Environment
Selected Recent Publications
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Broomell, S. B., Budescu, D. V., & Por, H. H. (2015). Personal experience with climate change predicts intentions to act. Global Environmental Change, 32, 67-73. We present results of an international survey (25 samples from 24 countries) measuring general intentions to act and willingness to engage in specific actions and analyze associations with beliefs in personal experiences with global warming.
Budescu, D. V., Por, H. H., Broomell, S. B., & Smithson, M. (2014). The interpretation of IPCC probabilistic statements around the world. Nature Climate Change, 4(6), 508-512. We report results from a multi-national study involving 25 samples in 24 countries and 17 languages that analyzes how laypeople interpret verbal descriptions of uncertainty used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Dewitt, B., Fischhoff, B., Davis, A. & Broomell, S. (2015.) Environmental risk perception from visual cues: the psychophysics of tornado risk perception. Environmental Research Letters 10 (12), 124009. The authors use signal detection theory and multidimensional scaling to assess lay perceptions of tornadic and non-tornadic cloud formations.
Glasgo, B., Azevedo, I.L., Hendrickson, C., (2016). How much electricity can we save by using direct current circuits in homes? Understanding the potential for electricity savings and assessing feasibility of a transition towards DC powered buildings, accepted in Applied Energy. We assess the technical and economic feasibility of DC circuits using data for 120 traditionally-wired AC homes in Austin, Texas to understand the effect of highly variable demand profiles on DC-powered residences.
Horner, N., Azevedo, I.L., (2016). Power usage effectiveness in data centers: overloaded and underachieving, the Electricity Journal, 29, 61-69. We suggest that the “power usage and effectiveness” metric is incomplete, failing to address hardware efficiency, energy productivity, and environmental performance.
Horner, N., Shehabi, A., Azevedo, I.L. (2016). Known unknowns: indirect energy effects of information and communication technology, accepted in Environmental Research Letters. This review suggests several guidelines for improving research quality in the area of information and communication technology.
Lamy, J., Jaramillo, P., Azevedo, I.L., Wiser, R., (2016). Should we build wind farms close to load or invest in transmission to access better wind resources in remote areas? A case study in the MISO region, Energy Policy, 96, 341–350. We present a conceptual model to estimate the economics of accessing high quality wind resources in remote areas to comply with renewable energy policy targets, and apply the model to the Midwestern grid (MISO) as a case study.
Long, L., Branstetter, L., Azevedo, I.L., (2016). China’s wind electricity and cost of carbon mitigation are more expensive than anticipated, accepted in Environmental Research Letters. Using data from the Clean Mechanism Development project database between 2004 and 2012, this study shows that while China made progress in bringing down the levelized cost of wind electricity and cost of carbon mitigation, costs are still higher than expected.
Markolf, S.; Klima, K; Wong, T. Adaptation Frameworks Used by United States Decision-Makers: A Literature Review. Accepted at Environment, Systems and Decisions. 2015. In this literature review, we seek to determine whether certain commonly referenced frameworks (triple value, triple bottom line, pressure state response (PSR),vulnerability, and risk) are implemented more frequently than others, and if so, assess which attributes contribute to framework implementation.
Wong-Parodi, G., Krishnamurti, T., Davis, A., Schwartz, D., & Fischhoff, B. (2016). Integrating social science in climate and energy solutions: A decision science approach. Nature Climate Change, 6, 563569. We discuss how to apply behavior and decision research to climate issues.
Wong-Parodi, G., & Fischhoff, B. (2015). The impacts of political cues and practical information on climate change decisions. Environmental Research Letters, 10(3), 034004. Acknowledgement of political identity and immersion in practical climate change information overrode the power of political identity, allowing people to learn about the climate change impacts affecting their lives.
Wong-Parodi, G., Fischhoff, B., & Strauss, B. (2015). Resilience vs. Adaptation: Framing and action. Climate Risk Management. Framing actions to meet the challenge of climate change as building "resilience" enhanced risk perceptions but decreased motivation.
Wong-Parodi, G., Fischhoff, B., & Strauss, B. (2014). A method to evaluate the usability of interactive climate change impact decision aids. Climatic Change, 126(3-4), 485-493. A method to assess the usefulness of climate change decision aids for informed decision making.