Center for Sustainable Cities

Water Scarcity in Southern California

The final report of a 2-year in-depth study of several water districts in Southern California is available. The research, funded by the Haynes Foundation and led by Prof. Hilda Blanco, Interim Director of the Center for Sustainable Cities, details the conservation and new water supply projects of the districts and identifies challenges and prospects under climate change. Report can be viewed here.

Earth Day Celebration

A forum on California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard progress and challenges. A public discussion of administrators, industry experts and USC professors to explore progress and challenges in meeting California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard. Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 Vineyard Room - Davidson Center Reception to immediately follow RSVP: www.usc.edu/esvp (code: renewable)

CSC Annual Forum on Climate Change

USC Center for Sustainable Cities at its annual Forum of Climate Change on November 10th 2011 in the Vineyard Room at the Davidson Center, from 3 to 5 p.m.. Mary Nichols, Chairman of the California Air Resources Board, will talk about the role of cities in mitigating climate change, USC faculty and the public will discuss, and prof. Hilda Blanco will present current and future activities of the Center. A reception will follow. Flyer RSVP at www.usc.edu/esvp (code: climate)

Urban Growth Seminar Series: The Future of Sustainable Cities: Planning, Policy, and Technology.

Please join us this Tuesday for the third lecture of the Urban Growth Seminar Series: "The Future of Sustainable Cities: Planning, Policy, and Technology." Tuesday, October 11th ~ RGL 101 ~ 12:15 to 1:30pm Speaker: Dimitris Klapsis, Principal of STUDIOdnk Lecture Topic: LEED for Neighborhood Development - Smart Growth & New Urbanism About the lecture: This seminar is an introduction to the LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System which will explore the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building Please see the attached flyer for more information

The Future of Sustainable Cities: Planning, Policy, and Technology

Tuesday, September 27, RGL 101, 12:15 to 1:30pm Speaker: Monica Gilchrist, Interim California Director, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, Los Angeles (www.icleiusa.org) Lecture Topic: Local Governments and Climate Change: How Cities and Counties are Preparing This session will provide an overview of how local governments are preparing for the future including a review of greenhouse gas emissions inventories, Climate Action Plans, Adaptation Planning and the connection to policy in California. No RSVP needed. Flyer

Urban Adaptation to Climate Change Collaborative

September 30th 12 to 1:30 pm RGL 308 Larry Prior will talk about "Communicating Climate Change" and Hilda Blanco will talk about "The role of Urban Land in Climate Change". Lunch will be provided for those who RSVP to cfsc@usc.edu

Climate Change in the Southern California Bight: Integrating Science and Societal Implications

Wednesday, Oct. 19th 9am - 4pm Davidson Conference Center For more information, please visit: https://dornsifecms.usc.edu/socal-climate-change/ Or contact: Dr. David Hutchins (dahutch@usc.edu) Flyer

Center for Sustainable Cities Summer Fellows' Research Showcase

The fellows will address research on cost-efficiency of water conservation measures, green retrofitting for multi-family housing, California's Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008, and climate change adaptation planning in the U.S. Friday, September 16 at RGL 308 from 12pm to 1:30pm. No RSVP required Flyer

Center for Sustainable Cities Earth Day Forum

The Forum will feature SPPD's environmental faculty on what they see as progress and challenges for policy and planning. Join Profs. Blanco, Mazmanian, Rose, Schweitzer, and Tang for a stimulating discussion. Thursday 21 April 2011, 10:00am-12:00pm, RGL 219

Planning for Resilience through Scenario Planning

A CSC presentation by Prof. Marina Alberti, CSC Visiting Professor. Co-sponsored by the Urban Adaptation to Climate Change Collaborative. March 7, 12-1:30 pm, RGL 308. RSVP: cfsc@usc.edu

Sustainability, Retrofitting, Economic Stimulus and CEQA

A talk by Dr. Cary D. Lowe, Tuesday, March 1, 12:15-1:30 in RGL 101
. Co-sponsored by CSC and Urban Growth Seminar, SPPD.

News

Hilda Blanco has been selected as a Lead Author to prepare the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). Over 800 scientists have been selected to prepare the 2014 global assessment. Hilda Blanco is one of only 3 U.S. urban planning academics to be selected for this global assessment. Dan Wei was appointed a Research Assistant Professor at the School of Policy, Planning and Development (SPPD) in August, 2010 affiliated with the Center for Sustainable Cities. She was previously a Postdoctoral Research Associate at SPPD working with Prof. Adam Rose. Her research focuses on analyses of state/regional climate action plans, modeling of economic impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policies, design of market-based GHG mitigation policy instruments, and other technical issues related to policy assessment of GHG control strategies. She has participated in the analysis of cap and trade and/or carbon tax policies for several regions, and applied the REMI Policy Insight Model to analyze the macroeconomic impacts of climate action plans for several states. She is currently participating in a U.S.-China cooperative project to facilitate capacity building of low-carbon development planning in Guangdong Province, China. Marina Alberti, Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington is a Visiting Professor at the Center for Sustainable Cities Winter 2011. She is collaborating with Prof. Blanco on a Haynes Foundation funded study on water scarcity in Southern California. Prof. Alberti directs the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Urban Designand Planning and the Urban Ecology Research Laboratory at UW. She teaches courses in Urban Ecology,Environmental Planning, Geographic Information Systems, and Group Dynamic and Conflict resolution. She also teaches an Advanced Course in Research Design. Her research interests are in the impacts of alternative urban development patterns on ecosystem dynamics. She is the Principal Investigator on a number of grant-funded research projects including an NSF Biocomplexity Grant project aiming to study the emergent properties of urban landscapes in Seattle, WA and Phoenix, AZ. Her research also focuses on measures of urban environmental performance that can be used to monitor progress and inform policy-making and scenario planning. She is especially interested in advanced interdisciplinary approaches to urban ecological problems. Her most recent book entitled Advances in Urban ecology (Springer 2008) synthesizes the state of knowledge on the complex interactions between of urbanization and ecological function and articulate the challenges for scholars of urban ecosystems. CSC participated in the Australian Consulate’s Sustainable Cities Conference held in Los Angeles on January 19, 2011. The conference brought together Australian and U.S. academics, business leaders and government officials to address successful strategies as well as challenges in developing more sustainable cities. Genevieve Giuliano moderated the Panel on Mass Transit and Long Range Planning, and Mark Bernstein moderated the Panel on From Smart Grids to Smart Fuels and Clean Air. Hilda Blanco participated in a jury of environmental projects at a Fulbright event held in Los Angeles on February 6th, 2011. The Fulbright Enrichment Seminar on “Greening the Planet: Global Challenges, Local Solutions,” brought together 140 Fulbright students from over 80 countries and 10 recently returned U.S. Fulbright alumni. Genevieve Giuliano presented a paper on Balancing Freight Movement Needs in Livable Urban Areas at the annual Transportation Research Board Conference held on January 24th, 2011. Hilda Blanco presented a paper at the International Conference on Managing the Urban Rural Interface held at the University of Copenhagen on “Towards a Sustainable Urban Form Theory” on October 20, 2010. She was part of the scientific committee organizing the Conference and responsible for the conference track on Growth management, governance systems, locally adapted strategies Hilda Blanco participated in two panel discussions at the International Conference on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change held in Tempe, Arizona, October 15-16, 2010. The first panel was on the “Urban Climate Change Research Network, First Assessment Report on Climate Change in Cities (ARC3): Research Inventory, Opportunity for Engagement, and the Science-Policy Linkage”. The panel was focused on the forthcoming publication of the first assessment report of this research network, in which she has been active. She is the lead author of the chapter on the role of urban land in climate change. At the second panel, “Higher Education as a Catalyst for Urban Sustainability”, she reported on the work of CSC. Hilda Blanco and Newell presented their proposal for joint research at a Workshop on Comparative Urban-Scale Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Beijing and Los Angeles hosted by Prof. Gu, Chaolin and held at Tsinghua University, Beijing held on Sept. 21, 2010. Prof. Gu and several other faculty at Tsinghua presented papers at the workshop. Hilda Blanco presented a paper on “The Role of Urban Planning in Creating Low-Carbon Cities” on Sept. 17, 2011 at the Urban Development Forum 2010 held in Zhengzhou, China and jointly hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Zhengzhou’s Municipal People’s Government.

Urban Patterns and Carbon Dynamics: Emerging Hypotheses and Research Strategies

A talk by Prof. Marina Alberti, CSC Visiting Professor, co-sponsored by CSC, Feb. 8, 2011.

CSC’s Cities and Climate Change Forum

CSC held a Public Forum on December 13, 2010 focused on the report of the Advisory Panel of the State of California on Climate Change Adaptation, “California’s Strategy to Prepare for the Unavoidable Effects of Climate Change”

A Comparative Analysis of Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Coated Paper Production: Key Differences Between China and the U.S.

A new CSC publication by Robert O. Vos and Joshua Newell. August 2009.

Transforming L.A.'s Alleys — What, Why, and How: A Green Alley Guide

A new CSC publication by Arly Cassidy, Ross Stephenson, and Kathryn Tung. June 2009.

CSC's Cities and Climate Change

A Solutions Oriented Conference and 2nd Annual Sustainability Champion Award Recipient, Van Jones, were highlighted on the USC College News web site.

Illegal Logging Threatens Russia's Last Great Wilderness

Center for Sustainable Cities' researcher Josh Newell, was cited in a recent Earth Island Journal report on illegal logging in Russia.