Essay: 15-minute cities – how to separate the reality from the conspiracy theory
Town planning academics ALEX NURSE, ALESSIA CALAFIORE and RICHARD J DUNNING – in an article first published on The Conversation, look at what 15-minutes cities are really about…
Rooftops to railways: neighbourhoods race to hit net zero climate goals
Durban, South AfricaThomson Reuters Foundation Tackling climate change at a city level – let alone on a global scale – is time-consuming, but neighbourhoods are being targeted as testing grounds for speedy, community-led climate solutions. Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November, engineering company Arup and the C40 Cities network have launched […]
Scarcity of shade hurts Indian street vendors’ income, health
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation Street vendors in India are suffering from lower earnings and ill health as they lose access to shade in cities where trees are felled to make way for construction, researchers said on Thursday. As deadly heatwaves become more frequent in tropical countries such as India, loss of shade can severely affect […]
‘Digital twins’ can help create healthier cities after coronavirus
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation The use of new technologies, such as virtual reality, by planners to help design more sustainable and healthier cities has accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic, urban experts said on Friday. The respiratory disease, which has infected more than five million people worldwide, has already triggered the widespread use of robots, drones and […]
Bangkok court halts river promenade project that would worsen flooding
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation A court in Bangkok has asked the city’s authorities to stop work on a riverside promenade that urban planners and environmentalists said would worsen flooding and uproot hundreds of families dependent on the river to make a living. The administrative court last Wednesday told the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration that the seven […]
Greener, longer life: More trees reduce premature deaths in cities
Tbilisi, GeorgiaThomson Reuters Foundation City dwellers tend to live longer if they are in leafy neighbourhoods, according to a study published on Wednesday that linked green areas to lower rates of premature death. Trees in cities are already credited with cooling and cleaning the air and absorbing planet-warming gases, now researchers at the Barcelona Institute […]
In Asia’s booming cities, urban planners urged to include the poor
Penang, MalaysiaThomson Reuters Foundation Urban planners in rapidly expanding Asian cities must involve the poorest residents in decision-making and include informal spaces if they are serious about tackling inequality, development experts said on Wednesday. More than 2.3 billion people in Asia-Pacific live in cities, and that number is expected to reach nearly 3.5 billion in […]
SOUTH AFRICA: “WE FEEL FREE” – CYCLISTS RIDE THROUGH APARTHEID’S SPATIAL DIVIDES
KIM HARRISBERG, writing for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, looks at how a cycling initiative is breaking down barriers…