Challenges in Managing Recreational Shellfish in Urbanizing Environments: The Role of Alternative Wastewater Infrastructures in Mediating the Impacts of Urbanization on near Shore Water Quality

My research examines both the impacts and mediation of urbanization on near shore water quality to affect shellfish habitat in the Puget Sound intertidal zone. I explore how different wastewater infrastructure types interact with urban landscape patterns to effect water quality processes and nearshore ecosystem function. To explore this relationship, I employ a landscape analysis approach to test and quantify the relationship between urban patterns and wastewater infrastructure types and their impacts on shellfish growing areas using indicators of estuary nearshore conditions.  Measures of urban development include landscape patterns of land cover composition and configuration, land use intensity, and soils. To examine the relationship between urbanization and nearshore water quality, I ask four main questions (1) How are wastewater treatment types distributed across a gradient of urbanization? (2) How do different wastewater treatment types interact with land use and land cover? (3) Is there a difference in impact on water quality depending on wastewater infrastructure and what does this difference look like across a gradient of urbanization? (4) Is there an association between particular wastewater treatment types and land cover that may result in higher FC concentrations in the Puget Sound near shore?