Resilience
Building Resilience Through Reconnected Communities
What has the United States lost in its journey from a nation of communities to a nation of individuals? Resilience, for one, says Scott Doyon, who suggests how we can utilize community design and planning processes to regrow social ties.
Sustainability: What’s In a Word?
The term "sustainability" carries so much baggage that we're no longer able to talk about what we actually need to talk about. What can we do to depoliticize it?
$100 Million Competition Aims to Boost Urban Resilience
To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the Rockefeller Foundation is kicking off a three-year worldwide competition to select 100 cities to receive training and support to boost their resilience.
80-Acre Site in Queens to Test Prototypes for Storm Resiliency
While a massive redevelopment project waits to proceed, an 80-acre oceanfront site in the Far Rockaway neighborhood of New York City will host a competition to advance concepts for resilient waterfront development, reports Matt Chaban.
Community Dynamics: Stoking or Choking Collective Planning Efforts?
Does your community allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good? Scott Doyon kicks off an ongoing look at community-unfriendly behaviors.
Social Connections and Resilience
Are we growing more connected, yet further and further apart? And how does this bode for the resilience of the communities we share? Scott Doyon finds promise as of yet unfulfilled.
Sandy Already Changing How Buildings are Designed in NYC
From roof mounted gas-powered generators to emergency floodgates and watertight mechanical rooms, developers and their designers in New York are already incorporating preventative measures into new and revised designs for their buildings.

How Walkable Communities are Key to Modern Geopolitics
The "great global project" of this century, says Patrick Doherty, is how to "accommodate 3 billion additional middle-class aspirants in two short decades." In a bold essay, he outlines how the U.S. must lead the global transition to sustainability.
Do You Walmart?
Saying "no" to Walmart does not remove the wants and needs they exist to serve. If you want a more locally-oriented community, you need a more local-friendly system, says Scott Doyon.
Why New York Must Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Water
Justin Davidson argues that New York's ability to adapt to the effects of climate change will rely on the city learning to embrace nature rather than vainly trying to fight it.
Low-Cost Solutions Can Bolster Climate Resilience
As we've heard recently, many of the places most vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather are in developing countries. Encouragingly, however, Sandy revealed several low-cost solutions to help mitigate the impacts of severe storms.
What Will it Take to Build a Smarter New York?
Cassim Shepard and Varick Shute respond to an exhortation by Governor Cuomo to "build [the New York City area] back smarter" in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, and in the face of changing weather patterns, with some ideas on what that will entail.
Resolving the Tension Between 'Resilience' and 'Sustainability'
Although "two of the hottest buzzwords in urban planning" - resilience and sustainability - are often used interchangeably, in many cases they actually work against each other. David Biello examines why both are crucial for the future of our cities.
Seven Social Capital Building Blocks
In the triple bottom line of profits, planet, and people, it's people that tend to get the shaft. Scott Doyon lays out seven ways to change that.
Design Competition for Bordeaux Puts Nature First
As the city of Bordeaux, France, makes plans to move up the list of major European cities, it's calling on a multidisciplinary design competition for ways to revitalize its city from the top down by integrating "natural areas."
Building Community to Build Resilience
As Hurricane Isaac lashes the Gulf Coast, Daniel P. Aldrich argues that the "density and strength of social networks are the most important variables" in determining how communities respond to natural disasters.
Rising Sea Levels Threaten Boston's Historic Treasures and Much Else
Citing a "near-term risk" of rising tides, city planners in Boston are grappling with how to prepare residents and businesses for the effects of climate change, reports Monica Brady-Myerov.
Will Engineered Resilience Eclipse Sustainability?
Rives Taylor pens an editorial for Urban Land advocating for "engineered resilience", which he describes as "next-generation sustainability" that "adds adaptability and the protection of human life" to planning for the well-being of the planet.
Pagination
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research