91´«Ã½

BS (SUNY-College of Environmental Science and Forestry), MS (New Mexico State University), MS (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), MS (University of Connecticut), PhD (University of Iowa), P.Eng.

Associate Professor
P.Eng.

Contact information

Ph: 709-864-2756
Em: jadaraio[at]mun.ca
Office: EN3071

Joseph Daraio is a civil engineer whose work centres on water: how it moves through rivers, watersheds and towns, and how communities can prepare as a changing climate alters rainfall, flooding and river flows. Dr. Daraio earned his PhD in civil and environmental engineering-hydraulics at the University of Iowa in 2009. He received his bachelor’s degree in forest and environmental biology from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (1991), and has master’s degrees in biology (1994), philosophy (1998) and environmental engineering (2002). This background in the natural sciences, philosophy and engineering runs through all of his work. Alongside the technical question of how to build infrastructure that will hold up in an uncertain future, he asks a broader one: whose knowledge and values should shape those decisions?

Before joining 91´«Ã½, Dr. Daraio worked as a hydraulic engineer with the US Bureau of Reclamation (2002-2004) on river restoration and dam removal projects. He did his doctoral research at the University of Iowa and postdoctoral work at North Carolina State University with the US Geological Survey (2010-2012). Both combined computer models of river flow with ecology to understand how juvenile freshwater mussels are carried downstream and settle in large rivers such as the Upper Mississippi. These mussels are among North America’s most at-risk animals. As an assistant professor of water resources engineering at Rowan University in New Jersey (2012-2015), he studied how climate change could affect streams, groundwater and stream temperatures.

At 91´«Ã½, his research focuses on a practical problem. Storm water managmentment systems and flood maps have usually been designed using past weather records, but in a changing climate the past is no longer a reliable guide. Dr. Daraio develops ways to account for future climate in flood mapping and stormwater design in Newfoundland and Labrador. This includes how to choose among possible climate futures when planning infrastructure, and how newer tools such as machine learning can improve river-flow predictions in northern watersheds. He has also worked with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador on projects funded by Natural Resources Canada. Through workshops in St. John’s, these projects helped professional engineers plan for climate change in their everyday work.

He is also interested in how people understand uncertainty about the future. His work with communities has shown that engineers, decision-makers and residents often think about risk in very different ways. Bridging those differences matters as much as improving the technical models.

More and more, Dr. Daraio’s work focuses on northern, boreal and Arctic regions, where the environment is changing fastest. Through graduate study in 91´«Ã½â€™s Arctic and Subarctic Futures program, he is exploring how Indigenous knowledge and ways of relating to land and water can shape engineering practice and teaching. The work follows the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering’s Indigenizing Engineering initiative. It aims to make room in engineering education and practice for Indigenous leadership, and for ways of adapting to change that come from long-term attention to place.