Life Imitating Environment

How can cities learn from their own unique environment and position themselves for a brighter future? If we begin with the end in mind, we may create differently and we have an opportunity to reimagine the “What if?”?

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An Urban Plan with a different lens, perfectly timed. Cities need to be responsive to their environment, set up to handle walking and alternative forms of transportation, systems and a density of people as we’ve never before experienced. In 2015, about 82.7 percent of the total population in the United States lived in urban areas. Projections estimate that the corresponding figure in 2050 will be 87.4 percent.

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In 2018, the UN stated that 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and projects that proportion to increase to 68% by 2050.?

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By 2030, the world is projected to have 43 megacities with more than 10 million inhabitants, most of them in developing regions. However, some of the fastest-growing urban agglomerations are cities with fewer than 1 million inhabitants, many of them located in Asia and Africa. While one in eight people live in 33 megacities worldwide, close to half of the world’s urban dwellers reside in much smaller settlements with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants. Despite the freedom of place afforded by the pandemic, the data points to population growth, shifts and a shift toward urban areas. Bogotá is on the verge of creating a symbiotic solution, thanks to Marcela Angel and her graduate thesis, a forward-thinking idea based upon a few years of research.?

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Marcela Angel, a graduate of the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), conducted research on Bogotá's management of public green spaces, with a focus on improving access to clean air, flood protection, and social benefits. She collaborated with the community of Mocoa and the Colombian government to address landslide risks in the region using drones, machine learning, and participatory planning. MIT also partnered with Corpoamazonia to monitor mountain forests, emphasizing the importance of tropical forest conservation for mitigating climate change.

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Marcela Angel’s graduate thesis on Bogotá's management of public green space focused on improving access to clean air, flood protection, and social benefits provided by parks and trees. Angel built relationships with the community of Mocoa and the Colombian government over five years. She recruited project partners and navigated the bureaucracy to bring UAVs (drones) into the country. Her goal was to address landslide risks in the region and provide better information to the local community.

The city of Mocoa, located between the lowland Amazon and the Andes Mountains, experienced a devastating flood and landslide due to unprecedented rainstorms. Climate change was contributing to increased rainfall and the risk of more landslides. Tropical forests are crucial for slowing and reversing climate change. Deforestation releases stored carbon and contributes to climate change. Once lost, tropical forests are difficult to restore.

The project in Mocoa was part of MIT's Natural Climate Solutions Program. Angel led the program and secured funding from various sources and

MIT created a course, 4.S23 (Biodiversity and Cities), focused on urban planning strategies. The course involved traveling to Colombia to work on cities Quidbó and Leticia. Recommendations were provided for enhancing biodiversity and adapting to climate change and a multi-stakeholder partnership and a citizen-led biodiversity survey were initiated based on the course. A seed grant was obtained to provide cities with satellite-derived tree cover data.

Benefits

Designing cities to use fewer resources and reduce climate change pressure also benefits the environment. Designing cities for equity and quality of life focuses on green spaces and their benefits for people and habitat for other species. Protecting and restoring forests helps local bioeconomies. The team in Mocoa is creating digital models of the area using drone flights and soil samples. The data produced helps identify warning signs for landslides and extreme weather events through machine learning. A network of local community researchers and leaders was established to utilize this information and a prototype online platform is being tested by Mocoa residents to gather feedback on usability.

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A course is being explored to teach local students how to use drones. Efforts are underway to collect local knowledge on ecology and culture for city planning and emergency response decisions.

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Designing Cities for Life

MIT's Natural Climate Solutions Program led by Marcela Angel secured funding and recruited partners to work on sustainability and biodiversity in cities. Implementation in Mocoa includes creating digital models, utilizing community researchers, and testing an online platform for data collection. Future initiatives involve teaching local students to use drones and incorporating local knowledge for city planning and emergency response decisions. MIT aims to engage decision-makers, crowdsourcing and nontraditional actors in their approach which includes a future urban planning course on climate change and cities. As a result of this research, Bogotá is destined to become a brilliant bright spot on a new map!

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Janice Stevenor Dale, FIIDA, CID, NCIDQ, is highly experienced in project management and design … pragmatic and energetic … and has showcased a breathtaking national reputation of design excellence. After working for three of the nation’s top ten architecture and design firms and a number?of Hall of Fame designers, she created J S D A Inc. in Los Angeles and since, has affected the environment with sustainable projects for major clients ranging from technology, to the service and financial sectors, to large-scale corporate headquarters, on projects involving both new construction, build-to-suits, and renovation of existing spaces. Her acumen involves design of the project team, for a collaborative brain trust experience. She leads by working cooperatively with developers, officials, building owners and leasing agents to comply with city regulations and budget goals.

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