About

Dr. Kebreab Ghebremichael is Professor of Instruction at the Patel College of Global Sustainability and has a courtesy appointment at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at USF. Recently he received the Global Achievement Award at USF and a prestigious Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship award for education and research project. He worked in a number of national and international projects as a PI and Co-PI. He is involved in projects such as the International Research Experience for Students (IRES) on the topic of Water Sanitation and Hygiene in Ghana, IRES project on Water Quality Implications of Onsite Sanitation and Sea Level Rise in Coastal Communities, Life Cycle Assessment of Shopping Bags, and Greenhouse Gas Inventory and projection for the State of Florida. His expertise is in water and wastewater treatment, particularly in the development of low cost and appropriate technologies. Dr. Ghebremichael has published one book, 4 book chapters, and more than 30 peer-reviewed journal papers. He has more than 20 years of teaching and research experience, developed and taught several graduate and undergraduate courses in sustainability and Civil and Environmental Engineering subjects. He supervised several Ph.D. and MS students. Before joining USF, Dr. Ghebremichael worked at UNESCO-IHE (prestigious institute for water education) in the Netherlands and in Eritrea. He has extensive global experience in water resources, water and wastewater treatment challenges and solution through his engagement in multiple international projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Dr. Ghebremichael directs the Water Sustainability Concentration and has mentored and supervised several students for their capstone internship and research projects. In the past he also served as the Director of the Office of Sustainability that helped USF achieve several national and international accolades. He holds a Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and an MSc in Water Engineering from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

• IDS 6234 – Systems Thinking: Key to Sustainability (3)
  The course develops the critical system thinking skills to solve sustainability challenges. It covers quantitative system analysis techniques including Food-energy-water nexus, environmental impact assessment, life-cycle assessment, footprint analysis and decision analysis. The course is offered both in online and in person formats. 

• IDS 6245 – Sustainable Water Resource Management: Doing More With Less (3)
  This course provides an overview of the challenges and strategies for sustainable water resource management for coordinated planning, development, and management of water resources at local, regional and global scales. It discusses technical, economic, legal and institutional frameworks. The course is offered both in online and in person formats.
• IDS 6248 - Water Resources Planning (3)
  This course provides an overview of water resources planning and introduces students to some of the tools used in water resources planning and management. It also discusses water quality issues as well as water and wastewater treatment technologies that are important to improve water quality in closing the water cycle loop. Students use water resources planning tools to develop watershed plans and water supply projections based on individual and group project works. The course is offered both in online and in person formats
• IDS 6246 - Water Sensitive Urban Design for sustainable communities (3)
  Cities around the world are facing the challenges of addressing water scarcity, flooding, and waterway health vulnerabilities. It is now well accepted that these issues cannot be adequately addressed by the traditional urban water development approach. In response, new thinking of Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) and Green Infrastructure Planning has become prominent. This course provides methodologies to bring natural processes into the built environment, and to enable the adoption of water sensitive planning and design principles in support of cities making the transition towards livable, sustainable, and resilient water futures. It focuses on green infrastructure systems to provide stormwater management and flood protection; maintain healthy waters; provide multiple environmental benefits; and support sustainable communities. The course is online in the summer semester.
  
• IDS 2231 Introduction to Global Sustainability (3)
  This is an undergraduate course certified both for Enhance General Education (Gen Ed) and Global Citizens Project (GCP). The course introduces students to the theory and practices of sustainability. It discusses the three pillars of sustainability: maintaining environmental health, creating economic welfare, and ensuring social justice. As sustainability spans across disciplines, the course includes discussions of multidisciplinary content to elaborate sustainability from different perspectives (humanities, natural sciences and social sciences). The course is available both in online and in person formats but it is currently offered in one format depending the demand from summer ACE
  
• IDH 4950 Honors Capstone Course (3)
  The course uses the concept and practice of systems thinking to explore interdependencies in the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic, and environment), and develop solutions driven by tradeoffs between these pillars. The course uses case studies to help define what a sustainable project is. This course then uses social science field methods to demonstrate how engineers can develop culturally appropriate projects by engaging community members/organizations throughout a project’s lifecycle. The course provides students an in-depth engagement with colleagues and peers through group project.