Cities are at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic, but what happens in cities once a pandemic takes hold? What systems are failing? Are cities prepared to simultaneously deal with this pandemic and extreme weather events like hurricanes and heat waves? Can we ever return to any semblance of "normal" and if not, how can we transform to create more positive futures? Today, we hear from a group of experts as they reflect on what the COVID-19 pandemics means for our public health systems, ...
May 01, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast As their first topic, Tessa Martinez and Stephen Elser discuss an article on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge being opened up to oil drilling and how that can potentially affect habitats. They then talk about how planting trees can be a tool to slowing down climate change. These are the links to the two topics discussed! https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-09-12/interior-finalizes-plan-to-open-alaskas-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-to-oil-drilling https://www.theguardian.com/envir...
Apr 21, 2020•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast We all know that trees provide all sorts of benefits to people, right? But different trees provide different benefits and trees will only provide those benefits if we can make sure they stay healthy. In this episode, Stephen Elser (@stephen_elser) interviews Jenna Rindy (@msjerindy), a PhD student at Boston University, about her research urban tree research. She tells us about how two species of oak tree vary in how much soot they remove from the air, and why that's so important for human h...
Apr 06, 2020•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast As their first topic, Tessa Martinez and PhD candidate, Stephen Elser (@stephen_elser), discuss the Novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, and how it relates to city life. They then talk about green spaces and how they have a role in decreasing depression and improving human livelihood! Here are the links to the two topics discussed! https://theconversation.com/outbreaks-like-coronavirus-start-in-and-spread-from-the-edges-of-cities-130666 https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/07/20/630615148/repl...
Mar 19, 2020•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, we explore the field of urban ecology and the challenges of doing social-ecological research. Stephen Elser (@stephen_elser) interviews Dr. Dan Childers, a professor at Arizona State University and director of the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) program. Dan emphasizes how important it is to be willing to learn the language and approaches of other disciplines on order to do better urban ecological research. But urban ecology didn’t always have an...
Mar 04, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast As their first topic, Tessa Martinez and Jason Sauer discuss Arizona’s goal of getting rid of their 43 food deserts. They then talk about the local Phoenix business, Agriscaping, and how they are making a difference in Arizona’s urban agriculture! Check out these links to the learn more about the two topics discussed! https://modernfarmer.com/2019/10/phoenix-looks-to-snuff-out-food-deserts/ https://agriscaping.com/ Listen to the full " Greening Phoenix through Urban Agriculture " episo...
Feb 19, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast We talk with two researchers, Dr. Nazli Uludere Aragon and PhD student Michelle Stuhlmacher (@MFStuhlmacher on Twitter) about their recent publication, “ Urban agriculture’s bounty: contributions to Phoenix’s sustainability goals .” The researchers explain what Phoenix’s sustainability goals currently are, how and where to develop agriculture in a desert city. We talk about how urban agriculture in Phoenix can get so-called food desert communities access to fruits and vegetables that they do not...
Feb 06, 2020•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast In our first current events minisode, Tessa Martinez and Alysha Helmrich discuss the Australian wildfires and their implications on Sydney’s infrastructure. They then explore Portland’s new way of filtering their water supply before it reaches the sewers- rain gardens ! Listen to the full Infrastructure and Climate Change episode here. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at...
Jan 20, 2020•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Climate change is a large source of uncertainty for infrastructure managers. It is easy to feel immobilized by future uncertainty, however, that does not have to be the case. In this podcast, the hosts interview a city practitioner, social scientist, and climate modeller to understand how infrastructure managers integrate climate modelling data into the decision process. Associated Links/Websites: Referenced: SETS Infrastructure podcast epispde: https://www.buzzsprout.com/125676/1084280-sets-inf...
Jan 01, 2020•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Dr. Marissa Matsler (@oh_the_urbanity) talks with Dr. David Manuel-Navarrete about the evolutionary forces working against wider adoption of green infrastructure in cities today. They discuss his recent publication in Anthropocene titled " Intentional disruption of path-dependencies in the Anthropocene: Gray versus green water infrastructure regimes in Mexico City, Mexico ", in which he uses human niche theory to analyze the feedback loops which encourage cities to con...
Dec 02, 2019•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast We're not the Mob but we here at Future Cities still care a lot about waste management! Co-host Jason Sauer talks with Dr. Erin Rivers (@soilandthecity) about how solid waste, AKA trash, is potentially exacerbating flood risk in cities by clogging up green and gray drainage infrastructure. We discuss trash reduction and removal efforts in Baltimore (Mr. Trash Wheel!) and beyond, and how a reframing of who is responsible for trash has benefits far beyond our work on green infrastructure and ...
Nov 01, 2019•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast This month's guest, Justin Stewart (@thecrobe), studies air quality and atmospheric microbial communities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He tells us about how he got interested in microbes and about some of the challenges of studying these organisms in the air. He explains how several components of air quality (including ozone, PM2.5, and microbes) vary across the city, how they can affect human health and ecosystem function, and how those air quality might change in the face of extreme wea...
Oct 01, 2019•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this month's episode we sit down with Matt Smith, a PhD candidate at Florida International University, to talk about Hurricane Dorian and some of his research comparing urban wetlands in Portland, Oregon and Valdivia, Chile. He tells us about storm surges, sea level rise, and the comprehensive Miami-Dade County Hurricane Readiness Guide. Wetlands, as it turn out, are valuable infrastructure surrounding Miami for dealing with sea level rise and mitigating the effects of hurricanes. He als...
Sep 07, 2019•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast This month, we sit down with two PhD candidates from Arizona State University, Jason Sauer and Yuliya Dzyuban, to talk about their recent trip to Hermosillo, Mexico. We learn the difference between "enchilada" and "enchilado", how temperatures differ in new and old buses, and the unique ways in which people from Hermosillo react to flooding in their city. Despite lacking some of the resources that residents of other cities might have, locals in Hermosillo illustrate a strong ...
Aug 06, 2019•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Both infrastructure disasters and infrastructure funding bills are back in the news, so Jason Sauer sat down with Dr. Sam Markolf to talk about a paper Sam published last year about disasters and better infrastructure design. We talk about how old infrastructure “locks us in” to living with its consequences and how it creates path dependencies in creating future forms and functions of cities. We end up talking a lot about Miami, but the lessons here also apply to cities across the US and around ...
May 04, 2019•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hospitals are critical to the health of any city, providing essential care to the communities that they serve. Unlike many other buildings, hospitals can't simply close and send everyone away during an extreme event since it would be dangerous to the patients in need to critical care. In this month's episode, Stephen Elser interviews two leaders from the CannonDesign firm, whose work includes designing hospitals to be resilient to a wide variety of disturbances. We discuss what it mean...
Apr 01, 2019•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Extreme heat and how to cope with it are two major areas of interest in cities like Phoenix, Arizona. Recently, Maricopa County (where Phoenix is) partnered with a group of researchers at ASU to develop new technologies and solutions that are deployable in local communities to help reduce urban heat and improve air quality. This partnership illustrates that extreme heat and its adverse impacts on human health are highly important not only to researchers, but also to those responsible for impleme...
Mar 02, 2019•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast This month, Stephen Elser interviews UREx SRN fellow and ASU School of Sustainability PhD student, Yuliya Dzyuban, about her research involving extreme heat and the ways that people perceive and cope with that heat. They discuss the different aspects that affect one's thermal comfort, Ukrainian bus stops, and how there's a lot we can do to improve urban design in Phoenix. Yuliya shares her research illustrating that integrating artistic elements into bus stops can actually make people ...
Feb 01, 2019•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Dr. Yeowon Kim explains the difference between “fail-safe” and “safe-to-fail” infrastructure and how shifting towards this new “safe-to-fail" design paradigm could help cities prepare for extreme events like floods. Risks and uncertainty associated with climate change in the future make predicting infrastructure failures very difficult, so designing and implementing infrastructure to be more flexible in the face of uncertainty is highly important to deal with a wide variety...
Dec 01, 2018•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast The proposed addition to the US census of a question regarding the legal status of census respondents poses a major problem for both vulnerability researchers and the vulnerable undocumented immigrant community. Vulnerability scholar and PhD student, Jason Sauer, discusses how the change to the census may interfere with efforts to identify vulnerable communities, and may stymie efforts to make these undocumented communities more resilient to extreme weather events and climate change. He also int...
Nov 03, 2018•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, UREx postdoctoral researcher, Sam Markolf, interviews Dr. Dan Eisenberg about resilience from an engineering perspective. When is being more robust the solution? When is flexibility preferred? Dan shares stories to illustrate when it may be advantageous to abandon standards of practice, how to deal with different types of surprises, and the differences between robust design and extensible design. They discuss the importance of designing infrastructure with human-technological in...
Oct 01, 2018•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast UREx post-docs Bernice Rosenzweig and Marissa Matsler report from on-the-ground in Baltimore. Looking to learn more about how the Memorial Day Weekend extreme rain event affected he city, they interviewed Pastor Michael S. Martin of the Stillmeadow Evangelical Free Church, an emergency response hub in a community that was severely flooded. Hear about the emergency response and continuing concerns of those living the aftermath and remediation of the Memorial Day Weekend flood, along with discussi...
Sep 04, 2018•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Stephen Elser sits down with Drs. Lauren McPhillips and Marissa Matsler to talk about their recent paper published in Frontiers in Built Environment entitled "Temporal Evolution of Green Stormwater Infrastructure Strategies in Three US Cities." We discuss the history of stormwater management in the U.S. and the rise of "green stormwater infrastructure" as a popular solution in cities across the country. The three cities compared here (Baltimore, Phoenix, and ...
Jul 01, 2018•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast ¿Te has preguntado si la ciudad en la que vives es realmente sustentable?, ¿Que tipo de paradigmas amenazan la resiliencia de nuestras ciudades a condiciones futuras?, ¿Podremos seguir aplicando las mismas filosofías de crecimiento y desarrollo en nuestras ciudades? En este programa el Profesor David Manuel Navarrete nos comenta sobre algunos puntos de reflexión acerca de la conceptualización de nuestras ciudades y viejos paradigmas ponen en riesgo elementos esenciales de una buena calidad de vi...
Jun 20, 2018•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast ¿Que son los eventos climáticos extremos?, el Dr. Agustín Robles, líder académico de la ciudad de Hermosillo en la Red de Resiliencia Urbana a Eventos Extremos (UREx) nos explica que son estos y por que es importante estudiarlos. También en este episodio la Dra. Olga Barbosa nos explica que tipo de acciones y proyectos se llevan acabo en la red y como es que esta contribuye a mejorar nuestras ciudades. Pon mucha atención tal vez tu recuerdes tu experiencia durante un evento extremo como lo hace ...
Jun 01, 2018•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast We hear the term used all over the place: in music, on TV, in books– but what IS resilience? In this episode, we discuss resilience from the Social-Ecological-Technological Systems (SETS) perspective. To understand what resilience means from this perspective, we interviewed urban resilience experts from each of these three disciplines. Dr. Nancy Grimm is a professor of ecology in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU) and a co-director of the Urban Resilience to Extremes S...
May 01, 2018•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Local Phoenix poets including Kimberly Koerth, Jacob Friedman, Rashaad Thomas, and Anna Flores read original poetry about Resilience, Equity, and Diversity (RED) in cities as part of the UREx La RED Poetry Competition. The first half of the episode features the poems, the poets' inspirations, and what the poets hoped the audience would take away by listening to it. The second half of the episode features a discussion with several of the poets on the power of poetry as a tool for making our ...
Apr 06, 2018•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast What is ‘green’ infrastructure? What can it do for my city? Why am I definitely way more excited to learn about it than I am more traditional forms of infrastructure? Stephen Elser and Jason Sauer answer all of these questions in this episode, and focus on green infrastructure in the form of wetlands in the city of Valdivia, Chile. They talk to local sustainability consortium leader, Cristóbal Lamarca of Activa Valdivia, and local wetlands researcher, Ignacio Rodríguez of the Centro de Humedales...
Mar 01, 2018•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast ¿Qué es una infraestructura ‘verde’? ¿Qué la puede hacer la por mi ciudad? ¿Por qué estoy mucho más emocionado de aprender sobre infra verde que formas de infraestructura más tradicionales? Stephen Elser y Jason Sauer contestan a todas estas preguntas en este episodio y se centran en la infra verde de los humedales en la ciudad de Valdivia de Chile. Hablan con el director del consorcio local de sostenibilidad, Cristóbal Lamarca de Activa Valdivia, e investigador local de humedales, Ignacio Rodrí...
Mar 01, 2018•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast The 2017 hurricane season was a record-setting year for hurricanes. Hurricane Harvey dumped more rain on Houston than ever recorded in any US city. Hurricane Irma was the longest-lasting powerful hurricane or typhoon ever recorded worldwide. Hurricane Maria is regarded as the worst natural disaster on record for Puerto Rico and was the second in a line of powerful hurricanes to hit the island in a span of just 2 weeks. Hurricane Ophelia was the strongest eastern Atlantic hurricane on record. Are...
Feb 01, 2018•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
