Matching Items (4)
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Description

The Future of Wastewater Sensing workshop is part of a collaboration between Arizona State University Center for Nanotechnology in Society in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, the Biodesign Institute’s Center for Environmental Security, LC Nano, and the Nano-enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Systems NSF Engineering Research Center.

The Future of Wastewater Sensing workshop is part of a collaboration between Arizona State University Center for Nanotechnology in Society in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, the Biodesign Institute’s Center for Environmental Security, LC Nano, and the Nano-enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Systems NSF Engineering Research Center. The Future of Wastewater Sensing workshop explores how technologies for studying, monitoring, and mining wastewater and sewage sludge might develop in the future, and what consequences may ensue for public health, law enforcement, private industry, regulations and society at large. The workshop pays particular attention to how wastewater sensing (and accompanying research, technologies, and applications) can be innovated, regulated, and used to maximize societal benefit and minimize the risk of adverse outcomes, when addressing critical social and environmental challenges.

ContributorsWithycombe Keeler, Lauren (Researcher) / Halden, Rolf (Researcher) / Selin, Cynthia (Researcher) / Center for Nanotechnology in Society (Contributor)
Created2015-11-01
Description

Cities with a car-oriented mobility system are significant consumers of energy and require drastic transformations in their structure and function to minimize their harmful impacts on environment and people and to achieve sustainability goals. To promote such sustainable transformations, municipal administrators need to act as change-agents. Because municipal governments are

Cities with a car-oriented mobility system are significant consumers of energy and require drastic transformations in their structure and function to minimize their harmful impacts on environment and people and to achieve sustainability goals. To promote such sustainable transformations, municipal administrators need to act as change-agents. Because municipal governments are often not agile organizations, they tend toward incrementalism even in the pursuit of transformational goals. Therefore, there is a need in municipal governments to build individual transformative capacity so that municipal administrators can design, test, and implement plans, projects, and policies that are capable of transforming cities toward sustainability. This research presents a game-based workshop, “Stadt-liche Ziele” (AudaCity), that uses a backcasting approach to make municipal administrators build a sustainability strategy. I conducted a pilot study to test the effects of the game on municipal administrators’ confidence in their own ability and power to implement sustainability actions, a key determinant of transformative capacity. Five municipal administrators from Lüneburg, Germany, working on mobility issues, participated in a three-hour-workshop playing the game. Interviews and questionnaires were used before and after the workshop and participants’ contributions during the event were recorded to explore collective changes in confidence. Results indicate that the game increased participant confidence by rewarding collective success, breaking down an ambitious goal into achievable tasks, and acknowledging how administrators’ current actions already contribute to the goal.

ContributorsReutter, Leo (Author) / Withycombe Keeler, Lauren (Contributor) / von Wehrden, Henrik (Contributor) / Lang, Daniel (Contributor)
Created2018-06-28
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How we divide space in ever growing urban areas in an equitable, efficient and aesthetic fashion is one of the big questions of our time. In Lüneburg, Germany, citizens think more alternative forms of housing will be an important element of a sustainable future (Lüneburg 2030, 2018). Tiny Houses, dwellings

How we divide space in ever growing urban areas in an equitable, efficient and aesthetic fashion is one of the big questions of our time. In Lüneburg, Germany, citizens think more alternative forms of housing will be an important element of a sustainable future (Lüneburg 2030, 2018). Tiny Houses, dwellings that downsize an entire household to its minimum, are currently gaining attention in the country, but legal barriers make their implementation difficult. It has to be decided if legislations should be changed to allow these structures in the housing mix of Lüneburg. It is a difficult task to sift through the glamorization of Tiny Houses past the ideological utopia to see their value for the individual (Ansons, 2015). Therefore, it is of interest to fully understand what Tiny Houses offer for affordable housing stakeholders. Twenty-five evaluations of criticism and praise of the Tiny House Movement are collected by applying Q method, a tool to gather subjective viewpoints (Barry & Proops, 1999). Results indicate, four salient perceptions on that matter. Each viewpoint identifies different opportunities and risks when evaluating Tiny Houses for Lüneburg. This research demonstrates the potential of Tiny Houses to trigger participation by bringing people with diverse backgrounds together.

ContributorsFreude, Tara (Author) / Pfeiffer, Deirdre (Contributor) / von Wehrden, Henrik (Contributor) / Lang, Daniel (Contributor)
Created2018-07-09
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Description
Cities globally are experiencing substantial warming due to ongoing urbanization and climate change. However, existing efforts to mitigate urban heat focus mainly on new technologies, exacerbate social injustices, and ignore the need for a sustainability lens that considers environmental, social, and economic perspectives. Heat in urban areas is amplified and

Cities globally are experiencing substantial warming due to ongoing urbanization and climate change. However, existing efforts to mitigate urban heat focus mainly on new technologies, exacerbate social injustices, and ignore the need for a sustainability lens that considers environmental, social, and economic perspectives. Heat in urban areas is amplified and urgently needs to be considered as a critical sustainability issue that crosses disciplinary and sectoral (traditional) boundaries. The missing urgency is concerning because urban overheating is a multi-faceted threat to the well-being and performance of individuals as well as the energy efficiency and economy of cities. Urban heat consequences require transformation in ways of thinking by involving the best available knowledge engaging scientists, policymakers, and communities. To do so, effective heat mitigation planning requires a considerable amount of diverse knowledge sources, yet urban planners face multiple barriers to effective heat mitigation, including a lack of usable, policy-relevant science and governance structures. To address these issues, transdisciplinary approaches, such as co-production via partnerships and the creation of usable, policy-relevant science, are necessary to allow for sustainable and equitable heat mitigation that allow cities to work toward multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using a systems approach. This dissertation presents three studies that contribute to a sustainability lens on urban heat, improve the holistic and multi-perspective understanding of heat mitigation strategies, provide contextual guidance for reflective pavement as a heat mitigation strategy, and evaluate a multilateral, sustainability-oriented, co-production partnership to foster heat resilience equitably in cities. Results show that science and city practice communicate differently about heat mitigation strategies while both avoid to communicate disservices and trade-offs. Additionally, performance evaluation of heat mitigation strategies for decision-making needs to consider multiple heat metrics, people, and background climate. Lastly, the partnership between science, city practice, and community needs to be evaluated to be accountable and provide a pathway of growth for all partners. The outcomes of this dissertation advance research and awareness of urban heat for science, practice, and community, and provide guidance to improve holistic and sustainable decision-making in cities and partnerships to address SDGs around urban heat.
ContributorsSchneider, Florian Arwed (Author) / Middel, Ariane (Thesis advisor) / Vanos, Jennifer K (Committee member) / Withycombe Keeler, Lauren (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023