Research highlights

Research highlights

KER is deeply rooted in the conviction that research can and should drive profound and enduring change. We focus on a responsive research agenda that engages partners across public, private and nonprofit sectors with the knowledge assets of the university. Here are some of our most influential research projects of the year.

Putting mobile homes on the map

Leveraging open spatial data and citizen science to support heat resilience

Mobile home residents are especially vulnerable to extreme heat, but in order to effectively implement solutions, we need more reliable data about where they are. Our team is harnessing the power of citizen scientists and open data to create a database of Arizona mobile home park locations. Currently, there is no single, updated, comprehensive source for this information, which is critical to finding where solutions should be put into place.

In collaboration with YouthMappers, American Red Cross and the Missing Maps Project, we solicited mapping support on MapSwipe, an open-source mobile mapping app. In the project’s first week, 248 volunteers contributed by swiping through satellite images to identify mobile homes and parks that may be missing from our existing outdated datasets. In October, more than 1,000 volunteers participated, covering 49,000 km2 of southern Arizona.

Maryam Shafiee Shakib, graduate research assistant at ASU's Knowledge Exchange for Resilience, demonstrates the Arizona mobile home mapping project on MapSwipe.

Abby Johnson / ASU Knowledge Exchange for Resilience

To get a bird’s eye view of all mobile home park locations across Arizona, we teamed up with the Missing Maps Project’s MapSwipe app. Together we will be able to find mobile home residents who are the most vulnerable to heat and bring more resilient solutions to those who are falling between the cracks.

— Maryam Shafiee Shakib, Graduate Research Assistant, ASU Knowledge Exchange for Resilience

After cross checking these results with our existing GIS data, as well as data from the county assessor’s office and the Arizona Association of Mobile Home Owners, we will have a more accurate picture of what mobile home residents face across the state.

Read more about this collaboration at https://tinyurl.com/InfoMHMP

Evictions spike

Studying patterns of property ownership and locations of housing loss

In July, Maricopa County saw more evictions than any time since October 2008, in the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis. Building on our work to help communities and our housing stakeholder system target resources to reduce this number, we have been supporting New America and the Arizona Housing Coalition in promoting the new Foreclosure and Eviction Analysis Tool. This open-source data tool allows local stakeholders to easily analyze evictions within their community.

Meanwhile, Lora Phillips, our associate director for broader impacts, is working to identify the relationship between patterns of housing loss and property ownership, finding hot spots of vulnerability through rental properties with relatively high eviction rates. She is also studying whether certain categories of owners, such as non-local corporate landlords, are more likely to evict than others. Knowing which landlords are disproportionately evicting can inform common sense eviction mitigation solutions, developed alongside our community partners.

Learn more about the Foreclosure and Eviction Analysis Tool at https://bit.ly/foreclosure-eviction-tool

University– community partnerships

Finding shared beliefs to improve cross-sector collaboration

Universities and nonprofit community organizations often work together to solve pressing societal issues. While we know these partnerships are important, we know little about partnership belief systems.

Mason Mathews, associate director for academic integration and alliances, and graduate research assistant Alexandria Drake have interviewed university personnel and local nonprofit employees to better understand their partnerships beliefs around decision making, resource allocation and more. Identifying the common ground — or lack thereof — regarding partnership beliefs, values and norms can help improve the design, implementation and monitoring of nonprofit–university partnerships. These improvements can lead to more effective and efficient partnerships, which hopefully lead to more success solving societal issues.

The pair are using their findings to create a guide to improve future university–community partnerships.

Got data? Contact us at resilience@asu.edu.