Improving Sustainability for More Livable Communities
The College of Architecture, Construction and Planning, the College of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Sciences, the College of Public Policy, and the College of Liberal and Fine Arts are all engaged in research on sustainable communities and critical infrastructure at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Forming and shaping our cities and regions in ways that best serve the two-thirds of the world’s population that are expected to live in urban centers by 2050 is a challenge. Public institutions, government entities and private organizations are using data and technology to advance and refine the functionality of a city to improve the livability for all its residents, which is the premise of “smart cities”, a model to securely integrate all communication and information technology to best manage a city’s assets to benefit and maximize for the greater good.
UTSA researchers are working collaboratively and conducting research in a variety of areas:
- Life cycle analysis
- Water studies: treatment/re-use, conservation & drought
- Water-energy nexus
- Low impact developments
- Governmental structure
- Aspects of changing culture
- Anthropology
- Climate change, forecasting climate change
- Sustainable community and economic development
- Smart grids, cyber-physical systems/embedded security
The University is working with local, regional, state, and national organizations to identify and address the best ways to provide for the critical needs of communities while promoting sustainability and economic development now and in the future.
UTSA Sustainable Communities Research Centers
- Center for Advanced Manufacturing & Lean Systems (CAMLS)
- Center for Cultural Sustainability
- The Institute for Economic Development
- The Center for Urban and Regional Planning Research
- The Center for Water Research (CWR)
- The Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute, (TSERI)
- The Water Institute of Texas (WIT)
Selected Grant Awards
- UTSA receives $275,000 from USDA to enhance food and agriculture education | October 2018
- NSF grant awarded to UTSA to train diverse leaders in environmental science and ecology | September 2018
- UTSA and Cibolo Preserve renew research collaboration agreement | September 2018
- UTSA project, backed by $1 million grant, will help protect the Edwards Aquifer | May 2018
- UTSA’s Urban Future Lab explores ways to transform the city | April 2018
- UTSA’s new Urban Future Lab addresses San Antonio’s population boom | February 2018
- New UTSA study examines the causes and consequences of the 2015 Wimberley floods | January 2018
- San Antonio’s smart city innovations startup emerges: Leaptran, Inc. launches out of UTSA | December 2017
- UTSA launches five innovative projects to support clean energy and climate action | October 2017
- Congressman Castro Announces $798K for UTSA Earthquake Resilience Research | August 2017
- UTSA faculty helping public authorities update their housing policies | February 2017
- UTSA researchers receive NSF grant to create smart buildings that can actively talk to smart grids | October 2016
- UTSA professors receive grant to study San Antonio storm water | May 2016
Publications
- Sombrilla: A UTSA project will establish best practices for protecting the Edwards Aquifer | September 2018
- Sombrilla: A close-up look at one UTSA professor’s discovery of a new bush baby | September 2018
- Discovery 9: Applied Research for a Sustainable City | 2016
- Discovery 9: The State of the Monarch [UTSA monarch butterfly research] | 2016
