In today’s rapidly evolving climate, and amid unprecedented technological disruptions, engineers and designers seek infrastructure solutions that are resilient to both known and unknown future conditions. This podcast explores the use of biomimicry to provide examples and guidance for resilient infrastructure systems, spanning theory and practice. We evaluate opportunities for improving design, prompted through consideration of Life’s Principles. Collaborators (in order of appearance): Alysha Helmrich, Dr. Samuel Markolf, Dr. Nancy Grimm, Dr. Mikhail Chester, Dr. Cheryl Desha, and Dr. Samantha Hayes.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

In partnership with Conservation International and the Global Trophic Cascades Program at Oregon State University, the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes published a new study in Conservation Biology revealing the potentially significant contribution reforestation could have on biodiversity conservation.

The publication, titled “Global reforestation and biodiversity conservation,” was led by Postdoctoral Research Associate Krista Kemppinen and co-authored by Pamela Collins and David Hole from Conservation International, Christopher Wolf and William Ripple from the Global Trophic Cascades Program at Oregon State University and Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber.

Continue Reading

2019 WE Empower Awardee, Leah Lizarondo, is the co-founder of 412 Food Rescue, a technology-driven food recovery platform that bridges the disconnect between the food wasted in the United States with its food-insecure citizens. Roughly one in seven Americans is food poor and some 40% of food produced is never eaten, but ends up as waste in landfills, creating Greenhouse Gas. Through utilizing technology and establishing the mobile app Food Rescue Hero, 412 Food Rescue transports food surplus to a network of nonprofits that connects the glut with people, not landfills. The organization supports people in need by providing access to other social services that can aid their users. Its program, Single Stop, is an online screening tool that condenses convoluted social service eligibility rules into a simple, confidential process to help people receive the aid they need.

Continue Reading

In an effort to make COVID-19 diagnostic testing easier and more readily available to Arizonans, researchers at Arizona State University have developed the state’s first saliva-based test. Diagnostic tests detect an active COVID-19 infection by measuring the amount of virus present in the body.

Biodesign Institute Executive Director Joshua LaBaer points out that saliva tests offer several benefits over nasopharyngeal swab tests while providing the same accuracy and sensitivity, including safety, less invasiveness, less PPE and less labour intensiveness.

“The goal is to rapidly increase statewide diagnostic testing to continue to protect first responders, get more Arizonans back to work, and students back to school again this fall,” LaBaer said. “Ultimately, we are going to need to continue the testing blitz underway and quickly ‘test, trace and isolate’ individuals to get society back up and running.”

View the latest newsletter from the Sustainable Cities Network:

SCN INFO OF INTEREST: 5/28/2020 (PDF)

The ABC’s of Federated Learning

The stale use of buzzwords can lead to the disregard of potentially significant technology. For example, the prominent use of virtual reality has been solely in the gaming industry. Only recently has this technology received attention in the healthcare and therapy space, due to its ability to increase empathy in patients. Categorized by Gartner as ‘On the Rise’ technology for data science in 2019, federated learning may follow the similar trend of initial disregard. In the next five minutes, we will learn about the history, purpose, and applications of Federated Learning and determine if this technology may be more than just another buzzword.

Continue Reading

It is the end of May and we are already feeling the impacts of the Arizona heat. Every year the triple-digit temperatures last through September and kill many residents and visitors. In 2019, a preliminary count identified 443 people who died from heat-caused and heat-related deaths in Arizona. This year — with more people staying at home due to the pandemic — the summer heat will impact low-income communities even more.

Heat-related illnesses are preventable. Many resources and programs are available to help individuals cope with the heat and the financial burden that comes with it. As part of the 2020 Arizona Heat Awareness Week, the Arizona Department of Health Services compiled multiple resources to help our communities. Please share these resources with others that can benefit from them. You can also find more resources and data online from the Arizona Department of Health Services.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized Arizona State University as a winner of its eighth annual Campus RainWorks Challenge, a national competition that engages college students in the design of on-campus green infrastructure solutions to help address stormwater pollution.

The ASU team, led by sustainability scientist Chingwen Cheng, assistant professor of landscape architecture in The Design School, was recognized for their project, titled “Ready! Set! Activate!” The team worked with Paideia Academy, a K-8 public charter school located in south Phoenix, to reduce local flooding during Arizona’s monsoon season and create a resilient, multifunctional space that effectively manages stormwater runoff and yields educational and ecological benefits.

Continue Reading

A new PBS documentary about the lives and work of Elinor and Vincent Ostrom has made its debut. Actual World, Possible Future explores the lives and work of Elinor and Vincent Ostrom, who sought to address the enormous problems that plague human societies: climate change, endangered species, ocean pollution, deforestation.

Elinor "Lin" Ostrom (1933-2012) was a sustainability scientist at Arizona State University and the founding director of ASU's Center for Behavior, Institutions and the Environment, which emerged from a collaboration between Ostrom, Marty Anderies and Marco Janssen, who worked together since 2000, when they met at a workshop of the Resilience Alliance in Stockholm.

Change is often unexpected, sometimes painful and always transformative. In the midst of a world beset with unprecedented change, the Narrative Storytelling Initiative at ASU has launched its latest venture: an online magazine called Transformations, a collaboration with the Los Angeles Review of Books that features powerful, personal essays. The magazine is edited by sustainability scholar Steven Beschloss, director of ASU’s Narrative Storytelling Initiative.

Transformations features personal essays inspired by the belief that sharing transformative stories has the power to influence the trajectory of our lives. At launch time, Transformations features six essays, five of which were written by ASU professors, though Beschloss said the magazine welcomes submissions beyond professors and the university, expecting to publish one new essay each week.

This blog post was written by Arizona State University graduate student Alaine Janosy. In addition to studying Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership at ASU, Alaine works as an independent sustainability consultant specializing in agricultural production systems and procurement. Through this work Alaine engages with companies to create, enable and expand strategies that drive adoption of regenerative farming practices.

Continue Reading

The Global Locust Initiative would like to pass along this job opportunity with the United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service:

The USDA-ARS is seeking a permanent, full-time entomologist or ecologist as lead investigator in one of the following two areas: 1) Applied modeling, spatial analysis, and forecasting of rangeland and crop insect pest distribution, outbreak dynamics, population growth, and/or risk analysis; OR 2) Plant-insect pest population dynamics with a strong quantitative focus.

Continue Reading

Two new short films Holding on to the Corn and Plant the Rain, produced by students in the School of Sustainability and Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in a class taught by Peter Byck, highlight the benefits of a local regenerative food system.

Holding on to the Corn

Holding on to the Corn explores how Hopi spiritual beliefs, ceremonies and agricultural practices centered on corn are being re-established by tribe members. The original intent of the film’s proponents was to create sustainable agriculture and promote healthy access to food, only to discover that their tribal traditions and experiences provided all the knowledge they needed to succeed.

Continue Reading

From his experiences in the beverage business, Master of Sustainability Solutions student Nicholas Shivka was painfully aware of how hard it is for local businesses to compete with the global giants. He knew that local business start-ups lack the financial support cities provide to multinational corporations interested in establishing a local presence. Those companies promise the addition of new jobs in exchange for tax breaks and other “attraction” incentives offered by city officials enamored with Fortune 500 companies, while local businesses receive minimal support and suffer financial disadvantages in the local economy.

Shivka saw a need to encourage and support local entrepreneurs in their quest to build sustainable businesses by creating a sustainable business incubator program. Using the co-op ownership model, sustainability methods, and participatory practices, he partnered with MSUS students Hanna Layton and Huda Khalife, under the guidance of Professor Arnim Wiek from the Sustainable Food Economy Lab, to build an educational program for aspiring entrepreneurs interested in sustainable food production. To test the program, they began the incubation of “Together We Brew,” a sustainable beverage business, with a group of Phoenix entrepreneurs.

Continue Reading

On April 29, 2020, ASU Project Cities hosted our first-ever entirely virtual Student Showcase for the Spring 2020 semester. Over one hundred attendees appeared on Zoom throughout the day to learn from this semester’s students and discuss their research findings. The event featured multiple virtual “rooms,” including the main stage presentations and their project findings and breakout Q&A sessions. A virtual “lobby” also remained open throughout the day for tech support, a reception, and networking.

The online showcase featured a mix of 74 graduate and undergraduate ASU students with diverse backgrounds and educational interests. This semester, students partnered with two communities: the City of Peoria, and the Town of Clarkdale on six projects. A video recording of the event is available online here.

Continue Reading

Sustainability scientist James Collins, the Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in the School of Life Sciences, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, along with Cheshire Calhoun, faculty head and professor of philosophy in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies.

Collins, an evolutionary ecologist, was chosen for his studies of the role of host-pathogen interactions in species decline and extinction. Collins uses amphibians, along with viral and fungal pathogens, as models for studying the factors that control population dynamics and has been one of the foremost leaders in addressing the global amphibian extinction crisis. He also studies the scientific, ethical and public policy issues surrounding the development and proposed environmental release of genetically modified organisms.

Continue Reading

Welcome to Wednesdays from Washington!

Week 1 - Featuring Congresswoman Chellie Pingree

Continue Reading

Public universities are among the nation’s most vital and vibrant institutions, serving the educational needs of hundreds of thousands of students, advancing the full spectrum of human knowledge, and invigorating the cultural, social, and economic horizons of the regions they serve. And today, these universities are at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, researching treatments, keeping their states and communities informed, and treating patients at academic medical centers.

How have our public universities responded to the COVID-19 pandemic? As university presidents look toward resuming in-person classes in the fall, what have they learned from the crisis, how will their institutions evolve as a result, and what might that mean for the future of higher education in America? How will public universities adapt to the serious financial challenges likely to arise in states and the nation in the months ahead? Could the response to the pandemic translate into an enhanced role for America’s public universities in the restoration of the nation’s public health and the recovery of its economic and social wellbeing?

Continue Reading

Scientists from the Urban Systems Lab, part of The New School located in New York City, is calling for survey responses in their study of public parks, open spaces and COVID-19. Their survey is open until May 31, and features English- and Spanish-Language versions, as well as a separate survey for NYC residents.

The survey will help the lab understand how these spaces are being used during the pandemic and how this may affect mental and physical wellbeing. Feedback will help inform future policy, design, and management of parks and open spaces. This survey may be shared with your networks, particularly to people living in and around cities.

A new webinar panel series, organized by Marco Janssen, Marty Anderies, and Mike Schoon is entitled Don’t Waste the COVID-19 Crisis: Reflections on Resilience and the Commons Revealed by COVID-19.

Launched on April 20, the series now features three videos and counting. You may view previous webinars in the series at the IASC Youtube channel. Contact Caren Burgermeister to be added to the invitation list.