CONTACT PERSON FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY IS: JACK AHERN (see below) Ph.D. Opportunity: Urban Green Infrastructure and Ecosystem Services
University of Massachusetts Amherst Green infrastructure (GI) is understood and increasingly accepted internationally as an alternative to conventional urban infrastructure. Theory supporting green infrastructure is evolving with a focus on the broad suite of ecosystem services putatively supported by GI that support urban sustainability and resilience goals. In a holistic sustainability context, these GI-ecosystem services can be organized/classified according to the ABC resource model (abiotic, biotic and cultural) (Ahern 2007, 2010, Pauliet et al 2011). This model is helpful to maintain a broad and inclusive awareness of ecosystem services, not limited to the biophysical. The identification and assessment of specific ecosystem services is arguably the greatest opportunity, and research challenge for continued development and application of urban green infrastructure. (Ahern 2007, 2010; Pauliet et al 2011) Landscape ecology provides a foundation of applied principles, theories and methods for relating spatial patterns to ecological process, across a range of contexts. This research program will focus on urban ecosystems and urban ecosystem services as provided by green infrastructure. The research will collaborate with an ongoing interdisciplinary ULTRA research group focusing on the socio- ecological drivers and consequences of landscape change in the Boston Metropolitan area. Planning and design for urban infrastructure is a highly dynamic enterprise, requiring routine re-construction, and continuous adaptations to new regulations and technologies. Research on bio, and ecological engineering is identifying new approaches at broad system levels as well as at project-scale designs for urban green infrastructure. New and emerging ideas and practices in green infrastructure will require an adaptive approach, in which planning and design interventions and safe-to-fail design experiments occur within a program of continuous/ongoing monitoring and adaptation (Ahern online; Kato and Ahern 2008). This position is offering support for a new Ph.D. student at the University of Massachusetts, Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. I am seeking a student with the research interests described and specific skills including: very strong English language writing skills, graphic skills - including digital tools, GIS modeling and assessment, and a high level of self-motivation. Interested persons are requested to reply with a 1000 word statement, including your research interests, academic background, research skills, and 2 academic references. The position is open for enrollment in the fall of 2011. A formal application process will require GRE, transcript(s), letters of reference and TOEFL (if not a native English speaker). Please send statement of interest to: Jack Ahern, Professor of Landscape Architecture: [email protected] Position Sponsor references: Ahern, Jack (online). From fail-safe to safe-to-fail: sustainability and resilience in the new urban world. Special 100th Anniversary issue of Landscape and Urban Planning Journal. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01692046 Pauleit, Stephan: Liu, Li; Ahern, Jack ; and Aleksandra Kazmierczak 2011. Multifunctional green infrastructure planning to promote ecological services in the city in Urban Ecology: patterns, processes and applications, Niemelä, Jari, Editor, Oxford University Press. 2010. Novotny, Vladimir; Ahern, Jack; and Paul Brown. Water-centric Sustainable Communities, planning, retrofitting and building the next urban environment. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken. 606 pp. Kato, Sadisho and Jack Ahern. 2008. Learning by Doing: Adaptive Planning as a strategy to address uncertainty in planning. Environment and Planning Journal. V. 51:4, pp. 543-559. Ahern, Jack. 2007. Green Infrastructure for Cities: The Spatial Dimension. In Cities of the Future: Towards integrated sustainable water and landscape management. Novotny, Vladimir; Brown, Paul, Editors. IWA Publishing, London. pp. 267-283.
