Stephen Fisher
Bio
Stephen Fisher, P.E., has a Bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of California Irvine, a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Stanford University, and 18 years of experience in civil engineering and environmental studies. Steve is working in sustainable infrastructure planning and design. He was part of a team that defined an award-winning urban master plan for Kigali, capital city of Rwanda; he was a member of the City of Denver Mayor's Infrastructure Priorities Task Force; and he has chaired the 2003 American Society of Civil Engineers Colorado Infrastructure Report Card and authored a section in the 2008 update.
In the past decade, ASCE report cards have been completed for every major population center in the country. They are a valuable, oft-cited resource for legislators and decisionmakers at the federal and state level. It's strength is in assessing the condition of our infrastructure using a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures that are easy for citizens and legislators to grasp. However, sustainability has not been incorporated into any report card. For the 2009 update of the report card, Mr. Fisher spearheaded the recognition that sustainability metrics need to be included in future report cards (www.coloradoreportcard.org).
In 2008, Steve and fellow IGERT Saba Siddiki presented at the the EPA Region 6 and 8 Sustainable Water Infrastructure (SWI) 2008 Regional Forum. They helped define sustainability related to the water utility, a spectrum of public/private partnership contracts, accounting, defining boundaries of the water utility, and progress measurement.
Research
Steve is researching the use of sustainability metrics to prioritize planning and spending of infrastructure. His goal is to develop a tool for decisionmakers - using sustainability metrics and agent-based modeling for prioritizing planning and spending of infrastructure. This approach helps reveal the systems nature of our infrastructure (for example, our food system - soil to table to compost) and is a new way of looking at infrastructure that reveals sustainability.
Specifically, he is creating an agent-based model of the urban food system revealing the potential of urban land to grow a portion of all produce consumed in an urban area. The model outputs will be metrics of interest for policy makers, citizens, and those interested in environmental quality and social equity and justice. These metrics will be indicators for local currency retention, greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, food miles, healthy food availability, nutrition, ecological footprint, and urban resilience.
Non-research highlights
Steve is co-chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers Colorado Section Sustainability Committee and is treasurer for Birambye International (www.birambye.org), a triple-bottom-line, international development organization.