Posts tagged with 'culture'
Celebrating 50 Years of Bogotá’s Ciclovía and the Growth of the Open Streets Movement
Celebrating 50 Years of Bogotá’s Ciclovía and the Growth of the Open Streets Movement
Every Sunday morning, Bogotá, Colombia, transforms its streets. Over 120 kilometers (75 miles) of major city roads are closed to cars and opened to cyclists, walkers and runners in the Sunday Ciclovía. The 50-year-old weekly tradition has evolved from a social ...
Reviving Nairobi's Libraries Is Building Healthier Communities
Reviving Nairobi’s Libraries Is Building Healthier Communities
At Eastlands Library in Nairobi, Kenya, students compare notes and work through assignments as music from a tree-lined courtyard drifts through the windows. In another part of the library, a dance instructor is leading a group of children through breathing ...
8 Signs 2026 Isn’t Business as Usual for Urban Sustainability Agendas  
8 Signs 2026 Isn’t Business as Usual for Urban Sustainability Agendas  
For better or worse, the year ahead brings a mix of reforms, political shifts and global milestones that will shape how urban sustainability agendas are governed and delivered.   From changes to the structure and leadership of the United Nations (UN) ...
How Green Jobs in Dire Dawa Benefit Women and the Environment
How Green Jobs in Dire Dawa Benefit Women and the Environment
An ambitious reforestation program in Dire Dawa’s watershed is helping to restore hundreds of hectares of farmland and reduce flood risk, while providing 7,000 new jobs and economic opportunities, especially for women and young adults. Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, is known ...
Challenging Discriminatory Cultural Norms to Build Fair, Resilient Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa
Challenging Discriminatory Cultural Norms to Build Fair, Resilient Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa
Social norms and gender biases are widely recognized as major barriers to the social and economic empowerment of women, people with disabilities and other underrepresented groups, including limiting their participation in governance and decision-making. For instance, in many parts of the world, domestic and caregiving ...
Co-Creating a More Sustainable and Livable Caferağa
Co-Creating a More Sustainable and Livable Caferağa
In Istanbul’s Caferağa neighborhood, WRI Türkiye led a community-driven initiative to create a more sustainable, inclusive and livable urban environment. From April 2023 to July 2024, the Livable Caferağa project worked closely with residents to understand the neighborhood’s challenges around overcrowding, ...
Istanbul Tackles Tourist Crowds and Climate Issues Together
Istanbul Tackles Tourist Crowds and Climate Issues Together
Istanbul’s Caferağa neighborhood has a longstanding reputation for its cultural richness and historic charm. Quaint cafes, restaurants and bars line the sidewalks. A thriving arts scene draws an eclectic crowd. More than 2.3 million visitors daily flock to the district ...
Going Underground: Climate Resilience Beneath Our Feet
Going Underground: Climate Resilience Beneath Our Feet
Imagine stepping into a city where sustainability isn’t just built upwards but also downwards. While cities worldwide grapple with intensifying climate risks—flooding, heatwaves and infrastructure strain—an untapped solution lies right beneath our feet. The underground isn’t just for subways and ...
A Community Program Is Transforming New York Schoolyards Into Climate-Resilient Spaces
A Community Program Is Transforming New York Schoolyards Into Climate-Resilient Spaces
In Brooklyn, one of New York City’s five boroughs, a new schoolyard features newly-planted native trees offering shade and bright playground equipment that sits adjacent to a track and turf field. Colorful murals celebrating the diversity of its Boreum Hill ...
By Restoring India’s Kham River, a City Revives Its Cultural Legacy
By Restoring India’s Kham River, a City Revives Its Cultural Legacy
The Kham River in India, which flows through the city of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly known as Aurangabad), fluctuates from a torrent during monsoon season to barely a trickle during dry months. Years ago, the Kham provided drinking water to the ...
Connecting Community Infrastructure Projects Through Technical Assistance and Capacity Building
Connecting Community Infrastructure Projects Through Technical Assistance and Capacity Building
When you hear “infrastructure,” most people naturally think of the physical built environment — roads, bridges, buildings. There’s a lot less emphasis on other kinds of infrastructure that are equally as important, like civic infrastructure. Civic infrastructure encompasses a broad ...
Urban Practitioners Invited to Help Scope IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities
Urban Practitioners Invited to Help Scope IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities
At the 43rd session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2016, the Panel decided to include a Special Report on Climate Change and Cities in the IPCC’s seventh assessment cycle. This achievement marked a ...
Energy Use in Buildings: What’s Culture Got to Do with It?
Energy Use in Buildings: What’s Culture Got to Do with It?
When the March 11, 2011 earthquake in Japan caused a series of energy shortages throughout the country, the national government recommended that office buildings cut back on air conditioning during the summer months in order to reduce power usage. Through ...
Japan's shotengais - partly enclosed markets - succeed both because of their proximity to transport and the unique, tightly knit communities they foster. Photo by Michael Vito/Flickr.
Friday Fun: Japan’s shotengais show connectivity and community are key to commercial success
Even as malls are declining as social spaces in the United States, shotengais (商店街) – pedestrianized business districts covered with translucent roofs – remain a part of everyday life in Japanese cities. Shotengais are generally located near transport hubs and ...
How We Give Directions Is Cultural
How We Give Directions Is Cultural
On my way to my first day working at EMBARQ India’s office in Mumbai, I was given directions that included passing through tunnels, alleys and an empty warehouse. I had to ask myself if certain alleys were actually roads I ...
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