Around the world, cities are significantly warmer than neighboring rural and suburban areas. The main driver for these higher temperatures is the built environment. Learn more about how our building and developmental choices impact our city temperatures and contribute to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect.

In an urban setting, interdependencies between complex infrastructure and utility systems can profoundly complicate response and recovery operations. Learn how geography, population, and resources impact emergency management in urban places.

Climate change is often cited as a key contributing factor to the rise in costly disasters over the past 40+ years, but less widely discussed is the role urban sprawl has to play. Learn how sprawl development increases the impact of disasters and how we can reduce our vulnerability.