Posts in the 'Urban Development' category
Live from Surabaya: Setting the Stage for the New Urban Agenda
Live from Surabaya: Setting the Stage for the New Urban Agenda
This week in Surabaya, Indonesia marks the last preparatory session (PrepCom3) before the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016. The conference will bring together national governments, sub-national actors, decision-makers and ...
Thinking “Incrementally”: Addressing the Global Housing Deficit by Engaging the Poor
Thinking “Incrementally”: Addressing the Global Housing Deficit by Engaging the Poor
Surprising many in the architectural community, this year’s prestigious Pritzker Prize went to Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena. Though the award—often regarded as the Nobel Prize of architecture—prompts images of iconic skyscrapers or cultural centers, Aravena initially achieved fame for his firm’s ...
In Cities’ War Against Climate Change, Heating and Cooling, Transport Are Key Battlegrounds
In Cities’ War Against Climate Change, Heating and Cooling, Transport Are Key Battlegrounds
“If you want to win the climate change battle, it will be fought in the cities of the world,” WRI President and CEO Andrew Steer told participants at a forum on the role of urban areas in the global shift to clean ...
Creating “Super-Blocks” in Barcelona
Creating “Super-Blocks” in Barcelona
Barcelona is re-designing its streets; city planners released a new plan that takes city spaces back from cars, for the people. Re-orienting the city to the human scale, Barcelona’s leaders have decided to create more space for walking and cycling, ...
Urban Planning “Games”: A Novel Approach to an Old Problem
Urban Planning “Games”: A Novel Approach to an Old Problem
How do you liven up discussions around urban planning, get participants thinking outside of the box and get people to take a holistic and inclusive approach to community planning? Why not try a game? Games are emerging as a useful ...
What Can We Learn from Thailand’s Inclusive Approach to Upgrading Informal Settlements?
What Can We Learn from Thailand’s Inclusive Approach to Upgrading Informal Settlements?
Currently, an estimated one billion people worldwide live in informal settlements where they lack access to basic services and infrastructure and are often threatened with forced eviction. While the overall proportion of the world’s urban population living in informal settlements ...
Financing Sustainable Solutions: What Cities Need to Deliver on COP21 Commitments and Beyond
Financing Sustainable Solutions: What Cities Need to Deliver on COP21 Commitments and Beyond
Cities are at the forefront of combatting climate change. Many cities and municipal governments and agencies were party to the Paris Agreement reached at COP21 in December, and many have committed to ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals and meaningful climate ...
A New Coalition Will Prove Sustainable Cities Are Better for Growth, Better for Climate
A New Coalition Will Prove Sustainable Cities Are Better for Growth, Better for Climate
Cities are all about efficiency. It’s why they exist: to allow easy access to jobs, goods, services and ideas. However, in many countries, new and expanding cities are sprawling, car-dependent and uncoordinated – a set-up that’s not only inefficient, but ...
Unlock Bangalore: Making the Right Decisions for Sustainable Growth
Unlock Bangalore: Making the Right Decisions for Sustainable Growth
Bangalore is India’s third most populous city and is among the top 100 cities that contribute to the global economy. 75 percent of Bengaluru’s income is from the service sector, with over ₹ 500 billion (approximately US $7.6 billion) from ...
Friday Fun: Three Museums That Engage Visitors to Think about the Future of Cities
Friday Fun: Three Museums That Engage Visitors to Think about the Future of Cities
It’s not often that you encounter museums dedicated to urban planning and development. But they do exist, and they are presenting panoramas of urban areas, both historically and spatially. While many museums have traditionally focused on presenting valuable objects and ...
How Can Africa Deliver on Its Ambitious Vision for Habitat III?
How Can Africa Deliver on Its Ambitious Vision for Habitat III?
From February 24 – 26, 2016 African ministers and stakeholder representatives from numerous civil society organizations gathered in Abuja, Nigeria to discuss African priorities for Habitat III, the U. N.’s 20-year urbanization conference that takes place in October. At the end ...
Lima’s Villa El Salvador: A Story of Structured Informal Development
Lima’s Villa El Salvador: A Story of Structured Informal Development
Although Lima’s Villa El Salvador neighborhood was just a dusty plain called the Tablada de Lurín in 1971, it would soon become home to some of the city’s poorest residents. At the time, there were no electricity lines, no wells, ...
Friday Fun: Two Innovators Helping to Improve Recycling in China
Friday Fun: Two Innovators Helping to Improve Recycling in China
From air pollution to intense traffic congestion, China faces an array of environmental and resource challenges, many of which are a result of its urbanization and development over the past few decades. In Beijing—as across most of the country—concerns over ...
Demystifying Transport Demand Management (TDM)
Todd Litman on the Costs of Congestion, the Drivers of Sprawl and Policies for Smarter Growth
How can we tackle the challenge of traffic congestion? What is driving urban sprawl? How does public transportation relate to issues of equity? In the following interview, TheCityFix sat down with Todd Litman, Founder and Executive Director of the Victoria ...
Managing Diversity and Affordability to Make Cities More Livable
Managing Diversity and Affordability to Make Cities More Livable
How livable a community is depends on many factors like affordability, health, safety, connectivity, infrastructure and services. As cities around the world grow, urbanization can often threaten a city’s livability by causing land prices and housing costs to rise. Moreover, ...
Right Menu Icon