Environment
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Google Maps Traffic Alerts Follow Eclipse Totality Path, Carhenge Gets the Last Laugh
Parting shots from the Great American Eclipse.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
There Are Some Major Irrigation Problems We Need to Talk About
We can all do better when it comes to water.
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.
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
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.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
