Roundtable Archive – The Nature of Cities

Every month we feature a Roundtable in which a group responds to a specific question on The Nature of Cities. Check out the responses and join the conversation.

2017

June 30, 2017

May 8, 2017

March 27, 2017

January 24, 2017

2016

December 14, 2016

Read this! 90 recommendations for the one book about (or relevant to) cities that everyone should read
David Maddox, New York City |
6 Comment(s)
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November 6, 2016

Resilience isn’t only about infrastructure. How can we better support community-based environmental stewardship in readiness, response, and recovery from disturbance?
Weston Brinkley, Seattle | Katerina Elias, São Paulo | Sumetee Gajjar, Bangalore | Jonathan Halfon, New York City | Heather McMillen, Honolulu & New York City | Luciana Nery, Rio de Janeiro | Raul Pacheco-Vega, Aguascalientes | Renae Reynolds, New York City | Hita Unnikrishnan, Bangalore | Paula Villagra, Valdivia | Karen Zumach, Minneapolis |
3 Comment(s)
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October 11, 2016

Habitat III is finally a reality. From your perspective, what would be the single most important tangible outcome (not output) of the event—short or long term—and what will it take to achieve this outcome?
Yunus Arikan, Bonn | Xuemei Bai, Canberra | Genie Birch, Philadelphia & New York | Maruxa Cardama, Brussels | Bharat Dahiya, Bangkok | PK Das, Mumbai | David Dodman, London | William Dunbar, Tokyo | Anjali Mahendra, Chapel Hill & New Delhi | Jose Puppim, Johor Bahru / Cambridge / Rio | David Satterthwaite, London | Huda Shaka, Dubai | David Simon, Gothenburg | Pengfei XIE, Beijing | Lorena Zárate, Mexico City |
24 Comment(s)
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September 25, 2016

August 14, 2016

June 30, 2016

May 28, 2016

April 30, 2016

March 23, 2016

Graffiti and street art can be controversial, but can also be a medium for voices of social change, protest, or expressions of community desire. What, how, and where are examples of graffiti as a positive force in communities?
Pauline Bullen, Harare | Paul Downton, Melbourne | Emilio Fantin, Milan | Ganzeer, Los Angeles | Germán Gomez, Bogotá | Sidd Joag, New York City | Patrick Lydon, San Jose & Seoul | David Maddox, New York City | Patrice Milillo, Los Angeles | Laura Shillington, Managua & Montreal |
25 Comment(s)
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March 5, 2016

Landscape initiatives are in operation or in development in many parts of the world. What is key to making them work and be useful? How are they good for cities?
Steve Brown, Sydney | Martha Fajardo, Bogota | Carla Gonçalves, Porto, Portugal | Monica Luengo, Madrid | Claudia Misteli, Barcelona | Osvaldo Moreno, Santiago | Liana Jansen, Cape Town | Laura Spinadel, Vienna | Kenneth Taylor, Canberra | Menno Welling, Zomba |
4 Comment(s)
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January 20, 2016

2015

December 8, 2015

November 5, 2015

September 29, 2015

August 12, 2015

June 30, 2015

May 19, 2015

April 21, 2015

March 17, 2015

Daylighting and restoring urban streams, ponds and wetlands can provide huge ecological and social benefits. Are such restorations “worth it”? What are the pitfalls? How can we demonstrate these benefits and elevate them in the public discourse so that urban wetlands become urban planning priorities?
Adrian Benepe, New York City | Keith Bowers, Charleston | Meredith Dobbie, Victoria | Susannah Drake, New York City | Herbert Dreiseitl, Überlingen | Marit Larson, New York City | Chan-Won Lee, Changwon | Kaitlin Lovell, Portland | Alberto Tacón, Valdivia |
14 Comment(s)
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January 31, 2015

January 6, 2015

Urban water fronts have typically been sites of heavy development and often are sites of pollution or exclusive access. But they have enormous potential benefits. How can we unlock these benefits for everyone? Are there ecological vs. social vs. economic tradeoffs?
Mitchell Chester, Miami | PK Das, Mumbai | Ana Faggi, Buenos Aires | Andrew Grant, Bath | John Hartig, Detroit | Roland Lewis, New York | Joe Lobko, Toronto | Robert Morris-Nunn, Hobart | Rob Pirani, New York | Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Miami | Andréa Albuquerque G. Redondo, Rio de Janeiro | Bradley Rink, Cape Town | Hita Unnikrishnan, Bangalore | Jay Valgora, New York | Mike Wells, Bath |
12 Comment(s)
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2014

December 4, 2014

How can different ways of knowing—and of producing knowledge—be useful for understanding and managing urban ecosystems?
Doreen Adengo, Kampala | Adrina Bardekjian, Vancouver | Sadia Butt Sadia Butt, Toronto | Lindsay Campbell, New York City | Luke Drake, New Brunswick, New Jersey | Bryce Dubois, New York City | Johan Enqvist, Stockholm | Nate Gabriel, New Brunswick, New Jersey | Tischa Muñoz-Erickson, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico | Camilo Ordóñez, Toronto | Philip Silva, New York | James Steenberg, Toronto |
32 Comment(s)
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November 2, 2014

October 5, 2014

Do urban green corridors “work”? It depends on what we want them to do. What ecological and/or social functions can we realistically expect green corridors to perform in cities? What attributes define them, from a design and performance perspective?
Diego Borrero, Cali | Kelly Brenner, Seattle | Lena Chan, Singapore | Geoffrey Davison, Singapore | Susannah Drake, New York City | Marcus Hedblom, Uppsala | Mark Hostetler, Gainesville | Chris Ives, Nottingham | Tori Kjer, Los Angeles | Kathryn Lwin, London | Pierre-André Martin, Rio de Janeiro | Colin Meurk, Lincoln | Toni Pujol, Barcelona | Glenn Stewart, Christchurch | Marten Wallberg, Stockholm | Na Xiu, Uppsala & Xi’an | Irene Guida, Venice |
31 Comment(s)
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September 7, 2014

July 7, 2014

How much should we worry about exotic species in urban zones? How do we reduce damage from exotic invasives when management resources are limited? Are there conflicts between management or eradication efforts and building general support for urban biodiversity?
Pippin Anderson, Cape Town | Ana Faggi, Buenos Aires | Matt Palmer, New York City | Madhusudan Katti, Raleigh | Glenn Stewart, Christchurch | Timon McPhearson, New York | David Burg, New York City | Katie Holzer, Davis | Deborah Lev, Portland | Toby Query, Portland | Mark Davis, Saint Paul | Paula Villagra & Carmen Silva, Los Rios, Chile | Peter Head, London | Peter Werner, Darmstadt |
24 Comment(s)
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June 9, 2014

Environmental education in cities focuses on youth and community development, restoring ecosystems, building green infrastructure, and more. But is urban environmental education really anything new? What should its goals and practices look like?
Janice Astbury, London | Chankook Kim, Cheongju, South Korea | Marianne Krasny, Ithaca | Alex Russ, Ithaca | Miguel Luna, Los Angeles | Pepe Marcos-Iga, Tucson | Candice Russell, Los Angeles | Soul Shava, Johannesburg | Philip Silva, New York | Shubhalaxmi Vaylure, Mumbai |
21 Comment(s)
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May 12, 2014

A Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on Cities and Human Settlements is competing for a place among the final United Nations SDGs that will be approved in 2014. If there were an explicitly Urban SDG, what would it look like? What should it say?
Yunus Arikan, Bonn | Genie Birch, Philadelphia & New York | Ben Bradlow, Boston | Maruxa Cardama, Brussels | Thomas Elmqvist, Stockholm | Julian Goh, Singapore | Shuaib Lwasa, Kampala | Anjali Mahendra, Chapel Hill & New Delhi | Mary Rowe, New York City | Andrew Rudd, New York City | Kaveh Samiei, Tehran | Karen Seto, New Haven | Lorena Zárate, Mexico City |
9 Comment(s)
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April 7, 2014

The sky is the limit for urban agriculture. Or is it? What can cities hope to get from community gardens and urban agriculture?
Lindsay Campbell, New York City | Joana Chan & Bryce DuBois, New York City | David Dixon, London | Alexandre Guertin, Montreal | Gareth Haysom, Cape Town | Madhumitha Jaganmohan, Leipzig | Marianne Krasny, Ithaca | Jenga Mwendo, New Orleans | Mary Rowe, New York City | Naomi Tsur, Jerusalem | Darlene Wolnik, New Orleans |
36 Comment(s)
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March 3, 2014

Many believe that better information on the monetary value of ecosystem services is critical for getting cities to adopt more green infrastructure solutions to issues such as storm water management, heat island, storm surge, etc. True? What are the key knowledge gaps for convincing cities to invest in ecosystems services?
Taylor Britt, Houston | Nette Compton, New York City | Thomas Elmqvist, Stockholm | Mike Houck, Portland | Haripriya Gundimeda, Mumbai | Patrick Lydon, San Jose & Seoul | Rob McInnes, London | Timon McPhearson, New York | Franco Montalto, Philadelphia and Venice | Steve Whitney, Seattle |
1 Comment(s)
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February 3, 2014

What are the social justice implications of urban ecology, and how can we make sure that “green cities” are not synonymous with “gentrified” or “exclusive” cities?
Harini Nagendra, Bangalore | Stephanie Pincetl, Los Angeles | Jim Labbe, Portland | Rebecca Bratspies, New York City | PK Das, Mumbai | Cecilia Herzog, Rio de Janeiro | Charlie Nilon, Columbia | Brian McGrath, New York City | Pengfei XIE, Beijing |
17 Comment(s)
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January 6, 2014

Should programs in architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture require a certain minimum level of learning about the fundamentals of ecology? Why?
Paul Downton, Melbourne | Barbara Deutsch, Washington, DC | Martha Fajardo, Bogota | Noboru Kawashima, Bogotá | Norbert Mueller, Erfurt | Kaveh Samiei, Tehran |
26 Comment(s)
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2013

December 3, 2013

Money for urban biodiversity is scarce. What is the single most important idea, program or action any city should undertake to promote biodiversity?
Pippin Anderson, Cape Town | Andre Mader, Montreal | Ana Faggi, Buenos Aires | John Kostyack, Washington, D.C. | Bram Gunther, New York | David Maddox, New York City | Peter Head, London | Peter Werner, Darmstadt |
20 Comment(s)
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