Dr. Emily Kumpel is an Assistant Professor of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA). Her research spans intermittent water supplies, water distribution systems, small rural water systems, and water quality monitoring, with projects in the US, India, Kenya, and Mexico. She has a particular interest in intermittent piped water supplies, and currently studies their effects on water quality, water quantity, infrastructure, and water access. Dr. Kumpel co-led the first rigorous impact evaluation of the transition from intermittent to continuous water supply in Hubli-Dharwad, India, including evaluating the water quality, water quantity, health, and household coping costs of the transition. Her recent research has brought her to questions around how water agencies collect and use data to manage whether their water is safe.
Prior to joining the faculty at UMass, Dr. Kumpel was a Senior Research Scientist with the Aquaya Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, where she was engaged in research and training on water quality monitoring, Water Safety Plans, and impact evaluations. She has conducted extensive research in India, Kenya, Senegal, and Nigeria, and collaborated on projects in more than a dozen other countries throughout Africa and Asia.
More information about Emily Kumpel and her research can be found at: www.emilykumpel.com
Selected publications (full list: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3p8_njYAAAAJ&hl=en )
Wunderlich, S., S. Freeman, L. Galindo, C. Brown, and E. Kumpel (2021). Optimizing Household Water Decisions for Managing Intermittent Water Supply in Mexico City. Environmental Science and Technology. Accepted.
Kumpel, E., C. MacLeod, K. Stuart, A. Cock-Esteb, R. Khush, R. Peletz (2020). From Data to Decisions: Understanding information flows within regulatory water quality monitoring programs. npj Clean Water, 3.
Rawas, F., R. Bain, and E. Kumpel (2020). Comparing utility-reported hours of piped water supply to households’ experiences. npj Clean Water, 3(1), 1-9.
Ray, I., N. Billava, Z. Burt, J. Colford Jr., A. Ercumen, K.P. Jayaramu, E. Kumpel, N. Nayak, K. Nelson, C. Woefle-Erskine (2019). From intermittent to continuous water supply: A multi-dimensional evaluation of water system reforms from Hubli-Dharwad, Karnataka. Economic and Political Weekly, 53 (49).
Kumpel, E.c and Delaire C., R. Peletz c, J. Kisiangani, A. Rinehold, J. DeFrance, D. Sutherland, R. Khush (2018). Measuring the impacts of Water Safety Plans in the Asia-Pacific Region. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(6), 1223.
Kumpel, E., C. Woelfe-Erskine, I. Ray, and K. Nelson (2017). Measuring household consumption and waste in unmetered, intermittent piped water systems. Water Resources Research, 53. doi:10.1002/2016WR019702.
Kumpel, E., A. Cock-Esteb, M. Duret, D. de Waal, and R. Khush (2017). Seasonal variation in drinking and domestic water sources and quality in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 96(2): 437-445. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.16-0175
Kumpel, E., R. Peletz, M. Bonham, and R. Khush (2016). Assessing drinking water quality and water safety management in sub-Saharan Africa using regulated monitoring data. Environmental Science & Technology, 50(20):10869-10876. doi:10.1021/acs.est.6b02707.
Kumpel, E. and K. Nelson (2014). Mechanisms affecting water quality in an intermittent piped water supply. Environmental Science & Technology, 48(5), 2766–2775.
Kumpel, E. and K. Nelson (2013). Comparing microbial water quality in an intermittent and continuous piped water supply. Water Research, 47(14), 5176–5188.