Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. Understanding how cities can be (re)built in ways that best respond to the constraints and opportunities of global environmental change processes is central for global sustainability.
For over a decade, the Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) project provided a better understanding of the interactions and feedbacks between global environmental change and urbanization at the local, regional, and global scales through an innovative conceptual and methodological framework.
As urbanization represents a critical topic of special policy relevance in today’s world, UGEC represented an unrivaled opportunity for addressing critical issues of worldwide importance that had not received adequate attention. UGEC facilitated the cooperation and exchange of scientific knowledge among researchers, decision-makers, practitioners, and other end-users at the international, national, and local levels in urban areas.
UGEC originated in 2006 as a core project of International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP). The UGEC International Project Office was hosted by The Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, and became a core project of Future Earth in April 2015. The project officially officially closed in January 2017.