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

城市的经济未来将取决于其产生、处理和分发信息的能力。随着互联网的出现、个人电脑的普及和电信管制的放松，城市面临着作为经济活动、文化和公民活动中心竞争的前所未有的要求。城市研究人员必须理解和解释信息和电信技术正在改变人们生活和工作的城市和大都市区的方式。在城市研究倡议的支持下，这个项目建立了一个新的概念框架，用以研究和分析这些城市变化的模式。该项目旨在实现四个目标：1)根据大都市地区之间的信息生产、组织和流动，制定新的城市活动指标；2)识别和分析中心城市和大都市区家庭所在地在教育、专业技能和计算机接入方面的新兴空间格局；3)评估电信系统对城市和大都市区交通基础设施和自然环境的长期影响；4)确定如何利用信息技术来加强城市内部社区的经济和社会结构。综上所述，这些目标为城市环境的未来提供了一个新的视角，可以为下个世纪的研究和政策提供信息。随着信息和电信技术改变城市地区，该项目的跨学科团队汇集了城市规划、环境科学、工程、计算机科学、人类学和公共政策方面的专业知识。该项目由纽约大学陶布城市研究中心负责。它是与民用基础设施系统研究所合作进行的，并借鉴了来自康奈尔大学、德克萨斯大学达拉斯分校、特拉华大学、加州大学欧文分校和南加州大学的学者。这项研究有望大大提高我们对这一重要课题的理解。

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.