newsletter_spring_2008

�Fall 2007

Urban Climate adaptation in South africa

Inside this Issue

Incoming EPP Students ...............................................2

Spring 2008 Projections Seminar Series ........................3

awards and Recognitions ............................................4

International Mountain Politics and Policy ......................5

EPP Thesis Summaries ................................................6

MUSIC Update ...........................................................8

New Sa+P Faculty ......................................................10

picture 2

Environmental Policy and Planning is a group within the Department of Urban Studies and PlanningSchool of architecture and PlanningMassachusetts Institute of Technology

http://web.mit.edu/dusp/epp

continued on page...2

EPP

MIT is world renowned for its trailblazing work in information

theory, robotics, linguistics, and genetics; however, a new

endeavor, undertaken by EPP Professor Judith layzer, may

soon add ‘urban sustainability’ to that list. Over the past year,

Professor layzer has spearheaded several initiatives aimed

at facilitating collaboration among the School of architecture

and Planning’s (Sa+P) urban sustainability specialists, raising

the profile of urban sustainability research within DUSP and

Sa+P, and increasing opportunities for students to envision

and influence the sustainable cities of the future.

One such project is the development of a Sa+P ‘sustainable

cities’ website that will publicly showcase the diverse work of

professors and students. although it may not be common

knowledge (yet), Sa+P, and DUSP in particular, is home to some

of the leading thinkers on urban sustainability issues, including

green buildings, sustainable transportation, sustainable

transitions in the developing world, climate adaptation, and

sustainable city planning. For example, in EPP, Professor Joann

Carmin is working with cities in Eastern Europe to plan for the

impacts of climate change, while transportation professor Chris

Zegras is developing indicators of sustainable transportation.

In the Department of architecture’s Building Technology group,

Professor John Fernandez is developing an urban metabolism

Urban Sustainability

Nearly twenty students from 11.949: Sustainability in action (Boston) students spent the semester in five groups, concentrated on a specific sector: buildings and energy, food, transportation, waste, and water.

Students from DUSP participated in a practicum taught by

Professor Carmin on urban climate adaptation. after preparing

at MIT, they spent three weeks engaged in fieldwork in

Durban, South Africa. The goal of the fieldwork was to develop

an online tool that would help officials plan for climate change.

Rather than focus on known best practices, the approach the

students elected to pursue was to study ongoing activities and

innovations taking place in the municipality and then identify

how these could readily be extended to respond to anticipated

impacts of climate change.

continued on page...3

SPRING 08

2 ENvIRONMENTal POlICy aND PlaNNING

Incoming EPP Students

Next year we will have 14 new masters students and 3 new doctortal students joining our group. They each bring a unique perspective and we are thrilled to have them. Join us in welcoming them.

Manjula Amerasinghe who joins the EPP one year Masters, has a Masters in Environmental Engineering from the asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and a Bachelors in Civil Engineering from the University of Peradeniya Sri lanka. She is working as a Project Officer at the Asian Development Bank, Sri lanka Resident Mission.

Linda Ciesielski joins EPP from StoryCorps, a non-profit that collects oral histories featured on NPR. Prior to this, she worked in planning and landscape architecture offices in Oakland, CA, and Portland, OR. She holds a BS in landscape architecture from Cornell University.

Leanne Farrell has spent this last year learning Portuguese and working in Brazil, as well as traveling around South america. She spent the previous 5 years in Washington, DC, first with various advocacy NGOs focusing on international development and environmental issues, followed by the environmental and social safeguard policy compliance team for the World Bank´s latin america and Caribbean Region. She received her Ba in International Relations from Stanford University.

Kimberly Foltz joins EPP from Bikes-not-Bombs in Jamaica Plain. She received her B.a. in Natural Sciences from Evergreen State College.

Sarah Hammitt completed her a.B. in Geosciences with a Certificate in Environmental Studies from Princeton University in 2004. Following professional experience in environmental consulting and education, she is currently completing a year-long fellowship with the International Rescue Committee in Ethiopia where she develops multi-sector proposals and reports for refugees and local communities.

Melissa Haeffner joins the PhD program. She earned an Ma in sociology from DePaul University with a thesis evaluating the effectiveness of a cross-cultural exchange program linking US and Siberian subalpine watersheds. She has designed and taught environmental sociology courses at her alma mater and has worked with several urban sustainability non-profits on the following issues: transportation policy, watershed research, consumer behavior and lifestyle change, consensus building and fair trade. Melissa’s interest is in looking at the environment as a social issue.

Ingrid Heilke earned her B.a. in Environmental Studies and anthropology. Since then she has spent her time in Central america, Japan and San Francisco.

Chris Horne is from Philadelphia. He has a Ba in liberal arts from St. John’s College (the great books school), and most recentlyhe was taking classes in architecture. at MIT he intends to shift his focus away from design and toward policy and management.

Originally from Ohio, Bjorn Jensen joins the MCP program from Philadelphia yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) main office in Philadelphia, where he provided support for property management and information technology. Before that he worked in the global economic justice program of the american Friends Service Committee (aFSC). He received his Ba in International Development from Earlham College in Richmond Indiana.

Patrick Lynch joins the MCP program after working for Citigroup in New york in Investment Banking and Derivatives Trading. He has experience working on financial strategy for the Power and Financial Institutions sectors. He received his Ba in Economics from Harvard.

Eric Mackres comes to MIT from working in affordable housing advocacy with the California Housing Consortium. He has previously run campaign offices with the Sierra Club, State PIRGs and the Human Rights Campaign. He is a graduate of albion College in Michigan.

Sarah Madden joins the MCP program from WestEd’s Mathematics, Science, and Technology Program, where she worked on curriculum development and experimental design research studies. She received a Ba in linguistics and a BS in Conservation & Resources Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Evan Paul joins the MCP program from americaSpeaks, where he led several major citizen engagement initiatives on New Orleans recovery, climate change, and other policy & planning issues. Prior to americaSpeaks, he worked as an environmental campaigner for ForestEthics and the State PIRGs. He received his Ba in Political Science from the University of Missouri.

Nah Yoon Shin joins the PhD program. She is originally from Seoul, Republic of Korea. She majored in Human Ecology at yonsei University (B.S.) and City and Regional Planning at Seoul National University (M.C.P). Before coming to MIT, she had worked at Korea Environment Institute for 2 years, participating in international projects such as Seoul Initiative Network on Green Growth and Network of Institutions on Sustainable Development initiated by UNESCaP and UNEP. While working with international agencies, she felt the need to help environmentally vulnerable communities especially in developing countries. as a Fulbright student, she plans to learn and help develop better collaborative planning process to solve both urban and global environment injustice problems at MIT.

Alexis Schulman joins the PhD program. She holds a Master in City Planning from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (’07) and a Bachelor in Science and Engineering from Princeton University. She has worked and researched across a number of environmental fields, including environmental engineering, education, and green urban infrastructure. at MIT, she interned with EPP’s MIT-USGS Science Impact Collaborative (MUSIC), and her master’s thesis examined the varied roles of local ecological knowledge in U.S. resource management. She is currently interested in adaptive ecosystem management.

Mia White joins the PhD program. In 2000, she earned a Master of International affairs from the School of International and Public affairs at Columbia University, focusing on equity “hot spots” that arise as a consequence of the trading of emissions allowances to control pollution. In the last 8 years, she has worked for several social justice philanthropies researching, writing and grantmaking in community development and democracy building. Mia’s interest is in collaborative approaches to public finance in support of “Just-Green” neighborhoods/cities, and especially, post-disaster (Katrina, others), with a particular focus on the role of race and gender in community development.

Jiyang Zhang joins the MCP program from Peking University, China, where he received his bachelor’s degree of Urban and Rural Planning & Resource Management. He has interned at Chinese academy for Environmental Planning.

�Fall 2007

During the Spring 2008, Isabelle anguelovski and anna

Brand, two second-year PhD students in DUSP, organized a

seminar and film series on “Justice, Equity, and Sustainability:

a Trandisciplinary Perspective” to support the publication

of volume 8 of Projections on the same theme, which they

are currently co-editing with Rachel Healy, a third-year Phd

Student in the Department. The series was co-sponsored by the

Environmental Policy and Planning Group and the Department of

Urban Studies and Planning. The bi-monthly talks emphasized

how environmental and social degradation are closely coupled

to power inequity, thus requiring any building and rebuilding

sustainable communities and places to take place on a just

and equitable foundation. Scholars from universities across

New England presented their recent research, showing how,

within and between rural and urban communities and places

in developed and developing nations, achieving sustainable

development requires putting equity rights at the center of

planning and implementation. In addition to the speakers

series, Isabelle and anna organized one Wednesday night per

month a documentary or a full-feature movie screening on a

theme related to Justice, Planning, and Sustainability. Each

movie was introduced by a short presentation and followed-up

by a discussion with a faculty moderator. For example, Prof.

Saleem ali from the University of vermont and an alumni of

the Department, discussed the impacts of mining extraction

on the livelihoods, natural resources, and culture of indigenous

people.

Spring 2008 Projections Seminar and Film Series

architecture’s Building Technology group, Professor John

Fernandez is developing an urban metabolism tool that tracks

the flow of resources through cities to help planners gauge

the environmental impact of different urban development

strategies. and Professor layzer, for her part, is currently

investigating whether and how urban sustainability planning

yields genuine social and environmental benefits.

In addition to raising the public profile of this work, the website

will also promote collaboration among these sustainability

experts within the School’s five departments by providing up-to-

date information on Sa+P based urban sustainability research,

projects, and classes. The website is currently in development

and a prototype will be available by the summer.

In addition to the website, another important piece of the

sustainable cities initiative is the new course “Sustainability

in action (Boston), ” a multidisciplinary effort to translate the

concept of sustainability into practice using Boston as a case.

Taught for the first time this spring by Professor Layzer and

HCED Professor Xav Briggs, the course mixed the collaborative

and creative qualities of a graduate seminar with the hands-on,

substantive experience of practicum. Nearly twenty Masters

students spent the semester in five groups, concentrated on

a specific sector: buildings and energy, food, transportation,

waste, and water. Each team had a designated ‘equity’

member to ensure that equity concerns were integrated into

the visioning process.

The final projects and recommendations include a compost

program for Boston residents, a suite of projects to encourage

local food consumption and availability, a plan for energy

efficient retrofits in foreclosed homes, a website and information

video advocating the potential benefits of work-bike transport

on campuses (http://web.mit.edu/dusp/green/work-bike/

Home.html), and a plan to convert targeted impervious

areas of Boston to greenspace to improve water quality and

groundwater recharge and simultaneously kickstart a green

jobs program for low income residents. Students presented

their projects at two charrettes, one with twenty Boston and

Massachusettes based experts, the other (held on May 13th)

with a packed room of MIT students and faculty. all work from

the semester will be available online by this summer and will

serve as a resource base for future classes to enhance and

build upon. For more information, contact Professor Judith

layzer: [email protected]

Urban Sustainablility continued from page...1

above: Work-bikes like this one made by the New amsterdam Project are capable of carrying hundreds of pounds of cargo and could be used to transport cargo on college campuses


To build the tool, students interviewed fifty public officials

and agency representatives. This included the Deputy Mayor

and individuals at all levels of agencies, including water

and sanitation, coastal management, health, agriculture,

solid waste, housing, emergency management, economic

development, and, of course, planning. They also visited a

variety of field sites from community gardens, to reservoirs and

water pumping stations to former townships so that they could

experience professional challenges and learn about innovations

taking place throughout the municipality firsthand.

The practicum client was Dr. Debra Roberts, Head of the

Environmental Management Department in eThekwini

Municipality. The students created a preliminary framework for

the online tool and drafted an accompanying manual. They also

wrote a report summarizing their findings about how climate

adaptation could be mainstreamed in the municipality. The

tool, manual, and report were presented to Dr. Roberts and

members of her staff. The expectation is that the course will be

offered again so that students can further develop the web tool

while learning about planning for climate change. In addition

to returning to South africa, the vision is that the practicum

will be held in different countries so that the tool ultimately

can be a resource for municipalities around the world that are

seeking to proactively engage in climate adaptation activities.

Isabelle Anguelovski, a second

year EPP doctoral student, was

selected as a 2008-2009 member of

the Martin Family Society of Fellows

for Sustainability. The Society

supports and connects MIT’s top

graduate students in environmental

studies and fosters opportunities for

multi-disciplinary cooperation.

Marisa Arpels received Honorable Mention for Outstanding

MCP Thesis.

JoAnn Carmin was awarded a Contemplative Practice

Fellowship from the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

- for the Urban Climate vulnerability, adaptation, and Justice

Practicum she will offer in spring 2009. Students enrolled in

this course will develop tools to assist planners and public

officials prepare their cities for the impacts of global climate

change.

Ronilda Co received the William Emerson Travel award.

Madhu Dutta-Koehler, a doctoral student in DUSP and an

EPP affiliate, also received an Emerson Travel Grant for her

first year doctoral paper research which looks at managing

urban growth and energy demand in India.

Rachel Healy, a third year EPP doctoral student, was awarded

a Summer Study Grant from the Center for International

Studies at MIT. She will use the grant to work on her dissertation

research which looks at the presence of environmental

sustainability mandates in international development agencies

and the ways these mandates are being integrated into agency

programs and practices.

Kristina Katich, a first year EPP MCP student, received an

Emerson Travel Grant to support her thesis research on the

interactions between poverty and the environment in the

Dominican Republic.

Judy Layzer received the Excellence in advising. This award

is given to a faculty member who the students consider to be

an exemplary advisor.

Molly Mowery received the Mary Fran Myers Scholarship

award.

Julianne Siegel was award the Environmental Planning

Certificate.

Beth Williams was award the O. Robert Simha Prize.

awards and Recognition Urban Climate adaptation in South africa

continued from page...1

Top: Tijs van Maasakkers working with water inspectors in South africa. Bottom: Todd Schenk and Nathan Lemphers meeting with South African park officials.

�Fall 2007

EPP Post-Doctoral Fellow Studies International Mountain Policy and Politics

Mountains have been envisioned in a

number of ways. They are depicted

as places of recreation, locations for

human residence, and a storehouse of

biological and cultural diversity. However, mountains rarely are

the object of specific policy. EPP post-doctoral fellow, Gilles

Rudaz, believes that this needs to change. Rather than treating

these places in an undifferentiated manner, and allowing their

water, timber, and mineral resources to be exploited mainly for

the benefits of lowlands, Rudaz works to advance policies that

will promote the protection of mountain areas and mountain

people.

Rudaz acknowledges that some progress has been made

regarding the recognition of mountain specificity being placed

on political agendas. For instance, at the national level, some

countries, such as Kyrgyzstan (2002) and algeria (2004), have

recently created mountain laws. In the cross border arena,

the alpine Convention has inspired initiatives throughout the

world, including in the Carpathians, Balkans, and Caucasus.

Internationally, a specific chapter is devoted to mountains in

agenda 21 and the year 2002 was proclaimed International

year of Mountains.

Despite the gains that have been made, Rudaz suggests that

mountain policy still remain low on political agendas and there

is a struggle to find a balanced path between environmental

protection and socio-economic development. These two highly

competing policy orientations often lead to clashes among

stakeholders. Through power strategies, these groups try to

impose their visions, rooted in their perceptions of these places,

on the modes of management that they want to see followed.

The result is that a tension often emerges between nature

and environmental preservation and the self-determination of

communities. Indeed, in many cases, mountains communities

are excluded from the planning and decision making processes

that affect their existence.

Rudaz received the prestigious fellowship for advanced

researcher from the Swiss National Science Foundation so

that he could spend two years in residence in EPP under the

mentorship of Professor Joann Carmin, pursuing his research

on mountain policy. Over the past year, he has been studying

the identities of mountain

peoples, the ways that

different interpretations

are shaping perceptions

and tensions emerging

among different stakeholder

groups, and the potential

for achieving a more robust

mountain policy. He gave

a talk on transnational

mountain women’s networks

at the University of Geneva

(Switzerland) and one on

mountains of Europe at

the annual Meeting of the

association of american

Geographers. He also

participated in the General assembly of Euromontana-

the European association for Mountain Regions, held in

Romania. His reflections led to two papers, both of which are

forthcoming, one book chapter on mountain communities in

Denis Cosgrove & veronica della Dora’s book High Places:

Cultural Geographies of Mountains and Ice and one

article co-authored with Professor Bernard Debarbieux on

transnational partnerships between mountain communities

in Cultural Geographies. Rudaz is currently completing an

article on transnational mountain women networks and one

on mountains as a global issue. In the upcoming year, he will

continue with his current research, while writing scholarly

papers and giving talks.

Gilles Rudaz

PhD, MS

Postdoctoral scholar

High mountain pasture chalets and ski lift near Grosse Scheidegg, Bernese alps, Switzerland.


EPP Thesis Summaries

Using Climate Policies and Carbon Markets to Save Tropical Forests: The Case of Costa Rica

by Marisa Arpels

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, advocates for forest conservation thought that climate change could provide a lever to motivate developing countries to reduce deforestation.

Fifteen years after the first climate change convention, however, global emissions from deforestation have increased. This thesis uses Costa Rica as a case study to examine how the international climate policies and markets have attempted to address greenhouse gas emissions from tropical deforestation. I argue that, to date, international climate regime has failed to provide effective incentives to Costa Rica to finance its forestry reforms because of political decisions that favor forest protection in developed over developing countries. To be effective, the international climate regime needs to generate a substantial financial investment for avoided deforestation in developing countries and to develop flexible policies that build capacity, promote sustainable forestry practices, and reward early reformers.

Simulating some of the travel impacts of transit station parking

Jess Burgess

This thesis looks into the travel impacts of parking services at commuter rail stations in the Boston region. Beginning with the premise that station parking is neither a one-size-fits-all solution, nor a policy failure, but rather a land-use/policy option that in under certain policy and development conditions may produce a very favorable set of benefits, for local communities and the larger region. The project aims to identify the conditions under which transit station parking is most able to deliver benefits, and where other land-use alternatives are better suited to local and regional goals.

Free, Prior and Informend Consent: (FPIC): Does it give indigenous peoples more control over the development of their lands in the Philippines?

Roni Co

The 1998 Indigenous Peoples Rights act (IPRa) grants indigenous peoples (IPs) in the Philippines the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) with regard to development projects undertaken on their ancestral lands. My thesis explores whether the current practice of generating such consent guarantees indigenous peoples the control over development, particularly in relation to mining, that such procedures were designed to ensure. Two case studies involving the Mamanwa and the Manobo tribes in Region XIII of Mindanao suggest that the government agencies involved failed to follow the rules set out in the officially approved guidelines that govern the conduct of the FPIC process. The 1998 Indigenous Peoples Rights act (IPRa) grants indigenous peoples (IPs) in the Philippines the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) with regard to development projects undertaken on

their ancestral lands. My thesis explores whether the current practice of generating such consent guarantees indigenous peoples the control over development, particularly in relation to mining, that such procedures were designed to ensure. Two case studies involving the Mamanwa and the Manobo tribes in Region XIII of Mindanao suggest that the government agencies involved failed to follow the rules set out in the officially approved guidelines that govern the conduct of the FPIC process.

How Green Was My Electricity? Designing Incentives to Co-optimize Waste Management and Energy Development in New England

by Walker Larsen

Waste management is a complex issue, often out of sight and mind, but with the potential for significant negative environmental, social, and economic impacts. Electricity resource planning is equally complex and can potentially lead to equally negative consequences when done poorly. This is especially so within New England, the geographic boundary of this thesis due to significant physical constraints on land and electricity resources. Historically these two processes have been dealt with nationally as very separate issues. However, there has been recent acknowledgement within both public and private camps regarding the potential overlaps of waste management and energy development, which includes electricity resource planning. This thesis has endeavored to analyze the current state of waste management and energy development policy to further expose the potential benefits of increased coordination. With this accomplished, the thesis further provides policy recommendations designed to co-optimize waste management and energy development to decrease dependence on landfill disposal and increase the installed capacity of non-fossil fuel-based electricity resources in New England. The author believes substantial environmental, economic, and social benefits can be gained through increased waste management and energy development coordination, and that this thesis will move decision-makers and citizens alike to take action.

Environmental Restoration in the Atchafalaya Basin: Boundaries and Interventions.

Tijs van Maasakkers

The atchafalaya River is a 135-mile long river in louisiana. This makes it the largest distributary of the Mississippi. In this thesis, I will review the ways in which the atchafalaya Basin is described as a complex system by the two agencies that are responsible for its management, the US army Corps of Engineers and the louisiana Department of Natural Resources. Different stakeholders understand and construct the Basin in a variety of ways. My question is how the different views of the Basin impact the environmental restoration and management of the Basin. I answer this question by describing how the agencies transform elements of the Basin into maps, plans and management activities by using science, aerial photography, and long-time residents of the Basin. I will argue that a central aspect of successful environmental restoration is that communication among different stakeholders must create a shared discourse to frame the main issues in the Basin. In the atchafalaya Basin, this means that environmental restoration cannot be successful without some level of consensus among the stakeholders about what the atchafalaya Basin is, how it has developed and which environmental qualities are present in the Basin today and which ones need to be restored.

Chad

Gallo

way

�Fall 2007

THE ROAD STILL NOT TAKEN: Distributed generation in Massachusetts

Luis Montoya

In order to address rising energy costs and global climate change, Massachusetts has adopted greenhouse gas reduction goals and implemented programs and policies to promote the clean and efficient use of energy. Despite these efforts, however, the rate of development of distributed generation (DG) in the state pales in comparison to that of traditional centralized generation facilitates. This thesis argues that absent targeted policy interventions to change the incentive structure of electricity generation and consumption, DG cannot fulfill its potential as a significant means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts. Case studies of DG projects in Massachusetts are used to illustrate the variety of barriers facing potential DG customers in the state and how public policy interventions can address those barriers.

FLAMES IN THE WUI: How the Colorado Front Range is Managing Its Wildfire Risk in the Wildland-Urban InterfaceMolly Mowery

Exploding growth along the Colorado Front Range has expanded the wildland-urban interface¾the area

where homes and vegetation mix. This area, known as the WUI, is also at high risk to wildfires. Wildfire risk is based on both natural conditions, such as invasive species and climate change, and human development decisions that allow continued growth in fire-prone areas. Six counties along the Front Range are reviewed for their current approaches to wildfire mitigation---how they can reduce the impacts of wildfire throughout their communities. These mitigation approaches are effective but do not tackle important aspects of the wildfire problem, including who pays and how risks continue to increase. These issues raise significant questions about the continued WUI growth, and call for stronger policies that incorporate the full costs of protection into local jurisdictional budgets and address growth management in the WUI.

Nuisance Wildlife In Conflict

Julianne Siegel

Is there a connection between how a community selects a nuisance wildlife management tactic and the tactic that that community selects? In this thesis I examine the link

between the public process and wildlife management by looking at Canada geese in Massachusetts cities and towns. Through reflection on existing policy, management techniques and critical stakeholders, I explore the value of humane management and the changing relationship between humans and our wild neighbors.

Sustainable Urban Development at the Project Level: Evaluation methods applied to the case of Willets Point, Queens

by Siobhan Watson

Citywide sustainability planning creates a vision of how environmental concerns will shape development, but the way these plans are incorporated into individual development projects may say a great deal about how that vision will be achieved in practice. I propose a system for evaluating the extent to which individual urban development projects contribute to sustainability and use it to evaluate the proposed redevelopment of Willets Point, Queens.

Mending Split Incentives: Overcoming Barriers to Energy Efficiency for Rental Housing

Beth Williams

Energy efficiency is widely recognized as one of the best strategies we have for combating climate change and other energy-related problems. Energy efficiency implementation has been slow, however, due to a number of practical barriers. Few building sectors

face higher hurdles to energy efficiency than rental housing: the split incentive problem, which reduces incentives for energy efficiency when the renter pays the energy bills but the landlord bears the cost of installing the measures, has made efficiency implementation for rental housing exceedingly difficult. In this thesis I ask: aside from the split incentive problem, what are the major barriers to investment in energy efficiency for rental housing? How well do existing policies and programs address these barriers? And finally, what strategies should we begin to implement now to facilitate rental housing efficiency in the future? I describe a handful of barriers, from split incentives to transaction costs, that limit energy efficiency for rental housing. Some of these barriers are specific to the sector, while others are more general but have a major impact. Existing policies and efficiency programs do not adequately address most of these barriers. While there is no silver bullet solution to energy efficiency for rental housing, I identify policy options that can be implemented at the federal, state, and local levels, several of which address multiple barriers. Policy packages must be tailored to the conditions of local rental housing markets, and local energy initiatives hold great promise as part of the solution.

Coordinated Offshore Wind Networks

by Mimi Zhang

The fluctuation and unpredictability of wind speeds makes wind energy a difficult and costly resource to integrate with the electricity grid. Wind patterns vary by geographic location, and wind power output fluctuation could be significantly decreased by siting and interconnecting multiple wind farms in areas with complementing wind resources. This thesis explores the feasibility of creating such a network for the East Coast of the United States. Is the required technology available? Is this idea cost effective, and if not, what needs to happen to make it cost effective? and of course, creating a truly effective network would require coordination of many fronts. Sites must be identified and approved with respect to wind patterns of other sites and transmission infrastructure must be expanded. What needs to happen in the policy and planning area in order to facilitate such development? This thesis is still very much a work in progress.

lou a

ngeli

Dave Test


USGS Global Change Program Funds MUSIC Internships

USGS has committed to fund the MUSIC internship program

for the next several years. This included $100,000 to DUSP

this spring so that we could make internship offers to four

incoming MCP students. Funding from the USGS Global Change

Program will enable MUSIC to support eight MCP students

each year. In conjunction with USGS scientists, MIT faculty,

and practitioners, interns will develop and test a variety of

stakeholder engagement processes that we hope will result in

on-the-ground changes in practice. This work should produce

a series of working papers advancing best practice as well as

journal articles advancing theory.

Future Projects Focus on Climate Change and Ecosystem

Services

MUSIC hosted the first meeting of the Global Climate Change

Collaborative (G3C) March 4, 5, and 6 at MIT. Conference

attendees came from the U.S., Great Britain, Sweden, Israel,

Palestinian Occupied Territories, australian, the Netherlands,

and India.

Kirk Emerson, Director, U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict

Resolution, and Patrick Field, Managing Director, Consensus

Building Institute, facilitated the conference.

Participants decided upon a set of inaugural projects.

Students in 11.375, “Workshop on Collaborative adaptive

Management—Planning for the Impacts of Climate Change,”

are helping to design the research template for three of these

projects which are focused on adaptation aimed at protecting

coastal and marine systems. These are: 1) Sundarbans—

Building adaptive approaches to Sustaining livelihoods and

the Mangrove Ecosystem with the anudip Foundation, India

and UNESCO, 2) Building adaptive Capacity in Nearshore

Ecosystems in Maine, with Environmental Policy Design and

Quebec-labrador Foundation, and 3) Climate Change Impacts

on Pacific Marine Systems with the University of British

Columbia and the antarctic Climate and Ecosystem Cooperative

Research Centre, Tasmania.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological

Survey are supporting a MUSIC doctoral researcher for four

years to investigate the impacts of climate change on the the

Everglades. This research will mesh with ongoing research in the

atchafalaya Basin and lower Mississippi valley in cooperation

with the USGS National Wetlands Researcher Center.

MUSIC Update

Maine: Nearshore Ecosystems—Reforming Management by

Integrating local Knowledge and Science

Two MUSIC interns are documenting lessons learned from

four small community-based management organizations (in

Maine and New Brunswick) who have successfully engaged

local resource users in their environmental management

initiatives. The project will expand to develop adaptive

strategies for planners and natural resource managers to

prepare for the impacts of climate change.

Connecticut River valley: The U.S. army Corps of Engineers

and The Nature Conservancy

The US army Corps of Engineers is working with the Nature

Conservancy to address the operations and management

practices of certain dams to ensure more natural river flow-

regimes. MUSIC interns are now working on a comparison of

public participation strategies used by the army Corps and TNC.

The end-goal is to help design a joint planning process that will

allow the Corps and TNC to collaborate more effectively.

Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative (CSI) in the Western United

States

The purpose of CSI is to restore and preserve the sagebrush

ecosystem over eleven states at the same time allowing for

development of oil and gas resources in the area. MUSIC is

working with CSI partners that include Environmental Defense,

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey,

private landowners, Encana USa and several other energy

companies to design a conservation credit trading system.

Ongoing MUSIC Projects

On april 15, MUSIC hosted a workshop, “Developing a vision:

Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Decision Making,” at

MIT concurrent with the association of american Geographers

Annual Meeting. This is the first of three national workshops

organized by the USGS on different aspects of ecosystem

services. The workshop focused on developing a vision for a

world in which ecosystem service information is used routinely

and effectively in conservation, resource management, and

development decisions.

�Fall 2007

Collaborative Modeling of Social and Biophysical Systems

Beaudry Kock, a DUSP doctoral student serving as assistant

Director of MUSIC and an intern at the Bureau of Reclamation,

is helping to design an integrated modeling approach to water

management in the arkansas basin of Colorado. He’s pursuing

an approach, which emphasizes collaboration with and among

local and regional stakeholders to develop a more scientifically

and socially credible computer modeling tool.

In conjunction with the Tufts Department of Civil and

Environmental Engineering, MUSIC doctoral researchers and

faculty are preparing a proposal to support the creation of

a systems dynamics Collaboration Software Platform, which

will enable resource management agencies to formulate

collaborative planning processes that balance science and

politics in site-specific resource management efforts.

Washington State: The Bureau of Relcamation’s Odessa

Subarea Special Study

The study is exploring alternatives to groundwater-use for

a range of agricultural, residential, and commercial uses in

Eastern Washington. In general, we are trying to help the study

manager figure out the most productive ways of involving

stakeholders, particularly when, where and how to organize

public meetings.

louisiana: USGS and the Management of the atchafalaya

Basin

In collaboration with the USGS National Wetlands Research

Center, MUSIC interns have prepared and presented an

analysis of how various kinds of scientific information have

been used in preparing plans for the atchafalaya Basin, the

largest contiguous cypress-swamp in the United States. MUSIC

interns are working with the agencies and scientists to generate

a more effective joint fact-finding and public engagement

strategy that can increase the value of the research that is

done.

Massachusetts: Permitting Process for Offshore Wind Farms

Two MUSIC interns have been working to document the

changing regulatory framework for the siting of off shore wind

farms in the United States as a result of the 2005 National

Energy Policy act. a European Wind Energy Company called

Blue H Group is providing funds for this activity.

New Sa+P Faculty

Two new faculty joining the School of architecture and Planning

will contribute to the range of courses being offered that will

be of interest to EPP students. We are pleased to welcome

Professor alan Berger and Professor Wescoat to DUSP.

alan Berger’s main area of interest focuses on landscape and urbanization. From abandoned mine pits, mountains of slag and pools of cyanide, to vacant land, landfills, military installations, infrastructure networks, and places associated with low- density urbanization, Berger’s research

and practice discovers new ways to see, measure, and act on highly disturbed sites and landscape systems earmarked for adaptive reuse by society. His work emphasizes the link between our consumption of natural resources, and the waste and destruction of landscape at regional and local scales. alan’s recent publications include: Designing the Reclaimed Landscape, January 1, 2008, london: Taylor & Francis; Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America, Princeton architectural Press, april 2006; Nansha Coastal City: Landscape and Urbanism in the Pearl River Delta alan Berger and Margaret Crawford, eds., Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2006; Reclaiming the American West, 2002, Princeton architectural Press.

James l. Wescoat, Jr. earned his Bachelor of landscape architecture degree from louisiana State University and practiced landscape architecture in the U.S. and Middle East before returning to graduate study in geography at the University of Chicago with an emphasis on water resources. He has

taught courses on landscape research, geographic theory, and water policy at the University of Chicago, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

His research has concentrated on water systems in South asia and the US from the site to river basin scales. For the greater part of his career, Professor Wescoat has focused on small-scale historical waterworks of Mughal gardens and cities in India and Pakistan. He led the Smithsonian Institution’s project titled, “Garden, City, and Empire: The Historical Geography of Mughal Lahore,” which won awards from the Government of Pakistan, the Punjab Government, and the american Society of landscape architects. More recently, he has organized a garden and waterworks conservation workshop at the Nagaur palace-garden complex in Rajasthan for the Mehrangarh Museum Trust; and a workshop on the “Three Shalamar Baghs of Delhi, Lahore, and Srinagar” with colleagues from those cities.

at the larger scale, Professor Wescoat has conducted water policy research in the Colorado, Indus, Ganges, and Great lakes basins, including the history and comparative study of multilateral water agreements. He led an NSF-funded project on “Water and Poverty in Colorado,” and in 2003, published Water for Life: Water Management and Environmental Policy with geographer Gilbert F. White (Cambridge University Press).


EP Certificate ProgramEPP Group Faculty and Affiliated Faculty

For students in the Department of Urban Studies and

Planning, EPP offers a certificate in Environmental

Planning. The number of students that can enroll is limited,

but there are slots open. If you are interested in applying

for the Certificate Program contact EPP at (epprequest@

mit.edu).

EPP Group Faculty

lawrence Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, Head of EPP and Co-Director of the MIT-USGS Science Impact Collaborative (MUSIC)

Joann Carmin, Spaulding Career Development associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning

Judith layzer, linde Career Development associate Professor of Environmental Policy

Charles Curtin, lecturer in landscape analysis

David Fairman, lecturer in Sustainable Development

Herman Karl, lecture in Natural Resource Management, Co-

Director of MUSIC

Harvey Michaels, Lecturer in Energy Efficiency

Dave Mattson, lecturer in Environmental leadership

Jonathan Raab, lecturer in Energy Policy

Affiliated Faculty from DUSP and other departments

within MIT

Nicholas ashford, Professor of Technology and Director of the

Technology and law Program

Eran Ben Joseph, associate Professor of Urban Design and

landscape architecture

alan Berger, associate Professor of Urban Design and

landscape architecture

Michael Flaxman, assistant Professor of Urban Technologies

and Information Systems

Kenneth Oye, associate Professor of Political Science

anne Spirn, Professor of landscape architecture and Regional

Planning

James Wescoat, aga Kahn Professor of architecture

Chris Zegras, Ford Career Development assistant Professor of

Transportation and Urban Planning

EPP Group

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

77 Massachusetts ave, 9-312

Cambridge, Ma 02139

email: [email protected]

website: http://web.mit.edu/dusp/epp/

phone: 617.253.1509

fax: 617.253.7402

Documents

newsletter_spring_2008