Debbie Niemeier

Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis

Title: Maria's House

Friday March 13th, 4pm, Mann Hall 216

Abstract: It's a simple bungalow built around 1920. A nicely formed one-story square with a pediment marking the door, one window on each side. The house was small, but entirely sufficient for the wealthy Fissel family who used it as a rental unit. The clapboard has since been resided and the front door isn't original. But the families and the students who lived there probably didn't mind much: a 3 block walk to the downtown or to the university was ideal.

Housing and transportation form the backbone of our communities. Our housing, in both form and function, serves as a way of identifying who we are and what we care about. Transportation allows us to access jobs, social networks, and recreation. But what happens when consumption of these goods exceeds sustainable levels, when we have to rethink both the form and function of not just our homes, but also our communities. Can we change? What are the magnitudes of the change that we have to consider? How do we prioritize competing interests? In this talk, we'll explore how local planning processes for the Fissel house retrofit, as envisioned by Maria (a local architect who thinks everyone will actually embrace an elegant and environmentally sustainable modern design), may have big implications for our ability to address climate change.

Biographcal sketch: Deb Niemeier is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Director of the John Muir Institute on the Environment, and Editor-in-Chief of Transportation Research Part A, Policy and Practice. She is the author of more than 110 journal papers, including papers in Science, Environmental Science and Technology, Transportation Science, Energy Policy and Transportation Research, Part A/B. She has also authored or co-authored 5 book chapters and more than 100 reports. She has served on 3 National Academy committees, and a number of scientific expert review panels including review of the Bay Bridge cost overrun, the cost analysis of the Panama Canal 3rd lock, and the Delta Risk Management Strategies study. She has received an Aldo Leopold Fellow Award, the UC Davis Chancellor's Fellow Award, and was the recipient of an NSF CAREER award.

Professor Niemeier received her Ph.D in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington in 1994, with a minor in statistics. She has served as Department Chair and is currently a member of the graduate faculty in Computer Science, Ecology, Atmospheric Science, and Geography. She has advised more than 20 Ph.D students, many of whom have gone on to public administration positions and to university faculties, most recently that of Cornell and the University of Illinois. Her current research focuses on the intersection of transportation, energy, and land use, including the effectiveness and ethical implications of policies that encourage progress toward the mitigation of greenhouse gases.

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