Posts tagged with 'public space'
People don’t just use streets; they respond to them. The placement of curbs, alignment of crossings and painted markings directly shape how safely and predictably people move. How people interpret the physical cues received from their environment determines their decisions and movements. ...
2025 tested cities in ways both familiar and new. Urban areas faced intensifying heat, more frequent and severe climate-driven disasters, widening inequality, and political shifts shaping local and national agendas. Yet cities also emerged as centers of leadership and innovation, ...
Cities are complex ecosystems shaped by countless interactions between infrastructure, ecology and human life. As evolving technologies, shifting social norms, climate change and political instability reshape the urban landscape, these systems face increasing pressure. Rapid urbanization, in particular, has made ...
Water is a lifeline for cities. Yet, in Addis Ababa, that lifeline is growing tenuous. Over the past decade, the city’s water supply has dwindled dramatically due to intense urbanization, lagging infrastructure and non-revenue losses, landscape degradation and the growing ...
When floods hit my hometown in Kenya last year, it was the poorest communities who suffered most. In Nairobi, where more than 3 million people live in vulnerable homes made of wood, sheet metal and concrete — many in low-lying ...
Which neighborhoods are suffering the most from rising urban heat? Where is flooding the biggest challenge? What other cities around the world are struggling with air pollution, and what can we learn from those that have improved the quality of ...
Walking through Nyandungu Eco-Park in Kigali, Rwanda, it’s difficult to imagine that just a few years ago, industrial machinery and bedraggled grasses stood where lush trees and flowers now grow. Like in many wetlands across the city, the incursion of polluting industry ...
We know games are a powerful way to reimagine urban space and mobility systems. But what if cities started building more playful and accessible spaces inspired by the imagination of kids? That’s the question the New Urban Mobility Alliance (NUMO) asked as they planned ...
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, ...
Resilience in cities is often framed around large-scale infrastructure projects and sweeping policy shifts. We see headlines about billion-dollar climate adaptation plans, smart cities leveraging AI for disaster response and ambitious net-zero pledges. But some of the most impactful solutions ...
Extreme weather events like floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and intense around the globe, disrupting communities and the infrastructure they rely on. In 2024 alone, the world endured 58 disasters that wreaked over a billion dollars in damages each. Yet ...
Sprawl is a known and widespread challenge for rapidly growing cities across the world. Unplanned, inefficient development encroaches on natural resources and ecosystems, often reaching far beyond established transit networks. Residents of sprawling urban areas often face socioeconomic vulnerabilities and ...
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 ...
Livability is key to the quality of city life as we look to the future. We don’t have to look far into that future to see how this plays out on the streets. On Sunday, December 15, 1974, a group ...
On the eastern edge of Buenos Aires, residents of the Rodrigo Bueno neighborhood take a break from pick-up soccer games and stretch out on grassy knolls. Further down the road, a kitchen buzzes with locals testing new recipes to feature ...
