According to a report released by the Bureau of Reclamation, Lake Mead --- the reservoir created by Hoover Dam --- is expected to drop to a level not seen since it was initially filled in the 1930s. Because Lake Mead serves as a major source of the Southwest's Colorado River water, the drop has certain implications for Arizona. Dave White, senior sustainability scientist and co-director of Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC), discussed several of these during an interview with KJZZ "Here and Now" host Steve Goldstein.
"State and regional water resource managers deserve accolades for the last 100 years of water management and the effectiveness of those strategies to support the economic growth and development of the region," White said. "What we need to do now is focus the conversation on the next 100 years, because there are new sets of problems ahead where our historical solutions will not be effective."
The lake is anticipated to decline to a level of 1,081.75 feet during the week of July 7, and to 1,080 feet around November of this year. The Bureau of Reclamation says that water obligations to states like Arizona, California and Nevada will be met at least through next year.
ASU is one of sixteen universities selected to participate in EcoCAR 3, a competition launched by the U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors Co. The competition represents an effort to bring the automotive industry into a cleaner energy future while providing engineering students with real-world training. Over the next four years, a team of automotive-engineering students from the Polytechnic Campus will work to transform a Chevrolet Camaro into an energy efficient vehicle that operates using fossil fuels.
According to a recent Arizona Republic article, each of the 16 competing universities will receive $63 million in the form of hardware, software and other funds. During the first year, the universities will use these funds to design prototypes using software and simulations. They will then assemble their prototypes during the second year, refine them during the third year and add any finishing touches while launching marketing campaigns during the final year. Abdel Mayyas, engineering faculty lead of the project, says that the EcoCAR 3 competition represents an opportunity for ASU to be recognized as a top automotive-engineering program in the western U.S.
Monica Elser, education manager for the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, was awarded a Citizen Science and Engagement seed grant along with Dara Wald, a Center for Policy Informatics (CPI) postdoctoral fellow. The grant, presented by the Office of the Vice President for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, will develop the project "Citizen Science to Forecast the Future of a Desert City," which builds on current research efforts at both CPI and Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC).
The project aims to develop a web-based water-reporting site, MyFuturePhoenix, to engage citizens in water management efforts. Initially, high school students will track, classify and analyze personal water use data. Once connected to WaterSim, a water policy and management simulation model developed by DCDC, participants will be able to visualize the collective effect of water use decisions made today on the Phoenix area in the year 2050.
According to Wald, "This citizen science initiative has the potential to contribute data that is currently not available for university researchers, and to collect much more data than one agency or researcher could collect alone.”
A new Solar Energy Engineering & Commercialization certificate aims to provide engineers like those leading renewable energy development in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with the specialized training they require. The three-week program focuses on solar technologies with particular emphasis on their production and application. The curriculum also explores the social and environmental aspects of the industry, as well as project management, finance, economics and supply chain management.
An additional attraction of the program is that it can be customized to meet the specific needs of individual companies, agencies and other organizations. Through a partnership with Tempe-based First Solar, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of thin-film solar cells, a custom version was developed to educate engineers with the Dubai Energy and Water Authority (DEWA). This partnership represents an effort to support the Green Economy for Sustainable Development Initiative launched by Dubai’s leaders, as well as an aspiration to advance solar energy expertise throughout the world.
As an extension of its dedication to sustainability and global engagement, Arizona State University is partnering with the U.S. Virgin Islands to help the territory reduce fossil fuel consumption and transform renewable energy resource use. The partnership unites world-class ASU faculty with U.S. Virgin Islands leaders in the development of renewable energy practices, the invigoration of the renewable energy market and the expansion of energy education.
“We are excited to be partnering with the U. S. Virgin Islands and to help them develop new renewable energy practices and expand upon energy research and education,” said Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan, senior vice president of Knowledge Enterprise Development at ASU. “This collaboration is a great opportunity for the university to work side by side with the Virgin Island leaders, utilities and university to create solutions to sustainability challenges that face our communities locally and globally.”
Ariel Anbar, a distinguished sustainability scientist and biogeochemist, has been selected as Arizona State University’s first Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. The Maryland-based biomedical research institute announced its 15 appointments, representatives of 13 universities, on June 30. This honor recognizes Anbar as a pioneer in his field and includes a five-year, $1 million grant to support his research and educational activities.
Since the inception of the institute's professor program in 2002, and including the new group of 2014 professors, only 55 scientists have received Howard Hughes Medical Institute appointments. These professors are regarded as accomplished research scientists working to change undergraduate science education in the United States. Anbar was named an ASU President’s Professor in 2013 in recognition of his efforts to enhance online education. He is dedicated to developing the medium so as to better educate and encourage a generation that has grown up with the Internet.
After encountering a number of Latin American school children who were unfamiliar with the species native to their home countries, Dave Pearson --- a sustainability scientist and research professor in the School of Life Sciences --- found that such knowledge was key to grasping concepts like conservation. This motivated him to host his first biodiversity workshop, which occurred while he was working toward his master's degree in Peru. Thirty years later, Pearson travels the world, holding frequent biodiversity workshops for children, adults and university students alike.
In mid-July, Pearson will host yet another workshop, this one at the Peruvian Amazonian Research Institute in Iquitos, Peru. Here he will teach dozens of university students about critical thinking, the scientific method and sustainable biodiversity. Such workshops are part of Pearson's broader plan, which is to empower the people of each country he visits to solve ecological problems in their own way. He states that other conservation efforts have failed because foreign solutions do not necessarily work for everyone.
“...when I visit other countries...I work with them rather than tell them how things work,” Pearson says. “...these are Peruvian problems with Peruvian solutions, and they know their culture well enough to make the changes their way.”
CAP Director Nancy Grimm and ASU faculty member Michael Kuby recently appeared on the local PBS affiliate KAET to discuss the Third National Climate Assessment. Grimm and Kuby are among the close to 300 co-authors on the study, which examines the effects of climate change on the US.
A testament to ASU's carbon neutrality efforts, a cover story in the June 2014 issue of Business Officer magazine titled "Going for Zero" cites multiple examples of the university's sustainability features. The article's opening paragraph references the 78,000 photovoltaic panels on ASU property, which outnumber its 76,000 students. It also features numerous quotes from Morgan R. Olsen, ASU’s executive vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer, which highlight the value of these infrastructure improvements.
“On the research front, one of the things we can contribute is the training of millions of people we educate every year to become leaders of tomorrow," Olsen is quoted as saying. "While in some respects higher education has a small physical footprint compared to the rest of world, from an environmental standpoint we have an outsized ability to have positive impact through our education mission.”
Sustainability scientists Nancy Grimm and Michael Kuby were among 300 authors of the Third National Climate Assessment, a report released by the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee. They discussed the report, which represents the most comprehensive look at climate change in the U.S., with Arizona Horizon host Ted Simons.
Under the supervision of sustainability scientist Enrique Vivoni, ecohydrology graduate student Adam Schreiner-McGraw is examining the effects of land cover changes on water cycle, as well as possible consequences for ecosystem functioning, runoff generation and soil erosion. Using solar-powered sensors affiliated with a National Science Foundation-supported project called COSMOS, Schreiner-McGraw is measuring soil moisture in four Southwestern ecosystems.
The cosmic-ray sensors, which are roughly the size of a person and shaped like a space shuttle, are particularly useful because they provide a single soil moisture value for a large region. This average assists in the tracking of drought conditions and improves water management. Schreiner-McGraw hopes that the measurements obtained by these soil moisture sensors can be used to enhance watershed hydrology models, which commonly assess the impacts of land cover and climate change.
Elisabeth Graffy, Arizona State University professor and ASU LightWorks co-director of energy policy, law and governance co-wrote an article about the impact of solar installations to energy markets and electric utilities.
The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program provides study abroad opportunities for university students in the U.S. who are receiving federal Pell Grant funds. Award recipients are chosen by a competitive selection process and must use the award to defray study abroad costs. Ariel LeBarron, a sustainability major, received $5,000 to study at the University of Heidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany, where she will focus on German and sustainability in Fall 2014.
"The Gilman Scholarship will enhance my undergraduate experience because it allows me the ability to study in Germany to learn the language, culture and sustainability initiatives implemented throughout Germany," said LeBarron, who ultimately would like to become a professor or work with the city of Phoenix on implementing community sustainability practices.
Senior sustainability scientist and School of Sustainability professor Joshua Abbott, co-developer of a first-of-its-kind equation to estimate the monetary value of natural resources like fish stock, groundwater and forests, appeared on Arizona Horizon to discuss his research with host Ted Simons.
Dr. Anthony Michaels is an internationally known environmental scientist who has been a leader in both academia and business. He recently became CEO of Midwestern BioAg. In this essay, he discusses biological agriculture and sustainable food production.
Note:Dr. Anthony Michaels (Tony) is an internationally known environmental scientist who has been a leader in both academia and business. On May 15, 2014, Dr. Michaels became CEO of Midwestern BioAg, the industry leader in biological agriculture and one of the pioneers in sustainable food production.
Can We Feed Nine Billion People While Improving the Environment?
As the world population grows to nine billion people, we face many fundamental questions. How can we improve agricultural production to feed that many people? How can we improve farm economics? How can we reduce climate impacts, minimize the nitrogen runoff that creates dead zones in oceans and reverse soil erosion? How can we create nutrient-rich foods? I believe that a big part of the answer is biological agriculture.
Biological agriculture is an integrated farming system. It combines the best historical practices, honed over centuries, with the strength of the latest scientific discoveries. It promotes natural biological processes to dramatically improve agricultural yields and reduce farm costs.
ASU awarded a $20 million grant by NGA to launch the Foresight Initiative to provide interconnected tools, techniques and environments for decision making for increased global sustainability and resilience.
Arizona State University was selected for a competitive five-year award of $20 million by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to launch a research partnership, effective June 1, 2014, to explore approaches for anticipating and mitigating national security risks associated with climate change.
Known as the Foresight Initiative, the cooperative agreement venture will explore how the effects of climate change on resources, such as water, food, and energy, could contribute to political unrest and instability and gain insights to sustainability and resilience strategies for mitigating the effects.
DCDC will work on incorporating a visual analytics approach to enable policy makers, decision makers, and analysts to anticipate complex behaviors.
This initiative will play a key role in collaborative research efforts to accelerate the evolution of Activity-Based Intelligence addressing system level activities, dynamics, and interdependent network effects in the context of global climate risks to water security. This multi-year research partnership leverages ASU expertise and thought leadership in visual analytics, complex modeling, and transdisciplinary decision making evolving from years of internal and external investments at ASU.
"NGA’s investment and partnership with ASU is a game-changing relationship," said Michael Crow, ASU president. "This innovative research initiative will develop solutions and be a catalyst for the critical and creative thinking needed to address the complex challenges that come with climate change."
Leveraging computing and system modeling initiatives at ASU and partner organizations, the Foresight Initiative will apply ubiquitous cloud computing and storage technologies, advances in natural user interfaces, and machine learning to address unique geospatial data handling and visual analytic challenges driven by the volume and character of future persistent data flows. The resulting capabilities will allow analysts and decision makers to dynamically interact with diverse data sets in a real-time modeling and simulation environment. This will help them assess the effectiveness of plans, policies, and decisions; discover second- and third-order causal relationships; and understand spatial and temporal patterns that reveal non-obvious underlying interconnections and dependencies.
"I am very proud to announce our partnership with ASU, a world class research university," said NGA Director, Letitia Long. "Our partnership is a prime example of the intelligence community working smartly with academia to address strategic global issues and to create capabilities that benefit everyone."
Key areas at ASU that will be integral to this work include the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Public Programs, Decision Theater Network, and Decision Center for a Desert City.
For example, ASU’s Decision Theater provides advanced modeling and simulation that allows diverse groups of stakeholders to visualize large amounts of data, policy parameters, and environmental uncertainties on panoramic HD displays. Scientists, analysts, and decision makers can easily interact in real-time to tweak the rules and data sets to account for new insights and deeper understanding of relationships, providing a range of outcomes based on the changes. This allows for more effective decision making among people from different backgrounds.
"This is a tremendous partnership and opportunity for a real, tangible impact in addressing strategic security and humanitarian needs," said Nadya Bliss, principal investigator of the Foresight Initiative and assistant vice president, research strategy with ASU’s Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development. "It is also pioneering how the academic and government research communities can leverage each other’s strengths to seek solutions to these global-scale issues while advancing fundamental transdisciplinary research. ASU is the perfect place for this initiative because of the culture of use-inspired research and exceptional quality faculty working across traditional disciplinary boundaries."
Dave White announces that he and his team have been awarded a $20 million grant to study the effects of climate change on water, food, energy and other resources and to develop strategies to adapt to and mitigate these impacts.
In an effort to anticipate and mitigate the national security risks associated with climate change, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has awarded Arizona State University a grant of $20 million. This five-year partnership known as the Foresight Initiative will examine how climate change affects resources and contributes to political unrest, as well as articulate sustainability and resilience strategies.
Leveraging computing and system modeling initiatives at ASU and with partner organizations, the Foresight Initiative will apply cloud technologies, advances in natural user interfaces and machine learning in order to address challenges driven by the volume and character of future persistent data flows. The resulting capabilities will not only allow analysts and decision-makers to interact with diverse data sets in a simulation environment, they will help them assess the effectiveness of plans, policies and decisions, as well. ASU departments that will be integral to this work include the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Public Programs, Decision Theater Network and Decision Center for a Desert City.
1,700 high school students from more than 70 countries presented their sustainability-inspired innovations at this year's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), held in Los Angeles from May 11-16. After standing before hundreds of scientists, professionals, professors and judges, five were presented with $2,500 ASU Sustainability Solutions Awards by Arizona State University’s Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives.
The bright individuals honored for projects that go beyond academic boundaries to solve real-world issues are Lewis Nitschinsk from Australia, Hans Pande from Utah, Shreya Nandy and Kopal Gupta from India, and Naveena Bontha from Washington.
“We want to recognize these young leaders of our future to encourage them to pursue the solutions they create that address food security, climate change, health threats and more,” said Kelly Saunders, Sustainability Solutions Award presenter and project coordinator for the Initiative’s Sustainability Solutions Festival. “Our world’s future is represented by these students who want to make the world a better place.”
According to a report released by the Bureau of Reclamation, Lake Mead --- the reservoir created by Hoover Dam --- is expected to drop to a level not seen since it was initially filled in the 1930s. Because Lake Mead serves as a major source of the Southwest's Colorado River water, the drop has certain implications for Arizona. Dave White, senior sustainability scientist and co-director of Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC), discussed several of these during an interview with KJZZ "Here and Now" host Steve Goldstein.
Elisabeth Graffy, Arizona State University professor and ASU LightWorks co-director of energy policy, law and governance co-wrote an article about the impact of solar installations to energy markets and electric utilities. 
Key areas at ASU that will be integral to this work include the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Public Programs, Decision Theater Network, and Decision Center for a Desert City.
