Project Activities

Placeholder

The project’s research element (Components 1a, 1b, 1c in Table below) are building on work by Tweed, Srinivasan and Jabi, in particular, and the team will adapt existing simulation models so they can be applied in identified test beds in the three sites of the partner institutions. This will test the applicability of the models in different climates and conditions. Visualization of the data will be shared with the urban/campus community via live-feeds of monitored data on the project website. A major contribution of the project will be the identification of cumulative effects of green infrastructure elements on water flows, urban microclimate and other sustainability indicators. Research that will be pursued includes:

meta-analysis of studies from green infrastructure impact and case studies
monitoring and evaluating resource consumption and emissions of new and existing buildings through application of appropriate tools (e.g., Energy Star Portfolio Manager)
undertaking cost/benefit and pay-back analysis from GI retrofits and new buildings
assessment of stakeholder perceptions of GI technology and review of legislative /political contexts

The scientific work will lead to the creation of teaching materials, including a field work course where students collect and analyze data. The courses will address issues of capacity building and develop individuals with an ability to tackle global challenges. Development of the curriculum will commence in seminar 2. Other project outputs will include the following: 1) a website and data clearinghouse which will provide continuous project updates; 2) case studies to be used for instruction; 3) conference papers and publications in international journals; a wrap-up conference at UF to distribute results and advertise services to public, private and non-government sectors.

Overview of Project Components

	Activities
Component 1 RESEARCH	a) Inventory greening technologies, best practices, meta-analysis of impacts
	b) Transferable knowledge and stakeholder workshops
	c) Monitoring protocols, data visualization workbench, composite simulation models
Component 2 EDUCATION	a) Knowledge and expertise audits
	b) development of program specifications for courses and certificate program
	c) Student field work; case studies/ teaching materials for HE and schools
Component 3: DISSEMINATION KNOWLEDGE	Final results meeting/conference; developing business links

Working Group Roles

Kickoff Meeting

A kick-off Seminar hosted at the University of Florida from June 1st-Jun 4th. Four faculty from UI, four faculty from CU and eleven faculty from UF were attending. The following issues have been discussed:

Collaboration and team building
Establish Task teams for project components
Updates on current research activities
Technical review of equipment/software and data compatibilities; protocols of results.

Kickoff meeting notes