Publications

Cole, D., Narayanan, S., Connors, E., Tewari, M., and Onda, K. “Water Stress: Opportunities for Supply Chain Research.” Production and Operations Management, 34(7): 1597–1615 (online 2023; in print 2025).

An interdisciplinary agenda for bringing water stress into operations and supply chain research: how water risk propagates through production networks, and where supply chain scholarship can contribute to water management.

doi:10.1111/poms.13923

Colohan, P. and Onda, K. “Water data for water science and management: Advancing an Internet of Water (IoW).” PLOS Water, 1(3): e0000017.

The founding argument for the Internet of Water: why public water data in the U.S. is fragmented and hard to use, and the institutional and technical architecture needed to connect it.

doi:10.1371/journal.pwat.0000017

Marston, L., Abdallah, A., Bagstad, K., Dickson, K., Glynn, P., Larsen, S., Melton, F., Onda, K., et al. “Water-Use Data in the United States: Challenges and Future Directions.” Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 58(4): 485–495.

A multi-institution assessment of how water use is measured and reported across the U.S. — where the data fall short, and priorities for modernizing collection, standardization, and sharing.

doi:10.1111/1752-1688.13004

Branham, J., Kaza, N., BenDor, T.K., Salvesen, D., and Onda, K. “Removing Federal Subsidies from High-hazard Coastal Areas Slows Development.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 20(9): 500–506.

Capstone of our national evaluation of the Coastal Barrier Resources Act: withdrawing federal subsidies such as flood insurance and infrastructure funding measurably slows building in hazardous coastal zones.

doi:10.1002/fee.2532

Onda, K. and Tewari, M. “Water systems in California: Ownership, geography, and affordability.” Utilities Policy, 72: 101279.

Pairs statewide water system boundaries with rate and demographic data to show how ownership structure and service geography shape drinking water affordability across California’s community water systems.

doi:10.1016/j.jup.2021.101279

Branham, J., Onda, K., Kaza, N., BenDor, T.K., and Salvesen, D. “How Does the Removal of Federal Subsidies Affect Investment in Coastal Protection Infrastructure?” Land Use Policy, 102: 105245.

Tests whether the Coastal Barrier Resources Act’s subsidy removal changed public and private investment in shoreline protection on designated coastal barrier lands.

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105245

Onda, K., Branham, J., BenDor, T., Kaza, N., and Salvesen, D. “Does Removal of Federal Subsidies Discourage Urban Development? An Evaluation of the US Coastal Barrier Resources Act.” PLOS ONE, 15(6): e0233888.

A national quasi-experimental evaluation of the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, comparing matched protected and unprotected coastal barriers across three decades of development.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233888

Onda, K., Sinha, P., Gaughan, A.E., Stevens, F.R., and Kaza, N. “Missing Millions: Undercounting Urbanization in India.” Population and Environment, 41(2): 126–150.

Uses satellite-derived settlement data to show that India’s census definitions undercount the urban population by tens of millions, with consequences for infrastructure and service planning.

doi:10.1007/s11111-019-00329-2

Bain, R., Cronk, R., Hossain, R., Bonjour, S., Onda, K., Wright, J., Yang, H., Slaymaker, T., Hunter, P., Prüss-Ustün, A., and Bartram, J. “Global Assessment of Exposure to Faecal Contamination through Drinking Water Based on a Systematic Review.” Tropical Medicine & International Health, 19(8): 917–927.

Systematic review and global model estimating that roughly 1.8 billion people use fecally contaminated drinking water — evidence that underpinned post-MDG monitoring of water safety. Cited 700+ times.

doi:10.1111/tmi.12334

Onda, K., Crocker, J., Kayser, G., and Bartram, J. “Country clustering applied to the water and sanitation sector: A new tool with potential applications in research and policy.” International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 217(2–3): 379–385.

A clustering method that groups countries by water and sanitation sector characteristics, giving researchers and policymakers a tool for targeting interventions across similar contexts.

doi:10.1016/j.ijheh.2013.07.017

Marks, S.J., Onda, K., and Davis, J. “Does sense of ownership matter for rural water system sustainability? Evidence from Kenya.” Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 3(2): 122–133.

Household and system-level evidence from rural Kenya on whether communities’ sense of ownership over their water systems predicts how well those systems are sustained.

doi:10.2166/washdev.2013.098

Onda, K., LoBuglio, J., and Bartram, J. “Global Access to Safe Water: Accounting for Water Quality and the Resulting Impact on MDG Progress.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 9(3): 880–894.

Re-estimates global progress toward the Millennium Development Goal drinking water target accounting for microbial water quality, finding 1.8 billion more people without safe water than official figures implied. Cited ~700 times.

doi:10.3390/ijerph9030880

Grellet, S., Onda, K., Schleidt, K., van der Schaaf, H., Stanish, L., Hopkins, C., et al. OGC Water Quality Interoperability Experiment Engineering Report (OGC 25-016). Open Geospatial Consortium.

Findings from the OGC initiative I co-chaired: testing standards-based exchange of water quality observations across agencies and countries, with recommendations for WaterML 2 and OGC API practice.

Report (PDF) GitHub

Onda, K. Water Data Infrastructure for Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Water in the West, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

White paper on what it would take to build useful water data infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries, drawing lessons from U.S. and international experience.

Report (archived PDF)

Mohanakrishnan, J., Onda, K., and Rodriguez, C. Water–Energy Nexus Shared Network AMI Pilot Report: San Gabriel Valley Water Company. Valor Water Analytics.

Evaluation of a shared-network advanced metering infrastructure pilot for a California water utility; I served as lead statistician.

Onda, K. Essays on Measuring Urbanization and Infrastructure Service Levels. PhD dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Three essays on how urbanization and household infrastructure service levels are measured, and what better measurement would change for planning and policy.

Onda, K. “Intermittent vs. Continuous Water Supply: What Benefits do Households Actually Receive? Evidence from Two Cities in India.” Carolina Planning Journal, 40: 53–55.

Field study comparing household outcomes under intermittent and continuous piped water supply in two Indian cities; recognized as UNC DCRP’s Best Master’s Project of 2014.