Urban Systems Collaborative Upate

[Colin Harrison]

The London Meeting

Planning for our annual meeting at the Imperial College in London on 10-11 September 2013 is underway.  I attach a current draft of the planning document.  We have had a great discussion today with Prof. John Polak of Imperial and he has given us lots of excellent thoughts.  We have a team of a dozen or so USC members, but would welcome more participants.  If you are interested, please send email to me.  

This Week's Webinar

On Friday March 15, 2013 at 12:30 pm EDT, Hanna Niemi-Hugaerts, Marja Mattila, and Pekka Koponen of the Forum Virium in Helsinki will talk about the City Service Development Kit (SDK) project.  City SDK is a European Union-wide project to help cities to capture the information they are producing and to turn it into value for various stakeholders.

Recent Posts to the USC Blog

Future Cities Catapult to be hosted in London

A new Catapult centre that will help make cities become smarter and more forward thinking will be hosted in London, Business Secretary Vince Cable announced today, following on from the announcement that Glasgow will host the Future Cities demonstrator....

When the Challenge is Too Great

Last week I went for the first time to Mexico City to take part in a technical conference at the Universidad PanAmerica (UP).  The USA newspapers have been full for many months with stories of murder and kidnapping and so I approached the trip with some apprehension.  I am delighted to say that my expectations were enormously exceeded.....

Little/big; producer/consumer; and the story of the Smarter City

Two years ago, I noticed that my then 2-year-old son was trying to move things he saw on the screen of my laptop by touching them. Of course he was: he'd seen my wife and I use touchscreens on our smartphones; why wouldn't all screens behave that way?  I think there's something profound in his instinctual use of touchscreen technology to manipulate information. And as other technologies that blur the boundary between information technology and physical systems - such as bio-energy and 3D printing - become more capable and affordable, the way we interact with many of the systems that support our lives - from food and energy supply to the way that we create our environment and the objects within it - will change out of all recognition....

The State of the Planet conference: A World at Risk - Water Security

The issues of water and food security are timely and important to the discussion of the future of sustainable development. Population and climate are major drivers, leading to regional water constraints that are emerging as critical in many places in the world.  The ability of societies to deal with these threats is coming into question, whether the issue is the provision of safe drinking water, or of access of industries to water, the rapid depletion of groundwater by agriculture, limits to energy production and mineral extraction, or the impacts of degraded water bodies on ecosystems.  What are the innovations that can address these challenges, and what are some examples of sustainable directions towards solution?  This State of the Planet conference will be held on March 28, 2013 at Columbia University, New York, NY.

Prof. Michael Batty wins the "Nobel Prize" of Geography

Many of you will know Professor Michael Batty, the director of the Barlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analytics at University of College London.  Michael has spoken on the USC Webinars about the work of CASA and is supporting our London meeting in September 2013.  In February 2013 he was awarded the prestigious Laureat Prix International de Geographie Vautrin Lud.  Please join me in congratulating Michael on this great honour.