Environment

Cross-Laminated Timber

Fire Tests Enable New Timber Typologies

After a long time lost in the woods, architects and engineers are rediscovering timber. Recent fire tests have demonstrated that timber can be a viable building material and meet existing code requirements.

August 25, 2017 - Doggerel

Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument

Interior Department Recommends Shrinking, Not Eliminating, National Monuments

What we now so far about the Interior Department's plans to shrink a "handful" of national monuments around the country.

August 24, 2017 - AP for the Oregonian

Empty Parking Lot

AVs and Real Estate - A Guide to Potential Impacts

AVs are more than a transportation issue and will have significant impacts on real estate. Expect AVs to affect parking, sprawl, housing prices, and transit.

August 24, 2017 - Urbanism Next Blog - Sustainable Cities Initiative

Lombard Street San Francisco

Too Much Driving is Spoiling California's Emissions Report Card

A new economics report from Beacon Economics for Next 10 shows that what good for the environment is good for the state's economy, but the results are marred by increasing vehicle-miles-traveled. The state's housing crisis is partly to blame.

August 24, 2017 - Business Wire

Miami

Toward Better Public-Private Partnerships in Resilience Planning

The public sector and the private sector need a better system of incentives to deliver on the infrastructure and development investments necessary to prepare for climate change and other environmental threats.

August 22, 2017 - Smart Cities Dive

Sequoia State Park

California Carbon Offset Program Judged Effective by Stanford University Study

The new study determined that carbon forestry offsets, which allow polluters to reduce carbon emissions out-of-state rather than in impacted communities near large pollution sources, is a beneficial climate program.

August 22, 2017 - The Washington Post

Alliance, Nebraska

Google Maps Traffic Alerts Follow Eclipse Totality Path, Carhenge Gets the Last Laugh

Parting shots from the Great American Eclipse.

August 22, 2017 - The Oregonian

Eclipse Glasses

How People Will See the Eclipse Today

A 33-year GIS professional lets loose his geospatial and population analysis skills on the occasion of a lifetime: today's "Great American Eclipse."

August 21, 2017 - Great American Eclipse

Cattle Farmers

Film Highlights Conservationists' Diversity

This documentary complicates what can seem like a stark partisan divide on the environment, highlighting the many heartland residents who do conservation work.

August 20, 2017 - Pacific Standard

Texas Oil Industry

Lax Regulation of Texas Air Polluters

Regular "emissions events" at Texas heavy industrial facilities cause a lot of unauthorized pollution. But few consequences mean the companies responsible don't have to crack down.

August 17, 2017 - The Texas Tribune

Los Angeles

Cooling L.A.

Changing the color of L.A. streets and growing out the urban canopy are part of a campaign to fight the heat island in and around Los Angeles.

August 17, 2017 - Gizmodo

New Orleans

New Orleans Stormwater Systems Failing Again

In an underreported fact, it has rained every day since April 1 in New Orleans this year. The city is struggling to deploy stormwater infrastructure, however, and flooding overwhelmed drainage again this month, on the cusp of hurricane season.

August 16, 2017 - The Guardian

Oil Drills

Global Subsidies for Fossil Fuels: $5 Trillion a Year

A new study from researchers at the International Monetary Fund finds the cost of doing fossil fuel business.

August 15, 2017 - The Guardian

Houston Flood

Texas-Sized Lessons in Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Sequel'

A review of Al Gore's new documentary film, "An Incovenient Sequel: Truth to Power" focuses on the lessons that can be gleaned from the film's representations of Texas.

August 15, 2017 - Houston Chronicle

Silicon Valley

Coastal Cities Setting the Sustainable Development Standard

Although no U.S. region has yet to even get halfway to sustainability goals set by the Paris Climate Agreement, certain U.S. cities are doing better than the rest.

August 14, 2017 - CityLab

Tampa Bay Storm

A Hurricane in Tampa Bay Could Surpass Katrina's Destruction

It's been a century since a hurricane larger than category three has scored a direct hit on the Tampa Bay region. If a storm arrives to change that streak of luck, it will find a region severly underprepared to deal with the effects of sea-level rise

August 13, 2017 - The Washington Post

Penn's Landing

Identifying the Populations Most Vulnerable to 'Extreme Heat Events'

New research published in Applied Geography is a first step toward planning for the resilience of vulnerable populations as the heat rises in urban areas.

August 11, 2017 - Scientific American

Agriculture

There Are Some Major Irrigation Problems We Need to Talk About

We can all do better when it comes to water.

August 8, 2017 - Kayla Matthews

Natural Gas

Appeals Court Deals Second Setback to Trump Administration on Methane Regulation

Another unpleasant reminder for the Trump Administration that there are three equal branches of government: A federal appeals court ruled 9-2 that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt must enforce a rule to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas wells.

August 7, 2017 - CNN Politics

City Hall

Impacts of AVs and E-Commerce on Municipal Budgets

A new report from Urbanism Next/SCI takes you through a city’s budget—both revenues and expenditures—and describes the areas that will be affected as AVs become commonplace and e-commerce takes on an even larger role in retail

August 4, 2017 - Urbanism Next

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.