The project will apply an interdisciplinary framework to integrate urban infrastructure engineering, industrial symbiosis, urban planning, environmental/climate sciences, social sciences, and public policy. Research opportunities will be offered to about 50 students from the United States (with separate funding from the National Science Foundation) and 50 students from India drawn from diverse disciplines, which should contribute to training the next generation of leaders in the two nations. The hope is to build capacity among academic institutions in India for innovative interdisciplinary research and education on sustainable cities and build capacity among nongovernmental organizations to translate research insights to community-based action for sustainability.

 

 

An initial planning workshop on this project, which also involves the participants in project PP-27, was held in Washington, DC, April 24-26, 2013. One of the two co-PIs on this grant, Dr. Rakesh Yadav, represented ROI. In addition, plans were made for an international summer school to be held in Kanpur beginning in early June to train students and staff in theory and methods related to the conduct of the research. Other future activities will involve a change in the original project workplan, so that research would be conducted in India during the first year of the project, rather than the second and the third. Plans are also in place to initiate field research on water-energy-greenhouse gas baselines and the identification of high-impact, low-carbon infrastructure interventions in Indian municipalities.