Measured Insights
The latest blog posts from our research projects.
Call for Submissions: 2014 EPI Seeking Data for Wastewater Treatment
The United Nations has officially designated 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation. In response to this global call for action, the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) team is seeking to improve upon its water indicators for the 2014 edition, which...
World Water Week Highlights Need for Global Cooperation on Water Indicators
World Water Week drew to a close earlier this month with a charge to the United Nations to consider aspecial emphasis on water as part of a post-2015 development agenda. As the UN deliberatesSustainable Development Goals (SDGs), indicators are critical components as they track progress toward universal targets.
100% Pure? Assessing the State of Environment in New Zealand
While The Lord of the Rings films have brought global attention to New Zealand’s breathtaking scenery and natural environment, a recent dairy contamination scandal by Fonterra – the largest dairy producer in the country – has blighted New Zealand’s image as “100%...
Does the Environment Need Big Data?
Originally on the Huffington Post. This blog post was co-written with Jason Daniel Schwartz, a journalist and writer. He recently completed a Masters of Environmental Management at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Big Data has emerged as a...
Please take a minute and support our MIT Climate Co-Lab proposal!
Hi friends! A group of fellow students and I recently submitted a proposal in the 'Shifting Cultures for a Changing Climate' in the MIT Climate Co-Lab competition to create a virtual green pet named CliO (Climate Organism) that will encourage users to make more...
Map visualizations using CartoDB
We’re in the process of considering how we can improve the data presentations for the 2014 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which will launch next January. While researching data mapping and presentations, I came across the tool CartoDB, which aims to make visually-stunning data presentation easy enough for everyone to do. Uploading data to CartoDB and doing a simple presentation of geospatial data is easy enough.
Social media in teaching
This past semester, I co-taught an undergraduate seminar, "From Dongguan to Delhi: Urbanization and Environment in China and India," at Yale College. The goal of the course was to introduce students to two rapidly developing countries, China and India, whose...
28,000 rivers disappeared in China – What happened?
This post originally appeared on The Atlantic. Government officials say it's been caused by statistical inaccuracies and climate change. But is that the whole story? By Angel Hsu and William Miao As recently as 20 years ago, there were an estimated 50,000 rivers in...
Air Quality and Human Health: An Interview with Roger Peng
Roger Peng, an Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, recently spoke at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies about his research estimating the health benefits of reducing...
What's in a name? That which we call 'PM2.5,' China doesn't
This post originally appeared on The Metric, the blog of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. By Angel Hsu and William Miao The official Chinese media reported this week, China’s National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technology has been meeting to...
