Sustainability

A Cluster-based Appliance-level-of-use Demand Response Program Design

Wu, Jiaman
Lu, Chenbei
Wu, Chenye
Shi, Jian
Marta Gonzalez
Wang, Dan
Han, Zhu
2024

The ever-intensifying threat of climate change renders the electric power system undergoing a profound transition toward net-zero emissions. Energy efficiency measures, such as demand response, facilitate the transformation to jointly relieve consumers’ financial burden and improve the operability of the electric power grid, in a carbon-free way. In this paper, we design a cluster-based appliance-level-of-use demand response program, based on the massive volume of appliance consumption data, to expand the role demand response can play in the power grid’s low-carbon transition. We...

DeepAir: Deep Learning and Satellite Imagery to Estimate High-resolution at Scale

Guo, Wenxuan
Hu, Zhaoping
Jin, Ling
Xu, Yanyan
Marta Gonzalez
2025

Air pollution, specifically PM
2.5
, has become a significant global concern owing to its detrimental impacts on public health. Even so, the high-resolution monitoring of air pollution is still a challenge on a global scale. To cope with this, machine learning (ML) techniques have been utilized to infer the concentration of air pollutants at a fine scale. In this study, we propose
DeepAir
, a learning framework for estimating PM
2.5
concentrations at a fine scale with sparsely distributed observations.
DeepAir
integrates a pre-trained convolutional neural...

A Mesoscopic Model of Vehicular Emissions Informed by Direct Measurements and Mobility Science

Öztürk, Ayşe Tuğba
Kasliwal, Aparimit
Fitzmaurice, Helen
Kavvada, Olga
Calvez, Philippe
Cohen, Ronald C.
Marta Gonzalez
2025

Vehicle emissions pose a significant challenge for cities worldwide, yet a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between mobility metrics and vehicle emissions at scale remains elusive. We introduce the Mobile Data Emission System (MODES), a framework that integrates various sources of individual mobility data on an unprecedented scale. Our model is validated with direct measurements from a network of high-density sensors analyzed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. MODES is used as a laboratory for scaling analysis. Informed by millions of individual trips at a metropolitan...

Bicycle Infrastructure that Extends Beyond the Door: Examining Investments in Bicycle-Oriented Design Through a Qualitative Survey of Commercial Building Owners and Tenants

Orrick, Phyllis
Karen Trapenberg Frick
Ragland, David R
2011

This paper presents the results of a qualitative survey of commercial owners, managers, and occupants in the City of Berkeley who have invested in on-site bicycle facilities such as secure parking, showers, changing rooms, and clothing lockers, what we are calling “bicycle-oriented design” (BOD). The sites represent a selection of building types common in the commercial building stock in U.S. cities.The research is designed to answer three questions about the use of BOD: (1) what were motivations behind the decision to invest in BOD (2) what are the challenges and rewards for investing in...

Collaboration and Equity in Regional Sustainability Planning in California: Challenges in Implementation

Karen Trapenberg Frick
Chapple, Karen
Mattiuzzi, Elizabeth
Zuk, Miriam
2015

Regions across the United States have developed sustainability plans and programs funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI). In California, this grant overlapped with a state mandate for regional sustainability planning, SB 375, legislation charging regions with developing long-range sustainability plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Regional agencies lead sustainability planning efforts, yet little is known about how effective and equitable regions are in their engagement with sustainability planning. We examined...

Increasing Public Transport Provision in Metropolitan Areas Can be of Great Benefit for Wages and Employment Density

Daniel Chatman
Noland, Robert B.
2014

Increasing the provision of public transport is not only desirable in a time of concern over climate change and high fuel prices, it may also have important effects on employment and wages. Using current and historic data from over 360 U.S. metropolitan areas, Daniel G. Chatman and Robert B. Noland argue that public transport increases employment in central city areas, whilst also leading to higher wages in these areas totaling from between $1.5 million and $1.8 billion yearly depending on the city.

Analyzing the Economic Benefits and Costs of Smart Growth

Daniel Chatman
Rayle, Lisa
Gabbe, C. J.
Plowman, Johnathan
Sohn, Paul
Crane, Rebecca
Spevack, Anne
Wise, Ella
Stoy, Kelan
Giottonini, M. Paloma
Ordower, Aaron
Crane, Randall
2016

California’s Senate Bill 375, (Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008), aims to reduce transportation related greenhouse gas emissions through more efficient patterns of land development. Advocates claim these smart growth policies will reduce vehicle travel while benefiting residents, cities, and regions in the form of more attractive communities, more affordable housing, and healthier municipal finances. In this study, the authors analyzed the economic impacts of existing smart growth plans similar to those currently being considered and adopted throughout metropolitan California. Through...

Developing a New Methodology for Analyzing Potential Displacement

Chapple, Karen
Waddell, Paul
Daniel Chatman
Zuk, Miriam
Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia
Ong, Paul
Gorska, Karolina
Pech, Chhandara
Gonzalez, Silvia R.
2017
In 2008, California passed Senate Bill 375, requiring metropolitan planning organizations to develop Sustainable Communities Strategies as part of their regional transportation planning process.While the implementation of these strategies has the potential for environmental and economic benefits, there are also potential negative social equity impacts, as rising land costs in infill development areas may result in the displacement of low-income...

Nudging People Towards More Sustainable Residential Choice Decisions: An Intervention Based on Focalism and Visualization

Bhattacharyya, Abhinav
Jin, Wen
Le Floch, Caroline
Daniel Chatman
Joan Walker
2019

There have been numerous behavior change studies focused on sustainable travel mode choices. In this study we focused on the residential choices that in turn influence travel habits. We designed and implemented two interventions, which we term the “focalism” and “visualization” interventions, based on literature in psychological economics. The focalism intervention was motivated by literature that suggests people make suboptimal choices when looking for a new home. While focus is given to immediately tangible features like the quality of the house, important but less tangible factors like...

SB 743 Implementation: Challenges and Opportunities

Barbour, Elisa
Daniel Chatman
Doggett, Sarah
Yip, Stella
Santana, Manuel
2019

California’s Senate Bill (SB) 743, enacted in 2013, marks a historic shift in how the traffic impacts of development projects are to be evaluated and mitigated statewide. To help achieve state climate policy and sustainability goals, SB 743 eliminates traffic delay as an environmental impact under the California Environmental Quality Act. State implementing guidelines for SB 743 instead require an assessment of vehicle miles traveled (VMT). The adoption of the guidelines sparked debate and raised far-reaching questions about development planning. Our research consisted of four parts. First...