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The global change SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training (START) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) announce the Advanced Institute on Urbanization, Emissions, and the Global Carbon Cycle to be held at NCAR in Boulder, Colorado, from 4–22 August, 2003. This Institute, supported by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, will convene young natural and social scientists, engineers, and urban planners to critically examine the most environmentally significant interaction of cities with their environments: their emissions of both long-lived greenhouse gases and short-lived polluting gases and particulates. It will seek to understand why cities differ in the volume and contents of their emissions, even at the same standard of living; how city form, infrastructure, and functioning effect emissions; how the institutions and incentive/disincentive systems that shape production and consumption systems operate; which alternatives are feasible for reducing urban gases in cities of particular climates, economies, and polities; and how to make the transition to sustainable cities in the more crowded, warmer world of the 21st century. The Institute comprises three components: intensive training, follow-on research, and a final workshop. This institute has been endorsed by the Global Carbon Project and the Industrial Transformation Project.

Curriculum
The curriculum will emphasize trans-disciplinary thinking and interdisciplinary collaboration. Topics will include:

  • Conceptual frameworks for the study of urban ecosystems and urban metabolism;
  • Methodologies for estimating and measuring emissions of GHG from metropolitan regions and their application in developing regions;
  • Socioeconomic factors controlling urban emissions including urban form, density, infrastructure, and transport modalities;
  • Institutions and incentive/disincentive systems for managing urban carbon and GHG emissions and their likely impact;
  • Innovative technologies and their potential impact on emissions; and
  • Future trajectories of urban emissions as a component of the global carbon cycle.

Follow-on Research Seed Grants
The training workshop is coupled with a competitive seed grant program designed to provide the opportunity and resources for trainees to conduct research that applies new concepts and methods within their ongoing programs, and engage trainees and their institutions in ongoing and emerging international networks. The Institute is particularly linked with the Cities and Industrial Transformation projects of International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) and the Carbon joint project of International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, World Climate Research Programme, and IHDP . Institute faculty and members of the international advisory committee will serve as mentors in research design and implementation. The application process will include a follow-on project pre-proposal, which will be heavily taken into account in the decision on admission to the workshop. Refinement of these proposals will be part of the training. Viable research could address a wide range of issues, for example:

  • Effect of city form and city size on emissions profiles;
  • Potential for innovative transportation systems, both to improve quality of life and reduce emissions;
  • A small-scale study to measure the flows into, transformations of, and outflows of, air, water, materials, people, ideas, and capital;
  • Adaptation of methodologies used in existing studies to regional interests;
  • Systems modeling of urban processes related to emissions and to the environment;
  • Design of environmental monitoring strategies and analysis of environmental monitoring data;
  • Development of model regulations to reduce pollution.

Final Workshop
Following the period of in-country research, a summary workshop will allow trainees to meet to report on and discuss research results, and plan further collaborative activities.

International Advisory Committee

The Institute is led by a committee of esteemed scientists who serve on the International Advisory Committee:

Dr. Ernesto Arias, University of Colorado
Dr. Jariya Boonjawat, Environmental Research Institute, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand (Former-Director START Southeast Asia Regional Center)
Dr. Guy Brasseur, Max-Plank Institute for Meteorology (Chair Scientific Committee of IGBP as of January 2002)
Prof. Greg Carmichael, Iowa State University
Prof. Paul Crutzen, Nobel Laureate, Max-Plank Institute for Chemistry
Dr. Robert Harris, Environment and Societal Impacts Group at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (Co-Director of the Institute)
Prof. A.P. Mitra, Past-Director, National Physical Laboratory, India; Fellow of the Royal Society
Prof. B. Moore, University of New Hampshire (Chair, Scientific Committee of IGBP)
Dr. H. Imura, Nagoya University and the Institute for Global Environmental Studies, Japan
Dr. Richard Rockwell, Roper Center for Public Opinion Research and Institute of Social Science, University of Connecticut (Co-Director of the Institute)
Prof. O. Young, Dartmouth University (Co-chair, Carbon Joint Project)

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