The SURF Lab focuses on three core research areas:
We believe in a multi-methods approach to exploring urban sustainability. Below are some of the tools we have used in the past. If you use these tools or have the will and prerequisites for learning these tools, then the SURF Lab might be a good fit for you.
We are, of course, open to alternative and emerging methods. This is just a list of tools we have previously used..
We are part of the Department of Bioresource Engineering in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. We are located on the beautiful Macdonald Campus of McGill University in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec on the Island of Montréal.
Although part of an engineering department, we embrace interdisciplinary scholarship. Lead researcher, Benjamin Goldstein, has worked in Architecture Departments and Environmental Studies Schools, and prizes the value of bringing multiple perspectives to bear on the wicked problems of urban sustainability.
It is becoming increasingly clear that negative environmental change is borne unequally by different peoples and different places. New technologies and engineering solutions alone cannot adequately address historical and existing environmental inequities. As William Gibson said, "The future is here - it is just not very evenly distributed." As such, the SURF Lab folds questions of equity and justice into our quantitative research in order to move beyond engineering accounting exercises and as a way to understand how structures of power produce winners and losers in terms of environmental outcomes and resource access.