Technology
The Printable Home
Engineers at USC have developed a new technique for '3-D printing' houses.
The Black Cloud: Using Games to Understand Air Quality
Human behavior and land use affect air quality, and those effects are very distinct at the local level. A new environmental game fusing public participation, air quality sensors and web technology shows how.
Boston's Largest Property Owner Going Green
Equity Office Properties Trust is undertaking major green renovations for its Boston properties, citing fiscal benefits as the impetus. When complete, the work will likely serve as a model for the Company's holdings across the country.
Planning for Avalanches
Technologie Alpine de Sécurité creates gas-powered avalanche control systems. The blog Pruned shows pictures of the system installed at Val Thorens, France.
Friday Funny: More Fun With Google Maps
An obviously Photoshopped cluster of trees appears in the Netherlands. What is someone hiding, and how are they hacking Google Earth?
Friday Funny: Drunk Caught on Google Streetview
Google Streetview is slowly taking pictures of every street in the world, and capturing unexpected vignettes along the way like an Australian man passed out on his front lawn.
'Wood Waste' Power Plant Raises Questions in Texas
The city of Austin considers a multi-billion dollar investment in a "biomass" power plant, burning wood waste in East Texas as a carbon-neutral, renewable energy source.
Boise Looks to Streetcars for Urban Renewal
Boise considers resurrecting their streetcar system after an 80 year absence.
Flood Forecasting Goes 3D
New modeling software could soon be available that would allow monitoring across the internet of flood levels in specific areas- like your backyard.
The Microsoft Sphere
Microsoft has introduced a spherical computer display that lets users touch the globe to interact with it. There are many likely applications for planning and public participation.
NYC's New Green Escalators
Escalators are major energy wasters, so many cities are looking for greener solutions. 35 new green escalators were recently installed in the New York Subway, with mixed success.
Avoid Smelly Humans In Your Own Transit Compartment
Australian designer Hamit Kanuni Kuralkan has designed a transit concept lined with one-person compartments for personal space.
China Rail Goes High Speed
A new high-speed rail line has opened in China, just in time for the Olympics.
Is Globalization Slowing?
Alex Steffen of WorldChanging proposes that globalization could soon change direction as transportation costs increase.
Time for Government 2.0
With increasing amounts of data collected and held by governments, there's a lot of opportunity to make use of it for the betterment of communities, according to this column from Neal Peirce.
San Francisco Locked Out of Own Data By Disgruntled Employee
A systems admin in San Francisco apparently decided to bring San Francisco grinding to a halt, and refuses to divulge the passwords he set up across the city's entire network.
Google Maps Adds Walking Directions
Google announces walking directions feature for Google Maps.
Will Your Bank Card and Bus Pass Become One?
MarketWatch reports on the rise of contactless smart cards in public transit and banking, and speculates that the time is ripe to put the two uses on the same card.
Are Automated Public Toilets A Fiasco?
Seattle is closing the lid on a disappointing experiment with public toilets after spending $5 million dollars to install them. Cities from Boston to San Francisco have had mixed results with automated toilets, The New York Times reports.
Electricity and Rail Can Solve Our Energy Woes
Writer Benjamin J. Turon argues that we aren't in an energy crisis as much as a transportation crisis, and that we already have all the technology we need.
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.
Clanton & Associates, Inc.
Jessamine County Fiscal Court
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service