lived reality.
Treatment
Research topics include: geogenic contaminant mapping and treatment, aluminum coagulation treatment, electrocoagulation treatment methods, point-of-use carbon block filtration, biofiltration, microbial remediation
Policy
Research topics include: US EPA drinking water policy analyses, risk evaluation and mapping, normalized drinking water risk, retrospective policy analyses
Access & Sustainability
Research topics include: water quality perception and choices, water collection, taste preferences, water task segregation, willingness to pay, community cooperation around common goods
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Drinking Water
Dr. Alfredo's approach to building her research group embodies the National Academies definition of the interdisciplinary researcher; she is an environmental engineer who investigates the multifaceted aspects of drinking water safety, integrating technical, socio-economic, and policy dimensions into the question. Her DW-TAPS research group focuses on understanding how water treatment processes, household decisions, and regulatory frameworks interact to influence water quality and health. Through interdisciplinary collaborations and a commitment to understanding user motivations, her research team seeks to improve water safety and accessibility, ultimately contributing to better health outcomes.
