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RESEARCH TRACK 3 — Sustainable [development + design + policy]
Aerial Photo of a City

About this track​

We use sustainability and social-environmental justice as overarching concepts to inquire about the spatial patterns of urban forms and landscapes at macro and micro levels, as well as the effects people may have on the natural and built environments and vice versa. Conceptually, this track is broader than our other three research tracks and includes several branches, including:

  • Alternative future land use change patterns and their ecological benefits (e.g., analyzing past changes, and simulating, visualizing, and designing future changes); 

  • Community resiliency as it relates to natural disasters (e.g., flooding and other extreme weather events); 

  • Sustainable transportation (e.g., bicycles and plug-in electric vehicles); and 

  • Sustainable neighborhood revitalization (e.g., revitalizing vacant, underused, and/or contaminated land parcels in post-industrial and/or shrinking cities).

 

Research on this track has yielded several peer-reviewed articles, which can be organized into three sub-tracks: sustainable community development through disaster resiliency, sustainable transportation, and sustainable neighborhood revitalization.

Relevant projects
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  • Greening Camden: Educating, Empowering, and Enriching Communities for Climate Action and Cleaner Air (2024 - 2026)

    • Sponsor - Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mahbubur Meenar (PI), Elizabeth Cerceo (Co-PI), Jagadish Torlapati (Co-PI), Qian He (Co-PI), and Ben Saracco (Co-PI), $100,000

  • Urban Heat Islands and Green Infrastructure Connection: Resident Perceptions Linking Climate Change (2020 - 2022)

    • Partner - Henry Rowan College of Engineering, Mahbubur Meenar (PI), Sarah Bauer (Co-PI), Md Shahinoor Rahman (Co-PI) 

  • New Jersey Underserved Communities Electric Vehicle​ Affordability Program (2020 - 2021)

    • Sponsor - U.S. Department of Energy through New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Ayman Ali (PI), Mohammad Jalayer (Co-PI), Kevin Keenan (Co-PI), Jie Li (Co-PI), Mahbubur Meenar (Co-PI), $94,588​

  • Brownfields Area-Wide Plan for Philadelphia's Lower North Delaware Industrial District (2017 - 2019)

    • Sponsor - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mahbubur Meenar (PI), $200,000 in two phases

Relevant publications
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