Posts in the 'Urban Development' category
Remote sensing has revolutionized how we measure and understand the Earth. We can now track deforestation across the globe, predict end-of-season crop yields and identify wildfires in near real-time. But exploration into its possibilities for urban areas has only just begun. ...
Some of the fastest growing cities in developing countries like India, Brazil and Ethiopia are strapped for cash. These cities often struggle to provide basic infrastructure and services for a growing population, leading to widespread inequalities. Up to 70% of residents in developing ...
Just before she took office in January 2020, Mayor Claudia López committed to redesigning a major artery of Bogotá into a “green corridor” for sustainable, active mobility. She also committed to a comprehensive participatory planning process – a potentially daunting ...
Along the Ngong River in Mukuru, one of Nairobi’s slum neighborhoods and home to more than 100,000 people, residents face a dual threat when the rains come. First, the river rises, flooding into streets and houses. Then the water reaches ...
Around the world, communities of color and marginalized groups disproportionately feel the effects of pollution and other environmental impacts. Whether it’s residents living along the polluted Cooum River in Chennai, India; Louisiana’s petrochemical-dense Cancer Alley; Thailand’s toxic hot spot Map Ta Phut Industrial ...
The city is a difficult place for a tree to survive. Compared to their counterparts in the countryside, urban trees generally get less water, suffer more intense heat, compete for space with unyielding infrastructure and frequently become riddled with disease ...
As coronavirus restrictions ease around the world, many consider a walk around their neighborhood for some fresh air to be a welcome break from confinement. However, socioeconomic status could greatly affect the landscapes people find on these strolls, particularly in how much ...
The COVID-19 crisis has shown how deep inequalities make society as a whole more vulnerable – providing important lessons for building resilience in an era of climate change. The people most exposed to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic ...
The large cities in the Latin American region all have one thing in common: the opportunities for employment and income are concentrated in a few districts while, more and more, sprawling housing zones are located on the outskirts of cities ...
When was the last time you walked through the market without being conscious about other people walking close to you or the last time you took a stroll to a neighborhood park without thinking about the hygiene around? The COVID-19 ...
*Editor’s note: On August 7, 2020, our Brooklyn Bridge Forest Proposal won the Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge contest. The text below was updated accordingly. * The Brooklyn Bridge, with its distinctive gothic towers and cable-bound span, is one of the most recognizable landmarks ...
Capital City, a (hypothetical) seaside metropolis, has a growing population. However, much of its infrastructure was built 100 years ago and is straining from deferred maintenance, unable to meet the city’s future needs. To make matters worse, Capital City has ...
Between the 1918 flu pandemic and the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, our ability to understand the effects of infectious diseases has increased exponentially. Networked personal devices and automated sensors are now ubiquitous, not to mention communications technologies like the internet that ...
As the world reels from the COVID-19 pandemic, investment packages are taking shape to provide relief and recovery. Cities from New York to Nairobi are not only on the frontlines of the health and economic impacts, but they provide immense ...
Inequality is shaping how people are experiencing COVID-19 in cities to a startling degree. The vulnerability of the urban poor is striking everywhere, but the divide is more visible in some places than others. This is where I live on ...
