City Stories
A key challenge in this new Human Age is to lessen the ecological footprint of the world’s cities, even as their populations expand. The Anthropocene tells the stories about resilient urban coastal infrastructure, low carbon transportation systems, and nature-inspired architectural designs.
The key to sustainable cities may lie in increasingly sophisticated digital twins
Researchers offer the first rigorous analysis “In silico" equivalents of urban areas as a powerful tool for sustainable development
One Man’s Trash . . .
Mining landfills for metals and energy
Not all green roofs are created equal
Using freely available satellite data, scientists have devised an inexpensive method to measure the cooling effect of green roofs from space.
To upgrade energy efficiency, retrofit old buildings—with plants
Living walls on building facades could reduce heat loss to a similar degree as adding insulation
Discarded electronics could become a huge source of gold in the United States. Here’s how.
In a first, researchers assessed the kinds of electronics that will be discarded in the future and the materials they contain to see how a national e-waste recycling strategy might pan out.
The Circular Economy Made Real
In more and more pockets of the industrial landscape, the byproducts of one process are becoming the raw materials for another, trash is getting a useful second life, and waste is becoming a thing of the past.
Barcelona-style “superblocks” could make a surprising number of cities greener and less car-centric
Identify a handful of adjacent city blocks, restrict traffic to the perimeter, and make the interior for walking, biking, and green space. A new study finds it could work even in cities with an irregular street grid.
Should the climate-friendly city of the future be made of wood?
New study is the first to analyze how a large-scale transition to timber cities could ease the strain on carbon budgets without compromising food production and biodiversity
Everything people think they know about the best time to charge electric cars is wrong
Current electric car owners tend to charge their cars at night. If that trend continues, it could create a big stress on the grid.
It’s an unsinkable idea
The concept of settling the high seas is back—this time as a sustainable answer to sea-level rise, with an impressive team and UN support.
