This report is the consolidated work of an interdisciplinary course project in CEE494/598, CON598, and SOS598, Urban Infrastructure Anatomy and Sustainable Development. In Fall 2012, the course at Arizona State University used sustainability research frameworks and life-cycle assessment methods to evaluate the comprehensive benefits and costs when transit-oriented development is infilled along the proposed light rail transit line expansion. In each case, and in every variation of possible future scenarios, there were distinct life-cycle benefits from both developing in more dense urban structures and reducing automobile travel in the process.
Results from the report are superseded by our publication in Environmental Science and Technology.
This project includes a marketing plan for a local small business, Island Mochi. It examines the business and best practices in the industry to inform the marketing plan. The purpose of the marketing plan is to grow Island Mochi's sales by using digital marketing and public relations strategies. The components of the marketing plan include an executive summary, environmental analysis, SWOT analysis, customer personas, PR and marketing objectives, strategies and tactics, and an outline of the implementation and evaluation procedures.
Social media today is a major source of not only communication, but also news and entertainment. This year, people everywhere have had to embrace virtual environments as their main sources of communication. For students, especially, the move to virtual schoolwork in 2020 has increased the amount of time spent on technology. This observational study examined, through an anonymous online survey, how college students spend their time on social media and how it affects their mental health. The 25-question survey was open to current ASU students as of 2021, and 2020 ASU graduates. Respondents’ results concluded that while students actively use social media for communication and entertainment, it can present a burden on their mental health and their productivity.
The leading source of weather-related deaths in the United States is heat, and future projections show that the frequency, duration, and intensity of heat events will increase in the Southwest. Presently, there is a dearth of knowledge about how infrastructure may perform during heat waves or could contribute to social vulnerability. To understand how buildings perform in heat and potentially stress people, indoor air temperature changes when air conditioning is inaccessible are modeled for building archetypes in Los Angeles, California, and Phoenix, Arizona, when air conditioning is inaccessible is estimated.
An energy simulation model is used to estimate how quickly indoor air temperature changes when building archetypes are exposed to extreme heat. Building age and geometry (which together determine the building envelope material composition) are found to be the strongest indicators of thermal envelope performance. Older neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Phoenix (often more centrally located in the metropolitan areas) are found to contain the buildings whose interiors warm the fastest, raising particular concern because these regions are also forecast to experience temperature increases. To combat infrastructure vulnerability and provide heat refuge for residents, incentives should be adopted to strategically retrofit buildings where both socially vulnerable populations reside and increasing temperatures are forecast.
This research study presents a life cycle assessment comparing the potential environmental impacts of two concrete construction methods used for building construction projects: Pre-cast and Cast-in-place concrete. The objective of the study was to provide a beneficial assessment of the potential environmental impacts by quantifying global warming potential, acidification and eutrophication associated with the two construction methods. Data for the two construction methods came from numerous industry reports and relatively recent journal article publications on the subject, although a majority of the data came from the Portland Cement Association’s Annual U.S. and Canadian Labor Energy Input Survey.