SDSN Global Commission on Urban SDG Finance Forges its Agenda at NYC Meeting

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Cities and Contagion: Lessons from COVID-19

The Cities and Contagion: Lessons from COVID-19 initiative brings together experts across scholarly disciplines who can help interpret the coronavirus pandemic’s implications for urbanization and the subsequent responses to its human and economic dimensions. This work will inform public and private decision-makers as they adapt cities to be more resilient, inclusive, and innovative. The initiative has four parts: publications, a web-based resource library, convenings (both online and, when appropriate, in person) and research projects.

Disaster in Urban Landscapes: Preparedness, Response and Recovery

The topic of disaster in urban landscapes—preparedness, response and recovery—has gained increasing visibility in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. Penn IUR aims to promote and further understanding of this critical issue through its publications and conferences.

Global Urban Commons

The Global Urban Commons (the Commons), is a publicly-accessible, global directory of university-based urban research centers.The Commons, which includes more than 200 urban-research focused organizations from around the world, is a platform to build awareness about the breadth and depth of global urban research. The site is unique in that it reaches across disciplines, supports common research agendas, and fosters opportunities for collaboration between urbanists based at research centers around the world.

Rapid Urbanization

With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Penn IUR explores the topic of rapid urbanization— both understanding how cities create and transfer knowledge=, and identifying policy interventions to support rapidly urbanizing cities.

Energy Smart Communities Initiative (ESCI) of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

In partnership with the Taiwan Institute for Economic Research (TIER), Penn IUR worked to develop and maintain a knowledge-sharing platform (KSP) for the Energy Smart Communities Initiative (ESCI) of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Energy Working Group (EWG).

Food Security in a Rapidly Urbanizing World

Penn IUR promotes dialogue and fosters multidisciplinary collaboration among scholars in addressing food security, a critical issue in today’s rapidly urbanizing world. In March 2013, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation and Penn’s Office of the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives., and in partnership with the Penn School of Veterinary Medicine and a Faculty Steering Committee representing nine schools and six centers at the University of Pennsylvania, Penn IUR convened the “Feeding Cities: Food Security in a Rapidly Urbanizing World” conference.

HUD Sustainability Indicators Project

Penn IUR, with funding from the Ford Foundation, worked with a team of Penn’s city planning doctoral students to develop the Sustainable Communities Indicator Catalog (SCIC) a web-based tool that enables communities to benchmark and track their progress toward sustainability. Penn IUR consulted extensively with experts and stakeholders to inform the development of this tool.

Innovation in Higher Education in Connecticut

Connecticut developed, with support from Penn IUR, a roadmap to foster innovation and entrepreneurship across the state’s public and private institutions of higher education.

Land Use and Policy Studies

The City of Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, along with other city agencies, sought to address vacant land issues in Philadelphia. As part of this effort, RDA engaged the Econsult Corporation and Penn IUR to estimate the costs of vacant land to the City, and to assess the feasibility of urban agriculture on vacant land owned by the RDA.

Metrolab Network

Penn IUR has joined other universities across the nation to create a “Metro Lab Network” of university and city government partnerships committed to collaboration focused on 21st century solutions to the challenges confronting infrastructure, city services, and civic engagement. The Metro Lab Network will bring together university researchers with city decision makers to research, develop, and deploy (“RD&D”) technology‐ and analytically‐based solutions to the problems facing the systems and infrastructure on which our citizens, cities, and regional economies depend.

PJM Electricity Price Ticker and Energy Literacy Education Campaign

As part of the Energy Efficient Building Hub (EEB Hub) project (now the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation), and in partnership with PJM Interconnection LLC Penn IUR developed an electricity price ticker, a web-based and desktop app which allows people to track the wholesale price of electricity.

RENEWW Zones

Galvanizing Renewable Energy, Nutrition, Environment, Water, and Waste (RENEWW) Innovation Zones in Peri-Urban Communities, where everyone lives, works, eats, and thrives sustainably.

UN Habitat III Conference

Penn IUR exhibited faculty research as it relates to the New Urban Agenda at the UN Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador.

UN-HABITAT World Urban Campaign

Penn IUR is a partner with UN-HABITAT, the United Nations agency for human settlements. The goal of UN-HABITAT is to help the urban poor by bridging the urban divides and transforming cities to cleaner, greener, safer, smarter and more equitable places with better opportunities where everyone can live in dignity.

Urban Ecosystem Services and Decision-Making

Penn IUR partners with the Wharton GIS Lab on a research collaborative, the Spatial Integration Laboratory for Urban Systems (SILUS), to study ecological, environmental, and socioeconomic issues involved in urban and regional development.

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