Posts tagged with 'Urban Transformations'
From Pilot to Citywide Change: What it Takes to Scale Climate Action
From Pilot to Citywide Change: What it Takes to Scale Climate Action
The low-lying schoolyard of Shuang Wen School (P.S. 184M) in New York City’s Chinatown tells a quiet story of transformation. Once an expanse of asphalt, this schoolyard and the surrounding neighborhood were devastated by flooding when Hurricane Sandy hit in ...
In This Indonesian City, Community-Led Design Is Improving Water and Sanitation
In This Indonesian City, Community-Led Design Is Improving Water and Sanitation
On rainy days, Meliana Mei walks along an elevated pathway from her home in Makassar, Indonesia, to the market. Water collects in trenches below the path and drains away, giving her a much safer way to reach her destination. “Our ...
This Hillside City in South America Rebuilt Itself Around Nature — and Got Healthier
This Hillside City in South America Rebuilt Itself Around Nature — and Got Healthier
On most mornings, Cati Ochoa walks the green corridor along the Zamora River near her home in Loja, Ecuador, before starting work. The moment she steps beneath the trees, she feels her shoulders drop. “Green areas give us peace,” she said. ...
E-Tricycles Are Powering a Recycling Revolution in Fortaleza, Brazil
E-Tricycles Are Powering a Recycling Revolution in Fortaleza, Brazil
Rafaela Aires’s workday starts at 9:00 a.m., leading her down city streets that weave past the Atlantic shoreline and under concrete overpasses. Her collected bottles and cardboard boxes used to form heaps in a hand-drawn cart. Now, they rattle in ...
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 ...
Empowering Residents Helped Buenos Aires Transform Rodrigo Bueno Into a Climate-Resilient Community
Empowering Residents Helped Buenos Aires Transform Rodrigo Bueno Into a Climate-Resilient Community
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 ...
Oslo’s ‘Climate Budget’ Is Building a Cleaner City
Oslo’s ‘Climate Budget’ Is Building a Cleaner City
In the stylish Grünerløkka neighborhood in Oslo, construction workers are busy rehabilitating Sophies Minde, an old medical clinic, into a new nursery school and maternal health center. Tidy piles of building materials along the perimeter of the construction site wait ...
Cities Need a Systems-Change Approach to Build Climate-Resilient Communities
Cities Need a Systems-Change Approach to Build Climate-Resilient Communities
Cities occupy just 3 percent of the Earth’s land, but account for most of the global energy consumption and carbon emissions. Many cities are also more vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters due to their population densities and interconnected infrastructure. ...
Paris' Vision for a ‘15-Minute City’ Sparks a Global Movement
Paris’ Vision for a ‘15-Minute City’ Sparks a Global Movement
Until just a few years ago, the right riverbank of the Seine in Paris was an urban highway used by over 40,000 vehicles every day. Despite being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the road was either heavily gridlocked during rush ...
Inclusive Design Creates a Safer Transportation System for All Residents of Peshawar, Pakistan
Inclusive Design Creates a Safer Transportation System for All Residents of Peshawar, Pakistan
For decades, the city of Peshawar, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northern Pakistan, has been rocked by wars and acts of terrorism that disrupted public safety and made it difficult to plan the city’s growth. A particularly challenging consequence ...
In Barranquilla, Colombia, Urban Parks Revitalize a Declining City
In Barranquilla, Colombia, Urban Parks Revitalize a Declining City
Samira Perez, a longtime resident of Barranquilla, Colombia used to spend her time and money on taxis to take her children to local shopping malls after school and on the weekends. There, they would pass the time marveling at upscale ...
Podcast: Rogier van den Berg on the Prize for Cities and Urban Transformation
Podcast: Rogier van den Berg on the Prize for Cities and Urban Transformation
“You can’t resolve the climate crisis without resolving cities,” says Rogier van den Berg, acting global director at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, in a new podcast. Speaking with Kes McComick of the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics ...
Can Cities Thrive in Turbulent Times? 3 Questions for Cities in 2022
Can Cities Thrive in Turbulent Times? 3 Questions for Cities in 2022
Infectious disease outbreaks can have enduring influence on urban design and several have irrevocably shaped how modern cities feel and function. For example, parks, wide street design and even the home bathroom are all important legacies of cholera outbreaks; today, ...
Sparking Inclusive Urban Transformation in These Revolutionary Times
Sparking Inclusive Urban Transformation in These Revolutionary Times
Two years ago, I participated in the learning roundtable for the first cycle of the WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities. I confess that my expectations were rather moderate, but that, to my surprise, I found it truly refreshing and ...
In Monterrey, Mexico, a University’s Tragedy Sparks a Citywide Turnaround
In Monterrey, Mexico, a University’s Tragedy Sparks a Citywide Turnaround
Monterrey, like other major Mexican cities, rapidly expanded outward during the end of the 20th century. New policies favored investment in new suburban neighborhoods, attracting residents and businesses to the periphery, and provoking several decades of insecurity and population decline. ...
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