What’s the relationship between sprawling urban form, urban forest cover, and racial diversity? Can communities maintain racial diversity, or both grow denser and greener, in a broader context of regional sprawl? Surprisingly, there are few studies on these questions, since most urban sprawl research lacks fine-grain data about urban forests, which requires complex remote sensing […]
Come Discover Washtenaw County’s Hidden Histories
Some of you know I have been involved in Justice InDeed, an amazing project to map racial covenants in Washtenaw County — the county that contains Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. After an epic, 5-year research project involving extensive engagement, over 1,000 volunteers, and countless meetings and events, we have uncovered more than 9,000 racially restrictive […]
Mobility & Zoning Research Reports Published
Last fall I concluded two significant collaborative research projects:
New Book on Advanced Urban Analytics
Next week I’ll be in Montreal for the 18th International Conference on Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management (CUPUM). I have been involved in this biennial global conference since attending the 2013 conference, held at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Each event connects a unique global community of researchers who work on the intersection of […]
Creating Flexible Plans for an Uncertain Future
In urban planning, plans increasingly contain exploratory scenarios describing urban futures and uncertainty. However, when it comes time to decide what infrastructure is built, too often all the nuance is thrown out for narrow-minded cost benefit analysis and simplistic and politicized all-or-nothing decisions. I think we can do better! In 2021-2022 I hosted Thomas Machiels […]
New Article Presents Case Study of Collaborative, Data-Driven Scenario Planning for Transit
About five years ago, I was invited to join a group of researchers who planned to undertake a smart mobility research project in partnership with community stakeholders in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Unlike in much of my prior research on scenario planning which relies on learning from professional practice, in this project I had the opportunity […]
Op-Ed: “Collaboration on planning, innovation the key to a more sustainable Ann Arbor”
I published an op-ed in the Michigan Daily online today, arguing for the need for greater collaborative planning and innovation to foster sustainability on campus and in the city and region. Here’s the full text: If you’ve been away over the summer, you may have missed some exciting new developments here on campus! Did you […]