Research Seminars

Research seminars provide opportunities to investigate on short term bases topics in place-based environmental planning issues. Particular focus is placed on conflicts emerging between development and environmental resources, including energy, water, and waste, and their socioeconomic impacts. Evidence-based questions that are inherent to particular places and circumstances are important components of this academic research.

Of particular interest for this series of studies is the focus on conservation of natural resources within diverse development contexts. Particular attention is dedicated to the New York City regional context, with development issues including: maintenance of water quality; potential environmental disturbance from natural gas extraction; local legal frameworks related to exurban sprawl; and growing strategic potential for renewed agriculture production. Elsewhere, research has focused on potential development of a tourism economy in Haiti, as well as implantation of bottom-up micro-infrastructures in rapidly densifying urban areas in Kenya.