Cities are engines of economic activity and human well-being, but they also drive profound environmental change; both within their boundaries and across distant landscapes. As such, urban areas cannot be understood and assessed in isolation from the farms, forests, and other spaces of production on which they depend. 

This talk presents research from the Sustainable Urban-Rural Futures (SURF) Lab at the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan, which develops advanced analytics to map, measure, and mitigate the environmental impacts of urban systems. 

I will explore how urban form and function shape resource consumption and environmental burdens, from household energy use and carbon emissions to the food and commodity supply chains that stretch from city centers to global hinterlands. 

Drawing on methods including life cycle assessment, consumption-based accounting, and geospatial analysis, I will show how multi-scalar analysis of urban processes can capture the environmental and social change wrought by cities in ways that traditional geographically-constrained frameworks often obscure. To demonstrate this, I will present findings on topics including urban agriculture, building materials, livestock supply chains, and residential energy use, discussing implications for policy and planning aimed at building more sustainable and just cities.

Dr. Benjamin Goldstein is Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability and head of the Sustainable Urban-Rural Futures (SURF) Lab. The SURF Lab studies and emphasizes urban sustainability at multiple scales. 

Further information and registration: here