SOS 498/594: Fall 2017

There is a dearth of documented sustainability best practices for urban systems in arid and semi-arid environment.

This includes the sectors of sustainable energy, water, waste management, urban forestry, food systems, transportation and health. Practitioners and policy makers in Arizona seek best practices and case studies to draw information from and for comparative purposes for improved decision making. In this applied course students collaborate with stakeholders from cities and municipalities to document and analyze best practices, draft case studies and provide insight on a variety of sustainability topics. Students collaborate with and shadow selected officials to design, explore, verify and disseminate activities that are being currently implemented and have not been documented. Using standardized practices, this highly collaborative work forms the basis of the cities’ real time case studies and best practices in any chosen sector.

Urban Sustainability Applications is a graduate and senior level course offered each Fall by the School of Sustainability taught by Dr. Nalini Chhetri and advised by Anne Reichman. At the conclusion of the Fall 2017 semester, the students presented their work at a meeting hosted by SCN on November 30, 2017. The final deliverables and presentations from this semester are listed below.