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Lecture

Sustainability Assessment in Urban Systems

In course

ENV-461: Sustainability assessment of urban systems

This course enables students to think critically about sustainability and to carry out a sustainability assessment based on problems of urban areas. At the end of the course, students are able to develop their own sustainability assessment using the Sustai ...

Description

This lecture covers sustainability assessment in urban systems, focusing on methods, conceptual approaches, analysis results, and policy implications. It includes oral presentations, milestones, evaluation criteria, and guidelines for presentations.

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Instructors (6)

Anna Pagani

Anna Pagani is an Italian architect and PhD candidate (C. Binder, HERUS). In 2015 she graduates cum laude in Architecture and Building Engineering at both Politecnico di Torino and Politecnico di Milano in Italy. She obtains a Double-Master Degree for technology talents (ASP-Alta Scuola Politecnica) with a multidisciplinary thesis about the Turin Energy Centre.During her academic path she is the winner of multiple European Union scholarships, allowing her to study in Barcelona and Lausanne. Her Master Thesis entitled “Hutongs-Transformation: A Battle Between Memories” (2015) is awarded with honors by the Politecnico di Torino.Following the path of anthropology, architecture, and sustainability, Anna is the curator of the seminar “Chinese New TOwns: negotiating citizenship and physical form” at the Beijing Design Week 2016.In 2017 she moves to China and works as architect for DEDODESIGN, a sino-italian architectural and design firm based in Shanghai, which focuses on sustainable architecture projects. During her stay, she is the organizer of two international workshops around the topics of sustainability.Aside from university..Anna studies since the age of 4 in the Lycée Français Jean Giono in Torino, which allowed her to speak, today, 6 languages. With a strong passion for writing, she has published on the Italian Review Edizioni Zero, il Giornale dell’Architettura, as well as Babylon.When she's not in the office, Anna practices yoga every morning, dances contemporary dance, sings in a choir, studies German, and attempts to limit her environmental footprint...

Albert Merino

Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer

Claudia R. Binder, a Swiss, Canadian and Colombian citizen, was born in Montreal and spent most of her childhood in Switzerland and Colombia. She studied at ETH Zurich from 1985 to 1996, earning a degree in biochemistry and then a PhD in environmental sciences. After conducting her post-doctoral research at the University of Maryland in the US from 1996 to 1998, she returned to Switzerland and took a position as a senior research scientist at ETH Zurich, studying the interaction between human and environmental systems at the Institute for Natural and Social Science Interface. In 2006, Binder joined the University of Zurich as an assistant professor in the Department of Geography, and in 2009 moved to the University of Graz in Austria where she served as a full professor of systems science. In 2011, she took a position at the University of Munich’s Department of Geography as a full professor of human-environment relations. Binder joined EPFL in March 2016 and set up the Laboratory for Human-Environment Relations in Urban Systems (HERUS) at ENAC; she also holds the La Mobilière Chair on Urban Ecology and Sustainable Living. Her research involves analyzing, modelling and assessing the transition of urban systems towards sustainability. She looks in particular at how we can better understand the dynamics of urban metabolism, what characterizes a sustainable city, and what drives and hinders transformation processes. She does so by combining knowledge from social, natural and data science. Her research focuses on food, energy, and sustainable living and transport in urban systems. In Switzerland, Binder was appointed to the Research Council, Programs Division of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in 2016 and serves on the Steering Committee of the SNSF’s National Research Program 71, “Managing Energy Consumption” and the Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research (SCCER). She is also a member of the Steering Board on Sustainability Research for the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, she was elected as a member of the University Council of the University of Munich (LMU). At EPFL, Binder is the academic director of Design Together, a cross-disciplinary teaching initiative. She was appointed to the management team of the Energy Center in 2018 and as head of the working group on EPFL’s energy and sustainability strategy in 2019.

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Related concepts (15)

Sustainability measurement

Sustainability measurement is a set of frameworks or indicators to measure how sustainable something is. This includes processes, products, services and businesses. Sustainability is difficult to quantify. It may even be impossible to measure. To measure sustainability, the indicators consider environmental, social and economic domains. The metrics are still evolving. They include indicators, benchmarks and audits. They include sustainability standards and certification systems like Fairtrade and Organic.

Index of sustainability articles

This page is an index of sustainability articles. Adiabatic lapse rate - Air pollution control - Air pollution dispersion modeling - Allotment (gardening) - Anaerobic digestion - Anthropogenic - Anthroposystem - Applied Sustainability - Appropriate technology - Aquaculture - Aquatic ecosystem - Ashden Awards Back-to-the-land movement - Bagasse - Behavioral ecology - Biobutanol - Biodegradable plastics - Bioenergy - Bioenergy village - Biofuel in Brazil - Biofuel in the United States - Biofuel - Biogas - Bi

Urban design

Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, cities, and regional spaces, urban design considers 'bigger picture' issues of economic, social and environmental value and social design. The scope of a project can range from a local street or public space to an entire city and surrounding areas.

Urban planning

Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks and their accessibility.

Urban geography

Urban geography is the subdiscipline of geography that derives from a study of cities and urban processes. Urban geographers and urbanists examine various aspects of urban life and the built environment. Scholars, activists, and the public have participated in, studied, and critiqued flows of economic and natural resources, human and non-human bodies, patterns of development and infrastructure, political and institutional activities, governance, decay and renewal, and notions of socio-spatial inclusions, exclusions, and everyday life.

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