urban

Restoration of Cheonggyecheon River

How can urban cities be renovated to provide opportunities for their residents to reconnect to nature? Cheonggyecheon river restoration project in Seoul replaced a highway with urban green spaces and a highly engineered river. The project opened in 2005 and has become popular place for people to visit in Seoul. The restoration of the Cheonggyecheon aimed to provide people with access to nature in the city as well as to revitalise downtown Seoul's culture and [...]

Garry Peterson2016-10-27T07:11:30+00:00transport system, Urban, urban ecology|Comments Off

Bogota’s CicloRuta

How can government investments in infrastructure projects help trigger good sustainable change? How can we overcome our lock-in to fossil-fuel intensive transport systems? Bogotá is the largest city of Colombia with a population of 7 million. Since the 1990s it has undergone a transformation from being know for its drug violence to its sustainability initiatives, many which have focussed on public transportation as a key for social inclusion. One of these initiatives was [...]

Garry Peterson2016-10-24T07:50:14+00:00Social-Ecological Seeds, transport system, Urban|Comments Off

Indian Bend Wash – Resilient Safe Fail Urban Green Infrastructure

How can infrastructure protect urban areas from extreme weather, while providing other benefits when weather is non-extreme? Indian Bend Wash in Scottsdale Arizona is a 17 km greenbelt that runs through the Phoenix metropolitan area in the SouthWest United States. It is "green infrastructure" designed to provide both flood protection and recreation. Indian Bend Wash is a historic floodplain, which was urbanized in the 20th century. In the late 1960s, development in the floodplain [...]

Garry Peterson2016-10-21T00:20:01+00:00infrastructure, United States, Urban, urban ecology|Comments Off

Social change through “Social Ecology” in Montreal

By Théo Rouhette How can a citizen community use popular education and social action in order to transform society and its institutions toward an ecological, egalitarian and democratic future? Challenges such as climate change and global inequity can be so overwhelming, individuals may feel powerless to respond and create positive change. But what if there was a way to organize ourselves so that together we can make more of a difference than [...]

Anna Kusmer2016-07-12T17:34:34+00:00Education, social movement, sustainable living, Urban|Comments Off

Lüneburg 2030+ Participatory Urban Sustainable Futures

How could the city of the future be designed and constructed to enable more sustainable pathways of development? City of the Future Lüneburg 2030+ is a project that aims to envision the future city of Lüneburg, Germany in a way that it turns into more sustainable, livable and fair place. The project has been jointly developed by the sustainability oriented University of Leuphana, the local government of the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg, [...]

bertamartinlopez2016-05-20T07:59:33+00:00community, europe, infrastructure, transdisciplinary research|Comments Off

mySidewalk: internet enabled democracy

How can the networking power of the internet be used to leverage more representative democracy? Imagine having a simple, direct way of informing city planners and local decision-makers of your views about traffic, schools, parks, libraries and other issues that affect your life. What if sharing your opinion on municipal planning was as simple as going online? mySidewalk offers online forums for community engagement. All photos from mySidewalk.com [...]

Anna Kusmer2016-05-11T14:00:30+00:00Technology, United States, urban ecology|Comments Off

Santropol Roulant

How can an organization address urban food security and social inclusion while meeting the shifting needs and interests of a community? The word “roulant” in French means “rolling” which conjures an image of some kind of cycle or circle –something that gives back. Cycles and interconnections are often hidden from urban life, despite their omnipresence. Sometimes organizations can bring these cycles to life and build new connections within urban spaces. [...]

Anna Kusmer2016-04-14T15:50:01+00:00Food, Food system, Social Seeds|Comments Off

Cities for People

How can we turn individual urban improvement initiatives into systemic change to produce resilient, livable cities? Cities for People is an initiative based in Montreal, Canada that believes that like an ecosystem, a city’s strength and resilience depends on its ability to nurture the full diversity of its inhabitants and give them what they need not just to survive, but thrive. Cities for people has focussed on fostering collaboration, cross-pollinating [...]

Garry Peterson2015-10-20T18:47:12+00:00community, infrastructure, Social Seeds, sustainable living, urban ecology|Comments Off

100 Resilient Cities

Cities are tackling many environmental issues that have proved extremely challenging to deal with at larger scales. Are cities an efficient and effective scale at which to take action on challenges in the Anthropocene? 100 Resilient Cities (http://www.100resilientcities.org) is a program initiated by the Rockefeller Foundation that aims to help cities around the world become more resilient to environmental, social and economic problems. The program aims to help cities develop strategies to [...]

ciararh2015-08-10T20:52:57+00:00Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

High Line Park, New York City

Can biodiversity and love of nature be promoted in the world's densest urban areas? The High Line is an elevated freight rail line transformed into a public park on Manhattan’s West Side. It is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line. Founded in 1999 by community residents, Friends of the High Line fought for the High Line’s preservation and transformation [...]

ciararh2015-08-03T19:42:35+00:00Conservation, Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Seeds are existing initiatives which hold potential to shape the future. They are likely not widespread nor well-known. They can be social initiatives, new technologies, economic tools, or social-ecological projects, or organisations, movements or new ways of acting that have that appear to be making a substantial contribution towards creating a future that is just, prosperous, and sustainable.

We gather seeds from diverse research disciplines, communities of practice, and individuals that have different world-views, values, and problems. This diversity means that not everyone will agree on the importance or value of every seed.