New Publication: “Water sources for street trees in mesic urban environments”
2021 Early Stage Urban Research award recipient Ian Smith recently published in Science of The Total Environment with Co-PIs Pamela Templer and Lucy Hutyra. Smith, Templer, and Hutyra examine urban trees’ water sources, factoring in moderate moisture environments and their impact on urban communities. Their research finds that trees contribute to cities’ overall climate resiliency […]
New Publication: “What Constitutes Engaged Dialogue in Urban Research? Thoughts From a Long Time ‘Outside-Insider'”
Initiative on Cities Director Loretta Lees recently published a plenary in Dialogues in Urban Research focusing on inclusionary dialogue in urban studies and what needs to change. Read the abstract below: “In this plenary for the new journal Dialogues in Urban Research, I discuss what constitutes (and should constitute going forward) engaged dialogue in urban […]
2023 Careers in Transportation Information Session
On Thursday, November 16th, from 4:00-5:30 pm, the Initiative on Cities and City Planning & Urban Affairs program co-hosts a Careers in Transportation event. This event will give attendees a chance to hear about possible career options in the field and connect with professionals in transportation. Previous attendees of the Careers in Transportation event have […]
School of Cities, University of Toronto and Initiative on Cities, Boston University hold first SSHRC-funded workshop on research, policy and practice in relation to Climate Displacement and Cities
On September 28th, Boston University’s Initiative on Cities and the University of Toronto’s School of Cities held the first of three workshops on climate displacement in Toronto, Canada. David Miller of C40 Cities, who also sits on the IOC’s External Advisory Board, delivered an excellent keynote discussing global mayoral thoughts on climate displacement and outlining […]
Gendered Differences in Mobility and the Demand for Transport: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Urban Ethiopia
Principal Investigator: Africa’s cities are the most rapidly growing in the world; current estimates indicate that by 2050, African cities will grow by an additional 900 million inhabitants and will be home to more than two-thirds of the continent’s population. While urban expansion in Africa will offer opportunities for growth and development, such growth will […]
Event Recap: Rockefeller Foundation Implementing Climate Action in America’s Cities
Event recap by Dhruv Kapadia Watch the full report here! On Tuesday, January 31st, The Rockefeller Foundation hosted “Implementing Climate Action in America’s Cities,” a conversation with local experts on climate justice and how the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) might transform front-line communities. Moderated by The Rockefeller Foundation’s Rachel Isacoff, panelists Nathaniel Smith of Partnership […]
Understanding Long-Term Mobility in Nairobi’s Slums
Principal Investigator This project will kickstart tracking and re-surveying a large sample of Nairobi slum residents surveyed more than a decade ago in 2012. Back then, I jointly led a research team that conducted a complete mapping exercise of Nairobi’s largest informal settlement, Kibera. We collected coarse data on housing conditions from more than 32,000 […]
Hyperresolution large-eddy simulations for assessing the local impacts of heat mitigation strategies
Principal Investigator: Co-Principal Investigator: Cities are emerging as the nexus of the energy, water, health, and climate challenges in the 21st century. More than 50% of the world’s population lives in cities, and the urban population continues growing. Urban areas are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Urbanization also modifies the Earth’s surface properties, resulting […]
Meet the 2022–2023 NLC Menino Fellow: An Pham
The Initiative on Cities (IOC) is pleased to announce An Pham (KHC ‘24) as our 2022–2023 National League of Cities (NLC) Menino Fellow. An is a junior majoring in Economics and Mathematics and is interested in inequality, environmental policy, and urban economics. He hopes to pursue a career in policy analysis, where he can work […]
Faculty Friday: Adil Najam
Faculty Friday is a series highlighting members of the Initiative on Cities (IOC) Faculty Advisory Board by exploring their work on campus and in the city. This week, we are highlighting Adil Najam, Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Professor of International Relations and Earth and Environment. Professor Najam […]