Monitoring Cities

Catalog description

The world’s urban population is growing at approximately 60 million people annually; this is equivalent to four cities like New York every year. Characterizing the chronological changes and quantifying key attributes of cities; from the environment, to demographics, and economics, is now possible by the increase and availability of information. The acquisition and analysis of urban data provides insights that will influence the sustainable growth of the urban world, from small cities to megacities. Students completing this course will learn to study cities using the quantitative analysis of urban data. Looking at cities as interdependent networks of physical, natural and human systems, this course provides a perspective on how to obtain relevant information for better understanding of the function and wellbeing of these systems. Students will gain an understanding of needs assessment, planning. and technical approaches for instrumenting a city, while learning approaches for the acquisition and analysis of data, including data obtained through administrative records. Areas of study include energy, waste, land use, infrastructure, ecology, air quality, patterns of activity, mobility, and community engagement. Prerequisites: Open across NYU to graduate and senior year undergraduate students.