The Pioneer Valley Sustainability Network is a collaboration of the University of Massachusetts--Environmental Institute and Department of Industrial Engineering, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, and all the individuals, groups and organizations working on sustainability in our region of western Massachusetts.
The project was initiated by staff at UMASS and PVPC, but it will only be successful if the people who actually work on sustainability get involved. So far we have over 100 people and many wonderful organizations connected and working together to define this network and determine how we can best work together to enhance sustainability in our region. The Environmental Protection Agency is providing funding to UMASS and PVPC to staff the network for its first three years, which started in the late Spring 2007.
Professor Erin Baker, Department of Industrial Engineering at UMASS is facilitating the development of three web-based decision support tools for local officials as part of this project. The first one will be on energy and the other two will be on land use and water.
Professor Rick Taupier, the Environmental Institute at UMASS is facilitating the development of sustainability indicators for the Valley which can be used to assess the success of our efforts.
Catherine Miller, sustainability planner at PVPC, is facilitating development of the network--recruitment of collaborators and a regional art contest to create a physical metaphor of sustainability for the Pioneer Valley which will be used to galvanize public involvement in this effort.
We are using inflow software, developed by Valdis Krebs to map our sustainability network. http://www.orgnet.com/ We would very much love to have you involved in the network. Please review the information available on this website--it includes notes from our meetings, details on the process we are using to define sustainability here in our Valley, and lots of other great information.
We'd appreciate your comments on the website and the information and our efforts. Thank you for your interest. Please feel free to send your ideas to Catherine Miller at cmiller@pvpc.org or call me at 413/781-6045.
ABSTRACT of proposal submitted to EPA that was awarded funding for this project:
EPA-G2006-STAR-H1 – Communities and the Built Environment; EPA Region 1
Title: Energy, Water, and Landuse: A Framework for Incorporating Science into Sustainable Regional Planning
Investigators: Richard Taupier (PI), Erin Baker (Co-PI), Sarah Dorner (Co-PI), Catherine
Miller (Co-PI)
Project period: 9/1/2006 – 8/31/2009 Project Cost: $300,000
Objectives: The long-term project objective is to advance efforts to achieve sustainability in the Pioneer Valley region of western Massachusetts, and serve as a model that can be applied in other regions of the country. To plan for sustainable growth in the region, we will work with the 43 communities in the Pioneer Valley to incorporate sustainability and scientific information into land-use and infrastructure decisions, taking into account scientific uncertainty. The specific objectives are to make the concept of sustainability easy to understand and act on by involving stakeholders and the general public in a facilitated process to both define Pioneer Valley specific metrics of sustainability and identify specific and targeted actions to achieve sustainability. We will develop strategies to increase communication and discussion on sustainability in the Pioneer Valley, and provide a vehicle for incorporating scientific information into regional and community-based decision making.
Approach: In order to work toward these objectives we will 1) build on current connections at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to develop a network of decision makers and scientists; 2) develop and implement a framework to assist our region and communities to develop metrics of sustainability; 3) employ these metrics in a scientifically-sound model that relates electricity generation decisions to sustainability metrics, including uncertainty in a number of dimensions; and 4) build on this model to develop a web-based decision support tool for local decision makers to use. We will focus in particular on the impacts of electricity generation choices on land use, air and water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions; and will incorporate the role of climate change in influencing these impacts. The projects will be grounded in the Pioneer Valley, but will provide models and tools for other regions to build on. We envision this project as part of a larger project, in which we will develop a wide variety of integrated models that consider decisions on water, transportation, and land-use more generally.
Expected Results: Project outputs will include: 1) a sustainability network and associated web page; 2) sustainability metrics and associated maps representing the current values of the metrics; 3) an integrated assessment model of the impacts of electricity generation alternatives on a number of attributes as defined by the metrics; and 4) a web-based interactive decision tool.
The expected outcome of the project will be improved communication among stakeholders and between stakeholders and scientists; and improved decisions in terms of decision makers understanding the connection between choosing an alternative and the likely impacts of that alternative. Given that the Pioneer Valley has a demonstrated interest in environmental issues, sustainability, and environmental justice, we expect that having the tools and information to make better decisions will lead toward more sustainable decisions overall.
Supplemental Keywords: Ecosystem, planning, operations research, hydrology, public health, modeling, electricity industry.