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PROFESSOR JENNIFER ALLEN

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL, SAFETY, AND SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION PROGRAM

PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY

Chair Ringo and members of the committee, for the record my name is Jennifer Allen and I am an associate professor here at Portland State University. I am also the associate director of the International Environmental, Safety, and Sustainability Education Program. On behalf of President Bernstine, it my pleasure to welcome you to campus for this hearing. This week is our spring break and we hope you will be able to come back to campus at a time when our students are here. It is appropriate that that the Committee would choose to hold this hearing on clean air issues in Oregon at Portland State University, because sustainability is a key element of our curriculum and the operations of the University.

My testimony today focuses on the interdisciplinary work that is being done by faculty and students in the areas of air quality and its connections to Oregon's economy, the health of its residents, and livability. Development of effective clean air policies requires research that interweaves science, engineering, public health, and urban planning. At PSU, this work involves approximately 20 faculty members who are in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, and the College of Urban and Public Affairs.

In the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, scientists are engaged in measuring gaseous and particulate matter constituents of the atmosphere and developing models to understand how atmospheric composition and climate changes over time, from the local neighborhood scale to the global scale. In the Maseeh College of Engineering researchers investigate how energy consumption, building construction and transportation planning interact with air quality and livability. In the College of Urban and Public Affairs, researchers investigate transportation models, land use planning, and the public health aspects of air quality. PSU researchers collaborate with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Oregon Department of Transportation, METRO, Portland’s environmental services and sustainable development agencies, as well community-level organizations.

PSU is also the home of the “Feedbacks between Urban Systems and the Environment Project” or FUSE Project. FUSE is funded by a $1.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation's “Biocomplexity in the Environment” initiative. The goal of this NSF-funded project is to develop an integrated analysis framework that can be used to evaluate human response to, and impact on, heat waves and episodes of poor air quality, linking models of meteorology, air quality, energy consumption and human response, incorporating feedback mechanisms among each component. PSU researchers will work to measure the impact of human response to these policies, take field measurements to accurately measure air pollution, and meteorological conditions, and gather energy and transportation data to quantify human-generated waste heat from such activities such as driving and running air conditioning units. Collaborations include the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Oregon Department of Transportation, Metro, Tri-Met, the Portland Office of Sustainable Development, and Portland area high schools. Portland is the field site for the first phase of the project.

Portland State University’s faculty take the University's motto, "Let Knowledge Serve the City" seriously and incorporate community connections in our work.

Therefore, on behalf of the faculty who do work in this area (many of whom are in the field during spring break doing research); I want to express our commitment to provide the results of our research to the Legislature if it would be helpful to you.

I want to thank you for coming to PSU, and I would be pleased to answer any questions you might have about PSU programs and faculty research.