Joshua Newell
Joshua Newell joined the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment in Fall 2010. The name of the school changed to the School for Environment and Sustainability in July 2017. His research grapples with how to define, measure, model, and assess urban sustainability, particularly from the context of resource consumption. Newell’s research can be divided into two primary areas of interest. The first, Urban Infrastructure and Form, focuses on structural features of the urban form (e.g. built environment, transport, energy, and water infrastructure). The second research area, Urban Consumption and Commodities, focuses on the interrelationships between the consumption of consumer products, our responsibilities as global ‘green’ urban citizens, and the role of governance mechanisms and frameworks (including local institutions) in regulating product consumption. His research approach is often multi-scalar and integrative and, in addition to theory and method found in geography and urban planning, he draws upon principles and tools of industrial ecology, and spatial analysis.
Address: Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
Address: Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
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Journal Articles by Joshua Newell
is proliferating. Social theorists, especially human geographers,
have rightfully criticized that the underlying politics of resilience
have been ignored and stress the importance of asking “resilience
of what, to what, and for whom?” This paper calls for
careful consideration of not just resilience for whom and what,
but also where, when, and why. A three-phase process is introduced
to enable these “five Ws” to be negotiated collectively and
to engender critical reflection on the politics of urban resilience
as plans, initiatives, and projects are conceived, discussed, and
implemented. Deployed through the hypothetical case of green
infrastructure in Los Angeles, the paper concludes by illustrating
how resilience planning trade-offs and decisions affect outcomes
over space and time, often with significant implications for
equity.
is proliferating. Social theorists, especially human geographers,
have rightfully criticized that the underlying politics of resilience
have been ignored and stress the importance of asking “resilience
of what, to what, and for whom?” This paper calls for
careful consideration of not just resilience for whom and what,
but also where, when, and why. A three-phase process is introduced
to enable these “five Ws” to be negotiated collectively and
to engender critical reflection on the politics of urban resilience
as plans, initiatives, and projects are conceived, discussed, and
implemented. Deployed through the hypothetical case of green
infrastructure in Los Angeles, the paper concludes by illustrating
how resilience planning trade-offs and decisions affect outcomes
over space and time, often with significant implications for
equity.
With dramatic growth of urban areas and the majority of the world’s population now living in urban settings, cities have become dominant demand drivers in global food-energy-water (FEW) cycles. Globalization processes have intertwined cities with distant geographies through system interactions that include the exchange of food, energy, water, materials, capital, and the like. Through food consumption, city and ‘hinterland’ have become highly interconnected and interdependent across spatial, temporal, and jurisdictional scale. Growing awareness of the myriad environmental and socio- economic impacts associated with this food production-consumption nexus has sparked an urban agricultural renaissance. This white paper entitled, “Scaling Up Agriculture in City-Regions to Mitigate Food Energy Water Impacts,” is the result of a workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation and held at the University of Michigan on October 5-6, 2015. The document summarizes current knowledge with respect to urban agriculture on: 1) food supply and security; 2) water quality and re- use; 3) energy use; 4) biodiversity and ecosystem health; 5) and equity and governance. Prior to the workshop, working groups prepared on these five issues regarding the state of knowledge, level of implementation, and interactions with other FEW systems. A sixth working group evaluated potential integrative frameworks and modeling approaches to assess urban FEW system interactions. This analysis is also included in this white paper. To uncover the linkages between physical, social, economic, and ecological systems, the project team and workshop participants included a multidisciplinary collection of geographers, engineers, ecologists, biologists, earth systems analysts, complexity modelers, planners, computer scientists, public health policy experts, and others. The white paper concludes by identifying fundamental research needs in order to transition urban food-energy-water systems so that they are more integrated, sustainable, resilient, and equitable.