Cities & Towns

As the world continues to urbanize, we’re investigating and analyzing how communities of all sizes can be vibrant, just and sustainable communities for the health of residents and our planet.

Magazine

Alex Hall

Story

A new vision for climate science and society

Benjamin Paul

Alex Hall, new director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, explains how the response to LA’s recent fires are part of a larger push to change our world

In the News

Blog

Mapping Faith, Flourishing, and the Environment in Los Angeles

Modern scientific research and its discourse fails to adequately embrace the emotional, spiritual and affective impacts of the existential issues of Earth’s future habitability.

landscape image of Westlake Los Angeles with birds flying across the water

Blog

Urban Metabolism: In Conversation with Dr. Stephanie Pincetl

Cities don’t just “grow.” They consume resources, transform them, and generate waste, much as living organisms do.


Publications

Resource: Hurricane & Flooding Risks in the Southeast

Rising Hazard & Shrinking Insurance Options

View of a flooded street with a house half submerged and palm trees blown by strong winds.

Announcements

Featured in L.A. Times—Edith de Guzman, Ph.D. ’23, reimagines L.A. climate inequities through art at Descanso Gardens

Featured in this week’s Los Angeles Times Climate and Environment coverage, Edith de Guzman, Ph.D. ‘23, brings climate and heat inequities to the spotlight. This summer at Descano Gardens, a…

Edith de Guzman stands inside an art installation of colorful hanging panels, holding a rolled paper. She is co-curator of the “Roots of Cool” exhibition on shade equity at Descanso Gardens, shown in front of artist Cidne Hart’s piece “Traversing the Warming Forest.”

Announcements

Featured in L.A. Times—Wilson Sherman, Ph.D. student, on how urban policies shape wildlife behavior in Los Angeles

Featured in this week’s Los Angeles Times Climate and Environment coverage, UCLA Ph.D. student Wilson Sherman shares insights on how inconsistent policies, surveillance infrastructure and fragmented governance affect where wildlife…

A mountain lion leaps across a grassy area in front of a police car in Brentwood, California, during a 2022 incident that led to an elementary school lockdown.

Videos

UCLA’s Comprehensive Sustainability Plan

UCLA has a long history of sustainability leadership — from early energy efficiency efforts and the formation of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability in the 1990s, to the establishment of…

How Climate Change Will Impact California, Interview with Dr. Alan Barreca

Interview on The Young Turks ScIQ with UCLA environmental economist Alan Barreca by Jayde Lovell about climate change effects on public health, vulnerable communities, and the state of California. They also…

Publications