Mayor Mary Jane Ortega on Communicating and Educating in the Philippines
Mayor Mary Jane Ortega on Communicating and Educating in the Philippines
Mary Jane Ortega was formerly the mayor of San Fernando, a coastal city located about 270 km from Manila, in the Philippines.  During her mayorship, Ortega earned several awards for her achievements in city management and – despite leaving the ...
Friday Fun: Adapting New York City for Rising Waters and “the Next Sandy”
Friday Fun: Adapting New York City for Rising Waters and “the Next Sandy”
If global temperatures rise by 2º Celsius, New York City (NYC) could lose up to 1.8 million of its residents. However, unlike other cities who are simply working to mitigate climate change, NYC is working to adapt its cityscape to ...
Turkey's Congestion Problem: Why New Roads Aren't the Answer
Turkey's Congestion Problem: Why New Roads Aren't the Answer
The United States’ urban transport mantra of “wider and more roads” dates back to the 1900s and is slowly being phased out for more compact development. However, in Turkey, the sentiment remains alive and well. To demonstrate this, consider Turkey’s ...
Reforming Transport in Cities: Cleaner Air, Fewer Emissions
Reforming Transport in Cities: Cleaner Air, Fewer Emissions
3.7 million people. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this is the number of individuals who die each year due to air pollution. At this rate, simple math dictates that more than 120 million people will die because of outdoor ...
Why Cities Should Invest in Beekeeping
Why Cities Should Invest in Beekeeping
Cities looking for sustainable economic growth might consider investing in a seemingly unlikely source: urban beekeeping. Contrary to what one might expect, urban bees survive better, produce more honey, and are healthier than rural bees. Furthermore, urban bees have a ...
Designing Safer Cities in India: Reducing Speed and Protecting Pedestrians
Designing Safer Cities in India: Reducing Speed and Protecting Pedestrians
Over 140,000 people lost their lives on our roads last year, giving India the dubious distinction of having the highest number of road accident victims in the world. As our country continues to motorize exponentially, this problem will only grow—unless ...
Friday Fun: How Drones Are Mapping Cities and Improving Road Safety
Friday Fun: How Drones Are Mapping Cities and Improving Road Safety
A few days ago (July 28-30), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) met in California to discuss the future of personal and commercial drone use. NASA’s eagerness to deliberate on drones comes as a response to rising drone use ...
Five Lessons for Making Bike Share a Success in India
Five Lessons for Making Bike Share a Success in India
Public Bicycle Sharing (PBS), or bike share, as it is more popularly known, was first introduced in Amsterdam in 1965. While the concept spread to various European cities, it remained largely experimental in nature and small in scale. It wasn’t ...
How the World's Top Ten Emitters Are Committing to Change
How the World's Top Ten Emitters Are Committing to Change
Though our planet is home to one hundred and ninety independent nations, the UN Climate Conference in Paris this December reminds us that all countries share a single, collective future. Indeed, in order to keep the global temperature rise from ...
From Ideas to Implementation: 3 Ways to Ensure that Citizens Have Access to Information
From Ideas to Implementation: 3 Ways to Ensure that Citizens Have Access to Information
How do we make cities work for people? As a WRI Helms Fellow on Urban Governance and Sustainable Cities, Maria Antonia Tigre was tasked with answering this question. Through From ideas to implementation: making sustainable cities through governance here on ...