Twin Cities Urban Sustainability Forum

Principal Investigator(s):

Lawrence Baker, Research Professor, Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering

Project summary:

The Twin Cities Urban Sustainability (TCUS) Forum will be part of a series of regional U.S. forums being planned by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The proposed TCUS Forum will be aligned with the goals of other NAS regional forums and work to:

-Create an opportunity for dialogue between municipal leaders, planners, policy makers, researchers, and other relevant stakeholders on the challenges and opportunities of developing sustainable metropolitan regions.

-Link regional stakeholders, particularly from surrounding rural communities, who are impacted by nearby urban development but not often integrated into planning processes.

-Highlight promising/innovative activities including policies, planning efforts, programs, and projects that appear to result in more sustainable metropolitan systems.

-Discuss the effectiveness of these approaches for improving key indicators of urban livability and sustainability.

-Identify challenges to adopting new/innovative practices and approaches to overcoming these challenges.

-Explore approaches for more effectively generating and disseminating knowledge, making note of critical R&D gaps and needed decision-support tools.

Project details: