Construction Underway on €8 Billion ‘Smart City’
Construction has begun on a “smart city” three times the size of Monaco, which its developers hope will become a prototype for sustainable development across the world. Lamda Development, the Greek developers behind Ellinikon, have called the project “Europe’s largest sustainable smart city.” By this, they mean a city – in this case within another city – that is designed and built with both its inhabitants and the surrounding environment in mind.
Sewage discharges increase risk of hospital visits for residents near Merrimack River, study finds
People living in communities along the Merrimack River are at increased risk of developing acute gastrointestinal illnesses in the days following large combined sewer overflows, according to a study from researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health.
Tensions in the ever-changing nature of cities
Over millennia, cities have evolved into new versions of themselves. This issue of Nature Cities explores pressing urban alterations in this moment of history, including conflicts wrought by gentrification and the unfolding iterations of climate change.
What’s stifling city climate action? Municipal finance practices, one report says
Claudia Diezmartínez wants city officials to be more curious about how local climate programs are funded. The funding process is shaping which projects cities pursue and who they benefit, according to a February 2024 Nature Climate Change paper co-authored by Diezmartínez, a Ph.D. candidate at Boston University.
CISS Affiliates Testify in Support of New Massachusetts Law Incentivizing Towns Along Public Transportation
Two global trends collided in 2023: the warming of the atmosphere and the growth of urban areas. Phoenix, Ariz., the fifth-largest city in the US, reached 110 degrees on 31 consecutive days. Heat-related hospitalizations spiked and people burned themselves on scorching asphalt. Texas, home to several of the country’s largest and fastest-growing cities, experienced the second-hottest summer ever, leading to a BBC headline that asked if the Lone Star State could “become too hot for humans.”
US Mayors Cite Red Tape as One Factor in Slowing Clean Energy Projects, BU Researchers Find
More than half of US mayors—6 out of 10—saw little or no impact from the Inflation Reduction Act in the first year after its passage, attributing the unimpressive imprint of one of President Biden’s signature legislative achievements to the challenging grant application process and the public’s lack of familiarity with its details. That is one of the takeaways in the 2023 Menino Survey of Mayors by Boston University’s Initiative on Cities (IOC).
Professor Partners with Boston Public Schools to Study Classroom Air Quality
The most comprehensive database of Massachusetts’ affordable housing inventory spotlights the use of age-restricted housing to maintain racial segregation, its creators say. In 44 cities and towns, not a single unit of non-age-restricted affordable housing has been built despite state laws such as Chapter 40B that make it easier for developers to build income-restricted projects.
Healey-Driscoll Administration Launches Climate Science Advisory Panel
The Healey-Driscoll Administration today launched a Climate Science Advisory Panel through the new Massachusetts Office of Climate Science (OCS) to provide expertise on statewide climate science and future projections used to inform state and local climate adaptation planning and projects. The Panel is comprised of experts within Massachusetts and across the region who will advise OCS on the latest advances and applications in climate science related to hazards such as extreme heat, flooding, sea level rise, and health impacts to inform the state’s climate adaptation and resilience strategy.
Lucy Huytra | 2023 MacArthur Fellow
Lucy Hutyra is an environmental ecologist investigating the impacts of urbanization on environmental carbon cycle dynamics. She draws on a range of tools—including field observations, remote sensing, spatial analysis, and mathematical modeling—to measure where, when, and how much carbon moves between different reservoirs, like plants, soil, water, and air, in forests and urban areas.
Four Mass. residents awarded MacArthur ‘genius’ grants
Four people from Massachusetts — a cellular and molecular biologist, an environmental ecologist, a computer scientist, and an interdisciplinary scholar — on Wednesday received “genius” grants from the MacArthur Foundation, which awards fellowships to individuals pursuing a range of intellectual and creative interests. Hutyra is a professor in Boston University’s Department of Earth and Environment and has been a member of BU’s faculty since 2009. She is investigating impacts of urbanization on environmental carbon cycle dynamics.