international urbanization
  • About
    • Support
  • News
  • Faculty
  • Projects
    • Autumn 2016 Projects >
      • City of Cupertino
      • Menlo Spark
      • Sustainable San Mateo County
    • Autumn 2015 Projects >
      • Beijing Hutong Neighborhoods
      • City of Cycles
      • Clean Air Campaign
    • Autumn 2014 Projects >
      • Bicycle Urbanism
      • Cultural Preservation
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Food Systems
      • Land Use
    • Spring 2014 Projects >
      • aWalk
      • BreatheChina
      • Green Cloud
      • Micro-Travel
      • Walk!Man
      • Wukong
    • Human City Workshop
  • Expo
    • 2016 Human Cities Expo
    • 2015 Human Cities Expo
    • 2014 Human Cities Expo
    • 2014 Urban Sustainability Expo
  • Apply
  • Blog

About the Course

In the 21st century, sustainable development increasingly takes place in an urban context. Cities impact air and water quality, alter resource consumption patterns, and pose unique challenges for energy and transportation infrastructure. The growth of cities in emerging economies—particularly in Asia where urbanization is happening at an unprecedented rate—will be key to shaping greener and more livable communities.
Picture
Picture
URBANST145/EARTHSYS138/IPS274, an interdisciplinary service-learning course, offers students a comparative approach to investigating sustainable cities, focusing on urbanization in the world’s two largest economies and biggest emitters of greenhouse gases: China and the United States. We explore the major drivers of urbanization and initiatives to promote more sustainable growth. We investigate tradeoffs and choices related to land use, energy and water resources, and the need to balance economic vitality, environmental quality, cultural heritage, and social equity.


“Experential learning”
 is a central theme of the course. Stanford students will form teams and collaborate with Chinese students and faculty at Tsinghua University to develop real-world sustainability projects in areas such as transport and mobility, air pollution monitoring, public open space, and urban farming/agriculture.
Picture
Picture
Cross-cultural exchange and cooperative design projects constitute the backbone of the experience. Students from the U.S. and China complete a series of urban laboratories, and then form multinational teams to develop and execute projects related to environmental or social sustainability. Students will showcase their work at a public exhibition at the end of the quarter.

By understanding the American and Chinese contexts of urbanization, students will develop a toolkit to navigate multiple pathways to sustainable development in an international setting.

  Program on Urban Studies  |  Civil & Environmental Engineering  |  Earth Systems Program  |  International Policy Studies