Sustainable Urban-Rural Futures

We develop advanced urban sustainability analytics to understand how cities contribute to environmental change and can help solve grand environmental challenges.

Cities house the majority of people and wealth. They pull vast quantities of resources from global hinterlands and expel pollution and waste. By doing so, cities degrade the local and distant environments needed by humanity to thrive. Because of their population density and co-location of a wide range of  human activities, cities also provide unique opportunities to use infrastructure and resources more effectively. We believe that cities can become more sustainable.

Our research develops novel methods to quantify and map resource use and environmental impacts of cities. We apply multi-scalar thinking to understand the interconnections between cities and the distal farms, fields, fisheries, forests, mines, factories, and peoples on which they rely and to expand beyond a city-centric conceptualization of urban sustainability. Through clarifying these connections, we can work towards sustainable and just cities that respect people and planet.