urban planning Archives - Geography Realm

An AI drawing of a cite with buildings organized in circles.

Using AI to Design Cities

September 24, 2023 by Mark Altaweel

Researchers now are trying to use artificial intelligence techniques, including deep reinforcement learning, to design more efficient and sustainable urban spaces.

Hiker walking along a narrow trail in Canyonlands National Park.

What are Desire Paths?

November 29, 2021November 29, 2021 by Elizabeth Borneman

As the name implies, desire paths (or social trails) are informal pathways made by pedestrians, cyclists, and animals that carve out more desired routes for passengers.

Image of central Melbourne in 2016. Photo: the International Space Station.

These Cities are the Most Unaffordable Places to Buy a House in the World

June 8, 2023April 8, 2021 by Caitlin Dempsey

Urban Reform Institute and Frontier Centre for Public Policy evaluated housing markets for 92 metropolitan areas in eight countries to see how affordable they area.

A view of a suburban subdivision being developed in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Image: USGS, public domain.

What are 15-Minute Cities?

November 6, 2023November 10, 2020 by Elizabeth Borneman

What if you could get from home to your job to the grocery store to the park, all in 15 minutes?

An Urban Centre is defined as: all cells with a local population density of at least 1,500 people/km2 or with a local built-up area share of at least 0.50, and clustered in a 4-connectivity object of at least 50,000 people or all cells resulting from 3x3 median filtering or by gap filling < 15 km2 (median filtering and gap filling applied to cluster of cells that met the previous logics).

Improving Urban Decision Making with Open Earth Observations

August 6, 2020 by GIS Contributor

Steven Ramage, Head of External Relations, Group on Earth Observations (GEO), outlines innovative partnerships and activities GEO has been working on globally using open Earth data, GIS, and cloud technologies.