Arid Lands Institute
The Arid Land Institute (ALI) is established on “design innovation at the nexus of water, energy and climate change.” ALI provides educational and research opportunities in the Los Angeles, California region - to train designers and citizens to innovate in response to hydrologic variability brought on by climate change, in any region.
ALI provides an open, lab-like platform for collaborators from multiple universities, serving as a resource for the academic, public, and private sectors. Critical thinking; design excellence for the public good; and hospitality to diversity, including a rich web of collaborative partnerships that reach across cultures, generations, and sectors, are central to ALI’s programs and operations.
ALI offers three core programs:
• design education for graduates and undergraduates, with an emphasis on architecture, landscape, and urban design;
• applied research, including extensive geospatial modeling of coupled natural and human systems;
• public programming, including workshops, lectures, symposia, conferences, and competitions.
ALI’s urban research projects focus on maximizing the recovery, use, and reuse of rain and stormwater, at both local and regional scales. Environmental geospatial modeling coupled with fine-grained remote sensing analyses aid in identifying likely sources and quantities of stormwater and may suggest the shifts necessary within land use, zoning patterns, and building types to maximize these potential resources.
ALI’s rural research focuses on developing an environmental modeling and geodesign prototype to simulate, at a watershed scale, stormwater behavior. The goal is to identify and implement appropriate recapture and control techniques for slowing erosion and deposition processes within ephemeral stream systems in the arid West.
For their educational programs, ALI seeks "creative, passionate students interested in having a real impact on the future of design, policy, and public thinking about water resources and the built environment." Using the Los Angeles region as a case study, and drawing upon its vibrant design community, the Arid Lands Institute faculty will train students in the tools and methods necessary to tackle the challenge of water scarcity. Integral to the studies will be the conception, research and development of design solutions that serve as a bridge between science and public policy.
Phone: (818) 767-0888 Ext. 335
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