Sustainable Land Use and Transportation Planning for Rapidly Growing Cities

DESCRIPTION: Researchers work in close collaboration with local academic partners to ensure that the tools of research and education are both available and accessible to community members, enabling them to address the challenges of rapid urbanization facing their communities.

OUTCOMES: 2006: Researchers partnered with other academic departments across Columbia to hold a planning studio and workshop in Ruiru to gather information for a planning process with the local municipality. 2007: The team worked directly with the Ruiru municipality using a multi-sector planning approach to create the “Ruiru Local Physical Development Plan: 2005-2020.” 2008: The team worked on the creation of GIS maps of the Nairobi core area to support transport research. 2010: The Center hosted the 2010 VREF Centre of Excellence Workshop in Nairobi in December 2010. The workshop provided the Center, its local partners and local stakeholders with an important opportunity to contextualize the pressing land-use and transportation challenges Nairobi faces as well as articulate approaches to addressing them to VREF, representatives from Centres of Excellence around the world, and other key participants, including the local media.