Urban Systems Lab

This giving season, support the Urban Systems Lab’s mission to advance climate resilience and equity in cities worldwide. Our interdisciplinary team, housed within The New School, partners with city governments, NGOs, and community organizations to provide urgently needed climate services, adaptation strategies, and cutting-edge tools which help communities face emerging threats like flooding and extreme heat. In 2025, the Urban Systems Lab will celebrate its 10th year. Help us plan the next 10 by making a donation. With your support, we can expand our impact and scale our efforts to advance research and climate services for those who need it most. Donate now: 🔗 https://buff.ly/4138rRm #UrbanResilience #ClimateAction #SmartCities #Sustainability #UrbanPlanning #ClimateJustice #GreenInfrastructure #CommunityResilience #ClimateAdaptation #UrbanInnovation #CitiesForClimate #ClimateData #NatureBasedSolutions #UrbanNature #ClimateEquity #UrbanNatureBasedSolutions

🌆 How can NYC foster environmental justice while preparing for extreme heat? 🌿 A new study explores future scenarios, co-produced with government and researchers, to combat climate risks by 2100. Key findings: ✅ Urban green infrastructure (UGI) could cool neighborhoods and reduce flood risks, but its benefits are unevenly distributed today. ✅ Without intervention, ecosystem service access for communities of color may worsen by 2100. ✅ Co-produced scenarios incorporating UGI show promise for improving climate resilience equitably across NYC. This research highlights how inclusive planning can shape a fairer, cooler, and more resilient future for all. 🔗 Read more: https://buff.ly/3B6zbFT #ClimateJustice #UrbanResilience #EnvironmentalEquity #NYCPlanning

How can good listening transform collaborations for sustainability? 🌱 This question is explored in “Introducing Listening as a Weak Method for Advancing Sustainability and Interdisciplinary Scholarship” Timon McPhearson explains how this new framework reimagines listening as a "weak method" to bridge gaps across disciplines and practices. By focusing on four components—receiving, processing, interpretation, and feedback—the authors outline actionable steps for improving group dynamics, inclusion, collaboration pace, and structure. Grounded in sustainability science, this method promotes caring and transformational approaches to tackling global challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss. 🔗 read more: https://buff.ly/490IFz8 #InterdisciplinaryResearch #Sustainability #Collaboration #ListeningMatters

USL postdoctoral fellow Loan Diep shared key insights at the Global Forum on Human Settlements #GFHS2024 through a panel session on Nature-based Solutions panel at the UN HQ in NYC, alongside leaders from IUCN, Henning Larsen, Urban Land Institute & more. Her recommendations highlighted: 🔍 The need for cross-sector knowledge sharing & learning from grassroots initiatives 🏘️ Opportunities for NbS in informal settlements to enhance ecosystem services & resilience 📊 Importance of inclusive, reflexive monitoring systems that integrate community voices This global dialogue on urban innovation & sustainability brought together 400+ participants from 40+ countries at the UN. #UrbanResilience #UrbanNatureBasedSolutions #NBS

🌍 Highlights from the Urban Nature-Based Solutions Global Roadmap Writing Workshop🌱 Over three days, the Advisory Team for the NATURA Global Roadmap—representing regions across the globe—came together to synthesize two years of research into a comprehensive global report. The Global Roadmap aims to synthesize the scientific evidence on Nature-based Solutions (NBS) and identify knowledge gaps to leverage learning from NBS implementation within and across the world regions. It develops and compares regional profiles of the state of knowledge in research and practice in US-Canada, Latin America & the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East & North Africa, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. ✨ Stay tuned for the release of the Global Roadmap next year! 📅 🔗 Learn more: https://buff.ly/4bqDTLJ

How can we rethink urban biodiversity conservation to be inclusive of new ecosystem dynamics and changes? 🌍 New research, “Leverage Points for Improving Urban Biodiversity Conservation in the Anthropocene”, explores how how conventional conservation policy often does not adequately address biodiversity loss, or takes into account changing ecosystem dynamics and novel ecosystems. By analyzing policies used in Ireland, Australia, and the USA, the authors identify key leverage points for more flexible, adaptive governance. This approach promotes resilient, holistic strategies for managing biodiversity in urban spaces. Written by Melissa Pineda-Pinto, Christopher Kennedy, Fiona Nulty, and Marcus Collier 🔗 Read the article here: https://buff.ly/3YDk4vy What urban areas do you think could benefit from this shift in conservation policy? 🌿👇 #Biodiversity #UrbanConservation #ClimateAction #NovelEcosystems #PolicyInnovation

🌊 How can we improve urban flood models to make cities more resilient to stormwater impacts? 🌧️ Ashish Shrestha, Senior Research Fellow in Urban Flood Vulnerability at The Urban Systems Lab, explores this in his recent presentation titled “Advancing Hydrologic-Hydraulic Modeling for Urban Flood Management.” His research focuses on: 🔹 Filling critical data gaps and resolving uncertainties in stormwater modeling for accuracy. 🔹 Leveraging novel data sources like citizen science & traffic cameras to enhance flood monitoring without replacing traditional sensors. 🔹 Understanding infrastructure interdependencies for integrated and flexible flood management. With these insights, Ashish’s work aims to make urban flood management more informed and effective! 🔗 Read his recent publication: https://buff.ly/3CoFepw #UrbanFloods #Resilience #DataInnovation

🌎 How can knowledge co-production improve the equity and justice dimensions of climate adaptation planning, particularly for flood risk reduction? 🌱 In "Co-producing research and data visualization for environmental justice advocacy in climate change adaptation: The Milwaukee Flood-Health Vulnerability Assessment", the authors present a collaborative approach to adaptation planning. This study highlights the importance of co-producing research with local advocacy groups and healthcare practitioners to identify areas most vulnerable to flooding in Milwaukee, WI. By integrating diverse perspectives, the project aims to enable a more equitable climate adaptation process through nature-based solutions like urban green infrastructure. A web-based story map further supports the dissemination of these findings to planners and advocates. 🔗 Read the article here: https://buff.ly/4e7ggbI 📍 View the Storymap here: https://buff.ly/4huFqDN Written by Pablo Herreros-Cantis, Lawrence Hoffman, Christopher Kennedy, Young Kim, Joel Charles, Victoria Gillet, Anne Getzin, Danya Littlefield, Alexandria Zielinski, Joanne Bernstein, Rene’ Settle-Robinson, Johannes Langemeyer, Marc B. Neumann, and Timon McPhearson. #EnvironmentalJustice #ClimateAdaptation #CoProduction #UrbanPlanning

How do flood risks, critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, and social vulnerability intersect spatially across New York City's boroughs? In this new blog, researcher Alex Springer investigates how flood risk, critical infrastructure systems (CIS), and social vulnerability converge across New York City's five boroughs. Through advanced GIS modeling and statistical analysis, his research identifies significant spatial correlations between infrastructure fragility and socioeconomic vulnerability. Key findings: - Queens demonstrates heightened susceptibility to cascading infrastructure failures, particularly in water distribution networks following power system disruptions - The Bronx and Queens exhibit the highest composite social vulnerability to flooding impacts - Significant spatial correlation exists between CIS vulnerability and communities with higher percentile ranks of low-income minority residents The methodological approach integrates water distribution network modeling, power grid analysis, and social vulnerability indices to produce comprehensive urban vulnerability assessments. The research contributes to growing literature on compound risk factors in urban environments and has implications for climate adaptation policy. Read blog: https://buff.ly/48rOipQ #UrbanSystems #InfrastructureResilience #SpatialAnalysis #EnvironmentalJustice #UrbanPlanning #ClimateAdaptation #NYC #CompoundRisk #SocioTechnicalSystems

🌿 Join us TODAY at 6PM EST for a crucial conversation on how cooperatives are shaping a more sustainable and equitable future! Discover how 3 million+ cooperatives worldwide are fighting for racial, economic, and climate justice. Featured speakers include Mia Charlene White from The New School and Jerome Warren from University of Cologne, discussing insights from the upcoming Routledge Handbook of Cooperative Economics and Management. 🏛️ Attend in person: Wolff Conference Room, 6 East 16th St, NYC 💻 Or join virtually via Zoom (registration required) Free and open to all! Register now: https://buff.ly/3UDPTTD #Cooperatives #ClimateJustice #RacialJustice #Sustainability #TheNewSchool #Milano #UrbanStudies