Stephanie Pincetl, Director

Stephanie Pincetl is Adjunct Professor and Director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA. Dr. Pincetl conducts research on environmental policies and governance and analyzes how institutional rules construct how natural resources and energy are used to support human activities.  She is expert in bringing together interdisciplinary teams of researchers across the biophysical and engineering sciences with the social sciences to address problems of complex urban systems and environmental management.

Dr. Pincetl has written extensively about land use in California, environmental justice, habitat conservation efforts, water and energy policy.  She has received funding from the National Science Foundation to conduct collaborative research with biophysical scientists on urban ecology and water management in Los Angeles, as well as from the California Energy Commission PIER program to develop a methodology to understand energy use in communities in California using urban metabolism methods coupled with social policy considerations.  Her book, Transforming California, the Political History of Land Use in the State, is the definitive work on land use politics and policies of California.  She is the leading author of the urban section of the Southwest Technical Report to the National Climate Assessment and a contributing author of the urban section of the National Climate Assessment.

Dr. Pincetl has a PhD in Urban Planning from and teaches at UCLA.  She spent 10 years  working in the nonprofit environmental justice sector and has taught in the Masters of Public Affairs at the Institut de Sciences Politiques in Paris. Pincetl is the Faculty Director of the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability (LARC), a Los Angeles regional organization dedicated to working across jurisdictions to achieve a better future.  She was instrumental in making the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA its institutional home.

To view her CV click here.

Biography | News and Updates | Blog | Publications

Center News and Updates:

May 2011 The Carey Institute of Ecosystem Studies has invited Dr Pincetl to be a participant in a week long conference "Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World: Values, Philosophy, and Action.” This conference will bring together environmental philosophers and ecological scientists to improve the understanding and application of ethical environmental decision-making. Advances in both science and philosophy, along with growing challenges of rapid regional and global changes and concerns with environmental equity, stimulate this focus on the improved integration of environmental philosophy and ecological science.

April 15, 2011 The Public Interest Energy Research Program (PIER) of the California State Energy Commission is funding Pincetl’s center to develop a baseline energy analysis for Los Angeles County for $1 million. The study is based on Urban Metabolism analysis – energy flows in to cities and waste flows out. It will provide region a quantified and geographically explicit mapping of energy use in the county, and concomitant waste streams.

This is in addition to $500,000 for a lifecycle assessment analysis of transportation mode shifts for different Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority systems. Research is being conducted with the UC Davis Institute for Transportation Studies, the UC Berkeley Center for Resource Efficient Communities and the Los Angeles Economic Roundtable. (see our one page description on Urban Metabolism)

March 2011 Dr. Pincetl will participate in a weeklong workshop at the National Center for Ecosystem Analysis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara on Environmental Justice and Ecosystem Services, funded by the National Science Foundation.

February 2011 Dr. Pincetl was appointed in February 2011 to be a member of the Vibrant Cities and Urban Forests Taskforce, an urban forestry and stewardship initiative spearheaded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service and New York Restoration Project (NYRP). This initiative will be lead by a 24-member task force whose objective will be to draft a set of recommendations outlining a federal roadmap to meet the needs of cities committed to expanding, enhancing and stewarding their natural resources and urban forests. As they craft and advance the recommendations, task force members will apply their knowledge and experience to become high-profile champions of the nation’s urban forestry movement.

December 2010 Dr. Pincetl was invited to the second bi-annual conference on ecosystem services (A Community for Ecosystem Services – ACES) to present her work on urban metabolism and ecosystem services with Diane Pataki from UC Irvine. See her power point presentation.

November 2010 Dr. Pincetl was invited to participate in a day-long workshop of climate change and the city at the University of Geneva where she presented the work of her center for the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability. See her power point presentation.  

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Publications:

Forthcoming:

2011 Pincetl S., Jonas A.E., Sullivan J. 2011. Constructing Regional Institutions for Conservation Planning in Southern California “From Below”: Applying a Political Ecology Perspective to Habitat Conservation for Endangered Species, Geoforum. In proof.

Published:

2012 Mikhail Chester, Stephanie Pincetl, and Braden Allenby
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, In Press, Corrected Proof.

2011 Pataki, D., Carreiro M.M., Cherrier J, Grulke N.E., Jennings V., Pincetl, S., Pouyat R.V, Whitlow, T.H., Zipperer W.C., Coupled Biogeochemical Cycles in Urban Environments: Ecosystem Services, Green solutions and Misconceptions. Special Issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9(1): 27–36, doi:10.1890/090220

2010 Kennedy C., Pincetl S., Bunje P. The Study of Urban Metabolism and its Applications to Urban Planning and Design, Environmental Pollution, doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2010.10.022

2010 Pataki DE, McCarthy HR, Litvak E, Pincetl S. 2010. Transpiration of urban forests in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Ecological Applications, [doi:10.1890/09-1717.1]

2010 Implementing Municipal Tree Planting: Los Angeles Million Tree Initiative, Environmental Management 45(2): 227-238.
2010 From the Sanitary City to the Sustainable City: Challenges to Institutionalizing Biogenic (Nature’s Services) Infrastructure, Local Environment 15(1): 43-58.

Book Chapters:

2010 Ressources naturelles : le retour du territoiren in Jacquet Pierre, Pachauri R.K., Tubiana L. (dirs) Regards sur la Terre, l’annuel du développement durable, Presses de Sciences Po, pp.169-179, Bernard Barraque lead author.

2010 The City returns to its hinterland for natural resources, in in Jacquet Pierre, Pachauri R.K., Tubiana L.(eds), Cities : steering for sustainability, A Planet for Life series, AFD-IDDRI-TERI, 2010, pp 119-131, Bernard Barraque lead author.

 

 

 

 

 

Published: Thursday, April 29, 2010