News

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… Read more: Producer and consumer perspectives on supporting and diversifying local food systems in central Iowa

  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.… Read more: Wei Chen was awarded alternative modes of scholarship from the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Urban Geography Specialty Groups

  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.… Read more: Sedigheh Ghiasi is awarded a grant from The Climate and Quaternary Research Fund

  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… Read more: Wei Chen was selected as the 2023 Reiman Gardens’ Science Communication Fellow

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.… Read more: Yuyu Zhou speaking at National Academies Workshop on Digital Twins in Atmospheric, Climate, and Sustainability Science

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). The four weeks were spent sharing his group’s research in addition to… Read more: Vishal Muralidharan picked as the winner of Sustainability Tank, by means of Audience Vote

Iowa Climate Statement 2022: The Many Benefits of Our Trees https://iowaenvironmentalfocus.org/iowa-climate-statement/  https://www.radioiowa.com/2022/10/05/group-of-iowa-scientists-touts-the-benefits-of-trees/ October 5, 2022 via Zoom

11th International Drainage Symposium (https://www.swcs.org/events/past-events/past-specialty-conferences/22ids/attendee-information/) , August 30-September 2, 2022 in Des Moines, Iowa Presentation: “Improving Ecohydrological Simulations by Incorporating Accurate Tile Drainage and Fertilizer Application Rate Data: A Case Study of Central Iowa” (oral – 20 min.)

(https://swat.tamu.edu/conferences/2022-prague/), 11-15, July 2022 at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Environmental. Sciences. For the Conference agenda, presentations and video access: Agenda | SWAT | Soil & Water Assessment Tool (tamu.edu) Presentations: “Investigating multiple SWAT-HAWQS baseline simulations… Read more: Tássia Brighenti presents at the International SWAT Conference & Workshops

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… Read more: Wei Chen presents teamwork at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America.

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… Read more: Sedigheh Ghiasi wins first prize in the Carbon Negative Idea Contest Organized by the ISU Green Umbrella

Recipient: Tiffanie StoneDegree Program: Environmental Science, Ph.D.Nominated By: Thomas Isenhart — Professor of Natural Resource Ecology and ManagementIsenhart: “[Tiffanie] uses empirical data collection and modeling techniques that require large datasets to examine the characteristics of existing food systems and predict those of future systems… Read more: 2022-2023 Brown Graduate Fellowship Cohort Announced: Tiffanie Stone

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… Read more: PFI Lightning Talks

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… Read more: INFEWS PI poster presentation 

Title:  Estimating the diurnal cycle of land surface temperature by integrating weather model with satellite observations. Presentation description: Participants in this well-attended workshop learned how to estimate meteorological variables at high spatiotemporal resolutions. Integrating weather research and forecasting model and… Read more: PhD student Wei Chen, presents Iowa UrbanFEWS work at the INFEWS PI Workshop on Feb 10.

Sedigheh Ghiasi will be defending her MS in Architecture Thesis “An interactive GIS-based method to determine feasible roof areas for Photovoltaic panels” on November 18, 2021 at 10am in Room 130 in the ISU College of Design. Summary: My thesis is about… Read more: Sedigheh Ghiasi defends her MS in Architecture Thesis Nov 18

“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… Read more: Published Paper by Tiffanie F. Stone, Janette R. Thompson, Kurt A. Rosentrater, and Ajay Nair

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 AIA Presentation description:… Read more: Sedigheh Ghiasi presents workshop at the Iowa AIA convention Sept 23

The Iowa UrbanFEWS project values sharing our research beyond academia. When Mustard Seed Community Farm, a local non-profit in Ames, Iowa reached out to a PhD student on the team, a roundtable discussion about food systems emerged. Tiffanie Stone led the… Read more: A Community Farm Roundtable Discussion about Food Systems

Diba Malekpour Koupaei, PhD candidate in the Civil Engineering Department at Iowa State University, presented the team’s most recent research efforts on developing a workflow for the integration of high-resolution tree geometries in urban energy simulation models at the same… Read more: Diba Malekpour Koupaei presents at the 17th International IBPSA Building Simulation Conference

Sedigheh Ghiasi, graduate student with the team presented ‘A sensitivity analysis to investigate urban heat island (UHI) effect on buildings energy consumption’  at the 17th International IBPSA Building Simulation Conference held hybrid from September 1-3, 2021 in Bruges Belgium. The… Read more: Sedigheh Ghiasi presents at the 17th International IBPSA Building Simulation Conference

The Iowa Urban FEWS team published its first overview paper Iowa Urban FEWS: Integrating Social and Biophysical Models for Exploration of Urban Food, Energy, and Water Systems in Frontiers’ Food-Energy-Water Nexus’ Effects on Urban Infrastructure’.

Undergraduate Iowa State research students Oluwatobiloba Fagbule in Architecture and Rushi Patel in Mechanical Engineering presented their research on “Validating the impact of vegetative wall coverings on building cooling loads using heat-flux sensors and infrared images” at the National Council on… Read more: Oluwatobiloba Fagbule and Rushi Patel present “Utilizing a novel mobile diagnostics lab to validate the impact of vegetative wall coverings in building cooling load reduction” at the NCUR 2021 Event

Ulrike Passe, associate professor of architecture and director of the ISU Center for Building Energy Research, collaborated with Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, professor of mechanical engineering; Fei Xu (PhD 2018 Mechanical Engineering), now a research and development engineer at Ansys Inc.; and Songzhe Xu (BS 2012 /… Read more: Ulrike Passe & Baskar Ganapathysubramanian publish paper “Computational study of natural ventilation in a sustainable building with complex geometry”

Jan Thompson (Associate Professor, Natural Resource Ecology and Management at ISU), Baskar Ganapathysubramanian (Professor, Mechanical Engineering at ISU), Wei Chen (Ph.D. Student, Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, ISU), Michael Dorneich (Associate Professor, Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at ISU), Phil Gassman, (Associate Scientist, ISU Center for Agricultural… Read more: Iowa UrbanINFEWS Team Presents at ISU Research Day, Spring 2021

Erin Huckins, M.S. student in the Sustainable Agriculture program at Iowa State University presented “Challenges and Opportunities for Producers and Consumers in Central Iowa Urban Food Systems” at the Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture Research Symposium that took place virtually on April… Read more: Erin Huckins presents “Challenges and Opportunities for Producers and Consumers in Central Iowa Urban Food Systems” at Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture Research Symposium

The Iowa Urban FEWS team is welcoming Tássia Mattos Brighenti to the team in March 2021. Tassia is Brazilian and graduated in with a B.S. in Environmental Engineering at University of Itajaí Valley in 2011. She did her M.S. (2013… Read more: Iowa Urban FEWS team welcomes Tássia Mattos Brighenti

AMES, Iowa – A new study shows diversifying agricultural systems beyond a narrow selection of crops leads to a range of ecosystem improvements while also maintaining or improving yields. But a professor of agronomy at Iowa State University who co-authored… Read more: Study: Crop diversification can improve environmental outcomes without sacrificing yields

“Climate Smart Vegetable Production: The Environmental Attributes of Vegetables Produced in Conventional, Local, and Home Garden Food Systems in the Midwest US “, was presented by Tiffanie Stone at ACLCA (American Center for Life Cycle Assessment) Conference 2020, receiving 2nd place… Read more: Tiffanie Stone received second place in a poster competition at ACLCA 2020

Impact of Vegetative Wall Coverings on Building Cooling Load Reduction by Oluwatobiloba Fagbule This poster was presented at the ISU Undergraduate Research Symposium, organized by the ISU Undergraduate Research Program, and held virtually on August 4, 2020. The poster was… Read more: A presentation by Fagbule Oluwatobiloba at the ISU Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium 2020

On July 22 and 23, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a virtual workshop titled ‘Healthy People, Healthy Planet: Building a More Sustainable, Resilient, Equitable, and Nourishing Food System.’ Workshop presenters explored three main dimensions of the food… Read more: The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a virtual workshop!

                                                    “LCA and TEA of Conventional Versus Local Production of Vegetables for US Midwest Cities”,… Read more: LCA and TEA of Conventional Versus Local Production of Vegetables for US Midwest Cities, presented by Tiffanie Stone at ASABE 2020.

Iowa State University received $253 million in external sponsored research funding, including a new record of $186 million in federal research funding, for the 2020 fiscal year that ended June 30, 2020. One of the most notable projects receiving NSF… Read more: Iowa UrbanFEWS project contributes to new benchmark in federal research funding

On this episode of River to River, host Ben Kieffer is joined by experts in environmental health and sustainability for a look at the intersection of global crises today. Globally and nationally, people are experiencing a multitude of crises. All at once,… Read more: As New Global Crises Emerge, Climate Change Continues

“Lifetime Energy Performance of Residential Buildings: A Sensitivity Analysis of Energy Modeling Parameters”, presented by Diba Malekpour Koupaei at SimAUD 2020, is a paper co-authored by Diba Malekpour Koupaei, Ph.D. student in Civil, Construction and Engineering at Iowa State University;… Read more: “Lifetime Energy Performance of Residential Buildings: A Sensitivity Analysis of Energy Modeling Parameters”, presented by Diba Malekpour Koupaei at the Symposium on Simulation in Architecture + Urban Design 2020