Publications
Todd BenDor and Martin Doyle, director of the IE’s Center for Watershed
Science and Management, are publishing an article entitled "Planning for
Ecosystem Service Markets" in the Journal of the American Planning Association. The
article uses North Carolina as an example in studying the environmental and land use planning
implications of ecosystem service markets.
Todd BenDor is also publishing an article with former City and Regional Planning
masters student Zoe Hamstead entitled "Over-compliance in Water Quality
Trading Programs: Findings from a Qualitative Case Study in North Carolina” in
Environment and Planning C (Government & Policy).
David McNelis presented a paper on remediation methods at the Nevada Test Site during his visit to the Russian Academy of Sciences workshop this summer. The paper will be published in a Russian journal.
IE Senior Associate Director Tony Reevy’s fourth poetry chapbook, In Mountain Lion Country, has been accepted by Pudding House Publications, and will be featured in its fall 2009 catalogue. The book is a sequence of poems about New Mexico. See http://www.puddinghouse.com/ for more information.
Public Service
Dana Haine, along with Environmental Resource Program (ERP) Director Kathleen Gray and Environmental Sciences and Engineering professor and IE Faculty Advisory Committee member Frederic Pfaender led a week-long workshop in Salter Path, NC on water quality research and remediation
called "Environment & Health: Making Connections
Through Water Quality Investigation." The 23 middle and high school science teachers and nonformal educators who attended the mid-July seminar will use the information to educate the hundreds of students who fill their classrooms this academic school year.
Tony Reevy is serving as a volunteer for the forming Museum of Durham History.
He also recently chaired the by-laws committee for North Carolina Rail-Trails,
a statewide land trust focusing on conservation of railroad corridors, which
is now searching an executive director.
Other
Plans are in progress to let all Miller Hall residents to leave the traditional IE post before UNC Cogeneration Facility construction makes noise levels unbearable; at present, many have already moved offices. New posts have been secured for Greg Gangi, Lindsay Leonard and David McNelis in the Bank of America Building; their new office numbers are 672, 673 and 613F, respectively.
The offices of the Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology moved to the Coates Building in May.
Institute for the Environment faculty members and affiliated faculty are currently working on projects that will take them across the state, nation and world.
In North Carolina: Todd BenDor, an assistant professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning, was recently awarded an ULTRA-Ex grant (Urban Long-Term Research Areas Exploratory) that will allow him to explore the effects of urbanization on the natural ecology of the Charlotte, NC area. The project, entitled "Can Urbanization, Forest and Working Lands Coexist? Collaborative Research on Hierarchical Analysis of Socio-Ecological Interactions in the Charlotte Metropolitan Region" is funded by UNC-Charlotte. The IE is administering the grant.
ERP and C-SEEED are traveling across the state this semester to educate K-12 grade teachers on energy issues thanks to a grant from Progress Energy. David McNelis, Director of the Center for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economic Development is working with Environmental Resource Program Science Educator Dana Haine on teacher professional development workshops. Haine, who developed the training workshops, and McNelis, an expert on energy issues, will travel to counties across the state to share cutting edge information on energy types and options, consumption, fuel life-cycle issues and distribution and waste management. McNelis will also hold public lectures in many of these counties on the sameissues.
Internationally: CEMPD staff members Zac Adelman and Sarav Aruncachalam will
be bringing air quality monitoring expertise to the Caspian Sea as they travel
to Guelph, Ontario Canada to work as consultants with RWDI Air, Inc. The six-month
project will support “air quality modeling of the local to regional
impacts to ground level ozone from oil and gas development in the northern
Caspian Sea,” Adelman said.
IE Deputy Director and Director, Center for Sustainable Community Design Philip
Berke traveled in mid-July to Harbin, China to present a paper entitled “Planning
for Eco-cities: A Grand Challenge for the Twentieth First Century,” at
the International Forum on Urban Development and Planning. His trip was sponsored
by the Chinese Ministry for Construction and the Peking University Lincoln
Institute for Land Policy.
IE Director Larry Band visited the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) during July to investigate a possible new IE field site or summer program to be offered in conjunction with UNC's developing programs in that area.
Finally, David McNelis participated in a Russian Academy of Sciences and US Academy of Sciences workshop in Kyshtym, Russia focusing on remediation technology applicable to the Russian spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at nearby Mayak.
48 high school students from Chapel Hill and Carrboro participated in UNC's Climate Leadership and Energy Awareness program this summer. The program was administered by the Institute for the Environment, under the direction of Science Educator Dana Haine, with funding provided by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
During the week-long summer institute, students were exposed to the science of climate change and alternative energy solutions by learning from UNC scientists, conducting experiments and touring labs within UNC's Energy Frontier Research Center. Read the Chapel Hill News’ article about the program here: http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1186272.cfm