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The Hixon Center for Urban Ecology encourages Yale faculty to submit funding proposals for scholarly research or initiatives focusing on aspects of environmental science, conservation, policy, or management in an urban context. For more information on the faculty research program please see below.
Jim Lyons, Professor in the Practice of Natural Resource Management The Urban Resources Partnership (URP) was a collaboration of federal, state, and local agencies established to improve the delivery of financial and technical assistance for conservation projects to disadvantaged communities in urban environments. The URP began in 1994, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provided initial funding to cities to develop urban conservation programs. The URP operated for nearly six years, providing over $16 million for urban conservation projects including tree planting, urban gardening, riverfront restoration, and ecological restoration. The Hixon Center has provided a grant to Prof. James Lyons to conduct an analysis of the URP and the effectiveness of this unique federal, state, local partnership. The grant will provide funds to evaluate projects and the working relationships among the various URP partners in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and Seattle – the four original URP cities. The purpose of this analysis is to determine how the URP affected working relationships among government agencies in each city, how it affected the communities involved, and whether their participation in URP projects has had a long-term effect on their interest in urban conservation, on the quality of the environments in which each project was undertaken, and the communities' capacity to conduct future ecological work in each city.
Shimon
Anisfeld, Lecturer and Associate Research Scientist
in Environmental Chemistry and Water Resources Both water and nitrogen (i.e., protein) are crucial resources for the survival of any city. Providing these resources (and disposing of associated wastes) often places huge burdens on the surrounding “and sometimes distant” environment. In this project, we will examine how water and nitrogen move through the urban ecosystem of New Haven, in an attempt to improve our understanding of urban sustainability and provide a context for efforts to reduce impacts on the natural environment. Our work will consist of 5 components: 1. Constructing a water budget for the city of New Haven, including inflows and outflows, for both supplied water and natural water (i.e., precipitation). 2. Determining the uses of water in New Haven (for supplied water only) by sector and neighborhood 3. Examining the demographic and other factors that affect residential water use in New Haven.. 4. Examining water use at Yale University, as a case study of a large, diverse user. 5. Constructing a nitrogen budget for New Haven, including inflows and outflows. We will rely to a large extent on existing data sets (e.g., water use data from the Regional Water Authority, demographic data from the census, sewage data from the New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority), and will use statistical, spatial, and budgeting techniques to understand water and nitrogen flows and to assess the factors affecting water use. The project will begin in earnest during the spring term and will continue into the summer and fall.
Reid
Lifset, Associate Research Scholar, Associate Director
of the Industrial Environmental Management Program and Editor-in-Chief
of the Journal of Industrial Ecology Among their functions, cities are an important locus for the production, consumption and disposal of products. Traditionally, manufacturers bear the responsibility for the impacts of making products, consumers for the usage-related consequences and local government bear the responsibility for the waste that results when products are discarded. This is changing. In Europe, Japan and in some other countries and jurisdictions, producers are increasingly being required to extend their responsibilities to encompass end-of-life (EOL) management. This policy strategy, known as extended producer responsibility (EPR), takes its most conspicuous form when producers must “take-back” products when they are discarded. In the European Union, the EOL management of computers, consumer electronics and, eventually, anything with a power cord, will soon be the responsibility of producers under the Waste Electronics and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) Directive. Cities
have played an important role in the emergence of EPR. They find
the management of wastes such as computers that are increasingly
drawing the attention of the public and policymakers to be very expensive.
In response to the requirements for special handling and the costs
that go with those requirements, the local governments have looked
to new policy strategies both to lower the cost of managing these
wastes (e.g., design for recycling) and to shift the costs to other
entities (e.g., industry take-back). Thus, cities, through We will analyze (1) the political and economic motivations for the adoption of EPR by cities, (2) legal constraints on cities in pursuing this strategy and (3) the environmental consequences if and when they do so. We will focus primarily on the U.S., particularly in the legal analysis. Faculty Competitive Research Awards Program In Urban Ecology The Hixon Center for Urban Ecology of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies invites Yale faculty to submit proposals to fund students to work on faculty-led scholarly research or initiatives focusing on aspects of environmental science, policy or management in an urban context. We are especially interested in projects that substantially advance the ecological understanding and environmental sustainability of cities. While students can suggest research topics to faculty sponsors, faculty members must both submit proposals and lead research projects to ensure high standards of scholarly effort. The current (2007) application process is now closed. Please look back for future opportunities. If you have any questions, please contact Colleen Murphy-Dunning, Hixon Center Director, at colleen.murphy-dunning@yale.edu
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