Posts in the 'Urban Development' category
BRT in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Four inspirations for sustainable transport from Rio
Known for its beautiful natural landscapes, Christ the Redeemer statue, and Copacabana beach, Rio de Janeiro is an iconic city. Citizens’ ability to access these and local opportunities, though, has been limited in the past due to increased reliance on ...
Global urban gardens
Friday Fun: A global green thumbs-up for urban gardens
In the northern hemisphere, the days are growing longer and warmer, signaling the first day of spring. For many, it’s time to start sowing seeds, and for those in cities, it’s time to dig into community gardens. According to the ...
Curitiba, Brazil's green corridor
Friday Fun: Greening the street for better public spaces
Streets perform a necessary function in the life of cities, like the arteries of a complex, urban organism. As the Project for Public Spaces notes, city streets “animate the social and economic life of communities” by serving as primary sites ...
River Flooding in Bangkok, Thailand
Why cities need to address river flooding now
Cities contribute 70 percent of the world’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions and play an essential role in climate change mitigation. However, since average global temperatures are already rising and the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly palpable around the world, ...
Intersection repair is one common example of tactical urbanism
Friday Fun: How tactical urbanism is shaping cities for people, by people
Like many DIY, post-recession movements that have sprung up in the past few years, tactical urbanism is human-centered and empowering. At its core, it’s about people making the city work for them. Rather than relying on governmental actors, the tactical ...
Let's honor International Women's Day 2015 - #MakeItHappen
Four women leaders ‘making it happen’ for sustainable cities
International Women’s Day is on March 8, 2015, and this year’s theme is “Make It Happen.” Nowhere do women make it happen more than they do in cities. In cities all around the world, women are working to improve the ...
World Bicycle Forum 2015
Six ideas for building cycling culture from the World Bicycle Forum
Last week, over 4,000 people gathered for the fourth World Bicycle Forum. This citizen-driven event was created by bike activists in Porto Alegre, Brazil after a car plowed through a group of bikers at a critical mass event in March ...
Green cities must address garbage and trash with effective waste management strategies
Friday Fun: How to create tomorrow’s green cities with today’s garbage
Cities around the world face many challenges to their cleanliness and environmental sustainability, including rising greenhouse gas emissions, unsanitary public spaces, foul odors, growing energy demand, low recycling rates, and limited space. Most people wouldn’t think of trash as a ...
Lahore's urban roads
Lahore’s roads to nowhere
Lahore, Pakistan is on a dangerous path toward a future of urban highways, underpasses, and flyovers that will eventually suffocate the city. By prioritizing car-centric infrastructure through new development contracts, the city is making traffic congestion, air pollution, and road ...
Open GTFS Visualizations
Mapping the way to safer urban mobility
According to a recent Thomson Reuters Foundation study of the world’s 16 largest metropolitan areas, harassment on public transport is a growing problem for cities worldwide. Nearly 60 percent of the 6,555 women surveyed admitted to having been physically harassed. ...
Downtown in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Friday Fun: Addis Ababa on the frontier of sustainable transport for African cities
East Africa doesn’t make a lot of headlines for its sustainable transport achievements. That’s changing, as its cities are starting to pioneer innovative new projects to bring urban Africa into the spotlight for sustainable development. The challenges in the region ...
Energy and sustainable cities are key to India's economic growth
The two things India must get right for its economic future
Taking even a quick look at India’s current pattern of growth, it’s not hard to see both the rising energy insecurity and the stress that cities across the country are experiencing. Congestion, urban sprawl, and poor access to reliable energy ...
Public participation in Belo Horizonte
Empowering citizens to shape their city: Brazil’s new approach to public participation
Citizen participation is a critical—and often overlooked—aspect of successful urban planning. For public policies and services to actually have a positive impact on people’s daily lives, city leaders need to have a clear picture of the particular needs of the ...
Making public transport work for women in India
Why public transport needs to work for women, too
Men and women use public transport in different ways because of their distinct social roles and economic activities. Since women’s reasons for traveling generally differ from men’s, the purpose, frequency, and distance of their trips are also different. Additionally, safety ...
Transforming Transport 2015 sustainable transport Hong Kong
Transforming Transportation 2015: Turning momentum into action
What will the city of the future look like? How can we unlock the potential of urbanization to create safe, accessible and prosperous societies? At Transforming Transportation 2015 – the annual conference co-organized by the World Resources Institute and the World Bank– we learned about ...
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