Cities & Urbanization

Why cities live forever

China tries building a new kind of megalopolis

This is what the cities of the future could look like

Internal and international influences on urban change

68% of world population will live in urban areas by 2050

Artificially lit surface of Earth at night increasing in radiance and extent

Projecting global urban growth through 2100 based on historical time series data and future shared SEPs 

Smart Cities:

United 4 smart sustainable cities 

Smart cities, the Dutch approach

How to build a smart city that will last

Six technologies crucial for smart cities

3D planning tool for the city of tomorrow

Migrating smart city applications to the cloud

Humane smart cities: the need for governance

Open City Data Portal    WCCD Open Data Portal

As world crowds in, cities become digital laboratories

Smart cities should put the power in the hands of the people

Adaptive cities? Institutional innovation under climate change

Data-driven molecular engineering of solar-powered windows

Digital Earth: the paradigm now shaping our world's data cities

Intelligent facades generating electricity, heat and algae biomass

Smart Cities    How smart cities will help us meet the global SDGs

Modeling reveals significant climatic impacts of megapolitan expansion

Smart cities' data: challenges and opportunities for semantic technologies

Planning an Open Cities Mapping Project: open data for resilience initiative

Smart ways to mobilise more efficient and effective long-term investment in city regions

A global analysis of urban design types and road transport injury: an image processing study

Impacts of RF EMF from cell phone towers and wireless devices on biosystem and ecosystem

Safe cities:

Flooded cities

Safe Cities Index

World City Risk 2025 

Cities safer by design

The city as a risk area

Urban risk assessments

Envisioning safer cities with AI

Local governments core of risk reduction

World Disasters Report 2010 - urban risks

Reducing risk is key for sustainable urbanization

How density makes us safer during natural disasters

How to adapt disaster management to an urban context

Experts brainstorm ways to fund cities to withstand disasters

Building resilient communities through geospatial intelligence

Using high resolution satellite data for the identification of urban natural disaster risk

Remote sensing-based proxies for urban disaster risk management and resilience: a review

Resilient cities:

100 Resilient Cities

Resilient Cities 2014

Making cities resilient

Financing the resilient city

City resilience index Dec 2015 

GFDDR city resilience program

How to make cities more resilient

Urban resilience movements unite 

Let's make a deal for resilient cities

Resilient cities - a Grosvenor report

Resilience.io - a revolution in planning

Urban resilience - RAMSES interviews

How much are trees worth to megacities?

Open data infrastructure for city resilience

The Rockefeller Foundation resilient cities

Making cities sustainable and resilient action     

City resilience action planning tool (CityRAP)

The value of flood-resilient architectual design

Self-repairing cities Trenchless technology of the future

The next-generation city: resilient, smart and sustainable

Towards resilience and transformation for cities within a finite planet   

Resilient cities: changing the way we think about urban infrastructure

Developing pre-disaster resilience based on public & provate incentivization

 Realising the multiple benefits of climate resilience and inclusive development in informal developments

Cities and sustainability:

Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index

The SDGs and 'a new urban agenda'

Satellites find sustainable energy in cities

Geneva UN charter on sustainable housing

Curbing urban sprawl to make cities more sustainable

Sustainable service delivery in an increasingly urbanized world

Cities are harnessing the power of renewable energy: here's how

Integrating sustainable development and DRM of historic urban areas

How local governments have become a factor in global sustainability

C40 & Siemens inaugural city leadership awards honour 10 cities for excellence in urban sustainability

World cities come up with a 5-point action plan to work together for sustainable development and DRR

City ecosystems:

Urban ecosystems 

Expertise - green resources

Environment & urbanization

Reflecting on cities and leadership

Cities gobbling up huge land masses

Cities have unique microbial 'fingerprints'

Urban environment - thematic assessment        

Urban soils release surprising amounts of CO2

Smartphone measurements map neighborhood noise

Nature and mental hehalth: an ecosystem service perspective

Planetary stewardship in an urbanizing world: beyond city limits

Beyond urban legends: an emerging framework of urban ecology

What cities do best: how to maximize the role of cities in a low carbon future

A global metagenomic map of urban microbiomes and anti-microbial resistance

Quantification of urban metabolism through coupling with the life cycle assessment framework   

Global forecasts of urban expansion to 2030 and direct impacts on biodiversity and carbon pools      

Cities and climate change:

Climate change and the city

City planning for climate change

Urban climate change in context

Urban climate adaptation planning

Water, megacities and global change

Helping cities plan for climate change

The state of cilty climate finance 2015

City mayor's climate resilience compact

Climate-proofing tomorrow’s cities, today

Framework for city climate risk assessment

Cities lead the way in climate-change action

Turning the urban challenge into an opportunity

Guiding principles for city climate action planning

Urban climate: processes, trends and projections

Strengthening climate change in urban education 

'Top Down' climate data don't serve growing cities

City and building designers, and climate adaptation

How vulnerable could your city be to climate impacts?

Climate change is making cities sick and we need to act

How climate change could impact the world's greatest cities

Which mega-cities offer best protection from climate change

8 points on financing climate change adaptation in urban areas

Creative ways cities can fight the climate change 'slow tsunami'

Toward typologies of urban climate and global environmental change

84% of world's fasttest growing cities face'extreme' climate change risks

Building urban resilience to climate change: what works where, and why

Dialogue for decision-making: unpacking the 'City Learning Lab' approach

Adapting infrastructure and civil engineering practice to a changing climate

Urban climate change resilience in action: lessons from projects in 10 ACCCRN cities

Protecting our capital - how climate change adaptation in cities creates a resilient place for business

Urban opportunities: perspective on climate change, resilience, inclusion, and the Informal Economy      

Cities, energy, emissions, transportation:

How traffic jams decentralize cities

Hybrid energy storage system for urban use

Urban underground holds sustainable energy

Relation between urban population and air pollution

Front-running cities changing transport, improving quality of life  

Implications of urban structure on carbon consumption in metropolitan areas

City flooding:

Managing urban runoff 

Cities and flooding guidebook

Cities key to mitigating flood risk    

How to build a flood-resilient city 

Unplanned urbanization increasing flood impacts

CDP Cities 2013: summary report on 110 global cities 

Scientists examine ways to put stormwater to use in big cities

Floods, heat, migration: How extreme weather will transform cities

City planning:

Urban

CityZenith

HABITAT III 

Global road map

Tomorrow's cities

Urban observatory

No city is an island

Wanted: human cities

Urban planning for city leaders

Resilience.io - a revolution in planning

Multi-dimensional thinking of i-SUSTAIN

Mapping 6,000 years of urban settlements

Urban anthologies - learning from our cities

World Habitat Day ceremony draws thousands

Why we need to revolutionise our study of cities

World urbanization prospects - the 2011 revision

State of the world's cities 2012/2013: prosperity of cities

Megacities: pushing the boundaries of our (insurance) industry

Housing sales data used to estimate value of urban natural resouces

Planning, connecting and financing cities - now: priorities for city leaders 

Designing the New Urban Agenda: lessons from international agreements            

Light pollution:

New atlas of light pollution

A global map of urban extant from nightlights

Cities at night revealed by NASA-NOAA satellite

Building codes & materials:

Self-shading windows

Wood windows are cooler than glass

Structure of 'concrete disease' solved

Modern roof shapes tested in high-speed wind tunnel

New residential water heater concept promises high efficiency, lower cost

Urban sprawl:

Urban sprawl

The end of sprawl

Across the globe, urban sprawl is spreading

Beyond sprawl: a new vision of the solar suburbs of the future

Suburban sprawl cancels carbon-footprint savings of dense urban cores       

A global fingerprint of macro-scale changes in urban structure from 1999 to 2009

Open access city models:

AccuCities

Cities and urban poor: 

Stewart Brand on squatter cities

Climate change, disaster risk, and the urban poor

Adapting to climate change: cities and the urban poor

Cities prepare!  Reducing vulnerabilities for the urban poor 

New towns going up in developing nations pose major risk to the poor  

Regional:          

Europe:

Smart London

EEA - Urban Atlas

Venice hasn't stopped sinking after all

Climate change and flood risk in Europe

Alpine cities feel heat from climate change

Turning London into SimCity with real data

UN recognizes Barcelona as role model city

Mediterranean cities adapt to climate change

Helsinki: the prospects for urban densification

Urbanization impacts on the climate in Europe  

Ensuring quality of life in Europe's cities and towns

Varese Ligura, Italy - a small town with high renewables 

Europe's future depends on cities resilient to climate change

Can Rotterdam become the world's most sustainable port city?

Italy: mega urban changes and impacts in the decades of the 2000s

Assessing the dynamics of urban vulnerability to climate change: case of Helsinki, Finland

Adapting to climate change in European cities: towards smarter, swifter & more systemic change

London: low carbon, low risk, low density - reolving choices about sustainable development in cities   

Situated lifestyles: lifestyles changes with level of urbanization - greenhouse gas implications - Finland 

Portugal: atmospheric electric field measurements in urban environment and the pollutant aerosol cycle

Russia:

Implementing ITU-T International standards to shape smart sustainable cities: the case of Moscow

Middle East:

Saudi Arabia's new desert megacity

The state of Arab cities 2012 - challenges of urban transition

Africa:

Africa's adaptation gap 2 - technical report

Cape Town: What it takes to be a role model city

Building urban resilience to climate change - South Africa

Building climate resilient villages:global experience and Ethiopia

Soon every African village will know what the weather may bring

From floods to disease, disaster risk rising in surging African cities

North African coastal cities address natural disasters and climate change 

African urbanisation and urbanism: implications for risk accumulation and reduction 

Green Hills, Blue Cities: an ecosystems approach to water resources management for African cities

Asia:

Building Urban Resilience in East Asia

Buiding partnerships in the Asia-Pacific Region 

Developer unveils vision of cities as havens during disasters

Development in ADB Pacific development member countries

China:

Beijing necessitates risk analysis

Aspiring toward healthy cities in China

Expansion and growth in Chinese cities 1978-2010

UN Shanghai manual launches to guide urban futures

UNISDR and China launch new urban resilience award

China works to implement standard digital city framework

Urban China: toward efficient, inclusive, and sustainable urbanization

Four ways to boost Hong Kong's position as an innovative, future ready city

Modeling buildings by the millions: building codes in China tested for energy savings

Contrating impacts of urban forms on the future thermal environment  - Beijing metropolitan area

India:

India: Towards urban resilience

Planning climate resilient coastal cities: India

Mumbai: density, energy and metabolism of a proposed smart city

Risk governance in the megacity Mumbai - a complex adaptive system perspective

Nepal:

Nepal building codes

Vietnam:

Can Tho, Vietnam: enhancing urban resilience

Inside Hanoi's gated communities: elite enclaves where even the air is cleaner

Philippines:

Business risk assessment and the management of climate change impacts - 12 Philippine cities

Malaysia:

Malaysia may offer model for global growth

Singapore:

First civilian photogrammetric UAV flight over Singapore     

North America:

USA:

Safest US cities

Urban adaptation assessment

US smart cities effort targets data apps

NYC panel on climate change 2019 report

New York's carbon emissions - in real time

Boston names first Chief Resilience Officer

Major US city post-oil preparedness ranking

Impact of urbanization on US surface climate

Mid-century warming in the Los Angeles region

Vancouver plans to face climate change head-on

The Mannahatta Project - New York before the city

How climate change could leave US cities uin the dark

Study finds serious challenges to 'New Urbanist' communities

Researchers create citywide building energy model for Boston

Geographers provide new insight into commuter megaregions of the US

Study maps greenhouse gas emissions to building, street level for US cities

NOAA analysis reveals significant land cover changes in US coastal regions

Preparing US community greenhouse gas inventories for climate action plans

Carbon reductions and health co-benefits from US residential energy efficiency measures

A framework re relationship between social factors that reduce resilience in cities: City of Boston

South America:

Rio de Janeiro's bid to become a smart city 

Linkages between population dynamics, urbanization and disaster risk: a regional vision of Latin America