A growing majority of the world’s population lives in cities. Urban systems are complex, including interactions between tightly connected human and natural systems both within city boundaries and between cities and the surrounding rural environment. Understanding how cities function is critical to monitoring, managing and improving the urban environment and the environment of the entire globe. The urban environment is also highly heterogeneous, often including striking disparities in the living conditions of and environmental quality experienced by the urban population. Understanding the causes of these disparities, and working towards improving the health, economy and living conditions for disadvantaged populations is a critical challenge in urban systems. The Earth Talks series on Urban Systems Science will bring a series of leading researchers engaged in this increasingly important area of earth, environmental and social sciences research.
Abstract:
Buildings play a crucial role in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They significantly impact resource consumption, environmental sustainability, and the well-being of individuals and communities. However, despite their importance, progress toward achieving an SDG-aligned building sector is "off track." This is in part because these goals are being pursued in isolated, idealized, disciplinary silos which run the risk of partial, one-off solutions. This presentation will highlight how our collaborative interdisciplinary research seeks to address this challenge through (1) exploring issues that are most often classified under the social sphere of sustainability such as health and safety, social justice, and culture; (2) advancing progress against environmental outcomes, particularly resource usage (materials) and emissions reductions (energy), and; (3) generating evidence that can be used to promote the synergies with the health and spatial planning sector that can either increase or decrease the risks that buildings occupants experience in a changing climate.
Bio:
Dr. Esther Obonyo is the Executive Director of the Global Building Network led by the Pennsylvania State University and an Associate Professor of Engineering Design and Architectural Engineering at Penn State. Prior to that she was an Associate Professor at the University of Florida's (UF) Rinker School of Construction Management and a faculty entrepreneurship Fellow at UF’s Warrington College of Business. She has worked as a Construction Engineer, Project Manager and Innovations Analyst in several Engineering and Construction Companies in Kenya, the UK and the US. Esther’s research interest cuts across the following themes: climate change and extreme weather events, environmental sustainability, intelligent information and knowledge-based systems for productivity improvement and entrepreneurship. Dr Obonyo has had several NSF awards including an International Research Experiences for Students directed at Developing Global Scientist and Engineers. Dr Obonyo worked with the USAID as a Senior policy advisor through being awarded a 2014/ 2015 Jefferson Science Fellow. She is the lead PI for Belmont Forum project on Disaster Risk Reduction. She is also an associate editor on the Journal of IT in Construction, Buildings, and the Anthropocene.