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SS FORUM: Sustainable and Resilient Urban Infrastructure for the Next 100 Years

Event Type
Guest Lecture
Speaker
Chris Kennedy & John Crittenden
Sponsor
Center for Sustainable Systems
School of Natural Resources and Environment
Tauber College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Details
November 8, 20132:00pm - 3:30pm
 - 
1040 Dana Building

Two renowned scholars on urban systems share their perspectives on how we may foster more resilient and sustainable urban infrastructures for the 21st Century.  Professor Christopher Kennedy (Civil Engineering, University of Toronto) presents cities as an urban metabolism, composed of material and energy stocks and flows, and discusses how infrastructure is a fundamental determinant of the metabolism.  Professor John Crittenden (Director, Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, Georgia Tech University) introduces the audience to infrastructure ecology, which conceptualizes and models traditional infrastructures (e.g., water, energy, transportation) and socio-economic-ecological infrastructures (e.g., community design, land use planning) as an intertwined, complex, emergent urban nexus.

Each presenter will speak for approximately twenty minutes, followed by questions from University of Michigan assistant professors, Joshua Newell (SNRE) and Ming Xu (SNRE), and from the audience.  The event will produce a lively, interactive discussion and reflection on what we must do to forge sustainable, resilient cities in an era of climate change, unprecedented urbanization, and ecological crises.  A reception follows this special event.

Chris Kennedy, Professor of Civil Engineering at University of Toronto

His research focus includes: Economic and environmental aspects of sustainable urban infrastructure including transportation, buildings and water systems; Design of sustainable streets and neighbourhoods; Urban metabolism.

John Crittenden, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech and Director, Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems

His research focus includes: Infrastructure Ecology, Pollution Prevention; Physical Chemical Treatment Processes; Transport of Organics in Saturated and Unsaturated Groundwater; Mass Transfer; Modeling of Wastewater and Water Treatment Processes.

Click here to watch a video recording of this SS Forum.