dusp/mit: shaping resilient regions
DESCRIPTION
Since its founding 80 years ago, the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT has consistently been rated the premier planning school in the world. We are home to the largest urban planning faculty in the United States and enjoy the advantage of operating within the context of MIT’s culture of innovation and interdisciplinary knowledge creation. We see as our mission to educate students while advancing theory and practice in areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the twenty-first century. This publications describes some of the ongoing work of the department.TRANSCRIPT
SHAPING RESILIENTREGIONS
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> CLIMATE CHANGE > ECOSYSTEM SERVICES > FOOD >
> LANDSCAPE SYSTEMS >
NEW ECONOMIES > > RECLAMATION > REMEDIATION >
RISK MANAGEMENT > > STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT >
TRANSPORTATION > > URBAN FORM > WATER >
DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING MIT
>VALUING SUSTAINABILITY IN THE ARTIC This research investigates dynamic tensions of sustainable development at the interface of culture and political economy in Iceland. Through fieldwork, interviews, surveys and GIS visualization, it explores how cultural, political and economic institutions influence concepts and processes of sustainability. One of the goals is to identify core values of sustainable development as well as potential bridge concepts, terms that bridge scientific rational and normative value. By addressing the transmission and syncretic internalization of sustainability within cultural context, the project provides a basis for building flexibility into international environmental discourses and agreements. Janelle Knox-Hayes
>COLLABORATIVE DECISION MAKING INHYDROPOWER PROJECTS, SOUTHERN CHILEDUSP/MIT hosts eight international scholars each year who are also visiting scholars at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Each of these scholars devotes the fall semester to documenting the ways in which one of five cities in Malaysia is seeking to promote some aspect of sustainable development and reducing carbon intensity. In the spring semester, the scholars work with MIT students and faculty to publish their research and prepare teaching videos. DUSP students participate each year in a IAP Malaysia Practicum to help identify new research questions and community partners. The work of the Malaysia Sustainable Cities Program is accessible at malaysiacities.mit.edu. Larry Susskind
Beyond addressing climate change, there is a need to find wiser ways to use scarce resources, such as
water, energy, and agricultural land, and to deploy more ecologically
sensitive patterns of development in housing, commerce, industry,
and infrastructure. The necessary transformations will require an
evolution in governance at all levels, as well as purposeful engagement of the private sector to design and
implement new planning models of the built environment.
SHAPING RESILIENT REGIONS
DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING MIT
>INDUSTRIAL URBANISM In the midst of shifting labor markets, technological changes, and resurgent metropolitan growth, the need to reimagine the role of industry in our cities is greater than ever. Popular notions of urban industry tend to focus on the negative aspects of manufacturing. This project explores the relationship between current planning practices and the types of places that are actually designed and designated for the production of goods today. It moves the conversation beyond overly-negative characterizations by looking at examples of how manufacturing and industry can create urban place, sustain jobs, and promote environmental sustainability. Eran Ben-Joseph
>URBANISM AFTER EXTRACTION This urban design studio and project explores the polycentric urbanism of the Katowice Agglomeration in Poland, a region in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin that underwent rapid growth with the coal industry during the twentieth century, and is now facing issues of environmental contamination, a shrinking population, and unemployment. In consultation with local architects and planners, students developed proposals for policies and projects at different scales across the agglomeration that integrate environmental remediation, social and cultural institutions, and the re-use of industrial infrastructure, to transform the area into a viable and desirable post-coal urban environment.Marie Law Adams and Rafi Segal
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DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING MIT
SHAPING RESILIENT REGIONS
> MANILA: SAFETY, SECURITY AND NATURAL DISASTERSIn collaboration with the World Bank and the University of the Philippines, this project built upon the World Bank’s Citywide Development Approach to develop replicable resettlement and upgrading strategies for informal settlers living along the lakeshore of Laguna de Bay in Muntinlupa City, the southernmost city of Metro Manila. Working within the context of one of the world’s most densely populated and largest megacities, the project focused on field research, stakeholder interviews, analysis, and the development of planning and design proposals to explore approaches to reducing human vulnerability to flooding and climate change, while addressing the socio-economic challenges of informal settler families.Mary Anne Ocampo
Design: Mario Avila Design
> RESILIENT CITIES HOUSING INITIATIVEDUSPMIT’s Resilient Cities Housing Initiative (RCHI) investigates the challenges of developing housing environments for the least advantaged city dwellers. RCHI focuses on four principles that make affordable housing resilient: 1) support for community structure and the economic livelihoods of residents; 2) reduction in the vulnerability of residents to environmental risks and stresses; 3) empowerment of communities through enhanced capacities to share in their own governance; and 4) enhancement of personal security of residents in the face of violence or threats of displacement. RCHI currently evaluates housing in the United States, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Larry Vale