Dear Colleagues,
Together with the Planet Texas 2050 Theme Organizing Committee, I am pleased to announce that the new Planet Texas 2050 chair, effective Sept. 1, is Heather Houser, associate professor of English.
Prof. Houser replaces Katherine Lieberknecht, assistant professor of Community and Regional Planning in the School of Architecture, who served as Planet Texas 2050’s chair since the program’s launch in 2018. Prof. Lieberknecht led a diverse team to move this grand challenge from idea to implementation, to develop research plans and a community engagement strategy. She oversaw hiring efforts, their first call for proposals, and countless hours dedicated to formalizing a research vision and strategy — all while navigating different disciplinary languages and norms. She stepped up at an early career stage to ensure Planet Texas 2050’s success, and I know they are a stronger, more focused group because of her. As we welcome Dr. Houser as our new faculty chair, we honor and thank Dr. Lieberknecht for her leadership.
Key highlights from the past year:
Planet Texas 2050 is deepening the knowledge base of human-environment interaction and strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration to produce scholarly output that drives new solutions for resilience:
Integrating models:
- Our core data portal (DataX) at the Texas Advanced Computing Center is fully functional and ready for use, which enables Planet Texas 2050 to build and integrate models of human and environmental systems.
- An integrated modeling platform is in development in collaboration with the Model Integration through Knowledge-Rich Data and Process Composition project. Beta-testing has started with test user groups.
- We have identified sources and formats of water data that can be incorporated into the DataX platform and integrated model to better understand total water resources in Texas. This method can also be applied to resources like ecosystems and energy:
Measuring resources:
- We are making progress in mapping, quantifying, and understanding the interconnections and interdependencies of urban growth, human well-being, and hydrologic and ecological function in urban watersheds.
- Teams are applying archaeological methods to collect data on the effects of resource scarcity and social disruption on human bodies and genomes in Texas, Mesoamerica, Italy, and Romania. This data will be integrated into the DataX platform to help researchers understand the relationships among climate, water supply, urbanization, and human well-being in the past.
- We are measuring transportation-related air pollution (TRAP) exposure and its impacts in Austin, and are developing models that capture the impact of urbanization and mobility decisions on TRAP exposure and corresponding health impacts.
Understanding resilience:
- Through arts and humanities projects, we are exploring what constitutes “vulnerability” to climate impacts and how vulnerabilities interact with local water infrastructures, policies, and political cultures.
- We are working to articulate the disconnect between the typical scales at which researchers and policy-makers explain climate change and the more localized scales at which individuals experience and respond to climate impacts.
Developing strategies:
- We have created a functional prototype of the Texas Metro Observatory, a metropolitan-focused communication and data platform.
- We have developed a ‘Community Engagement Toolkit’ with the Austin Community Design and Development Center.
Communicating and learning:
- We completed two graduate courses: Sustainable Systems (Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering) and a Graduate Seminar on Planet Texas 2050 (Geosciences).
- Our teams began to scope the many ways in which we can incorporate community engagement to inform research but also policymakers, advocacy groups, and community members. We also began the process of building new relationships and developing existing ones with stakeholders at local, regional, and state levels.
Planet Texas 2050 opened an internal-to-UT call for proposals in April 2019, awarding $427,200 to 12 new interdisciplinary projects. Over the last year, the grand challenge team also formed a Community Engagement Committee, hired a community engagement liaison, and initiated discussions toward partnerships with stakeholder organizations in the public, private, and civil society sectors.
Going into its second full year, Planet Texas 2050 now involves 96 researchers from across UT and is supporting 22 dynamic research, education, and community engagement projects that span 34 UT units.
While we are proud of our accomplishments so far, we are aware of the enormity of the challenge before us. We welcome all who want to join us on this journey!
There are many ways to get involved in Planet Texas 2050. Please reach out to Planet Texas 2050 Theme Organizing Committee chair Heather Houser or Program Director Jenny Nelson Gray with ideas, questions, or participation inquiries.
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Daniel Jaffe
Vice President for Research
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