Smart Cities

Behind the Allure of the ‘Smart City’
The glamour of digital technology can obscure the hard work of building healthy, sustainable cities.

Opinion: High Tech Won't Save Cities
After some notable disappointments in the development of 'smart city' projects, experts are increasingly critical of the movement to use tech to solve urban problems.

Smart Power Grid Technologies for Smart Cities
Smart power grid solutions are becoming increasingly important for the development of smart cities. Here's what you need to know.

Using Tech to Control Noise Pollution
Several cities are piloting programs that use machine learning to identify and understand urban noise patterns and enforce noise ordinances.

Mayors Define the 'Smart City'
As the pandemic forces cities to redefine their priorities, mayors around the country express their plans and hopes for technology and the 'smart city' of the future.

Lessons from the Smart Columbus Pilot Program
The former program manager for Smart Columbus discusses the successes, challenges, and unexpected opportunities encountered by the city as it worked to integrate technology into city services and programs.

How the AI Economy is Shaping Cities
Like other technologies, artificial intelligence tech seems to be clustering in a small group of cities, prompting questions about its uneven deployment.

'A City is Not a Computer:' Why 'Smart Cities' Fail
The 'smart city' concept fails to take into account the necessary slowness of democracy and the unpredictability of a city's human inhabitants.

Report: Cities Falling Behind on Security and Accessibility in 'Smart City' Tech
While cities around the world are introducing tech tools to improve services and increase their efficiency, many have failed to implement appropriate privacy and security protocols.

Five Years Later, 'Smart Cities Challenge' Promise Unfulfilled
The "Smart Cities Challenge" paid Columbus, Ohio $50 million to kick start a revolution of urban technology. The revolution never arrived, according to a recent assessment by Wired writer Aarian Marshall.
City of Bothell
Town of San Anselmo
Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency (TPA)
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education
Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education
City of Apache Junction
City of Helena
Gallatin County, Montana
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Hand Drawing Master Plans
This course aims to provide an introduction into Urban Design Sketching focused on how to hand draw master plans using a mix of colored markers.