Cities can achieve sustainability wins with micro transportation, green infrastructure and climate resilience planning

In 2024, local governments will continue working on several sustainability targets, says Stephen McCauley, associate professor of teaching at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass. He says those targets and areas of interest include micro transportation, expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure and reducing battery fire risk in electric vehicles. He predicts municipal governments will also work to expand tree canopies in their communities via increased tree plantings. McCauley also believes cities and counties will increase their use of artificial intelligence (AI) in countless municipal applications.

Micro transportation, says McCauley, includes a lot. “I think of micro transportation as the whole suite of new mobility technologies we are seeing on city streets, such as electric scooters, e-bikes and e-skateboards that are designed at the scale of the human body. These products may be niche technologies in some areas, but in some cities, they are widely used and require new thinking about transportation planning and regulation.”

He believes the various technologies that are under the micro transportation umbrella could lead to major advancements and efficiencies in personal mobility—a true paradigm shift. “The technologies will allow people to get around in urban areas with much lighter material and emissions footprints than automobiles.” Go to the following link for information on one form or variation on micro transportation—Microtransit.

The Worcester professor says cities and counties can achieve a significant sustainability win in the short term. “Green infrastructure is probably the most cost-effective, quickest and most immediately impactful intervention. This includes street trees and other municipal greening and also support for private and community greening projects. Trees and other greenery reduce heat risks, help manage urban flooding and provide a buffer against storm surges.”

To achieve their sustainability goals, the professor says cities need to develop a forward-looking and ambitious sustainability plan. He adds that the plan should be based on robust outreach. The latter, he believes, will ensure that a wide range of community views are collected. This will help ensure buy-in throughout the jurisdiction.

McCauley directs the following advice to municipal officials: “Ban plastics, citywide. Many plant-based alternatives are available at low cost. To be using single-use plastics for things like straws and takeaway cup covers shows a market failure. A ban would move something that market forces seem not to be doing, but which would likely be valuable for everyone, like banning smoking in bars.”

It’s the WPI professor’s belief that climate resilience thinking should guide all municipal and wider geographical planning. “Resilience is a discourse that should pervade urban and regional planning in 2023 and beyond.” He points to steps outlined in the U.S, Climate Resilience toolkit as a useful guide:

1. Understand exposure.
2. Assess vulnerability and risk.
3. Investigate options.
4. Prioritize and plan.
5. Take action.

Professor McCauley says, based on his experience, that it’s especially crucial that cities and counties do research and take action around extreme heat events and trends.

The WPI professor has worked with the city of Worcester on climate resilience planning. “My research has involved close coordination with city officials. We have jointly submitted proposals for funding for action research projects in the city, and we have worked to align research and planning priorities.”

McCauley outlines climate resilience research his team has conducted in Worcester: “We first mapped micro heat islands around the city to understand what areas are most exposed to heat. Then we generated a heat vulnerability index to understand what neighborhoods may be most vulnerable to extreme heat. During this time, we worked with city officials to identify feasible planning interventions to address extreme heat (street tree planting and building retrofits emerged as the most viable/likely interventions). We then did some analyses to determine which areas may benefit most and otherwise be most suitable for street tree planting and building retrofits.”

Worcester city administrators, says McCauley, are examining the WPI research: “The city has taken our analyses into account and officials are working on a number of initiatives to put these interventions into action.”

Numerous city departments should be involved in climate resilience planning in their communities, McCauley says. “It’s important to engage emergency management to make sure there is capacity for robust response to extreme events. It’s also important to engage departments like public utilities, energy and sustainability, transportation and planning. These departments will be thinking most directly about the critical infrastructure that may be exposed to hazards, and the new ‘hard infrastructures’ that may be required to achieve resilience, such as sea walls, flood gates, bus stop shelters or cooling stations.”

Cities are looking at the big picture and seeking input from multiple divisions. McCauley explains: “Other departments, such as parks and planning, may contribute planning for green infrastructure, such as restoring coastal wetland and vegetation approaches for flood mitigation.”

McCauley says it’s also important to engage departments that can support the “soft infrastructure” that’s required for resilience. These can include health services, education and business planning. “These departments can work to ensure that residents and businesses have the capacity to prepare for and respond to extreme events, but also to bolster adaptive capacity more generally, such as through strengthening social networks and neighborhood fabric, increasing awareness of resilience priorities and ensuring adequate insurance coverage. Again, resilience is a discourse that should pervade urban and regional planning.”

Michael Keating is senior editor for American City & County. Contact him at [email protected].