Investment to ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability will educate future leaders
The Rob and Melani Walton Fund of the Walton Family Foundation is providing $27.5 million to Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS) to develop and deploy promising solutions to sustainability challenges including energy, water, environment, climate, urbanization, social transformation and decision-making in local, national and global contexts and to educate future leaders in sustainability. The investment to ASU is designated entirely for program support.
Shortly after the end of World War II, Albert Einstein uttered his now famous warning about the new global danger of nuclear weapons: “Everything has changed, save the way we think.”
In the intervening sixty-odd years, the world has continued to change and become even more dangerous. And still, there is no great evidence that our way of thinking about global catastrophes has evolved to meet the challenges.
I am currently honored to be co-chair of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – a body created by Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer in 1946 to help warn the public about the dangers of nuclear war.
CAP LTER’s Ecology Explorers program has begun a collaboration with Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts on an exciting new youth project that blurs the boundary between ecological science and humanities. The multi-disciplinary performance initiative, "At Home in the Desert: Youth Engagement and Place," is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and Arizona State University’s Institute for Humanities Research. More
John Sabo, an expert in ecohydrology and water resource management, has been named director of research development for the Global Institute of Sustainability, a transdisciplinary unit in the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development. OKED is responsible for advancing research, entrepreneurship, innovation and economic development at Arizona State University.
“Dr. Sabo has a collaborative and entrepreneurial approach. I’m confident his leadership will greatly benefit sustainability-related research and researchers across ASU,” said Rob Melnick, executive dean with GIOS and the School of Sustainability.
The Central Arizona Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research Project (CAP LTER) is conducting a nest site study of the various birds of prey (raptors) that choose to nest in and around the Phoenix metropolitan area during spring 2012. In order to locate as many of these nest sites as possible, we need the assistance of colleagues and community members.
We are interested in understanding which species are choosing to nest in this area, their spatial distribution, the structures they choose for nest sites, and the physical characteristics of these nest structures. This survey is purely observational and will not result in any disturbance to the nesting birds.
If, now that the breeding season is underway you notice nesting raptors in your area, please e-mail (or phone 480-727-7860) the following information to phoenixraptors@asu.edu:
Description of the nest location (directions, cross streets, GPS coordinates)
The future of the oceans, poverty alleviation, global trade, biodiversity and food security are among research areas that will be at the core of the “Planet under Pressure” (PUP) conference this month with more than 2,500 participants, including several scientists from Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability.
“The agenda for worldwide sustainability science will be set at this conference,” stressed Sander van der Leeuw, dean of ASU’s School of Sustainability and a PUP conference participant. “The whole of the research agenda for sustainability science for the next several years will be recast and the funding reorganized to take account of the discussions at this conference,” he said.
Authors: Alan T. Murray (1), Patricia Gober (2, 3), Luc Anselin (1), Sergio J. Rey (1), David Sampson (3), Paul D. Padegimas (1), Yin Liu (1)
in Water Resource Management, DOI 10.1007/s11269-012-0013-5
Abstract
Fig. 1 Water sources by large providers in metropolitan PhoenixClimate change is likely to result in increased aridity, lower runoff, and declining water supplies for the cities of the Southwestern United States, including Phoenix. The situation in Phoenix is particularly complicated by the large number of water providers, each with its own supply portfolio, demand conditions, and conservation strategies. This paper details spatial optimization models to support water supply allocation between service provider districts, where some districts experience deficits and others experience surpluses in certain years. The approach seeks to reconcile and integrate projections derived from a complex simulation model taking into account current and future climate conditions. The formulated and applied models are designed to help better understand the expected increasingly complex interactions of providers under conditions of climate change. Preliminary results show cooperative agreements would reduce spot shortages that would occur even without climate change. In addition, they would substantially reduce deficits if climate change were to moderately reduce river flows in Phoenix’s major source regions, but have little effect under the most pessimistic scenarios because there are few surpluses available for re-allocation.
Conclusions
The results obtained from the developed spatial optimization model reflecting regional cooperation in water supply management across the Phoenix metropolitan area demonstrate the insights possible from a modeling based analysis approach. It is foreseeable that the introduction of demand management strategies will be necessary in the face of future climate change, but also it is possible to significantly reduce deficits in some cases. By taking full advantage of all the water that is available as well as establishing cooperation between water districts, as opposed to the practice of conserving surpluses for future use but not distributing extra water when available to those districts in need, it is possible to stretch the available supply of water to ensure that the impacts of water shortages are minimized.
In every scenario, the results pointed to clear benefits of regional cooperation, whether it is the complete avoidance of deficits over a period of time (Scenarios 1 and 2), to a reduction of total deficits across the region (Scenarios 3 and 4). Effective policy implementation could lead to the employment of a trading strategy that embodies the benefits demonstrated in this paper. It is clear in each scenario presented in this paper that Phoenix and its ability to transfer water either in from or out to other districts appears inevitable. As the largest city in the region by almost four times, it will clearly be an important factor in water resource management. While it is assumed in this paper that water transfers are possible by simply recharging subsurface aquifers by one district and pumping out water by another, there may be a need for conveyance infrastructure to successfully implement an effective water sharing strategy in the region. Whether it be by manmade infrastructure or natural aquifers, in the case of the Phoenix metropolitan region, it is obvious that the city of Phoenix must be completely intertwined with the water network of the region.
The linear program presented in this paper is a foundation for effective water management and is, in the form presented, adaptable to accommodate different weighting schemes. While it may be possible to re-allocate water across the region in a more equitable manner than weighting by population of each provider district, it is evident that as it stands, this model is effective for demonstrating the potential gains of any region with multiple, independent water providers, through optimal water re-allocation. The potential to change the weighting mechanism will be important for future work, which may include a cost structure for transfer transactions, measures of social benefit achieved by water re-allocation, or economic gains related to water availability. Decision rules about who does and does not share access to relevant conveyance infrastructure may also be included in future applications. While different potential decision rules and weighting mechanisms will likely vary by application, the foundation for multi-district water re-allocation modeling presented here clearly demonstrates the potential benefits of such a system.
Acknowledgements
This article is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. SES-0345945, Decision Center for a Desert City. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
(1) GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University
(2) School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University
(3) Decision Center for a Desert City, Arizona State University
For more than 30 years, with the last 20 years at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), I have been immersed in community efforts to focus water resources research on growing societal needs. Past strategies have stumbled, but creative thinking on basin function offers a way out. The following ideas are mine and are not necessarily shared by NSF. Read more here: Eos, Vol. 93, No. 10, 6 March 2012.
From Slate.com, this interview with Torie Bosch features Sustainability Scientist Sander van der Leeuw, dean of the School of Sustainability. Van der Leeuw will be a panelist at this weekend’s Future Tense event, Defining Resilience, where academics, policymakers, and other experts will discuss resilience in the environment, business, national security, even the Constitution. Bosch spoke to van der Leeuw about resilience in the Roman Empire, prehistoric Australia, modern ecology, and more.
32 leading experts from around the world argue for immediate ambitious reforms
TEMPE, Ariz. – Some 32 social scientists and researchers from around the world, including a Senior Sustainability Scholar at Arizona State University, have concluded that fundamental reforms of global environmental governance are needed to avoid dangerous changes in the Earth system. The scientists argued in the March 16 edition of the journal Science that the time is now for a “constitutional moment” in world politics.
Research now indicates that the world is nearing critical tipping points in the Earth system, including on climate and biodiversity, which if not addressed through a new framework of governance could lead to rapid and irreversible change.
“Science assessments indicate that human activities are moving several of Earth’s sub-systems outside the range of natural variability typical for the previous 500,000 years,” wrote the authors in the opening of “Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance.”
Six Arizona State University masters students in diverse fields of study are participating in Diversity across the Curriculum (DAC), a class that equips them with the skills for transdisciplinary collaboration and effective communication of their research to the community. One of the students, Angela Xiong, is from the School of Sustainability.
Achieving carbon neutrality on American college and university campuses is not a matter for science alone. It has to be taught. And, in dealing with budget reductions coupled with enrollment growth, college and university presidents have learned that sustainability is also a good business model.
“We’ve all faced one big dilemma in the past few years,” said David Schmidly, president of the University of New Mexico, noting that UNM experienced budget cuts of about 20-22 percent, while at the same time enrollment increases of 15 percent.
“What we found is sustainability can be useful for teaching not only a paradigm to be a better citizen; we have found that sustainability is good business. It’s a good way to contain cost and save money," he said, adding that UNM's energy conservation program saved more than $8 million over just a few years.
His wife, Nicole, an attorney, has an emergency court hearing. So Phoenix's new mayor, whose schedule for the day includes greeting President Barack Obama, takes on the duty of getting their two children to school.
ASU Professors Alex Mahalov and Eric Kostelich bring their Math and Climate Research Network Workshop to DCDC on March 5-7, 2012. The Math and Climate Research Network links researchers across the US to develop the mathematics needed to better understand the Earth's climate.
It is generally accepted in the scientific community that the world is undergoing a significant change in its climate. The issues and problems of the science that seeks to understand the earth's climate, and how it is changing, have a significant mathematical dimension. The Mathematics and Climate Research Network (MCRN) is a virtual organization of leading researchers in mathematics and geosciences whose mission is to establish a new area of applied mathematics tailored to the needs of climate research.
The network consists of researchers at "nodes" across the US, together with several collaborating government and university labs and centers in the US and beyond. Network researchers have a collective expertise that cuts across the relevant areas of applied mathematics and climate science. They will collaboratively lead a group of postdoctoral research fellows, graduate and undergraduate students to create a cadre of strong mathematicians with the interdisciplinary expertise required to analyze problems that have their origin in climate issues.
MCRN is funded by an award from the National Science Foundation's Division of Mathematical Sciences, and is administered through the Renaissance Computing Institute.
Dr. Maienschein advises students involved in history and philosophy of science projects.
A student presents her history of science project at an annual meeting of AAAS.
Jane Maienschein is a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist at the Global Institute of Sustainability; a Regents’ Professor, President’s Professor, and Parents Association Professor at the School of Life Sciences (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences); director of the Center for Biology and Society; and adjunct senior scientist at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. She specializes in the history and philosophy of biology and the way that biology, bioethics, and biopolicy play out in society. In 2010 she was named a CASE and Carnegie Foundation U.S. Professor of the Year.
How did you become involved with sustainability in your career?
I never thought of my work as connected with sustainability, since my primary research field is the history and philosophy of developmental biology. It wasn’t until I was nominated to be a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist and began working with Ann Kinzig in the Global Institute of Sustainability that I thought more about where the idea of sustainability comes from, what it means in changing contexts, and why it matters. Subsequently, I was encouraged to write on the history of sustainability for the AAAS members’ website, and that led to a project examining the history of biodiversity and sustainability.
What is your most important sustainability-related project now?
I’ve been working with a collaborative group at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to develop a repository for digital content on the history and philosophy of science. A new project along these lines focuses specifically on biodiversity and sustainability. This project will teach ASU undergraduate and graduate students to research and write peer-reviewed articles about the change agents who helped transform these fields. The articles will then be linked to related digital content – pictures, videos, interviews, and other articles – and also to the rich published literature of both the Biodiversity Heritage Library consortium and the E.O. Wilson-inspired Encyclopedia of Life, both of which are partners in the project. In addition, ASU’s Manfred Laubichler and Robert Page are leading a related project to connect this work on biodiversity and sustainability to the Global Classroom (a project funded by the Mercator Foundation), so that international teams will develop associated content to add to the collection. These collaborations will bring together research and learning in the best possible way and involve a mix of students and faculty members.
How will your sustainability-related work affect policy or other decisions?
My work in 1997-1998 as a Congressional Fellow and senior science advisor showed me that influencing decisions is a subtle process and results are difficult to trace. In fact, we often have the greatest impact when we simply provide those in power with research materials and ideas. This is a different approach than most researchers seek, but it is consistent with my conviction that education is a long-term process and the greatest impacts tend to come later rather than sooner. But if we can get students, members of the public, and even ourselves to continually ask the hard questions and push for better answers, we will have succeeded.
What world sustainability challenge concerns you most?
Willful ignorance. By that I mean the persistent efforts by some people to sow doubt and create confusion when there should be none – for example, the people who deny evidence of human-caused climate change. This is deplorable. If the facts are bleak, let’s face them. If they call for hard answers and hard work, let’s get moving.
Second Nature will announce the winners of the 3rd Annual Climate Leadership Awards at the 6th annual Climate Leadership Summit of the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) on June 21-22, 2012 in Washington, D.C. Arizona State University is one of five finalists in the "Doctorate Granting University" category.
The Climate Leadership Awards highlight campus innovation and climate leadership to transition society to a clean, just, and sustainable future, and are chosen from ACUPCC signatory institutions in good standing via a nomination process.
Land cover modification scenarios and their effects on daytime heating in the inner core residential neighborhoods of Phoenix, AZ, USA
Authors: Ariane Middel (1), Anthony Brazel (2), Bjoern Hagen (2), Soe Myint (2)
Abstract
This study addresses simulations of summertime atmospheric heating/cooling and water use at the local scale in Phoenix, Arizona – a city in the arid Southwestern United States. Our goal is to consider various climate effects by the manipulation of land coverage within census tracts at the local scale. This scale refers to horizontal areas of approximately 102–104 m on a side and to measurement heights in the inertial sublayer above the urban canopy and its roughness sublayer. The model we use for this scale is the Local Scale Urban Meteorological Parameterization Scheme (LUMPS) after Grimmond and Oke, 2002. We calculate different scenarios using the LUMPS model to determine the interplay of water use and summer diurnal variations of atmospheric heating and cooling processes for selected census tracts in Phoenix. First, we simulate xeriscaping within the census tract neighborhoods by transforming green spaces into soil. The second scenario simulates an infill and Brownfield development scenario, increasing density and impervious surfaces while at the same time decreasing soil. Third, we reduce barren soil and impervious surface areas to simulate a green city. With LUMPS we can understand the optimization of water use and at the same time the maximization of the cooling potential within the local scale area as a whole, dependent on varying the total surface cover fractions. In urban planning, LUMPS can be used as scenario based tool to design pedestrian-friendly sustainable development in desert climates where land coverage is tailored to reduce UHI effects and to induce more comfortable daytime temperatures.
Discussion and Conclusion
Our scenario-based local-scale model approach can assist planners in making better-informed decisions on UHI mitigation strategies. The results of the scenario-based model runs indicate which urban design is best for a particular location – a challenging decision, especially in desert cities like Phoenix where water supply is crucial for a sustainable future. These findings could be used as a basis for specific policy approaches to UHI management. In 2006, the Downtown Phoenix Urban Form Project was started to shape future growth and create a more integrated, pedestrian oriented, and sustainable downtown through form-based codes (City of Phoenix, 2008). The regulating plan developed by the Urban Form Project suggests urban design principles to mitigate the UHI effect and to create a more comfortable and sustainable downtown environment. The proposed strategies are based on urban form principles regarding street and building proportion, open space, vegetation, building design, and building materials. One of the measures is the "connected oasis", a plan connecting existing and new public spaces through a green street network.
Our modeling approach complements the Urban Form Project by quantifying the optimal vegetative coverage to mitigate UHI effects and create a more comfortable pedestrian-friendly environment. Although our results may suggest recommendations for land coverage within neighborhoods to minimize water use and heating, the model cannot specify the spatial arrangement of land cover fractions. To determine the urban design within neighborhoods more precisely, a micro-scale model would have to be employed. Another application of our scenario-based model results are Climate Action Plans, a policy tool urban planners use to minimize heating. As of 2009, over 141 local jurisdictions and states have already developed Climate Action Plans to mitigate and adapt to global climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for possible climate change threats and risks.
Increasingly, Climate Action Plans do not only focus on greenhouse gas emissions, but also address adaptation measurements such as UHI maps, green urban design, and water conservation. Future research may include the development of additional mitigation scenarios such as changing the mean albedo of the land cover fractions or the albedo of individual surfaces such as roof tops and impervious surfaces. To refine the densification scenario, the manipulation of average building heights would be beneficial. We also envision a greater number of variables for land cover fractions, e.g., pervious pavements, and leaf indices for trees and plants native to the Sonoran Desert. To enhance the application of the model, the integration of the model into a geographical information system (GIS) would allow for the correlation of spatial analyses of temperature variations with other relevant geodata.
1 Decision Center for a Desert City, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
2 School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
The Rob and Melani Walton Fund of the Walton Family Foundation is providing $27.5 million to Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS) to develop and deploy promising solutions to sustainability challenges including energy, water, environment, climate, urbanization, social transformation and decision-making in local, national and global contexts and to educate future leaders in sustainability. The investment to ASU is designated entirely for program support.
A Thought Leader Series Piece
The network consists of researchers at "nodes" across the US, together with several collaborating government and university labs and centers in the US and beyond. Network researchers have a collective expertise that cuts across the relevant areas of applied mathematics and climate science. They will collaboratively lead a group of postdoctoral research fellows, graduate and undergraduate students to create a cadre of strong mathematicians with the interdisciplinary expertise required to analyze problems that have their origin in climate issues.
