Maura Allaire
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Mail code: 5302Campus: Tempe
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Maura Allaire is an assistant professor of environmental planning at Arizona State University, where she runs the Water Equity Lab. With expertise in water economics and spatial statistics, her research focuses on assessing equity in drinking water policy, decision support for water management, and community resilience to extreme events. Her work supports data-informed and socially just policies at regional and national levels as communities grapple with aging infrastructure, hydrologic uncertainty, and multi-level water governance.
From 2017 to 2024, Allaire was a faculty member in the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine. Her professional experience spans the public and private sectors, including international organizations (World Bank, Fulbright Scholar Program), think tanks (Resources for the Future, International Water Management Institute), and environmental consulting (AMEC).
Areas of Expertise: Water economics; environmental policy; cost-benefit analysis; flood risk mitigation; urban water systems.
- Postdoctoral researcher, Earth Institute, Columbia University
- Ph.D, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
- B.S., Geology, Tufts University
- B.S., Economics, Tufts University
Water economics; environmental policy; cost-benefit analysis; flood risk mitigation; urban water systems
Ricardo Rubio, Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Global Futures Laboratory
Gabe Lara, Postdoctoral Academic Specialist, University of California Irvine
Qi Bing, Ph.D. candidate, University of California Irvine
Allaire, M. and Acquah, S. (2022). Disparities in Drinking Water Compliance: Implications for Incorporating Equity into Regulatory Practices. AWWA Water Science. 4(2)e1274. https://doi.org/10.1002/aws2.1274
Allaire, M., Wu, H., Lall, U. (2018). National Trends in Drinking Water Quality Violations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (9) 2078-2083. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719805115
Allaire, M., Mackay, T., Zheng, S., Lall, U. (2019). Detecting Community Response to Water Quality Violations Using Bottled Water Sales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116(42)20917-20922. https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1905385116
Josset, L, Allaire, M., Hayek, C., Rising, J., Thomas, C., Lall, U. (2019). The USA Water Data Gap: A survey of online state-level water data platforms to inform the development of a national water portal. Earth's Future. 7(4) 433-449. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EF001063
Muller, M., Rusca, M., Bertassello, L, Adams, E., Allaire, M., Villarejo, V., Levy, M, Mukherjee, J., Pokhrel, Y. (2024). Mapping the Landscape of Water and Society Research: Promising Combinations of Compatible and Complementary Disciplines. WIREs Water. 11(2) e1701. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1701
Schwetschenau, S., Kovankaya, Y., Elliott, M., Allaire, M., White, K., Lall, U. (2023). Optimizing Scale for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment: A tool to address failing wastewater infrastructure in the United States. ACS ES&T Engineering. 3(1) 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestengg.2c00188
Lee, J., Nemati, M., Allaire, M., Dinar, A. (2024). The Impact of Pricing Structure Change on Residential Water Consumption: A Long-Term Analysis of Water Utilities in California. Water Resources and Economics. 46: 100240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wre.2024.100240
Allaire, M. and Dinar, A. (2022). What Drives Water Utility Selection of Pricing Methods? Evidence from California. Water Resources Management. 36, 153-169. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-021-03018-8
Allaire, M. (2020). Disparities in Disaster Assistance: A Comparison of the Social Benefits of Flood Insurance and Compensation. Water Economics and Policy. 6(4)1-47. https://doi.org/10.1142/S2382624X20500071
Allaire, M. (2018). Socio-Economic Impacts of Flooding: A Review of the Empirical Literature. Water Security. (3) 18-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasec.2018.09.002
Courses
2025 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| PUP 190 | Sustainable Cities |
| PUP 190 | Sustainable Cities |
| SOS 111 | Sustainable Cities |
| SOS 111 | Sustainable Cities |
2024 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| PUP 598 | Special Topics |
2010- 2013, Global Development Network,Technical Advisor - Policy Simulation and Cost-Benefit Analysis
2011, World Bank, Short Term Consultant - East Asia and Pacific Infrastructure Unit
2008- 2010, Resources for the Future, Economic Analysis - Research Assistant
2007- 2008, AMEC Earth & Environmental, Environmental Impact Assessment