Infrastructure| Cities Sustainability

How to establish a clear air zone in your city: here is the guide of the mayors

From data to policy choices, through citizen participation: low emission zones are an urban planning tool against pollution and traffic. Here is the 'toolbox' that the C40 Cities group makes available to administrators, associations and public stakeholders to create 'lung-friendly' neighbourhoods

Sustainable, courageous and efficient: mobility in 4 world-leading cities

Tianjin, Paris, Bogota and Jakarta have in recent years won the Sustainable Transport Award, the global competition that each year selects the city with the best projects for renewing mobility in a more sustainable and safe direction. Let's take a look at the results

"The new century of the Aerotropolis": the urban shape with the airport at its centre

The airport should be placed at the centre of careful urban planning at regional level, as a catalyst for economic activity and a new form of metropolis development, towards the new ‘Aerotropolis’ model. The airport should therefore not be located in the suburbs, but in the heart of the city space, according to John Kasarda, an academic and expert in aviation infrastructure

Zone 30: if the new city idea has a limit

The 30 kilometre per hour speed limit is spreading rapidly in urban areas. There is no shortage of detractors, but the model is increasingly being adopted to prevent accidents, reduce environmental impact and promote a more inclusive use of public space

The city? It is a living organism: the ecological design of biourbanism

Adapting urban space to climate change, rethinking cities in the face of the gradual abandonment of fossil fuels, mitigating heat waves are some of the challenges considered by biourbanism, a model that approaches design through the lens of life science

A world-class leader in public transit: here is the Hong Kong model

A well planned infrastructure, joined with a unique business plan makes Hong Kong a best practice in public transports. Here 8 people out of 10 prefer railways, trams and buses rather than private cars. And the system is even profitable

Mobility, smart city, design: 5 events, exhibitions and fairs not to be missed

Innovation in the world of mobility, town planning, infrastructure and architectural design becomes culture, encounters, exchange of ideas and suggestions. From Venice to New York via Barcelona, Seoul and Chicago: here are the events selected by Infra Cultura for the second half of 2023

Here’s how Oslo became the capital of EV cars

It’s not just about acting on vehicles: the Norwegian city took a whole plan about infrastructures, incentives, mobility and public transport, to abate its emissions and thereby encouraging the passage from fossil fueled car to EVs

On the road: 5 sustainable destinations for the modern tourist

From Japan to Peru, via the Mediterranean, here are some ideas for summer 2023 that combine beauty, culture and the travel experience with environmental protection and the drive for innovation

“Less cars, more pedestrians”: the American story of New Urbanism

Urban development has always accompanied changes in society in the United States, in offering solutions for the city and for living. New Urbanism is a school of thought that is still vital in offering solutions that aim to protect a sense of community and limit the consumption of environmental resources, opposing the 'sprawl' of American suburbs

“Area B, cycling and parking: Milan needs more courage on mobility”

Enlarging the urban toll area, paid parking spaces for residents and an integrated cycle network: Milan needs a decisive policy of orientation towards sustainable mobility to overcome the contradictions of the post-Covid era. We talk about this with Edoardo Croci, promoter in 2008 of Ecopass, the first pollution charge ever applied in Lombardy's capital city

Living without cars? Here are the projects for rethinking cities

How to imagine life in the neighbourhoods and streets, abandoning the car-centred perspective? Some urban projects and initiatives around the world are trying to imagine this

Territory, safety and roads: the drone watches over the smart city

Unmanned aerial aircraft are increasingly being used by officers and local police for land monitoring, traffic management, accident solving

People-friendly mobility: the cities that really believe in it

Public transport, pedestrian areas, soft mobility and charging stations are just a few strategies to improve the quality of urban mobility. Let's see how the five cities at the top of the global sustainability challenge do it

The best cities for those wishing to expatriate, according to expatriates

Climate, public transport, mobility infrastructure, cost of living and much more: the world's largest expat community has conducted a survey of almost 12,000 expats on the best cities to live and work in abroad, creating a ranking of 50. Top-down, here are the ones that passed the test with flying colours

Infra Culture: here are the exhibitions to watch out for in 2023

At a time of radical change and uncertainty, the world is questioning its future: what solutions for urban spaces, mobility and sustainability? Art and museums interpret these questions, from Tokyo to Copenhagen, from Rome to Helsinki via Qatar

Innovation hubs, a key to urban and economic revival

The case of the 'Goccia' district in the Bovisa neighbourhood, reconnected to the city of Milan and the region with a redevelopment plan by Renzo Piano and with works on mobility. Innovation labs for start-ups will be housed in a modern campus aiming at zero emissions and energy self-sufficiency

Utopia or the next revolution? The shape of the smart cities of the future

A line in the desert or hexagonal modules installed on oceans: here are the revolutionary projects of Neom, Oceanix City and other almost utopian smart cities

The smart lamppost, the energy-saving sentinel in the city

Adaptive and intelligent public lighting can be a key to sustainability in overcoming the energy crisis. Here's how 'simple' poles can provide not only light and at the same time consume fewer resources

Kansai, the first airport on “Neverland”

Designed by Renzo Piano, the Kansai airport stands on the third largest artificial island in the world and is considered a monument of 20th century engineering. But increasingly intense geological and climatic phenomena threaten its future

Revolutionary roads: Ecopeatge, an eco-tolling system for Valencia

The Spanish city is testing an urban road usage and pollution charge, based on satellite and cloud technology provided by Abertis Mobility Services: here's how it would work, once implemented

Self-driving buses and shuttles: the 5 most advanced cities in Italy

From Turin to Bari, from Merano to the MaaS projects in Rome and Milan: cities in Italy are also moving toward introducing modern, flexible and sustainable self-driving public transportation services. Here are the experiments at the cutting-edge

What it means to move in the "15-Minute City"

Mobility is a key to the hyper-local dimension of metropolises, which has come back into focus. Increased sociality, economic development in neighbourhoods, and reduced environmental impact are the results in cities experimenting with this multipolar model for greater liveability

Mobility as a social inclusion driver in cities

Infrastructures and mobility services connecting outskirts to centers provide social equity and give a chance to overcome marginalization. The transportation system can be crucial for facilitating social participation and levelling inequalities

The Italian way to Mobility as a Service

Here's what will happen in Rome, Naples and Milan the three city-laboratories identified in Italy to test the innovative "Mobility as a Service", services aimed at citizens on unified digital platforms

Autonomous busses: a trump card for more livable cities

A new option in public transport systems, which provides unexpected ways to integrate and interconnect with existing mobility infrastructure and neighborhoods

Visions of the future, at the museum

Culture ponders the evolution of urban spaces and transportation, with interactive, immersive and technological exhibitions. In the background, the environmental issue is constant. Here are 5 selected museums to discover a vision of the future that awaits us

“Building a smart city from scratch”. The pioneers in Sicily

A Sicilian ICT company has made Taormina into a digital resort town. And now T.net is ready to export its replicable model from the “Pearl of the Ionian Sea” to other cities in Europe, starting with Helsinki. Privacy and flexibility are the keys to the idea

How to (quickly) rethink cities to mitigate climate change

Urban spaces, infrastructure and transportation networks need to be optimised and redesigned, according to the UN IPCC Sixth Report. By mid-century, 68 percent of the world's population will be living in a city

Cybersecurity for transportation: “smart nations” to the test

Essential services in the smart cities are targets to malicious actors. States need to defend utilities, industrial plants, payment systems, connected services and much more against cyberattacks. This issue is even destined to grow with the advent of smart mobility

Urban reforestation as a resilience strategy

A primary mode of adaptation to global warming, the planting of tens of thousands of trees in the urban fabric should be considered as an inevitable infrastructure for the 21st century. Examples of this around the world are multiplying at all levels

Citizens' Energy Communities: the soul of the new smart cities

A challenge for engineering, and not only: the new forms of decentralised, sustainable production and consumption require new forms of community and new behaviour as citizens return to a direct relationship with energy

Cities as platforms, Mobility as a Service: stories from three capitals

Mobility as a Service is the new way to conceive transporation networks leveraging apps, data, and connected devices to provide an integrated access to public, private and shared travel modalities. Three examples from Berlin, Sidney and Denver

How to cut gas emissions from transportation by 90% in the EU

The new European Urban Mobility Framework addresses mobility issues in 424 EU cities, as one of the key updates to Trans-European Transport Network (Ten-T), approved by the EU Commission. This whole package of actions, amendments and recommendations has the potential to kick off wide improvements for mobility among the member states

Cities take on the climate crisis: three stories from the Anthropocene

Urban centres do not necessarily have a destructive impact on nature and biodiversity. Cities like Shanghai, Stockholm and Prato are attempting to reverse this paradigm, demonstrating how green infrastructures can help in facing environmental challenges, such as flood management, pollution reduction, climate resilience and public health

Managing traffic: congestion charge as an evolving option

The urban traffic demand was affected by lockdowns worldwide, but congestion charge as a remedy was all the same maintained, reinforced and is even ready to be newly implemented among some of the biggest cities

Technology and governance: how cities make optimal use of big data

The experiences of Barcelona, London, Paris, Seoul and Singapore demonstrate how the huge quantities of data generated in big cities can be used by digital platforms and analysis systems to provide services to citizens and improve decision-making processes

A ranking of the world’s smartest cities

Digital services for citizens, e-governance, smart management of resources and more: a Singapore consulting firm has analysed 140 cities and come up with a ranking. Presenting the world’s four most digitally advanced cities

Autonomous vehicles and the future of public transport

Self-driving cars are finally here and big automakers are racing to develop fully autonomous vehicles. This mode of transportation will certainly be less polluting and environmentally friendly, but it will not solve the problem of traffic congestion. And this is where public transport will still have a role to play

The possible combinations between mobility and sustainability

Future mobility challenges do not merely concern electric motors but also urban redesign and air transport