Intrigued by the idea of comparing the sustainability policy of two countries, School of Sustainability student Alexis Roeckner traveled to Washington, D.C. and London as part of the Global Sustainability Studies Program last summer. Knowing that sustainability alone is a complex topic, Roeckner soon learned that its intricacies are compounded in the government setting, particularly in the United States.

Over the course of the program, Roeckner gained an in-depth understanding of policy-making in another country and a more realistic expectation of what can be achieved within the confines of government; she realizes that it takes a great deal of determination to pass sustainability-related legislation. With a new-found sense of independence and strengthened resolve, Roeckner's future includes plans to pursue sustainability solutions in our nation's capital.

Ben Ruddell, a senior sustainability scientist and assistant professor of engineering at Arizona State University, is part of a team using data to develop models for urban microclimates. A microclimate is a small atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area, and can range in size from a single garden to neighborhood. Microclimates within a city are affected by a myriad of factors, such as shade, vegetation, moisture and building materials. A model that can predict the effects of changes made to microclimates can help us better engineer them for human health and comfort.

Ruddell's team is working with Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) project to observe microclimates in neighborhoods throughout Phoenix and build a database. The data is then used for modeling that will help to engineer healthier, more comfortable and more efficient cities. For example, homeowners choosing between landscaping options can weigh the temperature-reducing effect of lawns and trees against the amount of water they require. In tackling this enormous task, the team hopes to create a system that allows for better decision-making on both individual and municipal scales.

An endeavor that began when members of Arizona State University's student chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) connected with a Kenyan doctoral student has earned one of three 2014 Premier Project Awards from the national EWB-USA organization. The chapter was recognized at National Engineers Week, Feb. 16-22, for its work to design and construct sustainable water infrastructure in a rural Kenyan community, one of hundreds of projects that EWB-USA considered.

Since learning of the potable water scarcity in this region, fifteen chapter members have made one or more of four trips to the Bondo-Rarieda community of rural Kenya over the past three summers. These students used their engineering skills to construct systems for collecting and storing potable water, including a rainwater catchment facility. In addition to providing technical solutions, they worked to educate the community and ensure that its residents could maintain the sustainable water infrastructure independently. As a result of these improvements, residents of  Bondo-Rarieda are now able to store water for use during the region’s extensive dry season.

Each year, the Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) Community of Graduate Scholars works on an interdisciplinary project that furthers the mission of DCDC. This year's project expands on the theme of communicating about complexity in water systems and issues of sustainability through participatory photography.

Express and share your views regarding the following four prompts:

• Sustainable solutions or creative uses of resources
• Unique aspects of the central Arizona water system
• Problems or concerns about the water system
• Aspects of the system that are poorly understood

How to Participate

• Participation is open to anyone in Arizona.
• Participants may submit up to four photographs with quick descriptions responding to our theme.
• Participants will receive detailed prompts and directions via email upon completion of this form.

By submitting a photograph for the project, participants certify the following:

• The photo was taken by the participant for this project.
• DCDC’s Community of Graduate Scholars has permission to use the photograph and the written response to the photograph prompt for the purposes of this project, and can contact the participant to share or request additional information about the project.

The last day to submit photos is April 7, 2014. Photographs and findings will be presented at DCDC's end-of-the-year Water/Climate briefing, April 28, 2014.

Sign Up To Participate

Sign up to participate using the form below!

If you have trouble viewing or submitting his form, you can fill it out online: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MODGrdeJ-hLGFF0hzkXE74cnigLcIpjaJQ6SOcg0PDY/viewform.

As part of the state's sustainability plans, a report on water reuse in Arizona and how to best delegate effluent was released by Arizona State University's Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC). "Arizona Horizon" host Ted Simons interviewed DCDC Co-Director and Senior Sustainability Scientist Dave White, who co-authored the report.

White shared that the aim of the report is to continue and stimulate conversation in the policy community about issues critical to the future of water in our state. "What we're seeing is the potential for increased competition and cost for municipal effluent into the future," White said. "We want people to have an open, transparent dialogue about what the best uses of this effluent are."

Watch the interview here.

Check out DCDC co-director, Dave White, tonight Tuesday, March 4, 2014 at 5:30pm on KAET Channel 8's Arizona Horizon. Dave will speak with host Ted Simons about the Decision Center for a Desert City's recently released technical report, Water Reuse in Central Arizona.

Authored by Ariane Middel, Ray Quay, and Dave White, the report explores issues critical to water reuse, along with challenges and opportunities for the future. This report attempts to inform policy conversations around wastewater use in Arizona.

Covering topics including existing and projected wastewater supply and demand, potential for increased competition and costs, the role of public perceptions, and industrial perspectives, the report highlights issues vital to the water sustainability of Arizona and presents a framework to address public policy issues.

In exploring how humans of past civilizations experienced the world around them, ASU archaeologist and senior sustainability scientist Michelle Hegmon is generating interest in studies that the average reader might otherwise avoid. She refers to this unique approach - which humanizes research by exploring elements like suffering, mental illness and the attitudes people held toward their environments - as Archaeology of the Human Experience (AHE). Utilizing the AHE approach not only paints a more detailed picture of the past, but assists researchers in better understanding present circumstances.

Hegmon believes that the AHE approach can have an illuminating effect on sustainability studies, which numerous archaeologists now contribute to. In some instances, the roots of an environmentally exemplary modern society may be entangled with past oppression or inequality. Because an essential element of sustainability is satisfying human needs, AHE challenges us to asses whether the ends justified the means and to consider alternative methods for achieving similar results.

Through the Global Sustainability Studies Program, School of Sustainability student Chad Sharrard studied the cultural element of sustainable development in the Andes region of Ecuador. Over the course of the summer, he gathered that development requires an understanding of what matters most to the people of a specific place.

After seeing the numerous stakeholders involved in sustainable development in the Andes, Sharrard gained a better understanding of why decisions are sometimes the result of economic and ethical considerations rather than environmental ones. Being immersed in another culture also provided him with an opportunity to apply what he had learned from textbooks and PowerPoints to a real-world situation. He feels that he will better retain these lessons now that they are tied to his memories of Ecuador.

CAP graduate student Tom Volo was named Engineering Student of the Year at the Greater Phoenix Area 2014 Engineers Week awards ceremony. Tom’s Ph.D. work focuses on urban landscape irrigation and on understanding optimal water application rates, which has tremendous practical application in the Phoenix region. He used data from CAP’s North Desert Village experiment in his Master’s research and has published these findings in Ecohydrology.

CAP scientist Sharon Harlan and her colleagues at Arizona State University were featured in an article in High Country News discussing the Phoenix urban heat island. The article presents some of the tradeoffs in technical solutions to ameliorating the heat island.

Water management decision makers' evaluations of uncertainty in a decision support system: the case of WaterSim in the Decision Theater

Authors

Dave D. White, Decision Center for a Desert City, ASU

Amber Y. Wutich, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, ASU

Kelli L. Larson, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and the School of Sustainability, ASU

Tim Lant, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services

Abstract

Model-based decision support systems are increasingly used to link knowledge to action for environmental decision making. How stakeholders perceive uncertainty in models and visualisations affects their perceptions of credibility, relevance and usability of these tools. This paper presents a case study of water decision makers’ evaluations of WaterSim, a dynamic water simulation model presented in an immersive decision theatre environment. Results reveal that decision makers’ understandings of uncertainty in their evaluations of decision support systems reflect both scientific and political discourse. We conclude with recommendations for design and evaluation of decision support systems that incorporate decision makers’ views.

Download the article from the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

How will Phoenix’s future urban spaces emerge, and what might these scenarios mean for environmental, economic and social sustainability? Senior Sustainability Scientist Darren Petrucci and School of Sustainability alumnus Rider Foley presented one tool for answering such questions at the “New Tools for Science Policy” breakfast seminar, hosted by ASU’s Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO) in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 28.

Their technology works by mapping Phoenix’s trajectory and determining how it came to be the city it currently is.  “From there, we could begin to extrapolate where the urban form and growth might go,” says Petrucci. Keeping in mind the forces that underlie technology’s interplay with urban evolution - including competing desires like economic growth, access to clean water, security, and the sustainable use of natural resources – they created visualization scenarios in video format. These scenarios encourage viewers to consider their current decisions and how they may impact the future.

Thomas Volo, a doctoral student in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, was one of two ASU engineers to be honored at a Feb. 20 event.

Volo, who is a graduate research assistant with the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) project, studies urban landscape irrigation and the ecohydrology of desert cities. His research uses numerical modeling and eddy covariance techniques to investigate the impacts of landscape irrigation on urban surface energy and soil moisture fluxes. He seeks to conserve urban water use through improved scheduling for residential irrigation.

Volo was recognized at the Greater Phoenix Area 2014 Engineers Week awards ceremony as the Engineering Student of the Year. He was honored along with engineering professor Keith Hjelmstad, who was named Engineering Educator of the Year.

Arizona Water Supply Sustainability: In-state Water Transfers

Moving water from one area of Arizona to another has the potential to create controversies, especially if the area from which the water is being transferred has existing water uses and economies built on that water supply.

In the Arizona Department of Water Resources report, "Arizona’s Next Century: A Strategic Vision for Water Supply Sustainability", it is suggested that in-state water transfers will play a strategic role in Arizona’s sustainable water future. Yet, the report suggests that a comprehensive analysis of water transfers is needed to better understand their role in our water future and their secondary benefits and impacts.

In this Water/Climate Briefing, our panelists will use Yuma County as a case study to begin identifying the issues about water transfers that we need to better understand and what type of further dialogue and research is needed.

Join the conversation!

Panelists

Michael J. Lacey

Director, Arizona Department of Water Resources

State of Arizona

Patrick L. Morgan

Manager, Yuma Mesa Irrigation and Drainage District

Paul Muthart

General Manager, Pasquinelli Produce Co.

Yuma, Arizona

Dave D. White

Co-director, Decision Center for a Desert City

Arizona State University

Ray Quay

Moderator

Director of Stakeholder Relations, Decision Center for a Desert City

Arizona State University

Welcome by Jonathan Koppell

Dean of the College of Public Programs and the Lattie and Elva

Coor Presidential Chair in the School of Public Affairs

RSVP Today

Contact Katie Peige

When

Wednesday, March 5, 2014 12:00-1:30 p.m.

Location

ASU Downtown Phoenix campus, A. E. England Building, 424 N. Central Ave., Phoenix [Map]

Transit Options

Also note that the A.E. England building is located next to a the Central Station Transfer station which features the Van Buren light rail stop, several bus routes (including express buses and the DASH), and bike lockers. For more information, please click here. For those coming from ASU’s main campus in Tempe, there is an additional option to take the FREE intercampus shuttle that leaves every half hour (on the hour and on the half hour) and deposits you across the street from the A.E. England building, make sure you take the MAROON route.

Policy leaders, industry partners and energy experts gathered at ASU SkySong Feb. 20 to discuss the future of solar energy in Arizona at Arizona Solar Summit IV. The event featured the first public unveiling of the state’s new master energy plan, “emPOWER Arizona: Executive Energy Assessment and Pathways.” Gov. Jan Brewer signed the executive order on Feb. 18, making it the state’s first comprehensive energy plan in more than 20 years.

The Arizona Solar Summit – hosted by Arizona State University LightWorks, ASU SkySong and the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and sponsored by NRG – provided the first opportunity for the public to learn about the master plan. Leisa Brug, Brewer’s energy policy advisor and director of the Governor's Office of Energy Policy, led a panel discussion on the plan and its goals. Brug said that Arizona is already ahead of other states in terms of energy policy, and the new master plan will help the state continue to be a national leader in the field.

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Sethuraman "Panch" Panchanathan discusses energy research in his latest column in The Arizona Republic. Panchanathan is the senior vice president for ASU's Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development.

Panchanathan describes the importance of developing and advancing sustainable and affordable sources of energy. He provides examples of how ASU researchers are working in related areas, such as renewable fuels from algae and cyanobacteria, solar panels and photovoltaics, as well as the work happening with policymakers to ensure that our legal, social and economic systems can support renewable energy solutions.

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Building a more functional conversation among researchers, policymakers, citizens and industrial leaders is critical to address the global challenge of climate change, argued panelists at the “Rescuing Climate Policy” panel at ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability on Feb. 5. Kristen Hwang, a journalism student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, reported on the panel for Slate magazine’s Future Tense channel.

At the event, panelists argued that to prevent environmental wars and global unrest, the international community needs to work together to aggressively combat climate change and remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

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By Lindsay Gaesser, SDA Media Relations

TEMPE, Ariz.—The Arizona State men’s basketball team wasted no effort in its double-overtime win against in-state rival Arizona on Feb. 14, and neither did the fans.  As a part of Sun Devil Athletics’ Zero Waste Initiative, a bipartisan crowd of 10,754 at Wells Fargo Arena achieved a waste diversion rate of 87 percent.

The Territorial Cup® matchup created 656 pounds and 708 pounds of recycled and compostable materials, respectively, while just 197 pounds of trash was sent to the landfill. Arizona State is reporting the rate as a part of the RecycleMania Game Day Basketball Challenge.

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On January 24, 2014, LightWorks kicked off its first lecture series of the new year with a panel-style discussion on Arizona State University’s zero carbon initiative. The discussion addressed ASU’s recent partnership with Ameresco Inc. and Rocky Mountain Institute to achieve climate neutrality goals by 2025. The panelists covered accomplishments made so far and steps to take the university closer to this goal.

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In a recent early online edition of Nature Chemistry, ASU scientists, along with colleagues at Argonne National Laboratory, have reported advances toward perfecting a functional artificial leaf.

Designing an artificial leaf that uses solar energy to convert water cheaply and efficiently into hydrogen and oxygen is one of the goals of BISfuel – the Energy Frontier Research Center, funded by the Department of Energy, in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Arizona State University.

Hydrogen is an important fuel in itself and serves as an indispensible reagent for the production of light hydrocarbon fuels from heavy petroleum feed stocks. Society requires a renewable source of fuel that is widely distributed, abundant, inexpensive and environmentally clean.

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