Policy and governance projects
Sustainability can only be realized if it is recognized as a social priority, society focuses its resources on discovering the characteristics that make human activities sustainable, and public policies explicitly encourage sustainable practices. ASU develops innovative ways to connect government leaders, policymakers, and management practitioners with researchers and cutting-edge information and tools. These help make sustainability a real-world practice rather than a theoretical goal.
100 Cities Project: Sensing for Solutions – Bridging Cities and Science »
This project uses remote-sensing technology to detect patterns of urbanization and their environmental consequences in 100 cities across the globe.
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Adapting Law to Rapid Technological Change »
The goal of this project is to identify and evaluate new legal regulatory approaches that will be more adaptive and flexible to better keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies.
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Alliance for Innovation in Local Government »
The Alliance for Innovation is a unique partnership between the Innovation Group, the Interanational City/County Management Association and ASU to build the capacity to be innovative in local government. Through face-to-face networking opportunities and technology services, the Alliance for Innovation is transforming local governance through discovery and application of leading ideas and practices to better serve citizens and their communities.
American Indian Policy Institute »
The American Indian Policy Institute at Arizona State University is the first program in the United States to effectively address policy and leadership challenges in Indian country. The center is a transdisciplinary effort between the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education and the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. Its mission is twofold: to develop practical policy options and provide technical assistance to solve long-standing and emerging problems in Indian affairs; and to prepare ASU's American Indian students for leadership positions in their communities.
Applied Behavioral Health Policy, Center for »
The Center engages in a variety of initiatives and programs as it strives to inform and influence public policy, programs and practices to support those with behavioral health disabilities by synthesizing and transforming information and promoting new insight and understanding of crucial societal issues.
Arizona Rooftop Solar Challenge »
The Arizona Governor's Office of Energy Policy will identify best practices in finance, permitting, and zoning to move toward voluntary statewide uniformity. The project will drive adoption of an online system in five jurisdictions that allows for over-the-counter/same-day permit review.
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Bob Ramsey Executive Education Program »
The Bob Ramsey Executive Education Program provides innovative professional development programs and customized services that build the capacity of people and organizations that serve the public. The Certificate in Public Administration for International Leaders includes topics such as leadership, collaboration, public-private partnerships, community conflict resolutions, pollution, urban challenges and opportunities, information technology, and electronic government practices.
Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) »
Through interdisciplinary projects integrating natural sciences, social science, and engineering, the Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project examines the effects of urbanization on a desert ecosystem and vice versa.
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Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO) »
The Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes is an intellectual network aimed at enhancing the contribution of science and technology to society's pursuit of equality, justice, freedom, and overall quality of life. The Consortium creates knowledge and methods, cultivates public discourse, and fosters policies to help decision makers and institutions grapple with the immense power and importance of science and technology as society charts a course for the future.
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Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) »
The Decision Center for a Desert City conducts climate, water, and decision research and develops innovative tools to bridge the boundary between scientists and decision makers and put their work into the hands of those whose concern is for the sustainable future of Greater Phoenix.
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Decision Theater (DT) »
The Decision Theater is an immersive, interactive, 3D-visualization facility for collaborative decision making.
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Determinants of Grassland Dynamics in Tibetan Highlands: Livestock, Wildlife, and the Culture and Political Economy of Pastoralism »
This project will deepen basic understanding of the complex interactions involving geophysical, biological, social, and policy factors and feedback systems that affect grassland status
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Effective Adaptation Strategies and Risk Reduction towards Economic and Climatic Shocks: Lessons from the Coffee Crisis in Mesoamerica »
There is a growing concern over climatic variability and price volatility in global markets for cash crops produced in developing countries. One of the cutting edge questions in global change research deals with how to reduce risks and increase adaptation capacity of vulnerable farmers in impoverished areas.
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Energize Phoenix »
Energize Phoenix will transform the neighborhoods and commercial districts along a 10-mile stretch of the Phoenix METRO Light Rail line into a Green Rail Corridor that will become a model of energy efficiency and sustainability.
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Energy Ethics in Science and Engineering Education »
This project examines energy ethics issues for the responsible conduct of science and engineering and in the intersections of science, engineering, technology, and society, emphasizing potential scenarios for the U.S., while acknowledging the critical roles other nations and international institutions play in the future of energy. It develops new research and educational activities involving graduate students in interdisciplinary research programs.
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Energy, Science, and Policy Initiative (ESPI) »
ESPI's objective is to to establish a strong program of research and policy engagement to understand and analyze the social dynamics of past, present, and future energy systems.
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GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation (GeoDa) »
GeoDa develops state-of-the-art methods for geospatial analysis, geovisualization, geosimulation, and spatial process modeling, implements them through software tools, applies them to policy-relevant research in the social and environmental sciences, and disseminates them through training and support to a growing worldwide community.
Health Impacts of Energy Retrofits »
This project - officially titled Health Performance, Benefit-Cost, and Cost Effectiveness of Green Retrofit Housing for Low-Income Seniors in Phoenix, Arizona - examines how incorporating an array of building changes of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Green Retrofit Program can result in improved indoor environmental quality and health of elderly residents. Rather than reviewing individual building features, the study assesses a green retrofit package in its entirety, and incorporates formal benefit-cost and cost effectiveness calculations on individual health and healthcare costs.
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Health Information and Research, Center for (CHIR) »
The Center for Health Information and Research (CHIR) employs a multidisciplinary approach to research in areas of epidemiology, health care information technology and data management, health economics and workforce, and health data mining. The goal of CHIR is to provide actionable information regarding health care policy, quality of care, public health and the health care workforce and to develop new methodologies for storing, collecting, analyzing and disseminating health information.
Law, Science & Innovation, Center for »
The Center for Law, Science & Innovation is the first and largest academic center focused on the intersection of law and science. The Center bridges law and science by fostering the development of legal frameworks for new technologies and advancing the informed use of science in legal decision making. The Center facilitates transdisciplinary study and dialogue among policy-makers, academics, students, professionals and industry. It is committed to principles of balance, innovation, competitiveness and sustainability.
Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics »
The mission of the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics is to improve the ethical awareness and understanding and thereby the ethical decision-making and behavior of the ASU community and extending to society at large. The Center's goal is to create a university and community ethical culture by sponsoring, organizing and conducting an array of activities on ethics issues that occur in specific fields and professions as well as those of pressing importance in the community at large.
Managing Biodiversity under Climate Change: Enhancing Capacities in Mexico for Conservation Planning, Decision-making and Sustainability Assessment »
The School of Sustainability at the Arizona State University and the Institute of Ecology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México are developing a sustainable academic program to create competency and expertise for policy and planning in the area of biodiversity conservation and climate change.
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Modeling Anthropogenic Effects in the Spread of Infectious Diseases »
The research will incorporate the economic drivers of 'contact' into dynamic models of emerging human and animal infectious disease systems, and analyze the system dynamics with and without adaptive responses. The models will be calibrated for a set of diseases where people's trade and travel decisions are potentially important.
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Nanotechnology and Society, Center for »
The Center for Nanotechnology and Society (CNS) is working to increase capacity for social learning within the nanotechnology enterprise and to increase society's capacity to engage in anticipatory governance of nanotechnology and other emerging technologies. Thorough these avenues, CNS strives to increase the ability for society to make informed decisions about evolving nanotechnology and to guide nanotechnology knowledge and innovation towards a more socially desireable outome.
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North American Center for Transborder Studies (NACTS) »
NACTS focuses its research and policy efforts in the areas of borders, competitiveness, and the environment and works to diffuse the results of these efforts through events and initiatives that build public awareness about North America. NACTS accomplishes its mission by building key partnerships among northern and southern border specialists and identifying and educating key constituencies in government, the private sector, and civil society.
Phoenix Area Social Survey (PASS) »
This survey studies the relationships between people and the natural environment in the Phoenix metro area.
Point of Dispensing Exercises for Pandemic Influenza »
This project's goal is to develop a model and exercise that will allow administrators from Pinal County, Arizona, to analyze their throughput capability in a realistic, virtual environment that simulates multiple Point of Dispensing (POD) areas, multiple POD types, and the challenges associated with efficient POD design.
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Post-6 Ma Tectonic Evolution of the Bhutan Himalaya »
Atypical high-elevation, but low-relief landscapes are perched above and surrounded by deeply incised canyons in the middle latitudes of Bhutan. This study explores the proposition that these landforms represent a pulse of erosion that is sweeping through Bhutan and progressively changing the relief.
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Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSERC) »
The multidisciplinary expertise of PSERC's researchers includes power systems, applied mathematics, complex systems, computing, control theory, power electronics, operations research, non-linear systems, economics, industrial organization and public policy. A key strength is ironment. In addition a strength of the research work in this area also relates to market tools and policy issues that will enable the integration of the new energy sources into power system operation and planning.
Public Policy, Morrison Institute for »
Driven by a mission to conduct timely, applied analysis that informs, advises, and assists Arizona's state and community leaders, Morrison Institute researches public policies that impact greater Phoenix, the State of Arizona, and the nation. Through publications and forums, Morrison Institute's research serves the public officials, private sector leaders, and community members who shape public policy.
Research on Education in Science, Mathematics and Technology, Center for (CRESMET) »
CRESMET is a collaborative center that leverages intellectual and fiscal resources from key colleges in the University to study and improve education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The Center brings together individuals, programs and organizations interested in improving K-20 STEM education to research, develop, and assess educational theories, curricula and administrative policies that impact science, mathematics, engineering and technology education; and to encourage and support wide-scale sharing and implementation of effective approaches to producing a more scientifically and technologically literate populace and more capable science, mathematics, engineering, and technology majors.
Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP) »
The Consortium addresses issues pertaining to the ecologically and socioeconomically fragile environment along the US-Mexico border.
Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family »
Through research, educational outreach, advocacy and design innovation, the ASU Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family supports organizations, neighborhoods, and professionals in their efforts to improve the growth of quality affordable homes and sustainable communities.
Sustainable Phosphorus Initiative (SPI) »
The ASU Sustainable Phosphorus Initiative (SPI) seeks to build a credible scientific consensus on the dimensions of the phosphorus sustainability challenge, catalyze an interdisciplinary global network focused on phosphorus sustainability, and design and motivate institutional, commercial, and consumer behavior change for conservation and recycling to establish phosphorus sustainability.
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The Relative Importance of Generic vs. Specific Capacity in Addressing Drought Vulnerability in NE Brazil »
This research examines how the vulnerability of rainfed farm households to drought has changed through time as a function of both specific and generic government-led interventions. The research also explores how these two categories of interventions are related, both in terms of their relative importance in defining overall adaptive capacity, and in terms of how they may create synergies or be mutually conditioning.
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Urban Innovation, Center for »
The mission of the Center is to improve the quality of urban life in neighborhoods, cities, and urban regions by promoting innovation in governance, policy, and management. The Center contributes to the goal of "advancing urban governance in a global context" in the School of Public Affairs. Its research and outreach are both local and global.
Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) »
This collaborative project is building greater knowledge and understanding of the bidirectional interactions between global environmental change and cities, present at local, regional, and global scales, and integrating the work of decision makers, practitioners, and academic researchers.
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