BIE Research Programs

Putting ideas into practice

UC Berkeley is redefining what a great research university can be. Our best ideas are not locked up inside an ivory tower. Instead, we are committed to delivering results that work in the real world. Through the BIE we engage directly with governments, industry, NGOs, and individual communities. We seek out projects where issues are most urgent and where solutions can provide the highest social returns on investment.

BIE research programs fall into three interconnected, multi-disciplinary themes: Sustainable Communities; Environment and Society; Energy and Climate Change. Each program may contain several research projects that will grow and change over time. BIE research themes reflect the intrinsic relationships between human settlements, ecosystems, and climate: sustainable communities depend on healthy ecosystems and both human and natural systems rely on a stable climate.

Sustainable Communities

The Urban Sustainability Initiative ( USI ) is a collaborative effort between the University of California, Berkeley and a diverse range of public and private institutions in Asia, Africa and Latin America, seeking to integrate cutting edge science into the decision-making processes of urban areas throughout the developing world. With financial support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, we are creating "living laboratories" in cities in Africa , Asia and Latin America to test new approaches to environmentally sustainable urban development. These new approaches are combined with existing promising practices to identify what works and why, and then to facilitate the transfer of technologies and practices that work to cities throughout the world.

Projects:
Susainable Eco-Blocks in China
Sustainable Public Transportation in Chengdu, China
Urban Design in Cape Town, South Africa

Environment & Society

Projects
The Keck HydroWatch Center will dramatically expand the observations of all aspects of the water cycle by developing cost-effective, rapid-response, and accurate sensors and techniques to monitor water quality, quantity, and pathways. The center is initiating a prototype deployment of intensive environmental monitoring networks, resulting in the acquisition, synthesis, and analysis of new, large volumes of data. The first deployments will take place at two small (~10-102 km2), hydrologically different sites within the UC Natural Reserve System: the Angelo Coast Range Reserve and the Sagehen Creek Field Station

Energy & Climate Change

UC Berkeley is leading the way towards a low carbon economy. Together with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, we boast the largest group of energy experts on the planet, and have embarked upon two of the most significant energy research efforts ever undertaken. The Helios Project
aims to convert sunlight to carbon-neutral energy sources and transportation fuels, while the new Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI ), a partnership with the energy company BP and the University of Illinois, will develop agricultural and microbial sources of clean, renewable bioenergy. The BIE , through the leadership of Co-director Dan Kammen, is working to design, disseminate and assess secure energy technologies that minimize environmental impacts.

Projects:
CoolClimate Calculator