U-M Faculty Selected for Detroit Sustainability Indicators Project

Release Date: 
3/30/2011

Seven U-M faculty members have been selected to participate in a new Detroit Sustainability Indicators Project, a collaboration between Data Driven Detroit and the Graham Institute.  The Detroit Sustainability Indicators Project has two goals:

  1. To gather and assess data on relevant sustainability related topics (environmental, economic and social), with the intent of mapping these data and making the findings available to the public
  2. To create a sustainability index for Detroit that will help inform policy and decision making and serve as a model for other urban areas working on sustainable redevelopment.

Research projects being funded as part of this collaborative project in the City of Detroit include the following (alphabetical by faculty name):

  • Stuart Batterman, Public Health: Regional Spatial and Temporal Mapping of Air Pollution in Detroit
  • David Bieri, Urban Planning: Measuring the Greenness of Cities: A New Methodology for an Urban Sustainability Index
  • Margaret Dewar, Urban Planning: Documenting Care and Commitment to Place in CDAD’s “Urban Homesteads” and “Naturescapes”
  • Jen Maigret, Urban Planning: Liquid Planning Detroit
  • Brian Min, Political Science: Economic Disparity and Federal Investments in Detroit
  • Joan Nassauer, School of Natural Recources & Environment: Documenting and Demonstrating Neighborhood Care Dynamics in CDAD’s “Urban Homesteads” and “Naturescapes”

“This project is just what Detroit needs,” says Kurt Metzger, Director of Data Driven Detroit. “It’s a bridge between academia and those who are driving community change in Detroit. No one agency has all the answers, but together, we can make critical data available to those who are shaping Detroit’s future for generations to come.”