Architecture & Urban Planning

Jessica Davenport's opinion article in the San Francisco Estuary News highlights the importance of equitable access to nature and community engagement in conservation in the Bay Area.

Acres of asphalt parking lots, unshaded roads, dense apartment complexes and neighborhoods with few parks have taken their toll on the poor. As climate change accelerates, low-income districts in the Southwestern United States are 4 to 7 degrees hotter in Fahrenheit — on average — than wealthy neighborhoods in the same metro regions, University of California, Davis, researchers have found in a new analysis.

The population of Texas today stands at almost 28 million. By 2050, that number is predicted to nearly double to 55 million, with most people clustered in already-dense urban centers like Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.Over the next several decades, researchers also project an increase in the frequency and intensity of storms like Hurricane Harvey, as well as more heat, droughts, and floods.

Nathan McClintock has received a large grant to study the social and technological obstacles and opportunities related to greenhouse development in low-income neighborhoods in Montreal hit hard by the pandemic. A team of engineers and environmental scientists will focus on how to maximize energy efficiency and integrate infrastructure in the existing built environment, while my team will focus on community interest and participation, risks related to gentrification, political and planning issues.

Xantha Bruso is now Principal in the Energy Services group at The Cadmus Group, where she'll manage experts on the Strategic Electrification team to provide planning, market research, implementation, and evaluation services to a range of public and private sector clients. Visit her LinkedIn profile

Jonathan Likeke Scheuer is in his seventh year of serving as one of nine members of Hawaii’s Land Use Commission. The LUC is responsible for moving land from Hawaii’s conservation and agricultural districts into the urban district — for housing and other purposes. He writes the state cannot hope to solve its housing problem until it recognizes the myths in most definitions of the housing crisis.

Isa Gaillard is working with The Greenlining Institute's Environmental Equity team as a Program Manager for the community of practice project. For this project, the institute is partnering with Forth to develop a national community of practice that will include organizations across five states and will focus on advancing clean and equitable transportation for all. The community of practice format balances the community, networking, and learning components of an educational cohort while also maintaining the policy advocacy focus of a coalition.

In November 2020 Environmental Health News annouced their second round of Agents of Change in Environmental Health fellows, which includes Regan Patterson, a Transportation Equity Research Fellow at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. From the EHN website: Amplifying voices of next generation environmental health and justice leaders has grown in relevance and urgency as we face a public health pandemic, economic collapse, racial injustice, and increasing effects of climate change.

This lecture by Linda Shi from September 10, 2020 explores whether it is possible to achieve both social justice and environmental sustainability in efforts to mitigate urban flood risk.