Resilient Futures Podcast

Dr. Christina H. Fuller shares her work on environmental health and justice, particularly examining how air quality varies down to a block-level across communities. She provides insights on conducting participatory research within frontline communities and advocating for more inclusive environmental justice research. Dr. Fuller also discusses her diverse work experiences from industry, non-profits, consulting, and academia.

Follow our guest on Twitter: @DrCHFuller

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the NATURA project at natura-net.org.

Dr. Mikhail Chester hosts Dr. Stephanie Pincetl, whose work engages a multitude of disciplines (from engineers to urban planners to economists) to advance urban sustainability science and decision-making for water, energy, transportation, and land use systems. She explores how understanding and synthesizing these diverse systems surrounding our complex urban systems opens opportunities for future alternatives.

This episode is part of a continuing series: Infrastructure and the Anthropocene Forum.

Follow our hosts:
Dr. Mikhail Chester (@mikhailchester)
Dr. Stephanie Pincetl (@SPincetl)

Recommended Readings:
Transforming California: A Political History of Land Use and Development
The Nutmeg's Curse
Envisioning Real Utopias
Designs for the Pluriverse

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the NATURA project at natura-net.org.

The built environment has significantly contributed to climate change, and it is becoming increasingly clear that net-zero carbon emissions is not enough. Phil Horton and Alysha Helmrich discuss the importance of carbon capture and explore how cities may play a role in carbon banking. In this episode, we will discuss the role that buildings and urban infrastructure will play in carbon draw-down and decarbonization through: end-to-end carbon accounting, building material innovations, and emergent alignment and coordination across critical stakeholders and agencies in the future of our urban environments.

Follow the hosts on Twitter:

• Philip Horton (@asudesignschool)
• Alysha Helmrich (@AlyshaHelmrich)

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Additional Resources:

• Build Beyond Zero https://islandpress.org/books/build-beyond-zero
  Carbon Cure https://www.carboncure.com/
  Dr. Klaus Lackner and Mechanical Trees https://mechanicaltrees.com/our-latest-news/arizona-state-university-and-carbon-collect-announce-agreement-to-deploy-worlds-first-commercially-viable-passive-carbon-capture-technology/
  Center for Negative Carbon Emissions https://globalfutures.asu.edu/cnce/
  Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation https://sustainability-innovation.asu.edu/
  Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation https://asu.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/production-of-functionalized-carbon-from-synergistic-hydrothermal
  
  

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the NATURA project at natura-net.org.

Distributive, procedural, recognitional justice are vital for nature-based solutions, but these dimensions of justice have multiple and conflicting meanings. Drs. Katinka Wijsman and Marta Berbés-Blázquez explore how political theory and philosophy help in understanding differences and conflict. They present five key justice questions for researchers and practitioners to reflect with. One major takeaway? Praxis and reflectivity are crucial to balancing the act of practicing justice.

Topic paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.06.018

Hosts & Twitter handles:

• Katinka Wijsman (@KatinkaWijsman)
• Marta Berbés-Blázquez (@MartaBerbes)
• @SGPL_UU and @UniUtrecht
• Alysha Helmrich (@AlyshaHelmrich)

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NATURA RULA-IRES project Opportunity: https://natura-net.org/rula

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the NATURA project at natura-net.org.

Whose voice counts? Whose visualization informs the design of cities? And how do we collaborate in nurturing resilient equitable futures? Join a conversation led by Ananth Udupa between Duván López, Mathieu Feagan, Melissa Moreno, Theresa O’Neil, and Daniela Moreno.

Follow the hosts on Twitter:

@duvanhernan

@MathieuMatt

@ttttheresa

@DanielaGarMo

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the NATURA project at natura-net.org.

This month's episode was initially published in Spanish -- the co-hosts' native language. Today, we are publishing a dubbed English version.

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The episode discusses the NATURA Thematic Working Group  'Urban Informality and Innovation for Resilient Futures,' and the work strategy that has been developed in Bogotá, Colombia, so-called Local Labs, supported by @catunescosost, @ccdUPC, and @Unisalle.

Initially, the differential focus of research on informality is discussed by Duván H. López (@duvanhernan) and Tony Pererina (@peregreenmx), and the relevance of approaching exploratory sites immersed in deep environmental conflicts, and strong social conditions of vulnerability, for Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) scholars and practitioners.

NbS are envisioned as a stepping stone, working in informal cities to introduce the natural assets harmonizing with the urban form, facilitating social inclusion, and triggering adaptive trends. Finally, the voice of communities is amplified. @Tuarraigo calls for the international collaboration and engagement of academics into collaborative networks to encourage knowledge spillover and break the inertias of exclusion, therefore, opening transformative opportunities in marginalized areas.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the NATURA project at natura-net.org.

This month's episode is initially being published in Spanish -- the co-hosts' native language. On September 15th, we will be publishing a dubbed English version.

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The episode discusses the NATURA Thematic Working Group  'Urban Informality and Innovation for Resilient Futures,' and the work strategy that has been developed in Bogotá, Colombia, so-called Local Labs, supported by @catunescosost, @ccdUPC, and @Unisalle.

Initially, the differential focus of research on informality is discussed by Duván H. López (@duvanhernan) and Tony Pererina (@peregreenmx), and the relevance of approaching exploratory sites immersed in deep environmental conflicts, and strong social conditions of vulnerability, for Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) scholars and practitioners.

NbS are envisioned as a stepping stone, working in informal cities to introduce the natural assets harmonizing with the urban form, facilitating social inclusion, and triggering adaptive trends. Finally, the voice of communities is amplified. @Tuarraigo calls for the international collaboration and engagement of academics into collaborative networks to encourage knowledge spillover and break the inertias of exclusion, therefore, opening transformative opportunities in marginalized areas.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the NATURA project at natura-net.org.

This month's episode, Heat Risk, explores the risk of heat exposure in Phoenix, AZ but has relevance across the globe with the current heat waves being experienced. Dr. Alysha Helmrich interviews Dr. Yuliya Dzyuban and Adora Shortridge about their recent studies on heat risk in Phoenix, and she discusses the Phoenix Office of Heat Response and Mitigation with the director, Dr. David Hondula.

Links
Yuliya's Paper: Evidence of alliesthesia during a neighborhood thermal walk in a hot and dry city
Adora's Paper: HeatReady schools: A novel approach to enhance adaptive capacity to heat through school community experiences, risks, and perceptions
HeatReady Schools website

Connect with our guests:
Dr. Yuliya Dzyuban: @DrDzyu
Adora Shortridge: https://www.ascendwithadora.com/
Dr. David Hondula: @ASUHondula
City of Phoenix Office of Heat Response and Mitigation: @HeatReadyPHX

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the NATURA project at natura-net.org.

In this month's episode, Dr. Alysha Helmrich sits down with Marissa Webber, a PhD Candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, to discuss her recent publication: A Review of Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty Applications Using Green Infrastructure for Flood Management. We also introduce our new sponsor, NATURA.

Review Paper: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021EF002322
DMDU Book: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-05252-2

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the NATURA project at natura-net.org.

This month’s podcast is brought to you by the children of Cadder Primary School in Glasgow and the Lost Woods Project to tell you all about their work on Every Tree Tells a Story in the run up to COP26 and work to create the Glasgow Children's Woodland.

Please note, this episode is partially recorded outdoors due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Follow the guests on Twitter: @CadderPrimary @The Lost Woods @everytree

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

Green infrastructure features are often celebrated as multifunctional solutions in cities, with an array of benefits that they could provide. However, the implementation of green infrastructure can also cause disservices, including gentrification when green infrastructure features are implemented without a plan for how those features will interact with existing systemic issues. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Fushcia-Ann Hoover about her research on environmental justice issues surrounding green infrastructure. She tells us about her path towards interdisciplinary research, recommendations for cities to envision more equitable green infrastructure implementation, and her business, where she helps researchers and planners alike to center environmental justice in their work and to see the connections between people and the environment.

Follow Dr. Fushcia-Ann Hoover on social media!

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EcoGreenQueen
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecogreenqueen/

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

Dr. Sybil Derrible (@SybilDerrible) is the creator of the Actionable Science for Urban Sustainability (AScUS) society, and former chair of the International Society of Industrial Ecology's Sustainable Urban Systems section. He is an Associate Professor of Civil, Materials, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. His work embraces the growing complexity of cities, exploring our changing relationships with the built environment, natural environment, and cyber technologies, through innovative techniques that reveal the changing networks and behaviors that define urban dynamics. He is interviewed in today's podcast by Dr. Mikhail Chester (@mikhailchester), a professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University.

Infrastructure Misfits (un)Society:
http://www.infrastructurecomplexity.org/

Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering | Arizona State University: https://metis.asu.edu/

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

Discussions about infrastructure are often centered on the opinions and prevailing ideas within engineering, but other disciplines have valuable insights on what infrastructure is and what it can be. In this first installment of the 2021 Infrastructure and the Anthropocene series, Professor Mikhail Chester of Arizona State University (ASU) interviews his ASU colleague, Professor Chuck Redman, who looks at infrastructure from a more anthropological and social sciences perspective. Topics discussed include whether to think of infrastructure as permanent or impermanent, the ways existing infrastructure shapes future path dependencies, and inserting values into the pursuit of resilience.

Infrastructure Misfits (un)Society:
http://www.infrastructurecomplexity.org/

Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering | Arizona State University: https://metis.asu.edu/

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

In this month's episode, we talk with Nkosi Muse (@weatherkos), a scientific advisor on climate change adaptation to the city of Miami and Ph. D. student at the University of Miami, about climate change and gentrification processes in Miami. We delve into the phenomenon of "climate gentrification," a form of gentrification that proceeds by the wealthy buying properties in marginalized communities in Miami because of their higher elevation and longer-term resilience to climate change. We also touch on another form of gentrification, "downward raiding," identified elsewhere in the world that probably also exists in the US. Finally, as potential inspiration to other academics working in urban resilience, we talk about how Nkosi obtained his dual-status as academic researcher and scientific advisor.


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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

This week we bring you another podcast from the city of Glasgow focusing on the Hidden Environmental Histories of the River Clyde. At the height of the British Empire, Glasgow was the hub of the Scottish and European Enlightenment with a vast manufacturing and ship building industry which profoundly shaped the river and the surrounding communities. We're joined by Ria Dunkley, University of Glasgow and Gillian Dick, Glasgow City Council to tell us all about a new partnership that has been set up between artists, academics, local government, museums and community groups to explore and expose how the rise of empire and industrialisation shaped the River Clyde and its surrounding urban and natural environment. Singer song writer, Ainsley Hamill and poet, Eilidh Northridge also perform artistic contributions that were inspired by the project. 

Keep up with the people and projects highlighted in this episode on Twitter:

• The Hidden Environmental Histories of the River Clyde (@hiddenclyde21)
• Ria Dunkley (@RiaDunkley)
• Gillian Dick (@gilliand)
• Eilidh Northridge (@EilidhNorth)
• Ainsley Hamill (@AinsleyHamill)

You can learn more about Ainsley Hamill at her website (www.ainsleyhamill.com), and buy a physical CD with notes and lyrics at her store.

Her music is available on all streaming platforms, such as Spotify.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

In this episode, a diverse team of graduate students discuss their research on climate gentrification in the Eastern coast of the United States and their personal stories about why they are inspired to study this topic. They share perspectives on the importance of interdisciplinary science in their own professional development and the value of an interdisciplinary approach to tackling wicked problems like climate change gentrification. The team also reflects on the importance of team science with peers in building confidence and establishing an essential network of support as early career researchers.

Learn more about the the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center at sesync.org.

Follow and connect with this month's guests:
Kelsea Best: Twitter, LinkedIn
Azmal Hossan: Twitter, LinkedIn
Sharif Islam: Twitter, LinkedIn
Zeynab Jouzi: Twitter, LinkedIn
Timothy Kirby: Twitter, LinkedIn
Becca Nixon: Twitter
Richard A. Nyiawung: Twitter, LinkedIn


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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

Clair Cooper, PhD Candidate at Durham University, is joined by Gillian Dick, Strategic Planning Manager with Glasgow City Council, and Donagh Horgan from the Institute of Social Innovation at the University of Strathclyde to talk about Every Tree Tells a Story.  Every Tree Tells a Story is an innovative new nature-based solution that aims to help communities reconnect with urban nature, particularly urban trees, and understand what are nature-based solutions by sharing and mapping their favourite stories about trees. Gillian and Donagh talk about their inspiration for the project, how it relates to the concept of nature-based solutions, and explain our deep connection with trees. Gillian and Donagh then talk about why it's so important that we educate people about the role of trees in the fight against climate change and how they plan to help people reconnect with trees through community participation and mapping of stories about our favourite trees.

You can keep up with this exciting project by following @everytree_ and using #EveryTreeTellsAStory on Twitter.

Other Twitter links:
Institute for Future Cities (@iFutureCities)
Glasgow City Council (@GlasgowCC)
Gilian Dick (@gilliannd)
Donagh Horgan (@godonagh)
Clair Cooper (@cooper_clair)


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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

We hear the term used all over the place: in music, on TV, in books– but what IS resilience? In this episode, we discuss resilience from the Social-Ecological-Technological Systems (SETS) perspective. To understand what resilience means from this perspective, we interviewed urban resilience experts from each of these three disciplines. Dr. Nancy Grimm is a professor of ecology in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU) and a co-director of the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN). Dr. Marta Berbes is a professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at ASU, but is transitioning the University of Waterloo where she'll work on their Future Cities Initiative. Dr. Dan Eisenberg is a Research Assistant Professor of Operations Research at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Learn more about and connect with our hosts and guests by checking out these links:

Hosts:
Stephen Elser: Twitter, LinkedIn
Sam Markolf: Twitter, UC-Merced website, Google Scholar

Guests:
Nancy Grimm: Twitter, lab webpage
Marta Berbes: Twitter, Future Cities Initiative
Dan Eisenberg: Personal faculty page, research group page
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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

Green infrastructure (GI) and nature-based solutions (NBS) are relatively new concepts in expert circles, at least by those terms. In this episode, Dr. Elizabeth Cook and Clair Cooper join first-time host Charlyn Green to discuss what green infrastructure and nature-based solutions mean for non-experts. Topics of discussion include examples of GI and NBS at scales ranging from household to city, the benefits of having access to private green space, and factors involved in work to advance the uptake of nature-based solutions in cities.

Here are some links to learn more about projects mentioned during the episode:

NATURA Network of Networks: https://natura-net.org/
Convergence Resilience Research Project | http://convergence.urexsrn.net/ 
Urban Nature Atlas

Follow this month's host and guests on Twitter!

Elizabeth Cook: @e_m_cook
Clair Coope:r @cooper_clair
Charlyn Green: @CharlynEGreen 

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

Description: Alysha Helmrich and Maike Hamann host a discussion on the various perspectives surrounding green infrastructure (GI) with Vinicius Taguchi, Stephen Elser, Clair Cooper, and Zbigniew Grabowski, exploring insights from engineering, public health, ecology, and more!

This podcast was inspired by an UREx SRN early career symposium--Get Ready, Get SETS: GI! (Website pending publication in August 2021.) Below are links to references mentioned throughout the episode.

Selection of Previous Future Cities GI Episodes:

• Wetlands as Green Infrastructure in Valdivia, Chile
• Green Stormwater Management in Three U.S. Cities
• Trees to Help Cities Breathe
• The Many Names of Urban Nature

CREATE Initiative:

Green Gentrification Policy Toolkit

Follow us on Twitter!

@FutureCitiesPod

@stephen_elser 

@MaikeHamann

@cooper_clair  

@zjgrabowski

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

Marissa Matsler and Robert Lloyd explore another dimension of the series title, as they chat with the authors and editors of “Cities of Light” - a new book of science fiction stories focused on solar-powered cities of the future! Guests Joey Eschrich, Clark Miller, Deji Olukotun, and Lauren Withycombe Keeler talk about the creation of the book, the ideas behind it, and how science fiction can help prepare us for the possibilities - and the demands - of future cities.

Get a free digital edition of “Cities of Light”, or order a print edition, here: 

https://csi.asu.edu/books/cities-of-light/

Arizona State University Center for Science and the Imagination (@imaginationASU):
https://csi.asu.edu/

Learn more about this episode's guests and find links to their Twitter accounts below.

Joey Eschrich:
https://csi.asu.edu/people/joey-eschrich/

Clark Miller (@clarkamiller):
https://sustainability-innovation.asu.edu/person/clark-miller/

Deji Olukotun (@olutron):
https://returnofthedeji.com/

Lauren Withycombe Keeler (@femmefutura):
https://ifis.asu.edu/content/center-study-futures

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended so many aspects of our lives – from the ways we socialize, the ways and places where we spend our free time, and the ways in which we work. Which, if any, of these changes will persist once the pandemic is behind us? This month, our guests are Dr. Laura Schewel (CEO of StreetLight Data) and Dr. Carlo Ratti (Director of the Senseable City Lab at MIT). We discuss whether work-from-home momentum will persist after the pandemic, the 15-minute city, equitable transportation and mobility, and more. Our guests also share insights on interdisciplinary collaboration and their visions and hopes for cities in the year 2080.

Learn more about Streetlight Data at their website (www.streetlightdata.com) and connect on social media:

• Facebook (@StreetLightData)
• Twitter (@StreetLightData)
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Learn more about Dr. Ratti's work at his website (www.carloratti.com) and connect on social media:

• Facebook (@carlorattiassociati)
• Twitter (@crassociati)
• Instagram (@crassociati)
• LinkedIn

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

Doctors Marta Berbes, Nancy Grimm, Robert Hobbins, and Timon McPhearson join Robert Lloyd to talk about how scenarios of future city transformations are analyzed and turned into products that can be understood and used by city practitioners, and the general public, as well as other researchers. Scenarios provide potential goals for practitioners in city government and other actors to work towards in efforts to ensure greater sustainability, resilience, and equity. A new book, the result of collaboration among many of the researchers who participated in this episode and the previous one, is also discussed.

Urban Systems Lab Data Visualization Platform: http://urex.urbansystemslab.com/

San Juan, Puerto Rico Story Map: https://asu.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=559ac359d9c24bdeb8ce80cbacc3aeba

Learn more about our guests:

Marta Berbes (@MartaBerbes):
https://sustainability-innovation.asu.edu/person/marta-berbes/

Nancy Grimm (@DrNitrogen):
https://sols.asu.edu/nancy-grimm

Robert Hobbins (@RobertHobbins):
https://roberthobbins.com/
https://urbaninstitute.gsu.edu/profile/robert-hobbins/

Timon McPhearson (@timonmcphearson):
https://www.newschool.edu/bachelors-program/faculty/timon-mcphearson/

Access their recently published book here: https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783030631307

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

Doctors Elizabeth Cook, David Iwaniec, Lelani Mannetti, and Tischa Muñoz-Erickson join Robert Lloyd to talk about the production of scenarios for future city transformations. Scenarios provide potential goals for practitioners in city government and other actors to work towards in efforts to ensure greater sustainability, resilience, and equity. Co-production of knowledge, limits of future visions, and the challenges to realizing scenarios are among the topics discussed.

Learn more about our guests:

Elizabeth Cook (@e_m_cook):
https://envsci.barnard.edu/profiles/elizabeth-m-cook

David Iwaniec (@SustFutures):
https://urbaninstitute.gsu.edu/profile/david-iwaniec-2/

Lelani Mannetti (@LelaniM)

https://urbaninstitute.gsu.edu/profile/lelani-mannetti/

Tischa Muñoz-Erickson (@tmunozerickson):

https://www.fs.fed.us/research/people/profile.php?alias=tamunozerickson

Access their recently published book here: https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783030631307

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

When asked what infrastructure are supposed to do, responses of course vary dramatically from the mundane (for example, provide water and power) to the abstract (for example, facilitate improved well-being through the delivery of basic services). Of course, both are right on some level. But what is often lost is the perspective of the values that we use to design and operate infrastructure systems. In the third and final episode of the Infrastructure of the Anthropocene series, Professor Mikhail Chester (@mikhailchester) of Arizona State University interviews Professor Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy (@AdjoKennedy) of Georgia Tech about the need for value-focused thinking to guide how we think about restructuring infrastructure to ensure that infrastructure meets the needs of future populations in increasingly complex environments.

See the whole Infrastructure and the Anthropocene playlist on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvz_faOzavaSD40LmDr4RknZZxWAVqwGp

Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy at Georgia Tech – Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) 

 Infrastructure Misfits (un)Society | 

http://www.infrastructurecomplexity.org/ 

 Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering | Arizona State University | https://metis.asu.edu/

 Convergence Resilience Research Project |  http://convergence.urexsrn.net/ 

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

People often think of infrastructure as merely physical assets, but they are the outcome of cultural preferences and how we generate knowledge. In this episode, Professor Mikhail Chester (@mikhailchester) of Arizona State University interviews Professor Thaddeus Miller (@Thad_Miller) of University of Massachusetts Amherst about infrastructure governance, the knowledge systems embedded in organizations and governance networks, and the values or assumptions built into those systems. We also hear about complexity and future problems, as well as the importance of transdisciplinary knowledge co-generation to solve problems in the Anthropocene.

The Infrastructure and the Anthropocene Forum took place from December 7-9, 2020 and was moderated by Prof. Mikhail Chester of Arizona State University. The forum was hosted by the Infrastructure Misfits and Arizona State University's Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering.

See the whole Infrastructure and the Anthropocene playlist on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvz_faOzavaSD40LmDr4RknZZxWAVqwGp

Infrastructure Misfits (un)Society:
http://www.infrastructurecomplexity.org/

Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering | Arizona State University: https://metis.asu.edu/

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at urexsrn.net.

Climate change has contributed to the severity of tropical storms, causing unprecedented coastal erosion and record rates of flooding. Countries around the world are searching for ways to prevent tropical storms from decimating their coastal infrastructure, and the University of Miami has found a tropical solution: coral reefs. Coral reefs can reduce wave energy by up to 97%. However, corals have also suffered from climate change, and are threatened by extinction. Cassie Sturman (@CassieSturman) interviews Diego Lirman and Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos from the University of Miami’s coral reef restoration team who empathize the importance of rescuing coral reefs from climate change.

Learn more about the University of Miami's coral restoration program at their website, here and find them on Twitter (@rescueareef).
You can also follow the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Restoration Hub (@RestorationHub).

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

 Dr. Lelani Mannetti (Twitter @LelaniM) is a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia State University's Urban Studies Institute. Her research focuses on the analysis of social-ecological systems, particularly surrounding adaptive co-governance of complex systems. In this episode, Dr. Yeowon Kim (Twitter @Yeowon__Kim) talks with her about how she became interested in integrating social, ecological, and technological dimensions for urban resilience study and how her work and academic training in South Africa has affected her becoming an interdisciplinary scholar studying urban systems. Furthermore, she features how the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network’s scenarios team has been adapting their approaches to participatory scenarios development processes during the COVID pandemic, and how she envisions Atlanta’s urban future as a connected and greener city integrating diverse voices of people in the city.

Learn more about Dr. Mannetti and her research here: https://urbaninstitute.gsu.edu/profile/lelani-mannetti/

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Dr. Marccus Hendricks is an Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Planning in the School
of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at the University of Maryland, College Park. Here,
Marissa Matsler interviews Dr. Hendricks about his work with communities throughout his
dissertation research in Texas and as an early career researcher in Maryland. He discusses his
bold visions for the future in which we collectively seize on the opportunities of this historic
moment – especially the current focus on environmental justice – to better design and plan
cities. Dr. Hendricks also offers his advice to others looking to follow in his academic footsteps.

You can read more at arch.umd.edu/sirj and follow Dr. Hendricks on Twitter at @mdhDuBois. You can read his recent piece, Transforming Public Safety and Urban Infrastructure to Mitigate Climate and Public Health Disasters, here.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Dr. Prentiss Dantzler (Twitter @DocDantzler) is an Assistant Professor at Georgia State University's Urban Studies Institute. His research focuses on the intersection of housing policy, urban poverty, race and ethnic relations, and community development. In this episode, Robert Lloyd speaks with Dr. Dantzler about urban equity questions, representation, and the challenges of researching and teaching during a long-running global pandemic. They also discuss being new in Atlanta, a city that defines economy and politics for its region.

Learn more about Dr. Dantzler and his research at his personal website or at Georgia State University's website.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd (Instagram @marsh4fsu, Twitter @DrShepherd2013) is a distinguished meteorologist, professor, writer, podcaster… and that only begins to share all his accomplishments! Here he chats with Robert Lloyd about science communication, the intersections of climate and social equity, the COVID-19 pandemic, and more.

Learn more about Dr.  Shepherd, you can visit his personal website or the University of Georgia's Department of Geography website.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

The Hudson River flows from the alpine peaks of New York State’s Adirondack Mountains to the harbor of New York City. Its tidal valley includes diverse suburban communities and post-industrial cities that will face new challenges from sea level rise and amplified storms as climate changes over the next few decades. In this episode, George Scott interviews Dr. Klaus H. Jacob, an expert in disaster risk at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (@LamontEarth), Ryan Palmer, the Director of the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak (@slccurb/@sarahlawrence), and Jessica Kuonen, the Hudson Estuary Resilience Specialist at New York Sea Grant (@nyseagrant) to learn more about how these communities are planning to enhance their resilience to climate-related coastal threats.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Host Jason Sauer (PhD candidate, ASU) talks with researcher Heidy Correa (Master of Science, Universidad Austral de Chile) about a grassroots community organization in Valdivia, Chile, that was instrumental in the spread of a wetland conservation ethos across the city. Counter to the work that we often highlight in this podcast, this wetland conservation effort started with a single person and spread upward to academics and politicians through the dedication and hard work of this community, rather than starting with experts or specialists at the top and moving downward. We also talk about “natural heritage,” the importance of the “green commons,” and how “commoning” can be used to articulate and make legitimate the ways in which individuals and communities value their environment and identity.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

New Orleans, Louisiana faces ecological challenges, but also social challenges in learning to adapt to climate change and to adopt new water management techniques. The existing stormwater infrastructure isn’t cutting it, but new methods have been slow to be implemented. Robert Lloyd(@RL_Grey) discusses why, then interviews Jessica Dandridge, Executive Director of the Water Collaborative, who is one of the people helping to move the Big Easy into a more sustainable and resilient future.

Water Collaborative - https://www.nolawater.org/

Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan - https://livingwithwater.com/

City of New Orleans Resilience & Sustainability - https://nola.gov/resilience-sustainability/

We are trying to improve the show and we would like your feedback! Please fill out this short survey to help us learn about your preferences and what you think we could do to improve. It should only take a few minutes.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Pedestrian deaths in the United States have risen by 50% since 2009, with over 6,000 pedestrians dying in 2018 alone. In this month's episode, Stephen Elser (@stephen_elser) talks with our guest, Angie Schmitt (@schmangee), about her recent book addressing some of the factors that have led to this silent epidemic. She explains how marginalized groups tend to be most vulnerable to traffic violence and how systemic racism keeps these communities in dangerous situations. She tells us how design principles in our cities have totally changed over time from being pedestrian-focused to being car-focused, and what that means for pedestrian safety. They also discuss what role autonomous vehicles play in current and future conditions on our streets and how the cars we drive affect pedestrian safety.


You can buy Angie's book, Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America through the publisher by follow this link. You can get 20% off if you use the author's last name, "Schmitt" at checkout.


We are trying to improve the show and we would like your feedback! Please fill out this short survey to help us learn about your preferences and what you think we could do to improve. It should only take a few minutes.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Roughly 1.6 billion people across the world live in inadequate, unsafe, and overcrowded shelter. In this episode, Stephen Elser (@stephen_elser) interviews Alan Marcus, the Chief Digital Strategy Officer of Planet Smart City, about what his company is doing to address the global housing crisis by building smart and affordable communities across the world. For Planet Smart City, "smart" is all about thinking in terms of services and how people engage at the community level. By optimizing their use of space, they are able to create more communal areas and other amenities while keeping costs down. We also learn about their process of building trust with the communities where they build, how they incorporate knowledge about climate change, and some details about some of their new developments in Brazil.

To learn more about Planet Smart City, please visit their website at www.planetsmartcity.com.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

We were recently featured in Feedspot's Top 10 Smart City Podcasts list. Be sure to check it out to find other great podcasts!

There are many ways to refer to nature in cities: urban green space, nature-based solutions, green infrastructure… But which name is best? Does it really even matter what names we used to describe urban nature? In this episode, Stephen Elser (@stephen_elser) interviews Dr. Dan Childers (director of @caplter) about some of the issues with various terms to describe urban nature, and a relatively new term that he prefers: urban ecological infrastructure. Then, we hear from Jason Sauer (@JasonRSauer) about a term he uses to describe his own study system: "heritage" wetlands. Learn how the words we use can change our research approaches and the perspectives that we adopt.

Find Dr. Childers' paper on urban ecological infrastructure here, and listen to his previous appearance on our show with a conversation about urban ecology here.

Listen the episode that Stephen and Jason made about Valdivia's urban wetlands here (y en español aquí).

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

We were recently featured in Feedspot's Top 10 Smart City Podcasts list. Be sure to check it out to find other great podcasts!

Dr. Elsa Anderson stops by the show to talk with us about vacant lots and urban biodiversity, or how urban areas can provide spaces for many species of plants and animals. Dr. Anderson has worked on plant diversity in cities as diverse as Chicago, Illinois and Berlin, Germany. Her recent publications explore how different management strategies of vacant lots in cities, actions as simple as mowing or installing fences, or as complex as erecting a wall to divide two political philosophies, can impact plant communities for years to come. Find her on Twitter at @ElsaAnderson16 and Instagram @elsaa1016.


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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.


We were recently featured in Feedspot's Top 10 Smart City Podcasts list. Be sure to check it out to find other great podcasts!

In today’s rapidly evolving climate, and amid unprecedented technological disruptions, engineers and designers seek infrastructure solutions that are resilient to both known and unknown future conditions. This podcast explores the use of biomimicry to provide examples and guidance for resilient infrastructure systems, spanning theory and practice. We evaluate opportunities for improving design, prompted through consideration of Life’s Principles.

Collaborators (in order of appearance): Alysha Helmrich, Dr. Samuel Markolf, Dr. Nancy Grimm, Dr. Mikhail Chester, Dr. Cheryl Desha, and Dr. Samantha Hayes.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.


We were recently featured in Feedspot's Top 10 Smart City Podcasts list. Be sure to check it out to find other great podcasts!

Cities are at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic, but what happens in cities once a pandemic takes hold? What systems are failing? Are cities prepared to simultaneously deal with this pandemic and extreme weather events like hurricanes and heat waves? Can we ever return to any semblance of "normal" and if not, how can we transform to create more positive futures? Today, we hear from a group of experts as they reflect on what the COVID-19 pandemics means for our public health systems, critical infrastructure, the research being done in cities, and ultimately – urban resilience.

Our guests were Dr. David Eisenman (@deisenman), Dr. Timon McPhearson (@timonmcphearson), Dr. Mike Chester (@mikhailchester), and Dr. Nancy Grimm (@DrNitrogen).

Alysha Helmrich and Dr. Bernice Rosensweig (@brr_nyc) conducted two of our interviews for this episode.

Our host, Stephen Elser (@stephen_elser) wrote a haiku based on the conversations in this episode:

COVID changed the game.
We must transform our cities
And build back better

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.


We were recently featured in Feedspot's Top 10 Smart City Podcasts list. Be sure to check it out to find other great podcasts!

As their first topic, Tessa Martinez and Stephen Elser discuss an article on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge being opened up to oil drilling and how that can potentially affect habitats. They then talk about how planting trees can be a tool to slowing down climate change.

These are the links to the two topics discussed!

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-09-12/interior-finalizes-plan-to-open-alaskas-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-to-oil-drilling

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/04/planting-billions-trees-best-tackle-climate-crisis-scientists-canopy-emissions

Listen to the most recent full episode, Trees to Help Cities Breathe, here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/125676/3252745-trees-to-help-cities-breathe

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

We all know that trees provide all sorts of benefits to people, right? But different trees provide different benefits and trees will only provide those benefits if we can make sure they stay healthy. In this episode, Stephen Elser (@stephen_elser) interviews Jenna Rindy (@msjerindy), a PhD student at Boston University, about her research urban tree research. She tells us about how two species of oak tree vary in how much soot they remove from the air, and why that's so important for human health. We then discuss how human-caused fragmentation of forests affects tree health, and how that in turn affects us. We wrap up with a brief conversation about some challenges that climate change brings to urban forests.

Jenna wrote a haiku about her research:

Trees help cities breathe,
But cities can hurt trees too.
What is the real cost?

To read the paper that we discuss in the episode, follow this link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b02844

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.


We were recently featured in Feedspot's Top 10 Smart City Podcasts list. Be sure to check it out to find other great podcasts!

As their first topic, Tessa Martinez and PhD candidate, Stephen Elser (@stephen_elser), discuss the Novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, and how it relates to city life. They then talk about green spaces and how they have a role in decreasing depression and improving human livelihood!

Here are the links to the two topics discussed!

https://theconversation.com/outbreaks-like-coronavirus-start-in-and-spread-from-the-edges-of-cities-130666

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/07/20/630615148/replacing-vacant-lots-with-green-spaces-can-ease-depression-in-urban-communities

Listen to the most recent full episode, Urban Ecology to Improve Our Cities, here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/125676/2907952-urban-ecology-to-improve-our-cities

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

In this episode, we explore the field of urban ecology and the challenges of doing social-ecological research. Stephen Elser (@stephen_elser) interviews Dr. Dan Childers, a professor at Arizona State University and director of the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) program.  Dan emphasizes how important it is to be willing to learn the language and approaches of other disciplines on order to do better urban ecological research. But urban ecology didn’t always have an interdisciplinary approach, and the social aspects of cities were frequently ignored. Dan describes what he calls the “prepositional journey” from an ecology *in* cities to an ecology *of* cities to an ecology *for* cities. He discusses what some of the major challenges are in pursuing urban sustainability and what CAP LTER (@caplter) is doing to address those challenges in order to create more positive futures for the city of Phoenix.

Stephen wrote a haiku inspired by this conversation with Dr. Childers.

No more Birkenstocks.
Go beyond your field – listen.
Improve our cities.

Learn more about CAP LTER at their website by following this link.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

As their first topic, Tessa Martinez and Jason Sauer discuss Arizona’s goal of getting rid of their 43 food deserts. They then talk about the local Phoenix business, Agriscaping, and how they are making a difference in Arizona’s urban agriculture!

Check out these links to the learn more about the two topics discussed!

https://modernfarmer.com/2019/10/phoenix-looks-to-snuff-out-food-deserts/

https://agriscaping.com/

Listen to the full "Greening Phoenix through Urban Agriculture" episode here.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

We talk with two researchers, Dr. Nazli Uludere Aragon and PhD student Michelle Stuhlmacher (@MFStuhlmacher on Twitter) about their recent publication, “Urban agriculture’s bounty: contributions to Phoenix’s sustainability goals.” The researchers explain what Phoenix’s sustainability goals currently are, how and where to develop agriculture in a desert city. We talk about how urban agriculture in Phoenix can get so-called food desert communities access to fruits and vegetables that they do not currently have, and how to balance demands for low water usage with a desire for a greener city.

Our guests wrote a haiku to summarize their paper:

Urban farms provide 
the bounty of the garden, 
open space, clean air.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

In our first current events minisode, Tessa Martinez and Alysha Helmrich discuss the Australian wildfires and their implications on Sydney’s infrastructure. They then explore Portland’s new way of filtering their water supply before it reaches the sewers- rain gardens!

Listen to the full Infrastructure and Climate Change episode here.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Climate change is a large source of uncertainty for infrastructure managers. It is easy to feel immobilized by future uncertainty, however, that does not have to be the case. In this podcast, the hosts interview a city practitioner, social scientist, and climate modeller to understand how infrastructure managers integrate climate modelling data into the decision process.

Associated Links/Websites:
Referenced:

• SETS Infrastructure podcast epispde: https://www.buzzsprout.com/125676/1084280-sets-infrastructure

Participants:

• Geneva Gray: @kawaiiness
• Alysha Helmrich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyshahelmrich/
• Rui Li: www.linkedin.com/in/li-rui-11ASU
• Dr. Marissa Matsler: @oh_the_urbanity
• Dr. Ken Kunkel: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6667-7047
• Portland Water Bureau: @portlandwater

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

In this episode, Dr. Marissa Matsler (@oh_the_urbanity) talks with Dr. David Manuel-Navarrete about the evolutionary forces working against wider adoption of green infrastructure in cities today. They discuss his recent publication in Anthropocene titled "Intentional disruption of path-dependencies in the Anthropocene: Gray versus green water infrastructure regimes in Mexico City, Mexico", in which he uses human niche theory to analyze the feedback loops which encourage cities to continue investment in grey infrastructure at the expense of green infrastructure solutions that could help with the social and environmental challenges of climate change. Dr. Manuel-Navarrete shares more about his case study research in Mexico City and his transdisciplinary approach to science. This interview is wide-reaching touching on historic infrastructure transitions, the ways in which humans differ from termites, the need to bring the subjective and the objective together in scientific inquiry, and a hopeful message describing how we can work collaboratively to change our current destructive path dependencies. You can listen to Dr. Manuel-Navarrete discuss some of these topics in Spanish in our previous episode, Paradigmas Insostinebles en Nuestras Ciudades.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

We're not the Mob but we here at Future Cities still care a lot about waste management! Co-host Jason Sauer talks with Dr. Erin Rivers (@soilandthecity) about how solid waste, AKA trash, is potentially exacerbating flood risk in cities by clogging up green and gray drainage infrastructure. We discuss trash reduction and removal efforts in Baltimore (Mr. Trash Wheel!) and beyond, and how a reframing of who is responsible for trash has benefits far beyond our work on green infrastructure and urban resilience. Apologies for in advance for the cuts at the beginning: I (Jason Sauer) was sick when I recorded this and had to cut out a lot of noise my sinuses were creating. TMI!


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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

This month's guest, Justin Stewart (@thecrobe), studies air quality and atmospheric microbial communities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He tells us about how he got interested in microbes and about some of the challenges of studying these organisms in the air. He explains how several components of air quality (including ozone, PM2.5, and microbes) vary across the city, how they can affect human health and ecosystem function, and how those air quality might change in the face of extreme weather events and climate change. We discuss what the city has done to combat poor air quality (spoiler: not much) and whether microbes could actually play a role in helping to make the air safer for everyone to breathe. 

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

In this month's episode we sit down with Matt Smith, a PhD candidate at Florida International University, to talk about Hurricane Dorian and some of his research comparing urban wetlands in Portland, Oregon and Valdivia, Chile. He tells us about storm surges, sea level rise, and the comprehensive Miami-Dade County Hurricane Readiness Guide. Wetlands, as it turn out, are valuable infrastructure surrounding Miami for dealing with sea level rise and mitigating the effects of hurricanes. He also found through his research that urban wetlands in Valdivia and Portland had fairly similar nutrient dynamics. Matt contends that more cities ought to explicitly consider wetlands in their resiliency plans as key infrastructure solutions capable of improving water quality, mitigating floods, and more. 


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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

This month, we sit down with two PhD candidates from Arizona State University, Jason Sauer and Yuliya Dzyuban, to talk about their recent trip to Hermosillo, Mexico. We learn the difference between "enchilada" and "enchilado", how temperatures differ in new and old buses, and the unique ways in which people from Hermosillo react to flooding in their city. Despite lacking some of the resources that residents of other cities might have, locals in Hermosillo illustrate a strong capacity to react to and cope with extreme events. Yuliya and Jason wrap up the episode with haikus about their research! 


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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Both infrastructure disasters and infrastructure funding bills are back in the news, so
Jason Sauer sat down with Dr. Sam Markolf to talk about a paper Sam published last year about disasters and better infrastructure design. We talk about how old infrastructure “locks us in” to living with its consequences and how it creates path dependencies in creating future forms and functions of cities. We end up talking a lot about Miami, but the lessons here also apply to cities across the US and around the world!

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Hospitals are critical to the health of any city, providing essential care to the communities that they serve. Unlike many other buildings, hospitals can't simply close and send everyone away during an extreme event since it would be dangerous to the patients in need to critical care. In this month's episode, Stephen Elser interviews two leaders from the CannonDesign firm, whose work includes designing hospitals to be resilient to a wide variety of disturbances. We discuss what it means for a hospital to be resilient, the use of landscaping to create "healing environments", and the importance of tailoring a design strategy to meet specific needs. We also hear about their past work in Nantucket Island, Miami, Houston, and Manhattan and the types of design used in those cases.

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Mike Cavanaugh and Brett Farbstein are, respectively, the Directory of Sustainability and the Directory of Resiliency at CannonDesign. To learn more about the firm and the work that they do, visit www.cannondesign.com. 

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

Extreme heat and how to cope with it are two major areas of interest in cities like Phoenix, Arizona. Recently, Maricopa County (where Phoenix is) partnered with a group of researchers at ASU to develop new technologies and solutions that are deployable in local communities to help reduce urban heat and improve air quality. This partnership illustrates that extreme heat and its adverse impacts on human health are highly important not only to researchers, but also to those responsible for implementing adaptation strategies. This month, Dr. Yeowon Kim interviews Mark Hartman, the Chief Sustainability Officer at City of Phoenix, Melissa Guardaro, a graduate fellow of UREx SRN, and Charles (Chuck) Redman, the founding director of School of Sustainability at Arizona State University and project director of UREx SRN, about their collaborative efforts on mitigating and adapting to adverse impacts of extreme heat in the metro urban area of Phoenix, Arizona.


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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

This month, Stephen Elser interviews UREx SRN fellow and ASU School of Sustainability PhD student, Yuliya Dzyuban, about her research involving extreme heat and the ways that people perceive and cope with that heat. They discuss the different aspects that affect one's thermal comfort, Ukrainian bus stops, and how there's a lot we can do to improve  urban design in Phoenix. Yuliya shares her research illustrating that integrating artistic elements into bus stops can actually make people feel cooler than they would in a bus stop with no such elements. Finally, Yuliya becomes a poet and shares with us a beautiful haiku describing her research.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

In this episode, Dr. Yeowon Kim explains the difference between “fail-safe” and “safe-to-fail” infrastructure and how shifting towards this new “safe-to-fail" design paradigm could help cities prepare for extreme events like floods. Risks and uncertainty associated with climate change in the future make predicting infrastructure failures very difficult, so designing and implementing infrastructure to be more flexible in the face of uncertainty is highly important to deal with a wide variety of circumstances. Dr. Kim also talks about the “infrastructure trolley problem” and gives us a brief lesson on Korean poetry! If you have questions about Dr. Kim’s research, you can e-mail her at [email protected]. 

The paper we discuss, entitled "Fail-safe and safe-to-fail adaptation: decision-making for urban flooding under climate change" was published in 2017 in the journal of Climatic Change.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

The proposed addition to the US census of a question regarding the legal status of census respondents poses a major problem for both vulnerability researchers and the vulnerable undocumented immigrant community. Vulnerability scholar and PhD student, Jason Sauer, discusses how the change to the census may interfere with efforts to identify vulnerable communities, and may stymie efforts to make these undocumented communities more resilient to extreme weather events and climate change. He also interviews Masavi Parea of Chispa, an organization advocating for resilience and environmental justice in Phoenix, about his own history as a formerly undocumented immigrant, the ways the undocumented community and Latinos are systematically made vulnerable, and what organizations like Chispa are doing to increase community resilience.

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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

In this episode, UREx postdoctoral researcher, Sam Markolf, interviews Dr. Dan Eisenberg about resilience from an engineering perspective. When is being more robust the solution? When is flexibility preferred? Dan shares stories to illustrate when it may be advantageous to abandon standards of practice, how to deal with different types of surprises, and the differences between robust design and extensible design. They discuss the importance of designing infrastructure with human-technological interactions in mind. 


If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

UREx post-docs Bernice Rosenzweig and Marissa Matsler report from on-the-ground in Baltimore. Looking to learn more about how the Memorial Day Weekend extreme rain event affected he city, they interviewed Pastor Michael S. Martin of the Stillmeadow Evangelical Free Church, an emergency response hub in a community that was severely flooded. Hear about the emergency response and continuing concerns of those living the aftermath and remediation of the Memorial Day Weekend flood, along with discussion of overlaps with UREx research. See footage of the flood here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3RZ4vK-mi0 and learn more about Team Rubicon, a veterans group that plays a critical role in the response to extreme events, here: https://teamrubiconusa.org/. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

In this episode, Stephen Elser sits down with Drs. Lauren McPhillips and Marissa Matsler to talk about their recent paper published in Frontiers in Built Environment entitled "Temporal Evolution of Green Stormwater Infrastructure Strategies in Three US Cities." We discuss the history of stormwater management in the U.S. and the rise of "green stormwater infrastructure" as a popular solution in cities across the country. The three cities compared here (Baltimore, Phoenix, and Portland) are vastly different from each other in terms of their history, culture, climate, and many other factors, which has led to unique patterns in their implementation of green stormwater infrastructure. Understanding these patterns of implementation allows us to better understand the suite of benefits that these features provide. We also hear haiku summaries of the paper! If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

¿Te has preguntado si la ciudad en la que vives es realmente sustentable?, ¿Que tipo de paradigmas amenazan la resiliencia de nuestras ciudades a condiciones futuras?, ¿Podremos seguir aplicando las mismas filosofías de crecimiento y desarrollo en nuestras ciudades? En este programa el Profesor David Manuel Navarrete nos comenta sobre algunos puntos de reflexión acerca de la conceptualización de nuestras ciudades y viejos paradigmas ponen en riesgo elementos esenciales de una buena calidad de vida en ciudades y prevalencia de su equilibrio ante eventos extremos de clima. Nuevas maneras de pensar son necesarias para afrontar retos en nuestras ciudades. … Si tiene preguntas o sugerencias para episodios futuros, envíenos un correo electrónico a [email protected] o encuéntrenos en Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

¿Que son los eventos climáticos extremos?, el Dr. Agustín Robles, líder académico de la ciudad de Hermosillo en la Red de Resiliencia Urbana a Eventos Extremos (UREx) nos explica que son estos y por que es importante estudiarlos. También en este episodio la Dra. Olga Barbosa nos explica que tipo de acciones y proyectos se llevan acabo en la red y como es que esta contribuye a mejorar nuestras ciudades. Pon mucha atención tal vez tu recuerdes tu experiencia durante un evento extremo como lo hace una profesionista de Ciudad Obregón Sonora. … Si tiene preguntas o sugerencias para episodios futuros, envíenos un correo electrónico a [email protected] o encuéntrenos en Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

We hear the term used all over the place: in music, on TV, in books– but what IS resilience? In this episode, we discuss resilience from the Social-Ecological-Technological Systems (SETS) perspective. To understand what resilience means from this perspective, we interviewed urban resilience experts from each of these three disciplines. Dr. Nancy Grimm is a professor of ecology in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU) and a co-director of the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN). Dr. Marta Berbes is a postdoctoral fellow in the UREx SRN. Dr. Dan Eisenberg received his PhD in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at ASU and he studies resilience and network science. 
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If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

Local Phoenix poets including Kimberly Koerth, Jacob Friedman, Rashaad Thomas, and Anna Flores read original poetry about Resilience, Equity, and Diversity (RED) in cities as part of the UREx La RED Poetry Competition. The first half of the episode features the poems, the poets' inspirations, and what the poets hoped the audience would take away by listening to it. The second half of the episode features a discussion with several of the poets on the power of poetry as a tool for making our cities more resilient and equitable places to live. If you have questions or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

¿Qué es una infraestructura ‘verde’? ¿Qué la puede hacer la por mi ciudad? ¿Por qué estoy mucho más emocionado de aprender sobre infra verde que formas de infraestructura más tradicionales? Stephen Elser y Jason Sauer contestan a todas estas preguntas en este episodio y se centran en la infra verde de los humedales en la ciudad de Valdivia de Chile. Hablan con el director del consorcio local de sostenibilidad, Cristóbal Lamarca de Activa Valdivia, e investigador local de humedales, Ignacio Rodríguez del Centro de Humedales Río Cruces, sobre cómo los humedales le dan a Valdivia un carácter urbano único, aumentar la biodiversidad de la ciudad, proporcionar espacio recreativo, y son una forma de infraestructura verde que los ciudadanos luchan. … Puede obtener más información sobre Activa Valdivia en su sitio web (http://www.activavaldivia.cl) o en Twitter (@ActivaValdivia). … Puede obtener más información sobre el Centro de Humedales Río Cruces en su sitio web (http://www.cehum.org) or en Twitter (@centrohumedales). … Si tiene preguntas o sugerencias para episodios futuros, envíenos un correo electrónico a [email protected] o encuéntrenos en Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

What is ‘green’ infrastructure? What can it do for my city? Why am I definitely way more excited to learn about it than I am more traditional forms of infrastructure? Stephen Elser and Jason Sauer answer all of these questions in this episode, and focus on green infrastructure in the form of wetlands in the city of Valdivia, Chile. They talk to local sustainability consortium leader, Cristóbal Lamarca of Activa Valdivia, and local wetlands researcher, Ignacio Rodríguez of the Centro de Humedales Río Cruces (translated: the Río Cruces Center of Wetlands), about how the wetlands imbue Valdivia a unique urban character, increase the city’s biodiversity, provide recreational space, and are a form of infrastructure that people rally around. … You can learn more about Activa Valdivia at their website (http://www.activavaldivia.cl) or on Twitter (@ActivaValdivia). … You can learn more about the Centro de Humedales Río Cruces at their website (http://www.cehum.org) or on Twitter (@centrohumedales). … If you have questions or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

The 2017 hurricane season was a record-setting year for hurricanes. Hurricane Harvey dumped more rain on Houston than ever recorded in any US city. Hurricane Irma was the longest-lasting powerful hurricane or typhoon ever recorded worldwide. Hurricane Maria is regarded as the worst natural disaster on record for Puerto Rico and was the second in a line of powerful hurricanes to hit the island in a span of just 2 weeks. Hurricane Ophelia was the strongest eastern Atlantic hurricane on record. Are hurricanes getting stronger and more frequent? Could this be attributed to climate change? Was the 2017 hurricane season evidence for a new normal of hurricane strength and frequency? What exactly do we mean by an extreme event? How should we rebuild our coastal cities to be resilient to more intense hurricanes? Listen in as UREx SRN graduate fellow Robert Hobbins interviews several researchers in the UREx SRN about their thoughts regarding each of these critical questions.

Jason Sauer and Marissa Matsler talk with Nathan McClintock about green gentrification in the context of urban agriculture in Portland, Oregon. They discuss some of the forces that cause it, like racialized othering, as well as other problems that arise in discussions of valuing green spaces.

En este episodio presentamos una de las actividades más importantes de la red de resiliencia urbana a eventos extremos (UREx). Expertos dentro de la red nos platican el concepto e importancia del taller de escenarios y también sus experiencias con las diferentes ciudades que han llevado acabo la actividad. La Dra. Tischa Muñoz nos comparte su experiencia en la ciudad de San Juan Puerto Rico, y relata la utilidad de estos talleres para los centros urbanos y las diferentes entidades de la municipalidad. También presentamos algunas experiencias en el taller de escenarios llevado a cabo en Hermosillo sonora y algunas visiones de los participantes. In this episode we talk about one of the most important activities in the Urban Resilience to Extreme Events Sustainability Research Network (UREx-SRN). Experts from the network talk about the concept and importance of scenario workshops and their experiences at these workshops across the network cities. Dr. Tischa Muñoz-Erickson shares her experience in the San Juan, Puerto Rico workshop and describes the utility of the workshop for the urban municipality and other actors involved. We also present some comments from participants of the Hermosillo scenario workshop and their perspectives for building a more resilient city 

What does social equity look like in a resilient city? In this episode, graduate students and postdocs reflect on the relationship between 'green' projects and processes of displacement and gentrification. In particular, we talk about our own roles in addressing environmental justice, as we embark in research on urban resilience to extreme weather events. If you have questions or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

The Future Cities Podcast is dedicated to exploring the ways that cities are making themselves more resilient to extreme weather events. In this episode, our hosts, Stephen Elser, Jason Sauer, and Vivian Verduzco introduce themselves and the work that they do as a part of the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network. We also hear from other members of the network about topics that we'll discuss more in later episodes.