Research Team
Co-Chairs : Mei-Po Kwan(Geography), and Barbara Minsker(CEE)
Initial participants : William Sullivan(LA), Jim Miller(NRES), Bev Wilson and Bumsoo Lee(URP), Julie Cidell (Geography), Marilyn O’Hara(VetMed), Nora El-Gohary(CEE), Ian Brooks(NCSA), Larry Band(Geography, UNC), Nancy Grimm(School of Life Sciences) and Abby York(School of Human Evolution & Social Change, ASU), Peter Groffman(Cary Institute), and Alex Felson(School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale)
Grand Challenges
Identifying water-related trends, causes, and solutions to chronic human and ecosystem health problems in urban areas (e.g., eutrophication & hypoxia, asthma, diabetes, obesity, loss of species diversity and types).
Research Questions
(1) Where and what types of green stormwater infrastructure (GI) are most beneficial to people and ecosystems, both now and in the future as cities evolve?
(2) What are the tradeoffs among different co-benefits & co-costs of GI (e.g., increasing costs and greenhouse gas emissions from construction vs. reducing urban heat islands, flooding, water quality problems, stress, obesity, asthma, diabetes, and increasing species diversity)?
(3) What are the socio-political and economic barriers to greening cities and what policies or technologies would help overcome them?