Estimating water use in golf courses, agriculture, and… lattes? March 11, 2009
Posted by Angelo in Energy & Climate, Water, sustainability.add a comment
What’s in your latte?
When we present the water-climate model and talk about demand and supply of water, the usual suspects come into play: agriculture, swimming pools, car washes, golf courses etc. While it is easy and important to pay attention to these economic factors that account for thousands of gallons of water, we seldom pay attention to the little things. Like the water that goes into delivering a cup of coffee.
So this short, thought-provoking video makes us look at the embedded financial value that we take for granted or ignore. The end product seldom reflects the ‘links in the chain of unusual connections we would never have imagine.’ It was created by the World Wildlife Fund.
NOAA conference at Decision Theater January 9, 2009
Posted by Angelo in ASU: Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Energy & Climate, Water.3 comments
Today, the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration is holding a conference on Planning Integrated Research for Decision Support for Climate. Specifically, it’s on “Adaptation and Water Management in Desert and Coastal Cities”
NOAA works to keep citizens informed about the changing environment, and involves scientific research and high-tech instrumentation that is accessible to planners, emergency managers and other decision makers.
One of the topics today was to look at the challenges faced by city managers and planners in relation to existing and anticipated water-related stresses –those related to water supply, water quality, waste water management, infrastructure, flood control, growth, etc. They looked at the knowledge gaps between tools and outcomes.
And the Decision Theater’s role? Director George Basile spoke of the need for a facility like this, embedded in a research university, that could be both a place and an idea where complex systems could be “seen” differently. Like NOAA, and many agencies tasked with connecting the dots between economic, social, and environmental factors, this decision-making environment at ASU is taking on the “earth and economy 3.0” issues head on.
Update: One of the key questions asked of breakout groups was “what information could NOAA provide to convince local decision-makers to put green infrastructure solutions into rural and suburban areas?”
Peering into 2009: Passive houses and Food Miles? January 8, 2009
Posted by Angelo in ASU: Global Institute of Sustainability, ASU: School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Design, Energy & Climate, Urban Growth, Water.add a comment
I field a lot of inquiries from cities and those looking at complex challenges. Five minutes into the call, I often get the feeling that the Decision Theater might be coming across as some Magic Kingdom, which holds a proprietary crystal ball.
Instead of the crystal ball consider the DT as the Rosetta Stone, that uncovers what ASU’s President Michael Crow once described as ‘the underlying algorithm.’
We do engage a systems-based mindset to look at the long view of disease management, education, urban planning, and national security. So in this first week of 2009, here’s my take on what’s beyond the river bend:
- Passive Houses — a way to build heat recovery, insulation and passive solar gain into the structure
- Energy harvesting – a way to grab interior light as store it in photovoltaic cells
- Corporate hybrid fleets –will become mandatory, instead of fashionable
- CleanTech –there will be a big push to innovate and “redesign our relationship with nature and energy,” as Nicholas Parker, chairman of the Cleantech Group observed.
- “Food Miles” –the concept could make its way into labeling and marketing
- Water-Energy issues. Nine out of ten of the fastest states are in the West, where there is abundant sun. Future energy resources will need more water. Future water supplies will draw on more energy.
- Sustainable Cities – new cities will set these standards and pressurize those that are unsustainable to retrofit their ‘operating system’
- ZEB – remember these three letters. They stand for Zero Energy Buildings. Many growth decisions (for business and government) could be influenced by a new set of metrics and tools.
American Meteorological Society visits Decision Theater January 6, 2009
Posted by Angelo in Energy & Climate, Events, Visitors & Attendees, Visualization, Water.Tags: DCDC, WaterSim
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The American Meteorological Society will be holding its annual meeting & Summer Policy Colloquium in Phoenix.
On January 11th, after they tour the past (the Hohokam canal system) and the present (the Granite Reef Underground Storage Project), they stop over here for a look at the future
That future, will include a look at WaterSim, the interactive model of water supply and demand for the metro Phoenix region. WaterSim is a way of looking at water uncertainty in the context of climate, population growth and land use,
Predictive modeling for water, scary but necessary December 3, 2008
Posted by Angelo in Arizona State University, Urban Growth, Water.Tags: Michael Campana, Oregon State University, WaterSim
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Michael Campana’s post about “thinking about the unthinkable” after his visit to the Decision Theater, is worth a read. Good summary of water rights in Arizona
Especially since Mr. Campana is Director of the Institute for Water and Watersheds at Oregon State University.
Creative visualizing of data October 23, 2008
Posted by Angelo in ASU: Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Energy & Climate, Water.Tags: APS, Barrett Honors College, Campus metabolism, College of Design, Engineers Without Borders, GIOS, Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, SMART
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We just had a group at the Decision Theater inquiring how our visualizations, which are being linked to data sets, could be used in a Creative way. Creative with the capital C, that is.
So I am thrilled to promote a cool new interface launched yesterday at Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability.
It’s called the Campus Metabolism project. Specifically, a web-based tool (a richer experience than Dashboard) for displaying real-time energy use in several buildings across the Tempe campus.
For anyone managing gobs of data and has a hard time getting it to mean something, this is cutting edge. What’s most interesting is that the Campus Metabolism concept was created as a student project – A bottom-up process, if you will. Also, this is the kind of data that makes people feel a real connection to how we relate to the network, the grid, the eco-system. It was initiated with the purpose of looking at “the hidden connection between the impact of the actions in our daily lives and the natural world.”
Sidebar: The folks behind it:
Campus Metabolism brings out the collaborative force behind the work going at at the Global Institute of Sustainability. This one involved: ASU Facilities Management, The National Center of Excellence on SMART Innovations, University Student Initiatives, Barrett Honors College, University Architects Office, College of Design, Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, Psychology, the student chapter of Engineers Without Borders, and APS Energy Services.
Big picture thinking, why is it so hard? October 3, 2008
Posted by Angelo in Arizona State University, Energy & Climate, Urban Growth, Water.Tags: Arizona, DCDC, Water
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I was at a meeting yesterday morning where the discussion soon turned to how easy it is to look at a report or a set of charts and come to a ’small picture’ conclusion.
We create models –the mathematical, 2D and 3D kind– here at the Decision Theater for clients that project out 20 or 30 years. But even as ‘big’ as this is in the big picture scheme of things, people easily run off with slices of this information just because it suits their agenda or world view. Water scarcity, a big picture scenario, doesn’t look so bad if you make certain small picture assumptions.
To come at this from a completely different angle, Al Ries put it bluntly saying “No computer is as smart as a human being with a holistic point of view.” Ries, a marketing expert, was talking about “holism” and applying the need for holistic marketing thinking.
He asks why mathematicians and scientists “who developed the art and science of risk management” built models that could “comb through complicated mortgage portfolios to analyze everything,” and still been so off the mark. (A number that involves 7 and 11 zeroes, to wit!)
The answer, of course, is that they looked at risk up close, but not from a holistic, interconnected perspective.
The same goes for water, transportation, education, health. I like to tell people when presenting big picture concepts in the Drum, that even though we put things into nice buckets, we need to pay attention to the connections. Education planning involves transportation and urban growth –where would teachers live, how far will students travel, how many buses need to be in the school system?
Yes we do zoom in, move slider bars, tweak demand and supply. But we make sure people don’t undervalue the need to zoom out.
Cut to the chase with visualization August 12, 2008
Posted by Angelo in Scenario Planning, Visualization, Water.Tags: Arizona State University, DCDC, Economy, Energy & Climate, Water
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Despite what your position may be on Shell, you have to admit it invests a lot on visualizing the energy future –”more energy, less carbon dioxide”–it is grappling with, for good or ill. This is the stuff that gets churned out in white papers, and high-brow academic gatherings, but doesn’t often trickle down to the hoi polloi. We know by now that spreadsheets and PPT decks make people’s eyes glaze over..
In Shell’s 2050, post-Kyoto energy scenario, the visualization lets you pick a year from 2015 through 2050, and look at several factors that come into play in a planet that will be home to 9.5 billion in 2050; the ‘picture’ looks grim/complicated, even from within the cheerful graphics. It makes you want to do something whether it is to invest in fuel cells or reduce your carbon footprint.
Visualization is that great lens that puts data in context, and moves us to take action, even if it starts off with clicking a button. It can be as simple as being a dynamic feed. Check WorldoMeters.info. The speed at which you ’see’ top-soil erosion taking place, and ‘dollars spent on dieting in the USA’ will give you a jolt!
We use similar, but more complex visualization tools to create scenarios like this at the Decision Theater. The most interesting one, WaterSim, lets people simulate a drought and see the effects on agriculture and lifestyle choices. The challenge is to take this complexity that works well in our immersive environment (the ‘drum’) and render it in a webified environment.
Looking around at so many data-rich web sites, I could see why many sites are begging to be rendered with more visualization. Those of us writing or designing data sheets and white papers will have to recognize some hard realities:
- New platforms. People will use new devices and platforms to interact with our information via small screens, on high-res devices, and those capable of and hungry for animation.
- Audience habits: Readers will demand to ’snack’ on information, before they dig deep. Will our web pages and PDF’s cut to the chase? What’s a ‘media snack?” Check this out.
- Time shifting. Information might be accessed (downloaded, snacked on) via one platform, consumed on another. Will the visual appeal transfer? Quality isn’t the issue, but compatibility. CNN stories watched on a high-def monitor still transfer to grainy formats on YouTube.
Visualization poses many challenges, but they are grood ones, because they force us to distil information, and give it more context.
