
The Research and Innovation Office has chosen four projects for seed funding under its new Sustainable GeoCommunities initiative, an international program that seeks to leverage geodesign thinking, geospatial technologies, and other research tools to help local communities around the world grow and thrive by meeting UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The funded projects, listed below, include collaborators at universities, tribal nations, and other organizations across the US and internationally.
Alliance for Waste Equity (AWE): Transforming Waste Management with Sustainable Community-Engaged Solutions
Nida Sajid, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, CLA
Community-Based Networks to Improve Water Quality and Security in the Tzalá River and Lake Atitlán Basins, Guatemala
Edgar Arriaga, Department of Chemistry, CSE
Envisioning a Sustainable Future for Leech Lake: A Geodesign Approach to Community-Led Innovation
Dingliang Yang, School of Architecture, College of Design
Participatory Planning for Sustainable Landscape Restoration in the Western Himalaya
Forrest Fleischman, Department of Forest Resources, CFANS
Learn more about each project and the collaborators.
In November 2024, the Sustainable GeoCommunities (SGC) initiative released a research brief that outlines the effort's primary goals and strategies and its vision to grow the organization and its impact. The seed grants projects are a key part of the first phase of the SGC program development. These grants should set the stage for pursuing larger funding opportunities that will aim to establish SGC as a stand-alone global unit. The long-term goal of this program is to become a known national and international entity that guides policy development and serves as a major producer of a sustainable development-oriented workforce.