Grand Challenges and Research | Urban Studies & Planning

Areas of Concentration and Grand Challenges

Architecture and Urban Design

• Designing Regional Parks for Civic Vitality and Sustainability
• Greening of Buildings
• Landscape Ecology and Sustainable Design
• Urban Design Master Planning

Community and Economic Development

• Community Quality of Life and Economic Development
• Equitable Redevelopment and Public Policy
• Global Action Research
• Greening of Industry and Public Policy

Environment

• Climate Change: Responding at the local level
• Coastal Zones and Ocean Management
• Environmental Justice
• Global Action Research
• Greening the University
• Regional Integrated Watershed Management
• Sustainability Indicators
• Sustainability of Human-Nature Ecosystems

Housing

• Affordable Housing
• Alternative Living (co-housing, housing for seniors)
• Homelessness

Infrastructure and Public Facilities

• Cyberinfrastructure (ICT for planning, research and sustainability)
• Sustainable Energy Systems
• Sustainable Water Systems

Public Health, Safety and Welfare

• Connecting Public Health and Planning
• Crime and the City
• Education (programs, policy, equity)
• Global Environmental Health
• Quality of Life, Public Health and Welfare

Transportation Planning

• Promoting Bicycling and Walking
• Transportation (programs, policy, planning)

Tribal Policy and Planning

• Improving Tribal Environmental Health
• The Climate Gap and Indigenous Communities

Urban and Regional Planning

• Citizen Science (community engagement for sustainability)
• Community Mapping & Social Networking Technologies
• Community and Regional Food Planning
• Disasters, Planning and Risk Management
• Global Action Research
• Global Planning Networks
• Multiculturalism and the City
• New Ruralism
• Regional Comprehensive Planning
• Sustainable Redevelopment

US-Mexico Border Planning

• Global Action Research
• Transborder City-Region Sustainability: Built Environment, Toxicants and Environmental Health