Urbanization News

June 15, 2024

Top Headlines

Cocaine Trafficking Threatens Critical Bird Habitats

June 12, 2024 — In addition to its human consequences, cocaine trafficking harms the environment and threatens habitats important to dozens of species of migratory birds, according to a new ...

Researchers Use 3D Visualization to Predict, Prevent Hurricane Damage

June 10, 2024 — The researchers say 3D visualization of hurricanes and storm surges allows them to understand how flooding will impact coastal communities by allowing them to vividly see how each building and road might be impacted by a given ...

Upstream and Downstream: River Study Highlights Cross-Country Inequities

June 10, 2024 — New research highlights inequities between downstream and upstream countries that share the same watershed. The study outlines how international agreements can better address shared resource problems and call for greater collaboration and ...

Rapid Urbanization in Africa Transforms Local Food Systems and Threatens Biodiversity

May 30, 2024 — Urbanization in Africa is accelerating quickly, showing no signs of slowing down. An international team of researchers addresses critical gaps in our understanding of how this urbanization affects ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:11pm EDT

Synthetic Data Holds the Key to Determining Best Statewide Transit Investments

June 14, 2024 — Synthetically generated population data can reveal the equity impacts of distributing transportation resources and funding across diverse regions, ...

Slugs and Snails Love the City, Unlike Other Animals

May 29, 2024 — Most native species avoid more urbanized areas of Los Angeles, but slugs and snails may actually prefer these environments, according to a new ...

Researchers Call for Return of Sumas Lake Following Devastating 2021 Floods

June 3, 2024 — A new proposal has emerged in response to the November 2021 floods that swept Sumas Prairie in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, causing mass evacuations and millions in damages. Instead of ...

Effectiveness of GBGI Infrastructure in Mitigating Urban Heat, Proposing Nine-Stage Framework for Development of a Sustainable City

May 23, 2024 — Primarily due to the impact of urbanisation and global warming, urban heatwaves have become a challenging issue worldwide, with Hong Kong ...

Social Networks Can Influence Perception of Climate-Change Risk

May 22, 2024 — Short but severe episodes of flooding from hurricanes in Texas and Florida triggered a nationwide increase in flood insurance sign-ups depending on how socially connected a county was to the flooded ...

Conservation of Nature's Strongholds Needed to Halt Biodiversity Loss

May 21, 2024 — To achieve global biodiversity targets, conservationists and governments must prioritize the establishment and effective management of large, interconnected protected areas with high ecological ...

Green Infrastructure Plans Need to Consider Historical Racial Inequalities

May 21, 2024 — Urban greening projects should consider historical development patterns and past discriminatory practices to avoid exacerbating the unequal distribution of environmental benefits, says an urban and ...

Study Tallies Heatwave Deaths Over Recent Decades

May 14, 2024 — Between 1990 and 2019, more than 150,000 deaths around the globe were associated with heatwaves each year, according to a new ...

New Transit Station in Japan Significantly Reduced Cumulative Health Expenditures

May 14, 2024 — A research team assessed the impact of a train station's opening on health expenditures. The natural experiment study revealed that a new mass ...

Acceptance of Animals in Urban Environments

May 8, 2024 — How do city residents feel about animals in their immediate surroundings? A recent study shows how different the acceptance of various wild animals in urban areas is. Important factors are the places ...

Traffic Speeds Decrease When Bike Lane Is Present

June 3, 2024 — Researchers conducting a study at a high-traffic intersection in a Jersey Shore town have found that the installation of a bike lane along the road approaching the convergence reduced driving ...

Wild Megalopolis: Study Shows Unexpected Pockets of Biodiversity Pepper Los Angeles

May 29, 2024 — Researchers, in partnership with the city of Los Angeles, have developed the urban association index to help identify how well or poorly individual wildlife species are doing in the city. The ...

Sister Cities Can Help Communities Better Navigate the Climate Crisis

May 3, 2024 — Anthropologists suggest in a new study that establishing networks of 'sister cities' dedicated to addressing the impact of natural disasters can mitigate the devastation wrought by climate ...

To Bend the Curve of Biodiversity Loss, Nature Recovery Must Be Integrated Across All Sectors

May 2, 2024 — The alarming rates of biodiversity loss worldwide have made clear that the classical way of governing biodiversity recovery based on protected areas and programs for the protection of endangered ...

Life Expectancy in Two Disadvantaged Areas Higher Than Expected

May 1, 2024 — Better than expected life expectancy in two disadvantaged areas in England is probably due to population change according to local residents and professionals. In the UK, people from the most ...

Climate Change Could Become the Main Driver of Biodiversity Decline by Mid-Century

Apr. 25, 2024 — Global biodiversity has declined between 2% and 11% during the 20th century due to land-use change alone, according to a large multi-model study. Projections show climate change could become the main ...

Marginalized Communities Developed 'Disaster Subculture' When Living Through Extreme Climate Events

Apr. 23, 2024 — An assistant professor conducted a study in which he lived among one of the poorest, most marginalized communities in Seoul, South Korea. In the ethnographic study, he asked residents how they dealt ...

One Third of China's Urban Population at Risk of City Sinking, New Satellite Data Shows

Apr. 18, 2024 — Land subsidence is overlooked as a hazard in cities, according to new research. Scientists used satellite data that accurately and consistently maps land movement across ...

Scientists Develop Framework to Measure Plastic Emissions and Bolster U.N. Efforts to Reduce Pollution

Apr. 16, 2024 — Scientists have developed a framework for measuring plastic emissions akin to the global standard for measuring greenhouse gas emissions. The approach boosts identification of the biggest ...

Florida Wildlife Corridor Eases Worst Impacts of Climate Change

Apr. 16, 2024 — Florida is projected to lose 3.5 million acres of land to development by 2070. A new study highlights how Florida can buffer itself against both climate change and population pressures by conserving ...

GeoAI Technologies for Sustainable Urban Development

Apr. 15, 2024 — From heatwaves to pandemic diseases, the urban environments of the world face numerous challenges. Researchers are harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) and informatics to address emerging concerns ...

U.S. Building Footprints Could Help Identify Neighborhood Sociodemographic Traits

Apr. 10, 2024 — An analysis of building footprints in major U.S. metropolitan areas identifies five different neighborhood types that vary in footprint size, shape, and placement, and which are statistically ...

Research Examines Tweets During Hurricane María to Analyze Social Media Use During Disasters

Apr. 9, 2024 — Understanding how social media is used during a disaster can help with disaster preparedness and recovery for future ...

With the Planet Facing a 'Polycrisis', Biodiversity Researchers Uncover Major Knowledge Gaps

Apr. 4, 2024 — Connecting the study of infectious disease spread, biodiversity loss and climate change could offer win-win-win solutions for planetary health, but a new analysis has uncovered almost no research ...

North American Cities May See a Major Species Turnover by the End of the Century

Mar. 27, 2024 — Climate change may dramatically affect the animal species observed in North American cities, according to a new ...

Research Identifies Characteristics of Cities That Would Support Young People's Mental Health

Mar. 25, 2024 — As cities around the world continue to draw young people for work, education, and social opportunities, a new study identifies characteristics that would support young urban dwellers' mental ...

Rural and Minority Dementia Patients Face Disparities in Access to Neurologists

Mar. 20, 2024 — A study of nearly 95,000 Washington state residents found that people living outside of urban areas as well as Native American and Hispanic people face longer travel distances to be seen by ...

Pinging Pipes Could Help to Identify Lead Water Lines Without Excavation

Mar. 7, 2024 — A recent study showed that it is possible to discern the composition of a buried pipe by striking an accessible portion of it and monitoring the sound waves that reach the surface. This method could ...

Sinking Land Increases Risk for Thousands of Coastal Residents by 2050

Mar. 6, 2024 — A new study provides a new comprehensive look at the potential for flooding in a combined 32 cities along the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts. It predicts as many as 500,000 people will be ...

How Climate Change Risks Increase at a National Scale as the Level of Global Warming Increases

Feb. 29, 2024 — Researchers have quantified how climate change risks to human and natural systems increase at a national scale as the level of global warming increases. A collection of eight studies -- all focusing ...