Event Date
The Sustainable City (TSC) is a zero-net energy development built in the outskirts of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. This 46-hectare mixed-use development including villas, apartments, offices, retail and restaurant space, healthcare facilities, a school, a nursery, and a conference center was built as part of an effort to promote sustainability in various fields including energy, water, waste management and transportation. This webinar will focus on the mobility aspects in TSC. Researchers from the UC Davis' 3 Revolutions Future Mobility Program collected and analyzed survey data in 2018 and 2019 among TSC residents and workers, to explore their travel habits, preferences, and motivations behind their travel choices including the adoption of new mobility options such as carsharing and a driverless shuttle deployed in the community and the use of active modes of transportation. The results from the research are being used to assess travel behavior patterns and build an inventory of GHG emissions of TSC, as well as to inform the implementation of a new carsharing system using EVs in the community. The research provides insights into the effectiveness of strategies to improve transportation sustainability and the potential to reduce car dependence and promote policies that work to increase sustainability in this and other similar developments in Gulf Countries and other locations around the world.
Speakers
Giovanni Circella is the Honda Distinguished Scholar for New Mobility Studies and the Director of the 3 Revolutions Future Mobility Program at the University of California, Davis. His interests include travel behavior and emerging transportation services, sustainable transportation, travel demand modeling, travel survey methods, and policy analysis. His recent research has focused on the impacts of new mobility (including shared mobility, micromobility and ridehailing) and vehicle automation on travel behavior and auto ownership, and the evolving lifestyles and mobility patterns of specific population segments (e.g.“millennials”) and in various regions of the United States, Europe, South America, and the Middle East. Dr. Circella is the Chair of the TRB Committee on ICT and Transportation (ADB20) and a member of the Executive Board of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR).
Ali Murtaza Kothawala is an R&D Engineer in the 3 Revolutions Future Mobility Program at the University of California, Davis. He researches how new mobility services are shaping the transportation landscape and what this means for public and private agencies applying skills in travel demand modeling, choice modeling, and data science. He has worked on projects for the City of Davis, the San Mateo Transit District, and BMW AG designing and administering travel behavior surveys, estimating choice models, analyzing travel behavior data, and conducting qualitative research using focus groups and workshops. He holds an MS in Transportation Technology and Policy from UC Davis.
Karim El-Jisr is the Executive Director of the SEE Institute where he focuses on resource management, climate change, and urban development. After 20 years in conservation management, he shifted his attention to making cities and communities more livable and climate-ready. Based in The Sustainable City in Dubai, Karim manages a global platform for advancing knowledge in sustainability and the built environment, and has collaborated with UCD on multiple projects since 2016. Karim graduated from the American University of Beirut in agricultural engineering and environmental sciences. He completed a course in Business Sustainability Management from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. A seasoned speaker at international venues, Karim is fluent in Arabic, English, French, and Danish.
Suad Joseph is a Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology, UC Davis. Her research focuses on women, family, state, self, citizenship, sectarianism, and cities. She founded the Middle East Research Group in Anthropology (which became the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association); Middle East/South Asia Studies Program at UC Davis; the Association for Middle East Women's Studies; the University of California Arab Region Consortium (UCDAR); co-founded the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies and the Arab American Studies Association. She was elected President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. She is General Editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (Brill 2003-2020)and editor of Arab Family Studies: Critical Reviews (2018 Syracuse University Press ) and co-editor of Arab American Women: Resistance and Representation (Syracuse University Press, In Press). She was awarded the UC Davis Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award and the Middle East Studies Association of North America’s Jere L. Bacharach Life-Time Service Award.
Steve Wheeler is a Professor of Human Ecology at UC Davis and Chair of Community Development Graduate Group. He has written widely on urban sustainability topics. He is the author of The Sustainable Urban Development Reader (with Timothy Beatley; Third Edition 2014); Planning for Sustainability: Creating Livable, Equitable, and Ecological Communities (Second Edition 2013); Climate Change and Social Ecology (2012); and Radical Questions about Sustainable Cities (forthcoming). His awards include the 2015 Academic Leadership Award from the California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN), the 2009 William R. and June Dale Prize for Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning, and a Switzer Fellowship for environmental leadership. He is a former chair of the City of Berkeley’s Transportation Commission, and a cofounder of the Bay Area’s regional transportation and land use coalition, TransForm.
This project was funded by a grant from the Sustainability Research and Training Program (SRTP) of the University of California Davis Arab Region Consortium. SRTP was funded by Diamond Developers of Dubai.