The Wall Street Journal meets the pioneers of the metaverse in an 8-minute video report

Real-estate transactions in the metaverse are reaching record highs. We spoke with companies investing in digital real estate to understand the economic model, and why investors are spending millions on virtual property [...]

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Zoritsa Urosevic, Executive Director of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), called for new ideas to restart the sector.

We are totally aligned with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the importance of engaging in safer travel protocols rather than stopping travel altogether, because we know how many livelihoods depend on tourism.

At a time when populations are increasingly moving to urban areas, rural development through tourism is certainly going to be one of the major trends in the sector [...]

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This policy paper is published by CEPA, a subsidiary body of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
The essential purpose is to provide interested countries with practical, expert guidance on a broad range of governance challenges associated with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda [...]

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While the pyramids of Egypt are recognised around the world, much of Africa's architecture remains unknown - something architects Adil Dalbai and Livingstone Mukasa hope to change.

They are part of the team that has recently published the seven-volume Architectural Guide Sub-Saharan Africa.
Their in-depth study encompasses buildings from earlier eras, the colonial period - like the recently renovated railway station (see picture) built in Senegal's capital, Dakar, in 1910 - to more modern masterpieces [...]

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How Africa will become the center of the world’s urban future.

Growing at unprecedented rates, and shaped by forces both familiar and new, dozens of African cities will join the ranks of humanity’s biggest megalopolises between now and 2100.

Several recent studies project that by the end of this century, Africa will be the only continent experiencing population growth.

Thirteen of the world’s 20 biggest urban areas will be in Africa — up from just two today — as will more than a third of the world’s population [...]

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Listed with Old Cairo since 1979 as a World Heritage Site, the famous necropolis is threatened by redevelopment works and road projects.

Specialists and architects want to save a burial site founded fourteen centuries ago in the heart of the historic city [...]

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We must not fight the climate, we must form alliances with it.
This is the simple, but central idea, around which the city of Edmonton intends to base its entire urban planning policy.
Exposed to particularly icy winters, the capital of the province of Alberta has revolutionized its urban planning
Innovative devices that could inspire cities around the world, which are increasingly subject to extreme temperatures [...]

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Can we make social housing a common good based on participatory management? Yaneira Wilson returns to the ambition and ambiguities of the major program for social housing launched by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela . [...]

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Whether it's digitalization, innovative community funding for equity, trends in inclusive design, the Great Resignation...

The 2022 Trend Report for Planners explains how these trends are important for planners, shares insights on signals on the horizon, and helps you make sense of the future.

Keep the American Planning Association report handy as you can use it throughout the year [...]

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Advancements in technology for smart cities — such as the deployment of information communication technology, sensors, and the Internet of Things — enable us to collect data about pretty much every movement, flow, or activity in a city.

The availability of this data, combined with increased computing power and artificial intelligence, can allow for the digitalization of entire cities.

From climate adaptation and resilience planning to creative public engagement, city digital twins could be flexible, agile, and promising tools [...]

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In the midst of predictions that Jakarta will sink in 2050, the concept of Sea Cities is one of the solutions offered by urban planning designers.
Although various technologies are available to support life on the sea, many see this tactic as too radical. The attempt to shift all urban systems from land to water is considered an utopian idea.
The pessimistic view of the high investment in the construction of floating structures is also inaccurate because construction on land can also be more expensive.
For example, the cost of developing 40,000 hectares of Indonesia's new capital city in Kalimantan to accommodate 1.5 million residents is estimated at US$ 34 billions [...]

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According to a study conducted in 2014, almost every household (83%) owned at least one small motorcycle. Even today, the motorcycle remains the most convenient way to get around this dense city crisscrossed with narrow alleys and streets.
And yet, instead of trying to get out of the car dependency, we are heading for it. In Ho Chi Minh City, the priority given to cars over motorcycles is highly political, because "a modern city doesn't look like that" [...]

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Cities are inevitably affected by shocks and disruptions, the pandemic being a case in point. The extent of the impact however depends on cities' preparedness and capacity to adapt.

This EPRS paper explores the impact on and implications for cities of current global trends, such as climate change, population growth, urbanisation, economic growth, increasing energy demand, higher connectivity and a changing world order [...]

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The City of Lahti in Finland was the first to experiment with a carbon trading scheme among its inhabitants to reduce transport-related emissions.

Based on a mobile app that measures the emissions of each daily trip and let users manage their individual carbon allowance, this system was voluntary, incentive-based and participatory.

Could this pioneering initiative, financed by the European Urban Innovative Action fund, be replicated in other European cities ?

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The European Climate Conference will bring together high-level representatives of the EU Member States, the European Commission and the European Parliament.

Prominent figures from civil society, the scientific community, businesses and local governments will also join.
The conference will be structured around talks and presentations given by high-level experts and scientists, as well as round tables and demonstrations.

The event will aim to mobilise Europe to meet climate challenges and achieve the European Union’s more ambitious target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions [...]

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Construction is set to begin on Paris' first urban cable car, a 4.5-kilometre-line that will connect several suburbs in the southeast of the city to the Metro system.
Construction will begin later this year, reported French newspaper Le Parisien, with the system scheduled to open in 2025 [...]

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The closure of John Lewis’s store in Sheffield after almost 60 years was a bitter blow.
As debate rages over what to do with the huge empty site, the city is becoming a test case for where Britain’s urban centres may be heading.

The closure in Sheffield is part of a story playing out across the world: the extinction of the archetypal department store, and a wider crisis for town and city centres [...]

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Rivers hidden, buried, with concrete beds or with dams to imitate the great European rivers.
Most Spanish cities have lived for decades turning their backs on their rivers, even considering them "a nuisance", says Santiago Martín Barajas.
This Ecologistas en Acción activist was the main driving force behind the renaturalisation of the Manzanares River in Madrid [...]

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Professional auditors visit selected residential apartment buildings to conduct sustainability assessments and investigate potential improvements related to water and energy and waste.

Participating building owners and managers receive benefit from evaluations, action plans, information on public aid and savings [...]

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