Students build on six-week Uganda trip with further research

Supported by National Science Foundation grant, program expands with additional researchers

Campus research projects are building on the findings of four Lafayette students and two professors who spent six weeks in Uganda this summer, examining issues related to the wetlands surrounding Lake Victoria with their peers at Makerere University in Kampala, in a program funded by the National Science Foundation.

The trip was part of an initiative that includes research on campus over the next two years and a second six-week collaboration in Uganda next summer.

Students who attended the trip were civil engineering majors Chad Yaindl ’06 (Emmaus, Pa.), a Trustee Scholarship recipient, and Rachael Oleski ’06 (Erie, Pa.); Trustee Scholarship recipient Jairo Amarillo ’05 (Bridgewater, N.J.), a double major in A.B. engineering and art; and Marquis Scholar Matt Root ’06 (Benton, Pa.), a chemical engineering major.

Joining them in Uganda were civil and environmental engineering professors Roger Ruggles and David Brandes. Also participating in the program as mentors for the current research projects are civil and environmental engineering professors Sharon Jones and Art Kney. All but Jones traveled to Uganda in July 2003 to help establish the program, meeting with research organizations and university and government officials.

A.B. engineering majors Will Hocket ’06 (Portland, Ore.) and Kristen Tull ’06 (Sicklerville, N.J.) joined the project this semester. The results from the research conducted on campus will hopefully provide a richer understanding of the issues and ideas for future work, Jones says.

“The government of Uganda has taken steps to preserve what is left of the wetlands, but has been largely unsuccessful thus far,” Amarillo says. “So, we went to Uganda to try to determine how the wetlands have reacted to being encroached upon and attempt to measure the amounts by which they've shrunk, or not shrunk.”

Each student led a separate component of the research. Amarillo’s part involved putting together the Geographical Information System, working with satellite images, and interviewing people involved with policy. His preliminary results provided interesting information.

“There is a lot of written legislation regarding wetland regulations in Uganda; however, there is limited enforcement due to problems and issues we discovered while there,” he says. “From the satellite analysis, the wetlands have shrunk though we haven't yet quantified the amount — so the policy, which began in 1986, has largely been ineffective.”

Oleski’s contributions included conducting a rapid water quality monitoring assessment on the wetland-lake interface.

“We used a hovercraft to navigate around the lake and take water quality samples,” she says.

Although the hovercraft didn’t work out as well as expected, she was able to obtain samples and data on the depths of the Murchison Bay, which will help to formulate a topographical map of the bottom of the bay.

“Some other interesting data that we collected refers to the area around the outlet of the Nakivubo Channel,” she adds. “In Kampala, wastewater is treated, then allowed to flow through the channel and out to the lake through the wetlands. We collected very informative data in the bay and saw how the wetlands are no longer working as a tertiary wastewater treatment system. The water quality in that area of the bay is unbelievably poor.”

Yaindl developed a test wetland site at Kabanyolo, the research farm of Makerere University, while Root worked on a chemical analysis of the water at the lake and test wetland.

“Farmers have been using wetlands to plant their crops, and we think that this has a negative effect on the treatment capabilities of the wetlands,” Root says. “We spent our time monitoring and testing water quality at wetlands near Makerere University and taking depth and water quality measurements on Murchison Bay.”

Root, Oleski, and Amarillo will present their preliminary research findings at the American Water Resources Association’s annual conference in Orlando this November, while their colleagues at Makerere University will continue collecting samples on a monthly basis.

Several students are using information gathered on the trip to continue research here on campus.

Hocket is developing best management practices for wetland protection and Tull is creating a model of decision-making regarding wetland policy in Uganda using the data Amarillo collected.

Amarillo is following up on the trip with a yearlong, independent, honors research project guided by Jones and Ruggles. He is focusing on the interviews he conducted with policy makers while in Uganda.

“He is doing a comparison of recent policy changes regarding wetlands protection versus actual spatial impacts to the wetlands — basically has the size changed based on policy changes,” Jones explains. “He is using remote sensing for the spatial work and he interviewed several policy makers in Uganda for the policy work.”

Yaindl is participating in the Semester at Woods Hole program at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole (Mass.). The 15-week program, offered each fall, is dedicated to the study of ecological systems. It provides opportunities for intensive hands-on academic inquiry under the guidance of distinguished scientists. Students work in the laboratory and field investigating forests, ponds, and estuaries on Cape Cod. During the last five weeks, they work full-time on their own research projects. (Courses taken at Woods Hole may be used to meet most requirements of the environmental science minor at Lafayette.) Yaindl is developing a model of the nitrogen cycle and applying it to wetlands.

As a national leader in undergraduate research, Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Forty-two students were accepted to present their work at the last annual conference in April.