CWE Faculty Associates Presentations
This Way to Sustainability Conference XI
March 24-25, 2016
BMU 210 – Thursday 9:00-9:45
Integrate Sustainability: A Suite of Curricular Modules for Sustainability Pathway courses to Engage Students in Societal Issues
Rachel Teasdale, and Colleen Hatfield, Integrate Sustainability at CSU, Chico
The Integrate Sustainability project is a collective effort of eight CSU, Chico, faculty to incorporate new curriculum to the Sustainability Pathway. Curriculum focuses on societal issues related to sustainability themes including climate change, sustainable soil resources, environmental justice and water resources and society’s reliance on mineral resources. Materials are available online, and have been adapted by the faculty team to support individual courses as well as students in the pathway. Curricular modules are designed to engage students in grand challenges society is currently faced with, to engage students in addressing interdisciplinary issues from multiple perspectives, to use authentic data sets to address problems and to foster systems thinking. Starting in fall 2015, faculty have incorporated new curriculum and developed assessment data to quantitatively measure student learning and their attitudes towards the curriculum and their learning. The project has also resulted in an effective faculty learning community across the Sustainability Pathway.
BMU 203 - Thursday 10:00-10:45
A Sense of Place
Fletcher Alexander, The Institute for Sustainable Development at CSU, Chico, and Colleen Hatfield, the Biological Sciences Department at CSU, Chico
As part of the CSU Chancellor's Office Campus as a Living Lab Initiative, CSU, Chico has developed an online Building Dashboard and redesigned four courses within our GE Pathway in Sustainability to focus on data analysis and building occupant engagement for conservation. This online platform provides a public point of access to information on utility consumption across the Chico State Campus. The Dashboard is connected to building-level utility meters on eight campus buildings and provides real-time consumption data that can be analyzed by time-of-day, cost per unit, consumption trends per square footage and number of occupants, and can be compared building by building. The work these diverse courses are conducting is intended to increase awareness and transparency of utility consumption patterns on campus, to help identify opportunities for conservation, and to engage building occupants in better understanding their buildings and the impacts of their interactions with them on utility consumption.
BMU 211 - Thursday 1:00-1:45
Finding Uses for Waste Glycerol from Biodiesel Production
Dr. Lisa Ott, Center for Water and the Environment, and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, CSU, Chico
Glycerol is a significant byproduct of biodiesel synthesis. Dr. Ott will be co-presenting with a team of Chemistry students about their research, using both a biological approach and a chemical approach to address the glycerol problem. In the biological approach, they use an inexpensive microscopic bacterium, Azohydromonas lata (A. lata), to convert the waste glycerol to a biodegradable, carbon storage polymer that could be used to manufacture disposable plastic products. In the chemical approach, we are attempting to use the waste glycerol to produce deep eutectic solvents (DESs). DESs are an exciting class of solvents, with low volatility, high conductivity, recyclability, and biodegradability. In addition to the production of interesting solvent systems, using the waste glycerol as a component in DESs reduces the waste stream from biodiesel production. The chemistry student co-presenters are Blake Bewley, Linda Lee, and Annie Valceschini.
BMU 209 - Thursday 2:00-2:45
Droughts and Surface Water Sales: An Investigation of Spatial Data on Rice Farms in California
Anita Chaudhry and Dean Fairbanks, Center for Water and the Environment, CSU, Chico
We analyze land-fallowing decisions of senior water right holders to understand the effects of drought and state-managed water banks on water sale decisions. The analysis is based on 31 years (1984-2014) of spatial data derived from satellite data on fallowing decisions of rice farmers in three irrigation districts in Butte County, Northern California matched to highly detailed ownership data at the farm level. We establish a link between observed fallowing and water sales finding that while droughts may not affect water sale decisions, presence of a Drought Water Bank increases fallowing. Results have policy implications for California's water management policy in dry periods.
BMU 210 – Friday 9:00-9:45
Storm Runoff Mitigation by Biofiltration
Dr. Sandrine Matiasek and EPA P3 Student Team
Biofiltration systems are a type of urban green water infrastructure used to slow down urban storm runoff and mitigate the adverse effects of its contaminants. Students involved in an EPA People, Planet, and Prosperity grant investigated key design criteria for developing efficient and sustainable biofiltration systems, including soil media, plant types, and local precipitation patterns. Various system configurations were evaluated based on their efficiency at infiltrating storm runoff and removing excess nutrients, suspended sediment, metals, and other constituents of concern. From this assessment, students will present design guidance for campuses and small cities considering this pollution prevention method.
BMU 210 - Friday 10:00-10:45
Developing a Food Secure Butte County
Lee Altier, CSU, Chico College of Agriculture, and Deanna Reed, Enloe Medical Center
Working to ensure that everyone in the county has access to adequate amounts of fresh vegetables and fruits is a cooperative effort by numerous groups. It takes local food production, education, and markets working together. An estimated 15% of Butte County residents live in food deserts, 2 1/2 times the statewide average. This forum will bring together representatives from a variety of agencies to share their perspectives on the biggest challenges impeding food security in this area and what is being done to develop a food network that supports everyone.
BMU 204 - Friday 11:00-11:45
Navigating a Complex World: A Case for Resilience Education
James Pushnik, The Institute for Sustainable Development, and Colleen Hatfield, Department of Biological Sciences at CSU, Chico
As we work toward creating a sustainable future that is in harmony with the natural life support systems, we must acknowledge the pivotal role of education. We need to ask big questions about how to better communicate the concepts of sustainability and how to advance our preparedness for predicable climate driven changes and unanticipated surprises through resilience planning. Effective resilience planning in this dynamic environment necessitates the development of novel ways to collect, analyze, evaluate and integrate information from the intellectual space that has emerged between traditional academic disciplines. Resilience planning provides an opportunity to explore novel approaches to instruction that re-integrates knowledge and that tr anscends the traditional boundaries or approaches of any single academic discipline. This will require a shift in the way we conceptualize and think about research and teaching, particularly at the science-technology-environment-society interfaces, creating a resilience framework that would be defined by the questions asked, rather than the academic disciplines it engaged to find the solutions. To be successful, a curriculum of this nature must be an interdisciplinary effort rooted in knowledge, and integrating the evolving attitudes and values of the learner and society.
BMU 301 - Friday 11:00-11:45
Environmental Stressors in Aquatic and Riparian Ecosystems
Amanda Banet and Kristen Kaczynski, Center for Water and the Environment at CSU, Chico
This session will showcase research from Dr. Amanda I. Banet and Dr. Kristen Kaczynski, two new faculty members in the College of Natural Sciences at Chico State. Both researchers study how habitat disturbance and environmental stressors can influence an ecosystem and the organisms that live there. Dr. Banet will be sharing her research with Pacific salmon, which examines how stress experienced by a female salmon during migration can influence the behavior and swimming performance of her offspring via stress hormones deposited in the eggs. Dr. Kaczynski will present her research on the effects of fire on riparian ecosystems and methods for vegetation restoration.
BMU 204 - Friday 2:00-2:45
Sustainable Management of Groundwater Storage -- Why It Is Different Than Surface Water Storage?
Steffen Mehl and Jeffrey C. Davids, Center for Water and the Environment, CSU, Chico
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) focuses on transitioning the State towards sustainable use of its groundwater resources. However, compared to surface water storage, sustainable management of groundwater storage will require new management frameworks. For example, groundwater storage is harder to manage because there are physical constraints on how fast water can be put into and withdrawn from aquifers, its boundaries are not as well defined, and it is part of a dynamic flow system. Pumping (or injection) forms a cone of depression (or a mound) which has several implications for effective management: 1) location of extraction/injection can substantially impact the system, 2) interactions with the surface water systems can be nonlinear and complex (for example stream depletion), and 3) hydraulic effects can continue long after pumping/injection has stopped (residual effects of pumping). Failure to fully understand these issues can lead to mismanagement of groundwater storage with undesirable long-term implications.
BMU 210 - Friday 2:00-2:45
Dam Removal and Rewilding of the Sacramento Valley
Jesse Dizard, Center for Water and the Environment, CSU, Chico
Threatened species of Chinook Salmon spawn in only a few remaining tributaries to the Sacramento River. Cottonwood Creek is one such stream. During a survey not long ago CA Fish and Wildlife biologists discovered a dam on private property blocking 12 miles of spawning habitat. After negotiating with the landowner an agreement was reached to allow demolition of the dam. This presentation describes how that agreement was reached and why it can serve as a model for future efforts at dam removal. (Includes short film)
For more information visit the conference website:
http://www.csuchico.edu/sustainablefuture/conference/index.shtml