Arizona State University’s robust and expanding range of transportation research and studies was reflected recently in the contributions of faculty members and students to one of the major international gatherings of transportation experts.

An ASU contingent of more than 30 faculty members and students presented their research in more than 40 workshops and sessions at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 93rd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., Jan. 12-16. The event attracted about 12,000 professionals from academia, research institutions, industry and public and private policy groups from around the world.

The TRB is a major division of the private, nonprofit National Research Council, administered by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine. The council seeks to serve the public interest by providing expertise to government, the public and the scientific and engineering communities.

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With the European Union split on a new energy and climate strategy to 2030, and developing countries such as India and China unwilling to take the lead on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, global climate policy has reached an impasse.

So, the question remains: How can policymakers, institutions of higher education and citizens from all over the world foster a conversation on global climate policy that sparks action? By demanding superior systems of energy use is one proposal, which will be discussed at an upcoming panel organized by ASU's Global Institute of Sustainability.

The public panel discussion, "Rescuing Climate Policy," is scheduled to take place at 4 p.m., Feb. 5, inside Wrigley Hall, room 481, on ASU's Tempe campus. The talk will blend American, European and Chinese perspectives on the development and adoption of advanced systems of energy use.

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It is no surprise that CAP alumni (students, post-docs, faculty, and staff) who have moved on to other places continue to be engaged in research and dialogue about urban ecology. Some recent activity on the Web involved CAP alumni discussing aspects of biodiversity in the city.

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/urban_nature_how_to_foster_biodiversity_in_worlds_cities/2725/ Recent post on Yale Environment 360 that includes comments by former CAP post-doc Madhu Katti and former CAP Ph.D. student Susannah Lerman.

http://www.thenatureofcities.com/ Rotating blog forum about cities as ecosystems, featuring former CAP post-docs Madhu Katti and Mark Hostetler.

http://theconversation.com/biodiversity-can-flourish-on-an-urban-planet-18723 Posting by former CAP post-doc  Madhu Katti on biodiversity in cities.

Classroom walls have come down throughout Arizona State University, as biology students discuss sustainability with classmates in Germany, art students share artworks with peers in Taiwan and a genetics class gets front-row seats in a laboratory across campus.

ASU has made a significant investment in classroom technology, adding computer technology and internet connectivity to all of the 483 classrooms on its four campuses. Most classrooms have screens or large video displays that allow guest speakers and other participants to appear live.

According to the EDUCAUSE campus computing survey in 2013, ASU is one of only 12 public universities of the 543 universities surveyed to have 100 percent classroom mediation.

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Communicating Complex Information to Enhance Decision Making

Complexity is an inescapable aspect of environmental decision making as individuals and institutions try to make informed choices with complex and uncertain information.

One major challenge stems from the need to communicate complexity and frame information in a way that is relevant and useful for decision makers.

In this Water/Climate Briefing, our panelists will discuss techniques – such as information products/simulation models, scenarios, and decisional games – for communicating complexity in policy and governance processes for water sustainability and climate change adaptation.

Panelists will describe examples at multiple scales – from water management in Phoenix to global climate change negotiations – that illustrate the challenges and opportunities of communicating complexity.

Join the conversation!

Panelists

Andy Terrey

Project Coordinator

Water Resource Department

City of Phoenix

Erik Johnston

Associate Professor of Policy Informatics

School of Public Affairs

Arizona State University

Manjana Milkoreit

Postdoctoral Fellow

Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiative

Arizona State University

Dave White

Moderator

Co-Director, Decision Center for a Desert City

Arizona State University

RSVP Today

Contact Estella O'Hanlon.

When

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

Location

Decision Center for a Desert City, 21 East 6th Street, Suite 126B, Tempe [Map]

MapStory is an innovative technological tool that allows people like Arizona State University student Jonathan Davis to create visual and spatial data stories. One of Davis’ recent projects, “American Indian Reservations 18th Century to the Present,” consists of recreating the establishment of American Indian reservations through the platform.

“MapStory creates maps that are played in succession through time,” said Davis, a geographic information systems graduate student who was raised in Chandler, Ariz. “I focus on historical MapStories where you can read about history and get a solid geographical framework where the event took place. You can actually see the topography and the geography, so it’s easy to read about it while seeing it. It kind of makes history come to life.”

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Innovation Challenge, Edson and CGI U stepping stones for student startup

When Arizona State University senior Nisarg Patel's friend returned from a research expedition in Guatemala and expressed concern regarding children drinking contaminated water that could cause diarrhea and other waterborne illnesses, it got Patel thinking about a solution. He and his friends soon came up with the idea of soluble protein biosensors to indicate the presence of bacteria in drinking water.

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 1.5 million children under the age of five in developing countries die each year due to diarrhea.

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Arizona’s Next Century: A Strategic Vision for Water Supply Sustainability

January 14, 2014. A press release from Arizona Department of Water Resources.

PHOENIX- The Arizona Department of Water Resources released a report, Arizona’s Next Century: A Strategic Vision for Water Supply Sustainability, that provides a foundation for Arizona’s continued economic prosperity and growth in its next Century. The Strategic Vision assesses current and projected demands and water supplies that have been identified in recent reports and provides potential strategies that will help Arizona meet its future needs. Recent studies have identified the potential for a long-term imbalance between available water supplies and projected water demands over the next 100 years if no action is taken.

The Strategic Vision creates the framework for addressing future water supply challenges and helps to secure sufficient and dependable water supplies for Arizona. The Strategic Vision has been prepared at the request of Governor Brewer and is identified as part of her January 13, 2014 "The Four Cornerstones of Reform", building on Arizona’s past successes to meet our future challenges in water supply sustainability.

"While, the State as a whole is not currently facing an immediate water crisis, Arizona is at a point where it must begin to face future water supply and management challenges," said Arizona Department of Water Resources Director, Sandy Fabritz-Whitney. "We are at the crossroads of having to decide what actions we will take to face those challenges. Now is the time to begin addressing this challenge. The Strategic Vision for Arizona is a necessary next step in continuing to ensure that Arizona has sufficient and sustainable water supplies."

Over the next 25 to 100 years, Arizona will need to identify and develop additional water supplies to meet projected growing water demands. While there may be viable local water supplies that have not yet been developed, water supply acquisition and importation will be required for some areas of the State to realize their full growth potential.

"Arizona’s future success depends on how effectively we continue to manage our water resources and develop new water supplies and infrastructure. Our past and present success, while noteworthy and vital to our way of life, cannot sustain Arizona’s economic development forever and we must continue to plan and invest in our water resources" said Director Fabritz-Whitney.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources will begin a statewide outreach tour to present the Strategic Vision and receive input from local stakeholders and other interested parties.

The report and presentation dates are available at: ADWR.

Six months after 19 firefighters lost their lives battling the Yarnell Hill wildfire near Prescott, Ariz., The Weather Channel investigated the larger problem of U.S. wildfires. In an article and original documentary titled "America Burning: The Yarnell Hill Tradegy and the Nation's Wildfire Crisis," journalist Neil Katz, along with executive producer Greg Gilderman and producer Shawn Efran of Efran Films, interview surviving family members and the sole surviving firefighter.

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ASU professor C. Michael Barton has been named a “Digging Into Data” challenge winner. He is among a cohort of research teams representing Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States that were named by 10 international research agencies, including the National Science Foundation in the United States.

The Digging into Data program encourages research teams to develop new insights, tools and skills in innovative social science and humanities research using large-scale data analysis. Fourteen teams will receive grants to investigate how computational techniques can be applied to “big data” in social sciences and the humanities. Each team represents collaborations among scholars, scientists and information professionals from leading universities and libraries in Europe and North America.

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The Board’s “education meeting” for 2014 will focus on a core challenge of sustainability—urbanization. Thus, it will be comprised of highly interactive discussions with world renown thinkers and doers on how to make cities sustainable. The discussion theme is “Old Cities/New Cities/Sustainable Cities.” We’ll devote a day to discussing sustainability solutions being applied in the historic city of Amsterdam followed by a day of discussions about how the newly emerging municipality of Haarlemmermeer intends to create cities that are the most sustainable in Europe.

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In the fall of 2013, ASU Libraries hosted the exhibit Selling Sunshine, which showcased early solar energy research and steps made to solidify Arizona as a national player in solar energy development. The materials in the Selling Sunshine exhibit included technical papers, early reports, photographs, drawings, and much more. The exhibit inspired a conversation about the history of solar energy research and development at ASU and was recorded by ASU Libraries as a featured podcast.

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In recognition of the United Nations' International Year of Family Farming, Eakin discusses the role of the family farm in meeting our most pressing sustainability challenges: food security, poverty alleviation, and environmental integrity.

A Thought Leader Series Piece

By Hallie Eakin

Note: 2014 is the United Nations’ International Year of Family Farming. The goal of the observance is to call attention to the role of family farming in achieving sustainable development. Senior Sustainability Scientist Hallie Eakin is an expert in agrarian change, vulnerability, and adaptation. Her work was recently featured on Arizona PBS’s Horizon program.

The International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) focuses on the role of the family farm in meeting our most pressing sustainability challenges: food security, poverty alleviation, and environmental integrity. That family farms are now seen as significant in solving these challenges, rather than causing them, marks a revolution in international thinking.

Many people envision small-scale farms as unfortunate features of the developing world: impoverished, lacking basic services, and suffering from economic insecurity and, ironically, hunger. Associating poverty and hunger with smallholder communities is not unfounded, but does family farming cause poverty or food insecurity? My work in Latin America, and that of many other scientists elsewhere, clearly answers, “No.”

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How far away is your school? Are there more fast food joints than farmers markets in your neighborhood? Is your doctor close enough to help you in an emergency?

Today, more than half of the world’s population – that’s more than 3.5 billion people – lives in cities, and cities contain the majority of services like schools, markets, and hospitals. Experts predict that by 2030, urban area will double worldwide, shifting more people into cities. However, to some, access to urban services is not readily available.

Unequal access is already a concern in Arizona: Food deserts spread through inner city Phoenix and the Valley’s urban sprawl hikes up water prices for those on the urban fringe. So while some can eat healthy, others are left with fast food restaurants and convenience stores, and while some have affordable water prices, others sacrifice.

At Arizona State University, a team of scientists and students hope that maps and archeological finds will unearth historical patterns of city access that can guide equal access for modern cities. Now in its second stage, the National Science Foundation-funded project Service Access in Pre-Modern Cities aims to give context and clarity to a complicated question: Why do some people have access to urban services and others do not?

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Modern, professionally managed zoos frequently serve as global conservation agents – working to save species, educate the public about species loss and recovery, practice conservation breeding and reintroduce animals into the wild. These important efforts depend on understanding the scientific complexities of the animals and their habitats, as well as the history, ethics and policies that often deeply impact animal survival.

Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences and the Phoenix Zoo are launching a new program to strengthen animal conservation efforts by collaborating on new research and improving conservation communications and outreach to the public.

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After a very busy year and a half being a graduate student in Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability, Karen Kao celebrated her achievements as the graduate speaker at the school’s fall convocation this past December. With a background in psychology, Kao is very interested in the behavioral change behind sustainability, which led her to the school’s master’s degree in sustainable solutions.

“The program is an applied degree, so anything that I learned in the academic field of psychology, I could learn how to translate into practice,” Kao says. “Graduating as the first student from the program, I feel well-equipped with the strategies and thought-processes that help build solution options, and I take with me a practical skillset that’s transferrable to almost any subject in sustainability.”

As a student, Kao served as a research assistant on projects implementing practical solutions to sustainability issues, ranging from economics to urban planning. As part of her capstone project, mandatory for the master’s degree in sustainable solutions, Kao conducted community engagement workshops in Phoenix to collect public opinions for Reinvent PHX. The project, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Sustainable Communities Grant Program, aims to develop a new model of sustainable urban development, where public transit, housing, jobs and services improve the quality of life for all residents.

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Thousands of chemicals serving a variety of human needs flood into sewage treatment plants once their use life has ended. Many belong to a class of chemicals known as CECs (chemicals of emerging concern), which may pose risks to both human and environmental health.

Arjun Venkatesan, a recent doctorate, and Rolf Halden, professor and director of the Center for Environmental Security at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, have carried out meticulous tracking of many of these chemicals.

In a study appearing today in the Nature Publishing Group journal Scientific Reports, both authors outline a new approach to the identification of potentially harmful, mass-produced chemicals, describing the accumulation in sludge of 123 distinct CECs.

Ten of the 11 chemicals found in greatest abundance in treated municipal sludge or biosolids were high-production volume chemicals, including flame-retardants, antimicrobials and surfactants.

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The Decision Center for a Desert City at Arizona State University, CAP's sister project, has published a synthesis document "Advancing Science in Support of Water Policy and Urban Climate Change Adaptation at Arizona State University’s Decision Center for a Desert City: A Synthesis of Interdisciplinary Research on Climate, Water, and Decision-Making Under Uncertainty." CAP scientist Kelli Larson is the lead author on this document. The report summarizes the center’s major achievements in research, education, and community and institutional outreach since its founding in 2004.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and organized under ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability, DCDC is focused on water sustainability, urban climate adaptation, and decision-making under uncertainty. The center pursues research, in close collaboration with stakeholders, to create a more sustainable future. Research and modeling efforts analyze interacting factors such as population growth and economic development, climate change and variability, water supplies and demands, and governance to inform water management and other environmental decisions among diverse stakeholders.

CAP will be holding its 16th annual All Scientists Meeting and Poster Symposium on January 17th at ASU's SkySong facility in Scottsdale. Joyce Coffee, Managing Director of the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN), will be the keynote speaker. ND-GAIN is the world’s leading index showing which countries are best prepared to deal with the droughts, superstorms, and other natural disasters climate change can cause. Ms. Coffee will be speaking on "Adaptation Implementation: Efforts to Parlay Research into Action in Three Sectors." She will bring a wealth of experience working on climate change and sustainability, particularly in the governmental and corporate sectors, into her presentation, including work directing the City of Chicago’s Climate Action Plan.

In addition to Ms. Coffee’s keynote presentation in the morning, Dave White, co-Director of the Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC), will speak about the recently-published report of findings from 10 years of DCDC research, education, and outreach in the greater Phoenix area. Since CAP is involved in writing its own synthesis volume reflecting on 16 years of urban socioecological research, the day's presentations will include the lead authors of these chapters presenting their work in morning and afternoon sessions. Among the presenters will be Christopher Boone, Paige Warren, Kerry Smith, Jianguo Wu, and Nancy Grimm. These will be thought-provoking presentations that not only synthesize CAP’s past research but also point the way toward future urban socioecological research and practice.

The program for the CAP ASM lists abstracts for the 48 posters that will be presented by a talented group of students, faculty, and staff.