Research summary
Infrastructure design and management are critical to supporting sustainable development in Indigenous communities across Canada. But the current state of infrastructure—such as wastewater and solid waste treatment—in these communities is dire. It’s not only aging, obsolete and inadequate, but sometimes non-existent. As Canada Research Chair in Integrated Knowledge, Engineering and Sustainable Communities, Dr. Kerry Black is working to come up with concrete ways to change that.
Black and her research team are searching for solutions that integrate social, economic and environmental concerns as well as Indigenous experiences and perspectives. Her goal is to advance integrated knowledge systems in order to effectively address the infrastructure challenges facing Indigenous communities. Ultimately, her research could lead to community-led approaches that will improve infrastructure engineering in Canada as a whole.