SEEEL
Ethical Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies
We use industrial ecology, ethical, and transdisciplinary approaches to research and develop climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. We tend to research and develop at the systems level, where the aggregation of micro-interactions emerge trends and patterns that affect our socioecological systems.
Industrial Ecology
Industrial ecology approaches include life cycle assessment (LCA),
material flow analysis, and scenario analysis among others. Our lab tends to use a mix of computational modeling (e.g., LCA software, topography visualization software, excel, and machine learning) and survey administration to develop quantitative models that can forecast future behavior. These forecasts help to identify life-cycle vulnerabilities and improve decision-making outcomes, yielding savings in environmental, social, and monetary capital.
Ethics
Ethics refers to being fair and unbiased as a function of an organization or system. This occurs when resource, policy, and cultural needs are properly addressed all at the same time. Our lab develops novel approaches and datasets to help achieve this.
Transdisciplinary Collaboration
We believe that transdisciplinary collaborations will be key in addressing the complex and ‘wicked’ challenges of modern times. To that end, we tend to co-develop and administer research with those in and outside of the civil and environmental engineering field (e.g., practitioners, public policy, mechanical and materials engineers, media and arts, social psychology, public health, and economists).
RESEARCH FOCUS
Food-Energy-Water
The food life cycle is a significant contributor to environmental degradation. It encompasses many complex systems, spanning infrastructure, cultural/ethnic, ecological, and political systems. Our lab designs models that incorporate these systems using historical data to forecast future behavior.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Buildings & Urbanization
To accompany a growing world population through the year 2050, it is anticipated the urbanized population will grow at an even faster rate. This growing urbanized population combined with the diversification of subgroups converge to cause what we call social densification. Our lab develops models and decision making tools that help urban engineers and planners address the emergence of social densification.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Circularity
This primarily involves circular economy and materials approaches. The Circular economy (CE) aims to keep natural and technical resources cycling for longer. Our lab integrates circularity into to help meet our broad goal of developing equitable climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.
