Title: Prospective analysis of urban growth under the context of climate change
Client: Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), Iniciativa de Ciudades Emergentes y Sostenibles (ICES) – 2015
The identification of urban growth patterns is essential for sustainable urban land management. Working closely with municipal partners and local decision makers from the great metropolitan region of San José (GAM), Costa Rica, current and future urban growth patterns were analyzed for the city. The analysis included the identification of historical growth trends of the metropolitan region and focused on incorporating the projected housing demand for 2030 and 2050 under three different growth scenarios: trend, regional plan and smart growth. The innovative development models took into account land development density, income levels, and the projection of land use demand. Lastly, in order to communicate the applicability of smart growth principles within San Jose, a conceptual master plan was created for one of the neighborhoods in the city. The project left clients with a clear assessment of current and future development patterns as well as an understanding of what smart growth policies would look like within the local context.
Currently urban planning and governance is transitioning towards a science-oriented activity. The science of cities is emerging as a new field in professional disciplines and academic research. Cities have become objects of study where natural laws can be discovered and applied. In an era where information is freely floating and automatically generated, new methods for levering big-data—such as data-mining, and citizen or crowd sourcing through social media—are critical information inputs for designing better and updated urban policies. Through its R+D branch, GeoAdaptive devotes considerable resources in developing computational methods and models to harness data and extracts meaningful insights for a precise, inclusive, and intelligent urban development.
Climate change is a fundamental aspect of the current urban agenda. It requires the identification of vulnerabilities to natural hazards and the effects of climate change across urban landscapes and communities. GeoAdaptive’s approach integrates the understanding of hazard dynamics, vulnerabilities, and probable human and material losses to develop concrete strategies that increase the resilience of a city today and in the future. Moreover, social-resilience and adaptive-capacity indicators can be created in collaboration with stakeholders through an innovative mainstreaming approach that aids the implementation and monitoring of strategies.
Our projects
Additional document
Green and open spaces offer more than aesthetic values to the urban system, as they can provide critical ecosystem services, thus contributing to the wellbeing and resiliency of communities. Green infrastructure planning and design can help to reduce vulnerability to natural hazards by integrating mitigation and adaptation strategies in urban landscapes. Along with the development of responsive green networks, public space can be designed to offer improved amenities and increased accessibility. GeoAdaptive has developed methods to effectively incorporate climate science and hazard modeling with green infrastructure planning and design.
Our projects
Smart growth incorporates concepts of inclusive urban development, such as transit-oriented development and mixed-use zoning, which bring together residential uses with services, infrastructure, amenities, and jobs. Understanding the dynamic nature of real estate and the socioeconomic fabric is key to helping urban governments to develop sound policies that foster affordable and integrated neighborhoods. Through its urban analytics toolset, GeoAdaptive deploys territorial intelligence to plan and design sustainable and inclusive cities.
Our projects
Thinking about the long-term is fundamental for the development of effective and impactful policies that are also able to adapt to probable changes. Understanding future change allows for smart budgeting and phasing of investment to deliver solutions that are proactive instead of reactive. Instead of traditional planning, GeoAdaptive embraces strategic scenario planning, which has the capacity to deliver solutions that can respond to uncertainty. We assist our clients in developing probabilistic scenarios in a participatory way and translating them into future representations of a responsive territory or city.
Our projects
Sustainable mobility requires an integrated planning approach that brings together infrastructure, transport planning, and land use planning. Despite increasing levels of urban mobility, access to amenities, services, and workplaces has not increased in the same fashion. GeoAdaptive has conducted extensive research in developing projects to pursue sustainable urban mobility. Our method incorporates urban analytics to understand population movement dynamics together with land use planning and accessibility to urban services. With this approach, our projects have produced innovative and proactive recommendations for decision makers that can be effectively implemented within existing governance frameworks.
Our projects
The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Sustainable Development Goals) emphasizes the need to create long-term objectives to address inequality. Income growth should not be considered the only measure and goal in achieving these objectives. Infrastructure, wages, social welfare policies, and inclusive opportunities are also noted as key contributors. By measuring and quantifying inequality GeoAdaptive can provide intelligence for the evaluation and improvement of programs and policies that promote social justice, and foster inclusive and holistic social development.
Our Projects
Additional document