Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations

Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations and the 2023-24 Theme Year

With the topic of drinking water as a base within the Theme Year initiative, students in Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations worked in teams to scope and investigate an information-related project and propose recommendations based on a keynote talk from Kris Donaldson, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE)’s Clean Water Public Advocate.

Course Overview:

In Contextual Inquiry and Consulting Foundations, students worked in teams to identify and scope an information problem, and investigated the problem by conducting background research as well as using qualitative research methods to collect, represent, and analyze data to inform recommendations.

As they worked together over the course of the semester, student teams learned to manage projects; collaborate effectively; give and receive constructive feedback; manage project timelines, workloads, and responsibilities; conduct interviews; analyze and synthesize qualitative data; generate and evaluate specific recommendations to address the information problem; communicate findings and recommendations in oral and written form. Students gained experience articulating the impacts an information problem or proposed recommendation to address it might have on different stakeholder groups, including impacts from the perspective of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Why Drinking Water?

Surrounded by fresh water, Michigan is uniquely positioned with respect to issues or challenges surrounding access to safe drinking water. The supply of source water is plentiful; however, issues such as contamination, water affordability, infrastructure, conservation, and distribution regularly affect the citizens of Michigan in terms of health, finances, and overall well-being. Beyond Michigan, these issues are deeply important and affect human beings, animals, and the environment worldwide.

Course Partners

Kris Donaldson

Clean Water Public Advocate

Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE)

The Office of Clean Water Public Advocate (OCWPA) within the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) ensures the public can report drinking water concerns through the statewide concerns reporting system.

OCWPA primarily serves as a resource and facilitator of communication among other offices, state agencies, community partners, and the public in issues related to drinking water. Its mission also includes exploring gaps and recommending potential improvements to policies, procedures, and regulations to support the continued improvement of Michigan's drinking water response and regulation.

September 11 Keynote:

Kris Donaldson serves as the public advocate in the Office of Clean Water Public Advocate (OCWPA) within the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). Her office ensures the public can report drinking water concerns through the statewide concerns reporting system. The appropriate entity investigates all concerns as part of EGLE's commitment to accessibility and responsiveness.

Kris joined the state government as a drinking water engineer, regulating Wayne County community water supplies in accordance with the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act. She went on to supervise drinking water staff regulating more than 200 community water supplies in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and St. Clair counties. She previously worked in the private sector as an environmental engineer for an environmental consulting firm. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in environmental engineering from Michigan Technological University and is a licensed professional engineer in Michigan.

Other Partners

Students will observe interviews with other subject matter experts and have the opportunity to interview subject matter experts in their subtopic of choice.

Project Outcomes

Establishing a Communications Pipeline Between Ann Arbor Government and University of Michigan

Student(s): Tara Dorje, Andrea Medina, Marco Toledo, Lucy Wang, Siqing Xu

Project Summary:

Our team dedicated itself to evaluating whether existing communication flows pertaining to water quality and contamination in the Huron River Watershed are able to reach the U-M student body

Our team has identified a number of ways in which the most-used communications channels of both the city government and university fall short at present, preventing timely notification and awareness of local water issues to area students as a result. There are critical communications gaps that must be bridged in order to ensure that U-M students are well-informed about water contamination in the Huron River Watershed and its impacts on the local environment and overall public health. Our team believes it possible to achieve an enhanced local infrastructure for the dissemination of water-related information and messaging, via the establishment of a new, robust communications pipeline which would directly connect the City of Ann Arbor’s communications team with the vast network of marketing and communications professionals at U-M.

View the final project report here.

Environmental Racism and Disparate Water Contamination Communications in Washtenaw County

Student(s): Emily Prindle, Shemya Gilmore, Ta'Miya Massey, Anqi Wang (Angel), Ruijie Zhao (Rachel)

Project Summary:

We investigated whether environmental racism leads to any disparate water contamination communications throughout Washtenaw County.

More research is needed in order to understand if there is a direct correlation between environmental racism in Washtenaw County and disparate water contamination communications, but the Washtenaw Racial Equity Office believes that environmental racism absolutely has the potential to lead to these disparities in Washtenaw County. We found evidence that environmental racism impacts Washtenaw County, with the worst health outcomes being found in Ypsilanti. We also found that there are disparities in the water contamination communications between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. The cause for these disparities, on the surface, can be linked to different municipalities within the county -- all having different organizational and informational structures. However, we believe that environmental racism may be an underlying/compounding cause to these disparities.

View the final project report here.

Water Affordability

Student(s): Anhua Wu, Zhanyang Liu, Hafizh Yusuf, MC Griffith

Project Summary:

Through this project our team understood how information sources influence the water rate-setting process in the City of Ann Arbor, in order to explore issues around water affordability and access.

Knowledge: Learned rate-setting is driven by infrastructure needs quantified by city staff. Found conflicting views on affordability from officials vs residents.

Educational Experience: Utilized qualitative research methodologies like interviews and affinity wall analysis. Collaborated in a group through all stages of the project.

Societal Impact: Highlighted need for sustained infrastructure investment, transparent communication, and statewide affordability plans to aid struggling households. Research brings light to pressing local water challenges."

View the final project report here.

Consumer Perception of Water Contamination

Student(s): Christy Choi, Jiawei Hu, Chinmay Inamdar, Andrea Nelson

Project Summary:

"When scoping our problem, we started off with an anecdote from one of our group members. Our group member described a recent experience they had on Nextdoor, a social media app for neighborhoods, where they had read a post where a woman was explaining how she had recently dyed her hair blonde and the water was turning her hair green. She believed that the cause of her green hair was Ann Arbor’s tap water, and she had troubles finding information about the city’s water. With this story we identified two things. First, that some consumers might not perceive their water to be clean and second, that there is an underlying information problem. Thus, using the anecdote as inspiration, we decided to focus on Ann Arbor’s tap water and consumer perceptions of water.

To further narrow the scope of our problem, we decided to focus more specifically on 1,4-dioxane. The reason behind this was because some of our group members had heard about the Gelman plume and were interested in learning more about it. Additionally, given the tight time-frame of this project, we decided to focus on only city water (tap water) users."

The presence of 1,4-dioxane in water continues to be a complex problem in Ann Arbor. Differing standards across reputable sources coupled with outdated communication methods from the government makes it difficult for users to be informed about their water. There is a lack of centralized, up-to-date, and easily accessible information. As a result, there is a wide range of awareness amongst users regarding their water quality: some users are aware while others are not. Despite numerous challenges, the local government is taking action by implementing risk reduction initiatives. The government should consider developing a comprehensive information platform where users can easily access clear, and up to date information regarding their water.

View the final project report here.

School of Information

University of Michigan

105 S State St.

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285

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