As part of the Senior Design Capstone Course, Civil & Environmental Engineering students provided the design of a constructed wetlands for stormwater management, giving consideration to the settling and uptake of pollutants, wildlife, and related cost estimates for the project.

Through a partnership between the University of Iowa Office of Outreach and Engagement, the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, and the City of Webster City, Iowa, faculty member Dan Miller and his students designed and constructed a “solar sculpture” that will become a permanent installation of functional art in downtown Webster City.

As part of the ICIGO student organization within the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences, students created maps of lead and copper utility lines in Keokuk. 

As part of their capstone project, second-year graduate students from the University of Iowa’s School of Urban & Regional Planning developed a process to inventory and prioritize brownfield sites on behalf of the East Central Intergovernmental Association (ECIA), and conducted a feasibility study for a regional land bank. 

As part of their capstone project, second-year graduate students from the University of Iowa’s School of Urban & Regional Planning provided an update to the program structure and plans for The Petal Project, one of Prosperity Eastern Iowa’s (PEI) flagship economic development programs.

As part of their capstone project, second-year graduate students from the University of Iowa’s School of Urban & Regional Planning developed a sustainability plan for the City of Mason City.

Students in a geography class completed two separate projects for Iowa City. The first project focused on the ecological functions of roadside vegetation in Iowa City, including identification of roadside land area in the city that can be prioritized for re-planting and re-design as native vegetation areas. The second project focused on urban raptors.

The goal of this project was for senior engineering students to provide structural reviews, specifications, and recommendations for developing a community garden on the parking garage site. The project created a report, structural analysis and designs for rooftop garden, and a poster.

Graduate students in the School of Urban & Regional Planning researched the following five greenspace priorities for the City of Sioux City and created recommendations on how best to increase greenspaces downtown: opportunities for adding greenspaces along sidewalks; opportunities and designs for adding a pocket park to the downtown; opportunities for green roofs and rooftop gardens; opportunities for improving soil permeability and restoration in greened areas; and opportunities for linking downtown greenspace to bike trail access points.

Senior engineering students researched existing commercial small-scale wastewater systems for Iowa City and designed a facility for several different kinds of these small systems to be tested for use in Iowa.

A senior marketing student researched food waste prevention among local businesses in Iowa City and created a communication campaign for promoting local composting and recycling efforts.

Food waste reduction is an important component of sustainability that many local Iowa City businesses are already achieving through composting and recycling strategies. Public support of such practices and the businesses who engage them can contribute to both the local economy and sustainability success.

Greenhouse gas and energy reduction were identified as two major goals for 2015 in The City of Iowa City’s 2014 Sustainability Report. The City was, then, pursuing several initiatives to achieve those goals, including an agreement with MidAmerican Energy to convert all of Iowa City’s streetlights into LED fixtures. The LED fixtures are expected to last 25 times longer and operate 75 percent more efficiently than incandescent bulbs. A student from the College of Engineering assisted the City with the streetlight conversion process during the Fall 2015 semester.