News by Subject Social & Behavior

As cities physically expanded worldwide between 1970 and 2010, the population in those cities became less dense, according to a study led by a Texas A&M university professor.

A worldwide study of 327,403 metro and bus passengers shows that women are ten per cent more likely to feel unsafe than men on urban public transport.

While many homeowners heed the advice to clear their lawns of fallen leaves in autumn to avoid creating tick-friendly habitat in high-use areas, a new study on tick abundance in leaf litter says raking or blowing leaves just out to the forest edge is not enough. In fact, dumping leaves where grass meets woods may inadvertently create an ideal habitat for blacklegged ticks.

Growing fruit and vegetables in just 10% of a city's gardens and other urban green spaces could provide 15% of the local population with their 'five a day,' according to new research.

Focusing on urbanization as a key driver of environmental change in the 21st century, researchers at Princeton University have created a framework to understand and compare cities' food systems and their effects on climate change, water use and land use. The research will allow planners to estimate the impact of a city's food system and evaluate policy actions.

More information about the effects human activities have on Southeast Asian coral reefs has been revealed, with researchers looking at how large-scale global pressures, combined with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern, can detrimentally impact these delicate marine ecosystems.

Though not as prevalent in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas. Occurring naturally as well as being manmade, methane is much shorter-lived than CO2, but it is fast acting and 20 to 80 times as effective at trapping heat. A little extra methane goes a long way.

A new policy report, Electronic Registration Systems for Cooling Towers -- Improving Public Health and Sustainability Outcomes, published by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) proposes a standardized yet flexible template for cooling tower registries that are designed to improve health outcomes, address disparity in affected populations, and increase water and energy efficiency.