Oct 12, 2023
Iowa UrbanFEWS team published important findings regarding consumer and producer perspective on local food systems.
We examined producers’ willingness to include/increase cultivation of
local foods and consumers’ interest in purchasing/increasing local
foods. We used focus groups of producers (two groups of conventional
farmers, four local food producers) and consumers (three conventional
market participants, two locavores) to pose questions about
production/consumption of local foods.
available in
Jul 26, 2023
Wei created a 2-minute video to explain why her research matters. Her video with the title “Listen! Nighttime satellite is whispering about U.S. electrical weakness” can be found at: https://vimeo.com/763439048. This video has been awarded alternative modes of scholarship. This award is to recognize the increasingly diverse ways in which researchers disseminate their research.
Jul 25, 2023
The Climate and Quaternary Research Fund is a grant program provided by the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences at ISU. It was established to support research and experiential learning opportunities related to global climate change and quaternary research.
Jul 24, 2023
As a science communication fellow, Wei Chen has gained hands-on training and experience to share her research with public audiences. Equipped with the knowledge gained from informative 16-hour workshops, Wei was inspired to design several interactive activities that would resonate with a diverse audience. These activities focused specifically on building energy consumption, aiming to foster connections and raise awareness about building energy savings.
Jan 23, 2023
The digital twin is an
emerging technology that has the potential to revolutionize atmospheric,
climate, and sustainability science. Digital twins can be used to
create global-scale interactive models of Earth and better predict
climate and weather conditions, among other applications.
Oct 14, 2022
Vishal Muralidharan visited the National University of Singapore (NUS) between August-September, as part of the Second Student Cohort for the Center of Leadership Development in Built Environment Sustainability (https://www.cldbes.org/second-student-cohort-tbd).
Sep 21, 2022
Ecological Society of America (ESA) is the nation’s leading professional society of ecologists, representing 10,000 scientists, researchers, policy-makers, and managers from the United States and over 50 other nations. 2022 ESA annual meeting was held in Montreal, Canada, from August 14 to August 19. Wei Chen, a Ph.D. student supervised by Dr.
Jul 25, 2022
May 05, 2022
Participants had 5 minutes to pitch their idea. Sedigheh's idea was based on her MS in Architecture thesis which promotes Photovoltaic rooftop panels to develop low carbon and resilient neighborhoods using a user-friendly- interactive GIS-based map. Click here to see her presentation.
Apr 08, 2022
Understanding urban plant phenology for sustainable cities and planet published by Yuyu Zhou. This article discusses the effects rapid urbanization has on plant phenology. The complexity of urban environments provides difficult growing constraints for plants. However, opportunities in spatial data and technologies greatly aid in the study of urban phenology. An advanced understanding of plant phenology and the changes due to urbanization is dire for understanding how to grow sustainable, urban ecosystems.
Mar 08, 2022
Recipient: Tiffanie Stone
Degree Program: Environmental Science, Ph.D.
Nominated By: Thomas Isenhart — Professor of Natural Resource Ecology and Management
Feb 24, 2022
At the Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) Conference, Tiffanie Stone presented how climate-smart local Iowa vegetables are compared to US conventional vegetables, which primarily come from California, based on environmental impacts across the entire food system (using a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach). This lightning talk is part of the outreach plan for the first LCA study conducted within the Iowa UrbanFEWS project.
Feb 24, 2022
Tiffanie Stone (Life Cycle Assessment modeler) and Tassia Brighenti (Soil and Water Assessment Tool modeler) teamed up to present a poster titled "A biophysical lens: Assessing multiple food system scenarios in the Des Moines Metropolitan Area using SWAT and LCA simulations" at the INFEWS PI Conference. In addition to determining possible connections of model inputs and outputs, the strengths and weaknesses of each model were also presented to support more effective and holistic future food system scenarios at the metropolitan scale.
Feb 19, 2022
Title: Estimating the diurnal cycle of land surface temperature by integrating weather model with satellite observations.
Nov 16, 2021
Oct 24, 2021
"A Life Cycle Assessment Approach for Vegetables in Large-, Mid-, and Small-Scale Food Systems in the Midwest US" Abstract: Although vegetables are important for healthy diets, there are concerns about the sustainability of food systems that provide them. For example, half of fresh-market vegetables sold in the United States (US) are produced in California, leading to negative impacts associated with transportation. In Iowa, the focus of this study, 90% of food is imported from outside the state.
Oct 03, 2021
The presentation was based on Sedigheh Ghiasi’s MS in Architecture thesis, which she will also defend this fall.
Title: An interactive GIS-based method to enable homeowners and architects to determine feasible roof areas for photovoltaic (PV) panels