Extending the interdisciplinary approach of I-CPIE to Lehigh University’s newest college, the College of Health, this initiative addresses issues and trends that impact all communities, but have a disproportionate effect on vulnerable communities. Although superficially unrelated to engineering concerns such as infrastructure, cyber security and secure communications, energy networks, structural systems and testing, and natural hazards, these structures impact people and their quality of life. Finding human-centered systems that improve capacity for resilience will significantly improve the health and well-being of those communities. Energy-Environment-Health research into health hazards such as pollution, energy poverty, and clean water distribution, as well as solutions such as mobile health centers and community-specific policies, overlap with I-CPIE’s structural and energy concerns.
Research areas include:
- Natural hazard mitigation (such as flooding), particularly for vulnerable populations
- Monitoring and analysis of airborne pollutants, assessing risks, and working with communities to establish risk mitigation actions
- Analysis of data center policies, siting, and community impacts
