“We see cases where there’s persistent trash and abandoned buildings, [creating] lots of small bodies of water, which are just great for this mosquito,” Biehler tells the Washington Post. Continue Reading In age of Zika, Dawn Biehler examines prevalence of mosquitoes in low-income neighborhoods
Chris Swan talks about the importance of understanding urban biodiversity issues before developers come in and start building on the vacant land, to ensure the land is used responsibly as a resource. Continue Reading Chris Swan discusses urban biodiversity on The Marc Steiner Show
The Baltimore Sun highlights UMBC as a university that offers students various research opportunities. UMBC undergraduate students are involved in research that impacts UWIN’s goal of creating solutions to help prepare communities to respond to water crises. Continue Reading Urban Water Innovation Network connects UMBC students and faculty with research partners nationwide
Following up on recent sightings of wildlife in the New York City area, The New York Times published an opinion series exploring the question of how urban dwellers should cope with urban wildlife. Dawn Biehler, an associate professor of geography and environmental systems, contributed to the series and wrote a column that examined the social and cultural contexts of urban wildlife arguments. “The line between valued urban wildlife and unwanted pest is — and always has been — subjective, shaped by geography and social position,” Biehler explained. “When urban nature provokes anxiety, we would do well to take a hard look not just… Continue Reading UMBC expert examines urban wildlife management questions in New York Times column
Robust evidence supports the finding that humanity has entered a new geological era, reports a new paper in Science, co-authored by Erle Ellis, professor of geography and environmental systems. The Anthropocene is defined through the impacts that human activity has had on the Earth. This latest article on the concept outlines findings to justify the establishment of the Anthropocene as a new geological epoch. Ellis is among 24 internationally-known geoscientists who make up the Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the international scientific organization in charge of the geologic time scale, which produced the Science article. He explains,… Continue Reading “Science” article argues Earth has entered a new epoch defined by human impacts on the planet
NASA’s Operation IceBridge, a survey of polar ice, carried out parallel flights in the north and south poles for the first time in seven years. The mission to the Antarctic Peninsula recorded a big drop in height of the two glaciers at the south pole. The mission to the Arctic collected measurements of depleted land and sea ice at the end of the summer melting season. In an article on the NASA website, Christopher Shuman, research associate professor at UMBC’s Geography and Environmental Systems department, faculty at UMBC’s Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), and research scientist in the… Continue Reading NASA’s Operation IceBridge confirms observations on ice shelf collapse, JCET researcher Shuman explains
Local sustainability researchers and thought leaders took center stage on October 16, 2015, at a forum for urban sustainability in Baltimore, hosted by UMBC’s School of Public Policy. The forum was designed to examine how collaborations among government agencies, companies, and nonprofits can improve sustainability policies and programs. It also emphasized how a broad range of perspectives is needed to effectively assess and address environmental concerns. This isn’t news to Claire Welty, professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering and director of UMBC’s Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education. Welty is the associate director of research for the Urban… Continue Reading UMBC researchers collaborate to improve sustainability, with impacts in Maryland and across the nation
For twenty years JCET has brought leading scientists to UMBC in research areas that align with NASA’s Earth science interests, such as climate and radiation, atmospheric chemistry and dynamics, and solar system sciences, including geophysics. UMBC is now ranked among the world’s top universities for geosciences. Continue Reading NASA renews partnership with UMBC’s JCET for $46 million over five years
UMBC is a founding member and partner of a new consortium of 14 institutions to develop strategies to keep urban water systems healthy and address challenges that threaten them both nationally and internationally. The Urban Water Innovation Network, or UWIN, is led by Colorado State University and will build locally on research by UMBC geography and environmental systems professors Andrew Miller and Christopher Swan, with Claire Welty, a professor of chemical, biochemical and environmental engineering and associate director of research for UWIN, leading UMBC’s participation in the program. UMBC was recently featured in The Daily Record for its role in the project. “In the… Continue Reading Andrew Miller, Geography and Environmental Systems, Highlights UMBC’s Role in the Urban Water Innovation Network
Qassim Abdullah, adjunct professor of geography and environmental systems for UMBC at the Universities at Shady Grove, was awarded the Presidential Citation from the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). Presidential Citations are given by the ASPRS President in recognition of contributions to the operation or advancement of the Society and its interests. Abdullah received the award at the 2015 ASPRS Conference on Wednesday, May 6, in Tampa, Florida for authoring “Positional Accuracy Standards for Digital Geo-spatial Data”. Click here to read more about Abdullah’s award and work.
A new article published by an interdisciplinary team of scholars in Science calls on policy communities to take up a set of holistic guiding principles for ecological restoration projects. Matthew Baker, an associate professor of geography and environmental systems, is co-author of the article and is part of an interdisciplinary working group on restoration funded by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). “Bringing their collective perspectives to bear in a series of workshops, the interdisciplinary team determined that restoration projects should be guided by four comprehensive principles to maximize benefits such as conserved biodiversity and sustained livelihoods. The authors concluded that… Continue Reading Matthew Baker, Geography and Environmental Systems, Publishes Article on Ecological Restoration in Science
On May 1, Dawn Biehler, an assistant professor of geography and environmental systems, was a guest on Science for the People Radio to discuss her book Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats (University of Washington Press). “Science for the People” is a syndicated radio show and podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, that broadcasts weekly across North America and aims to explore intersections among science, popular culture, history, and public policy. During her interview, Biehler examined several topics, including the environment and policies in the early twentieth century which created more disadvantages for low-income city residents in dealing with pest control.… Continue Reading Dawn Biehler, Geography and Environmental Systems, on Science for the People Radio
