Mapping the Impacts of Urban Growth: Outward vs. Upward in São Paulo and Addis Ababa
Mapping the Impacts of Urban Growth: Outward vs. Upward in São Paulo and Addis Ababa
Cities can choose how they grow by directing investment and policies in specific ways. Those cities that have more upward growth relative to outward growth, for example, are better able to provide services and opportunities to their residents because development ...
Urban Transformations: In Durban, Informal Workers Design Marketplaces Instead of Getting Displaced by Them
Urban Transformations: In Durban, Informal Workers Design Marketplaces Instead of Getting Displaced by Them
Warwick Junction is a finalist for the WRI Ross Prize for Cities. Warwick Junction’s maze of stalls, arches and bridges can elicit wonder in any first-time visitor to South Africa’s largest marketplace. The area’s nine distinct markets are wedged between ...
Urban Transformations: In Tanzania’s Capital, Safer Children Mean Better Neighborhoods
Urban Transformations: In Tanzania’s Capital, Safer Children Mean Better Neighborhoods
 SARSAI is a finalist for the WRI Ross Prize for Cities. Chaos often reigns on the streets of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital. Minivans, cars and motorcycles careen along half-finished roads without markings, sidewalks or traffic lights. Pedestrians walk ...
‘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 ...
Urban Transformations: The Reinvention of Eskişehir, Turkey from Dump to Destination
Urban Transformations: The Reinvention of Eskişehir, Turkey from Dump to Destination
Eskişehir Urban Development Project is a finalist for the WRI Ross Prize for Cities. Many cities are looking for a new future after the decline of traditional manufacturing industries. From the American Rust Belt to Europe’s industrial heartlands, mayors are ...
4 Ways Local Solar Projects Can Benefit Cities
4 Ways Local Solar Projects Can Benefit Cities
When a city decides to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, headlines follow. But the work has only just begun. Cities have many options for generating and purchasing renewable electricity, each of which comes with distinct benefits and challenges. ...
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 ...
Urban Transformations: In Pune, India, Waste Pickers Go from Trash to Treasure
Urban Transformations: In Pune, India, Waste Pickers Go from Trash to Treasure
 SWaCH is a finalist for the WRI Ross Prize for Cities. Pinky Sonawane spent her childhood gathering garbage on the streets of Pune, India. She’d join her mother in pulling plastic bottles, cans and cardboard from roadside dumpsters, selling ...
Million Cool Roofs Challenge Covers the Global ‘Cooling Crunch’ From Another Angle
Million Cool Roofs Challenge Covers the Global ‘Cooling Crunch’ From Another Angle
Cities in the global south today face a complex challenge: like all cities, they need to reduce carbon emissions, but they also need to expand access to energy. Around the world, 1.1 billion people currently lack access to electric cooling ...
Urban Transformations: In Medellín, Metrocable Connects People in More Ways Than One
Urban Transformations: In Medellín, Metrocable Connects People in More Ways Than One
 Metrocable is a finalist for the WRI Ross Prize for Cities. Medellín, Colombia, used to be the murder capital of the world. With the explosion of the global drug trade in the 1980s, crime burgeoned, plunging the city into ...