The journal Science has released a special issue entitled, “The Urban Planet“. It features an article on urbanization and food systems by UGEC SSC Co-Chair Karen Seto and Navin Ramankutty.
Tag Archives: urbanization
The UGEC Symposium: A Decade of Urbanization and Global Environmental Change is now on YouTube!
You can also watch other UGEC videos, including the panel session from our 2014 Conference on our YouTube Channel: The Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project
Recorded and edited by Mark Ahn Creative Services.
Call for Abstracts: N-AERUS Conference
The 17th annual Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanization in the South (N-AERUS) Conference: “Governing, Planning and Managing the City in an Uncertain World. Comparative Perspectives on Everyday Practices”, will take place at the School of Public Administration, University of Gothenburg, Sweden from 17-19 November, 2016.
This conference strives to gather scholars and practitioners interested in exploring the everyday practices of both those who are involved in the governance, planning and management of cities, and those who are building the city from below. In the current context of political, financial, environmental, social and economic uncertainty, the conference also opens up for discussions revolving around issues of mobility, migration, segregation and integration in both global North and global South cities. Continue reading
Viewpoints: Rapid urban growth in mountainous regions: The case of Nainital, India
Prakash C. Tiwari
Kumaon University, India
Bhagwati Joshi
Government Post Graduate College, India
Mountain ecosystems, particularly in developing and underdeveloped regions, are experiencing rapid, unplanned and unregulated urban-growth. Recently, less accessible areas of the Himalaya region in India have begun to urbanize due to the extension of the road network, growth in tourism, and economic globalization. The sprawling urban growth in these fragile mountains and the resultant land use intensification have disrupted the hydrological systems of urban areas, and have consequently increased the susceptibility of anthropogenically-modified slopes to recurrent slope failures, landslides, and flash floods. Moreover, climate change has stressed urban ecosystems by increasing the frequency, severity, and intensity of extreme weather events. Continue reading
Symposium: A Decade of Urbanization & Global Environmental Change
The Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project is proud to announce “A Decade of Urbanization and Global Environmental Change: A UGEC Symposium” on Thursday, February 18, 2016 at the Arizona State University Memorial Union in the Pima Auditorium. The event starts at 10:00. It is part of the Sustainability Solutions Festival.
Panelists will draw from their own research and practical expertise to offer insight into the needs and directions of future UGEC research and science-policy-practice linkages, particularly addressing the role of young scholars and students interested in urbanization and sustainability issues.
Click the image for more details, or click here to download the pdf version.
Moderator:
Christopher Boone, Arizona State University, USA
Panelists:
Shuaib Lwasa, Makerere University, Uganda
Patricia Romero-Lankao, National Center for Atmospheric Research, USA
Karen Seto, Yale University, USA
David Simon, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK & Mistra Urban Futures, Sweden
Viewpoints: Structure and agency: The seeds of sustainability for 21st century cities
Andrew Rudd
UN Habitat, USA
The recently UN-adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out a globally unprecedented aspiration for cities. Among other aims (including inclusion, safety and resilience), SDG-11 aspires to ‘make cities and human settlements…sustainable…’ The implication, of course, is that cities are currently not very sustainable (see Figure 1). By many measures this is true; scholars have shown how many cities are exceeding the carrying and regenerative capacity of the planet. Seto et al. show that cities on average are using land less and less efficiently. While global material extraction has slowed relative to GDP, 80% of which is produced in cities, cement production is accelerating even faster than GDP. As an outcome, the IEA and UN-Habitat estimate that cities are responsible for 60-80% of energy use and 70% of greenhouse gas emissions, respectively.
Yet none of this is a fatal flaw inherent to the urban condition. Merely critiquing cities’ unsustainable throughputs is not enough, and mistaking them as parasites is even worse because it usually precipitates highly ineffective solutions (e.g., making cities less city-like). We must not retreat from the city. Cities contain within them the seeds for overcoming their negative externalities. Catalyzing such a transformation requires harnessing agglomeration advantages and tapping into the variety that compact, mixed-use cities offer.
Viewpoints: Top Ten Most Viewed Articles of 2015
- Dana Boyer, Stefanie Brodie, Joshua Sperling, Eleanor Stokes & Alisa Zomer | Implementing the Urban Sustainable Development Goal in Atlanta and Delhi
- Federico Caprotti | Building the smart city: Moving beyond the critiques
- Alexander Aylett | Green cities and smart cities: The potential and pitfalls of digitally-enabled green urbanism
- Chiara Certoma and Francesco Rizzi | Smart cities for smart citizens: Enabling urban transitions through crowdsourcing
- Patricia Romero-Lankao and Daniel Gnatz | Do cities have the institutional capacity to address climate change?
- Harini Nagendra | Ecologically-smart cities: Keeping urban ecosystems centre stage in India’s Smart Cities programme
- Emma Arnold and Karen O’Brien | The Art of Urban Transformations
- Olivia Bina and Andrea Ricci | Building scenarios for sustainable urbanisation: Balancing ‘can’, ‘need’ & ‘want’
- Andres Luque-Ayala | Urbanization and global environmental change: A matter of politics?
- Tracey Holloway | What’s next for air quality in the United States?
A huge thank you to our generous authors and dedicated readers!
Handbook on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change
The Routledge Handbook of Urbanization and Global Environmental Change is out now!
Edited by Karen C. Seto, William D. Solecki & Corrie A. Griffith
Call for Applicants: Workshop on Climate, Migration & Health in Latin America
Climate, Migration & Health in Latin America: Connections through Urbanization
University of Colorado Population Center
Boulder, Colorado, USA
May 26-27, 2016
Organizers:
Lori Hunter and Fernando Riosmena – University of Colorado-Boulder, USA
Patricia Romero-Lankao – National Center for Atmospheric Research, USA
With support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, the Institute of Behavioral Science and University of Colorado Population Center are hosting the 2nd annual workshop on Climate, Migration and Health. This year’s sub-theme is “Connections through Urbanization” with a geographic focus on Latin America.
The two-day workshop, held in Boulder, Colorado, USA and will bring together approximately ten researchers and policy communicators to showcase innovative research on urbanization, climate and health.
Workshop applicants must have a current research project in Latin America and should aim to come to the workshop to present ongoing work. We will also spend time brainstorming broader knowledge gaps and specific research projects or proposals designed to fill those gaps.
Researchers from social and natural sciences are encouraged to apply. Funds are available for partial reimbursement for domestic travel and lodging. Applicants must be post-PhD. The aim is for an interdisciplinary mix of junior and senior scholars.
To be considered for this workshop, please send a CV and a complete paper, working draft, or an extended abstract (including data description, methods, and preliminary results) by February 19, 2016. Decisions will be made by March 11th.
Please address questions to Lori.Hunter@colorado.edu.
Please submit application materials to Cheryl.Graham@colorado.edu.
Viewpoints: The human experience in the urban environment
Christopher Boone
Arizona State University, USA
In sweeping images of cityscapes, it is nearly impossible to distinguish individual human beings. We clearly see the products of human actions and decisions – buildings, roadways, streetlights, parks and open space – but it is difficult if not impossible to discern people on the ground, going about their daily lives. The three papers in this series ask us to zoom in and think seriously about the human experience in cities. Putting the needs of people at the center and in full focus is fundamental for advancing urban sustainability.