Urban

The Yale School of the Environment is launching an online certificate program to help urban policymakers and practitioners around the world implement innovative climate solutions.

Urban forests have long been understudied, but inventory data from a forest stewarded by the New York Botanical Garden has provided scientists at the Yale School of the Environment with a rare opportunity to study a century of changes in one urban forest — information that could help guide regional approaches to forest management.

Yale School of the Environment’s Karen Seto and an international group of leading scientists call for an urgent change in the governance of urban expansion as the world’s cities continue to grow at unprecedented rates.

The 2023 Hixon Center Urban Conference provided researchers and practitioners with new tactics to increase tree canopy, access funding, and engage community members as stewards of urban forests.

As cities come under increased heat stress with rising global temperatures, a new study by Yale School of the Environment scientists finds that urban humid heat can add additional heat risks to urban areas.

Karen Seto, Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at the Yale School of the Environment, has been named a lifetime member of the United States Council on Foreign Relations.

Two vice chairs and seven authors from the latest U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report took part in the recent Hixon Center Urban Conference, which covered a range of issues including infrastructure, transportation, energy, forests, and how urban areas can help mitigate climate change.

• Read more about Danica Doroski ’21 PhD

YSE Associate Dean for International Engagement Gordon Geballe is retiring after a nearly 50-year affiliation with the School and Yale. He is known for always keeping students at the center, his ability to build community and befriend everyone in the room, and his dedication to New Haven.

A new study, co-authored by researchers from The Forest School at YSE, examines how New Haven’s urban forest patches change over time and management strategies for mid-size urban forests.

Recently elected to one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies, YSE Professor Karen Seto talks about how cities can be a catalyst for generating solutions to climate change, what she is hoping to bring to the academy, and her role in developing the new Yale Center for Cities and Climate Solutions.

Providing some hope in the push for climate action, the IPCC report’s chapter on urban mitigation, led by Yale School of the Environment Professor Karen Seto, outlines how cities have an opportunity to increase resource efficiency and significantly reduce GHG emissions through smarter design and greener infrastructure.

A first of its kind study focusing on infrastructure inequality finds that infrastructure inequalities are ingrained in the urbanization process.

Considerable research has been conducted on the growth of urban population, but very little is known about why urban land areas expand. In a recent paper, a YSE-led research team investigated the role of population and economic growth in affecting urban land expansion for more than 300 cities.

Urban land expansion of up to 1.53 million square kilometers of new land will threaten the survival of more than 800 species but a focus on urban planning that protects habitats can mitigate the impact.