Land Management & Land Use

For every car in the United States, there are four parking spots. Research shows that replacing underutilized parking with green space and using environmentally friendly asphalt-alternatives will make cities more climate resilient. While cities in the United States have barely begun to grapple with this issue, cities like Paris, which removed 70,000 on-street parking spaces—half of the city’s previous 140,000 total—are de-paving the way.

How do trees die from drought? Plant ecophysiologists are studying air bubbles in tree water columns to understand hydraulic failure: in other words, when tree water columns stop working. Their goal is to improve forecasts for tree responses in a changing climate future. Here is a brief summary of how hydraulic failure works and an introduction to three recent papers on the topic.

Biofuels have been a cornerstone of U.S. climate mitigation policy, but new research on outcomes of the Renewable Fuel Standard—the country’s flagship biofuels policy—suggests that its costs may outweigh its benefits. Land-use impacts of growing more crops for fuel have likely resulted in higher greenhouse gas emissions, water contamination, and soil degradation.

Nearly 2.4 billion people (about 40 percent of the world’s population) live within 100 kilometers of the coast. As coastal cities continue to grow, so too will their influence as actors in shaping sustainable development. A new paper highlights the largely overlooked role of ocean cities in international legal frameworks to address environmental degradation in marine and coastal environments.