SUSTAINABLE CITIES >>
UEI Sustainable Cities
In urban ecosystems, the health of the physical environment is closely connected to the physical, social, and mental well-being of residents. UEI’s Sustainable Cities programs bring together communities, municipalities, and non-profit organizations to re-green urban land and renew a sense of ecological health to neglected urban areas. Follow these links or scroll down for an introduction to our program areas:
CityRoots is an innovative, community-driven approach to urban sustainability that provides residents of Greater Boston's diverse neighborhoods the opportunity to address the environmental issues facing their communities through hands-on ecological restoration projects. Through this process, CityRoots takes advantage of the fact that making the neighborhood greener is a prime community-building opportunity for Boston’s urban residen ts.
>> More at the CityRoots website
Urban Forestry
Providing aesthetic value, economic viability, and environmental benefits to urban neighborhoods, trees play an important role in the ecological health of urban areas. Using trees as a positive force in the community, UEI is collaborating with municipalities in the Boston region and across New England in establishing planting goals and implementing the UEI model of tree stewardship and maintenance. Further, engaging residents in tree plantings promotes community improvement by creating attractive and engaging greenspace.
In collaboration with municipalities on urban foestry projects, UEI's Urban Forestry Toolkit follows these guidelines:
Urban Ecological Research
UEI has been a partner in the process to develop long term research studies specific to urban areas, with the aim of more closely investigating the factors that play into the health of urban ecosystems, and how the ecological health of urban areas impacts the physical well-being of urban residents. Key to these investigations is the assembly of an interdisciplinary network of researchers, spanning the environmental sciences, sociology, urban planning, and public health disciplines, therein recognizing the complexity of the environmental challenges facing urban areas. To learn more about UEI’s current work in this area visit http://umass.edu/urbaneco/index.html.