Urban Research Initiative: Information Technologies and the Future of Urban Environments

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The economic future of cities will be defined by their capacity to generate, process and distribute information. With the emergence of the Internet, the diffusion of personal computers and the advent of telecommunications deregulation, cities face unprecedented requirements to compete as centers of economic activity, culture, and civic activity. Urban Researchers must understand and explain the way in which information and telecommunications technologies are transforming the cities and metropolitan areas where people live and work. This project, supported under the Urban Research Initiative, establishes a new conceptual framework in which to study and analyze these patterns of urban change.The project is designed to achieve four objectives: 1) formulate new indicators of urban activity, based on the production, organization, and movement of information between and among metropolitan regions; 2) identify and analyze emerging spatial patterns of household locations in central cities and metropolitan regions with regard to education, professional skills, and access to computers; 3) assess the long-term impact of telecommunication systems on the transportation infrastructure and physical environment of cities and metropolitan regions; and 4) determine how information technologies can be used to strengthen the economic and social structure of inner-city communities. Taken together, these objectives provide a new perspective on the future of urban environments that can inform research and policy in the next century.With information and telecommunications technologies transforming urban regions, the project has an interdisciplinary team that brings together expertise in urban planning, environmental science, engineering, computer science, anthropology, and public policy. The project is based at New York University's Taub Urban Research Center. It is conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, drawing upon scholars from Cornell University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Delaware, University of California at Irvine, and the University of Southern California.This research promises to enhance substantially our understanding of this important topic.