1. Summary

The University of California, Riverside (UCR) has established the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) to act as an umbrella organization to integrate UCR’s interdisciplinary research centers and educational programs related to the significant challenges in managing air, water, energy, biodiversity, natural resources and sustainability. Initially, this effort will include the College of Engineering–Center for Research and Technology, the Air Pollution Research Center, the Center for Conservation Biology, the Center for Sustainable Suburban Development and a broad based effort in water resource management. Other organizations and faculty are expected to become part of the Institute as it develops.

The heart of this strategy is to implement a new comprehensive vision to meet the 21st century challenges in the environment. The initial research program will focus on Southern California and the Inland Empire (specifically, the Coachella Valley) although it is expected that these efforts will quickly be expanded to investigate other regions of the world, particularly Asia, as the funding base expands.

Presented here is an overview of the structure and initial goals of the Institute along with the initial development plan. Brief descriptions of the research organizations that will participate in ERI are given and a brief summary of the research programs being conducted that align with the overall mission of the ERI are listed. ERI’s initial research effort will focus on implementing a unique integrated modeling center. This will be described along with the initial application which will be in the Coachella Valley in the eastern portion of Riverside County in Southern California.

2. Table of Contents

1. Summary
2. Table of Contents
3. Introduction
4. Organizational Structure, Goals, and Developmental Plan
   1. Organizational Chart (JPEG)   High Resolution
5. ERI’s Integrated Modeling Center
6. Challenges of the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley
7. ERI’s Participating Research Centers
   1. Air Pollution Research Center
   2. Center for Conservation Biology
   3. Center for Sustainable Suburban Development
   4. College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology
   5. Water Resource and Management Center

3. Introduction

A critical challenge for humanity in the 21st century will be developing and implementing new technologies and lifestyle choices to live in harmony with our natural resource base while protecting the integrity of the Earth’s natural ecosystems upon which all life depends. For scientists, policy leaders, and educators, this requires an understanding of both the functioning of complex ecological systems and the dynamic interactions between human and natural systems. ERI must help educate citizens and policy makers so that they understand the environmental impacts of lifestyle and technology choices and are empowered to adopt sustainable lifestyles 1 . It also requires that we reexamine traditional practices of urban and suburban development to facilitate sustainable practices and to accommodate rapid growth occurring in many parts of the world as, for example, in Southern California. Furthermore, efforts to promote sustainability must be designed to maintain or even enhance quality of life for all citizens thereby avoiding the perception that environmental stewardship can only be achieved through personal sacrifice.

To address these issues, the University of California, Riverside has initiated a new interdisciplinary Institute that combines research in the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and the humanities to perform integrated assessments of human and natural systems. The goal of the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) will be to identify and to develop analytical tools, technologies, and practices that protect natural ecosystems, improve air and water quality, provide sustainable energy, and conserve natural resources while also improving the quality of life. ERI will engage in research, development and education and outreach programs designed to chart a path for sustainable development. The initial focus for these efforts will be in the Coachella Valley in the eastern portion of Riverside County. This area of Southern California exemplifies emerging development and environmental issues, thus strategies that are developed to enhance sustainability and quality of life here will have broad applicability to other rapidly developing regions of the world. Moreover, because California is a global leader in the development of new advanced environmental technology, it is likely that new practices and technologies developed through this program will be emulated globally and this will have a much broader impact beyond this specific region. It is expected these efforts will be conducted in partnership with local, regional and state agencies such that integrated planning of the future can be accomplished with an improved technical foundation. These efforts will spawn new research topics, broaden the base for funding, and allow for collaborative research at all levels.

Combining the expertise of many different academic disciplines is an essential component of this new approach. If done properly it will ensure that proposed solutions are comprehensive, holistic, implementable, and culturally relevant. By using integrated assessments we will avoid merely transferring environmental problems from one region or media to another.

This document identifies strengths in the research and education programs currently being conducted at UCR and outlines how these programs will be integrated to begin the research program within the Environmental Research Institute. The next section outlines the organizational structure of ERI and the goals of the Institute. To facilitate the initial research agenda, ERI has initiated an Integrated Modeling Center (IMC). A summary of the IMC is given in Section 5. This is followed by a description of the initial application, which is in the Coachella Valley, located in the eastern portion of Riverside County. Finally, a short description of the five research centers that will comprise the initial efforts of the ERI is given in Chapter 7.

1. In this context, “sustainability” is defined to mean that the current generation can satisfy its needs without jeopardizing the viability of future generations, while conserving the diversity of ecosystems and biological species.

4. Organizational Structure and Goals

The key motivation for establishing the Environmental Research Institute is the belief that research and education can continue to positively influence planning and development processes. If done so successfully, the project will support and enhance the University’s overall mission of providing research, service and education.

Thus, the initial objectives of the ERI are:

1. To define and develop methodologies and technologies that will improve air quality, water resources, environmental integrity, and renewable energies, as well as preserve biodiversity in California and the rest of the world.
2. To develop improved mechanisms for evaluating environmental strategies, policy, and proposed technologies.
3. To create unique educational opportunities for our students, corporate leaders, policymakers, and K-12 educators.
4. To understand the roles of both locally and globally driven change to the local and global environment.
5. To contribute to California and the world’s quality of life and global economy.

The unique aspect of this concept lies in the integration of multiple disciplines, which will create new approaches to solving persistent problems and reconciling competing viewpoints. It will create a true systems approach to studying and solving environmental and energy problems. UCR researchers from multiple disciplines will work together to set forth hypotheses and research strategies, conduct experiments, and analyze results. Their conclusions will be used to refine and further develop analytical models of environmental and social behavior, greatly enhancing the nascent concept of interdisciplinary modeling. Such an approach will enable realistic evaluations of trade-offs among environmental media, as well as assessments of how the public will respond to environmental regulatory strategies. This approach should attract research funding from both the public and private sectors that may not have normally been accessible by individual research organizations.

Several research areas in which UCR has recognized expertise can be identified based on the objectives listed above and include:

• Fundamental research in natural and human systems to provide the knowledge base necessary for making effective development choices that protect ecosystems and improve quality of life. Examples include: research on effects of nitrification on desert ecosystems, and research on consumer preferences and motivation.
• Research and development of new technologies and operating practices, both to prevent new environmental problems and to remediate existing problems. Examples include research in sustainable transportation systems and alternative fuels, smart transportation systems, filtration technologies and nanotechnology for environmental remediation, and genomics research for more efficient use of resources.
• Research in the socio-cultural-political arena to better understand the needs for and use of information by planners, politicians and citizens in making decisions and resolving conflicts associated with growth and development of sustainable communities.
• Development of education and outreach programs to transfer knowledge and expertise to the broader community.

Much of these research topics and activities exist in several established research centers at UCR. These include the Air Pollution Research Center, the Center for Conservation Biology, the College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology, the Center for Sustainable Suburban Development and the new Water Resource and Management Center. A brief summary of the concepts, goals and research agendas for each center is provided in Chapter 7. These centers comprise the initial structure of ERI, although the Institute is expected to expand as it evolves.

The initial organization structure is provided in Figure 1. The structure has the following aspects:

• ERI’s Director reports to the Vice Chancellor of Research. There is a dotted line to each of the Institute’s centers since each is autonomous in establishing their own research program and funding.
• There is a UCR oversight committee consisting of the Vice Chancellor of Research, the Vice Chancellor for Advancement, the Vice Chancellor for Planning and Budget, and all of the Academic Deans. It expected that the ERI Director will meet with them quarterly to keep them abreast of our progress and plans.
• There is a Management Committee that consists of each of the Center Directors, the Director’s Assistant, and ERI’s Development Officer. It is expected that this committee will evolve as ERI expands. The major role of this committee will be to coordinate faculty research interest in their areas of expertise and to actively assist in funding these areas. The committee will probably meet monthly. There have been three management meetings since September. The ERI Director will serve as the chair of this committee.
• The Board of Advisors will consist of business, federal, state and local officials. This committee has yet to be established although the Management Committee has provided recommendations for membership. The initial technical program of the institute will focus on providing a comprehensive, integrated assessment of the full environmental, societal, and energy issues associated with sustainable growth for Southern California, particularly in the Inland Empire/Coachella Valley and other parts of the world. We will need input and advice from a high level committee consisting of all of the stakeholders to make this effort successful. We expect to have the first advisory committee meeting some time in the early third quarter of 2005.
• The Integrated Modeling Center is the only research activity that will report to the ERI Director. The details of this effort will be discussed in the next section.

Initially, UCR has established a partnership with the Coachella Valley Association of Governments (CVAG) to assist in a proposal for federal funding to develop a comprehensive data and modeling center for this area. This data center will include the necessary data sets to initiate the various modeling efforts of ERI. The modeling data center for Southern California will include air emission inventories, traffic and urban planning data, water quality and management data, information on endangered species and land use, necessary GIS data for modeling purposes, growth projections, and urban zoning information. This will be a unique aspect of ERI that would separate us from other similar institutions. This effort will provide the framework for rapid application to other parts of the world.

5. ERI’s Integrated Modeling Center

A major objective of ERI will be to assume the challenge of developing the data sets and technologies for integrated resource planning and management. The heart of this strategy will be to implement a new vision of an integrative approach to air, water, energy, and biodiversity and to develop the analytical methods to assess these interactions in a more quantified manner.

At the foundation of the research agenda will be an integrated resource model encompassing a wide range of disciplines, including engineering, the physical sciences, the biomedical sciences, the social sciences, and where appropriate, the humanities (e.g. Native American environmental/cultural issues) which will emphasize the linkages among human and natural systems. The vision is that the integrated systems models will continually receive new inputs from the research projects, and they will provide feedback for the design of new research efforts. Essential research in water resources and quality, energy source and distribution, air quality, ecosystem preservation, land use, and decision-making can be combined to provide a clear picture of the challenges we face. The interdisciplinary approach and the integrated modeling framework will provide a valuable new tool for managing population growth while enhancing quality of life and will also be a valuable educational resource for both undergraduate and graduate students and policy makers.

The initial effort will continue to identify key faculty collaborators to determine the analytical models and data sets that can be linked for an initial demonstration of the integrated assessments, and to prepare a vision and research agenda that can be used for future development efforts and external financial support. The initial demonstration of this effort will focus on the Inland Empire. The rationale will be presented in the next section.

An ad hoc committee of faculty has been created to provide guidance during these crucial early development stages. This committee includes, in part: Edith Allen; nitrogen deposition and conservation biology; Rich Minnich, fire modeling; Larry Bai; ecosystem modeling; Tom Meixner; water modeling; Jim Lents, policy and management; Matt Barth, transportation modeling; Kurt Schwabe, resource economics; David Cocker, atmospheric aerosols; Bill Carter, atmospheric gas phase chemistry.

Year 1 Objectives Proposed activities for the first year include the following:

• Converting air pollutant exposure and deposition data to GIS formats to facilitate sharing of this data with other researchers.
• Linking air quality models with other ecological models such as the CENTURY ecological model and the HYDRUS water resource model.
• The initiation of several workshops to begin in early 2005 to include researchers in Environmental Sciences, Conservation Biology, the Riverside Fire Lab, Political Science, CE-CERT and the new Center for Sustainable Suburban Development. The initial workshop was limited to a smaller select group to initiate the modeling approach for Coachella.
• Integrating the transportation model (ITEM) with UCR’s Air Quality Models for application in the Coachella Valley.

The collaboration between the Air Quality Modeling Group and the Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) has begun. The CE-CERT Air Quality Modeling group produces several different simulated data sets that will be useful to the Center for Conservation Biology. These data sets are being transformed into a format that can be easily used by CCB. These data sets included modeled ozone exposure and modeled deposition of ozone, nitrogen, acids and other atmospheric pollutants. These simulated data are produced by operating meteorology models, emissions models and chemical-transport models at CE-CERT. Simulated data are defined on a 4-km resolution spatial grid. In addition, ambient monitoring data will take place at certain locations. Because CCB routinely works with ArcGIS, the decision was made to convert the CE-CERT data sets to ArcGIS “layers” that can be used in ArcGIS with other CCB datasets. Other activities to date include development of C++ programs and Unix scripts to perform the data transformation. It is expected that this demonstration of collaboration between CE-CERT and CCB will form the basis for future integrated modeling projects in the Coachella Valley and Southern California, with ArcGIS serving as the common platform used to link datasets among all UCR researchers involved in both data analysis and simulation modeling. Eventually we expect the collaboration to encompass other researchers at UCR.

6. The Challenges of the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley

The area known as the Inland Empire (Riverside, San Bernardino, Temecula) is ideally suited for application of the integrated modeling approached discussed earlier in this document. Riverside County extends from within 14 miles of the Pacific Ocean to the Colorado River and has a land area of over 7,200 square miles. Western Riverside County lies within the California floristic province, which is considered one of the eighteen global biodiversity hot-spots (Wilson, 1992). The region varies from desert to high-mountain to steppe to coastal areas. It includes such unusual vegetation types as palm groves in desert oases, high-altitude old-growth lodgepole pine forests, pinyon pine forests with rare species, and coastal sage scrub. Some regions of the County, including the University of California’s Deep Canyon Reserve, display highly complex interdigitation of many vegetation types on highly varied physical substrates.

The lack of imported water in this semiarid region has kept many southern California habitats undeveloped and nearly intact until the latter half of this century. At the end of World War II, the San Diego, Orange County, and Inland Empire regions began receiving imported water and infrastructure changes that led to unprecedented human population growth. Because this development occurred after widespread ownership of the automobile, its pattern was diffuse. As of 1995, there were over 3500 km of edge between urban land uses and native habitats (Scott et al., 1995) in Riverside and San Diego counties. These new clusters of urban enclaves are often referred to as “stealth” cities because they exist without land-use planning, urban services, or independent economies. Fragmentation, pollution, and introduction of non-native species have created more endangered species conflicts (Thelander, 1994; Scott et al., 1995; Dobson et al., 1997) than in any other region of the country.

Patterns of development in southern California also contribute to significant air and water quality problems. Many residents commute long distances by automobile, creating over 60% of regional air pollutants. Meteorological conditions in Southern California are especially conducive to poor air quality, and the Inland Empire is consistently rated as having some of the poorest air quality in the US for both ozone and fine particulates (reference ALA). While technological innovations produced tremendous improvements in air quality from the 1970’s to the mid-1990’s, air quality in some portions of the Inland Empire appears to have begun to worsen in the last few years. Lack of sufficient water resources and water quality are also important concerns that are exacerbated by traditional suburban development approach that is water intensive. Furthermore, rapid growth is expected to continue. Riverside County is the fastest-growing region in California with the population expected to double from 1.5 million in 2000 to 3 million in approximately 2015. This is likely to continue to contribute to loss or changes in natural habitats, threats to biodiversity, and poor air and water quality. This will lead to increased social conflicts over the patterns of growth and development and the use of water and other natural resources.

The effects of development and lifestyle choices in Southern California can also have global consequences. The energy intensive economy is a major contributor to radiatively important trace gasses that might induce climate change. If this occurs, changes in precipitation and meteorology might exacerbate existing environmental problems and place additional stress on natural and human systems that are already struggling to accommodate growth. Southern California may exert an even greater, indirect influence on greenhouse gasses by providing to the world a cultural model for energy intensive development.

Lack of information or education among citizens and consumers presents an important impediment to resolving environmental problems and making intelligent lifestyle choices. This is especially true for air and water resource issues in which the problems result from the collective action of many individuals.

Although there are important concerns regarding the future growth and development in Southern California, our recent history demonstrates that careful planning can mitigate the effects of growth. As noted above, there were tremendous improvements in air quality in Southern California even as population doubled from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. Moreover, vast areas of Southern California have been set aside as National Parks and Forests, serving both as wildlife preserves and providing recreational and economic opportunities. Development decisions are often made in a politically charged context of competing agendas among local residents, environmental organization, developers, corporations, and politicians in which each party brings to the table incomplete or inaccurate information. Too often, academicians have been absent from this process even though they have the potential to provide information needed for more effective decision making. The vision for the Environmental Research Institute is that it may serve as an “honest broker” by contributing data and knowledge developed from a peer reviewed and scientifically rigorous process, and that the Institute can contribute to the development of a larger scientifically literate community that can make effective use of this information.

Riverside County in southern California provides an ideal case study for investigating the interaction of complex human and natural systems and can serve as a model for other rapidly developing regions in the US and in other countries. As described above, Riverside County exemplifies most of the environmental and growth problems that are being faced by many other rapidly developing regions. In addition, the Riverside County Integrated Plan (RCIP) is currently being revised to accommodate growth expected during the next 20 years. Although County planning is not engaged in educational or research activities, it is actively engaged in data collection and in assessing the political and social aspects of managing growth. Therefore, the RCIP provides a valuable resource for applying and evaluating integrated models of complex biological and human systems in Riverside County.

As mentioned above, the cornerstone of ERI will be the development and integration of a system of environmental and social models and databases that can be used to characterize present conditions in the Inland Empire (particularly the Coachella Valley) and to simulate various alternative futures under different scenarios of development and growth. Many of the necessary models and data sets already exist at the UCR campus. For example, CE-CERT is performing integrated modeling of transportation, emissions, meteorology, and air quality. CCB has comprehensive land use data bases and ecosystem models. The initial data exchange protocols and other mechanisms for linking the diverse models are already in use by researchers at UCR. A second key effort will be the identification of “missing” models and data sets that are needed to provide comprehensive integrated assessments of development and growth in the Inland Empire. It is possible that some of these data sets are already available among researchers in the social sciences and at various county and state agencies. The Coachella Valley Association of Governments has agreed to serve as the interface between ERI and the various agencies.

Model validation is a critical aspect of all model simulation studies. Typically, models are validated by operating them for historical periods and then comparing the model predictions to historical data. The use of “indicators” or “benchmarks” will serve two essential functions in modeling studies at the Institute. First, the indicators will serve as the key model output data that will be used in analyzing alternative future scenarios of growth. Second, the indicators will also serve as the basis for model validation by determining the key data that are needed for comparing the model simulations to observations or historical data. Example of indicators might include species diversity, ambient ozone concentration, visibility, mean income, vehicle miles traveled, average years of educations, etc. An early focus of the Institute will be to determine the indicators or benchmarks that must be included in the integrated modeling system.

Although there has been much interest in interdisciplinary research in recent years, instances of truly interdisciplinary research have been rare because of the difficulty in fostering natural interactions among researchers from widely disparate disciplines. As indicators of human well being are included in the modeling system at the new Institute, this will provide a natural conduit for the integration of faculty and students working in engineering and the natural sciences with those working in the social sciences and humanities. A useful paradigm would be to view certain researchers as model developers who generate model input data and link the diverse models, and other researchers as clients who make use of model generated data sets or who participate in model validation exercises by analyzing historical data. This paradigm envisions the emergence of natural collaborations that would facilitate participation by researchers who employ a variety of models ranging from computationally intensive ones that require powerful computing clusters to conceptual or mental models. Research into the use of data and models by public officials and consumers also constitutes an essential aspect of an integrated systems assessment and provides another important opportunity for interdisciplinary collaborations.

7. ERI’s participating Research Centers
   1. Air Pollution Research Center
   2. Center for Conservation Biology
   3. Center for Sustainable Suburban Development
   4. College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT)
   5. Water Resource and Management Center

1. Air Pollution Research Center

Concept:
The Air Pollution Research Center (APRC) is an Organized Research Unit at the University of California Riverside campus which was established in the early 1960’s to conduct basic and applied research into the chemical processes responsible for the formation of photochemical air pollution and to investigate the effects of air pollution on plants. Since 1995, the majority of APRC’s research has been concerned with the atmospheric transformations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from anthropogenic and biogenic sources, and the role of these organic compounds in the formation of ozone and secondary organic aerosol in urban and regional atmospheres.

Goals:
The goals of current projects within the APRC include: understanding the formation of toxic air pollutants from the atmospheric reactions of organic compounds to aid in determining health risks associated with vehicle emissions; understanding the kinetics, products and mechanisms of the atmospheric degradation reactions of organic compounds; development of chemical mechanisms for use in urban and regional airshed computer models; development of VOC reactivity scales (especially since new data indicate serious problems with aromatic mechanisms); understanding the spectroscopy, thermodynamics, photochemistry, reaction pathways and mechanisms of reactions of small free radicals of atmospheric relevance; development of methods to measure key intermediate chemicals in the atmosphere; understanding the chemical reactions responsible for the formation of secondary organic aerosol and identifying the aerosol-phase chemicals formed in these reactions; and understanding the biochemical pathways responsible for the effects of ozone on plants (and specifically on agriculturally important plants).

Research Agenda:
The research of the seven APRC faculty: Janet Arey, APRC and Environmental Sciences; Roger Atkinson, APRC and Environmental Sciences; William P. L. Carter, CE-CERT and APRC; David A. Grantz, Botany & Plant Sciences and APRC; Jingsong Zhang, Chemistry and APRC; and Paul J. Ziemann, APRC and Environmental Sciences, are briefly summarized below.

Dr. Arey’s research involves environmental chamber studies aimed at identifying the products of atmospheric reactions of organic compounds by utilizing chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques. Her interests include studies of the formation of mutagenic compounds in the atmosphere and the sampling and analysis of these species in ambient atmospheres.

Dr. Atkinson's research interests involve experimental studies of the kinetics, products and mechanisms of the gas-phase reactions of OH radicals, NO3 radicals and O3 with organic compounds emitted into the atmosphere from anthropogenic and biogenic sources.

Dr. Carter's research concerns the gas-phase reactions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the development of methods for representing them in computer models for photochemical smog formation, and the development of procedures to develop VOC reactivity scales that quantify effects of VOCs on ozone, for use in control strategies.

Dr. Grantz’s research and extension education program involves the effects of ozone on physiological processes in agricultural crop plants of importance in California's Central Valley (and especially the effects of ozone on cotton), factors controlling deposition of ozone from the atmosphere to agricultural crops and transport of ozone within crop canopies, and the effects of vegetative and soil surface properties on the emissions and deposition of particulate matter in the Central Valley and in the Mojave desert, including the effectiveness of revegetating abandoned farmland in order to control fugitive dust emissions.

Dr. Zhang’s research concerns elementary photochemical processes and reaction mechanisms of atmospheric free radicals and small molecules of relevance to atmospheric chemistry; and the measurement of key species of importance to atmospheric chemistry (for example, nitrous acid and OH radicals).

Dr. Ziemann's research concerns the atmospheric chemistry of gas-to-particle conversion. His interests include experimental studies of the photochemical gas-phase chemistry, homogeneous nucleation, and heterogeneous chemistry involved in secondary aerosol formation from organic compounds and sulfur and nitrogen oxides, formation of particles by combustion (including from diesel fueled vehicles), and the development of instrumentation for aerosol studies.

Leadership: Director, Roger Atkinson
Roger Atkinson received his B.A. in Natural Sciences (1966) and Ph.D. (1969) in Physical Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, UK. Dr. Atkinson carried out postdoctoral work at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa and the Centre for Research in Experimental Space Science at York University in Downsview, Canada. He worked at the University of California, Riverside from 1972 to 1978, and from 1980 to present, where he is presently a Research Chemist at the Air Pollution Research Center and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and a Cooperating Faculty Member at the Department of Chemistry. His recent awards include the Atmospheric Environment 2001 Haagen-Smit Award, the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology for 2002, and the California Air Resources Board 2004 Haagen-Smit Award. As noted above, his research interests concern the kinetics, mechanisms and products of the gas-phase reactions of organic compounds in the atmosphere.

2. Center for Conservation Biology

Concept:
The biological systems of our planet are under stress from rapid growth of human populations and human per-capita resource consumption. Society has recognized the importance of these systems and has promoted research in the field of conservation biology, the scientific study of perpetuation and restoration of biological systems. The University of California has also delineated the need to support and enhance research and education activities that focus on conservation biology. UCR has exceptional strengths in the varied sciences that contribute to this rapidly growing area of research. This expertise has been organized into the Center for Conservation Biology at UCR to focus and enhance UCR’s strengths in conservation biology. Currently, 99 faculty members plus associated graduate students, staff, and postdoctoral fellows are affiliates in the Center for Conservation Biology.

Goals:
The mission for the Center of Conservation Biology is to assist in the conservation and restoration of species and ecosystems for the benefit of society by facilitating the collection and dissemination of objective scientific information. The Center identifies research priorities in conservation biology and promotes collaborative research programs. The Center will not create policy, but will evaluate, based on objective scientific information, the conservation implications of different policy alternatives. Our outreach focus is on the diverse species and habitats that form the natural heritage of southern California, our research and education scope extends globally.

Research Agenda:
To accomplish its mission, the Center obtains the appropriate resources to perform the following:

• Serve as a focal point within the UCR campus for research and service efforts in conservation biology and related scientific fields in support of the following goals:
  1. To better utilize our research strength to facilitate the recognition and resolution of important research questions to advance the science of conservation biology;
  2. To provide better intramural communication and cooperation as a clearinghouse for information; 3.) To provide increased extramural visibility thereby creating linkages to the larger conservation biology community of California, and to industries and government agencies most affected by conservation policies; 4.) To provide an umbrella organization for conservation efforts in diverse research units scattered across the campus.
• Serve as an “honest broker” of objective scientific information.
• Independently and in collaboration with outside agencies, develop requests for research projects to address identified needs in conservation biology.
• Initiate contacts and opportunities for outside collaborations between CCB faculty and students and other national and international research and education units.

These objectives capitalize on the strengths of existing units on campus and allow the Center to consolidate conservation biology expertise that is dispersed among different departments and groups. The Center also serves as a resource for both undergraduate and graduate education, especially for identifying opportunities and providing facilities for interdisciplinary research.

Leadership: Director, Michael F. Allen
Professor Michael F. Allen received his B.S. in Biology from Southwestern College in Kansas in 1974, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in botany from the University of Wyoming. His academic career includes Post Doctorate work in Plant Pathology at the University of Nebraska in 1980 and 1981. Dr. Allen worked as Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Biology at Utah State University from 1981-1988, and Associate Professor and Professor at the Department of Biology at San Diego State University from 1988-1991 and 1991-1999. Dr. Allen came to work at the University of California Riverside in 1998, serving as Professor for the Departments of Plant Pathology and Director for the Center for Conservation Biology. In addition to these positions that Dr. Allen currently holds, he also became the Chair of the Department of Plant Pathology in 2004, also at the University of California Riverside.

Dr. Allen has been published over 140 times. His current work details the complex interactions at work in environmental systems where plants interact with fungi, the interface between humans and environment, and soil structure changes caused by carbon dioxide levels. He received the Chevron Conservation Award in 1999 for his work on reclaiming land, and the American Planning Association, Inland Empire Section, Distinguished Leadership-Academic Award. He currently teaches several hundred students at UCR in the undergraduate and graduate courses General Biology, Conservation Ecology, and Population and Community Ecology. Dr. Allen is currently a member of the IBRCS working group on the white paper Rationale, Blueprint, and Expectations for the National Ecological Observatory Network.

3. Center for Sustainable Suburban Development

Concept:
The Center for Sustainable Suburban Development (CSSD) has been established at UCR with the aid of an endowment of $2 million provided by a donor concerned with sustainable suburban communities. A planning grant awarded in 2002 enabled UCR to work closely on a new public policy vision for suburban growth issues with Dr. Edward Blakely, Dean of the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at New School University in New York and a leading thinker on urban planning, community development, and public policy issues.

The suburbs are the locus of population growth around the world. They require new political and social institutions, and they demand that culture adapt to them. They place pressure on such social systems as education, transportation and government, while also affecting air, land and water resources. Informed management of these issues can only be based on solid data and careful analysis.

Taking advantage of its location in the midst of one of the fastest growing suburban areas in the world, and being on a university campus with diverse intellectual resources, the CSSD will coordinate the research of faculty members from various disciplines with their differing methodologies and knowledge to solve or ameliorate the complex problems of suburbs.

Goals:
The CSSD will generate research and policy analyses that focus on the economic, social, planning, and ecological challenges of the suburbs. The Center will employ a cross-disciplinary approach drawing on faculty in the social and natural sciences, engineering, the humanities, and the professional schools. UCR has academic depth in key areas such as regional policy planning and environmental impacts. The Center will have the ability to forecast the ecological implications of population change and to assess changes in habitat quality over time, especially for the sensitivity of target species to localized threats. The Center’s research will encompass the following areas of relevance:

• Land use
• Environmental sustainability
• Transportation
• Infrastructure
• Housing, community and human development
• Local government

Research Agenda:
Among other areas of local and regional interest, the Center for Sustainable Suburban Development will specifically research the following:

• A multidisciplinary investigation of the Santa Ana River watershed, including research on economic and demographic processes, as well as development of a strategy for water management
• A multidisciplinary investigation of cleanup and sea-level options for the Salton Sea
• A multidisciplinary investigation of energy production options in Southern California

Other projects in process:

• A study of the Riverside County Integrated Plan, one of the most innovative regional planning efforts in the nation which addressed transportation planning, multi-species habitat plan, and a general county plan in one planning document.
• The establishment of an Inland Empire Demographic Research Center, integrated statistical databases for regional policy and research issues.

Leadership: Director, David Warren
David H. Warren, the former Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of California, Riverside, is an internationally recognized scholar in the study of blindness and spatial perception and has authored an award-winning book on childhood visual impairment.

Appointed Executive Vice Chancellor in 1994, Dr. Warren has been a part of the UCR community since 1969, with both a distinguished administrative and teaching career and continuous research in the spatial and cognitive development of the blind.

While serving variously as Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences for eight years, Director of the University Honors Program for three years, and Chair of the Department of Psychology for two years, Dr. Warren’s research has resulted in four books as well as 60 articles in books and journals on topics ranging from reading to spatial cognition to the use of sensory aids for the blind to the broad impact of visual impairment on children’s development. He has served as a consultant to the International Committee of the Red Cross on the prospective impact of laser-induced blindness in battlefield conditions.

His career at UCR has included influential service on campus committees including a term as chair of the Academic Senate Committee on Educational Policy, and as chair of various administrative committees and task forces including the College Executive Committee and the Committee on Basic Writing. His Universitywide service has included chairmanship of the Steering Committee of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, and membership on the WASC Accreditation Commission. In January 2006 he was appointed Director of the Edward J. Blakely Center for Sustainable Suburban Development.

Dr. Warren graduated from Yale University in 1965 with an A.B. in Psychology, and he earned his doctorate in Child Development from the University of Minnesota in 1969.

4. College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT)

Concept:
The College of Engineering—Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) was established in 1992 as a new model for university/industry/regulatory agency collaborative research on environmental problems, with a major focus on air pollution, energy, and transportation. CE-CERT is dedicated to bringing together scientists and engineers in a collaborative research effort involving academic, industry and regulatory agency scientists on its Advisory Board and on project advisory committees to work together to solve transportation and air pollution problems and to provide high quality science to the regulatory process. CE-CERT is an interdisciplinary center focused on a large-scale, broad-based, integrated research agenda in advanced vehicle technologies and systems; emissions measurement, analysis, and control; atmospheric measurement and modeling; environmental analysis and policy; and renewable energy. CE-CERT has successfully pioneered its Advisory Board model to act as an “honest broker” between industry and the regulatory agencies, and currently involves top industry scientists and regulatory agency scientists in its projects. CE-CERT conducts approximately $7 million annually in extramural research projects.

Goals:
Studying the relationship between transportation and air quality is CE-CERT's most prevalent research theme. Transportation accounts for more than half of air pollutants in urban areas, and it accounts for nearly one-third of all energy consumption in America. Although decades of research and development have cleaned up emissions from the transportation sector to a large degree, significant questions about energy choices, emissions, and environmental effects require more research. To contribute to answers in these fields, CE-CERT has established programs in advanced vehicle and energy technologies, fuels, emissions measurement, control technologies, and atmospheric processes and atmospheric modeling. Spin-offs from these core fields include research into stationary and point sources of pollution, water quality, land use, and planning.

Research Agenda:
In less than a decade, the CE-CERT has created a visible partnership between UCR and the community-at-large. Inside the CE-CERT laboratories, engineers and scientists explore a wide-ranging research agenda that encompasses:

• Developing autonomous vehicles and transportation systems for the future
• Converting biomass such as yard waste into vehicle fuel
• Measuring air pollutants and modeling how they react in the atmosphere
• Using computer models to evaluate the impact of roadway improvement on air quality
• Developing alternative-fueled engines and vehicles
• Evaluating clean and renewable energy sources
• Manufacturing commercial products that will improve our quality of life

Leadership: Director, Matthew Barth
Professor Matthew Barth received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from the University of Colorado in 1984, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1986 and 1990, respectively. From 1986 to 1987 he conducted research at the University of Tokyo as a visiting research student. Upon completion of his Ph.D., Dr. Barth was a visiting researcher at Osaka University, Japan, conducting research in systems engineering from 1989 to 1991. Dr. Barth joined the College of Engineering in 1991, conducting research in Electrical Engineering and at the Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT). He currently is a Professor in Electrical Engineering and is serving as the director of CE-CERT.

Dr. Barth is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA), Transportation Research Board’s Transportation and Air Quality Committee, and New Technology Committee, and ITS America’s Energy and Environment Committee. He has also served on several National Research Council (NRC) committees. Dr. Barth’s research focuses on applying engineering system concepts and automation technology to Transportation Systems, and in particular how it relates to energy and air quality issues. Current research interests include Intelligent Transportation Systems, Transportation/Emissions Modeling, Vehicle Activity Analysis, Electric Vehicle Technology, Robotics, Computer Vision, and Advanced Sensing and Control.

5. Water Resource and Management Center

Concept:
Expertise in water science and policy at UCR is largely but not exclusively centered in the Environmental Sciences, Earth Sciences, and Environmental Engineering Programs. There is also substantial expertise at the US Salinity laboratory, whose scientists collaborate closely with UCR and who have held adjunct appointments. In all, approximately 20 faculty and career researchers are doing water-related work as their primary activity.

Goals:
The current research within the Water Resource and Management Center is centered in four areas: Hydrology and Water Management, Aquatic Ecosystem Functioning, Water Quality, and Resource Economics and Public Policy. Among the goals of the Center are to improve to then management of saline water, tracking perchlorate through the environmental chain, Salton Sea measurement and management, agricultural water management and conservation, experimental solutions to pollution remediation and waste management, determining contaminant fate and transport in soil-water systems, characterization and management of biochemical cycling and bioaccumulation, environmental management and policy, modeling and measurement of watershed hydrology, and improving costs related to water desalinization.

Research Agenda:
Consistent with management of water resources in the Inland Empire, and abroad, and specifically for the purpose of developing integrated modeling and management of water resources from diverse sources, the Water Resources and Management Center has much active research as are described in the following:

1. Management of saline water: projects include development of improved monitoring devices to characterize salt-affected soils; optimization of different saline water management strategies; simulation of solute and water movement in soil and groundwater; economics of salinity and drainage problems in agricultural production
2. Perchlorate research: projects include research on biological transformation of perchlorate; perchlorate uptake by plants; percholrate movement in soil and groundwater; health effects of perchlorate levels in food and water.
3. Salton Sea research: in situ treatment of influent from rivers; effects of ag water management on sea hydrology; biogeochemistry of Salton sea water; monitoring of Salton sea water in situ.
4. Agricultural water management and conservation: irrigation uniformity research, optimized crop yield with minimum drainage; detection and prevention of groundwater pollution by agricultural drainage.
5. Pollution Remediation and Waste Management: Faculty in this area conduct experimental and theoretical research on treatment of contaminated water, reclamation of salt-affected soils, use of constructed wetlands and other biological systems for remediation of wastewater, leachate, and runoff, bioremediation of organic and inorganic pollutants, genetic engineering of microorgainsms to enhance biodegradation, and research on degradation of refractile pollutants of environmental concern.
6. Biogeochemical Cycling and Bioaccumulation: Faculty in this area conduct experimental and theoretical research on phosphorus cycling in the soil and aquatic environment; nutrient cycling in waste management systems; local, regional, and global impact of waste management practices on aquatic and terrestrial environments; research on the relationships between trace metal chemistry and availability to plants; charactization of chemical forms and reactivity of cadmium in Cd-contaminated soils; selenium biogeochemistry in constructed wetlands; and stable isotope geochemistry
7. Contaminant Fate and Transport in Soil-water Systems: Faculty in this area conduct laboratory and field-scale experimental research on dissolved chemical transport and reactions in soil and groundwater, foundational studies and modeling of pathogen transport and fate in soil and water systems, transport.
8. Environmental Management and Policy: Faculty in this area conduct water-related research on international and environmental sustainability; comparative environmental policy in North America and Asia; analysis of the science and politics of acid rain in North America; management of renewable, common property resources with a specific focus on groundwater; developing irrigation management principles to optimize crop yield, water quality and resource conservation; management of effluent dominated streams in southern California with a constructed wetlands; evaluation of water quality in urban and nonurban lakes in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties to identify sources and cycling of contaminants; and development of cost and energy efficient treatment processes for municipal and industrial wastewaters, and their treatment residuals.
9. Watershed Hydrology: development of watershed-scale models for nutrient loading; monitoring surface and subsurface loading of watershed streams and rivers; development of optimum strategies for compliance with TMDL requirements from EPA.
10. Desalination: development of improved cost-effective methods for desalinizing water of poor quality.

Interim Director: William Jury
Dr. William Jury is currently the Vice Provost for Academic Personnel at UC Riverside, as well as a Distinguished Professor of Soil Physics in the Department of Environmental Sciences. Dr. Jury conducts experimental and theoretical research on water and chemical movement and reactions in soil and groundwater, and over his research career he has published 240 papers and 5 books. He is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Geophysical Union. In 1999 he was presented in Washington, DC with the USDA Secretary's Honor Award for Environmental Protection, and in 2000 was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Recently he has been identified by the Institute for Scientific Information as among the 100 most highly cited researchers in the world in both the fields of Engineering and Environment/Ecology.