A new initiative led by U of T Mississauga’s Centre for Urban Environments (CUE) will create the first large-scale data collection system to understand the complex relationship between cities, the local environment and global climate change.
A new initiative led by U of T Mississauga’s Centre for Urban Environments (CUE) will create the first large-scale data collection system to understand the complex relationship between cities, the local environment and global climate change.
“More than 80 per cent of the world’s population lives in cities, but we really don’t understand how cities are changing the environment that we live in, and how this is driving – and being affected by – climate change,” says Marc Johnson, CUE’s director and an associate professor of biology.
“We hope to learn more so we can make cities healthier and more sustainable.”
The centre’s Urban Environmental Network, or UrbEnNet, will gather real-time data from dozens of sites across the Greater Toronto Area. “CUE’s UrbEnNet will provide unprecedented data about how urbanization and urban development shapes the environment that we live in, including the physical environment, the air we breathe, the temperatures we feel and the quality of water we drink, and the impact of this on life,” Johnson says.
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Image via Katrin Ray Shumakov via Getty Images.
