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NEW REPORT: Articulating a Next Generation Vision for Sustainable Urban Systems Research to NSF

The Advisory Committee on Environmental Research and Education (AC-ERE) to the US National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a new report articulating a next generation vision for sustainable urban systems research. Read the full report here.

In 1950, fewer than one-third of the world’s people lived in cities. By 2050, urban areas will be home to some two-thirds of Earth’s human population. This scale and pace of urbanization has never been seen in human history and requires a new type of science that transcends traditional disciplines and that intentionally links from intra-urban to urban-regional to global scales. No single discipline, from urban planning to public policy to engineering has the scope to address this challenge. Scientists need new data, methods and theories to assess the interactions among people, policy, infrastructure, technologies, governance institutions, and natural systems to understand urban to global system functions and change.

The AC-ERE released the report in response to this broader landscape and the challenges therein. The report seeks to provide a long-term vision to guide NSF and other funding agencies as they invest in new science and science-to-action partnerships moving from an exclusive focus on cities to a focus on sustainable urban systems.

The report was prepared by the Sustainable Urban Systems subcommittee to the AC-ERE, chaired by Anu Ramaswami, director of the Sustainable Healthy Cities Network and professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. See the full press release from NSF here.