Technology
New App Explores Ecological Urbanism
A new interactive app produced by the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and Second Story Interactive Studios compiles and exhibits examples of "alternative and radical approaches to sustainability at a range of urban scales."
Iskandar Malaysia: The Future of Urban Living or Pipe Dream?
Across the strait from Singapore, Iskandar Malaysia is being planned as the world’s next eco mega-city. Its architects and developers hope it will offer an alternative to Asia's polluted cities and a glimpse of the future of urban living.
Should New York Build Sea Barriers?
As NYC struggles to cope with the damage from Superstorm Sandy, officials and experts are revisiting the possibility of building, at great cost, a protective barrier around its coast.
Legalizing Green Design
Across America, arcane zoning regulations and building codes prevent some of the most promising sustainable techniques and technologies from being built. A project based in Oregon aims to make land use regulations friendlier for greener building.
How Traffic Data At Your Fingertips Can Create Smarter Cities
What do recent national politics have to do with transportation planning? For Sarah Goodyear, the connection is clear: it's about having access to good data for solving real-world problems.
Dutch Designers Reinvent the Road
You may have heard about smart cars, but what about smart streets? A plan for modernizing European highways has been generating a lot of buzz from civil engineers worldwide, reports Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan.
New Technology Helps Your Community Prepare for the Next Disaster
Ariel Schwartz explains Recovers, "a logistical management system for disaster recovery," that gives communities tools for matching volunteers with recovery tasks, in the event of a disaster.
One Government Agency You Don't Second Guess
One silver lining from Hurricane Sandy is that it proved the accuracy of the National Hurricane Center, an agency under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) due largely to its hi-tech tools. Do you know what a 'dropsonde' is?
Planes that Run on Natural Gas
Qatar Airlines is gearing up their jets to run on a fuel derived from natural gas - so don't expect to see fuel tanks holding liquefied gas. Similar to the "Messerschmitt Fuel" in World War II that was derived from coal, they are called synfuels.
LEED Certification: Path to Better Buildings or Bigger Bottom Lines?
With supporting evidence from a USA TODAY analysis, Thomas Frank examines the LEED points system and finds that certification, and the tax breaks and other rewards that go with it, can be easily obtained without proven environmental impact.
Real Tomorrowland Comes to Orlando
Last week, networking infrastructure company Cisco announced that the Orlando community of Lake Nona will be the site of the first of the company's nine planned "Smart+Connected" cities, which will endeavor to "unify urban development and IT."
Parasols, Slides and Succulents for Better Cities? SF says, 'Why Not?'
What do all these seemingly unrelated elements have in common? They were just a few of the creative ideas for improving the urban environment showcased at the recent Urban Prototyping Festival held in San Francisco.
LocalWiki: An Insider's Guide to Cities
If you want to know something about Davis, CA, don’t go to the website of the local paper or the city, go to DavisWiki, a repository of all things Davis, written by the public. Thanks to a recent grant, could something similar be coming to your town?
7 Visions for the Accessible City of the Future
With the portion of American's living in cities set to rise to 90 percent by 2050, a new set of accessibility issues will confront the nation's disabled and aging. Metropolis invited 7 teams of designers to develop solutions to meet this challenge.
New Orleans Crowdsources Renewal
After months of development, a group of Code for America fellows has unveiled a new web application that seeks to assist communities in identifying and cleaning up New Orleans's blighted properties, reports Emily Badger.
Scrutiny of Electric Vehicles Follows Bankruptcy of Subsidized Battery Manufacturer
Electric-car-battery manufacturer A123 Systems received $249 million in federal grants. It filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 16, prompting Bloomberg reporter Angela Greiling Keane to look at the progress of President Obama's goal of 1 million EVs by 2015
Turning off the Lights to See the Stars
A movement to shed light on the worldwide loss of dark skies aims to minimize light pollution in order to increase public opportunities for stargazing, while also serving as a money-saving measure for cities, reports Kate Galbraith.
Vertical Farming: A Viable Option for Future Food Production?
Is the idea of "farming up" really taking off? Vertical farming could yield long-term environmental benefits, but still faces many obstacles.
Animating San Francisco's Turbulent Decade
A joint project by technology company Esri and the city of San Francisco shows the promising confluence of open data and innovative visualization techniques.
Using an App to Shame Property Violators Into Repenting
In Philadelphia, resourceful City Councilman Bobby Henon has introduced a free app named CityHall, which has quickly become a weapon of choice for getting landlords and tenants who blight their blocks to clean up their acts, reports Dan Geringer.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
