Session Descriptions
Opening Panel:A City’s Equity Challenges: from Homelessness to Climate Change
Seattle occupies a remarkable role as an urban system. Unprecedented growth has increased income inequality and led to hundreds if not thousands of community-members being priced out of their neighborhoods–or out into the street. Overlaid on historical practices of segregation, grappling with the amplified effects of gentrification, Seattle’s neighborhoods are feeling the strain of economic acceleration at the same time that climate change begins to exacerbate the impacts. Will this city be a model, or a cautionary tale? This session will gather leaders from across Seattle and the region for a nuanced discussion of one city’s challenges, and bring outside perspectives as we explores these challenges.
Session leaders:
- Thaisa Way, Professor, Landscape Architecture, College of Built Environments, UW
Speakers:
- Mami Hara, General Manager and CEO, Seattle Public Utilities
- Adrienne Quinn, Former Director, King County Department of Community and Human Services; Distinguished Practitioner, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance; “Regional Approaches to Homelessness: Research Questions”
- Nicole Vallestero Keenan-Lai, Executive Director, Puget Sound Sage; “Environmental Justice and Homelessness”
- Moderator: Katharine Lusk, Initiative on Cities, Boston University
Environment, Climate, and Equity
The focus of this panel is to bring equity into our efforts of to protect the environment and climate via smart cities innovations. Socioeconomic and Health inequities are a dominant feature in many cities across the countries. As we consider technologies that may serve to protect the environment and the climate, we most also critically consider the consequences of these innovation for vulnerable populations. These innovations may serve to further deepen/entrench inequalities or serve to ameliorate them.
Session leaders:
- Hedwig Lee, Professor, Sociology, Washington University in St. Louis
- Julian Marshall, John R. Kiely Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, UW
- Lara P Clark, Ph.D Candidate, Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, UW
Speakers:
- Jacklin Stonewall, Iowa State University; “An Approach to Incorporating Human Behaviors, Buildings, and Near Building Climates into Decision Making to Increase Resilience Of Urban Neighborhoods”
- Neal Patwari, University of Utah; “Enabling Bottom-up Research to Increase Access to the Benefits of Smart Systems”
- Dana Habeeb, Indiana University; “Sensors and Environmental Data related to heat stress”
- Moderator: Tiernan Martin, Data Analyst and Planner, Futurewise
Environmental Justice and Health
This panel will continue to explore health equity and how it relates to our efforts of to protect the environment in cities. Air pollution often affects communities that are already more vulnerable due to socioeconomic, geographic, and urban planning inequities. This panel will discuss environmental justice and health more broadly, with a focus on reduction and solutions.
Session leaders:
- Hedwig Lee, Professor, Sociology, Washington University in St. Louis
- Julian Marshall, John R. Kiely Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, UW
- Lara P Clark, Ph.D Candidate, Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, UW
Speakers:
- Amanda Giang, University of British Columbia; “Reducing environmental health injustice—inequities in the distribution of environmental health harms”
- Lara Clark, University of Washington, “Environmental justice and air quality: current and historic patterns”
- Julian Marshall, University of Washington, “Environmental justice and air quality: engineering tools for evaluating policy decisions”
- Moderator: Julio Sanchez, Equity & Community Engagement Associate, Puget Sound Clean Air Agency
Mobility, Equity, Poverty and Health
Lack of access to mobility is a significant obstacle to the well-being of underserved populations. This session will explore how smart transportation technologies can promote equity and justice. Possible questions to be explored include: Can smart technologies make transportation systems more responsive to community needs? How to make transportation infrastructures nimbler and more flexible, and what are the possible economic benefits? How can smart technologies help to meet the unique needs of seniors, rural communities, small towns, homeless populations, and other underserved groups? How to improve access to the public transportation to solve the first/last mile mobility problem for underserved population? What are the metrics to quantify the gap between mobility and equity/poverty/health, and what are the associated trade-offs, if any?
Session leaders:
- Andrew Clark, Assistant Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- Sajal Das, Daniel St. Clair Endowed Chair Professor, Computer Science, Missouri S&T
- Jeffrey Ban, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, UW
- Scott Allard, Professor, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, UW
Speakers:
- Judith G. Gonyea, Boston University; “The Rise of Older Homelessness: Promoting Smart and Connected Cities Thought Leadership to Address this Social Justice Issue”
- Sarah M. Kaufman, New York University; “Gender-Based Equity in Transportation” (co-author Kaan Ozbay)
- Eric Davis, Industrial Labs; “Smart Micropolitan and Rural Areas: Understanding Health Resources, Mobility, and Connectedness”
- Moderator: Benjamin de la Pena, Chief of Innovation and Strategy, Seattle DOT
Resilience and Equity
Disaster preparedness and resilience are affected by community and individual economic well-being. The most vulnerable populations also have the least means to prepare for disasters and the fewest resources to mitigate the consequences when disasters occur. Thus, in the engineering of cities for disaster resilience, issues of equity, poverty and health must be considered. This session seeks contributions at the intersection of disaster preparedness and response, and equity and social justice. Of particular interest are examples from planning and/or engineering, both research and implementations, that considered equity in developing solutions for disaster preparedness. Examples demonstrating both successful and unsuccessful integration of these themes examples would provide a useful basis for dialogue.
Session leaders:
- Jeff Berman, Thomas & Marilyn Nielsen Associate Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, UW
- Ann Bostrom, Professor, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, UW
- Katie Idziorek, PhD Student, Urban Design & Planning, College of Built Environments, UW
Speakers:
- Dirk Pesch, Cork Institute of Technology; “IoT and Universal Design: a co-design approach”
- Jayant Gupta, University of Minnesota; “Spatial Data Science to Assist Underserved”
- Matt Auflick, City of Seattle, “Pre-Disaster Education and Outreach to Underserved Communities”
- Moderator: Kate Garman, Technical Policy Advisor, City of Seattle
Sustainability and the Smart and Just City
This session will explore potential solutions for aspects of urban sustainability. Equitable and efficient use of water, power, and other resources is critical for our future. New technologies from smart meters to artificial intelligence can help us with this: but we must be intentional. This panel delves into the implications of such engineering solutions for sustainability and for equity.
Session leaders:
- Jeff Berman, Thomas & Marilyn Nielsen Associate Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, UW
- Ann Bostrom, Professor, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, UW
- Katie Idziorek, PhD Student, Urban Design & Planning, College of Built Environments, UW
Speakers:
- Araya Asfaw, Addis Ababa University; “Smart meters provide efficient, effective and equitable water and electricity service”
- Nilay Mistry, IIT; “The Urban Design and Policy Implications of Ubiquitous Robots”
- Moderator: Hedwig Lee, Professor of Sociology, Washington University in St. Louis
