GoodWalk Thailand: Designing “Walkable City” Revitalizing the Economy, Enhancing Quality of Life for City Dwellers

Chula joins hands with the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) to design “Walkable City” using the GoodWalk Score as the criteria for selecting the pilot area to be developed as Walkable City in Bangkok as well as many cities around the country. The plan is to help reduce pollution, revitalize tourism, and the local economy while enhancing the quality of life and health for city dwellers.

The psychological challenges of rural living

People who endure the daily hassles of big cities often romanticize life in the country. But rural living is not necessarily the carefree, idyllic experience that many people imagine, said Emily Willroth, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Willroth co-authored a study in the Journal of Personality suggesting that people in rural areas face unique challenges that may shape their personalities and psychological well-being.

Honeybee Hives May Reveal the Microbial Signatures of Urban Aerobiomes, Researchers at NYU Tandon School of Engineering Find

Elizabeth Hénaff, Assistant Professor in the NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) and in the Department of Technology, Culture and Society, along with colleagues from MIT, Pratt Institute and Weill Cornell Medicine, conducted a pilot study by sampling various materials from three hives in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. They found diverse genetic information in the debris accumulated at the bottom of the hives, including genetic data from environmental bacteria.

Media Invited to Explore Urban Acoustics with a ‘Sound Walk’ of Nashville #ASA183

The 183rd ASA Meeting will include an urban sound walk, in which media are invited to explore Nashville, its sounds, and efforts to design projects that enhance the sonic environment and mitigate noise. Following the walk, ASA will host a workshop on soundscape design and how planning can be used to create sustainable, walkable, livable urban environments. The walk is an opportunity for media and anyone interested in urban soundscapes, while the workshop is intended for city planners, architects, officials, and others whose work lies on the interface between sound and the community. All are welcome.

NYU Tandon’s IDC Innovation Hub awarded New Master Construction Innovation Contract with NYC Department of Design and Construction

A recently registered Master Applied Construction Innovation Research Services Contract between the New York City Department of Design and Construction/Town+Gown:NYC and the Institute of Design & Construction Innovation Hub (Innovation Hub) at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering will speed progress by providing all New York City construction agencies and authorities with efficient access to applied research services for innovation in construction, engineering design, and management.

Chula’s Faculty of Engineering Pioneers the Use of Gamma Rays to Inspect Large Trees

Lecturers of the Faculty of Nuclear Technology at the Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University have developed a special device for scanning trees to determine trunk density and hollowness to prevent accidents from fallen trees and also as a way to conserve large trees in urban areas.

Urban Magnetic Fields Reveal Clues about Energy Efficiency, Pollution

In Journal of Applied Physics, researchers from the United States and Germany present a comparative analysis of urban magnetic fields between two U.S. cities: Berkeley, California, and the Brooklyn borough of New York City. They explore what kinds of information can be extracted using data from magnetic field sensors to understand the working of cities and provide insights that may be crucial for preventative studies.

Hackensack Meridian Health Project HEAL Receives $500,000 Grant to Target Community Violence

Hackensack Meridian Health is proud to announce that Project HEAL, a hospital-based violence intervention program based at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, received a $500,000 grant to expand services in the successful multi-disciplined program to address community, domestic, and gang-related violence.

Terrorism – A Threat for Urban Dwellers Be in the Know, Be on the Lookout for a Safe Society

Chula Political Science Lecturer alerts our society on the dangers of “urban terrorism” and the need to build a knowledge base for crisis management should an incident occur while also proposing that the government should invest in national security.

Measuring Sound Diversity of Quietness

The world is filled with myriad sounds that can overwhelm a person with relentless acoustics. Noise is so prevalent in everyday life that the concept and achievement of comfortable quiet is hard to define. During the 180th ASA Meeting, Aggelos Tsaligopoulos from the University of the Aegean will describe how quiet could be measured in the hopes of better understanding its impact on people. The session, “Towards a new understanding of the concept of quietness,” will take place Wednesday, June 9.

On the design of an optimal flexible bus dispatching system with modular bus units: Using the three-dimensional macroscopic fundamental diagram

This project proposes a flexible bus dispatching system using automated modular vehicle technology, and considers multimodal interactions and congestion propagation dynamics.  This study proposes a novel flexible bus dispatching system in which a fleet of fully automated modular bus units, together with conventional…

Rutgers Wildlife Experts Can Discuss Coyotes in New Jersey

New Brunswick, N.J. (March 2, 2021) – Rutgers University–New Brunswick wildlife experts Kathleen Kerwin and Chris Crosby are available for interviews on coyote ecology and behavior, how and when coyotes got to New Jersey and how to avoid human-coyote conflict. “The…

Rutgers Expert Can Discuss Creating Wildlife Habitat in Your Yard

New Brunswick, N.J. (June 15, 2020) – Kathleen Kerwin, a wildlife expert at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, is available for interviews on how to create wildlife habitat in your yard. “Creating backyard habitat for wildlife is a relatively easy way homeowners…

Rutgers Experts Available to Discuss Environmental Protection During COVID-19 Crisis

New Brunswick, N.J. (April 15, 2020) – Rutgers University–New Brunswick professors Nicole Fahrenfeld and John Reinfelder are available for interviews on environmental protection issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fahrenfeld can discuss issues including microbial water quality, sewer issues (including what…

A silver lining of social distancing and quarantine? Better air quality. @HopkinsEngineer has an expert on atmospheric air pollution who can discuss how and to what extent social distancing and quarantine measures affect air pollution.

A silver lining of social distancing and quarantine? Better air quality. As more and more cities across the U.S. clamp down on travel, there have been fewer cars on the road and early reports of improved air quality.  Johns Hopkins…

Hot time in the city: Urban lizards evolve heat tolerance

Faced with a gritty landscape of metal fences, concrete walls and asphalt pavement, city lizards in Puerto Rico rapidly and repeatedly evolved better tolerance for heat than their forest counterparts, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of California, Los Angeles.Studies that delve into how animals adapt in urban environments are still relatively rare.

More Pavement, More Problems

Think your daily coffee, boutique gym membership and airport lounge access cost a lot? There may be an additional, hidden cost to those luxuries of urban living, says a new Johns Hopkins University study: more flooding.

For every percentage point increase in roads, parking lots and other impervious surfaces that prevent water from flowing into the ground, annual floods increase on average by 3.3%, the researchers found.

Major NSF-sponsored grant will help researchers discover ways to improve urban sustainability

A new $2.5 million grant will help an interdisciplinary team of researchers analyze innovative approaches to improving urban sustainability. The team will study various approaches to bolstering local food production in Des Moines and the surrounding area and how those approaches could affect nutrition, waste and environmental impacts.