Research at the Earth Institute is organized into nine themes. Urbanization is one of them.
For the first time in history, over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Many people now live apart from where their food is grown and are dependent on vast and complex infrastructures for their livelihoods. Urban areas provide economic opportunity, the potential for increased efficiency and improvements in standard of living, but they are also under acute stress as their populations expand. This in turn puts pressure on the areas that support their resource needs, creating social, infrastructural and health challenges to the sustainability of cities.
The Earth Institute is studying the links between urban areas and their surrounding regions and finding ways to create healthy urban settings in both the developed and the developing world.
Featured Projects
Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD)
The Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD), one of eight Centers of Excellence established by the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations, promotes education and research for the advancement of physically and socially sustainable cities. To fulfill its mission, CSUD engages in interdisciplinary analyses of the linkages between urban transportation, land use, economic development, demographic shifts, population health and climate change. In conjunction with local partners and stakeholders, CSUD is conducting on-the-ground urban planning in Kenya, where it has worked with local partners on a physical development plan for Ruiru, one of Nairobi’s satellite cities. CSUD’s work is directed toward the establishment of integrated and community-based metropolitan planning that will result in the creation of sustainable and equitable urban development.
Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI)
The Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI), a project of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, assists sub-Saharan cities in their efforts to attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, thereby helping to make severe poverty a thing of the past. MCI helps selected under-resourced urban centers become viable, sustainable Millennium Cities, each with distinct livelihood opportunities, improved access to public services, and links with the countryside and international markets. MCI accomplishes this through a combination of research and policy analysis, and by working with local, domestic and international partners to stimulate economic and social development.
Urban Design Lab (UDL)
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)
The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS)
As countries and regions address the steps needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of domestic security and economic growth, gains are often offset by the impacts of natural disasters. The mass migration from rural to urban areas puts populations around the world at higher risk, especially since many major cities are located near coasts and fault lines. This increase in density brings more demand for essential services like water, sanitation, food and energy. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Urban Design Lab has received support from the government of the Dominican Republic to analyze the existing capacity and preparedness plan for future natural disasters.
With input from research colleagues at the Earth Institute and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, the study looks at five main areas—hazard, exposure, fragility, risks, and integration and planning—and engages with government officials, civic organizations, and academic and research institutions to analyze the challenges within a complex emergency prediction and response framework.
Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR)
Green Mapping for Eco-Justice is an initiative of the Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR), in partnership with Harlem faith leaders, community activists and Columbia University students, to develop a “green map” of Harlem that promotes environmental justice by highlighting the social, cultural and sustainable resources of Morningside Heights and Harlem.
Center for Climate Systems Research (CCSR)
Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)
School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS)
Urban Design Lab (UDL)
With support from Office of Environmental Stewardship
The National Science Foundation awarded Columbia University $476,000 to continue its work on comparing and evaluating the effectiveness of different green roof technologies. The Green Roof Consortium is working to understand green roof performance, optimize the technology and realize countless potential benefits to human health, economic efficiency and pollution reduction. The Environmental Protection Agency subsequently awarded $100,000 to look at water quality issues. Con Edison has also contributed to the Consortium.
Urban Design Lab (UDL)
Foodshed analysis initiatives incorporate localized land use, soil type, transportation infrastructure and agricultural production projections in the New York City metropolitan area and the Catskills region. In the New York City Foodshed Analysis, the Urban Design Lab (UDL) is using GIS and other geospatial data to quantify regional food production capacity and study methods to increase access to affordable, healthy food in all New York neighborhoods. Researchers focusing on the nearby Upper Delaware Valley are examining the relationship between expanded regional food production and urban and rural health considerations, the carbon footprint associated with production and transport, and the socio-cultural dimension of food culture in the city and countryside.
Urban Design Lab (UDL)
The Urban Design Lab (UDL) is advancing urban models that allow for long-term sustainability for both the environment and city inhabitants by studying innovative approaches to sustainable urban development worldwide. UDL’s work addresses the many ecological issues generated by the rapid growth of cities around the world. In the Urban Green Area Ratio Studio, a collaboration with the Urban Ecology Studio at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, UDL combines the fields of architecture and engineering to understand and improve the dynamic interactions between people and ecosystems in urban settings.
Urban Design Lab (UDL)
The Urban Design Lab (UDL) is collaborating with researchers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science to merge design, engineering and earth science in the study of the phenomenon by which plastic waste congregates on the top of the ocean and creates a new ecosystem. The “TrashPatch,” which is comparable in size to a continent, and its micro-climate could significantly alter the global marine environment.
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