Reimagining urban science for global sustainability: Five strategic research areas

Summary

Cities, as complex systems, are faced with increasingly diverse and connected challenges across social, economic, environmental, and health domains. To help cities address these challenges, the Future Earth Urban Knowledge-Action Network developed a cross-disciplinary urban research agenda through expert elicitations and extensive consultation. Five research themes to guide urban sustainability research were identified including: (1) advancing urban sustainability transformations, (2) ensuring equity, (3) boosting innovation in low to lower-middle income countries, (4) managing complexity and systemic risks, and (5) navigating environmental change. Advancing this agenda will require collaboration across disciplines and geographies, transdisciplinary coproduction, and enhanced support to urban science.

Information

Affiliated research theme or topic: Doing sustainability research, Transformative futures
Link to centre authors: McPhearson, Timon
Publication info: Xuemei Bai, Giles B. Sioen, Şiir Kilkiş, Timon McPhearson, Zeenat Niazi, Jago Dodson, Tri Atmaja, Kensuke Fukushi, Niki Frantzeskaki, Harini Nagendra, Wanyu Shih, Thomas Elmqvist, Tischa Muñoz-Erickson, Xiangzheng Deng, Burak Güneralp, Shuaib Lwasa, Noboru Zama. 2025. Reimagining urban science for global sustainability: Five strategic research areas. Global Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2025.10025

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