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  • How Europe's Greenest Capital Is Saving City Trees

    August 03, 2020 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Germany, Berlin

    Cities around the world are using apps and interactive platforms to encourage resident volunteers to care for their urban forests. For example, in Berlin, Gieß den Kiez (Water the Neighborhood) is an app that allows users to watch their local trees and water them in times of need. When the app launched, there were 1,000 unique users and over 7,000 individual tree waterings in the first six weeks. However, the cost of planting and maintaining trees can be expensive and where the trees are located in cities and who benefits from them is not always equitable.

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  • How Urban Planning Keeps Cities Segregated—and Maintains White Supremacy

    July 31, 2020 |

    Yes! Magazine |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

    Urban planning policies can lead to greater racial segregation, sometimes intentionally. While older policies could be explicitly racist, today policies such as zoning, which designates land for residential or industrial use, effectively excludes communities of color, immigrants, and households with lower incomes. Residential segregation leads to education, income, and health disparities. Minneapolis ended single-family zoning so lots can be converted to more affordable duplexes and triplexes and is working towards requiring new apartment projects to reserve units for low- to moderate-income households.

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  • Want More Housing? Ending Single-Family Zoning Won't Do It.

    July 29, 2020 |

    Bloomberg CityLab |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

    Abolishing single-family zoning rules as an affordable-housing solution has failed in places such as Minneapolis and Oregon because their narrowly drawn reforms left other obstacles in place. Houston serves as an example of effective policies that promote "missing middle" housing – denser developments than detached houses – because it combined its lack of single-family zoning with a reduction in minimum lots sizes. The result is far more affordable housing than in other booming job markets. Lot-size restrictions are among several other rules that can frustrate the desire for more housing.

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  • India's tribal farmers tap solar irrigation to cut migration

    July 27, 2020 |

    Thomson Reuters Foundation |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: India, Jharkhand

    New solar-powered irrigation systems in the Chotanagpur Plateau region in India are giving farmers more dependable water and allowing them to diversify their crops, allowing them to also grow their income. Many farmers from a local village used to migrate to other places to search for work, but a new irrigation system has allowed them to grow cauliflower for a competitive price. While the cost of buying and installing a solar-powered irrigation system can be high, this form of irrigation could be more climate-friendly and help stabilize crop production.

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  • Is underground farming the future of food?

    July 24, 2020 |

    BBC |

    Multi-Media |

    3-5 Minutes

    Response Location: South Korea, Seoul

    There’s a subterranean, organic farm in one of Seoul’s subway stations that could be another way to approach sustainable urban farming. The “vertical” farm, known as Metro Farm, uses a mineral nutrient solution instead of regular soil, and has an automated tech network to control the underground ecosystem’s temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels. While Farm8, the tech startup in charge of the venture, hasn’t made much of a profit yet, the farm produces about 30 kilograms of vegetables per day at a rate that is 40 times more efficient than traditional farming.

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  • Will Community Gardens Survive Pandemic Budget Cuts?

    July 23, 2020 |

    FoodPrint |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States

    The ability of community gardens to supply healthy food to those who might not have their basic needs met has grown in importance as coronavirus continues to spread across the United States. For example, the New Roots community gardening initiative in Salt Lake City helps nearly 150 refugee families raise food on plots, and about 86 percent of the gardeners report saving an average of $30 a week by growing their own food. However, the future of this program, and others around the country in New York City, Seattle, and Minneapolis, are uncertain as they face budget cuts from cities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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  • How This N.Y. Island Went From Tourist Hot Spot to Emergency Garden Audio icon

    July 23, 2020 |

    The New York Times |

    Multi-Media |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    For environmental organization GrowNYC, their one-acre teaching farm on Governor’s Island became a victory garden for New Yorkers who aren’t having their basic needs met during the COVID-19 pandemic. While future land development on the island could impact their work, the farm is on track to produce about 20,000 pounds of food that is distributed by other groups like the Black Feminist Project as free or low-cost coronavirus relief food boxes.

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  • The revolutionary boat powered by the ocean

    July 15, 2020 |

    BBC |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Philippines

    Since the Philippines relies on boats to transport people and goods across the island nation, a shipbuilding company is designing a new low-carbon alternative of the bangka — a traditional Filipino boat — that uses the waves of the ocean to power it instead of fossil fuels. The ship, known as the trimaran, uses wave energy that converts into electricity for the ship. However, a typhoon and the COVID-19 pandemic have delayed the project, and there are also cost and design challenges. But the trimaran’s use of wave energy could be a step toward reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

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  • Behind the Accidentally Resilient Design of Athens Apartments

    July 15, 2020 |

    Bloomberg |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Greece, Athens

    Athens's distinctive apartment buildings, known as polikatoikia, have unintentionally solved problems most cities grapple with. The housing complexes have given rise to a city that has socio-economic integration, decent living conditions, and well-lit apartments with ample outdoor space for fresh air. The varying heights of the buildings have allowed the city to avoid the austerity common for affordable housing projects and efforts to control costs resulted in a modernist design that gives Athens a unique roofscape. Additionally, the outdoor spaces foster a warm and welcoming sense of community.

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  • Could leaving 'room for the river' help protect communities from floods?

    July 15, 2020 |

    Yale Climate Connections |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Davenport, Iowa

    While many communities in the Midwest use dams and levees to control the Mississippi River, some are trying new approaches to flood control as climate change threatens to increase rainfall and the severity of storms in the region. Some cities are turning to the Dutch solution of leaving “room for the river” to allow the body of water to flow naturally and design public spaces to handle inundation. While this technique doesn’t always work during major flooding events, traditional flood control strategies can be more harmful and actually worsen flooding.

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