Posts in the 'Urban Development' category
We’re Underestimating How Many People Lack Sanitation – and Ignoring the Best Solution for Many Cities
We’re Underestimating How Many People Lack Sanitation – and Ignoring the Best Solution for Many Cities
In the urban neighborhood known as Kosovo Village in Nairobi, Kenya, 95% of residents defecate in communal or shared facilities where untreated human waste drains directly into a nearby river. During a storm, fetid and polluted waters flood the riverbanks, ...
How to Prevent City Climate Action from Becoming 'Green Gentrification'
How to Prevent City Climate Action from Becoming ‘Green Gentrification’
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 14 years ago, hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs, homes and possessions. But some people were hit harder than others. Nearly two-thirds of jobs lost after the hurricane were lost by women, and ...
To Fix City Slums, Don’t Just Knock Them Down: Involve Residents in Upgrading Efforts
To Fix City Slums, Don’t Just Knock Them Down: Involve Residents in Upgrading Efforts
Many cities, particularly in the global South, have large areas of informal settlements ‒ poor neighborhoods that grew organically, but which often lack structurally sound buildings and services like running water, sanitation and waste management. The traditional approach to upgrading ...
Lumber Salvaged from Baltimore’s Row Houses and City Trees Creates Jobs and Cuts Wood Waste
Lumber Salvaged from Baltimore’s Row Houses and City Trees Creates Jobs and Cuts Wood Waste
Baltimore, like many post-industrial cities, confronts novel challenges. Once the sixth largest city in the U.S., Baltimore’s population has contracted by more than a third, resulting from a complex suite of factors including job loss, economic decline, and discriminatory policies or housing and lending practices. It’s ...
5 Maps Show How Moving Indonesia’s Capital Could Impact the Environment
5 Maps Show How Moving Indonesia’s Capital Could Impact the Environment
In late August, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced that he will move the country’s capital to another island. The current capital of Jakarta is located on Java, the most populated island in the world. President Widodo’s motivation for moving is ...
Finance for Urban Climate Action Remains Low. How Can Cities Bridge the Gap?
Finance for Urban Climate Action Remains Low. How Can Cities Bridge the Gap?
Due to historic levels of urbanization, cities have become focal points for creating a more sustainable world. Cities currently account for 80% of global GDP, 70% of emissions, and two-thirds of total energy consumption. The urgent need for climate action ...
Raahgiri Is a Positive, Public Movement for Change
Raahgiri Is a Positive, Public Movement for Change
A couple of Sundays back, Haryana observed the first state-level Raahgiri in India. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar personally came to the city of Hisar to participate in its official celebration with full state machinery. This was totally unthinkable when ...
India's Environmental Challenges in 10 Images
India’s Environmental Challenges in 10 Images
The last two decades have seen a rampant rise in environmental challenges being faced by cities and countries globally. In India, too, challenges related to air pollution, waste management, scarcity of water, conservation of natural resources, and loss of biodiversity, ...
Honduras Joins the Global Movement to Make Public Space Work Better for People
Honduras Joins the Global Movement to Make Public Space Work Better for People
Cities around the world are embracing the movement to make their streets work better for people, not just cars. From Bogotá’s Ciclovía, to Guadalajara’s Via RecreActiva, India’s Raahgiri Days, and Ethiopia’s Menged Le Sewe, many cities have adopted some version ...
‘Socially Aware Planning’ Key to Building and Sustaining Communities
‘Socially Aware Planning’ Key to Building and Sustaining Communities
When Rani, a mother of five in Khulna, Bangladesh, found that the tea stall outside her home kept flooding, she didn’t wait for a government climate resilience program to swoop in. Like many people in urban communities facing the effects ...
Dedicating Public Space for Recreation is Good for Cities. The Via RecreActiva Shows Us 3 Reasons Why.
Dedicating Public Space for Recreation is Good for Cities. The Via RecreActiva Shows Us 3 Reasons Why.
Closing more than 60 kilometers of major streets to car traffic sounds like a logistical headache for a city of 4.8 million. But Guadalajara did it anyway ‒ and has done it every Sunday for the last 15 years. In ...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/embarq/35651073071/in/album-72157683822625640/
We Need a New Gold Standard for Urban Sanitation: Brian Arbogast
More than half the global population lacks access to safely managed sanitation services – 4.5 billion people. Every year, more than 340,000 children under the age of five die as a result of this problem. And we’re not solving it ...
What It Will Take for Startups to Spearhead Innovation to Transform Urban India
What It Will Take for Startups to Spearhead Innovation to Transform Urban India
TheCityFix Labs India, supported by Citi Foundation, drives market transition toward sustainable investments through knowledge-sharing, capacity-building and technical assistance. Of 100 applications, the Labs recently selected a cohort of 10 projects to mentor and bring to fruition.   Set to ...
Too Many Cities Are Growing Out Rather Than Up. Three Reasons That’s a Problem.
Too Many Cities Are Growing Out Rather Than Up. Three Reasons That’s a Problem.
Imagine Lagos, Nigeria, a city of 22 million. What was once a small coastal town just a few decades ago has exploded into a sprawling megacity spanning 452 square miles. Its rapid growth has stretched the city’s services impossibly thin: ...
To Fix Housing, We Need to Talk About Land Use: Nora Libertun and Cynthia Goytia
To Fix Housing, We Need to Talk About Land Use: Nora Libertun and Cynthia Goytia
Affordable housing is a crisis that only seems to deepen. Some 1.2 billion people in cities lack access to affordable, secure housing – a number that’s projected to grow to 1.6 billion people by 2025. Cities in the global south, ...
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