Data centers predominantly occupy urban areas, influenced by local power capacity, information technology employment and broadband quality. This study highlights the impact of infrastructure and industrial legacy on their spatial distribution and sustainability implications.

This study identifies rising urban air-conditioning energy demand for dehumidification under climate change, alongside spatially divergent contributions to total urban air-conditioning demand.

Urbanization challenges plant communities. This study in Antananarivo, Madagascar, finds declines in the diversity of native, but not exotic, plants with greater urban intensity and that ‘sacred’ forest fragments supported the highest native plant diversity.

This study analyzes the costs and benefits of urban building energy efficiency improvements in China from 2020 to 2050. The results reveal strong cost-effectiveness as well as a mismatch between who pays and who benefits, highlighting the need for policy intervention.

Ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and Lyft are theorized to stimulate local economies. An analysis of 167 US cities reveals that their entry increased regional GDP and intermittent employment, but not overall jobs or earnings.

Using travel data, this study reveals that while most women in Greater Accra, Ghana, can reach emergency obstetric care within 30 minutes, peri-urban and poorer areas face considerable geographic and socioeconomic access inequities.

The ‘imperceptibility’ of carbon emissions weakens the willingness of the public to act on urban carbon reduction. Wenlei Zhu proposes visualizing urban decarbonization by using bioreactive façades with photosynthetic organisms, to make carbon sequestration visible and perceptible.

Life-service digital platforms are increasingly reallocating urban space through routing, dispatching and rebalancing algorithms that prioritize commercial throughput over broader public interests. Cities need proactive algorithmic governance to safeguard spatial control over shared urban space.

Cities across the Middle East are rapidly expanding through construction while simultaneously scaling solar energy, yet these transitions remain materially disconnected. Recognizing construction waste as part of urban resource systems could help to close this gap.

In the Austrian city of Innsbruck, the European Alps are never just scenery. They shape how we live, dream and define ourselves — and how we urbanize. The Patscherkofel — our Hausberg, a personal ‘backyard mountain’ — reveals how a tourism city’s soul climbs higher while its roots shift below.

Traditional architecture in Kashan reflects centuries of adaptation to climate, culture and community life. The revitalization of Kashan’s historic neighborhoods demonstrates how heritage can remain relevant by informing contemporary approaches to urban identity, sustainability and creative development.