Stephanie Pincetl
· Founding Director of CCSC and ProfessorUniversity of California, Los Angeles · Environmental Science and Policy
Active 2002–2023
About
Stephanie Pincetl, Ph.D., is a Professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the Founding Director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA. She conducts research on environmental policies and governance, analyzing how institutional rules influence the use of natural resources and energy to support human activities and impact Earth Systems. Her focus includes social and environmental justice, emphasizing the development of equitable strategies to reduce human impacts on the planet. Dr. Pincetl is an expert in bringing together interdisciplinary teams across biophysical, engineering, and social sciences to address complex urban systems and environmental management issues. Her scholarly work encompasses land use in California, environmental justice, habitat conservation, urban metabolism, water and energy policy. She has received funding from notable agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the California Energy Commission for collaborative research on urban ecology, water management, and energy use in California communities. Dr. Pincetl authored the book 'Transforming California, the Political History of Land Use in the State,' which is considered a definitive work on California land use politics. She contributed to the urban chapter of the second State of the North American Carbon Cycle Report, enhancing understanding of urban carbon fluxes and their role in climate change. With a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from UCLA, she has also worked extensively in the nonprofit environmental justice sector and has taught at the Institut de Sciences Politiques in Paris. Her leadership roles include Faculty Director of the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability, and she has been recognized with awards such as the Burrill Award from the American Association of Geographers and the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Geography.
Research topics
- Geography
- Computer Science
- Environmental economics
- Political Science
- Economics
- Engineering
- Economic growth
- Environmental science
- Business
- Environmental resource management
- Physics
- Public relations
- Natural resource economics
- Ecology
- Meteorology
Selected publications
Applied Geography · 2023 · 17 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Computer Science
- Political Science
- Environmental economics
Community solar projects involve the installation of large PV systems whose net outputs are then virtually allocated to customers at other locations. They represent a relatively new model of distributed energy resource (DER) implementation that could help overcome some historical barriers to low-income, disadvantaged community, renter household participation in the ongoing renewable energy transition. Siting community solar assets is a thick and inherently geographic problem however, one which relates to historical patterns of energy infrastructure investment, local urban development, and community socio-demographic change. Creating a more equitable energy system will require planning tools which better coordinate the DER adoption decisions of individual property owners with the grid operators. Interactive decision support tools based on web maps are well suited to addressing this need for improved information sharing and coordination. However, such tools need to be designed and implemented through a process of public participation with stakeholders who explicitly focus on social and environmental justice. Here we describe the process by which one such tool was developed. We also report on several important findings derived from its use relating to current imbalances between local DER supply potential and the grid integration capacity limits which exist within Southern California's disadvantaged communities.
Sustainable Cities and Society · 2022 · 16 citations
- Natural resource economics
- Environmental science
- Business
Electrification of gas appliances in residential buildings will be necessary to rapidly decarbonize the energy system. In California however, recent rates of adoption of electric appliances, especially within disadvantaged and vulnerable communities (DVCs), have been insufficient to meet the state's ambitious GHG emissions abatement targets. In this study we use an integrated assessment modeling framework to quantify the holistic benefits of different electrification pathways within a representative study area DVC. Results indicate that aggressive electrification retrofits can deliver significant net reductions in GHG emissions, even when future grid emissions from increased electric loads are factored in. We also find that these measures can also create significant net public health benefits, in terms of overall avoided impacts from particulate matter (PM-2.5μ) exposures. However, the realization of these net benefits requires tradeoffs between local improvements in air quality in the areas where electrification occurs, for smaller, but still significant, reductions in air quality, in areas where fossil fueled electricity generators remain active. We conclude with a discussion of some of the persistent barriers to electrification within DVCs and the import role of electrification within broader efforts to combat climate change and improve equity within the energy system.
The Benefits and Limits of Urban Tree Planting for Environmental and Human Health
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution · 2021 · 244 citations
- Environmental science
- Environmental planning
- Environmental resource management
Many of the world’s major cities have implemented tree planting programs based on assumed environmental and social benefits of urban forests. Recent studies have increasingly tested these assumptions and provide empirical evidence for the contributions of tree planting programs, as well as their feasibility and limits, for solving or mitigating urban environmental and social issues. We propose that current evidence supports local cooling, stormwater absorption, and health benefits of urban trees for local residents. However, the potential for urban trees to appreciably mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution over a wide array of sites and environmental conditions is limited. Consequently, urban trees appear to be more promising for climate and pollution adaptation strategies than mitigation strategies. In large part, this is due to space constraints limiting the extent of urban tree canopies relative to the current magnitude of emissions. The most promising environmental and health impacts of urban trees are those that can be realized with well-stewarded tree planting and localized design interventions at site to municipal scales. Tree planting at these scales has documented benefits on local climate and health, which can be maximized through targeted site design followed by monitoring, adaptive management, and studies of long-term eco-evolutionary dynamics.
Springer eBooks · 2020 · 6 citations
1st authorCorresponding- Environmental science
- Geography
- Physics
Conceptualizing social-ecological drivers of change in urban forest patches
Urban Ecosystems · 2020 · 66 citations
- Environmental resource management
- Ecology
- Geography
ACS ES&T Water · 2020 · 25 citations
- Computer Science
- Environmental resource management
- Environmental planning
Innovation in urban water systems is required to address drivers of change across natural, built, and social systems, including climate change, economic development, and aged infrastructure. Water systems are complex socio-technical systems that interact with biophysical systems to supply and reclaim water. We present a vision for enhancing urban water system resilience through a net zero urban water (NZUW) approach, which meets the needs of a given community with a locally available and sustainable water supply, without detriment to interconnected systems or long-term water supply. NZUW is an integrative approach with progressive targets assessed using a quantitative framework to expand adaptive and responsive solutions for urban water self-sufficiency. Decision makers can use NZUW to understand trade-offs between future interventions to urban water systems across spatial and temporal scales. We present the overall NZUW approach, drivers of change, applications, and research gaps.
Recent grants
NSF · $1.0M · 2012–2017
Collaborative Research: Toward a Biogeography of Urban Forests
NSF · $337k · 2009–2013
NSF · $388k · 2009–2014
Frequent coauthors
- 9 shared
Felicia Federico
University of California, Los Angeles
- 9 shared
Yating Chuang
Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica
- 9 shared
Erik Porse
University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
- 9 shared
Magali A. Delmas
University of California, Los Angeles
- 7 shared
Robert Cudd
University of California, Los Angeles
- 7 shared
Eric Daniel Fournier
University of California, Los Angeles
- 5 shared
Hannah Gustafson
University of California, Los Angeles
- 2 shared
Sara Hughes
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Awards & honors
- Burrill Award from the American Association of Geographers (…
- 2020 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in the Geography Departme…
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