1. Williams, Matt. “Waste to Energy Success Factors in Sweden and the US: Analyzing the Transferability of the Swedish Waste-to-Energy Model to the US” December 2011. Accessed March 17, 2013.

Summary:

Williams in this paper provides an overview of waste-to-energy in Sweden and the United States. The paper broadly discusses the unique factors that make waste-to-energy feasible in Sweden and not so feasible in the United States. The paper enumerates the policies, infrastructure, culture and economic realities that make waste-to-energy a success in Sweden. Williams points to high landfilling fees as a disincentive to landfilling and as an incentive to use incineration as an alternative. He talks about the carbon tax, direct subsidies, the recognition of waste-to-energy as a renewable resource among other things as policies that have shaped waste-to-energy in Sweden. He talks about the extensive district heating infrastructure they have and how waste-to-energy perfectly fits into this system as it produces more heat than electricity. He also points to the absence of cheap domestic supply of energy and the high price of oil as motivations for favoring waste-to-energy. Lastly Williams argues that the public support for waste-to-energy makes implementing policies and building infrastructure easier. Williams studies US waste-to-energy using the same lenses and then provides us a guideline to adopting waste-to-energy in the US.

Rationale:

Williams provides a good primer to the topic I will be discussing in my paper. His research on policy, though brief and somewhat shallow provides us with a good jumping point in understanding what the policies are and how they have influenced the adaptation of waste-to-energy technologies. I will be following his research on policy and will be expanding on them in the context of making waste-to-energy a viable option with regards to an environmentally friendly future. I will look into the laws and fees regarding landfilling in the EU and in Sweden and how these policies have incentivized the growth of waste-to-energy technologies. I will look into the carbon tax implemented by both the EU and Sweden and again look at it in the context of motivating the growth of waste-to-energy. I will look into the objectives of the Swedish EPA and see how these have shaped the growth of waste-to-energy.  My paper will provide an in depth look into these policies and see how they’ve made waste-to-energy so successful in Sweden.

2. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. “Sweden’s Environmental Objective” October 2011. Accessed March 15, 2013.

Summary:

This government paper highlights Sweden’s commitment to an environmentally sustainable future. Produced by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the paper enumerates the 16 environmental quality objectives of the Swedish government describing an overall guideline for government wide policy.  The quality objectives that directly pertain to waste-to-energy are overall commitments to a Reduced Climate Impact, Clean Air, A Non-Toxic Environment, A Good Built Environment and Good Quality Ground Water. These objectives while broad, direct the Swedish government’s policies towards an environmentally sustainable Sweden for future generations.

Rationale:

This paper dictates the goals that broadly show the direction of Swedish environmental policy. The commitment to passing on to the next generation a Sweden in which most of the environmental problems are solved accounts for the preference for the most sustainable waste management option. To the Swedes landfilling is the most unsustainable option as it violates most of these goals. Landfilling produces massive quantities of air and water pollutants and thus is incompatible with a reduced climate impact and a non-toxic environment. Incineration while not completely sustainable is the lesser of two evils. Waste-to-energy technology provides energy and heat while reducing the total landfilling tonnage.

3. Lonnroth, Mans. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. “The Organization of Environmental Policy in Sweden: A Historical Perspective.” December 2010. Accessed March 14, 2013.

Summary:

Lonnroth’s paper describes the formal organization of Swedish environmental policy, and discusses its implementation. According to Lonnroth the Swedish government is unitary rather than federal. In unitary states the central government has supreme power over policy and law, and subordinate administrative branches can only exercise powers deliberately delegated to them. In the case of Sweden however, the “constitution expressly forbids the Government to give directions to agencies in individual cases concerning private citizens.” Thus the regional and local authorities, who are directly elected, are charged with implementing national policy.

Lonnrotj also talks about the relationship of environmental policy in relation to the overall modernization of Sweden, and the relationship of environmental legislation to other areas of legislation that overlap with environmental concerns. He argues in the paper that “the structure for environmental policy has been more successful when that policy has been aligned with – and thus helped to speed – overall [economic] modernization, and less successful when it has run counter to [economic] modernization.” He cites the example of “reducing industrial pollution, almost to the point of eliminating it” as one of the larger successes of this alignment.

Rationale:

Lonnroth’s paper argues that the formal political organization of Sweden fosters more than others the advancement the environmental agenda. The Swedish system provides us with a model way of implementing environmental policy. The deputation of implementation on a localized level allows for much greater flexibility as depends the circumstances of the locale. This I theorize in areas with district heating grids made the acceptance and usage of waste-to-energy plants most alluring.

Lonnroth acknowledges in his paper that economics plays a large part in the effectiveness of policy. If environmental imperatives align with economic ones, the policy is more likely to succeed. Waste incineration falls in line perfectly with this argument. Waste-to-energy technology is more environmentally friendly than landfilling. It has significantly less greenhouse gasses emissions, it prevents pollutants from entering our water supplies and it significantly decreases the volume of the waste product. These environmental benefits come with the economic benefits of producing the commodities heat and energy.

4. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. “A Strategy for Sustainable Waste Management: Sweden’s Waste Plan” 2005. Accessed March 19, 2013.

Summary:

This paper provides a comprehensive view of Sweden’s strategy for sustainable waste management. It sets down the plan on how Sweden intends on achieving its environmental goals as well as the waste figures on year-to-year operation. The paper details the waste disposal policies of both the EU and Sweden. It details the specific legislations surrounding waste-to-energy and talks about its impacts on the technology. It talks about the effects of banning the landfilling of organic and burnable trashes, as well as the land fill tax – both of which have large repercussions towards the waste-to-energy industry. It has statistics detailing the quantities of waste produced and disposed of by the economy as a whole and on a per capita basis. Appendices attached to the paper show the current operating data and projected operating data of the 29 individual waste-to-energy plants in operation in Sweden. It also has tables showing the emissions from waste-to-energy incineration plants from 1985-2004, despite the doubling of plants in operation. The paper details waste import and export figures for incineration. It also enumerates the policies surrounding the disposal of fly ash waste from incineration and shows figures about it.

Rationale:

The paper provides hard data for the argument I intend to make. The paper has data that shows the direct connections between actual policies and implementation. The EU and Swedish policies surrounding the banning of landfilling of organic and burnable waste as well as the landfill tax in particular can be seen as direct incentives to the increased usage of waste-to-energy technologies. The data showing decreases in landfilling as well as increases in waste-to-energy plants illustrate the effectiveness of the Swedish environmental policies. Data showing the waste disposal figures also indicate a direct correlation of increased usage of waste-to-energy technologies in the advent of certain environmental policies. The table showing the operating data of the 29 waste-to-energy facilities illustrate that Sweden is currently in an expansionary phase with regards to this technology. The data showing the import and export of waste demonstrate that Sweden is a net importer of trash. This shows the effectiveness of their waste management policies indicating that Sweden is operating its waste-to-energy plants under capacity.

Hyemin Lee
Professor MacBride
IDC 4001H
Annotated Bibliography
Due: April 15, 2013

1. Rosenberg, Tina. “Green Roofs in Big Cities Bring Relief From Above.” The New York Times, May 23, 2012. Accessed March 18, 2013. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/in-urban-jungles-green-roofs-bring-relief-from-above

Summary: This New York Times article talks about three ways green roofs can help solve environmental problems in big cities, urban heat island effect being one of them. Big cities lack green space due to buildings and “dark surfaces” tightly filling them. This lack causes temperatures in the city to be higher than that of its surrounding areas. The article gives New York City as an example of a city facing this environmental challenge with temperatures that are 7 degrees higher than that of its neighboring areas. It then gives an example of City Hall and how the surface temperature dropped from 169 degrees to as low as 91 degrees from replacing its black tar roof with a green roof full of plants and grass. Another argument presented in the article is the study done by Columbia University and City University of New York, where they found that green roof decreases the “rate of heat gained through the roof in summer by 84%” and “rate of heat loss in winter by 34%.”

Rationale: Data presented in this article on positive effects of green roofs in big cities are exactly what I need to support the final argument I will be making in my research paper: that green roofs are an effective way of mitigating the urban heat island effect. Data I’ve mentioned in the paragraph above as presented in this article are all important to show that green roofs are proven to indeed lower temperature in the summer and retain more heat in the winter. Another thing I really like about the article is that it focuses specifically on New York City a couple of times. With this article, I will be able to make the point that even something as small as changing the color of the roof from black to white can bring about major environmental benefits to the city. It’s important for the city to plan and build wisely because the changing climates are real and a lot more threatening than we believe.

2. Rosenzweig, Cynthia, Gaffin, Stuart, and Parshall, Lily. “Green Roofs in the New York Metropolitan Region.” Accessed February 19, 2013. http://www.statisticstutors.com/articles/debrat-green-roofs.pdf.

Summary: This research report has so much information but once again I will focus on the urban island heat effect in cities. It talks about several types of green roof systems with different layers, vegetation as well as membrane that can be modified and built for the particular goal of the builder. It also mentions that the weight of green roofs can vary as well as the type of plants, grass, flowers, and trees to be planted on the roof. It all really depends on what you want as the builder and allows flexibility in terms of cost. Reduction of temperature will, of course, vary depending on the roof surface chosen. By shading, green roofs reduce heat entering the building itself and consequently help reduce energy usage, greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel consumption. This research paper also argues that green roofs are more effective in heat reduction in long term than white roofs. Though the cost may be higher, green roofs do not require the “burdensome maintenance” of cleaning that white roofs require since much maintenance of them are done naturally. Also, green roof’s cooling effect does not diminish long-term as white roofs do.

Rationale:  Other than exploring how affective green roofs are, included in my proposal is another question I wanted to examine: how practical would it be to plant green roofs citywide taking the cost, long-term maintenance, and safety into consideration? This report will shed some light onto this part of my research. Though at first green roofs may seem expensive to install compared to regular roofs with no environmental benefits, their long-term benefits far outweigh the cost of installation. Projecting into the future, green roofs reduction of heat absorbed indoors will save incredible amounts of energy used on air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter. In terms of maintenance of green roofs for the purpose of cooling, I would argue that maintaining them might even be a pleasant and enjoyable activity for those who are responsible.

3. Bass, Brad. “Mitigrating the Urban Heat Island with Green Roof Infrastructure” Accessed February 19, 2013. http://www.cleanairpartnership.org/pdf/finalpaper_bass.pdf.

Summary: This paper tests green roof infrastructure in relation to already existing grassland and how it can further reduce the urban heat island in the City of Toronto. Temperatures of the road are above 50 degrees Celsius while those of forest, grassland, and shelter wood are 20 degrees lower to about 30 degrees Celsius. This demonstrates that urban forestry strategy is effective in keeping the city a lot cooler. Grass at ground level when irrigated cooled the lower boundary layer of the city by 1-1.5 degrees Celsius. While that’s already quite significant, experiment further indicated that vegetation on roofs intensified the cooling effect of the existing grass on the ground by as much as 2 degrees Celsius. Areas being cooled also expanded when green roofs were irrigated. Green roof cooling is more effective in high-density areas, commercial and residential areas. Combined with existing green areas of the city, significant cooling was observed with green roofs.

Rationale: What’s presented in the paper is incredibly interesting. Returning to the very cause of rising temperatures in cities is the replacement of natural landscapes with heat absorbing materials in buildings and on roads. By restoring some green on ground level itself cools the city by a notable degree. Green roofs essentially are grassland that has been elevated to one of the warmest parts of the city: roofs. And it does wonders in reducing heat in urban areas as well. I intend to use this study to argue that green roof infrastructure can produce greater heat reducing effects when combined with existing urban forestry on ground level. It is not limited to work independently. Increasing grass and green spaces in general on ground level while expanding green roofs can significantly cool a much larger area than each can on its own. As I am focusing my research on big cities, particularly on New York City, it is also important to note that green roof especially extend and intensify its cooling effect in high-density areas.

4. Rosenzweig, Cynthia, Solecki, William D., and Slosberg, Ronald B. “Mitigrating New York City’s Heat Island with Urban Forestry, Living Roofs, and Light Surfaces.” Accessed February 19, 2013. http://www.fs.fed.us/ccrc/topics/urban-forests/docs/NYSERDA_heat_island.pdf

Summary: Urban heat island mitigation strategies include urban forestry, green roofs and light colored surfaces. Among the three, green roof as an individual strategy has the greatest effect on the reducing the temperature of the city. In New York City, combination of green roofs and planting trees will yield optimal result in heat reduction. New York City was broken down into seven areas: New York City, Mid-Manhattan West, Lower Manhattan East, Fordham Bronx, Maspeth Queens, Crown Heights Brooklyn, and Ocean Parkway Brooklyn. Average cooling by green roofs for each area at 3 PM was 0.5, 1, 0.9, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, and 0.8 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively. (These numbers assume that all of available area is redeveloped to green roofs) Mid-Manhattan has highest average cooling degree followed by Lower Manhattan East. This is explained by the fact that these areas have the most flat roof space, 33.8% in the first and 26.6% in latter. Installing green roofs across Brooklyn will also be effective in reducing the temperature of the area as a whole.

Rationale: This report is extremely useful for my paper because it clearly observes the different areas of New York City and how effective green roof infrastructure would be in each. Depending on the area available for flat roofs mitigation of the urban heat island effect varies. Understanding the area can help better prepare and make policies in installation of green roofs and ultimately in the development of heat island mitigation.

5. U.S. Department of Buildings, “NYC Green Roof Property Tax Abatement Program.” January 2010. Accessed March 17, 2013. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/downloads/pdf/green_roof_tax_abatement_info.pdf

Summary: Summary of this document should be very straightforward since it is just a list of benefits, requirements on tax abatement. NYC Green Roof Property Tax Abatement Program is established to encourage environmentally friendly buildings. Benefits of a one-year Tax Abatement include $4.5 per square foot of green roof and as much as $100,000. There are nine requirements for a green roof to qualify for an abatement including a drainage layer, insulation layer, weatherproof roofing membrane, root barrier layer, insulation layer, growth medium, maintenance plan, and a vegetation layer. This program is the city’s effort to encourage building owners to install green roofs to mitigate the increasing temperature in urban areas.

Rationale:This is a valuable source for my paper because it shows that the government is actively supporting and encouraging more establishment of green roofs by providing financial incentives for building owners to build them. The mitigating effects of green roofs would only be lastingly effective if it happens in large areas of the city, not just some. The nature of this strategy requires as many areas to be covered with vegetation whether it be grass, flowers, or trees. This is the perfect way to advocate that and allow everyone to actively participate in helping solve the serious environmental problems causing discomfort to most but life threatening to some who can be fatally affected by heat.

6. U.S. Department of Design & Construction. “DDC Cool & Green Roofing Manual.” Accessed March 18, 2013. http://www.nyc.gov/html/ddc/downloads/pdf/cool_green_roof_man.pdf

Summary: This reports examines the cost of green roofs across NYC. There is about 11.5% roof area in NYC, which is about 944,300,000 square feet. New York City has a great potential for green roofs to benefit not only the buildings they’re placed on top of but the city as a whole. If half the roofs in New York City were covered in green, we’ll be able to reduce the urban heat island effect by almost as much as 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Average cost of extensive green roofs is estimated to about $10 per square feet. Greening half of the city would cost about $4.72 billion since there are about 944 million square feet available roof space. Energy usage will decline by an estimated amount of $98.4 million and a total of $149.4 million will be saved annually if half the city installed green roofs. In desiring low maintenance of green roofs, one should consider plant species, initial spacing, plant propagule, soil medium death and pre-grown trays or mats.

Rationale: No matter how excellent a strategy is, if it’s not obtainable it is fair to say that such a strategy is not an effective one to discuss. Though the cost of replacing half of NYC’s black roofs with green is not to be underestimated, such a goal is reachable and the lasting environmental benefits of it are worth the investment in the long-term. This source also emphasizes the main point I will argue in my final paper that green roof is indeed effective in reducing heat in urban areas. More green, the better and more green equals more cooling. Proper planning of green roof installation can also help keep maintenance of it low and easier.

To: Professor MacBride
From: Raymond Wang
Date: April 15, 2013
Re: Annotated Bibliography

“Greening Mass Transit & Metro Regions.” MTA. www.mta.info/sustainability/pdf/SustRptFinal.pdf (accessed April 15, 2013).
This report shows the current number of hybrid electric buses and compressed natural gas buses in 2012. The report also shows what percentage of the active fleet is hybrid electric. This report says that ninety one percent of all new vehicles purchased are some sort of hybrid and will help reduce emissions. This shows how the MTA has definitely improved throughout the years with such an accomplishment. The report continues to talk about improvements that need to be made regarding carbon emissions and energy usage. Even though most of the changes do not directly change the fleet, they will also be useful in helping buses be cleaner. Certain suggestions such as solar roofs may benefit the entire MTA system along with the buses. Since buses need to be refueled at stations, having energy storage from solar panels can help the MTA use more renewable resources. The MTA also have some energy storing capabilities such as photovoltaic cells and hydrogen fuel cells.

The sustainability report is one of the most important parts of how the MTA is changing. I was only focused on the specific sections that were relevant to the buses and how they could be improved. Upon reading, I discovered that renewable energy is being used in MTA facilities. While it does not state what these facilities are for, subways or buses, it is still important since the carbon footprint is being reduced. The report also shows a chart of the current distribution of the fleet’s vehicles. In addition, it also shows the number of hybrid electric and compressed natural gas vehicles as of 2012. This information will be helpful in showing how the majority of the current fleet is composed of these hybrid electric vehicles. This shows that the MTA has definitely taken steps to ensure reduced carbon emissions.

“Mother Clare Hale Bus Depot Replacement Charrette Report.” .” MTA. http://www.mta.info/nyct/bus/CharretteReport.htm (accessed April 15, 2013).
All of New York City’s buses have been converted to use ultra low sulfur diesel. This change will greatly reduce all future emissions. Previously, all buses ran on diesel, which was providing a burden to the city’s atmosphere. With the switch to ultra low sulfur diesel, the exhaust emissions are greatly reduced. Furthermore, particle filters were installed to filter emissions even further. These two new changes definitely helped the buses become cleaner in general. Both of these regulations were applied to all of the city’s buses by 2000.

Statistics regarding the cleaner emissions were not provided in this public report. However, it does claim that the particle filters are required on all buses to further reduce the emissions. The report also says that all buses from 2000 will only be running on ultra low sulfur diesel. These are important technological improvements that can be applied to the entire fleet. This type of information together with the statistics provided in other reports will show how well the buses are doing with this small improvement.

“MTA New York City Transit.” MTA New York City Transit. http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy03osti/33397.pdf (accessed April 15, 2013).
The MTA changed their bus fleet to hybrid electric. They ordered the Orion VII model from Orion International that contains a lithium ion battery rather than lead acid. 125 vehicles were ordered. These buses were the first step from the MTA to make their buses hybrid electric. The Orion VII model also has the patented HybriDrive system that makes it hybrid and electric. The engine is controlled by HybriDrive, which powers the generator. The generator powers the motor that makes the bus move. The generator also recharges the battery placed on top of the vehicles. The battery at the top of the bus is used for acceleration and when the bus needs to climb hills. A braking system is also present where it recovers energy during braking and stores it in the battery. With regenerative braking, it allows most of the energy from the generator to be recovered during the process. This technology is extremely crucial to buses in particular due to the constant stopping. In addition, it also slows down brake wear. Both the engine and the generator make up the hybrid electric system of the vehicle. With this combination, the bus produces very low emissions and has much higher gas mileage. Diesel fuel is only used to run the engine, which in turn powers the generator. The generator also assists in driving the traction motor to make the bus move. The buses also contain a diesel particle filter that further mitigates the exhaust emissions. It is said that these buses are expected to reduce up to 90% in total emissions.

This particular source contains a lot of information regarding hybrid electric buses. Not only does it include plenty of numbers that relate to emissions, it also provides a very detailed picture that contains how the actual engine for these hybrid electric buses operate. The emission statistics show how much cleaner these buses are in relation to their other counterparts. The diagram also clearly labels all the parts of the engine and definitely helps in providing an adequate visual. In addition to the information provided regarding the actual buses themselves, information regarding the future is also presented. Plans of further buses to purchase are briefly mentioned. Plans of the approval of this entire process is also included in which shows when the hybrid electric program became the way it is today.

“Hybrid-Electric Transit Buses.” Hybrid-Electric Transit Buses. www.nrel.gov/docs/fy02osti/31668.pdf (accessed April 15, 2013).
The introduction of compressed natural gas (CNG) buses began in 1990. NYCT realized the importance of being environmentally friendly with their vehicles. Thus they purchased two new CNG buses during the year. These buses were only purchased for testing to see if they met the requirements. Again, thirty two CNG buses were purchased to help test these new type of vehicles. After extensive testing, one hundred ninety additional CNG buses were finally purchased. This was the first step for NYCT to begin their reduced emission fleet. Since these CNG were very successful, further decisions were made to purchase hybrid electric buses. Since hybrid technology was still relatively new, prototypes were purchased for testing. Great results were provided and this prompted the acquisition of more hybrid electric buses. These new buses were definitely showing improvements over the traditional ones. Hybrid technology is still evolving and newer and more efficient buses were being built. Since these hybrid buses were satisfactory, more and more were purchased.

This particular report is important because it discusses the beginnings of the transition for diesel fuel buses to ones that are more environmentally friendly. It somewhat provides a timeline of all the reduced emission buses that were purchased. The use of the compressed natural gas buses is the starting point for all future improvements to helping reduce emissions and being more environmentally friendly in general. The report also provides specific numbers for the amount and types of buses that were purchased. Few statistics were mentioned regarding the emissions and how the change to better buses helped decrease emissons.

“Select Bus Service.” MTA. http://www.mta.info/mta/planning/sbs/faqs.htm (accessed April 15, 2013).
Select Bus Service had a few goals in mind. One method was to give buses an exclusive part of the road. These partitions are strictly enforced and prevent other cars from sharing the lanes. These buses are also used to carry people to their location faster and more efficiently. With dedicated lanes on the road, buses spend less time idling and more time reaching their destination. Even though it was not the initial intention for the program, it mitigated pollution and helped conserve fuel. Mostly importantly, the Select Bus Service was not intended to be a method of reducing emissions. However, with many of the features implemented, it resulted in positive results. The use of Select Bus Service will definitely help the battle of reducing emissions.

This report from the MTA talks about a new program that is being released. Even though exact statistics were not provided, the results show that the Select Bus Service does in fact mitigate some emissions. This report shows that in addition to switching vehicles and making improvements, these types of programs are also capable of making progress. This report will mainly demonstrate that making these new types of programs are also capable of helping out the environment. This is the first instance where something like this has been introduced in NYCT’s history and it will aid in proving that there are many changes being made in addition to the technological ones.

To: Professor MacBride

From: Jessica Lin

Date: April 15, 2013

Re: Annotated Bibliography – The Reality of Green Roofs

1. Urban Design Lab at the Earth Institute, and Columbia University. “The Potential for Urban Agriculture.” The Potential for Urban Agriculture in New York City, 2012. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Or-Ys3luNV0J:www.urbandesignlab.columbia.edu/sitefiles/file/urban_agriculture_nyc.pdf+history+of+development+of+rooftop+farming&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us.

Summary: “The Potential for Urban Agriculture” focuses on all types of urban agriculture, including community gardens, open space farming, rooftop farming, etc. This study gives information on all aspects of urban agriculture: The planning stage – what needs to be considered, the costs and benefits, and so forth; The potential of urban agriculture – what spaces and how much space is available and can be used in every borough of New York City; The issues NYC faces and how urban agriculture can help – obesity correlated to the lack of fresh foods, storm water run-off, the urban heat island effect, and waste composting; Incentives for urban agriculture, including tax abatements for green roofs.

Rationale: This article is particularly relevant because it contains a vast amount of information about the potential and the difficulties of urban agriculture specifically in New York City. I would like to use on the information it provides on green roofs. To know how realistic green roofs are, it is good to have number or percentage in mind of how many roofs can actually be used. This is provided in the study. For my paper, I am bringing to focus two issues that rooftop farming tackles: storm water run-off and the urban heat island effect, because these two issues are relevant to New York City. This study also provides a useful amount of statistics and information on the two issues. It shows that green roofs can help to reduce the temperature of New York City provided by a study done by NASA, and that there has already been incentives taken towards green roofs that help to combat water run off.

2. Rosenberg, Tina. 2012. “Green Roofs in Big Cities Bring Relief From Above.” The Opinionator. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/in-urban-jungles-green-roofs-bring-relief-from-above/

Summary: Big cities have to face the issues of water run-off and the urban heat island effect. This blog explains the types of green roofs there are, intensive and extensive roofs. Of course installing green roofs are not simple or cheap, but there are shown benefits. Studies have been done to provide statistics and results of green roofs compared to our traditional black roofs. There are many places that have already begun various types of green roofs.

Rationale: This blog is very important because it provides the general overview of green roofs. It also provides valuable resources and summarizes them, Leading me to two green roof studies done in New York City which I will provide in the next two citations. As well, according to Amy Norquist, green roofs also tackle climate change through absorption of carbon emissions. One square meter of green roof can absorb the emissions of one car driven 12,000 miles a year. This is another potential of green roofs.

3. S.R. Gaffin, C. Rosenzweig, J. Eichenbaum-Pikser, R. Khanbilvardi, T. Susca. “A Temperature and Seasonal Energy Analysis of Green, White, and Black Roofs” Columbia University, Center for Climate Systems Research. New York.

Summary: In this report, Columbia uses Con Edisons “Learning Center” Roof Project of green, black, and white roofs to create an analysis of how heat flow varies from black roofs, white reflective roofs, and green living roofs. These roofs are located in Queens. In summary, black roofs absorb the most amount of heat. White roofs are cooler than black roofs, and green roofs are cooler than white roofs. During winter time, black roofs showed the highest temperature heat loss, while green roofs had a lower heat loss rate. It is important to note that this report provides statistics of heat and temperature pertaining to buildings in New York City, and not the temperature or heat of New York City in general.

Rationale: While statistics may show that green roofs can help to reduce New York City temperature by several degrees, to us that may not sound to be a lot. This report by Columbia focuses on the temperature effects on buildings. This directly effects us because we are the residents of these buildings. The statistics provided by the report help to show just how much a building we live in (just like the roofs in the report, located right here in Queens, New York) can be cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter, and indication of energy conservation due to these effects.  Also, the reduction of heat due to green roofs is thought to have correlating effects on energy conservation. However, as stated in this report, it is shown that energy savings are modest. This shows that there is a reduction, but it may not be much.

4. Gaffin, S. R., Rosenzweig, C., Khanbilvardi, R., Eichenbaum-Pikser, J., Hillel, D., Culligan, P., McGillis, W., and Odlin, M., 2011. “Stormwater Retention for a Modular Green Roof Using Energy Balance Data“ Columbia University, Center for Climate Systems Research. New York. 19 pages

Summary: Using the Con Edison Learning Center, statistics were collected and analyzed between a green roof, white roof, and black roof. Black roofs show the highest absorption of heat, white roofs reflect and retain less heat than black roofs, and green roofs retain the least amount of heat compared to the other two. It can be concluded from this study that green roofs are most effective in all aspects concerning building temperature.

Rationale: To understand the potential and benefits of green roofs in combatting storm water run off, we need to know just how much water can be retained by these roofs and how it works? This study, which also used the Con Edison Learning Center, shows just how much water can be retained annually and throughout the summer by this building. The evaporation of water from a green roof is equivalent to the amount of water that is retained by a green roof and never enters the sewage system. This study is significant because we can then use these statistics to estimate how much water can be kept of the water system if we implemented green roofs on a larger scale.  This helps to prove that green roofs are an effective solution.

5. EPA. 2008. “Green Roofs” Reducing Urban Heat Islands: Compendium of Strategies. Environmental Protection Agency.  http://www.epa.gov/heatisld/resources/pdf/GreenRoofsCompendium.pdf

Summary: This chapter explores the urban heat island effect through green roofs. It explains the two types of green roofs: intensive and extensive, and goes into an analysis of the costs and benefits of installing green roofs. Green roofs work through shading and evapotranspiration. There are also other factors that must be considered. Several case studies of green roof initiatives are included. The research used to support this chapter is taken from other states and even in places like Canada.

Rationale: Before we focus on the benefits of green roofs we first need to understand how green roofs work, and the types of green roofs there are. This gives a thorough understanding of green roofs and more support of how green roofs reduce energy, collect water, but more importantly this is one of the sources that provides more information on how it reduces greenhouse gases through absorption. It also provides links to research being conducted by university programs which is very useful.

Michelle Guo
Professor MacBride
IDC 4001H
Annotated Bibliography
Due: April 15, 2013

PlaNYC Initiative #3: Incentivizing Recycling Annotated Bibliography

1.)   Allen, Jeff, Duane Davis, and Mark Soskin. “Using Coupon Incentives in Recycling Aluminum: A Market Approach to Energy Conservation Policy.” working paper., 1993. EBSCOhost.

Summary: Jeff Allen, Duane Davis, and Mark Soskin are three researchers that analyzed the impact coupon incentives have on recycling by offering coupon incentives for those who participated in recycling aluminum.  Their results found that modest coupon incentives had a positive influence on individuals who already recycle, but did not have any impact on nonrecyclers.  The higher the coupon value, the more recyclers were willing to recycle.  They also discovered that income, gender, and occupation are the most prominent demographic variables associated with the recyclers in the study.  Nonprofessional males with low incomes are the most likely individuals to recycle aluminum.  Taking the findings from their study, Allen, Davis, and Soskin also suggest multiple ways to incorporate coupon promotional programs into the development of energy conservation policy; they believe it is important to view coupon incentives as a long-term conservation policy tool, promote coupon campaigns that would enhance the benefits that come from recycling, and offer more coupon incentives to rural areas that do not have mandatory curbside recycling.

Rationale: This study is important because American consumers save around $4 billion through the use of cents-off coupons.  This wide coupon use sparks interest and research like this to create effective coupon incentives for recycling.  At the end of 1988, over two and one-half million tons of aluminum waste was generated, with approximately 31.7% of the waste recovered for reuse.  As a result, aluminum recycling became a target for state and municipal legislation.  This study is vital to PlaNYC’s recycling incentive initiative because it also specifies the income, gender, and occupation of individuals who are most likely to recycle aluminum.  This information is valuable because it not only highlights the demographic that responds highly to recycling incentives, but it also shows that greater efforts need to be made to encourage people of all incomes, occupations, and genders to recycle.  This study can also be applied to other types of conservation efforts and recycling of all types of materials.  By combining recycling legislation and coupon incentives, recycling will become a more prominent part of the economy.

2.)   DSM Environmental, “Analysis of New York City Department of Sanitation Curbside Recycling and Refuse Costs.” Last modified May 2008. http://docs.nrdc.org/cities/files/cit_08052801A.pdf.

Summary: DSM Environmental Services, Inc., a company that analyzes solid waste management solutions, created a report analyzing New York City’s curbside recycling and refuse costs.  According to the report, after New York City cut the recycling budget in 2002, the nation started to wonder whether or not recycling was actually a cost-effect way to deal with municipal solid waste.  Although two years later, Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Council together restored glass and plastic recycling collections for all households and created a long-term contract that involved sorting and reselling recycled materials, the importance of recycling was still questioned by individuals.  As a result, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. asked DSM Environmental to study the economics of recycling in New York City and its allocation of money towards recycling.  DSM Environmental concluded that at the end of 2005, New York City’s costs per ton of curbside collection and disposal of recyclables was almost equal to the costs per ton of subside collection and disposal of non-recycled waste.  The company explained that this was because the recycling collection crews collected fewer tons per shift than waste collection crews.

Rationale: I intend to use this source as a way to emphasize the importance of encouraging a greater recycling rate through coupon incentives.  The New York City Department of Sanitation’s annual budget of $1.35 billion is allocated into three different parts: 1.) Collecting and disposing waste, 2.) Collecting and processing of recyclables, and 3.) Cleaning streets.  If coupon incentives encourage New Yorkers to recycle more frequently, it will decrease the cost of waste collection and disposal and also make collecting and processing recyclables more efficient.  Recycling collection crews would be able to collect more tons per shift, which would decrease curbside recycling costs.  In addition, the money saved can be allocated towards other functions.  The overall cost of processing a ton of recyclables, as opposed to just collecting, is still dramatically less than the cost that New York City pays companies to bury or incinerate the city’s waste.

3.)   Lange, Robert. Department of Sanitation, “Recycling: What Do New Yorkers Think?.” Last modified Fall 1999. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dsny/downloads/pdf/swmp/recycling/recyrpts/recy_mktg.pdf.

Summary: In this study, the Bureau of Waste Prevention conducted research over five years on its residents’ opinions about recycling.  The individuals who participated in the surveys were randomly selected respondents between the ages of 25 to 64, personally involved in deciding which items to recycle, and resided in a home that was currently recycling. For the study, 500 residents of five boroughs were randomly chosen every year for five years to represent a cross-section of New York City’s population in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, and income.  The Bureau of Waste Prevention found that one of the most consistent and surprising results from the surveys was that New Yorkers were very enthusiastic about recycling.  When they were questioned about their opinions regarding the New York City recycling program, over 75 percent of residents rated it positively and believed it made New York City cleaner and cut down on pollution.  However, the city residents that were surveyed showed confusion about items that cannot be recycled. 60 percent of residents incorrectly believed that the New York City recycling program permitted them to recycle yogurt containers, takeout containers, Styrofoam items, and plastic bags.

Rationale: I will use this research essay as a way to address the receivers of the recycling incentives.  It is very important for PlaNYC and the Department of Sanitation to know that the general attitude towards recycling is positive.  However, one of the main problems regarding recycling is the knowledge of residents about what is recyclable and what is not.  This may discourage residents from recycling because rather than trying to figure it out, they will just throw everything away.  In addition, while the majority of participants agreed that the New York City recycling program was constantly improving, some admitted that they did not even know that changes had been made. This relates to my research topic because if the general attitude towards recycling is already positive, incentivizing it will improve the attitude even more—the main catch is that the residents must be fully informed about the program in a way that is easy and simple for them to understand while still being effective.

4.)   Gold, Allan. “The Poor Mainly Recycle Poverty.” The Region, Late Ed. edition, sec. 4, December 1990.

Summary: This article talks about the disappointingly low participation of low-income New York City residents of the city’s recycling program in 1990.  Residents in poorer, densely populated neighborhoods in areas such as Harlem or Bedford-Stuyvesant did not seem to actively recycle.  At a community board meeting in Harlem held by the Sanitation Committee, a Harlem resident stated that compared to life and death issues, recycling seemed trivial. City officials wanted to reach its goal of 25% recycling, but did not know how to increase participation in low-income neighborhoods.   In addition, the new recycling program created greater than expected collection costs without much productivity gains in northern Manhattan.  Meanwhile, in the South Bronx, David M. Munchnick, the chief executive officer of a successful recycling buyback center, paid $800,000 to low-income individuals who brought in paper, plastic, glass, metal, and wood in 1982 and then sold it to recycling centers for $5 million.

Rationale: This article is significant because it shows the importance of recycling incentives and the change in attitude about recycling for low-income New Yorkers after recycling incentives were introduced. While at the beginning, the article notes the lack of interest and motivation for low-income New Yorkers to recycle, the end shows that when money incentives are involved, low-income residents are much more willing to recycle.  This shows the effectiveness that recycling incentives bring.  Today, the status of recyclers has changed because mostly low-income individuals in poorer, denser neighborhoods recycle; this is largely due to the coupon and monetary incentives that they receive.  However, this also raises the issue about what type of incentives can be given to middle- and high-income city residents to recycle.  The Department of Sanitation must consider that if grocery coupons and five cents per bottle do not interest these demographics, what will?

5.)   Samantha MacBride, Recycling Reconsidered: The Present Failure and Future Promise of Environmental Action in the United States (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2012).

Summary: This book, written by Professor MacBride, encourages and informs readers about how the goal of recycling has become lost in the midst of all of the legislation.  In class, we learned about Manhattan and New York City in its most natural state before the transition to cultural diversity and economic wealth.  Although it is impossible for New York City to return to Manhattan, residents of New York City must realize the goal of recycling is still far from being reached.  Large corporations and manufacturers of solid waste have continued to thrive and dominate the political sphere regarding environmental sustainability by preventing sustainable waste policies from passing.  Rather than the federal government taking responsibility for this, local governments and residents are forced to tackle this problem communally.  Dr. MacBride points out multiple problems and questions that this issue raises—are the current steps that consumers and local governments taking truly the most efficient way to recycle and decrease solid waste?

Rationale: When consumers think about recycling, they automatically assume that the simple act of placing a plastic bottle into a recycling bin will save the world and reaches the goal of recycling.  However, this is far from the truth and shows the lack of knowledge that local residents have about recycling.  This issue is not a moral issue though; it is a social and highly political issue that can only be countered by education, mitigation, and legislation.  This theme is vital to my final research paper because incentives encourage action in an effective, yet sustainable manner.  It also educates local residents about what recycling is now, and how that differs from what it should be and how it can be in the future.  If PlaNYC can successfully implement an effective recycling incentive program, it can revamp the way individuals think about recycling and the types of residents who currently recycle in New York City.

6.)   The City of New York, “PlaNYC: Solid Waste.” Last modified 2007. http://nytelecom.vo.llnwd.net/o15/agencies/planyc2030/pdf/planyc_2011_solid_waste.pdf.

Summary: In 2007, Mayor Bloomberg launched PlaNYC, a plan designed to create a greener and more sustainable New York City.  PlaNYC now has 132 initiatives that aim toward improving New York City’s physical infrastructure, environment, quality of life, and economy by 2030.  According to the “Solid Waste” portion of the plan, every year, New York City generates over 14 million tons of waste and recyclables.  Over 2,000 city government and 4,000 private trucks collect the waste and recyclables, which generates over 1.66 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year.  There are currently thirteen initiatives in the solid waste plan.  These initiatives focus on minimizing the impacts of New York City’s solid waste while simultaneously reducing the amount of waste that is generated by its residents.  In addition, the plan has another goal to improve the recycling program so that it is accessible and convenient for all New York City residents.

Rationale: I will be focusing on the “Solid Waste” portion of PlaNYC and specifically Initiative Three: Incentivize Recycling.  Although mandatory residential recycling programs were introduced in 1985, New York City residents are still not recycling even half the amount that they could be.  Not only does this create solid waste management problems, but it is also a waste of valuable materials.  I am passionate about this initiative because I strongly support incentivizing recycling.  New York City has started a study on the entire commercial waste system; once it is complete, Mayor Bloomberg and the Department of Sanitation will be able to develop a recognition and awards program to incentivize businesses and institutions to recycle and use recycled materials.  For residential waste, PlaNYC aims to implement strategic reward programs to incentivize household recycling, which will have an outstanding impact on the GHG emissions and reduce New York City’s cost of exporting waste.  In addition, Initiative Three intends to improve access for communities to monitor the effects of their recycling online.

7.)   The City of New York, “PlaNYC Progress Report.” Last modified 2012. http://nytelecom.vo.llnwd.net/o15/agencies/planyc2030/pdf/PlaNYC_Progress_Report_2012_Web.pdf.

Summary: Five years after PlaNYC was introduced, it has already started making progress towards transforming New York City into a cleaner and more efficient city.  In 2011, an ambitious update was added to the solid waste portion of PlaNYC: divert 75% of New York City’s solid waste from landfills by 2030.  In addition, in Mayor Bloomberg’s January 2012 State of the City address, he announced that the city planned on doubling the diversion rate for residential and institutional waste by 2017.  To achieve these goals, the city council started a clothing-recycling program in 2011 with Housing Works, a non-profit organization that aims to fight homelessness and spread awareness about HIV/AIDS.  This is unique because it is partnering up with a branch that is associated with fashion, a market that has the potential to have a large impact on increasing recycling rates.  In addition, as of 2011, New York City public schools are required to designate a Sustainability Coordinator, whose job is to locate and develop a “site specific” sustainability plan and educate all of the students.

Rationale: This progress report is significant because it highlights the changes that have been made in just five years after PlaNYC was enacted.  Education and knowledge about recycling is essential if PlaNYC wants more New York City residents to recycle, so it is a great step forward to educate children and have them practice the process in their daily lives.  In addition, in 2012, New York City invested in a new recycling processing facility on the Brooklyn waterfront, which allows the city to expand the types of plastics that will be accepted for curbside recycling.  This is important because in the survey conducted by the Bureau of Waste Prevention in the 1990s, researchers learned that the main reason why New York City residents are discouraged from recycling is because they do not know what types of plastics are accepted and which are not.  By educating the public about this, it will eliminate confusion and encourage recycling.

Sean Proctor

Professor MacBride

IDC: 4001

April 15^th, 2013

Annotated Bibliography

Improving the Ease and Convenience of Recycling

New York Considering Bottle Bill Expansion

• Summary: When the Bottle Bill was first created in 1983, it only covered beer, wine, and soda bottles. In 2009 this bill was expanded to include water bottle collection as well, but it still left out numerous other collectable plastics. After being discussed for years, the Bottle Bill has finally been expanded to encompass the collection of bottles used for flavored water, iced tea, energy drink, sports drink, and different juices. While New York City has a plastic recycle collection available to its citizens, the Bottle Bill is currently the only incentivized recycling initiative for residents. The Bill’s popularity has been well documented over its three decade existence, and almost everyone has either used the collection machines or seen them being used. Additionally, many jobless people actively look for these plastics that can be returned for money, which not only benefits them but also adds to the number of bottles that are eventually recycled.  A member of the New York Public Interest Research Group has estimated that this expansion alone will increase the number of returnable bottles by fifteen percent, and generate an additional five million dollars annually for New York’s Environmental Protection Fund.
• Rational: This will be useful when arguing that the state is actively making strides in the right direction in regards to improving the ease of recycling. In addition, in a city where so many people live on tight budgets, this is convenient way to get some cash back for items that you will eventually have to dispose of anyway. The newspaper article cites reliable sources within different New York agencies, which will add credibility to the research paper. It is important to highlight this initiative because it has been successful over an extended period of time, and it will continue to generate millions of dollars for the city while cutting down on the amount of recyclables in our trash. This expansion was announced on March 11^th of this year, which gives current details to the body of research.
• Source: “New York Considering Bottle Bill Expansion.” Accessed March 17, 2013. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/external?sid=c5ef8d64-f5c4-4709-a309-f97a5bb96baf%40sessionmgr115&vid=6&hid=127.

New York’s Bottle Bill

• Summary: This summary of the Bottle Bill from the Department of Environmental Conservation provides key facts in demonstrating the effectives of this initiative. While the success of the Bottle Bill is widely known, the extent of this is not realized by many. The Bottle Bill, formally known as The New York State Returnable Container Act, has reduced roadside container litter by seventy percent.  Since the Bill’s creation, over ninety billion containers have been recycled by these machines, which is equal to six million tons of material, and the collection of these plastics was at no additional costs to local governments.  The Bottle Bill has saved over an estimated fifty-two million barrels of oil and avoided the addition of 200,000 metric tons of greenhouse gasses to our environment each year. It also emphasizes the importance of the recent adjustment to the Bill allowing for the collection of plastic water bottles, which were once a fraction of the market and now account for around twenty-three percent of the market.
• Rational: The statistics I found on this website are not only by far the most powerful and enlightening, but they are also from a trusted source. While almost everyone knows of the Bottle Bill, these statistics are surprising to even the most optimistic of people.  These statistics who that the Bottle Bill was (and is) a success, and that while much has been accomplished, more can be done. It also shows how successful an initiative that incentivizes recycling can be, especially in such a socio-economically diverse city as New York.  The Bottle Bill is an important part of New York’s recycling history, and how the government has attempted to engage the interest of the community, even if they use peoples personal wants as a catalyst.  Additionally, the website provides a few hyperlinks to sites giving more information on this Bill, including FAQ’s, Litigation Updates, and the Dealer’s responsibilities among others.
• Source: “New York’s Bottle Bill, The Returnable Container Act (RCA).” Accessed March 17, 2013. http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8500.html.

Top 6 Recycling and Reuse Initiatives from around the Globe

• Summary: This informative slideshow enlightens visitors to six different recycling and reuse initiatives from around the world that are currently experiencing different levels of success. These slides including recycling cooking oil in Barcelona, mandatory composting in San Francisco, stylized trash in Argentina, an illuminating artistic display in Warsaw that brings recycling awareness to citizens, reverse vending machines such as ‘The Dream Machine’, and a waste water park in Germany. While all of these initiatives are interesting, I will focus on two of the six primarily. San Francisco has become the exemplary city in the USA in regards to how much a community can recycle. San Francisco diverts over seventy-two percent of its waste from landfills, and this number will only increase with the introduction of green recycle bins that will collect compost from the community. The other interesting initiative is the possibility of introducing reverse vending recycle machines throughout the USA, similar to the machines that the Bottle Bill utilizes. Whether or not these innovative machines can achieve wide spread success is open to debate, but the idea of expanding upon one of New York’s most successful recycling programs is an promising idea.
• Rational: All the six initiatives are interesting and practical in their own ways, but the two relate most to this city and paper are the introduction of mandatory composting in San Francisco and the concept of the advanced reverse vending machines that could be integrated into the USA within the year. While it is unlikely New York can attain the same level of recycling efficiency as San Francisco, some of their collection initiatives could be modified of imitated in New York. Since New York is much more densely populated than San Francisco, the notion of different colored recycle bins might be impractical, but the idea that each apartment complex that houses more than a certain amount of people being required to have a few bins for tenants to voluntarily recycle different materials is feasible. The reverse vending machines (similar to the ones used by the Bottle Bill) will almost certainly be presented nationwide within the next year. Instead of simply returning the person a small amount of cash in return for their recyclables, the company in charge of this innovation wants to create a point-like system that can be accumulated and then turned into cash, prizes, or various credits. The reward system is very popular in marketing because of its popularity, and this type of machine could entice a larger population of people that do not use the Bottle Bill’s machines.
• Source: “Top 6 Recycling and Reuse Initiatives from around the Globe.” Accessed March 18, 2013. http://inhabitat.com/top-6-recycling-and-reuse-initiatives-from-around-the-globe/olipot-in-action-photo-2/?extend=1.

Dream Machine

• Summary: The Dream Machine is the name of the innovative reverse vending machine mentioned in the ‘Top 6 Recycling and Reuse Initiatives from around the Globe’. The Dream Machine is a program sponsored by PepsiCo in collaboration with WM Green Ops, which is a subsidiary of Waste Management.  They plan to put two different types of collection bins out into the public: the first being a plain bin that is will return the recycler nothing in return for their plastics, and the other being a self described ‘intelligent kiosk’ that will allocate points to the user for their plastic deposits. There points can be redeemed for various different rewards, including prizes and cash. Additionally, PepsiCo is pledging different amounts of money to various organizations if the public can meet certain recycling milestones.  The company hopes to increase the USA’s beverage recycling rate from its current thirty-four percent rate to a fifty percent rate by 2018.
• Rational: Because the Bottle Bill has been so successful over the past thirty years, it makes sense to see analyze what could make this even more efficient. The Dream Machine Initiative also shows that not only the government and people are making strides to increase recycling rates, but also corporations that are reliant on plastics. While it is still unknown how the Dream Machine will interact with its users and what type of rewards they will get, the notion of depositing solid waste in an exciting manner and receive some form of compensation or prize is appealing to a wide range of people across the globe. There are currently no Dream Machines in New York City (the nearest is in Westchester) but this will surely change in the upcoming years. There is not much data on The Dream Machine because of it being in the early stages of its dissemination, but all indicators point to this initiative becoming a successful recycling outlet that can garner wide spread popularity for a number of different popular reasons.
• Source: “Dream Machine Locator.” Accessed March 18, 2013. http://www.dreammachinelocator.com/about.php.

History of NYC Recycling

• Summary: This summary from the NYC’s government website details recycling in New York City since the foundation of the New York City Department of Street Cleaning in 1881. This department would under go many name changes and eventually become what we know today as the Department of Sanitation. It details where the City’s solid waste used to go, and the implementation of different recycling initiatives (both successful and unsuccessful) over the last century. It goes into detail about the passing of Local Law 19, which mandated recycling within New York City, as well as the informing the reader on different local landfills and recycle plans. Different initiatives are mentioned including Theodore Roosevelt’s recycling strides, the Bottle Bill, and the beginning of the government actively collecting resident’s recyclables. It does not just highlight the good points of recycling in the city, but also mentions the recycling developments that were not beneficial. Most noticeably of these being the suspension of recycling collection during the first few years of the twenty-first century. 
• Rational: It is imperative to have multiple sources on the history of recycling in New York City for this paper; after all, if the paper is to propose ways to improve our current recycling state, the reader must have a basic background on the topic. I found the initiatives that in hindsight were not popular or successful to be just as interesting as those that were, and discovered through my searches that finding unsuccessful ideas is substantially more difficult than finding the successful ones. The paper will mention in detail how the city stopped the collection of recyclables in 2002 and the outcry that this caused in the public, which lead to its eventual renewal a few years later.  This website also has links to historical PSA’s, advertisements, city recycling laws, detailed reports, as well as its documentation on recycling. The paper will also compare the ease of recycling at different intervals to what it currently is today.
• Source: “History of NYC Recycling.” Accessed March 18, 2013. http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/resources/history.shtml.

Optimizing recycling in all of New York City’s neighborhoods

• Summary: This paper is a New York centric analysis on recycling in the city. It contains a brief history of New York City’s solid waste disposal, with an emphasis on recycling since Bloomberg’s infamous decision to halt most recycling initiatives in 2002. It also breaks down the different recycling percentages through different filters such as diversion, education level, and economic standing. Additional statistics include waste generation rates within the city, the REAP (recycling education, awareness, and participation) index, and correlation and regression analysis. The latter of the additional statistical analysis very useful in that it is a study that draws conclusions from all the information gathered. The paper also focuses on the participation rates in different neighborhoods and sanitation districts, trying to draw conclusions on why different areas perform better on recycling than others. The third section also details different programs that the city has introduced in the last decade to attempt to increase citywide recycling participation.
• Rational: Perhaps one of the most central studies for the body of this paper, Optimizing Recycling in New York City is a core focus of this paper. Because this paper is so New York City specific, the statistics are extremely relevant to the central idea of my research paper. Each of the first eleven sections in this paper could be used (however briefly) in my final paper. While I will try to use as many as possible, I will certainly use the sections that talk of city programs to stimulate more recycling, the different socio-economic and neighborhood recycling rates, and the authors policy recommendations on the topic.  I will try to gauge the feasibility of these suggestions and compare them to other policy reform suggestions I find. While I will enlighten the readers on the current state of recycling in New York City, it is imperative that I read of ways to improve on the current system, whether or not that means small changes or large overhauls.
• Source: “Optimizing Recycling in all of New York City’s Neighborhood’s.” Accessed March 17, 2013. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=c5ef8d64-f5c4-4709-a309-f97a5bb96baf%40sessionmgr115&vid=5&hid=127.

Extended Plastics Responsibility: Producers as Reluctant Stewards

• Summary: The Extended Plastics Responsibility paper is relevant in many different ways when trying to discover the ways of improving the ease of recycling within New York City. Within the paper the author details the different plastic classifications and how that affects what can and can’t be recycled. Seeing that only classification one and two plastics can be recycled, what are citizens to do with the others? And can we propose a way to collect the other types of recyclables, including Styrofoam, which the paper highlights as an ongoing issue. The author specifically advocates for producer-focused policies, which is a shift from most other proposed solutions that call for government organizations to intervene. In addition, the author mentions that cities such as San Francisco collect all plastics, not just one and two classified recyclables. The paper also goes into detail about glass collection, which is not mentioned nearly as frequently as plastics are, but are also important to recycle.
• Rational: This paper raises multiple aspects of recycling that I have not found in other research, and it is also focused on New York. The paper also highlights San Francisco, which I plan to research and include in my paper because it is the most advanced recycling city in the USA, and perhaps the world. Even though the population and layout of San Francisco is much more conducive to large scale recycling, New York City should be able to copy some of the initiatives that have been successful.  While it may not be practical to function on a zero waste policy that the author mentions, New York is definitely not functioning on maximum recycling efficiency. And while I will primarily be focusing on government initiatives that increase recycling ease and efficiency, extending producer responsibility of recyclables in the US will also certainly be included. Government initiatives forcing producers to change and adapt will also be explored.
• Source: “Extended Plastics Responsibility: Producers as Reluctant Stewards.” Accessed April 15, 2013. zotero://attachment/60/.

Garbage and Recycling

• Summary: The Opposing Viewpoints Series book on Garbage and Recycling contains copious of relevant and in depth information on these topics. Contrasting to most of the web sources, the Garbage and Recycling book contains a wider breadth of interconnected information. The first chapter of the book is titled ‘How Do Political and Social Systems Effect Garbage Disposal’, and it contains many sub-sections (view points) on this topic including analysis on cost efficiency and policy support. The second chapter is titled ‘Is Recycling Environmentally and Economically Successful?’, the latter half of which must be integrated with the proposed new innovations in the recycling process. The last chapter that contains information that is relevant to finding ways to increase recycling in New York City is chapter four, which is titled ’Can New Technologies Solve Waste Problems’. This part compares and contrasts the different ways of solid waste disposals including landfills and incinerators, which are important to bolster different proposed recycling initiatives and their practicality and responsibility.
• Rational: This book will provide unique element to the research on improving the ease of recycling in New York City. Seeing as my research on what would happen post-recycling collection was somewhat limited because it is not the central focus of the paper, this book provides a good background on a facet of the process of which I did not have much knowledge of. Even so, the opening chapter is the one that I will focus on most because I am very concerned about how the government will continue to try and stimulate more environmentally responsible initiatives. This book is also interesting because within each chapter there are separate sections written by different authors with different perspectives, hence the series title ‘Opposing Viewpoints’. One of the most interesting points in this chapter talks about how mandatory recycling initiatives promote environmental awareness, and what might result if the government were to enforce more mandatory recycling programs.
• Source: Young, Mitchell. Opposing Viewpoints: Garbage and Recycling. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.

1. Cox, Stan, and David Van Tassel. “‘Vertical farming’ doesn’t stack up.” Synthesis/Regeneration, 2010.

In this source, the authors begin to describe Dickson Despommier’s concept of vertical farming as a proposal to substitute soil-based agriculture with a system of manufacturing food crops in tall urban buildings to grow crops indoors, under meticulously controlled conditions, in vertical farms. This idea develops out of the apprehension that there is not enough bare horizontal planes available in most urban areas to harvest the magnitudes of food required to feed urban populations. Cox, Stan, and David then go on to point out that if vertical farming were achievable, it would only push the dependence of food production on industrial inputs to even greater heights, rather than solve any agricultural concerns. In systems of vertical farms, the crops are being deprived of soil as well as sunlight, the most plentiful energy source of them all. The authors explain that plots of crops cannot be layered one level above the other without providing a substitute for the sunlight that has been cut off by the ceilings and walls, so the majority of the light used in the farms would have to be supplied artificially consuming resource-intensive power rather than open and plentiful free sunlight. Based on their calculations, to manufacture wheat in the US for one year, vertical farming would obligate eight times as much electricity as all US utilities generate in one year, just for lighting and producing artificial sunlight for the wheat. They then proceed to discuss the additional energy requirements involving climate control in order to achieve suitable growing conditions.

In this source, Cox, Stan, and David provide very clear and unfavorable information and statistics related to the energy consumption required for vertical farming to be feasible. This source can be useful to my research because it is important that I am aware of not only the positive outcomes produced by vertical farming, but of the many detrimental downsides of the idea. This article called attention to several expenses to be incurred when undergoing the vertical farming process that hadn’t been brought to light in previous articles I have read, such as the high energy cost of humidity and air circulation, the inconveniences and energy requirements for producing and carrying artificial growth media, fertilizers, water and other resources, thirty or so stories up and getting harvests out of the towers and bringing them back those thirty stories down, and the stake of manual labor called for. This information can be useful when considering whether the advantages brought about by vertical farming are worth all of the extra expenses and obligations that come along with it.

2. Despommier, Dickson, The Vertical Farm: Feeding The World In The 21st Century. New York Thomas Dunne Books, 2010.

In this book the author, Columbia professor, Dickson Despommier, introduces his idea of vertical farming to solve America’s food, water, and energy crises. He explains that moving our agricultural systems into high-rise city buildings would renovate the way we grow fruit, vegetables, poultry, and fish, and lighten many of the intense environmental problems we are currently facing. In his book, Despommier stresses the beneficial outcomes of vertical farming including the ability to cultivate food 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the opportunity to protect crops from unpredictable and destructive weather, to recycle and reuse water gathered from the indoor environment, increase the availability of jobs for local inhabitants, excludes the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and other harmful chemicals, reduces dependence on fossil fuels, prevents crop loss due to disease, and stops agricultural runoff. He introduces several different feasible designs for the vertical farm providing stunning illustrations and sketches of the designs, such as the “VF Type O,” proposed by Oliver Foster which takes the shape of a cylinder, the “Pyramid Farm,” proposed by Eric Ellingsen and Dickson, which blatantly takes the shape of a pyramid, and the “Aberrant Agriculture,” proposed by Scott Johnson which forms almost a dome shaped greenhouse.

The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, by Dickson Despommier contains the basic structure of my research, as the creator of the vertical farming concept gives a detailed and illustrated interpretation of his idea, sharing his thoughts and insights with readers. This source will be helpful when compiling my research because it hold the main purposes for vertical farming as well as the countless advantages that can be achieved if the system is implemented effectively and efficiently. This information is reliable and dictated by Despommier himself; therefore I will have accurate considerations and expectations regarding the vertical farming system.

3. Fletcher, Owen. “Innovations in Agriculture (A Special Report) — The Future of Agriculture May Be Up: Advocates of ‘vertical farming’ say growing crops in urban high-rises will eventually be both greener and cheaper.” Wall Street Journal. October 15, 2012.

In this source, the author Owen Fletcher introduces us to several examples of urban greenhouses developing throughout the world today. He mentions a twelve-story triangular building being constructed in Linkoping, Sweden, in which plants rotate on mechanical tracks from the top floor down to the ground floor taking full advantage of the sunlight while evenly distributing it in order to make harvesting simpler. He also discusses a three-story meatpacking plant in Chicago, in which vegetables are grown on floating rafts sustained by aquaponics, using waste from close by fish tanks for nutrients. Fletcher briefly goes over the benefits of vertical farming including apparent ones such as fewer delivery trucks consuming gas and emitting exhaust and simplified access to fresh, healthy food for city residents; as well as less obvious ones including reducing the use of pesticides, preserving more natural ecosystems to help slow climate change, and the less vulnerable we are to environmental catastrophes that disturb crops and send prices skyrocketing. He then goes on to mention a few unique farming methods used across the country implemented to save space, diminish water consumption, and avoid the need for soil. He also provides core arguments against vertical farming including opposing opinions by agricultural experts who aren’t convinced growing food indoors is simpler and more efficient than conventional farming.

This source provides useful information that supports the possibility of vertical farming as it draws from examples of urban greenhouses implemented across the world. The actual existence of the structures discussed by Fletcher in his report prove that the idea isn’t farfetched and that it is possible to employ such a vertical farm here in one of the many towering skyscrapers of New York City. This source is valuable because it is unbiased, as Fletcher considers the many benefits that can arise from vertical farming and the appraisals the idea has received as well as the critiques made by those who argue that vertical farming expends more effort, energy, and expense than the easier and more efficient method of conventional farming.

4. Murray, Peter. “Towers Of Vegetables Go Up As Singapore Builds First Vertical Farm.” Accessed March 18, 2013. http://singularityhub.com/2012/11/05/towers-of-vegetables-go-up-as-singapore-builds-first-vertical-farm/.

In this source, the author Peter Murray discusses the first erected vertical farm constructed in Singapore, called A-Go-Gro, which was created by the company Sky Green. The system consists of a series of aluminum towers, up to 9 meters high, with troughs where the vegetables are grown, which are rotated using a hydraulic water-driven system to ensure that all the crops receive equal distributions of sunlight. A-Go-Gro will produce 3 types of vegetables, producing an estimated 1-ton of vegetables every other day which are sold in local supermarkets. The production yield of the A-Go-Gro system is 5 to 10 times more per unit area compared to traditional farms while the greenhouses facilitate year round production protected from pests, winds, and floods, and producing consistent and reliable harvests.

This source is useful towards my research paper because it records the application of a vertical farming system that produces many benefits to its local residents and no obvious disadvantages. A-Go-Gro is a model farming system demonstrating that farming vertically is possible to be preserved at low energy and water usage, while working with nature to achieve sustainability. Patented low carbon hydraulic green technology is used to power the rotation of the towers at very low energy costs while the troughs are irrigated using an innovative flooding method, using very little water; so they are maintaining environmentally friendly technologies. The A-Go-Gro system proves that by using minimal land, water, and energy resources, we can use green urban solutions to achieve enhanced production of safe, fresh, and delicious vegetables.

5. Platt, Peter. “Vertical Farming: An Interview with Dickson Despommier.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 7 (2007): 80-87. Accessed March 18, 2013.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/gfc.2007.7.3.80 .

In this source the author, Peter Platt, is interviewing Dickson Despommier, the father of the vertical farming concept. He reveals that the idea of vertical farming was essentially conceived in 2001 as a class project when Despommier inspired his medical ecology class to “think globally and act locally” in New York City. Despommier expresses the limitless amount of plants that are capable of being grown indoors, considering the parameters necessary for growth are met. Various kinds of different and exotic crops would be grown inside these vertical farms, such as fruits and vegetables ranging from bananas and coconuts, to corn and wheat, so that we would be able to exceed consumer demand with such a variety. Despommier goes on to explain the positive effects vertical farming can produce such as restoring the hardwood forests that were sacrificed in favor of crops, while planting trees to be available for the re-absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere in the form of carbon reserves. He also demonstrates the potential dangers and risks of vertical farming and how these hazards can be mitigated, as he stressed the importance of surveillance and security in order to ensure no diseases spread throughout the farm. The water recycling process was also discussed, where Despommier explains that untreated human sewage is the initial source of energy for plant life. The system depends upon the capture of transpiration at each floor level of the farm.

This source provides a detailed and authentic interpretation of the concept of vertical farming, as it is expressed and analyzed by the creator of the idea himself, Dickson Despommier. I intend to use this source to assist me in my research paper with the clarification of the process of vertical farming including the origins of the idea and the process that is followed, as well as the main purposes it aims to serve and the benefits it seeks to produce for the environment. Not only does Despommier outline the positive outcomes of the idea, but he also points out the possible negative consequences of vertical farming, accepting that there are flaws to be found in just about any organized system, and suggests methods of mitigating or avoiding these dangers and risks. Despommier projects that a vertical farm of thirty stories and one square city block producing commercially available products such as produce, poultry, fish, and shellfish, after all expenses are paid, would end up with 80 million dollars profit. Such calculations about the parameters and profits suggest that a vertical farm in New York City can exist in reality, creating an image in our minds of a soaring tower of forests in the future of our own city.

To: Professor MacBride

From: Edson Flores

Date: April 15th, 2013

Re: Annotated Bibliography

1.- Chan, Sewell. “Why the Subways Flood.” The New York Times (New York), August 8, 2007. Accessed April 10, 2013. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/why-do-the-subways-flood/.

In 2004, torrential downpours associated with Hurricane Frances inundated the city with more than two inches of rain an hour. Hundreds of thousands of commuters were stranded. The 1999 downpour brought 2.5 to 4 inches of rain over two hours.

As Ian Urbina of The Times explained in 2004, a quick, heavy rainfall can be a formula for chaos in the city’s subways.

As rainwater seeps through tunnel walls and flows down subway grates and stairwells, sump pumps in 280 pump rooms next to the subway tracks pull the water back up to street level. That water then naturally flows toward the storm drains — but the storm drains themselves are often unable to handle the flow of water.

From this New York Times article I plan to use the description of how the draining system of the subway has performed (or failed to do so) during major storms in the recent past. Many solutions talk about draining and pumping, but the subway system has serious drainage issues, in part due to an outdated and archaic water recollection system, but also due to clogging and garbage.

I am aware that no matter how technologically advanced the drainage system is, it can only take in so much. However, I find interesting how back in 2004 (date of storm mentioned in article) the conversation was about improving the draining and pumping systems, back then the only apparently solutions to the subway being disrupted during storms. After Sandy, technology and creativity provides more options.

2.- Crean, Sarah. “Storm Surge: An Interview With Climate Change Expert Klaus Jacob On NYC’s Post-Sandy Future | Environment.” Gotham Gazette: The Place for New York Policy and Politics. Last modified January 17, 2013. http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/environment/4149-storm-surge-an-interview-with-climate-change-expert-klaus-jacob-on-nycs-post-sandy-future.

Jacob describes his struggles to get Washington and Albany, as well as the city, to pay attention to the peril of rising sea levels; how some proposed solutions like flood gates would likely cause more trouble than they are worth; and how he thinks the city’s shrinking footprint will lead to more densely populated neighborhoods on higher ground and the loss of coastline.

Jacob became interested in New York City issues in the late 1980s when he successfully prodded local leaders to adopt a seismic building code. Since the late 1990s, he has worked largely on climate change, focusing his attention on how the rise in the sea level and storm surges will affect New York and other global cities. Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed him to the New York City Panel on Climate Change, which was convened in 2008. Jacob has served in an advisory capacity to city and state agencies on issues related to climate change.

Dr. Jacob is the man who predicted the subways would flood during Sandy. His research and expertise make him a solid reference to consult for future expectations. The interview brings insight that the trouble doesn’t rely on the science, but rather on the economic and political side. Dr. Jacob sits on the New York City Panel on Climate Change and several other committees. He is the man responsible of steering the conversation toward what needs to be done. In the interview he questions the approach many municipalities (NYC included), have taken on implementing pumping systems and creating ocean barriers. According to him, changes are ultimately in the hands of the mayor.

3.- Geller, Adam. “AP IMPACT: NYC FLOOD PROTECTION WON’T BE EASY.” Associated Press (New York), November 26, 2012. Accessed April 10, 2013. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-impact-nyc-flood-protection-wont-be-easy.

Sandy exposed the weaknesses of the 108-year-old subway system, including the large number of stations in flood-prone neighborhoods and the overall porosity of a network ventilated by thousands of grates set into sidewalks.

In recent years the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the system, has begun looking for ways to defend it from water. After flooding from a 2007 storm forced closure of part of the system, the agency spent $157 million on a host of projects, including one that closed half the 1,600 grates along a low-lying avenue in Queens, raised others and installed water-activated mechanical closing devices on still more. It also hired an architecture firm to design raised grates that double as street furniture.

But those changes were designed to prevent flooding caused by rain, not storm surge, and were limited by a capital budget with little room for projects not directly related to transportation, said Projjal Dutta, the MTA’s director of sustainability initiatives.

If New York City is going to prepare for the next super storm, it can start by looking at what others have done. The comparison in this article describes the way a medical center in Texas dealt with tropical storm Allison in 2001, and what measures, if any can be applied to the New York subway system. Submarine type flood doors were installed throughout the Texas Medical Center tunnel system in Houston after severe flooding from tropical storm Allison in 2001. The floods caused a massive blackout, inundated medical center streets, and forced evacuations of patients. If metropolitan New York is going to defend itself from surges like the one that overwhelmed the region during Superstorm Sandy, decision makers can start by studying how others have fought the threat of fast-rising water.

4.- Jacob, Klaus, Noah Edelblum, and Jonathan Arnold. “RISK INCREASE TO INFRASTRUCTURE DUE TO SEA LEVEL RISE.” Climate Change and a Global City: An Assessment of the Metropolitan East Coast (MEC) Region. SECTOR REPORT: INFRASTRUCTURE (2000): Accessed April 12, 2013. http://metroeast_climate.ciesin.columbia.edu/reports/infrastructure.pdf.

Infrastructure provides the engineered foundation for the socioeconomic functioning of population centers. Infrastructure systems consist of interconnected networks of lifelines and facilities that deliver resources, remove waste, move people, information and goods, and control to a large degree the cultural ambiance. This means bridges, roads, tunnels, buses, subways, railroads, water, sewage, power, phone, and other things we take for granted. The robustness of infrastructure systems depends on their design, state of maintenance, and the man-made, environmental and natural stresses to which they are exposed. Besides man-made stresses, weather, climate and extreme natural events such as floods, earthquakes, wind- or ice storms regularly test the vulnerability of these systems.

This is a report that examines the infrastructure of East Coast region and evaluates the capacity of response to threats like climate change. Hurricane Sandy confirmed that New York City is vulnerable to the super storms that are likely to come in the future. We witnesses the way in which our city, given its resources and infrastructure, responded to the damage Sandy left behind. Although the report was written in the year 2000, the assessment of the role infrastructures play in climate change is what interests me. The report analyzes the costs or benefits, if any, that may be incurred from climate change. Could there be cost-effective actions that can be taken to minimize negative effects on the systems or maximize the benefits?

5.- Jacob, Klaus, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Radley Horton, David Major, and Vivien Gornitz. MTA Adaptations to Climate Change. A Categorical Imperative. New York: Metropolitan Transport Authority, 2008. Accessed April 1, 2013. http://www.mta.info/sustainability/pdf/Jacob_et%20al_MTA_Adaptation_Final_0309.pdf.

Climate risks to coastal urban areas largely stem from temperature rise, changes in precipitation, and sea level rise (SLR) and consequent higher storm surges. They manifest themselves by the frequency, intensity and duration of extreme events including heat waves, droughts, river and street flooding, and storm- and sea-level-rise-induced coastal flooding. Some of the MTA systems are more vulnerable than others: low-lying fixed structures such as below-sea-level road- or subway-tunnels, or near-sea-level railroad tracks, rail yards and shops are more prone to coastal and urban street flooding than bus routes that can be readily rerouted on short notice according to flood conditions.

I chose this report since it shows what the MTA itself recognizes as vulnerable and feasible for adaptation. It is important to recognize that there is no “one size fits all” approach. For given expectations about climate change, different adaptations are appropriate for different types of facilities and their different life spans or criticalities. Rail yards, for example, may need hard protection against rising sea levels and storm surges, whereas other facilities, such as recreation areas, open space, and parking lots, can be allowed to flood temporarily at acceptable frequencies.

6.- Martinez, Xavier, Julio Davalos, Ever Barbero, Eduardo Sosa, Wade Huebsch, Ken Means, Larry Banta, and Greg Thompson. “Inflatable plug for threat mitigation in transportation tunnels.” (2012)

Tunnel safety has long been a concern for transportation and government entities. Fires, noxious fumes, deadly gasses, and flooding threats have occurred in major transportation systems from Madrid to Chicago to Tokyo. The current paper presents the Resilient Tunnel System (RTS). This is a passive protection system developed to mitigate the effects of a hazardous event in the tunnel and the connected infrastructure, by compartmentalizing it. This is achieved by adapting an existing concept: an airbag. The RTS consists of inflating at least two large airbags inside the tunnel, within a specific strategic location, to seal the compromised tunnel section. The seal provided by the airbags must be tight and conform to the tunnel geometry, so whatever occurs between the airbags does not affect the external sections of the tunnel. This paper describes the first prototype of the RTS developed, as well as the tests performed to validate its performance.

Dr. Ever Barbero from West Virginia University made the news after hurricane Sandy, he might have figured out a possible solution for the subway flooding. Dr. Barbero’s research on inflatable structures has gained a lot of fame recently since his balloon like devices could prevent tunnels from flooding. The devices works like a huge balloon that fills up the tunnel space to prevent water from inundating the tunnel. In his original paper, Dr. Barbero explains in detail the way his experiment works and if it indeed can be used in subway tunnels. Dr. Barbero also recognizes that this method doesn’t guarantee 100% effectiveness since it may allow leaks due to the irregular surface of the tunnels. However, I believe Dr. Barbero’s structure can go a long way in solving NYC’s issue of flooding since the structures are relatively cheap and no major transformation in our old subway system would be needed.

7.- Reis, Ronald A. The New York City Subway System. New York: Chelsea House, 2009.

Reis narrates the construction of the New York City subway system, and describes the evolution and changes the system has undergone through the years to meet the ever changing needs of daily passengers. Teeming with a population of 3.5 million at the end of the nineteenth century, New York City needed a subway system. After four years of digging and diverting miles of utilities and tunneling under the Harlem River, the city’s residents celebrated a new era in mass transit on October 27, 1904, with the opening of a nine-mile subway route. In the century to come, the New York subway system expanded to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with 6,400 cars, 468 stations, a daily ridership of 4.5 million, and 842 miles of track-longer than the distance from New York to Chicago. Politics, graffiti, and construction challenges combined to make the building and running of the New York subway system one of the America’s greatest civic undertakings.

In the wake of hurricane Sandy, the vulnerability of the New York City subway system arouse several questions of what can be done, if anything, to prevent future shutdowns due to severe weather. In order to address these questions one must understand how the subway system was originally thought and designed. Reis provides the historical context in the construction of the subway lines, and the changes that have been made ever since. Naturally, the subway was built according to the transportation needs and building capacity of the time. What I find interesting is the understandable disregard to major storm activity, and the resulting flooding of tunnels. It shows that at the beginning of the twentieth century, issues like climate change and flood hazard mitigation were not part of the conversation.

8.- Rosenzweig, C., W. Solecki, A. DeGaetano, M. O’Grady, S. Hassol, and P. Grabhorn. Responding to Climate Change in New York State: The ClimAID Integrated Assessment for Effective Climate Change Adaptation. Albany, New York: New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), 2011. Accessed April 1, 2013. http://www.nyserda.ny.gov/~/media/Files/Publications/Research/Environmental/EMEP/climaid/11-18-response-to-climate-change-in-nys.ashx.

ClimAID: the Integrated Assessment for Effective Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in New York State was undertaken to provide decision-makers with cutting edge information on the state’s vulnerability to climate change and to facilitate the development of adaptation strategies informed by both local experience and scientific knowledge. This state-level assessment of climate change impacts is specifically geared to assist in the development of adaptation strategies. It acknowledges the need to plan for and adapt to climate change impacts in a range of sectors: Water Resources, Coastal Zones, Ecosystems, Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, Telecommunications, and Public Health.

The author team for this report is composed of university and research scientists who are specialists in climate change science, impacts, and adaptation. To ensure that the information provided would be relevant to decisions made by public and private sector practitioners, stakeholders from state and local agencies, non-profit organizations, and the business community participated in the process as well.

Hurricane Sandy put the spotlight on New York City’s adaptation to climate change. However, assessments and recommendations have been made before hurricane Sandy, in fact many could have prevented a great deal of trouble should they have been implemented. This report put together by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in 2011, provides useful information to decision-makers, such as state officials, city planners, water and energy managers, farmers, business owners, and others as they begin responding to climate change in New York State. I am particularly interested in the chapters regarding transportation, since it goes through the vulnerabilities of our city’s 108 year-old subway system. Given the continuous flooding the NYC subway system is subject to, an obvious but partial solution would be to implement a series of upgrades. However, the science and technology must first go through the economics. To understand the viability and cost-benefit analysis of adaptation, I am interested in the economic analysis of climate change impact and adaptations presented as an annex in this report.

To: Professor MacBride

From: Richard Chan, Amanda Huang

Date: April 15, 2013

Re: Artificial Trees

Artificial Trees: The Annotated Bibliography

1. Keith, David W., Minh Ha-Duong, and Joshuah K. Stolaroff. “Climate Strategy with Co2 Capture from the Air.” Climatic Change 74, no. 1–3 (January 2006): 17–45.

This journal article goes into detail the thermodynamics, physics, mathematics, chemistry and other limits of carbon capture. This is a hypothetical set of calculations, with the intent to identify the outer limits of this particular carbon capture technology, and using it as a baseline for more realistic scenarios. It then extrapolates from those hypothetical limits a more reasonable cost-benefit analysis argument, identifying energy outputs and costs, both physical and economic, as well as a predictive risk analysis of atmospheric carbon levels with and without the carbon capture technology, as well as various scenarios, presumably to cover the range of best- and worst-case scenarios. The appendices of this article are ripe with data, and more critically, an almost step-by-step analysis of an example carbon capturing tower device. All of the information is made with the presumption and notion that such technology is well within reach by current standards, and has simply yet to be implemented on a large scale.

This source is incredibly rich in detailing many important variables regarding carbon capture technology. While the example is not exactly an artificial, carbon-capturing “tree”, it uses the same chemical process, and functions fairly similarly, if not identically, as that which is described by the artificial tree and carbon capture pioneer Klaus Lackner. The source details the energy required for carbon capture (that is, in Joules), the space in which such technology must be deployed in (the amount of carbon captured within a time frame), the costs that would entail the capture of carbon, and future projections depending on how this technology is implemented. Appendix B shows, in extreme detail, how such a device will work, down to the chemical reactions of sorbents and recycling sorbent materials, with an example device with hypothetical conditions, as well as an excellent diagram of the process. Such a description will be paramount in relating this technology into realistic terms, as it may provide a foundation in which further extrapolatory analyses may be considered, beyond the scope of the article and implemented on a New York City scale.

2. Lackner, Klaus S., Patrick Grimes, and Hans-J. Ziock. “Capturing Carbon Dioxide From Air,” 2001. http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/01/carbon_seq/7b1.pdf.

Capturing Carbon Dioxide from Air explores the feasibility of air extraction in terms of technology and cost. Though alternative sources to carbonaceous fuels have been proposed, Klaus, Grimes, and Ziock argue that this technology poses multiple obstacles. For starters, it is not economically beneficial. It would also take much longer to make the transition to alternatively-fueled vehicles and may render existing energy and transportation infrastructure obsolete. Carbon dioxide capture, on the other hand, could collect CO₂ emissions after the fact, from any source, does not require a network of pipelines to the disposal site, and can be implemented virtually immediately.. The burden of the cost lies more in sorbent recovery than the actual process of capturing. Essentially, the atmosphere would serve as a temporary storage and transport system.

Klaus, Grimes, and Ziock then do a dimensional analysis, concluding that extracting CO₂ is more efficient than collecting wind energy. Their analysis estimated that using alkaline solutions of Ca(OH)₂ as a sorbent will result in $10-$15 per ton of CO₂ and 3 cents worth of coal per gallon of gasoline. Though there is energy and CO₂ released during this process, it is significantly lower than what it removes. The cost could still be lowered by using other sorbents with lower binding energies and chemical kinetics. The researchers also explored the overall scale of capturing carbon. This source details preliminary research and exploration performed by Klaus and his team prior to development of artificial trees. These beginning studies lead to the feasibility of the extraction of CO₂ from the air, as well as further investigation of other potential solvents and process design.

3. Figueroa, José D., Timothy Fout, Sean Plasynski, Howard McIlvried, and Rameshwar D. Srivastava. “Advances in CO2 Capture technology—The U.S. Department of Energy’s Carbon Sequestration Program.” International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2, no. 1 (January 2008): 9–20. doi:10.1016/S1750-5836(07)00094-1.

This journal article is about the governmental pursuit of reducing carbon dioxide from the air. It addresses the United States’ concern over the rate at which carbon dioxide concentration is increasing, and will increase in the coming decades. The article describes three potential solutions to solving the problem of exhaust output from productions facilities: post-combustion, pre-combustion, and oxy-combustion systems. Post-combustion methods involve the removal of carbon dioxide after the fuel is burned, via the flue gas. Pre-combustion methods involve the removal of carbon dioxide prior to burning, which may result in the production of (and subsequent use of) synthetic hydrogen gas. Oxy-combustion methods emphasize the concentration of carbon dioxide within the flue gas, which, when burned, leave primarily water and carbon dioxide, resulting is more ease in extracting the carbon dioxide for sequestration. Each technique has its own advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of application; thus, every option is explored to maximize usage in their respective niches.

This particular article does not explain how an artificial tree works. Rather, it explains a separate yet intriguingly similar technology: extracting and siphoning carbon dioxide from power plants. While artificial trees are intended to scrub relatively ambient air for carbon dioxide, these techniques are meant for generally more concentrated levels of carbon dioxide, given their proximities to heavy levels of exhaust. Thus, this article provides an effective backbone to our research on artificial trees. Its lengthy supplementation of various sorbent technologies, explained in fair detail and quite vital in understanding not only Klaus Lackner’s intended design, but alternatives as well. The governmental backing of this article lends much credibility in the success of such technology; as Lackner’s designs are essentially an offshoot from carbon capture filters for power plants, implementation of this technology within New York City seems more realistic and predictable, however improbable an actual implementation of artificial trees may or may not be (it’s a bit of arguing “if so, then why not”).

4. Anderson, Soren, and Richard Newell. “Prospects for Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 29, no. 1 (2004): 109–142. doi:10.1146/annurev.energy.29.082703.145619.

This journal article describes broadly the feasibilities of carbon capture and storage technologies. It goes into some detail about various techniques of capturing carbon, from flue gas scrubbing to gasifying coal to oxy-combustion. It also compares the application and costs of carbon capture technology to several key industries, ranging from oil refining to cement mixing, that produce significant amounts of carbon dioxide exhaust. It then goes on to describe the costs and methods of moving and sequestering the carbon dioxide for more permanent storage. Finally, it lists alternative uses for carbon dioxide, aside from sequestering it into reservoirs, as well as address concerns regarding the storage and transport of carbon dioxide, especially the potential for leakage. Much of the article speaks in terms of costs and rates, as well as potential hazards. There is also some arguments for using carbon capture and storage technology for electricity generation, with accompanying models.

The major addressing point that we will derive from this article is the sequestration aspect. Most of the other sources focus primarily and extensively on the capture aspect, but few address the costs of what to do with that captured gas. The costs of piping carbon dioxide is laid out in a surprisingly simple equation (which, while being wary in its overly simplistic form, will nevertheless provide a bedrock for further calculations). Details into the effectiveness of certain reservoirs provide us with a way to analytically calculate the storage of locations nearest New York City (given that the Marcellus Shale Formation is obviously out of the question). Thus, two contingencies are covered: if nearby reservoirs are impractical, then pipeline costs is primary to reservoir costs, and vice versa. The idea of oceanic sequestering is incredibly intriguing, and should be considered an option (albeit a very hazardly one), given New York City’s geographic position.

5. Lackner, K. S. “Capture of Carbon Dioxide from Ambient Air.” The European Physical Journal Special Topics 176, no. 1 (September 1, 2009): 93–106. doi:10.1140/epjst/e2009-01150-3.

Unlike the journal article of a similar title, Lackner here goes into fine detail about his studies that culminated in a prototype carbon dioxide collection device. He uses a great deal of values and rates to describe the amount of energy needed to facilitate the scrubbing reaction, from mols to wattage. Several equations and scientific concepts set the backdrop for his concept of a passive, sorbent-based air collector. The concept is fraught with numerical details, considering variables such as wind speed and size of the collector. He also goes on to consider the type of sorbent material to be used in his concept device; rather than generic chemicals such as sodium hydroxide, his sorbent, amine-based resin seems more proprietary. His experiments and subsequent modifications then resulted in a prototype, one that could capture more carbon dioxide than it would produce via electricity. Finally, he leaves a word on future possibilities, including larger-scale and/or more efficient products.

This journal source is essentially the prime source about artificial trees, given Lackner’s involvement in this field more than anyone else (presumably, from data-gathering). Lackner puts forth all manner of scientific vernacular in describing his concept of an artificial tree to a tee. It also provides a level of redundancy with journal articles like that compiled by Keith, et. al. For the finest levels of detail, it would be paramount to use this source as the baseline for other articles to compare with, from construction technique to rate of scrubbing to sorbent material; it can also bind information from flue gas scrubbing of power plants and such, which use similar technology. With sufficient data concerning the conditions of New York City, it shouldn’t be too difficult to hypothetically, if not realistically, apply Lackner’s prototype to a cityscape or surburban scenario. The details to his sorbent resin material, which is never named, though is dealt with in depth, is vital in its own right in assessing his design, which may not be possible with generic sorbents.

6. Herzog, Howard J. “Peer Reviewed: What Future for Carbon Capture and Sequestration?” Environmental Science & Technology 35, no. 7 (April 1, 2001): 148A–153A. doi:10.1021/es012307j.

This article explores carbon sequestration that calls for enhancing uptake of CO₂ in natural sinks (soils, vegetation, and/or the ocean). The concept behind carbon capture and sequestration is derived from similar technologies used to lower SO₂, NOₓ, and particulates, and other pollutant emissions. This article is extremely useful in detailing the sources to capture and store anthropocentric CO₂. Prime sources to capture large quantities of carbon dioxide can come from industrial processes, power plants, or producing hydrogen fuels from carbon-rich feedstock. This carbon can be stored in geological sinks, such as deep saline formations, depleted reservoirs, and coal seams. Sequestering the carbon can be done by a combination of displacement, dissolution, and reaction of CO₂ with present minerals.

The article went on to discuss the Sleipner Project, which is the first commercial use of carbon capture and sequestration technology. Sleipner is being carefully monitored as it sets the precedent for future potential CO₂ injection projects. Other programs, such as the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth are also discussed and explored as foundations to further projects. It is essential to study these projects to ensure that sequestration is safe, practical, and environmentally sound. Since the ocean and atmosphere are ever changing, it is estimated that 15-20% will escape over a few centuries. In extremely high concentrations, CO₂ can cause suffocation. Though geological formations are thought of as insensitive, some are located near populated areas. The article argues that the best way to address these safety concerns is to conduct more simulated and closely supervised projects.

*Cited using Chicago Manual Style (full note).

To: Professor MacBridge

From: Christopher Chang

Date: 04/13/2013

Re: Subway Platform Screen Doors and Flooding.

1. Chung, Hang Jae. “SMRT’s Platform Screen Door & IT Technology,” March 18, 2013. http://www.apta.com/mc/fctt/previous/2010tt/Presentations/SMRT-Platform-Screen-Door-and-IT-Technology.pdf.

This PowerPoint talks about the Platform Screen Doors for the Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Train line. It dives into the statistics of Seoul’s metro lines and those that have Platform Screen Door’s. Chung talks about some of the benefits of the Platform Screen Door’s such as decreases in accidents per year, air contamination, Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) energy consumption and ambient noise. Air contamination is an important aspect of the Platform Screen Door’s because of the fact that subways are underground. Because of rain and water run off, molding of walls underground is more rampant than above ground. Also, when there are putrid smells such as fumes from track fires, the smell lingers in the tunnels underground. The PowerPoint goes as far as showing us how to actually put together the Platform Screen Door’s underground. An interesting point the PowerPoint includes is the fact that other business can actually benefit from Platform Screen Doors. The Platform Screen Door’s are mostly viewed as a safety measure against train deaths. But, they can also have billboards or advertisements on them. Businesses can pay to have their advertisements on either the walls or the Platform Screen Door’s, which is usually where most subway riders are facing anyways.

The main reason for choosing this PowerPoint is because it was relevant to connecting South Korea’s direction on subway Platform Screen Doors and the MTA’s constant talks of installing them. This PowerPoint actually served as a way to draw in investors. When reading the PowerPoint, I realized that the Platform Screen Doors could provide more than just safety. They can make being underground a healthier stay. With 1.9 billion passengers in 2009, South Korea can be considered a metropolis with a bustling transportation system. Obviously, New York City’s MTA has a much larger number of passengers. But, the fact of the matter is, South Korea’s metro system is far superior in terms of speed, cleanliness and now, safety. One of the most interesting aspects is the fact that South Korea is a country that receives insane amounts of rain because of monsoons every single year. So, the fact that their subway system have the ability to be up and running after every single rainy day or week should raise alarms to the MTA on what they are doing wrong and how can they fix them. Platform Screen Doors can be a right start.

2. Geller, Adam. “New York City Flood Protection Won’t Be Easy.” Timesfreepress.com, November 27, 2012. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/nov/27/new-york-city-flood-protection-wont-be-easy/?breakingnews

Mr. Geller talked about a very viable option that a hospital in Houston took to prevent flooding. In 2001, tropical storm Allison ripped through Houston severely crippling the Texas Medical Center. As a result, the Texas Medical Center installed submarine type flood doors throughout their tunnel system. The second portion of this article goes into the actual damage that Sandy caused and what it has shed light on. After a flood in 2007 in New York City, MTA reportedly spent $157 million on many projects, one of them being “closing 1600 grates along a low-lying avenue in Queens.” The article goes on to talk about many other countries subway systems including Bangkok. Bangkok, a relatively bustling but a part of a third world country, has its station entrances, which are raised several feet above ground. The number of options that the MTA can take is plenty. The third portion of this article speaks about the electric grid in New York. Protecting the electric grid is very important because there were many customers without power during Sandy’s terror and well after Sandy hit. It was well televised about the elderly in apartments at Brighton Beach who were stuck in their apartments because of blackouts and the inability to make it down the stairs. In 2009, Edison Electric Institute reported “installing lines underground in urban areas could cost up to $23 million per mile, five times the cost of lines above ground.”

The question everybody needs to ask him or herself is how can we prevent another catastrophic storm from ravaging our lands again. It is without a shadow of a doubt that a storm with the same intensity, if not higher, will make its way through New York again. This article sheds light on the different actions we can take to prevent such damage. The importance of preventing this type of damage is paramount. It is 6 months after Hurricane Sandy hit and some people are still feeling the effects of the aftermath. Whether it be to install submarine like doors in all the underground stations to prevent flooding at the source or raising the station entrances, certain steps need to be taken to avert the damage we witnessed in October 2012. This article speaks volumes because it provides us with different options and breaks down some of the damage that Sandy has caused. It goes as far as talking about protecting neighborhoods. But, for the sake of this project, it doesn’t seem as important.

3. Metrobits. “Platform Screen Doors – Metrobits.org,” March 18, 2013. http://mic-ro.com/metro/platform-screen-doors.html.

Metrobits informational piece on Platform Screen Doors goes into many different lines that currently have been fitted with Platform Screen Doors. One of the most important parts of this informational to my research was the little summary on Saint Petersburg. Saint Petersburg was the first station to have a variation of the Platform Screen Doors. They installed Platform STEEL Doors between 1961 and 1972 in ten different stations. What is most interesting about this is that Metrobits goes on to state, “Contrary to common belief, the reason for the introduction of steel doors was not to prevent flooding.” Metrobits goes into depth with each of the stations in the world that have Platform Screen Doors. For the sake of my project, I focused more on the Korean stations and the New York stations. In Seoul, lines 2 and 9 have been fitted with Platform Screen Doors. It is planned that all the lines will have the doors by 2010. It is said that the New Second Avenue Line will have Platform Screen Doors in New York. It is expected to open in late 2016. Another great aspect of this document is the benefits it lists of Platform Screen Doors. Some of them include preventing track fires, reducing draught and air pressure caused by trains and preventing people from falling or jumping on the tracks.

The one sentence that had an impact on my research on Platform Screen Doors was the sentence about the introduction of steel doors. I had begun my research in hopes to find evidence that the Platform Screen Doors would be able to prevent flooding. But, this article was the first one that provided evidence against my hypothesis. Even though Metrobits uses the word Platform Steel Doors, they are a variation of Platform Screen Doors. It could be that the Platform Screen Doors are different in the sense that they can actually prevent flooding. But, at this point of my research, there is no evidence that point to it. The remainder of this document is very useful because it lists out which stations around the world have Platform Screen Doors and if they will be fitted with them. Finding out that the Second Avenue Line is expected to open with Platform Screen Doors leads me to believe that the MTA is actually making steps to prevent certain safety hazards, both physical and airborne. The benefits of Platform Screen Doors may not have been directly related to preventing floods underground. But, they have certain climate and health related benefits that I had not thought about before such as preventing track fires.

4. Kabak, Benjamin. “‘A Screen Door on a Submarine…’” Second Ave. Sagas, December 31, 2012. http://secondavenuesagas.com/2012/12/31/a-screen-door-on-a-submarine/.

Benjamin Kabak writes in a perspective dealing with Platform Screen Doors being a safety mechanism. With all of the homicides dealing with trains and people being pushed in, people have been looking closely at options to prevent these deaths. In December alone, there were two high profile cases where the victims were pushed into the tracks when a train was approaching. An alarming statistic was that there are usually 150 people per year that are hit by trains. According to the article, there have been many plans to install the doors in numerous stations. But, the plans keep on falling through. The article goes to talk about Crown Infrastructure, a New York based company, who would install Platform Screen Doors free of charge. The only condition would be that it would collect revenue from LED video advertising on the barriers of the Platform Screen Doors. The article goes on to talk about the 7-train extension and the new Second Avenue subway having Platform Screen Doors. An MTA spokesperson has stated that they are “cost-prohibitive” because it would cost an “estimated $1.5 million to install sliding doors along two platform edges in a new station and more to retrofit an existing station.” With 468 stations in the MTA system, it would be extremely costly.

Even though this article does not focus on the actual climate related benefits of Platform Screen Doors, it raises concerns on the financial liability of installing Platform Screen Doors. Taking a different approach with the safety concerns, the article touches upon different companies and people advocating for the doors. The architect of the JFK AirTrain advocates for the doors. But, the fact of the matter is, the JFK AirTrain is suspended above ground, which makes it a little easier to install and change things around as opposed to changing schematics underground. In regards to Crown Infrastructure, their plan is a little bit of a conundrum. Even though they may create revenues from the video advertisements, chance are there will be other companies that pay more for the advertisements. It is an uncertain situation and dishing out hundreds of millions of dollars for an uncertain investment panning out is definitely not the smart choice. The financial liability discussed in this article is very important in my research because one of the main reasons why the MTA isn’t going ahead with the proposed projects is funding. Also, retrofitting an existing station would cost more money depending on what kind of station it is too. All in all, financially, the Platform Screen Doors isn’t the smartest investment for New York City. But, in terms of health and safety, it is foolproof. It all boils down to how important health and safety is to the MTA.

5. Donohue, Pete. “MTA Exploring Using Inflatable and Expandable Devices to Seal Subway Tunnels and Prevent Type of Flooding That Crippled System During Sandy.” NY Daily News, November 26, 2012. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mta-exploring-inflatable-expandable-devices-seal-tunnels-article-1.1208561.

Pete Donohue writes about a team of engineers at West Virginia University who have developed a viable option for any metropolitan subway system to use in their tunnels to prevent flooding. It is a giant tunnel plug made out of a synthetic fiber that is similar to Kevlar. According to Ever Barbero, the principal investigator with the Resilient Plug Project, “It could be inflated with air or water.” The greatest aspect of the inflatable plug may be the fact that it could be put away in an area about 2 by 3 feet when not inflated. This is about the size of a small box. The cost of such flood plug is estimated to be about $400,000 for the prototype. The plug had impressive results in four tests as it reduced the flow of water to a manageable level to be pumped out. All signs from the article points to the plug being an actual option to preventing flooding at an economical price and practical in terms of space.

This article provides an important alternative to preventing flooding. I went about my research in a two-pronged plan. The first prong was to find information on Platform Screen Doors and if it was able to prevent flooding. The second prong was to find any other alternatives that were flood proof. I did find a lot of information on Platform Screen Doors. But, for the most part, none of the information led me to believe that it was able to prevent flooding in stations. However, I was more successful finding viable alternatives to avert flooding in New York City subway tunnels. The submarine doors in a Houston hospital from an earlier article seemed like a great idea. But, in terms of installing and time, it wouldn’t be the most efficient option. The Kevlar like plugs may prove to be the quickest and most efficient barrier against flooding right now. If the prototype is improved and mass produced, then MTA would be able to store them away at each station, two per direction, and inflate them in periods of severe flooding. A step-by-step drawing shows a specific place that the plug can be placed without restricting train traffic.

6. New York Times. “Assessing Damage From Hurricane Sandy,” October 29, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/30/nyregion/hurricane-sandys-aftermath.html?_r=0.

The New York Times has an amazing article on the damage from Hurricane Sandy. He goes into depth on every single aspect of the damage including public transportation, water waste, elemental problems (fire, wind) and power failures. The article takes it a step further by including specific dates and their importance. For example, the article states October 31^st as the first day to recovering the subway system. Their first step was getting the water out of the tunnels. The main focus were the stations that were in Zone A such as South Ferry station and Whitehall Street. The article also indicated which specific lines were at risk for flooding. They included the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, F and R trains. The number of customers affected by Hurricane Sandy in terms of power was startling. In areas of New Jersey, the number of people affected reached 500,000 and nearly 200,000 for areas in New York City. The article went on to talk about the flooding and water waste specifically to New York City. It depicted the areas of mandatory evacuation. What was especially interesting was the fact that all of the wastewater treatment plants were all in Evacuation Zones.

This article was important to my research because it took a closer look at Hurricane Sandy’s path of destruction. Hurricane Sandy opened the eyes of many New Yorkers and scientists in terms of the damage that was caused in an area that hadn’t seen much destruction from flooding in the past. This article touched upon almost every single aspect of the storm from the actual rain causing flooding, the roaring wind and the fires that were caused by the storm. This article puts a microscope into the problems that we faced after the storm and certain problems that we may continue to face. The maps of New York City with descriptions of many different problems such as Evacuation zones, areas of lowest elevation and wind speeds were really helpful. They gave a visual on which parts of New York City were most vulnerable to the different weather conditions. Obviously, the areas most vulnerable were the areas closer to water. But, the fact of the matter is that there were certain parts of New York City that weren’t safe from the destruction of Hurricane Sandy. In the Jamaica Queens, Evacuation Zone C stretched from the tip of Jamaica, past the Jamaica plant and almost into the middle of Queens. This article really shed light on the actual destruction of the storm, piece by piece.

7. Yakas, Ben. “MTA Exploring Installing Sliding Doors At L Train Stations.” Gothamist, January 13, 2013. http://gothamist.com/2013/01/13/mta_exploring_installing_sliding_do.php.

Platform Screen Doors may be coming to a L Train near you. In December 2012, the MTA considered installing sliding doors at L Train stations. This was due to many accidents; some intentional that was publically televised in December. The Post states, “Installing the doors system-wide would be more than $1 billion.” The article talks about the Second Avenue Subway having a proposal to add sliding doors from 2007. But, nothing has seemed to matriculate from this proposal. The article goes on to talk about how political pressures from the outside can make the Platform Screen Doors a reality in New York City’s subway. Now I do not know if political pressures will be present because of all the other hot topics in today’s politics including gun control and health care. The rationale behind having the L train with Platform Screen Doors is that this is the only independent line in all of the subway system. So, it makes the most sense to have the doors installed at these stations. However, some of the problems that they may run into are retrofitting each individual station with these doors. This will ultimately cost millions depending on each station and how long these stations stretch.

Once again, the MTA are talking about Platform Screen Doors in our stations. But, this time around, it seems to be more serious. Almost every single innovation or renovation to the subway system has been tested on the L line because of the fact that the L train is the only train that runs through it. The fact that it would cost a billion dollars to have the whole subways system fitted with platform screen doors is an alarming number. However, if the federal and state government were to shift funds around, it would become completely feasible. With the whole political pressure aspect of the article, I disagree to an extent because I feel like there are more important matters at hand in terms of politics. The Newtown gun massacre has taken a spotlight in recent weeks in terms of gun control. In the future, the government may shift its focus on Platform Screen Doors. But, it would probably be on a more national scale. The plan for Platform Screen Doors seems to coming to fruition after a few years of “planning”. This is in the midst of a lawsuit between MTA and the family of a man who was thrown to his death on the tracks.