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  • 'Cool pavement' experiments help urban planners find ways to ease rising temperatures

    May 15, 2020 |

    AZ Central (The Arizona Republic) |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

    To combat the effects of rising temperatures due to climate change, Los Angeles piloted an experiment called “cool pavements,” where they coat streets with a light-colored sealant to reflect heat. Researchers are studying how effective this method is at reducing the urban heat island effect. Using a mobile sensor station, they found mixed results: While the surface temperature of the road was cooler, a person could feel warmer on the reflective roads. Figuring out how to balance different heat-mitigating strategies could be helpful as cities like Phoenix figure out how to implement cooling infrastructure.

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  • The best trees to reduce air pollution

    May 04, 2020 |

    BBC |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Canada, Oakville, Ontario

    New technology is helping urban planners and developers better identify which trees could help cities reduce air pollution. In Ontario, the city of Oakville adopted a new software that resulted in planners halting the planting of one type of tree after learning it had little benefit on the air quality, while another digital tool designed in London is helping citizens determine which plants help remove particulate matter.

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  • How do you build a city for a pandemic? Audio icon

    April 26, 2020 |

    BBC |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    Major populated cities such as New York and London were once regarded as "death traps," but a series of deadly outbreaks led to structural changes that worked to improve the public health outcomes for those living there. From sewer systems to therapeutic gardens, the health of those living in cities has improved in a variety of ways, however, that has not stopped densely populated areas from turning into hotspots for coronavirus. To address this, local governments are experimenting with even more structural changes such as turning city streets into walking and biking paths.

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  • Minneapolis Funding Its Parks With an Eye to Equity

    April 09, 2020 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

    The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has approved a new scoring system to prioritize parks that are most in need of an investment, from the limited funds available, based on equity measures such as race, income, population density, and crime. This data-driven system is used in conjunction with the park board's judgment of a park's infrastructure and has pinpointed parks which were not typically on the park board's radar for renovation.

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  • This tool is helping cities find the neighborhoods most vulnerable to coronavirus

    March 24, 2020 |

    FastCompany |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

    A new urban planning tool called Urban Footprint is helping governments to map out their most vulnerable neighborhoods and populations. Originally designed in 2018 to help city planners make sense of large data sets and understand the implication of potential policies on traffic, energy use, or multiple other factors, Urban Footprint was easily adapted to pull in data from the CDC and other inputs for COVID-19 considerations.

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  • Beside a Vast Graveyard, a New City Rises in Haiti

    March 21, 2020 |

    Pacific Standard |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Haiti, Canaan

    A survivor of Haiti's earthquake sought out a new home on an unclaimed plot of land which is home to one of the country's largest cemeteries. Madame Roy built a neighborhood from the ground up with the help of architects and funding from people who wanted to be residents of the future city. Roads, homes, a cistern, a soccer field, and a school were all built without the help of the Haitian government. 200,000 residents who lost everything in the earthquake have found a chance to start over in the new city of Canaan.

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  • Pour It On: How Dutch Cities Are Soaking up Rain and Reducing Flooding

    March 10, 2020 |

    The Times-Picayune |

    Multi-Media |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Netherlands, Rotterdam

    A green roof initiative is one of the projects Rotterdam, a city in the Netherlands, is working on to capture and store more rainwater; a solution that might work in Louisiana. With heavier rains and more intense storms due to climate change in both places, the amount of rainfall coming down can overwhelm drainage systems. Although the price tag can be high to build these green roofs, Rotterdam boasts 100 acres of green roofs that have increased the city’s water storage capacity by about 1.6 million gallons.

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  • 'Visible women': Feminist mappers bridge data gap in urban design

    March 07, 2020 |

    Thomson Reuters Foundation |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Mexico, Mexico City

    The underrepresentation of women in technology and computer science has led to the creation of Geochicas, a group of women who recruit and train female, open source mappers across the world. Open source mapping is a male-dominated pursuit but one that informs urban design and public policy. When mapping a city, women tend to add services that are overlooked by men, such as childcare services, hospitals, and women's health clinics. Diversifying the volunteers who do this work to include more women leads to mapping that is more inclusive and minimizes crowdsourced-data bias against women.

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  • What Would a World Without Prisons Look Like?

    March 06, 2020 |

    The New York Times |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

    Deanna Van Buren and her nonprofit firm Designing Justice/Designing Spaces use architecture to advance social justice and criminal-justice-reform ideas, designing workplaces, meeting places, and homes nationwide founded on the notion of "what a world without prisons could look like." The firm's projects, often planned with input from the people directly affected, have included privacy-enhancing temporary living units for people recently released from prison, a "peacemaking" space in Syracuse, N.Y., and two of the first restorative-justice meeting places for crime victims and those who harmed them.

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  • How the Knox County Land Bank is affecting local communities

    March 02, 2020 |

    Knox Pages |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Mount Vernon, Ohio

    The Knox County Land Reutilization Corporation, also known as the Knox County land bank, takes abandoned properties that are vacant and tax delinquent, revitalizes them, and then sells them to new owners. This eliminates blight around the county and encourages economic development. The Land Bank President estimates that for every $1 the land bank spends, they generate $33.82 in redevelopment. Operating in earnest since the fall of 2018, the land bank has brought $3.5 million in reinvestment into the county. They are now looking to acquire even more buildings and financially support individual homeowners.

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