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My scientific work

My passion is using data science as a multi-disciplinary tool to empower communities to sustainably shape their environments.

 

During my PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I studied the impact that green infrastructure has on urban resilience. I leveraged a multi-disciplinary framework to look at resilience from a technical, socio-economic, and legal framework. My work led to the creation of a webtool and graphical interface that communities can use to determine appropriate green infrastructure design for their native soils and landscapes. 

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As a AAAS Science, Technology, and Policy Fellow with the U.S. Department of Energy, I managed projects that decarbonized the water and wastewater sectors. I was also part of an interagency task-force led out of the White House that aimed to improve the climate resilience of federal infrastructure projects. 

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In my current role with Isle Utilities, I manage a diverse portfolio of projects at the intersection of water, energy, and the environment, with clients spanning academia, industry, utilities, and the federal government. In particular, my work with Isle's Trial Reservoir helps to mitigate risk for utilities seeking to pilot innovative new technologies in low income and minority communities. 

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Research Interests

  • Urban risk and resilience modeling

  • Water and the law

  • Energy-water-land nexus

  • Green infrastructure

  • Data analysis for community science

Selected publications. 

McGuire, M., Grimley, D., Phillips, A., Stillwell, A.S., William, R., Shen, J., and Schneeman, M.(2021). Retrofitting urban land through integrative, subsoils-based planning of green stormwater infrastructure: A research framework. Env. Res. Infr. and Sustainability. Vol. 1, pp. 035003

 

Bethke, G., William, R., and Stillwell, A.S. (2021). Rain Garden Performance as a Function of Native Soil Parameters. Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment. Vol. 8, iss. 1

 

William, R., Endres, B., and Stillwell, A.S. (2020). Integrating Green Infrastructure Into Stormwater Policy: Reliability, Watershed Management, and Environmental Psychology as Holistic Tools for Success. UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy. vol. 38, iss. 1

 

William, R., Gardoni, P., and Stillwell, A.S. (2019). Using stochastic life cycle assessment to model green infrastructure performance under antecedent moisture. Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure. vol. 6, iss. 34

 

William, R., Gardoni, P., and Stillwell, A.S. (2019). A reliability-based approach to investigating longterm clogging in green stormwater infrastructure. Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built

Environment. vol. 5, iss. 1 **Winner Best Paper Award for 2021

 

William, R., Garg, J., and Stillwell, A.S. (2017). A game theory analysis of green infrastructure stormwater management policies. Water Resources Research. vol. 53, iss. 9

 

William, R. and Stillwell, A.S. (2017). Use of fragility curves to evaluate the performance of green roofs. Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment. vol. 3, iss. 4

 

William, R. and Endres, B. (2017). Bridging the divide: Incorporating interflow into legal discourse on surface water-groundwater interactions Ecology Law Currents, vol. 44, pp. 101–108

 

William, R., Goodwell, A., Richardson, M., Le, P., Kumar, P. and Stillwell, A.S. (2016) An environmental cost-benefit analysis of alternative roofing strategies. Ecological Engineering, vol. 95, pp. 1–9.

 

William, R. and Schmidt, A. (2015) Computer-based modeling of impacts of Prunus africana on groundwater in Northwestern Cameroon. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, vol 141, iss. 12

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