CEE Seminar: Quantifying the Impacts of Anthropogenic Emissions and Specific Infrastructures at Fine Scales Through Air Quality Modeling Techniques

VIA Zoom Link: https://uci.zoom.us/j/99532427036?pwd=UUU5YTBvOGk4YzJ1VGNJQy95M2pvQT09  
Meeting ID: 995 3242 7036; Passcode: 210548 

Abstract: Air quality and energy modeling in urban areas are critical parts that go towards answering the larger sustainability question that encompass designing healthy, sustainable, equitable and climate resilient cities in the future. Cities are of particular interest as they are the hotbeds that drive 70% of all global energy use, despite currently only consisting of 54% of the world population and only 3% of total land mass. In large part, the sources of these emissions and the degree to which they are emitted is mostly affected by social economic factors, infrastructure segments (i.e., transportation, economic, housing, etc.), regional climate and policy. However, discerning and delineating the interconnectivity between city infrastructure, inequity, energy and air quality are not easily done and typically require a rigorous integrated interdisciplinary analysis. The discussion here highlights the effectiveness of fine scale (~4km) air quality in delineating the synergistic and compounded effects of city infrastructure layout and proximity on energy demand, air quality and inequity. An in-depth analysis of urban dynamics at fine scale will serve to improve our understanding of the complex interactions between people, built and natural systems and a changing climate and how to design for resiliency and equity in the future. 

Bio: Lawal is currently an assistant professor in the civil and environmental engineering department at the University of Connecticut. Before that, she was part of the inaugural American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) cohort of Postdoctoral Engineering Fellows, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) department at the University of California at Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. and master’s in environmental engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests are in applying fine scale air quality modeling and mathematical methods to urban systems and processes to understand the overall impact and compounded effect of city infrastructure and new technologies on urban air quality, sustainability and inequity.