Multi Level Perspective Mapping | Poor Air Quality in Pittsburgh
Carnegie Mellon, Transition Design Seminar 2022
Team Strange Attractor– Alexis Morrell, Emily Edlich, Hannah Kim, Kristian Pham, Shariq Shah
Introduction
Utilizing Geels’ Multi-Level Perspective tool, the team mapped the evolution of historical events contributing to the wicked problem of Pittsburgh’s air pollution. The Multi-Level Perspective perceives a transition as interference of processes at three levels: niche experiments, the regime, and the landscape. Our historical research on events impacting Pittsburgh’s air quality from 17,000 BCE to the present reveals interactions among these levels that are social, technical, institutional, infrastructural and normative; including material and nonmaterial factors. Using the MLP framework to map the problem allowed us to identify places to intervene in the system, where “small shifts” can initiate exponential change.
Multi Level Perspective Mapping
Throughout our Multi Level Perspective mapping, we identified key events within the niche, regime, and landscape levels that contributed to Pittsburgh’s air pollution.
Niche: where small, radical innovations are developed and risks can be taken.
Bessemer Process: The introduction of the Bessemer Process in 1870 allowed for the cost effectiveness and mass production of steel, utilizing a molten pig iron to melt iron. This availability and affordability of steel led railroad production to expand dramatically during the remainder of the century.
Pittsburgh’s first steamboat: The building of the first steamboat in 1811 allowed goods to be transported upriver. Western Pennsylvania became a steamboat hub and manufactured 40% of the nation’s boats. Steamboats encouraged western expansion and improved the river’s commerce system by transporting goods like coal, oil, copper, and tin. The steamboat industry later declined when railroads became the preferred method of trade and travel.
Natural gas pipelines: Natural gas pipelines and appliances were introduced to the city in 1886. Natural gas technology was vital in the transition from coal to natural gas and pipelines allowed residences and industries to begin using natural gas. By 1950 more than half of the city’s households were powered by natural gas, and there was a rapid shift from coal-burning locomotives to diesel electric.
Regime: represents the ‘status quo’ with its current structures and practices.
Pittsburgh’s location: When Europeans arrived in the region, they identified the area as a strategic location for trade and travel: the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers form the Ohio River, which flows into the Mississippi River. Pittsburgh’s location combined with its abundance of bituminous coal led it to become a center for iron and steel production.
Rail production: Innovations in steel production allowed steel rails to be cheaply and efficiently produced. Steel rails supported longer trains with heavier loads and led to the expansion of railroad tracks throughout the state and country while stimulating Pittsburgh’s steel industry. The Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock was one of the first plants designed with Bessemer converters specifically to make rails, and was the lowest-cost rail producer in the nation. The expansion of railroads revolutionized the transportation of people and goods and provided Pittsburgh with new markets for its iron, steel, coke, coal, coke, and oil.
Landscape: includes large, collective events which cannot be directly influenced by actors.
War weapon production: World War I, World War II, and the Cold War demanded an increase in steel production to produce weapons.
Industrialization: New technologies like railroads and the expansion of the iron and steel industry stimulated economic activity and converted the United States into an industrial nation. Pittsburgh’s industry flourished through mass production and advancements in steel-making.
Approach & Process
Our first step before completing research was identifying how far back in time to begin our collection of events. We decided to begin our research in 17,000BCE when Native Americans first inhabited the region. Due to Pittsburgh’s strategic location and abundant coal, Europeans colonized and later industrialized the area.
Once we identified our time frame spanning from 17,000BCE to the present, the group conducted individual research on events and organized them chronologically in a collective Google Doc. We then plotted the events along the three MLP levels: niche, regime, and landscape. Each time we added an event, we identified what it was connected to at other levels and documented the nature of the connection. In some cases this process initiated additional research to understand and uncover these connections.
Interventions
The MLP framework has allowed us to identify existing niche-level innovations which have the potential to progress to the regime level in the future, and will likely require landscape developments to open windows of opportunity to do so.
Technology based initiatives: Many current initiatives like the Smell App, PlumePGH, and Breathe Mobile are using data to increase awareness and widespread understanding of Pittsburgh’s air quality. If accompanied by sufficient landscape pressures, these technologies can be used to hold polluting industries at the regime level accountable.
- Smell App (CMU) is used to monitor and report toxic air, and visualizes reports in the app.
- Plume Pittsburgh (CMU) uses air quality monitoring data to visualize air quality in the area.
- Breathe Mobile is a traveling laboratory that tracks and monitors air quality in the region and raises awareness of the harmful impacts of air pollution.
Reuse of steel: The steel construction institute developed a draft protocol proposing a system of investigation and testing to support the mainstream reuse of steel. If adopted at the regime level, the reuse of steel could scale back Pittsburgh’s steel production in the future.
Renewable energy: Pittsburgh’s Climate Action Plan proposes that by 2030, city governmental operations will run on 100% renewable energy, including an electric vehicle fleet. If the plan is successful it could encourage other governments and industries to begin the transition away from fossil fuels.
Reflection
The Multi Level Perspective framework has allowed us to develop a historically informed understanding of the complex problem of Pittsburgh’s air pollution. Through the mapping of events, we were able to discover how problems are connected to events on different systems levels. The framework has also provided us with an understanding of existing interventions across different levels, which will help us assess the present and develop long-term future visions in our next assignment.
