News

April 15, 2024

A new study co-led by Urban Systems Lab presents key findings and recommendations for addressing future climate change impacts in New York City

An 18-month study highlights the likelihood of increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, and more frequent extreme weather events in New York City and provides the city with critical information for prioritizing solutions. Conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Professors Joel Towers and Dr. Timon McPhearson at The New School’s Tishman Environment and Design Center and Urban Systems Lab, the study was commissioned by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) through a Town+Gown partnership program. It explores how current and future climate change may pose substantial challenges to the city's infrastructure and communities, and provides critical insights that could advance solutions for adaptation and resiliency. Press release and Read the Report

April 8, 2024

USL Research Supports New York City’s First Comprehensive Study on Environmental Inequality Released by NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice

Alongside the release of a historic Environmental Justice NYC (EJNYC) Report, the New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) released the EJNYC Mapping Tool, the city’s first-ever interactive online resource that provides policymakers, community leaders, and everyday New Yorkers with detailed analysis of the environmental hazards in their own neighborhoods. The new report and mapping tool are another significant step to embed environmental justice into the city’s climate work. The mapping tool utilizes the first-ever Flood Vulnerability Index (FVI) for New York City, which was developed by a team of researchers led by USL’s Dr. Timon McPhearson, Pablo Herreros-Cantis and Malgosia Madajewicz at Columbia University, to aid in the office’s ongoing efforts to identify communities most vulnerable to coastal flooding. Learn more and visit tool

April 1, 2024

Urban Systems Lab Events during Earth Month 2024

Join us during the month of April for a number of events to celebrate Earth Month at The New School. Events include:

• Advancing Equitable and Resilient Futures in NYC: Science and Policy for Climate Justice on April 18, 12-1:30pm at Wollman Hall, Room B500, 65 West 11th Street, New York, NY. This event highlighting the results and recommendations from an 18-month study to understand future climate change in New York City, commissioned by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice and Department of Citywide Administrative Services called the "Climate Vulnerability, Impact, and Adaptation Analysis (VIA)."

• Where Nature Meets City: Three Short Films and Discussions on April 22, 7 - 8:30pm: An eye-opening event about the crucial role of nature in crafting cities that overcome climate change. This evening will feature three short films:

  • "Garden Ministry" featuring Rev. Dallas Conyers, directed by Kerri Pang

  • "Sustainable Cities: Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Design" by The Nature Conservancy's Nature Lab

  • "Floating Gardens of Bangladesh" by Alizé Carrère

March 7th, 2024

USL’s Timon McPhearson Selected as Chapter Lead for the First National Nature Assessment by U.S. Global Change Research Program

USGCRP has named 11 Federal Coordinating Lead Authors (FCLAs) and 11 Chapter Leads to lead the writing of the first-ever National Nature Assessment (NNA1). NNA1 will provide a holistic picture of America’s lands, waters, wildlife, and ecosystems and the benefits they provide to us—to our economy, health, climate, culture, and even our national security. USL Director Timon McPhearson will co-lead authorship of the chapter, “Bright Spots in America’s Nature” along with Emmett Duffy, Chief Scientist, Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network and MarineGEO Program, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. The NNA1 Chapter Leads provide leadership for the chapters—in developing their scope and content and directing chapter development and writing. Chapter Leads select all Chapter Authors and Technical Contributors and lead their author teams through cycles of federal, public, and peer review and revision. Learn more

December 4, 2023

Urban Systems Lab Supports the COP28 UN Climate Conference Joint Statement “The Science is Clear: We Need Net Zero Carbon Dioxide Emissions by 2050”

The USL’s Timon McPhearson joins scientists worldwide for a joint statement organized by Future Earth and the World Climate Research Programme in response to comments regarding fossil fuel phaseout pathways. The statement titled, "The Science is Clear: We Need Net Zero Carbon Dioxide Emissions by 2050" explains how a phase-out of fossil fuels is necessary to keep the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement within reach. Read and sign the statement

September 13, 2023

The New School’s Urban Systems Lab, City of New York, Climasens and partners launch development of ClimateIQ, an AI-enabled, Urban Climate Risk Tool

Today, The New School’s Urban Systems Lab is announcing the continued development and scaling of ClimateIQ, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered climate risk evaluation tool built on multiple urban climate hazard models. The ClimateIQ team is proud to partner with the City of New York as the inaugural partner city to test and validate the AI modeling environment. 

The development of ClimateIQ is being led by Dr. Timon McPhearson at The New School’s Urban Systems Lab and a team of scientists and designers. This stage of development is being funded through a $5M award from Google.org’s Impact Challenge on Climate Innovation, a commitment from the tech company’s philanthropy to fund six big bet projects that accelerate technological advances in climate information and action. Read full Press Release

August 28, 2023

New Event! Harnessing the positive potential of AI for urban climate action

September 21, 2023 | 9:00-11:00AM EDT @ The New School, Tishman Auditorium

Join the USL for this public in-person event! As communities and cities increasingly experience the impacts of climate change, the need for solutions and scalable actions have never been more important. This is especially true in large cities like New York, which are wrestling with a range of hazards from extreme heat and rainfall, to sea level rise and coastal flooding. But what are some of the emerging ideas, technologies, and solutions that organizations are advancing worldwide to address the ongoing climate crisis? Join experts from the New York City’s Mayor's Office as well as climate technology analysts, philanthropy, and city network leaders for an engaging discussion on the potential and challenge of leveraging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accelerate climate action.

Organized by Google.org, the Centre for Public Impact, The New School, and World Resources Institute (WRI), this event will feature live demonstrations of two novel solutions from The New School’s Urban Systems Lab and WRI which will be followed by a moderated panel discussion to discuss how AI can unlock climate resilience at the community level. Register here

August 25, 2023

USL Hiring for Multiple Positions

The Urban Systems Lab is hiring for multiple positions to scale up several climate modeling and risk assessment initiatives. Learn more on our opportunities page. Current openings include:

• Senior Research Fellow in Urban Flood Modeling

• Senior Research Fellow in Machine Learning

• Assistant Director of Operations and Communications

August 4, 2023

New Book: Nature-based Solutions for Cities Released

Nature-based Solutions for Cities (edited by Timon McPhearson, Nadja Kabisch and Niki Frantzeskaki) brings diverse perspectives from across the globe together to describe the state of the art in advancing nature-based solutions for cities. Through chapters led by experts in both global south and north contexts, we describe key knowledge and learning for advancing the interdisciplinary science of NBS in, for and with cities and discuss the frontiers for next-generation NBS. Open access and available for free digital download.

August 1, 2023

USL Releases Ocellus XR, a New App Using Augmented Reality to Understand Climate Risks in NYC

The New School’s Urban Systems Lab is excited to launch Ocellus XR, an interactive mixed-reality mobile app that provides users in New York City with heat, flood risk, and other climate indicators. The app enables New Yorkers to understand their local climate risk, learn how to prepare for extreme weather, and advocate for equitable interventions and green infrastructure. Ocellus XR aims to center the voices of frontline communities and those most vulnerable to climate hazards while providing a free and easy-to-use tool to advance decision-making for equitable climate adaptation. Information and graphics for the “What Can You Do Section” of Ocellus XR was developed by WE ACT for Environmental Justice, the East Harlem COAD, and the Harlem Emergency Network as part of the Climate Ready Uptown Plan (CRUP). Download the App.

June 29, 2023

USL research featured in City of Yonker’s Climate Action Plan

Urban Systems Lab data and insights led by Research Fellow Pablo Herreros Cantis and co-produced with Groundwork Hudson Valley through a project funded by the Kresge Foundation has been included in the City of Yonker's newly released Climate Action Plan. The plan utilizes the Lab’s 100 year rain event model (rather than FEMA flood zones) developed for Groundwork Hudson Valley’s Climate Safe Neighborhoods program. This model offers a finer grain analysis of assets at risk than the FEMA flood zones alone and also provides insight into social vulnerability, and characterizing flood risk to actually propose specific measures in concrete locations.

May 30, 2023

Ocellus XR selected as Finalist for the AWE XR Prize

The Urban Systems Lab’s product Ocellus XR was selected as a finalist for the Augmented World Expo (AWE) “XR Prize Challenge”, a $100K global competition harnessing AR and VR (XR) solutions to help fight climate change. Ocellus XR is a mixed reality application that leverages the USL’s Data Visualization Platform to present users with unique interactive geospatial information of heat, flood risk and other climate indicators in NYC, co-led by Daniel Sauter, Elena Peng, Timon McPhearson, Joe Steele, Claudia Tomateo, Chris Kennedy and other researchers from The New School.

April 26, 2023

USL’s Timon McPhearson Receives ESA 2023 Sustainability Science Award

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) presented the 2023 Sustainability Science Award to Thomas Elmqvist, Erik Andersson, Niki Frantzeskaki, Timon McPhearson, Per Olsson, Owen Gaffney, Kazuhiko Takeuchi and Carl Folke for their article “Sustainability and resilience for transformation in the urban century,” published in 2019 in Nature Sustainability. The Sustainability Science Award recognizes the authors of the scholarly work that makes the greatest contribution to the emerging science of ecosystem and regional sustainability through the integration of ecological and social sciences. Learn more

April 10, 2023

OCELLUS XR Observation Session

The USL welcomed colleagues from the Urban Design Forum, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, as well as students from Joel Tower’s course at the Parson School of Design to participate in an observation session for OCELLUS XR. OCELLUS XR is a mixed reality application featuring 3D visualizations of climate hazards and proposed resiliency efforts across New York City. Participants had a chance to test out the new tool and provide feedback. Watch a new video exploring XR’s primary features.

April 5, 2023

NATURA Virtual All Hands Meeting POSTPONED

The NSF-supported project Nature-based solutions for Urban Resilience in the Anthropocene (NATURA) will conduct their third All Hands Meeting online April 24-26, 2023. This meeting theme explores just urban futures and transformations through nature-based solutions. Registration will be free for NATURA members, and will include opportunities for NATURA thematic working groups, regional nodes, and early-career network to network showcase work to the larger urban research and practice community.  Postponed, stay tuned for further details.

April 3, 2023

USL Welcomes NATURA Worldviews Thematic Working Group

Members of the NATURA Worldviews Thematic Working Group are joining members of the Urban Systems Lab for a weeks-long workshop. The workshop explores how the lack of operationalization of diverse relational worldviews in urban nature-based solutions reduces the range of possible future pathways and ultimately, can lead to a failure of sustainability transformation. Led by Melissa Ingaruca, Loan Diep, Alex Putzer, David Iwaniec, Davide Geneletti, Elizabeth Cook, Mariana Hernandez, Chris Raymond and others. Learn more

March 21, 2023

Cities and Climate Change event on March 29, 9:30am - 11am

The opportunity for effective, efficient and rapid action in cities depends on accessible, actionable science at the city scale. The Summary for Urban Policymakers (SUP) is a three- volume series of scientific reports that distill the most relevant climate science for urban actors from the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Reports. Bringing climate scientists, business representatives and city leaders together in discussion, this session will highlight key messages from the SUP series and elaborate on how cities can accelerate and deepen climate action towards climate-resilient development in the next few decades. Location: The New School University Center | Starr Foundation Hall | 63 5th Avenue New York NY  10003. Register here

March 9, 2023

Resilient Transformations: Clean Energy, Justice and Green Infrastructure, March 30, 3-5pm

Join researchers from the Tishman Environment and Design Center and the Urban Systems Lab for a conversation exploring new research on environmental policy, sustainability and urban resilience! As increasing resources and attention get directed toward climate and clean energy initiatives, it is imperative to understand how these efforts both contribute toward and detract from social and racial equity. Yukyan Lam and Anna Yulsman from the Tishman Center will present a Delaware-based case study investigating whether low-income communities and communities of Color are benefiting from renewable energy rebates to the same extent as other communities. Loan Diep from the Urban Systems Lab will present research on the conceptualization and politics of green infrastructure in informal settlements in Brazil. Together, the speakers will discuss how their work converges as well as areas for future research and inquiry. Register Here

February 9, 2023

USL’s Timon McPhearson featured in new Discovery+ Docuseries, “Brink of Disaster”

Dr. Timon McPhearson alongside colleagues studying climate change, are featured in a new documentary series on Discovery+ called “Brink of Disaster”. This three part series explores how cities are coping and preparing for hurricanes, storm surges, earthquakes and sea level rise, and what the latest science and tech can do to help. Dr. McPhearson is featured in “Episode 1: New York Superstorms”. To watch and learn more click here.

January 30, 2023

New resource: Theory to Practice of Urban Forest Management

New Seminar Summary from the Yale Forest Forum is now available: YFF Review: Theory to Practice of Urban Forest Management. The publication features presentations from the Urban Forestry lecture series from last spring.  USL's Timon McPhearson is featured, and discusses his contribution: "The Inequity of Climate Impacts & Access to Nature-Based Solutions in NYC". Visit the Yale Forest Forum website to read.

January 4, 2023

Now Hiring: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Climate Modeling

The Urban Systems Lab (USL) at The New School invites applicants for an appointment as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Climate Modeling with a tentative start date of July 1, 2023. This is a 12-month postdoctoral position with the possibility of renewal. We are seeking an outstanding scholar with experience in climate projection modeling, as well as expertise in hydrological modeling and/or urban heat modeling.Review of applications will begin on Feb. 1, 2023 but open until filled and may continue until the position is filled. Learn more and apply

December 9, 2022

The Milwaukee Flood and Health Vulnerability Assessment Released

The USL is excited to announce the release of the The Milwaukee Flood and Health Vulnerability Assessment (FHVA), a collaborative effort between Groundwork Milwaukee, Groundwork USA, Wisconsin Health Care Professionals for Climate Action and others. The assessment tool identifies communities across Milwaukee where exposure to urban flooding and pre-existing health, housing and socioeconomic conditions intersect and create disproportionate vulnerabilities to the impacts caused by extreme flooding. The aim of the project is to provide critical information on both flood exposure and social vulnerability to support community-based advocacy and future planning to mitigate potential flood and health risks. Learn more

December 6, 2022

Urban Systems Lab at COP15 Climate Conference

The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) launches this week in Montréal and members of the Urban Systems Lab will be participating. The meeting will bring together governments from around the world to discuss new climate goals and develop an action plan for conserving biodiversity over the next decade. There are ample opportunities to participate virtually, and if you are attending in-person, also opportunities to connect with USL Director Timon McPhearson and Postdoc Fellow Loan Diep. Here’s a rundown of some events to mark on your calendar:

• December 10: Join Dr. McPhearson 13:30 -14:30 EST for the event: “BiodiverCities: Latin American cities at the Forefront of Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Action” organized by the World Economic Forum at the ICLEI Subnational Governments & Cities Pavilion.

• December 12: Join Dr. McPhearson for the panel “The transformative change we want to bring for GBF implementation” at 14:00 EST for the7th Summit for Subnational Governments & Cities organized by ICLEI. 

• December 16: Join Drs. Loan Diep and Timon McPhearson for the launch of NATURA’s Global Roadmap for Urban Nature-Based Solutions at the Subnational Governments & Cities Action Pavilion (ICLEI Africa) 15:30 - 17:00 EST as part of UN-CBD CBO II session: “Cities and Biodiversity Outlook II Project: Building a pathway to integrating biodiversity into policy and practice in cities”. With partners at Stockholm Resilience Centre, ICLEI, and UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

November 21, 2022

NYC Mayors Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Releases State of Climate Knowledge 2022 Workshop Summary Report

The State of Climate Knowledge 2022 Workshop Summary Report provides a synopsis of the outcomes of the three-workshop series, which was designed to refine the CKE engagement process. The USL contributed to development of the report and workshop, and was co-authored by USL’s Jennifer Ventrella during her NSF-supported internship at the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice.

November 14, 2022

CRUP Project selected as winner of EPA’s “Let’s Talk About Heat Challenge”

WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s project the Climate Ready Uptown Plan (CRUP) was selected as a winner of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Let’s Talk About Heat Challenge”. In partnership with East Harlem COAD and Harlem Emergency Network CRUP is a physical pamphlet that helps Northern Manhattan community members understand their individual risk to climate related disasters – specifically extreme heat, coastal and stormwater (pluvial) flooding. The Urban Systems Lab’s Claudia Tomateo and Pablo Herreros Cantis co-led the design of the map and pamphlet which aims to improve emergency preparedness planning in Northern Manhattan. Learn more

November 9, 2022

UN Climate Report: Summary for Urban Policymakers released at COP27

The Summary for Urban Policymakers (SUP) series provides an overview of the IPCC Assessment Report (AR6), which USL’s Timon McPhearson was a lead author on. This SUP report was released during COP27 in Egypt, providing targeted summaries of science on what the impacts from climate change, adaptation and vulnerability mean for cities and urban areas. Available for Download Here.

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

White House Roadmap for Nature-Based Solutions

USL's Timon McPhearson contributed to development of a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy report on nature-based solutions including a Roadmap for federal action including on Policy, Funding, Workforce Development, Research and Learning, and Leveraging Federal Assets. Learn more

October 20, 2022

Join us at Sandy +10, International Climate Symposium and the Deluge Data Symposium

Join members of the USL for these upcoming events:

Sandy +10 (Oct. 28-29, 2022) is a convening to reflect on the 10 years since Hurricane Sandy impacted hundreds of communities across the Northeast and beyond. Panel discussions with local leaders, policymakers, and activists, covering a range of topics including preparedness, emergency response, housing and infrastructure recovery, community resilience, long-term planning for climate change adaptation, and governance. At Columbia University - register here.

International Climate Symposium, “Science-Based Choices for Climate Action, Insights from the IPCC 6th Assessment Report” us an in-person and livestreamed symposium hosted by Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, USA on October 24 – 26. Register here

Deluge Data, Data Deluge (Oct. 26, Nov. 2 and Nov. 4, 2022) is an online talk series and in-person symposium that brings critical perspectives from the humanities and arts into dialogue with engineering and data practitioners engaged in flood sensing. Register here

October 13, 2022

2022 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been jointly awarded the 2022 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity. This includes acknowledgment of the critical work IPCC authors at The New School such as Dr. Timon McPhearson and others have contributed through their work on the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”. The award recognizes the important role scientists and practitioners play in addressing the climate crisis. More information.

Read TNS Press Release

September 22, 2022

Urban Systems Lab receives renewed support from Kresge Foundation’s CREWS program

The Urban Systems Lab received renewed support from the Kresge Foundation’s CREWS program to continue research on the environmental justice considerations related to urban flooding in US cities. Among many ongoing efforts, the team will be working with partners at Groundwork Milwaukee to launch the Milwaukee Flood Health Vulnerability Assessment.

September 8, 2022

The NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice selects interdisciplinary research team co-led by The New School’s Urban Systems Lab to study climate vulnerability, impact and adaptation In New York City

A team of interdisciplinary researchers, co-led by Professors Joel Towers and Dr. Timon McPhearson at The New School’s Tishman Environment and Design Center and Urban Systems Lab, was selected by the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ), to carry out a $2.5M study on future climate change and its potential impacts to inform decision-making by the City of New York and assessment reports by the NYC Panel on Climate Change. Read Press Release

August 10, 2022

Ocellus XR team receives 2022 Independent Projects Grant

Daniel Sauter, Claudia Tomateo and Joe Steele are recipients of a 2022 Independent Projects Grant from The Architectural League of New York and The New York State Council on the Arts. The funds will be used to support the Sauter’s development of Ocellus XR, an extended-reality mobile app which allows users to experience first-person 3D visualizations of climate risk, social vulnerability, and proposed green infrastructure plans in New York City. The app leverages design and data visualization to allow users to view climate hazards/solutions on a device as they walk through the city and project 3D maps onto physical surfaces. Learn more here.

July 1, 2022

USL Team awarded grant from the Sloan Foundation to support Synthetic Infrastructure Modeling

The Urban Systems Lab received an award from the Sloan Foundation’s Environment and Energy program to support synthetic infrastructure modeling. The goal is to develop coupled energy-water-transportation synthetic infrastructure models for New York, NY, Phoenix, AZ, and Atlanta, GA to simulate critical failure and failure cascades in energy infrastructure during extreme events to optimize solutions, and improve reliability and robustness. Synthetic infrastructure models bring together multiple data on infrastructure networks to fill energy distribution data gaps by simulating data. The project is led by the Urban Systems Lab (USL) at The New School in partnership with researchers at Arizona State University (ASU) and Georgia State University (GSU).

June 30, 2022

Award-Winning Map Shows Water-Related Environmental Justice Issues in New Jersey

USL Research Fellow Pablo Herreros Cantis contributed to a new post on the New Jersey Future blog highlighting his involvement in helping to develop the NJ Water Risk and Equity Map in collaboration with Jersey Water Works, New Jersey Future and researchers at Rutgers University. The NJ Water Risk and Equity Map aims to gather data on water risks and to understand the potential inequities tied to them. In 2022, the Water Risk Equity Map was selected for the Water Data Prize in the Equity Category. Read more in this press release.

June 22, 2022

New Forbes article, “Can Cities Survive Excessive Heat?”

A new article in Forbes, “Can Cities Survive Excessive Heat?” by economist Richard McGahey features contributions from USL Director Timon McPhearson on the impact and environmental justice implications of extreme heat in urban areas. The Forbes piece highlights a 2021 article co-authored with other experts, where McPhearson describes how our interlocking urban and climate problems are growing. Read full article

June 20, 2022

CNN Feature article on disproportionate impact of heat in NYC

A new CNN article, “Black people are more likely to die from heat stress than White people in New York City, report says”, features commentary from USL’s Timon McPhearson. McPhearson reflects on the release of a new report from the City of New York’s health department which details the disproportionate impact that heat has on Black and brown neighborhoods. "Excess deaths due to high heat exposure is a fact of life for US cities, and heat waves kill more people than all other natural disasters combined," McPhearson said. Read full article.

May 3, 2022

Shoring up coastlines and communities with green infrastructure

New article in the Grist featuring commentary from USL's Timon McPhearson on the urgent need for equitable green infrastructure and nature-based solutions to address rising sea levels and temperatures in places like Wilmington, Delaware and New Orleans. Read full article

“We need to rethink green infrastructure as a kind of infrastructure that can provide multiple benefits to multiple hazards… One of the solutions is that our planning process must change. It has to have community input. Communities know what their problems are and have their own ideas about how to solve them, but if they’re not involved in the planning process, then their voices are not heard.” - Timon McPhearson

April 5, 2022

USL Research Fellow received grant from NYS Water Resources Institute

Research Fellow Zbigniew Grabowski was awarded a grant from the New York State Water Resources Institute for the research project, Equitable Green Infrastructure Planning in NY: Assessing the state of knowledge and best practices to facilitate collaborative learning. This will support Dr. Grabowski’s continued work with the USL and Cary Institute to advance understanding of how best to improve the equity of GI through policy and practice. The funding originates from the NYS DEC Hudson River Estuary Program and the NYS DEC Great Lakes Watershed Program.

March 29, 2022

USL collaborators Jersey Water Works and New Jersey Future Win National Water Data Prize

Our colleagues at Jersey Water Works (JWW) and New Jersey Future (NJF) have been selected as winners of the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC)’s Water Data Prize in the Equity category for their development of the New Jersey Water Risk and Equity Map and Jersey WaterCheck. USL’s Pablo Herreros Cantis searved as an advisor. onthe project. Learn more

March 17, 2022

New Report on Economic Benefits of Parks in New York City

The Trust for Public Land has just released a new report on the Economic Benefits of Parks in New York City. The historic report quantifies benefits of the network of city, state, and federal parks in New York City (NYC). The report finds parks in NYC provide significant benefits to residents and the city as a whole, and that NYC’s identity is intertwined with the park system, and the vitality of one affects the other. By offering a fuller picture of economic benefits, this report equips local decision-makers with quantifiable support to help fund, protect, create, and maintain the city’s parks for the use of current and future residents and visitors. USL’s Timon McPhearson served as a Lead Advisor on the study. To read the full report click here.

March 16, 2022

New Video: How Green Spaces Protect City Residents From Climate Change

NBC LX has developed a new video story exploring local activism in Brooklyn and Queens to create more green spaces and parks in areas near one of the largest highways in the US, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Featuring commentary from the USL's Timon McPhearson. Click here to watch.

March 11, 2022

SMARTer Greener Cities Policy Brief Released

The first policy brief of the SMARTer Greener Cities was released. The research team proposes recommendations for urban planners and researchers based on our research on how technology and nature can promote multisensory experiences and psychological restoration in two residential areas in Helsinki, Finland. Read the full brief here

FebrUary 28, 2022

Researchers at the Urban Systems Lab contributed to a historic report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Researchers at the Urban Systems Lab contributed to a historic report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) based on the contributions from Working Group II: “AR6 Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. The report features Chapter 6 on climate risks, adaptation, and vulnerability for urban areas, co-authored by Dr. Timon McPhearson, Director of the Urban Systems Lab and professor at The New School. This is one of the most significant analyses of human settlements and cities which will continue to be hotspots for climate impacts and risks, but also drivers of climate solutions. Members of the Lab (Zbigniew Grabowski, Pablo Herreros-Cantis, Christopher Kennedy, Ahmed Mustafa, Veronica Olivotto, Luis Ortiz, Jennifer Ventrella) also contributed to developing a synthesis table in Chapter 6, “Urban Climate Resilient Development”. To learn more, see the press release.

Recent Press

• UN climate report points the way on adapting for the future (The Hill)

• Landmark climate report details ‘an atlas of human suffering (Politico)

• UN climate report urges world to adapt now, or suffer later (Reuters)

• The New School’s Urban Systems Lab Contributes to Historic Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report (New School News)

• 15 Key Takeaways for Cities, Settlements and Key Infrastructure from the IPCC AR6 WGII Climate Report 2022 (Resilience Quarterly)

  • Download Factsheet (PDF)

February 22, 2022

AWS podcast explores green infrastructure and social justice

The USL's Pablo Herreros Cantis and Chris Kennedy are featured in a news post from the Amazon AWS team highlighting work supported by the Kresge Foundation’s CREWS program to research the environmental injustice of urban flood risk in US cities. The post discusses Pablo and Kennedy’s appearance on episode 47 of Amazon’s Fix This podcast series. To listen and learn more click here.

February 20, 2022

Association of Geographers 2022 Annual Meeting

The USL’s Jennifer Ventrella and Timon McPhearson, along with colleagues Elizabeth M Cook (Barnard College), Adam Parris (New York City Mayor's Office of Climate Resilience), David Iwaniec and Lelani Mannetti (Georgia State University), Tischa Muñoz-Erickson, USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry; Daniela Tagtachian, City University of New York; Melissa Tier (Princeton University) will present the paper “Future climate resilience and adaptation visions of New York City” at the Association of Geographers 2022 Annual Meeting as part of the paper session, “Critical geographic perspectives on climate-resilient pathways”. Ventrella, Cook, Parris and McPhearson will also present the paper “Envisioning future climate resilience adaptation and mitigation strategies”.

The USL’s Bart Orr will present “Solar Futures: Imagination, Contestation, and Infrastructural (Dis)Connection in Puerto” during the session Civic Infrastructural Action. The USL’s Pablo Herreros-Cantis, McPhearson, Claudia Tomateo and Chris Kennedy will join Oded Holzinger (Groundwork Hudson Valley)  to present “Co-Developing Research To Adapt Underserved Communities To Urban Flooding With An Environmental Justice Len” during the session “Community Engagement in Hazard Preparedness & Response Across Differing Methodologies”. To register and learn more click here.

January 13, 2022

Toward a more inclusive definition of green infrastructure

A new nationwide analysis of 122 plans from 20 US cities, published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, found that many plans fail to explicitly define green infrastructure. When they do, they tend to focus on stormwater management, favoring engineered facilities over parks and larger urban green spaces. The study is the first systematic review of the use and definition of the green infrastructure concept in US city plans.

Lead author and USL Research Fellow and Cary Institute Postdoctoral Associate, Zbigniew Grabowski, explains, “Green infrastructure is broadly understood to be a good thing, but many city plans lack a clear definition of what it actually is. Hydrological definitions dominate. This narrow view can limit project funding and cause cities to miss out on vital social and ecological services that more integrative green infrastructure can provide.” (Full Press Release)

January 11, 2022

New Web Resource Released: Is Green Infrastructure a Universal Good?

Researchers from the Urban Systems Lab and Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies analyzed 122 green infrastructure plans from 20 US cities to reveal how urban planning has contributed to current landscapes of inequality, and what avenues exist to transform planning for equitable infrastructure.

Findings from the 20-city study are featured on GIequity.org, a new website identifying current approaches, gaps, and necessary transformations in urban green infrastructure planning. The website includes an in-depth look at each city studied, including green infrastructure history, a snapshot of key findings, maps, a GI equity score, and targeted recommendations for stakeholders, community groups, policymakers and planners, as well as foundations and funders. To learn more, join us for a webinar, ‘Building Equity into US Urban Green Infrastructure Planning’ on January 27th at 1:00pm ET. (Full Press Release)

January 5, 2022

Event: Building Equity into US Urban Green Infrastructure Planning

Join the USL and Cary Institute Jan. 27, 2022 (1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST) for a webinar to learn about how cities can build equity into green infrastructure planning efforts. In this hour long webinar, explore results from an analysis of over 120 green infrastructure plans in 20 US cities. Drs. Timon McPhearson and Zbigniew Grabowski will share a synthesis of the study’s findings – including how cities across the US use GI to address a broad range of urban challenges, opportunities for planners to address equity and justice, and how city agencies and nonprofits can align efforts to integrate ecological and infrastructure systems. Webinar Recording

January 3, 2022

Voices of America Video featuring Javits Center Green Roof and USL Research Collaborations

In a recent video produced by Voices of America, “Above New York, a Giant Green Roof Tries to Reduce Carbon Footprint”, highlights the USL's collaboration with Green Roof Researchers Alliance, NYC Audubon, The Nature Conservancy of New York to expansion of green roofs across and similar resiliency efforts across NYC.

December 10, 2021

Press Roundup: Urban Systems Lab Features Fall/Winter 2021

The Urban Systems Lab’s research on urban flooding from stormwater and extreme weather events has been featured in several press outlets this fall and winter, including WNYC Radio's Marketplace (The affordable housing crisis meets the climate crisis in New York), Popular Science (New York City’s subway system isn’t ready for a storm-filled future), MIT Technology Review, (How Ida dodged NYC’s flood defenses), Crains New York, (New York’s sewage system can’t handle extreme weather), NY1 (New flood maps are coming. They won’t look pretty), Next City (“NYC Funded a Pilot to Make Basement Apartments Safer, But Then It Went Off Track), and featured in the latest episode of Amazon’s Fix This podcast. 

The Lab’s work on heat risk was also featured in the New York Times (Why an East Harlem Street Is 31 Degrees Hotter Than Central Park West), ​​and Energy News Network (Heat kills. This underfunded program could help and How tree planting can seed climate resilience in communities of color).

December 7, 2021

How tree planting can seed climate resilience in communities of color

New story from Energy News Network, “How tree planting can seed climate resilience in communities of color” by Audrey Henderson explores the City of Chicago's new effort to plant 75,000 new trees, featuring commentary from USL's Timon McPhearson on the importance of equitable green infrastructure and planning for uncertainty.

December 1, 2021

Intelligent Machines, Emotions and Our Planet

Join the USL on Jan 13-14, 2022 for "Intelligent Machines, Emotions and Our Planet", a virtual event that explores the frontiers and social challenges created by the increased interplay between human emotions, machines and nature. Organized by “AI, People & Planet”, an initiative between the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, the Urban Systems lab at the New School, and the Princeton's Institute for International and Regional Studies at Princeton University. Click here to register

November 19, 2021

The Housing Crisis Meets the Climate Crisis

USL's Timon McPhearson is featured in a recent segment from WNYC Radio's Marketplace, "The affordable housing crisis meets the climate crisis in New York". McPhearson discusses the urgent need for climate resiliency measures to avoid the devastating impacts of extreme weather like 2021’s Hurricane Ida.

The only real, long-term solutions are to build affordable housing that’s not so vulnerable to flooding, and update the city’s storm water infrastructure so it can better handle torrential rain.

October 25, 2021

New Reports on Nature-based Solutions: the Green Economy and Valuing Inclusion and Diversity, Embracing Uncertainty

The USL’s Timon McPhearson is a contributor to 2 new reports issued by The British Academy on how nature-based solutions may contribute to a green economy, and also strategies to promote their wider uptake to address pressing interlinked climate and biodiversity challenges. Read “Valuing Inclusion and Diversity, Embracing Uncertainty: Ways Forward for Nature-based Solutions” by Linjun Xie, and “Nature-Based Solutions and the Green Economy” by Leslie Mabon.

October 19, 2021

USL Featured in Popular Science News

The USL's Timon McPhearson is featured in a new article in Popular Science, “New York City’s subway system isn’t ready for a storm-filled future”, highlighting the need for a tiered approach to addressing urban flood risk, and the urgent need to increase urban adaptation investments in NYC to address the impacts of climate and extreme weather.

October 18, 2021

Green Roofs In New York: Research & Practice Virtual Symposium

The USL’s Timon McPhearson is presenting at the symposium, “Green Roofs in New York: Research and Practice”, organized by the Green Roof Researchers Alliance and the Green Roof for Healthy Cities effort. He will be presenting on the panel “Where NYC Needs to be by 2050, and How to Get There” with colleagues Eric Sanderson (Wildlife Conservation Society), Shino Tanikawa (NYC Soil & Water Conservation District), and Emily Nobel Maxwell (The Nature Conservancy).

October 13, 2021

Stormwater Resiliency, Future Flooding and Basement Apartments in NYC

“It’s unlikely that you’re going to be able to stop flooding entirely...” USL's Timon McPhearson is featured in new Next City article, “NYC Funded a Pilot to Make Basement Apartments Safer, But Then It Went Off Track”. The article explores the challenge for the City of New York to protect residents living in basement apartments from future flooding and extreme stormwater events like Hurricane Ida.

October 11, 2021

New Analysis Links COVID-19 to Nature Inequity, Showing Communities of Color Face Starkest Burden

Researchers at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, The Nature Conservancy, and the Urban Systems Lab, publish a new study in the journal Nature Sustainability showing communities of color have both higher burdens of Covid-19 and less green vegetation, and trees in their neighborhoods across all urbanized areas in the United States. Most surprisingly, the study found that even after statistically controlling for race, income, and a host of other factors, more greenness is associated with lower Covid-19 rates. This is one the first national studies that makes this relationship crystal clear.

“Low-income communities and communities of color already face disproportionate risks from climate change. This study makes it clear that these communities bear the burden of less access to benefits of nature during the pandemic while also suffering from higher COVID impacts. We must prioritize investing in quality parks and open space in the communities that need them most for all the benefits urban nature provides, including space for social distancing, recreation, impacts on health, and for climate resilience.” - Timon McPhearson

September 30, 2021

USL featured in The New School in the Community Newsletter

In the latest edition of The New School “In the Community Newsletter”, USL's Timon McPhearson discusses the implications of extreme weather events like Hurricane Ida for NYC, and how best to plan for climate adaptation and equitable emergency response and planning. →

September 28, 2021

USL featured in Fix This Podcast

The USL’s work exploring urban flood risk supported by the Kresge Foundation is featured in the latest episode of Fix This, a bi-weekly podcast of bite-sized stories about how tech makes the world a better place.

September 22, 2021

New Report Released: An Anthology Of Ideas After Hurricane Ida

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida Rebuild By Design asked 20 experts to offer “concrete ideas of policies and projects that protect our communities from the flash flooding and loss of life which we experienced from Hurricane Ida.” In the report the USL's Timon McPhearson emphasizes the need to invest in data to improve stormwater resiliency, along with essays from colleagues across the New York metro region. Read the report here.

September 21, 2021

Research on MillionTreesNYC Afforestation Study in NYC Now Published

A new article was published in the journal Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, “Soil carbon sequestration in urban afforestation sites in New York City” led by Alisen Downey and members of the USL. The article highlights over 10 years of urban ecology research on the impact of the MillionTreesNYC program on soil carbon sequestration and afforestation urban restoration in urban areas. The study integrates soil carbon readings gathered from sites established between 2009 and 2011 as part of the MillionTreesNYC Afforestation Project in New York City. The results suggest that afforestation may enhance the capacity of urban soils to store carbon compared to urban degraded soils, but that urban soil properties and site characteristics constrain this capacity.

September 13, 2021

USL Launches Interactive NYC Stormwater Exposure Scenarios and Data Visualization Tool

In May 2021, the NYC Mayor's Office released the first ever citywide Stormwater Resiliency Plan, which includes an analysis of flooding caused by extreme rainfall events across the 5 boroughs. As part of this effort, the USL has launched stormwater.nyc a 3D data visualization mapping platform that integrates publicly available data on stormwater resiliency in NYC. The USL’s Dataviz team recently added new exposure scenarios maps, which we hope will provide a multi-hazard risk decision-support tool to improve resiliency prioritization.

September 8, 2021

Air Conditioning, Extreme Heat and Disproportionate Impacts

The USL’s work on mapping and quantifying the multiple impacts of extreme heat in NYC is featured in a new article from E&E News, “Heat kills. This underfunded program could help”. The article highlights the disproportionate impact that extreme heat can have on black and brown communities, the economic burden of air conditioning in the City’s most vulnerable communities, and the potential of efforts like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to offer some relief. The piece features the ongoing work of organizations like WE ACT, the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance, and National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition, which continue to organize and raise awareness of these critical issues. Read more about the USL’s work on heat risk in NYC here →

September 2, 2021

USL’s work on mapping flood risk featured in news as NYC recovers from Hurricane Ida

The USL’s Timon McPhearson is featured in a Crains New York article, “New York’s sewage system can’t handle extreme weather,” discussing the vulnerability of the NYC sewer system and urgent need for flood resilience in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Ida. “This is what happens when rain falls: instead of infiltrating into soil, it moves quickly along streets and the flood height rises very fast…. It’s the history in the way we built the city that creates these problems”, McPhearson is quoted saying in the piece. Learn more about the Lab’s work to map flood risk and social vulnerability in NYC here →

The Lab’s work with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Resiliency on improving stormwater resiliency is featured in an article from the MIT Technology Review, “How Ida dodged NYC’s flood defenses”. USL’s Timon McPhearson discusses the engineering challenge to combat future weather events like Hurricane Ida, and the likelihood of more pluvial flooding from extreme rainfall explaining: “we need to literally redesign the city to solve the problem”. Learn more about the Lab’s work on Stormwater Resilience here →

August 31, 2021

Resilient Urban Futures Book Launch on Sept. 22nd

Join us on Sept. 22, 2021 (5 - 6:30pm EST) for a roundtable discussion and launch of Resilient Urban Futures, a new book exploring the ways in which cities are profoundly impacted by climate change, and strategies for cultivating more resilient futures. Based on practical experience in participatory visioning in nine Latin American and U.S. cities, the volume provides tools for engaging urban communities in resilience strategies. Authors of this open access volume will discuss urban climate inequity, modeling and communicating the impact of extreme climate and weather, as well as visioning equitable, positive, and resilient futures. Full event details

August 20, 2021

USL featured in NY Times Article on Disproportionate Impact of Extreme Heat in NYC

The USL’s Timon McPhearson is featured in a new article from the New York Times, “Why an East Harlem Street Is 31 Degrees Hotter Than Central Park West” examining the disproportionate impact of extreme heat on Black and brown neighborhoods in NYC and the need consider multiple dimensions of risk/vulnerability in order to map inequality. →

August 5, 2021

Stormwater Resiliency and New Flood Risk Maps from NYC and FEMA

The USL’s Timon McPhearson discusses the complexity of resilience planning in NYC and the highly anticipated release of new flood risk maps in 2022 in the article, “New flood maps are coming. They won’t look pretty” featured in NY1. The article highlights the Lab's work to understand the impact of pluvial and coastal flooding on those most vulnerable, as well as possibility for discorporate economic burden on communities across the New York metro region.

July 28, 2021

The USL Receives $150K in Renewed Funding from Kresge Foundation for Environmental Justice of Urban Flood Risk Effort

The Urban Systems Lab is a recipient of $150,000 in renewed funding from the Kresge Foundation to support the Environmental Justice of Urban Flood Risk and Green Infrastructure Solutions project. As a member of Kresge’s Climate Resilient and Equitable Water Systems (CREWS) network, the USL will continue to analyze and visualize results of how planned green infrastructure interventions to build resilience to urban flooding affect minority and low-income populations in cities such as Syracuse, NY, Elizabeth, NJ, Milwaukee, WI, and Yonkers, NY. To learn more about this research initiative visit our webpage, and this ArcGIS Storymap, which details some of the Lab’s work in Syracuse, NY.

July 15, 2021

World Economic Forum's Global Commission on BiodiverCities

The USL’s Timon McPhearson joins the World Economic Forum's Global Commission on BiodiverCities, a high-level commission of 30+ world-renowned experts and practitioners to synthesize the latest research with practical solutions in the service of sustainable, inclusive and nature-positive urban development.

July 13, 2021

USL Launches Ekos a New Multiplayer Game about Urban Resilience

Ekos: The Path to Resilience is a multi-player game that challenges a group of 6 community members - a City Council Speaker, City Planner, Community Organizer, Ecologist, Designer, and Modeler -- to come together and envision a more equitable and sustainable Ekos in the face of climate change and other challenges. Ekos is the perfect game to engage your students, to play with friends or family, and to inspire conversation with your community about how cities can understand the interactions among social, ecological, and technological dimensions of cities to build resilience, address inequities, and adapt to climate change and other hazards. We are now taking reservations for copies of Ekos, expected delivery by early September 2021. Reserve a copy here.

July 9, 2021

New Mapping Platform Visualizes Stormwater Resiliency And Multi-hazard Risk In New York City

In May 2021 the NYC Mayor's Office released the first ever citywide Stormwater Resiliency Plan, which includes an analysis of flooding caused by extreme rainfall events. The USL co-led the development of a hydrologic model of flooding, and simulation of citywide flood exposure for twenty current and future storm scenarios. As part of this effort, the USL has launched stormwater.nyc, a 3D data visualization mapping platform that integrates publically available data on stormwater resiliency, with population demographics, land use/cover data layers, location of critical infrastructure and greenspaces etc. To date, no other mapping platform has been developed that provides the ability to compare and contrast the potential social and infrastructural risk of future flooding scenarios in NYC. Over the coming months, we'll be adding additional functionality that will allow toggling between layers to better interact with the scenarios, which we hope will provide a multi-hazard risk decision-support tool to improve resiliency prioritization. And may help us begin to answer a key question, "How will future flooding in NYC disproportionately impact critical infrastructure and minority and low income populations?" More detail in this press release.

July 12, 2021

Mapping Of NYC’s Urban Ecosystem Services Reveals Significant Supply-demand Mismatches And Raises Environmental Justice Concerns

A new study led by Research Fellow Pablo Herreros-Cantis, "Mapping supply of and demand for ecosystem services to assess environmental justice in New York City" reveals significant supply-demand mismatches for ecosystem services that raises critical environmental justice concerns citywide. The research team set out to spatially map and examine both the supply and demand for urban ecosystem services (ES) in NYC, or the benefits that parks, open spaces, and urban green infrastructure can provide to communities. The authors explain how certain socio-demographic groups are, through historical racism and other legacies of environmental and social injustice, more prone to having their needs for ecosystem services unsatisfied. They conclude that without improved analysis of current mismatches, greening investments may exacerbate or even replicate historical and current environmental injustices and inequalities in American cities. More detail here in this press release.

July 2, 2021

National Study Of Green Infrastructure Planning Finds Environmental Justice Rarely Including In Plans

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has completed one of the most comprehensive studies of green infrastructure (GI) planning in the U.S. to date. Building on a novel dataset of 119 planning documents from 19 U.S. cities, a team from the The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, Arizona State University, The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and The New School’s Urban Systems Lab examine the justice implications of criteria used in the siting of GI projects. The team found that only 1.2% of all criteria in the GI plans considered issues of environmental justice or equity. More here in this press release.

July 1, 2021

New International Study on Climate Adaptation Solutions for Cities

The USL’s Timon McPhearson is a co-author of a new research study, “Integrating solutions to adapt cities for climate change” published in the Lancet Journal of Planetary Health. The study led by Dr. Brenda Lin highlights the need for more systematic research on integrated climate solutions for urban contexts. They examine 3 city cases including Freiburg, Germany; Durban, South Africa; and Singapore. The article concludes with a discussion of future challenges, and recommendations for implementing climate adaptation solutions that integrate the goals of improving liveability, sustainability, and equality in cities around the world.

June 22, 2021

At What Point Managed Retreat? Resilience, Relocation and Climate Justice

USL Research Pablo Herreros Cantis is presenting on a recently published paper, "Shifting landscapes of coastal flood risk: environmental (in)justice of urban change, sea level rise, and differential vulnerability in New York City" at the 2021 Columbia Climate School’s 2021 Managed Retreat Conference. This year’s focus is “At What Point Managed Retreat? Resilience, Relocation and Climate Justice”. →

June 9, 2021

Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management Conference

Postdoctoral Fellow Ahmed Mustafa will be presenting at this year’s Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management Conference June 9 - 11, 2021. He will be presenting recent work from an NSF-funded RAPID award investigating the impacts of COVID-19 on communities in NYC. Join him for his presentation, “A spatial analysis of perceived and geographic access to urban green spaces in NY”. →

June 1, 2021

Uncovering the traits of an urban social-ecological system

Our collaborators at the Stockholm Resilience Center have developed a new research synthesis article detailing a new perspective in the in the journal npj Urban Sustainability “What are the traits of a social-ecological system: towards a framework in support of urban sustainability” co-authored by the USL’s Timon McPhearson. →

May 27, 2021

National Science Foundation SETS Convergence Report Released

Now in its second year, the SETS Convergence research team, a collaborative effort between the Urban Systems Lab, Arizona State University, Barnard College, Georgia State University, and US Forest Service has just released a new research report which highlights outcomes from Phase I of the project. Learn more about how this transdisciplinary team is advancing the capabilities of cities to respond to climate-driven extreme events. →

May 21, 2021

Invest in America's nature-based infrastructure

The USL's Z. Grabowski and Timon McPhearson are co-athors of a new Op-Ed in The Hill, "Invest in America's nature-based infrastructure." In the piece they highlight the urgent need to invest in nature-based infrastructure, parks, trails and biocultural conservation through the America Jobs Plan.

May 14, 2021

NYC releases first city-wide Stormwater Resiliency Plan

The NYC Mayors office released the first ever citywide Stormwater Resiliency Plan, which includes an analysis of flooding caused by extreme rainfall events. The USL co-led the development of a hydrologic model of flooding, and simulation of citywide flood exposure for twenty current and future storm scenarios as part of the Town + Gown Taskforce. To read the full report click here. (Press Release)

May 5, 2021

New ArcGIS Storymap: Urban Flooding, Equity and Green Infrastructure

Urban flooding is an increasing challenge that cities face nationally and globally. Flood risk is often disproportionate, with some people facing greater risks and impacts than others. As cities invest in solutions to address urban flooding, will those investments help those most in need? To address many of these questions the Urban Systems Lab developed a new story map that examines the complexity of urban flood risk and green infrastructure (GI) in Syracuse, NY. →

April 15, 2021

Call for Applications: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Urban Nature-based Solutions

The Urban Systems Lab (USL) at The New School invites applicants for an appointment as an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Urban Nature-based Solutions. We are seeking an outstanding scholar with expertise in the synergistic benefits of nature-based solutions (NBS) for urban resilience, and the role of social, ecological, and technological-infrastructural contexts in NBS outcomes. The Fellow will support the U.S. National Science Foundation funded research project Nature-based solutions for Urban Resilience in the Anthropocene. →

April 7, 2021

New Book Released: Resilient Urban Futures

Resilient Urban Futures is an open access book addresses the way in which urban and urbanizing regions profoundly impact and are impacted by climate change. The editors and authors show why cities must wage simultaneous battles to curb global climate change trends while adapting and transforming to address local climate impacts. This book addresses how cities develop anticipatory and long-range planning capacities for more resilient futures, earnest collaboration across disciplines, and radical reconfigurations of the power regimes that have institutionalized the disenfranchisement of minority groups. →

March 31, 2021

Presentation at AAG Annual Meeting 2021 on Urban Flood Risk

USL Research Fellow Pablo Herreros Cantis is presenting research from the Environmental Justice of Urban Flood Risk and Green Infrastructure Solutions project at the American Association of Geographers 2021 Annual Meeting. His presentation, “Applying a Source-to-Impact flood risk assessment to identify priority areas for green infrastructure interventions in a sewershed in Syracuse, NY” explores how a hydrodynamic modelling approach could guide the identification of priority intervention areas based on the flood risk mitigation benefits experienced downstream. →

March 2, 2021

Research on frameworks that seek to advance global urban science

The USL's Timon McPhearson is featured in a news release from the American Association for the Advancement of Science detailing his work with The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies’ Steward Pickett and Weiqi Zhou at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Together they examine five leading frameworks that seek to advance global urban science. Their synthesis refines our capacity to understand urban systems, ranging from cities to urban regions, by facilitating the interdisciplinary science needed to achieve sustainability and improve human and environmental wellbeing. You can read more about their work in the article “Conceptual Frameworks Facilitate Integration for Transdisciplinary Urban Science” in the inaugural issue of npj Urban Sustainability. →

February 23, 2021

Call for Applications: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in AI for Urban Resilience

The Urban Systems Lab (USL) at The New School invites applicants for an appointment as Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence for Urban Resilience and Sustainability beginning on March 15, 2021.

We are seeking an outstanding scholar with expertise in urban data science, spatial modeling, and machine learning to work with diverse local and global databases to examine urban social-ecological-technological system (SETS) risks. The Postdoctoral Fellowship will be homed in the USL but will contribute to projects with partners at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Princeton Environment Institute, and The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences within its program “Governance, Technology and Complexity” (https://beijer.kva.se/programmes/complexity/) and its international initiative “AI, People and Planet” (https://www.aipeopleplanet.earth/). To apply and learn more click here.

February 11, 2021

USL PhD Fellow Receives US National Science Foundation INTERN Award

Urban Systems Lab Fellow and Milano PhD student, Jennifer Ventrella was awarded a US National Science Foundation INTERN award to work with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Resiliency on climate resilience scenario development for NYC, as part of the NSF-funded Growing Convergence Research project in the USL.

January 29, 2021

USL Research Discussion Series | Spring 2021

Join us for the Spring 2021 Urban Systems Lab Research discussion series featuring conversations, presentations, and work from USL staff, fellows, and invited guests. To learn more and to attend these virtual sessions click here.

January 25, 2021

USL joins the Zolberg Institute’s Cities and Human Mobility Research Collaborative

As part of the Zolberg Institute’s Cities and Human Mobility Research Collaborative the USL will be working with research partners to provide new analysis and estimates on environmental migration and climate-driven mobility at the subnational level in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and sub-Saharan Africa. The goal is to facilitate the collection, analysis, and dissemination of territorial data on migrants, as a way to improve the capacity of subnational entities in the formulation of public policies for their integration and protection, as well as granular systematic data on environmental mobility patterns, identifying the policy-relevance and role of organized community groups.

January 15, 2021

Call for Submissions: Resilience Quarterly Issue 2

Resilience Quarterly invites submissions to our second issue Nature-Cultures, exploring new visions and narratives of cities that transcend a human perspective to embrace multispecies relationships. We are specifically interested in short stories, artworks, climate fiction (CliFi), designs, and data visualizations that examine and trouble dystopian visions of a world impacted by climate change.

What can we learn from other species? What are positive visions of the Anthropocene? What does a world beyond human look and feel like? How can CliFi be a space to address issues of equity and justice? To submit and learn more click here.

January 10, 2021

Poster for Annual Meeting of American Meteorological Society

USL Postdoctoral Fellow Ahmed Mustafa presented a poster a the 101st Annual Meeting of American Meteorological Society: "Exploring the Impact of Positive Land-Use/Cover Strategies on Local Climate in Central Maryland with Diverse Stakeholders". →

January 10, 2021

USL to Join The Nature of Cities Festival

The USL is participating in NATURA's second Virtual All-Hands Meeting which will take place within The Nature of Cities (TNOC) Festival on February 22-26, 2021. The USL’s Timon McPhearson will be a keynote speaker at the festival, which will include programming across five regional time zones, and will be provided in multiple languages. The festival focuses on facilitating transdisciplinary dialogue, small group workshops, arts engagement, and fostering a collaborative spirit around solutions for our urban futures. To register click here.

December 14, 2020

Human ‘stuff’ now outweighs all life on Earth

The USL's Timon McPhearson was quoted in a new Science Magazine article, “Human ‘stuff’ now outweighs all life on Earth” by Erik Stokstad discussing a study from the Weizmann Institute of Science that concludes the mass of all human-made stuff - buildings, roads, and everything else —now exceeds the weight of all living things on the planet. “If you weren’t convinced before that humans are dominating the planet, then you should be convinced now.”

December 1, 2020

Overlapping Vulnerability to Extreme Heat and COVID-19

USL Postdoctoral Fellow Luis Ortiz and Timon McPhearson presented a poster at the Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), “Overlapping Vulnerability to Extreme Heat and COVID-19 in New York City”. →

November 23, 2020

Resilience Roundtable

The Resilience Roundtable is a series of in-depth discussions with designers, scientists, scholars, activists, and artists exploring the intersection of design, urban ecology, and environmental justice. Join the USL for the first Roundtable session inviting experts and practitioners across disciplines to reflect on the future of cities in the context of the current health and climate crises. How do we build resilience to both climate extremes and future health crises? The Roundtable will be moderated by the Resilience Quarterly’s editorial team, and will features Alan McGowan (The New School), Timon McPhearson (Urban Systems Lab, The New School), Mike Harrington (Tishman Environment and Design Center), Anastassia Fisyak (Parsons School of Design), and Jimmy Pan (Architect and Contributing Author). To register click here.

November 13, 2020

Post-Petro Imaginaries at 1014

Join USL Faculty Fellow Chris Woebken for a virtual exhibition and roundtable, Post-Petro Imaginaries at 1014. Transforming the space into a hyper-reality testing environment, the project presents experiential futures prototypes that investigate our relationships in a spectrum of post-oil scenarios. To learn more a register for online events click here.

October 22, 2020

USL Research Used to Support Testimony on Green Space Equity at NYC Council Hearing

The USL’s research on the use and perception of urban parks and open spaces during COVID-19 in NYC is being used to support testimony from The Nature Conservancy of New York’s Emily Maxwell during the NYC City Council Oversight Committee hearing on “Improving the Equity of Green Space throughout the City in Light of the COVID Epidemic.” To learn more about the study click here.

October 21, 2020

USL 2019-20 Faculty and PhD Fellow Public Presentations

Join the Urban Systems Lab for public presentations from our 2019-20 Faculty and PhD Fellows. Over the past year, this diverse cohort of researchers, designers, scholars, and architects from across The New School has been engaged in scholarly work exploring strategies for more equitable and resilient cities. Faculty Fellows will present on October 29, 5 - 6pm via Zoom, and PhD Fellows on November 12, 5 - 6pm via Zoom. To join and learn more click here.

October 19, 2020

USL Seeks a Research Assistant in Spatial Analysis

The Urban Systems Lab is currently accepting applications for a 2020 - 2021 research assistant to support ongoing research projects and substantive academic tasks. We are specifically looking for a candidate to support spatial analysis and mapping for an augmented reality application called Climate Equity XR. Click here to learn more and apply.

October 6, 2020

Parks are Critical Urban Infrastructure: The Use of Urban Green Space in New York City During COVID-19

The USL published a new article in The Nature of Cities, “Parks are Critical Urban Infrastructure: The Use of Urban Green Space in New York City During COVID-19”. In one of the most comprehensive studies on the use of urban green spaces in NYC during COVID-19, the USL team and partners at The Nature Conservancy in New York, Building Healthy Communities NYC and the New York State Health Foundation find perception of access is unequal across the five boroughs, and a reduction in funding may compromise ability of parks managers and officials to manage significant shifts in use. Read more →

September 21, 2020

Free Online Course: How to use AI with image data and satellite data

Join the USL, Peltarion, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences), and the Stockholm Resilience Centre on 2 October 2020, for a free online course on how to apply AI-methods (“deep learning”) to analyze satellite images related to land use change and deforestation. →

September 15, 2020

Call for 2020 - 2021 USL Fellowships

The Urban Systems Lab (USL) is currently accepting applications for Faculty and Graduate Student Fellowships to support research that furthers the USL’s commitment to provide new insight into developing more equitable, sustainable, and resilient cities. New School Faculty fellows will receive $3,000 in funding to support research expenses, and New School PhD students will receive up to an $8,000 stipend for the 2020–2021 academic year to support their scholarly or creative practice. Deadline for applications is Oct. 1, 2020. USL expects to announce applications for 2021-2022 USL Fellowships in September, 2021. To learn more and to apply click here.

September 5, 2020

Call for Submissions, Resilience: Reimagining the city in the age of coronavirus

The USL is launching a new quarterly publication called RESILIENCE, a unique forum to share strategies in design, data visualization, and interdisciplinary scholarship on urban ecology, environmental justice, and sustainable cities. For our inaugural issue, we invite submissions from designers, scientists, architects, students, activists and artists exploring the future of cities in the era of Covid-19. We are particularly interested in articles, stories, media, dataviz projects, and artworks concerned with examples of participatory decision making, the role of climate and racial justice in the upcoming elections, and the role design and science can and should play in imagining the future of cities. →

September 4, 2020

USL Featured on Science Friday

The USL's Timon McPhearson and Luis Ortiz are featured in this week's Science Friday episode in a segment called “NYC’s Trees: A Natural Defense Against Heat, But Not Equally Shared.” Timon and Luis discuss ongoing research in the Lab examining the importance of the urban forest and urban greenspaces in NYC for building resilience to extreme heat, climate change and COVID-19.

August 27, 2020

USL Hosts event for Climate Week: Who Does Mapping Serve? GIS in Environmental Justice and Climate Change Research, Organizing and Action

Join members of the USL on September 22 (5:30 - 7:30 ET) for an online workshop to introduce and critically interrogate GIS approaches in environmental justice and climate change research and organizing with the goal of helping participants learn about and identify the best tools for mapping environmental and social data, and how this can address a local environmental justice concern. Click here to register for free.

August 11, 2020

USL Work Featured in Oculus Magazine

The USL’s research on the impacts of COVID-19 on New York's transportation system is featured in the latest issue of the American Institute of Architects Oculus magazine. →

July 29, 2020

USL Faculty Fellow Debra Anderson McGrory joins the Women in Data Science Panel

Join USL Faculty Fellow Debra Anderson McGrory for the Women in Data Science virtual panel “Data Science for Innovation Impact and Activism” on Aug 6th at 1:30pm to discuss COVID-19 data research for societal impact. Register here.

July 24, 2020

USL Participates in Nature-Based Solutions Digital Dialogues

Earlier this month, the USL participated in the University of Oxford’s Nature-Based Solutions Digital Dialogues. USL Director Timon McPhearson was part of the Financing Nature-based Solutions panel. Conference materials and recordings of each panel discussion is now archived on their website →

July 23, 2020

Urban Systems Lab Joins the NYC Mayor’s Office Recovery Data Partnership

The Urban Systems Lab joins the NYC Mayors Office Recovery Data Partnership to share data with the City to aid in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. The USL will be sharing data from our social survey, “Perception and Use of Urban Parks and Open Space During COVID-19 Social Distancing in New York City”, which explores among other things access and use of urban parks and open spaces in NYC during COVID-19. →

Remaking NYC Post-COVID

USL Director Timon McPhearson joins an amazing team of faculty for a new course underway at The New School, "Remaking NYC Post-COVID", exploring how we can use this moment of crisis to shape a more equitable and sustainable city. →

June 30, 2020

Injustice by Design: confronting the embedded racism of America's cities

USL PhD students Bart Orr and Veronica Olivotto, and USL Director Timon McPhearson are co-authors of a new piece in The Hill entitled “Injustice by design: confronting the embedded racism of America's cities.” The discuss how urban planning and policy decisions are linked to the current racial segregation and injustice in America's cities. →

June 29, 2020

USL Director Timon McPhearson featured in 3 new articles in the Guardian, Curbed New York and Popular Science

USL Director Timon McPhearson is featured in Popular Science's recent coverage of a new National Wildlife Federation report, The Protective Value of Nature, just released on the role nature-based solutions can play in safeguarding communities from extreme weather like hurricanes. McPhearson was also interviewed for an article in the Guardian on the important role urban nature plays during the COVID-19 crisis, and also in a new piece in Curbed New York, on the interdependent threats of extreme heat and its disproportionate impact on already vulnerable populations.

June 16, 2020

PhD Student Katinka Wijsman Contributes to New York Statewide Shoreline Monitoring Framework

The Statewide Shoreline Monitoring Framework, a report for monitoring nature-based features in New York State was released today. USL PhD student Katinka Wijsman was part of the core team and the socio-economic technical working group. To read the full report click here.

June 11, 2020

Timon McPhearson Appointed to NYC Panel on Climate Change

USL Director Timon McPhearson was appointed to the NYC Panel on Climate Change. Dr. McPhearson joins a 20-member independent advisory body that synthesizes scientific information on climate change and advises City policymakers on local resiliency and adaptation strategies to protect against rising temperatures, increased flooding, and other hazards. Read more about the appointment and the NPCC here.

June 5, 2020

NATURA All-Hands Meeting

The Nature-based solutions for Urban Resilience in the Anthropocene network is hosting its inaugural Virtual All Hands Meeting, June 16 - 18, bringing together over 30 key researchers and practitioners working on nature-based solutions across network institutions and beyond. The event is free and open to members of the NATURA network and invited guests. RSVP here

June 1, 2020

Cary Science Conversation: Extreme Heat, COVID, and Equity in NYC

Join the USL and Cary Institute for a Science Conversation -Extreme Heat, COVID, and Equity in NYC on June 18, 2020. This science conversation will explore the intersection between COVID-19 and extreme heat in cities, with a focus on equitable solutions that can keep all urban residents healthy. Panelists include experts from Cary Institute, NASA, The Nature Conservancy, and the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. To see a video and additional resources from the event click here.

May 31, 2020

Urban Parks as Critical Infrastructure

USL Director Timon McPhearson contributes commentary to a recent Curbed NY article exploring funding cuts for urban parks and organizations that help maintain open spaces in New York City. Read the full article here

May 5, 2020

Enabling Access to Greenspace During COVID-19

The USL team contributed to a new essay for the Nature of Cities, inviting Urban resilience researchers in New York, Barcelona, Berlin/Halle, Oslo, and Stockholm to respond to Google mobility data over the past several months, and provide local perspectives on the importance of access to greenspace. →

April 30, 2020

USL’s Covid-19 Research Featured in Urban Omnibus Audio Dispatch

USL Research Fellow Luis Ortiz, Director Timon McPhearson and Assistant Director Chris Kennedy talk with the Architectural League’s Urban Omnibus on recent COVID-19 research in NYC. Read “Dispatches: Making Science Actionable” →

April 22, 2020

USL Director Timon McPhearson Honored as NYC Climate Hero

USL Director Timon McPhearson was honored as a NYC Climate Hero for an exhibit by the Human Impacts Institute and the NYC DOT’s Art Program. In total 30 New Yorkers were chosen for their work on climate action and making NYC healthier and more just. →

April 21, 2020

USL Awarded NSF Grant for New Research on COVID-19, Social Vulnerability, and Climate

The Urban Systems Lab (USL) was awarded a National Science Foundation RAPID grant this week to study how potential impacts of shifting human behavior and shelter-in-place policies in response to COVID-19 will interact with changing weather and potential weather-related extremes such as heat waves, flooding, or storm events. The USL team will be integrating survey, social media, building infrastructure, energy demand and use, and social-demographic data that leverages data visualization and spatial analysis to improve decision making and emergency response for communities most impacted by the interdependencies of COVID-19 and weather extremes. Visit our regularly updated resource page to see the latest, and learn more about our efforts here.

April 17, 2020

Urban Systems Lab Participates in Earth Week Events

On April 22, 2020 (Earth Day) USL Director Timon McPhearson will participate in the Future Earth Webinar, Earth Day 2020 and COVID-19. How Are Environmental and Health Crises Linked?. USL Research Fellow Luis Ortiz and Timon McPhearson are also speaking on a virtual panel, organized by the Tishman Center for Environmental Design, Climate Justice and Pandemics: A Roundtable on Reflections, Personal Experiences and What we do Going Forward. On April 25, 2020, USL PhD Fellow Veronica Olivotto will participate in the Climate Collective event, "You Ever Felt Overwhelmed? The Words of Climate Scientists, Activists and Journalists". To register click here.

April 13, 2020

Green Roof Ecology Interview from the New School Collaboratory: “In Conversation” with Timon McPhearson and Cecilia de Corral

The New School Collaboratory interviews USL Director, Timon McPhearson, and Cecilia de Corral, Director of Design and Build at The Brooklyn Grange to discuss their course “Green Roof Ecology.” →

March 26, 2020

Scientific collaboration in the era of COVID-19 

USL PhD Fellow Veronica Olivotto is contributing to a new live article on Authorea highlighting the need for scientific collaboration in the era of COVID-19. →

March 20, 2020

USL Launches Social Vulnerability and COVID-19 Visualization Effort

As communities worldwide respond to the COVID-19 crisis, the Urban Systems Lab team stands in solidarity with frontline responders, those most affected, and communities working to help those most in need. As our resilience is tested, the USL will be providing resources and new analysis on potential impacts COVID-19 on daily life and vulnerable communities in NYC. We will update this page regularly including key research, datasets, and relevant articles that may be important to stay informed of during this ongoing crisis. →

March 19, 2020

Green Roofs in NYC: An Interview with Urban Omnibus

Dustin R. Partridge and Danielle Spiegel-Feld from the Green Roof Researchers Alliance (GRRA) discuss NYC’s new Climate Mobilization Act which includes Local Laws 97, 92 and 94, requiring all new buildings and major roof alterations to be capped with a green roof, solar panels, or some combination of the two. As of 2016 there were only 736 green roofs in the city, representing less than 0.1% of its buildings. The USL is working with partners at the GRRA, The Nature Conservancy, The Brooklyn Grange and Audubon Society to change this. Learn more about Green Roofs in NYC here, and read Dustin and Danielle’s interview with Urban Omnibus here.

March 2, 2020

USL Announces 2020 Fellowships

The Urban Systems Lab (USL) awarded fellowships to four New School Faculty and three PhD Students who will work on research that further the USL’s commitment to providing new insight into developing more equitable and resilient cities. A diverse team of USL faculty and staff reviewed each proposal independently to evaluate key criteria including the research proposal’s goal and methodology, the anticipated outcomes to various audiences and stakeholders, the long-term sustainability of the project, it’s overall merit and connection to the USL’s vision and approach. 

The USL is pleased to welcome Karim Ahmed (PT Faculty, Parsons School of Design), Debra Anderson McGrory (Adjunct Faculty, Schools of Public Engagement), Andrea Marpillero-Colomina (PT Lecturer, Parsons School of Design and Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts) and Chris Woebken (PT Faculty, Parsons School of Design) as our 2020 Faculty Fellows; and Veronica Olivotto (PhD Candidate, Public and Urban Policy), Avigail Vantu (PhD Student, Public and Urban Policy), and Jennifer Ventrella  (PhD Student, Public and Urban Policy) as our 2020 PhD Fellows. →

February 20, 2020

Person Place Thing: Envisioning Climate Justice for NYC's Most Vulnerable

On May 6, 2020, join us for a live recording of Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen featuring USL Director Timon McPhearson at the New School University Center. Person Place Thing is an interview show based on the idea that people are particularly engaging when they speak, not directly about themselves, but about something they care about. This episode will explore the role environmental justice and equity can play in imagining more sustainable and resilient cities in the face of our current climate crisis. To learn more and get tickets →

February 18, 2020

USL Director Joins WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities Advisory Council

USL Director Timon McPhearson is now on the Advisory Council for the World Resources Institute, Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. The WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities helps create accessible, equitable, healthy and resilient urban areas for people, businesses and the environment to thrive. To learn more →

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Our Future on Earth 2020

Future Earth has just released its latest report, Our Future on Earth 2020 and the launch of  Global Risk Perception report. The Our Future on Earth report includes a section co-authored by USL Director Timon McPhearson and touches on a range of interconnected topics from the climate crisis, to food and financial security, populism and grassroots movements, to the challenges and opportunities of new media and the digital revolution. The report garnered significant media attention including over 200 online news stories in over 60 countries. Check out coverage via The Guardian, Reuters and an op-ed in The Conversation.  To learn more →

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

USL Director Timon McPhearson to Deliver 2020 Barry Commoner Lecture on the Environment

Join USL Director Timon McPhearson on March 10 for the 2020 Barry Commoner Lecture on the Environment at Marymount Manhattan College. Timon will be delivering a talk, "Urban Futures: Building a Science of Cities for Resilience and Sustainability". To learn more →

JANUARY 30, 2020

USL Fellowship for PhD Students - Deadline Extended

The Urban Systems Lab (USL) is currently accepting applications for Graduate Student Fellowships to support research that furthers the USL’s commitment to provide new insight into developing more equitable, sustainable, and resilient cities. New School PhD students will receive a $10,000 stipend for the 2019–2020 academic year to support their scholarly or creative practice. Deadline extended to February 12, 2020. Click here to Apply

JANUARY 24, 2020

The Stockholm Resilience Centre and USL seek Postdoc Fellow

The Stockholm Resilience Centre and Urban Systems Lab are seeking a Postdoc Fellow to explore ways to reinforce nature based solutions through smart technology. This is a 2-year full time position with the possibility of extension and is funded by Nordforsk SMARTer Greener Cities initiative. Applications are due Jan. 30, 2020. →

JANUARY 15, 2020

IPCC Lead Author Meeting

USL Director and Associate Professor Timon McPhearson will be attending The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change AR6 Third Lead Author Meeting in Faro, Portugal from Jan 27 - Feb. 1, 2020. Dr. McPhearson is part of the Working Group II, contributing to the Sixth Assessment Report on Climate Change 2021: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.

December 17, 2019

USL Announces Fellowships for New School Faculty and Students

The Urban Systems Lab (USL) is currently accepting applications for Faculty and Graduate Student Fellowships to support research that furthers the USL’s commitment to provide new insight into developing more equitable, sustainable, and resilient cities. Four faculty fellows will receive $3,000 in funding to support research expenses, and two New School PhD students will receive a $10,000 stipend for the 2019–2020 academic year to support their scholarly or creative practice. Deadline for applications is Jan. 28, 2020. To apply

December 13, 2019

USL Year End Review: 2019

Take a look at our favorite books, articles, events and other sources of inspiration in 2019 from the Urban Systems Lab network. →

November 18, 2019

NATURA Project Launches

Stocklholm Resilience Centre join the “Nature-based Solutions for Urban Resilience in the Anthropocene” (NATURA) initiative. The project will bring together 26 networks in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, North and Latin America to enhance connectivity among the world's scholars and practitioners and improve the prospects for global urban sustainability. The initiative is funded by $2 million grant the US National Science Foundation over the next five years. 

New Research on Urban Data Infrastructure & Climate Change

USL Director and Stockholm Resilience Centre researcher Timon McPhearson offers a state-of-the art review of urban data infrastructure, revealing how cities can become powerful agents in the fight against climate change. →

November 15, 2019

Green Roof Ecology Final Presentations

On December 11th at 9am, join New School students in the Green Roof Ecology course for final design and ecology presentations on the future of green roofs in NYC. Learn more about student’s research and field experience with the Brooklyn Grange, NYC Audubon Society, and Green Roof Researchers Alliance. FREE and open to all. 

November 1, 2019

RESILIENCE Vol. 4

In the latest issue of RESILIENCE, the Urban Systems Lab’s Newsletter, learn more about the NATURA initiative, which links 26 networks in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, North and Latin America, and globally to enhance connectivity among the world's scholars and practitioners and improve the prospects for global urban sustainability. Plus the latest on recent publications, conferences and presentations from USL Fellows and Researchers →

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Resilient Futures Panel & USL on New School Radio

The USL is organizing a panel discussion called Resilient Futures: New Thinking on Climate Change on Oct. 3rd. The event will bring together policy makers, scholars, and climate scientists to discuss their approaches to planning a more just, resilient, and sustainable future. USL Director Timon McPhearson was featured on New School Radio discussing the event. →

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

Cary Institute Seeks Research Support Specialist, Communication and Design

The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies seeks a dynamic and highly motivated research specialist to assist with research on urban green infrastructure (GI) in a multi-city study of green infrastructure planning and policy. →

September 10, 2019

Building a Resilient Future Day

In preparation for the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, USL will co-host the Global Resilience Partnership Building a Resilient Future Day on September 22 at The New School. Registration is now open. →

August 24, 2019

Environmental Health and Justice Leadership Training

Pablo Herreros is participating in the WE ACT Environmental Health and Justice Leadership Training, which prepares members for advocacy work in northern Manhattan and beyond. →

August 15, 2019

Juno Garrah Publishes a New Paper on Improving Water Quality in Lakes

“Bright Spots Among Lakes in the Rideau Valley Watershed, Ontario,” by Juno Garrah, Barbara Frei, and Elena Bennett, is now available in Ecology and Society.

August 7, 2019

Developing Capacities for Urban Transformation

Katharina Hölscher, Niki Frantzeskaki, Timon McPhearson, and Derk Loorbach published an article in Cities with a framework for explaining, evaluating, and supporting transformative urban governance. →

July 16, 2019

Article on Green and Blue Infrastructure Published in BioScience

“Enabling Urban Green and Blue Infrastructure to Improve Contributions to Human Well-being and Equity in Urban Systems,” by USL director Timon McPhearson and colleagues, is now available online. →

July 8, 2019

Green Roofs Research Conference

As part of the Green Roof Researchers Alliance, USL is collaborating with the Audubon Society on this year’s State of Green Roofs in NYC Conference at the Javits Convention Center on September 27. Register today. →

July 1, 2019

National Recreation and Park Association Research Symposium

Zbigniew Grabowski will share current work on green infrastructure at the 2019 National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) Research Symposium, which takes place September 24-26 in Baltimore. →

June 21, 2019

Agricultural Response to Climate Change in the Peruvian Coastal Desert

Claudia Tomateo presented her research on coastal agriculture and resilience at the Earth Institute’s “At What Point Managed Retreat? Resilience Building in the Coastal Zone” conference. →

June 12, 2019

Presentation and Panel at Helsinki University on Climate Resilience

The Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science hosted a presentation by Timon McPhearson followed by a panel discussion with the Finnish Environment Institute and the Ministry of the Environment. →

June 6, 2019

New Publication on Knowledge Politics of Coastal Risk

Zbigniew Grabowski collaborated with Mary Ann Rozance, Ashlie Denton, Marissa Matsler, and Wendy Mayhugh on a paper in Environmental Science & Policy about urban planning for global sea-level rise. →

June 4, 2019

Inclusive Planning for Climate Adaptation

Timon McPhearson co-facilitated a Seed Workshop on public participation in planning for climate adaptation at the Nature of Cities Summit in Paris. He also helped organize the summit. →

May 21, 2019

Feminist and Decolonial Perspectives on Urban Resilience

Katinka Wijsman and Mathieu Feagan published “Rethinking Knowledge Systems for Urban Resilience: Feminist and Decolonial Contributions to Just Transformations” in Environmental Science & Policy. →

May 18, 2019

Artists and Scientists Partner to Address Climate Change

Elizabeth Cook served on a panel at the Broto conference dedicated to exploring cooperation between artists and scientists in understanding complex systems and responding to climate change on a global scale. →

May 18, 2019

Artists and Scientists Partner to Address Climate Change

Elizabeth Cook served on a panel at the Broto conference dedicated to exploring cooperation between artists and scientists in understanding complex systems and responding to climate change on a global scale. →

May 11, 2019

Mapping Social and Environmental Injustices in New York City

Pablo Herreros and Veronica Olivotto are sharing their spatial analyses of urban risk and ecosystem services in relation to social equity at the Mapping (In)Justice symposium November 7-8. →

May 6, 2019

From the Field Podcast on Climate Vulnerability and Urban Resilience

Timon McPhearson’s From the Field episode addresses the effects of climate change on cities and a multifaceted strategy for dealing with heatwaves. →

April 18, 2019

Two New Awards from the Ecological Society of America

The Ecological Society of America selected Timon McPhearson and coauthors to receive the 2019 Sustainability Science Award and the Innovation in Sustainability Science Award. →

April 12, 2019

Scenario Development Workshop in Miami

Elizabeth Cook, Timon McPhearson, and other members of the UREx Sustainable Research Network gathered to envision and plan resilient urban futures in collaboration with local residents. →

April 5, 2019

Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting

Zbigniew Grabowski and Jing Wang attended the AAG Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., to give presentations on green infrastructure and green space, respectively. →

March 21, 2019

New Publication on Urban Resilience and Pluralism in Environmental Science & Policy

“Enhancing Urban Resilience Knowledge Systems through Experiential Pluralism,” by Zbigniew Grabowski, P. Zion Klosc, and Chad Monfreda, is now available online. →

March 12, 2019

Jing Wang Recieves NASA-MSU Award

NASA and Michigan State University will fund USL visiting scholar Jing Wang to present her work at the 2019 annual meeting of the U.S. International Association for Landscape Ecology. →

March 1, 2019

‘Science and the Future of Cities’ Report Now Available Online

Timon McPhearson took part in the expert panel convened by Nature Sustainability to produce a report on global, urban, and interdisciplinary collaboration between science and policy. →

February 20, 2019

USL Presents at the Summit on ‘Science for Decision-Making in a Warmer World’

Veronica Olivotto and Luis Ortiz will share their work on climate risk and resilience at the New York Academy of Sciences on March 15. →

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

WNYC Hosts Cary Institute and USL Discussion on Urban Ecology

Joshua Ginsberg, Timon McPhearson, and Steward Pickett held a recorded conversation on urban ecology in relation to social equity and resilience. →

FEBRUARY 1, 2019

Co-Developing Scenarios for Climate Resilience in Puerto Rico

Elizabeth Cook, Luis Ortiz, and Timon McPhearson joined UREx colleagues in San Juan to model alternative futures using Big Data and Machine Learning. →

January 28, 2019

Urban Sustainability in the Anthropocene

A multidisciplinary group of scientists — including USL’s Timon McPhearson — is meeting in Stockholm to discuss sustaining critical habitats in the Anthropocene. →

January 20, 2019

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change WGII Kick-Off in Durban

Timon McPhearson and IPCC Working Group II met to begin work on the “Climate Change 2021: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability” section of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). →

december 18, 2018

National Academy of Sciences Features UREx SRN Projects on Climate Resilience

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a detailed article on USL’s work as part of the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN). →

December 13, 2018

Social Justice and Health Equity in Urban Greening Initiatives

As part of the ENABLE project, USL shared research findings on inequitable environmental risks and benefits at the Beyond Re-Naturing Cities Symposium in Barcelona. →

December 10, 2018

Reframing Urban Resilience Implementation

Timon McPhearson presented at the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU) Congress, addressing socio-environmental resilience, sustainability, and transformation. →