Darla Lindberg

My research considers General Systems Theory principles and environmental influences that contribute to resilient and sustainable ecologies. I am particularly interested in the role that biodiversity plays in helping prevent disease spread in agricultural, ecological and constructed / construed systems (social, economic and cultural). My current work falls into three main areas.

Architecture and building physics

• Mapping corridors for airborne diseases. This generative mapping identifies potential roles for variables that affect systems behavior (e.g. climate trends, urban density and sprawl, land use management, globalization and trade, seasonal migration and till agricultural production).
• Designing buildings that limit disease spread. I am currently working on systems designs that reduce spread of pathogens (e.g. Avian Influenza) and filter, capture or eradicate other unhealthy emissions from poultry agricultural production facilities.

Characterizing sustainable natural systems

• Asset mapping. We determine the natural assets of human communities and their environments, and identify those factors and interactions that increase the sustainability and resiliency of the communities.

Game theoretic strategies

This work uses game theory tools not frequently employed in traditional architectural investigations. These tools allow us to explore Common Pool Resource dilemmas: that is, how human communities can use a finite set of resources, given that individuals within the community can adopt various strategies of:

• Cooperating: managing shared material and non-material resources
• Competing: striving to leverage their own self-interest.

I am particularly interested in how resources are redistributed and retained given different metrics for valuing those resources. For example, the "optimal" design and building materials for housing depend on how energy efficiency and housing's durability are valued.

I am also involved in desiging a deployable message conduit to disseminate de-sensationalized, useful information to the "worried well" — the friends and family of people impacted by natural disasters such as an epidemic. This initiative requires a distributed information system that is organized around existing, credible and sustainable standard protocols and interfaces. The aim is to provide reliable information that would not otherwise be available from existing communications and media infrastructure. This will help lower the resources needed to deal with information requests from the "worried well"; resources that might otherwise be diverted away from relief efforts.