Fernanda Presents Award-Winning Research on Nitrogen Legacy at World Water Day 2026

At the recent World Water Day 2026 celebrations hosted by the Water Institute, PhD candidate Fernanda Barreto won the People’s Choice Poster Award for her work, "A Century of Urban Nitrogen Pollution: The Legacy of Subsurface Storage and Riverbank Attenuation." The study explores how historical sanitation practices, such as the past use of septic tanks, leave a lasting chemical footprint in the soil of Bauru, Brazil. This "Nitrogen Legacy" acts as a continuous, slow-release source to the aquifer. By quantifying system inertia and emphasizing the critical role of riparian zones as natural filters, the findings show that groundwater recovery is a multi-decadal process, requiring long-term planning for water security. The full abstract can be accessed here. 

The research is part of the SACRE project, coordinated by Dr. Ricardo Hirata. This collaborative effort between Brazil and Canada is based at USP/CEPAS under the advisement of Dr. Reginaldo Bertolo, with essential co-advisement by Dr. Claudia Varnier at IPA/SEMIL, and international supervision by Dr. Philippe Van Cappellen (University of Waterloo). The project is supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, grant no. 2020/15434-0).