On this month's episode of the Future Cities podcast, Alysha Helmrich interviews her colleague, Katherine (Kat) Shayne. Kat Shayne is the CEO of Can I Recycle This? (CIRT). A start-up homed in Athens, GA that helps cities, counties, businesses, and individuals properly dispose of products. Kat shares her own journey in sustainability that led her to creating CIRT and describes CIRT's mission and goals. You can learn more about CIRT at www.cirt.tech. You can also learn more about the Circularity Informatics Lab at https://www.circularityinformatics.org/. Follow our guest on Twitter! @CanI ..read more

Dr. Catherine de Rivera leads a conversation with Carole Hardy and Eric Butler.  They dive into the social, ecological, and technological aspects of connectivity with an emphasis on the benefits of ecological connectivity. This podcast is rooted in work co-produced with researchers and practitioners from Portland, Oregon. This episode also features Sahan T. M. Dissanayake, Leslie Bliss-Ketchum, Jennifer Karps, and Lori Hennings.  Referenced Articles: Butler 2022 Hardy 2022 --- If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gma ..read more

Dynamic Criticality is the idea that organizations must constantly reform their priorities in the face of volatile environments to maintain an adaptive state. Infrastructure research has yet to identify competencies that might aid infrastructure organizations in achieving dynamic criticality. Ryan Hoff discusses how competencies from other organizations can inform how infrastructure managers can better prepare their organizations to shift priorities in the face of disturbances. -- Suggested Readings: Dynamic Criticality article Susan Clark’s work Mikhail Chester’s governance work Mikhail Che ..read more

Pervasive across infrastructure literature and discourse are the concepts of centralized, decentralized, and distributed systems, and there appears to be growing interest in how these configurations support or hinder adaptive and transformative capacities towards resilience. There does not appear to be a concerted effort to align how these concepts are used, and what different configurations mean for infrastructure systems. This is problematic because how infrastructure are structured and governed directly affects their capabilities to respond to increasing complexity. Dr. Alysha Helmrich reco ..read more

Dr. Christina H. Fuller shares her work on environmental health and justice, particularly examining how air quality varies down to a block-level across communities. She provides insights on conducting participatory research within frontline communities and advocating for more inclusive environmental justice research. Dr. Fuller also discusses her diverse work experiences from industry, non-profits, consulting, and academia. Follow our guest on Twitter: @DrCHFuller --- If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us o ..read more

Dr. Mikhail Chester hosts Dr. Stephanie Pincetl, whose work engages a multitude of disciplines (from engineers to urban planners to economists) to advance urban sustainability science and decision-making for water, energy, transportation, and land use systems. She explores how understanding and synthesizing these diverse systems surrounding our complex urban systems opens opportunities for future alternatives. This episode is part of a continuing series: Infrastructure and the Anthropocene Forum. Follow our hosts: Dr. Mikhail Chester (@mikhailchester) Dr. Stephanie Pincetl (@SPincetl) Recom ..read more

Dr. Marccus Hendricks is an Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Planning in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at the University of Maryland, College Park. Here, Marissa Matsler interviews Dr. Hendricks about his work with communities throughout his dissertation research in Texas and as an early career researcher in Maryland. He discusses his bold visions for the future in which we collectively seize on the opportunities of this historic moment – especially the current focus on environmental justice – to better design and plan cities. Dr. Hendricks also offers his advi ..read more

The built environment has significantly contributed to climate change, and it is becoming increasingly clear that net-zero carbon emissions is not enough. Phil Horton and Alysha Helmrich discuss the importance of carbon capture and explore how cities may play a role in carbon banking. In this episode, we will discuss the role that buildings and urban infrastructure will play in carbon draw-down and decarbonization through: end-to-end carbon accounting, building material innovations, and emergent alignment and coordination across critical stakeholders and agencies in the future of our urban env ..read more

Distributive, procedural, recognitional justice are vital for nature-based solutions, but these dimensions of justice have multiple and conflicting meanings. Drs. Katinka Wijsman and Marta Berbés-Blázquez explore how political theory and philosophy help in understanding differences and conflict. They present five key justice questions for researchers and practitioners to reflect with. One major takeaway? Praxis and reflectivity are crucial to balancing the act of practicing justice. Topic paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.06.018 Hosts & Twitter handles: Katinka Wijsman (@Kati ..read more

Whose voice counts? Whose visualization informs the design of cities? And how do we collaborate in nurturing resilient equitable futures? Join a conversation led by Ananth Udupa between Duván López, Mathieu Feagan, Melissa Moreno, Theresa O’Neil, and Daniela Moreno.   Follow the hosts on Twitter: @duvanhernan @MathieuMatt @ttttheresa @DanielaGarMo --- If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the NATURA project at natura-net.org ..read more