Research Strategy & Methods
Our approach is based on coupled biological and social science research that seeks to understand how human social decision making impacts biological processes in cities and their hinterlands, and how those altered biological processes then affect life and public policies in cities. Climate change is an excellent example of this feedback loop. Because of the population concentration in cities, and our dependence on fossil fuels, cities have become the biggest generators of GHGs. Transportation policy, largely supportive of automobiles, suburban living also subsidized in numerous ways, and oil extraction subsidies, have exacerbated our unidimensional energy reliance on non renewable fossil, carbon energy. This is now affecting such factors as urban heat temperatures which have risen dramatically over time in cities and in Los Angeles. Such a rise increases the use of air conditioners, irrigation water, and alters biodiversity. These impacts, in turn, lead to a need for more electricity to be generated, more water to be transferred to the region, and the rise of invasive species and other kinds of biodiversity that would not be as able to compete for niches. It also increases air pollution and negative impacts on human health.
Our research projects examine these feedbacks by conducting biological monitoring and assessment to understand ecosystem processes in urban areas, and by examining policies and politics, behaviors and institutions, and equity outcomes to better understand how humans affect their environments, why, and the results on society.
Current Research Projects
Los Angeles Million Tree Initiative
Mayor Antonio Villaragosa announced an important new program to plant a million more trees in Los Angeles. This research is a couple bio-social analysis that looks at the potential biophysical impacts on LA (water use, air pollution, urban heat island) and its implementation how a new program becomes institutionalized.
Download file: MTLAresearch.pdf
A study of park use and park facilities in two contrasting geographical areas in Los Angeles
This research is in collaboration with the UCLA Urban Planning Department and is funded by the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation. We are interested to know how park amenities might affect youth preferences for outdoor recreation, rates of obesity, as well as park use habits in the family. We are contrasting parks in the San Fernando Valley with parks in the inner city of Los Angeles. We are examining access to parks and issues of equity.
Download file: What brings children to the park.pdf
California Conservation Politics since the passage of Proposition 13
In collaboration with Daniel Press and Pete Halloran of UCSC, this book will be published by UC Press. We are examining the distribution of park bond funding in the state, and programs to preserve habitat and to create parks.
Watershed Sustainability Indicators for Los Angeles
In collaboration with the Los Angeles San Gabriel Watershed Council, the Department of Civil Environmental Engineering at UCLA, the Pacific Southwest Research Station of the USFS and USC, we are developing a set of regional watershed sustainability indicators for the Los Angeles that will be integrated into statewide watershed health indicators. One of our primary tasks will be to develop social sustainability indicators that will serve as a model for other watersheds in the state.
Communities and the Built Environment
This is an EPA project led by Jean Daniel Saphores in Civil Environmental Engineering at UCI, with the collaboration of Tom Gillespie at UCLA Geography and Sassan Saatchi, JPL/NASA/IoE.
Past Research Projects
A study of the Coachella Valley Habitat Conservation Planning process
Funded by the California Policy Research Center, was conducted with the assistance of the UCLA History Department and received an award for best academic research by the Inland Empire Chapter of the American Planning Association. We found that there were significant institutional reasons why the Coachella Valley Habitat Conservation Planning Process has taken over a decade despite substantial concensus throughout the valley. These were due to structural mismatches between institutional missions and their decision making responsibilities at such an integrated large scale.
Analysis of the implementation of Proposition O, a stormwater quality improvement initiative in Los Angeles
This evaluation research project determined that Proposition O was a useful supplement to the citys infrastructure budget. While it was intended to fund multiple purpose projects, such projects did not find much support due to their novelty and diffuse benefits. Rather the Department of Sanitation directed much of the funding to repair and improve infrastructure, and to fix dilapidated Recreation and Parks lakes and irrigation systems.