IGERT: Sustainable Urban Infrastructure

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IGERT Sustainable Urban Infrastructure
Anu Ramaswami, Program Director Engineering and
Applied ScienceJohn Brett, Liberal Arts
SciencesDebbi Main, Family MedicineBrian
Muller, Architecture PlanningPaul Teske,
Public AffairsUniversity of Colorado Denver
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About 20 Faculty and Growing

• Science Engineering
• Bruce Janson, Lynn Johnson, Kevin Rens, Randy
  Tagg (Physics)
• Architecture Planning
• Fred Andreas, Tom Clark, Kevin Krizek, Yuk Lee
• Health Behavioral Science
• Steve Koester David Tracer
• Family Medicine and Center for Human Nutrition
• Jim Hill, Jill Litt, Debbi Main
• Public Affairs
• Lloyd Burton, George Busenberg, Christine Martell

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What is IGERT?

• Integrative
• Graduate
• Education
• Research
• Traineeship
• Highly competitive national award of 3.2M from
  the National Science Foundation
• Only 100 Universities w/ IGERTs nationwide since
  1997
• Only 3 other IGERTs in Colorado CSU, Boulder
  (2)

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IGERT Theme of Sustainable Urban Infrastructure
at UCD

• How can we design future urban infrastructures to
  make our cities environmentally and economically
  sustainable, healthy and resilient?

Multi-Sector, Hard, Soft, Green Infrastructures
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Why Urban Infrastructure?
More than half of humanity will be living in
Cities, by 2008

• UN, 2003

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Unique Features UCD IGERT

• Highly Integrated
• Across Spatial Scale, Sectors, Disciplines
• New Infrastructures of the Future
• Science informs Policy on Global Grand Challenges
  
• Infrastructures Climate Change and Water
• Infrastructures Vulnerability and Resilience
• Infrastructures Environment and Public Health
• Quantitative-Qualitative approach - niche
• Fieldwork in communities and cities

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Example Inter-connected InfrastructuresCross-Sec
tor Integration Food, Health Waste
URBAN ZERO WASTE INFRASTRUCTURE 40 of Municipal
Waste from Food
FOOD PRODUCTION INFRASTRUCTURE20 of Global
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Ramaswami, Hill and Main pre-proposal to NSF
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Example Grand Challenge Infrastructures, Built
Environment Public Health
Community-based Research, Stapleton Redevelopment
Main NIH Grant
Non-motorized Transport Krizek et al., 2007
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IGERT Fieldwork PartnersApplied Research in Real
Cities!

• City County of Denver
• Chennai, India - Indian Institute of Technology
  Madras