Bio

Steve is a scientist and resource manager with over 25 years research, industry, and policy experience. Steve is noted for his work and leadership on decision sciences and systems engineering through his behavioural and complex system modelling research centred on water, energy, and food systems, climate change adaptation, and resilient urban infrastructure. His current research interests focus on the feedbacks between human-environmental systems through the coupling of social and engineering sciences to inform decision making and incorporate the water-energy nexus, water and energy urban system planning and operations, machine learning techniques for autonomous system operations, distributed water and energy generation and recovery, decision support for climate change adaptation, behavioural models of individual choices affecting water and energy use, and coupled socio-hydrological and systems dynamic modelling.

Steve joins the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability from Simon Fraser University where he was the Associate Director of the Pacific Water Research Centre and chair of the REM Water Research group. Steve is serving as the Interim Chair for the UBC Future Waters Research Excellence Cluster. Steve also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the BC Water and Waste Association, having formally represented the BC Section on the board of the American Water Works Association, chaired the BCWWA’s climate change committee and co-chairing the BCWWA’s Risk and Resiliency committee.

Steve holds a PhD in Resource and Environmental Management from Simon Fraser University, a MSc in Environmental Technology Management from Arizona State University, and a BSc in Psychology and BSc in Engineering from the University of Arizona.

Projects

Courses

Featured Publications

Strazzabosco, A., Conrad, S., Kenway, S., Lant, P., (under review). “Expert opinion on influential factors driving renewable energy adoption in the water industry: An Australian study.” Renewable Energy

Conrad, S., Pipher, J., Haider, W. (2019) “How current lawn attributes affect the preferences of water conserving lawn options: An individualized choice experiment in Kelowna, British Columbia.” Landscape and Urban Planning. 193, 147-156.

Kenway, S.J., Conrad, S.A., Jawad, M., Gledhill, J., Bravo, R., McCalley, J., Strazzabosco, A., Howe, C., (2019). Opportunities and Barriers for Renewable and Distributed Energy Resource Development at Drinking Water and Wastewater Utilities (No. 4625). Water Research Foundation, Denver, CO.

Conrad, S., Yates, D. (2018). “Coupling stated preferences with a hydrological water resource model to inform water policies for residential areas in the Okanagan Basin, Canada.” Journal of Hydrology. 564, 846–858.

Conrad, S.A., Rutherford, M.B., Haider, W. (2017). Profiling Farmers’ Preferences about Drought Response Policies Using a Choice Experiment in the Okanagan Basin, Canada. Water Resources Management 31, 2837–2851.

Conrad, S. (2017). Amalgamating Local Data to Inform Water Related Decisions: Summary Report. Burnaby, BC: Pacific Water Research Centre, Simon Fraser University.

Conrad, S., Kenway, S., Jawad, M. (2017). Water and Electric Utility Integrated Planning. Denver, CO: Water Research Foundation.

Conrad, S. (2016). Introduction: Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use to Make Everyday Products. London, ON: Firefly Publishing

Kenway S., McMahon J., Elmer V., Conrad S., Rosenblum J. (2013). “Managing water-related energy in future cities – A research and policy roadmap”. Journal of Water and Climate Change. 4 (3): 161-175.

Conrad, S., Olson, E. Raucher, S., Smith, J. (2013) Opportunities for Managing Climate Change by Applying Adaptive Management. Denver, CO: Water Research Foundation.

Conrad, S. (2013). Assessing Water Use Preferences to Water Conservation Policy and Implementation Strategies. Victoria, BC: Simon Fraser University & Investment Agriculture Foundation of British Columbia.

Conrad, S. (2012) “Decision support for the water-energy nexus: examining decision-making in the American west”, in Kenney, D. (2012) The Water-Energy Nexus in the American West.

Conrad, S. (2012). Assessing the effectiveness of climate change adaptation policies: a survey of residential preferences. Ottawa, ON. Natural Resources Canada.

Conrad, S., Geisenhoff, J., Brueck, T., Hall, M., Cook, S., Kenway, S., et al. (2011). Decision support system for sustainable energy management. Denver, CO: Water Research Foundation.

Conrad, S., Hall, M., Cook, S. (2010) “Key Energy Decisions for Sustainable Utility Energy Management”, Water Science & Technology: Water Supply, 10 (5): 721–729

Conrad, S. (2010) “Energy and Greenhouse Gas Management Options in the Water Utility Sector” in Welch, C. The Green Utility: A Practical Guide to Sustainability, Denver, CO: American Water Works Association Publishing.