News | November 23, 2016
‘You can’t escape’: Clouds of filth are choking Asia’s cities
The winter air in Tehran is often foul but for six days last week it was hardly breathable. A dense and poisonous chemical smog made up of traffic and factory fumes, mixed with construction dust, burning vegetation and waste has shrouded buildings, choked pedestrians, forced schools and universities to close, and filled the hospitals. Anyone…
Funding
Amazon Catalyst Grant
Amazon Catalyst’s goal is to help people develop solutions to key problems faced in the world today. Problems can be diverse, from computer security, to immigration, to climate change. Because issues like these are complex, solutions will come from many different fields and many different perspectives. Therefore, the grants are open to all disciplines, including…
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Amy Kim
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 6, 2018
An interactive ‘storymap’ of trees in South King County
If a tree falls in the course of urban development and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? A new art project based in South King County aims to ensure the answer is yes — and the sound is a cacophony of arboreal anecdotes. “My goal is to create a…
News | August 16, 2018
An Unfair Share: Exploring the disproportionate risks from climate change facing Washington State communities
Everyone in Washington state will be affected by climate change, but race, income and occupation influences how much risk Washington state residents and workers face from climate-related hazards like wildfires, floods and extreme heat. A new report finds that the state’s most vulnerable people are often communities of color, indigenous people and lower-income communities. “Climate…
Scholar
Andrew Prindle
Visit scholar websiteResearch Beyond UW | University of Virginia
Arctic Design Group
“The Arctic extends over an area of about 5.5 million square miles and includes 8 nations. For centuries it has been understood as vast, and almost mythical frozen realm. But increasingly, the dual forces of climate change and globalization are combining to rapidly transform the region. With increasing temperature, retreating sea ice, the opening up…
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Aseem Prakash
Visit scholar websiteResearch Beyond UW | Columbia University
Asian Megacities Lab
Over the next 25 years, it is projected that China will account for 50% of the world’s new construction. The majority of this construction will occur in existing cities or newly formed urban areas. It is the mission of the Asia Megacities Lab to become actively engaged with this rapid urbanization and spatial production occurring…
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Bellevue, Renton Among Top 100 U.S Cities for Livability
Watch as King 5 News brings in Branden Born to shed light on the weighting mechanisms employed by a survey recently published on livability.com which ranked Renton and Bellevue among their top 100 cities for livability. Watch the whole clip on iQmediacorp.com
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Brian J. Harvey
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Bridge Funding Program
The University of Washington Provost’s Office provides bridge funding to support faculty to span the gap in critical research programs. Applications from faculty should be submitted to the applicant’s department chair, who should prioritize requests before forwarding them to the dean of the college/school. In non-departmentalized colleges/schools, applications should be submitted to the dean or…
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Bryna Hazelton
Visit scholar websiteNews | January 9, 2019
Carbon accountability: progress in work to reduce embodied carbon in construction materials
“We acknowledge that we hold this world in trust and recognize the immediate threat climate change and its impacts pose to current and future generations,” reads a statement signed this fall by more than 100 construction-related companies and nonprofits. “We must act urgently and collaboratively to transform the built environment from a leading driver of…
Research Beyond UW | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Center for Advanced Urbanism
The Center for Advanced Urbanism is committed to fostering a rigorous design culture for the large scale; by focusing our disciplinary conversations about architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, and systems thinking, not about the problems of yesterday, but of tomorrow. We are motivated by the radical changes in our environment, and the role that design…
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Center for Environmental Design Research
The Center for Environmental Design Research (CEDR) fosters research in environmental planning and design, ranging from the local environments of people within buildings to region-wide ecosystems, from small details of building construction to large-scale urban planning, from the history of the built environment to the design process itself. Our research is highly interdisciplinary. Our researchers…
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Center for Environmental Politics
Our mission is to play a leadership role in producing and disseminating empirical social science research on new modes of environmental politics and governance at local, regional, national, and global levels. Within the University of Washington, we facilitate faculty and graduate students to build connections, establish networks, and initiate truly multi‐disciplinary conversations about the political…
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Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHANGE)
CHANGE collaboratively develops and promotes innovative approaches to understanding and managing the risks of global environmental change. CHANGE conducts research and policy analysis, education and training, and technical assistance and capacity building, integrating health, environmental, and social sciences. CHANGE focuses on health outcomes associated with the consequences of global environmental changes, such as extreme weather…
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Center for Integrated Design
The mission of the Center for Integrated Design is to discover solutions that overcome the most difficult building performance barriers, and to meet the building industry’s goals of moving towards radically higher performing buildings and healthy urban environments. The Center for Integrated Design, composed of the Integrated Design Lab and the Discovery Commons, builds knowledge…
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Christopher Meek
Visit scholar websiteNews | March 9, 2018
Cities, scientists unite in battle against climate change at U.N. summit
Climate scientists and city planners are to start charting a global roadmap on how cities can best battle climate change, when they gather at a U.N.-backed summit in Canada’s Edmonton on Monday. The three day gathering marks the first time cities rather than nations are offered a seat at the table of the Intergovernmental Panel…
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Clean Energy Institute
CEI’s mission is to accelerate the adoption of a scalable clean energy future that will improve the health and economy of our state, nation, and world. To accomplish this mission, CEI supports the advancement of next-generation solar energy and battery materials and devices, as well as their integration with systems and the grid. The institute…
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Cliff Mass
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 11, 2018
Climate change and equity – A community conversation
Join UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, Front and Centered, the Climate Impacts Group, Urban@UW, and UW School of Public Health for an evening discussion about climate change and equity in Washington State on February 21st, 2018 at 5:30 PM. Front and Centered, Urban@UW, the Climate Impacts Group and the UW School of…
News | December 6, 2018
Climate change consequences ‘already being felt’ in communities across U.S.
As California’s catastrophic wildfires recede and people rebuild after two hurricanes, a massive new federal report warns that these types of extreme weather disasters are worsening in the United States. The White House report quietly issued Friday also frequently contradicts President Donald Trump. The National Climate Assessment was written long before the deadly fires in California this…
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Climate Impacts Group (CIG)
The Climate Impacts Group (CIG) is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary research group studying the impacts of natural climate variability and global climate change (“global warming”). Research at the CIG considers climate impacts at spatial scales ranging from local communities to the entire western U.S. region, with most work focused on the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Through…
Visit lab websiteResearch Beyond UW | Lousiana State University
Coastal Sustainability Studio
The LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio brings together academic disciplines that typically conduct research separately—such as designers, scientists, planners, and engineers—to intensively study and respond to critical issues of coastal settlement, restoration, flood protection, and economic development. Through its integrated design and systems thinking approach, programs, and projects, the CSS builds university capacity and transdisciplinary teams…
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Community Design Research Center
The Community Design Research Center (CDRC), led by director Suzanne Moomaw, initiates, generates, and works collaboratively with partners to connect faculty, students, and community members to research and design application projects aimed at addressing systemic local, regional, national, and global challenges. Called the “wicked” problems of society, these include human settlements, sustainable ecosystems, poverty, food…
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CSDE Affiliates Examine Equity Issues Associated with Tolled Roads
Last week, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan proposed instituting a toll on downtown roads to curb congestion. The Seattle Times examined the potential benefits and implications of the toll. In unpacking the possible equity issues, the Times turned to a 2009 study conducted by Affiliate Jennifer Romich, Associate Professor at the School of Social Work; Affiliate Robert Plotnick, Professor Emeritus at the Evans School of…
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Dan Jaffe
Visit scholar websiteNews | December 31, 2016
December Recap – TC3, Urban Environmental Justice, Tech, and other Highlights
December concludes a complicated year. The past month has seen a variety of changes, new research, and reflections on life in Seattle, the tech world, urban environmental justice, and our campus. Urban@UW and Climate Impacts Group collaborated on the Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change symposium. Urban@UW published a reflection on the…
Research Beyond UW | Arizona State University
Decision Center for a Desert City
Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) at Arizona State University (ASU) was established in 2004 with an investment from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Decision Making Under Uncertainty (DMUU) program. DCDC’s mission has been to advance knowledge about decision making under uncertainty in the context of water sustainability and urban climate-change adaptation.…
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Developing ‘breakaway’ tsunami resistant buildings
The best designs can also be the most surprising. A promising new concept for tsunami resistant buildings features breakaway walls and floors on lower levels that, when removed by forceful waves, strengthen the structure and better protect occupants seeking safety on higher floors. Thanks to a $1 million National Science Foundation Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing…
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Diana Pearce
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 8, 2017
Drone vs. truck deliveries: Which creates less carbon pollution?
Delivering packages with drones can reduce carbon dioxide emissions in certain circumstances as compared to truck deliveries, a new study from University of Washington transportation engineers finds. In a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Transportation Research Part D, researchers found that drones tend to have carbon dioxide emissions advantages over trucks…
Center & Lab
EarthLab
EarthLab reimagines the world as it could be, while impacting the world as it is. Equal parts research engine and community catalyst, EarthLab harnesses the power of co-created solutions to our most imminent environmental challenges.
Visit lab websiteResearch Beyond UW | Harvard University
Energy, Environments & Design Lab
What does energy want from design? What role does design have in energy systems? As a part of the Research Advancement Initiative (RAI), at Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Energy, Environments & Design Lab investigates novel agendas for energy at a range of design scales. From overlooked thermal parameters at the molecular level to…
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Engineering and Systems Design (ESD) program
The Engineering and Systems Design (ESD) program supports fundamental research leading to new engineering and systems design methods and practices for specific global contexts. In particular, ESD seeks intellectual advances in which the theoretical foundations underlying design and systems engineering are operationalized into rigorous and pragmatic methods for a specific context. In addition, the program…
Visit funding websiteNews | June 26, 2015
Environmental Change – Local Impacts and Response by Himanshu Grover
Presented at the June 1st Urban@UW Launch
Funding
EPA Research Grants
The EPA runs various funding programs under numerous topics: Air Research Grants Climate Change Research Grants Ecosystems Research Grants Health Research Grants Safer Chemicals Research Grants Sustainability Research Grants Water Research Grants Additional areas available
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Ernesto Alvarado Celestin
Visit scholar websiteNews | September 19, 2016
Expand the frontiers of urban sustainability
Manhattan skyscrapers, rather than rustic rural towns, are quickly becoming the picture of sustainable living in the twenty-first century. San Francisco, Copenhagen and Singapore each top their regions in the Green City Index. As sites of innovation and economic dynamism, these places exemplify a blend of density and livability that large, prosperous cities in the…
Funding
Ford Foundation
We believe in the inherent dignity of all people. Yet around the world, billions of people are excluded from full participation in the political, economic, and cultural systems that shape their lives. We view this fundamental inequality as the defining challenge of our time, one that limits the potential of all people, everywhere. Addressing inequality…
Visit funding websiteNews | June 13, 2018
Forest loss in one part of US can harm trees on the opposite coast
Large swaths of U.S. forests are vulnerable to drought, forest fires and disease. Many local impacts of forest loss are well known: drier soils, stronger winds, increased erosion, loss of shade and habitat. But if a whole forest disappears, new research shows, this has ricocheting effects in the atmosphere that can affect vegetation on the…
Scholar
Frank Gonzalez
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Geospatial Technologies (MS)
The Urban Studies Program offers a Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies degree. Admission is open during autumn quarter only and will be comprised of a 20 student cohort. The degree will provide advanced training in GIS, training students to use and apply geospatial hardware, software, and data in urban and environmental planning scenarios. It…
Visit program websiteNews | March 20, 2018
Giving Voice, Being Seen: Community Agency and Design Action in a Time of Climate Change, April 26
Climate change affects everyone, but it does not impact all communities equally. These differences may be most evident in the built environment and the shared spaces such as parks, streets, schools, homes, which we experience and move through daily. In seeking to inspire more collaborative, inclusive and creative responses to climate change in the built…
News | September 28, 2018
Glacier melt likely to impact Pacific Northwest water supply
In light of global warming, more glaciers means more melting. And for the Pacific Northwest, which is home to the most glaciers in the contiguous 48 states, that also means increased vulnerability. For the first time, a team of researchers has evaluated the hydrological impact of receding glaciers in the region, which is expected to…
Research Beyond UW | Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University
Global Cities Research Institute
The Global Cities Research Institute was inaugurated in 2006 to bring together key researchers at RMIT University, Australia, working on understanding the complexity of globalizing urban settings from provincial centres to mega-cities. Our research is highly collaborative, linking with institutions and people around the world in long-term partnerships, we are directly addressing the challenge through…
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Guillaume Mauger
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Gundula Proksch
Visit scholar websiteResearch Beyond UW | Harvard University
Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities
The Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities aims to transform the building industry through a commitment to design-centric strategy that directly links research outcomes to the development of new processes, systems, and products. By strongly emphasizing innovation and multidisciplinary collaboration, the Center will work to promote holistic change within the built environment, namely the…
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Heather Burpee
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 17, 2015
High speed battery charging for smart grids.
SCL (Michael Pesin) and UW Electrical Engineering (Daniel Kirtchner). Develop new energy storage technologies that facilitate variable energy output, which more closely mirrors how electricity is used in modern grid scenarios.
Scholar
Himanshu Grover
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 22, 2018
How do aliens solve climate change?
The universe does many things. It makes galaxies, comets, black holes, neutron stars, and a whole mess more. We’ve lately discovered that it makes a great deal of planets, but it’s not clear whether it regularly makes energy-hungry civilizations, nor is it clear whether such civilizations inevitably drive their planets into climate change. There’s lots…
News | March 14, 2017
How future superstorms could overwhelm today’s wastewater infrastructure
The current Seattle rainstorm, and many like it this year, are overwhelming our city’s wastewater pipes, and some sewage may be dumping into the Puget Sound as we speak. But even in a normal year, King County dumps about 800 million gallons of raw sewage into its waterways. That’s because, when it rains too much…
News | May 23, 2018
How Seattle’s appetite for construction is creating a growing waste problem
The sun has barely burned the fog off Lake Washington as Noel Stout, standing near the water’s edge, peers at a heavy wooden trellis suspended 20 feet above a concrete backyard patio. He’s rigged a system of ropes and pulleys to the cedar latticework, which just yesterday supported a deck with a sweeping view across…
News | April 10, 2018
How Texas is ‘building back better’ from Hurricane Harvey
For most Americans, the one-two punch of last fall’s hurricanes is ancient history. But hard-hit communities in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean are still rebuilding. Nicole Errett, lecturer in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, recently traveled with public health students from the University of Washington to southeast Texas, where the impacts of…
Scholar
Howard Frumkin
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Ian Miller
Visit scholar websiteNews | February 5, 2018
In orlando, america’s theme park capital, low income black residents can’t breathe the air
The struggle for environmental justice in low-income and Black communities continues. This is most certainly the case in Orlando, Florida. In the heart of one of the premier tourist destinations in the United States, the theme park capital of America, the residents of a historically Black community are having trouble breathing due to air pollution…
Funding
Infrastructure Management and Extreme Events (IMEE)
The IMEE program supports fundamental, multidisciplinary research on the impact of hazards and extreme events upon civil infrastructure and society. The program is focused upon research on the mitigation of, preparedness for, response to, and recovery from multi-hazard disasters. Community and societal resilience and sustainability are important topics within the research portfolio of IMEE. The…
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Infrastructure Planning & Management – Floodplain Management (MIPM)
The Master of Infrastructure Planning & Management now offers a degree option in Floodplain Management, allowing students to earn their master’s with a focus on the study of coastal and riverine floodplain management. This 45-credit degree program lasts 24 months and launches with its first student cohort in summer 2016. Flooding is an extremely daunting…
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Infrastructure Planning and Management (MIPM)
The online UW Master of Infrastructure Planning & Management prepares students to lead efforts to protect vital infrastructure systems from natural and manmade threats. Students in this program gain a broad understanding of the complex and interconnected nature of our infrastructure systems – communications, public health, water, energy, food and transportation – while also delving…
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Integrated Design Lab
The Integrated Design Lab carries out research to advance knowledge and policies that support the healthiest and highest performing buildings and cities. It measures and analyzes modeled and actual building performance data so as to influence the building industry’s understanding of how to radically improve the design and operation performance of buildings. Our performance research…
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Interdisciplinary Urban Design & Planning (PhD)
This program brings together faculty from disciplines ranging from Architecture to Sociology to focus on the interdisciplinary study of urban problems and interventions. Covering scales from neighborhoods to metropolitan areas, the program addresses interrelationships between the physical environment, the built environment, and the social, economic, and political institutions and processes that shape urban areas. The…
Visit program websiteNews | October 27, 2016
Jacqui Patterson: A Brief Annotated Reading List
Jacqueline Patterson is a preeminent researcher and activist in the field of environmental and climate justice. Patterson is one of UW’s 2016 Walker-Ames endowed speakers, and special guest at the upcoming symposium, Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change. Urban@UW has compiled a brief reading list to help contextualize Patterson’s work: Gulf Oil…
Center & Lab
Jaffe Research Group
The Jaffe group mission is to study and understand the local, regional and global sources of pollution in the Western U.S., with an emphasis on ozone, aerosols and mercury. They also seek to understand the chemical processing of these pollutants and their links to climate change.
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Jan Newton
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Jan Whittington
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Jeffery Cordell
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Jen Davison
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Jeremy Hess
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Jess Hamilton
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Jill Sterrett
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Joe Casola
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Jonathan Mayer
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Joshua Lawler
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Ken Yocom
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Kerstin Rowell
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Kristie L. Ebi
Visit scholar websiteNews | June 19, 2017
Lake Union building earns awards for energy savings
Henbart LLC announced recently that a year-long study led by the University of Washington’s Integrated Design Lab confirmed that upgrading to View® Dynamic Glass technology in the Lake Union Building significantly saved energy and improved the tenant experience. The report verified annual energy savings of 17.7 percent or 351,604 kWh – roughly $28,000 a year…
Degree Program
Landscape Architecture (BLA, MLA)
At the University of Washington, we strive to create a program that meets the complex social, environmental, political, and aesthetic challenges of our time. Our program emphasis on urban ecological design addresses the multiple dimensions of today’s environmental challenges – infrastructure, culture, ecological literacy, and human and environmental health. With our focus on the intersection…
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Landscape Ecology and Conservation Lab
The Landscape Ecology and Conservation Lab does research in the areas of: Climate Change, Land-Use Change, and Ecosystem Services
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LInda Nash
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Lisa Graumlich
Visit scholar websiteNews | December 13, 2016
Livable City Year releases RFP, invites cities to partner for 2017-8 academic year
The University of Washington’s Livable City Year initiative is now accepting proposals from cities, counties, special districts and regional partnerships to partner with during the 2017-2018 academic year. UW Livable City Year (UW LCY) connects University of Washington faculty and students with a municipal partner for a full academic year to work on projects fostering…
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LuAnne Thompson
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Lucy Jarosz
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MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, the Foundation works to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology is affecting children and…
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Marina Alberti
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Megan Ybarra
Visit scholar websiteNews | January 31, 2016
Monthly Wrap up January 2016
It’s been a great start to 2016. UW Alumni association and History Department put together a woderful history lecture series: Excavating Seattle’s histories: Peoples, politics, and place check out details and videos here> The CBE also hosted a number of great speakers and events including SUSTAINING JAPAN: 3.11 FIVE YEARS ON lecture and panel discussion…
News | June 4, 2018
Mussels In Waters Off Seattle Test Positive For Opioids
Mussels from three of 18 locations near Seattle and Bremerton in Washington’s Puget Sound tested positive for the opioid oxycodone, according to the Puget Sound Institute at the University of Washington Tacoma. The mussels were contaminated because sewage from opioid consumers ended up in the sound after being treated at wastewater plants, scientists explained. “What we eat and…
Scholar
Nancy Rottle
Visit scholar websiteNews | November 18, 2015
New report outlines Puget Sound region’s future under climate change
The Puget Sound watershed — the area west of the Cascades Mountains that stretches from the state capitol up to the Canadian border — is warming. It also faces rising seas, heavier downpours, larger and more frequent floods, more sediment in its rivers, less snow, and hotter, drier summer streams. A new report by the…
News | February 12, 2016
New! Urban Map Gallery
We’ve created a new urban map gallery to explore how other people and organizations are studying and visualizing data. The gallery features seven cities facing different social, economic, and geographic issues. This curation is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather provide insight and inspiration. Maps included track everything from sound to subway…
Center & Lab
Northwest Center for Livable Communities
The mission of the Northwest Center is to enhance the livability of communities in the Pacific Northwest through applied research and outreach in the areas of land use planning, policy, and design; healthy communities; food security; and public participation and democracy. The Center is a research and policy center focused on issues of environmental and…
Visit lab websiteNews | June 26, 2015
Northwest Institute for Advanced Computing: PNNL & UW presented by Thom Dunning
Presented at June 1st Urban@UW Launch Meeting
Center & Lab
NW Climate Science Center
The Northwest Climate Science Center(NW CSC) combines academic expertise with federal resources to advance climate science development and delivery for managers and policy makers in the Northwest region. The NW CSC’s vision is:To become nationally recognized as a best-practice model for the provision of climate science and decision support tools to address conservation and management…
Visit lab websiteNews | August 21, 2017
One-third of Seattle drivers ‘cruising’ for parking, rides, study finds
More than one-third of drivers in Seattle are either searching for parking or are ridesharing drivers waiting for ride assignments. That’s according to a study by a group of University of Washington students looking at traffic sensor data. The four students involved called this practice of searching for parking or rides “cruising.” The project used…
News | August 10, 2017
Opportunity abounds as Washington builds the modern electricity grid
The Horn Rapids Solar, Storage, and Training Project—which would be the largest solar installation in Washington, and one of a relative few anywhere with a significant amount of energy storage incorporated—embodies a long chain of public and private sector efforts that have positioned the state, and the broader Pacific Northwest, as a leader in the…
Research Beyond UW | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
P-REX
P-REX a research lab focused on environmental problems caused by urbanization, including the design, remediation, and reuse of waste landscapes worldwide. P-REX works to develop non-traditional design solutions to push the boundaries of conventional practice and incorporate resilient thinking into large-scale strategic planning & design.
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Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project
The UW is one of 11 sites in the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project, made possible by an $89 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (supplemented with matching funds) and managed by Battelle. The overall project goals are to identify opportunities to help save energy, make the power system more reliable and…
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Patrick Christie
Visit scholar websiteNews | September 19, 2017
People of color exposed to more pollution from cars, trucks, power plants during 10-year period
A new nationwide study finds that the U.S. has made little progress from 2000 to 2010 in reducing relative disparities between people of color and whites in exposure to harmful air pollution emitted by cars, trucks and other combustion sources. The groundbreaking study led by University of Washington Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Julian…
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Peter Rabinowitz
Visit scholar websiteNews | July 24, 2015
PNNL Hosting 4th Workshop on Next-Generation Analytics for the Future Power Grid
Center & Lab
Population Health Initiative
The University of Washington aspires to be the world’s leading university in population health. On May 3, 2016, President Ana Mari Cauce launched a groundbreaking Population Health Initiative by inviting the University community and partners to join in developing a 25-year vision to advance the health of people around the world by leveraging capabilities and…
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Qing Shen
Visit scholar websiteNews | May 29, 2016
Quick Recap: Here’s What Happened in May!
May saw a lot of wonderful events, visitors, and research coming out of the University of Washington community. Here’s a quick recap: The CBE PhD Program looked at the future of cities Patricia Romero Lankao visited to talk about the human dimension of climate change Seattle’s “diverse neighborhoods” are actually surprisingly segregated New lighting research…
News | May 7, 2016
Reading List for Patricia Romero Lankao Visit 5/11
In anticipation of Patricia Romero Lankao’s visit we thought you might enjoy these pieces to get a feel for her research and thinking. Water in Mexico City: What Will Climate Change Bring to Its History of Water-Related Hazards and Vulnerabilities?—This research paper delves into the history and evolution of water related risks and crises in…
News | December 20, 2016
Reflections on Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change
On November 7th and 8th Urban@UW, in collaboration with the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group (CIG), hosted a symposium to begin transdisciplinary conversation on the multifaceted dynamics and consequences of Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change (UEJ). Below are some reflections from this event, and a sample of the resources we’ll…
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Richard Conlin
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Rob Pena
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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pioneering Ideas and a Culture of Health
Throughout the year, we welcome Pioneering Ideas Brief Proposals that can help us anticipate the future and consider new and unconventional perspectives and approaches to building a Culture of Health. Pioneering Ideas and a Culture of Health The goal of the Pioneering Ideas Brief Proposal funding opportunity is to explore; to look into the future…
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Sara Jo Breslow
Visit scholar websiteNews | August 6, 2018
Sea-level rise report contains best projections yet for Washington’s coasts
One certainty under climate change is that global ocean levels are rising. A new report led by Washington Sea Grant and the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group provides the clearest picture yet of what to expect in Washington state. The report includes projections for more than 150 different sites along the Washington coastline, from…
Center & Lab
SeaGrant Washington
Washington Sea Grant (WSG) is a catalyst for innovative marine research and education opportunities. Research is the cornerstone of WSG’s mission to help people to better understand and address the challenges facing our oceans and coasts. As part of a national partnership funded and coordinated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through a…
Visit lab websiteNews | August 2, 2018
Seattle pilot project planting trees that can adapt to global warming
Seattle City Light and the Mountains to Sound Greenway are planting native trees from warmer climates on 154 acres along Stossel Creek. If Western Washington’s climate warms up in the next half-century, could our trees stand it? As an experiment, Seattle City Light and the Mountains to Sound Greenway have embarked on a test to…
News | July 13, 2018
Self-driving bikes: Seattle’s next transit revolution?
What does your future commute look like? Will you be taking a self-driving car, a solo-wheel, the hyperloop? What about … a self-driving bike? In this episode of ReInventors, Crosscut looks at how Professor Tyler Folsom and his students at University of Washington Bothell are spearheading a grassroots effort to test and develop lighter, more affordable, personal…
Funding
Social Science Research Council
The SSRC offers 28 different fellowships, grants, and prizes across a range of topics. Since 1923, the SSRC has awarded more than fifteen thousand fellowships to researchers around the globe. Council fellowship programs are strategic—they target specific problems, promote individual and institutional change, and expand networks. The SSRC’s varied fellowships and prizes share a core…
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Soo-Hyung Kim
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Stephen M. Gardiner
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Sustainable Urban Development (BA)
Accomplishing sustainable urban development is a crucial challenge for the twenty-first century. The University of Washington Tacoma is at the forefront of engaging and educating undergraduate students on this topic. The Sustainable Urban Development degree provides students with a critical and rigorous training in ecological, political, economic, and social aspects of urban development processes.
Visit program websiteResearch Beyond UW | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Urban Risk Lab
The Urban Risk Lab at MIT develops methods and technologies to embed risk reduction and preparedness into the design of cities and regions to increase the resilience of local communities. Operating at the intersection of ecology and infrastructure, rural and urban, research and action; the Urban Risk Lab is an interdisciplinary organization of researchers and…
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Timothy V. Larson
Visit scholar websiteNews | November 21, 2016
To Californians: The Hours You Spend in Traffic May Soon Be Used to Generate Electricity
LOS ANGELES, CA – If you’re a Los Angeles native, resident or even visitor, you will probably cringe at the combination of “LA” and “rush hour.” Sitting in LA traffic is an excruciatingly painful task, and not just because of the hours you spend putting pressure on your lower back. If your brakes aren’t screeching…
News | April 24, 2017
Toward greener construction: UW professor collab sets markers for carbon across life of buildings
A University of Washington-led research group has taken an important step toward measuring — and ultimately reducing — the global carbon footprint of building construction and long-term maintenance. The Carbon Leadership Forum is a collaborative effort among academics and industry professionals based in the UW’s College of Built Environments that studies reducing carbon emissions over…
Degree Program
Urban Design and Planning (Minor, Cert, BA, MUP, MIPM, PhD)
Our core mission is to develop a community of inquiry, learning, and practice that helps urban regions to become more livable, just, economically effective, and environmentally sound through a democratic process of urban design and planning.
Visit program websiteResearch Beyond UW | Columbia University
Urban Design Lab
The Urban Design Lab (UDL) of the Earth Institute and GSAPP works to find innovative solutions to the sustainable development issues confronting cities. The UDL conducts multidisciplinary applied design research in collaboration with community-based organizations and other public and private interests. The UDL's team works closely with outside experts in architecture, ecology, economics, environmental science,…
Urban Design Lab" target="_blank">Visit research websiteNews | December 12, 2018
Urban Ecologist/Superhero
UW Tacoma Assistant Professor Christopher Schell is a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as evidenced by the Black Panther coffee cup and Black Panther bobble head on his desk. Schell is a scientist, not a superhero; but if he were to assume a secret identity he might be dubbed, “Coyote.” Schell is an urban…
Center & Lab
Urban Ecology Research Lab
As part of the University of Washington’s innovative leadership in urban ecology research and education, the UERL transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries to address some of society’s most challenging problems. Our research interests include: complexity and resilience in coupled natural and human systems, urban landscape patterns and ecosystem function, urban ecosystem management, modeling land cover change,…
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Urban Infrastructure Lab
Research from the Urban Infrastructure Lab includes: UW Solar, Husky Sustainable Storms, Climate Smart Capital Investment Planning, Smart Cities & Information Security, Transaction Cost Economics, and Homeland Security
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Urban Theory Lab
In the early 1970s, Henri Lefebvre put forward the radical hypothesis of the complete urbanization of society. This required, in his view, a radical shift from the analysis of urban form to the investigation of urbanization processes. The Urban Theory Lab builds upon Lefebvre’s approach to investigate emergent sociospatial formations under early twenty-first century capitalism.…
Urban Theory Lab" target="_blank">Visit research websiteNews | April 20, 2017
USGS, partners launch a unified, West Coast-wide earthquake early warning system
The U.S. Geological Survey and university, public and private partners held an event April 10 at the University of Washington to introduce the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning program as a unified, West Coast-wide system. The event also introduced the first pilot uses of the earthquake early warning in Washington and Oregon. The first Pacific Northwest…
News | March 2, 2016
UW aids city of Seattle on open data initiative
<allenges.< p=””></allenges.<> If people find it easier to get data from the city of Seattle going forward, they can in part thank the University of Washington. A team of UW faculty members and doctoral students spent the past six months working with the city on a new open data policy unveiled last week by…
Funding
UW Campus Sustainability Fund
The Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) grew out of a vision of the student body to have a more substantive engagement with the University of Washington’s sustainability efforts. After an unprecedented student campaign, the Services and Activities Fee (SAF) Committee allocated $339, 805 to the office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability (ESS) to help implement the…
Visit funding websiteNews | June 17, 2015
UW Contributes to New Northwest Climate Magazine
The University of Washington is one of 3 major universities contributing to the new annual publication, the Northwest Climate Magazine with the goal of building resilience to climate change for our region’s natural and human communities.
News | October 27, 2015
UW initiative aims to tackle city, region’s most pressing urban issues
When Thaisa Way put a call out last spring to see if University of Washington faculty members working on urban issues wanted to join forces, she wasn’t sure what the response would be. “There were a lot of people who said, ‘You’re not going to get anyone to show up,‘” said Way, a UW associate…
Center & Lab
UW Mesoscale Analysis and Forecasting Group
Sponsored by the Northwest Modeling Consortium, we have run the MM5 and now WRF mesoscale models operationally at high resolution since 1995. Currently, the WRF is run at 36 km horizontal resolution over the eastern Pacific, 12 km over the Pacific Northwest, 4 km over Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and 1.3 km over Washington, northern…
Visit lab websiteNews | November 29, 2018
UW’s Marina Alberti to lead new NSF-funded research network to study impact of cities on Earth’s evolutionary dynamics
Here in what is called the Anthropocene era, humans and our urban environments appear to be driving accelerated evolutionary change in plants, animals, fungi, viruses and more — changes that could affect key ecosystem functions and thus human well-being. These interactions between evolution and ecology are called “eco-evolutionary feedback.” The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year,…
News | December 18, 2015
UW/Seattle MetroLab Partnership
Have you been wondering what exactly is going to happen with the Seattle / UW partnership under the MetroLab initiative? The three “named” projects from Seattle will be the Array of Things partnership with Chicago, Private data sharing with the Tech Policy Lab, and a smart grid study of the relationship between temperature and power…
News | December 4, 2015
Weekly Recap 11/30 – 12/4
In case you’ve been sleeping for the past week, here are some of the urban news highlights: #COP21 Kicked off in Paris and cities took center stage Newsweek Article > Environmental Historian Christof Mauch came to UW and gave a lecture: ‘How Vulnerable Is Our World? Environmental Sustainability and Lessons from the Past’ Seattle Times…
News | December 18, 2015
Weekly Recap 12/12-12/18
A few of the highlights in Urban news for the past week: 195 nations reached a landmark accord that will, for the first time, commit nearly every country to lowering planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions to help stave off the most drastic effects of climate change http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/world/europe/climate-change-accord-paris.html UW announces new Master of Science in Data Science…
News | August 7, 2017
What city ants can teach us about species evolution and climate change
Acorn ants are tiny. They’re not the ants you’d notice marching across your kitchen or swarming around sidewalk cracks, but the species is common across eastern North America. In particular, acorn ants live anywhere you find oak or hickory trees: both in forests and in the hearts of cities. That’s why they’re so interesting to…
News | December 7, 2018
What if Alaska’s earthquake happened here?
Last Friday, a 7.0 earthquake rattled Anchorage, Alaska. Amazingly, no one died — and revamped building codes enacted in the wake of the state’s deadly 1964 Good Friday quake meant the city was more prepared than most. Outside of a few structure fires, damage was kept to a minimum. But striking images of tectonic apocalypse…
Funding
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The Hewlett Foundation makes grants in five core program areas: education, environment, global development and population, performing arts, and philanthropy. In addition, the Foundation makes grants to support disadvantaged communities in the Bay Area. The Foundation’s grants are awarded solely for charitable purposes.
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