Urbanization News

July 26, 2024

Top Headlines

Study Examines Urban Forests Across the United States

July 12, 2024 — Tree-planting campaigns have been underway in the United States, especially in cities, as part of climate mitigation efforts given the many environmental benefits of urban forests. But a new study finds that some areas within urban forests in the ...

How Researchers Are Using Digital City-Building Games to Shape the Future

July 1, 2024 — Researchers have come up with exciting and sophisticated new mapping technology enabling future generations to get involved in creating their own future built landscape. They say that planners are missing a real trick when it comes to encouraging ...

Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Pose an Acute Challenge for Cities With Combined Sewer Systems

June 27, 2024 — Older coastal cities, like Philadelphia, New York and Boston are at risk of being inundated by untreated sewage during floods. Due in part to the design of their combined sewer systems and in part ...

Rare Samoan Discovery Offers Clues to Origins of Inequality

June 24, 2024 — The origins of hierarchical society in Samoa and wider Polynesia have likely been uncovered by a new study led by ...

Latest Headlines

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Introducing Co-Cultures: When Co-Habiting Animal Species Share Culture

July 11, 2024 — Cooperative hunting, resource sharing, and using the same signals to communicate the same information -- these are all examples of cultural sharing that have been observed between distinct animal ...

Boosting Biodiversity Without Hurting Local Economies

June 21, 2024 — Protected areas, like nature reserves, can conserve biodiversity without harming local economic growth, countering a common belief that conservation restricts development. A new study outlines what ...

Tight-Knit Communities Can Prevent Environmental Progress

June 18, 2024 — New research indicates that strong community bonds could hinder rather than help environmental ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Nationwide Flood Models Poorly Capture Risks to Households and Properties, Study Finds

July 24, 2024 — Government agencies, insurance companies and disaster planners rely on national flood risk models from the private sector that aren't reliable at smaller levels such as neighborhoods and ...

A Window of Opportunity for Climate Change and Biodiversity

July 23, 2024 — World leaders must take advantage of a pivotal window of opportunity for forging a much-needed joined-up approach to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, say scientists. Without this, work on ...

Researchers Explore the Role of Children in Community Participatory Planning Process

July 11, 2024 — Child-friendly cities prioritize safe environments, healthcare, education, green spaces, and children's participation in decision-making processes. However, children are consulted only for ideas ...

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 ...

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 persistently experiencing record-breaking high-temperature ...

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 transit station is significantly associated with ...

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 ...

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 ...