Standardized Measures for Assessing Sustainability
Hi everyone! Last week, I left off on going in person to meet Dr. Garcia. In that meeting, Dr. Garcia explained different parts of her project and the variables they use. She shared that standardized measures are important for empirical analysis. Keeping that in mind, we discussed the Vanderbilt Water Conservation Index, Treuer et. al’s expanded view of triple exposure theory, how her team defines a ‘transition towards sustainability,’ and much more. We then went over a few problems I was facing on RStudio. I learned many things, but I especially came face to face with the fact that even the smallest thing such as using the wrong asterisk can mess up the code. After that, Dr. Garcia gave me the task of plotting a few graphs based on data she provided. This is where I faced my biggest challenge: pinpointing source file locations and importing data into RStudio. Turns out, when saving the data file, it saved as an excel. I had to export it again as a .csv because that’s what allows RStudio to read the data. CSV stands for comma separated variables, and basically is a very simplified way of keeping separate records of tabular data. After doing so, I was still having trouble getting RStudio to read the data. After searching on the internet, I realized I had to set the working directory to source file location, meaning where I’m pulling data from and saving script all had to be in the same place. Even being in the wrong sub folder messed things up. In order to work, it should look like this:
Fast forwarding to this week, I’ve set a few goals. I’m further exploring RStudio’s plotting capabilities and particularly focusing on ggplot and qplot, which are just ways to make graphs and such. I’m also continuing readings on the topic of sustainable urban water management and transitions to sustainable water infrastructure systems. Additionally, I’m trying to find in person and virtual meetings on public water utilities for the three cities. So far, for Phoenix, I have found a few through the following organizations: Central Arizona Project and Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona. I hope to attend these meetings to see what perspectives are being raised and summarize what they focus on. Today, I will be attending an in person ASU seminar with graduate students and other professors. I’m a bit nervous about what I could say in a room full of such intelligent people, but I’m looking forward to learning from them. As for the rest of my week, I will be continuing to look for virtual meetings for Miami and Detroit’s water systems and meet with the CNH2 project team on Friday. Thanks for reading!
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