Welcome to the Center for Sustainable Urban Development

This research consortium aims to address the challenges and opportunities within the informal transport and shared mobility (ISM) sector in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Recognizing the vital role of ISM in providing access to services, opportunities, and goods, especially for lower-income residents in informal settlements, the project focuses on improving access, services, working conditions, and emissions in this sector.

Enormous devastation caused by massive earthquakes in February 2023 in the south-eastern region of Türkiye underscore the need for better urban risk management systems and protective governance. Enormous loss of human life and immense physical destruction across cities and towns- despite the existence of regulatory frameworks to guide construction and urban development- point to the need for improved urban risk management approach in Türkiye, one that is based on multi-stakeholder awareness raising and capacity building.

Vehicle electrification efforts have more recently extended to shared mobility systems like public and school buses and, in New York City, commuter (“dollar”) vans that serve lower-income people and communities. While studies that explore the implementation and effectiveness of public transport and school bus electrification are now emerging, these studies have not extended to the unique commuter vans in New York City, which may also offer broader lessons to other parts of the world.

The Resilient Coastal Communities Project seeks to foster actionable, equitable solutions to flood risks along with complementary benefits like habitat restoration, job creation and more empowered communities.

An overarching goal is to inform the underlying value system, operating model, research, and curriculum of the Earth Institute and the Columbia University Climate School and beyond to make our institutions more responsive to the critical, urgent social and environmental demands of this moment. We also support the direct application of climate just approaches to the implementation of urban policy, advocacy, planning, and programs.

This collaborative project of CSUD, the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, and The American Assembly, examines historic preservation as a sustainable and socially-inclusive urban policy tool. It has been generously funded by the New York Community Trust.