Environment

Landscape designer David Seiter champions the ecological and aesthetic benefits of informal plants - weeds - in urban space, and catalogues the uses and cultural significance of New York's native flora.

In our final video on complex urban systems, writer Elizabeth Royte offers a snapshot of the past, present and future of what happens to New Yorkers' trash once it leaves the curb.

David Briggs and Anthony Deen share the winning designs from the first of a series of competitions that address the challenges of developing contaminated urban areas.

Documentary filmmaker Ian Cheney talks to us about light pollution, the disappearance of the night sky and what we can do to reconnect our city to the stars.

A broad partnership dedicated to restoring oysters to New York Harbor is using science, policy and community engagement to improve the health of our waterways and stabilize our shorelines.

In the final installment of a Country of Cities, Vishaan pens a love letter to Japan, a country that has shaped his beliefs in the importance of dense urban living.

Nevin Cohen shares the process of developing a citywide plan for urban agriculture and talks about its promise as both social justice movement and model for community development.

Dana Gumb explains how the City has engineered Staten Island's wetlands and waterways to enhance their natural ability to convey, store and filter stormwater.

Urban designer Kaja Kühl illustrates how to use plants to clean up contaminated sites, a cost-effective way to add productive, healthy land to the City’s environment.

Janette Kim and Erik Carver discuss Underdome, an ambitious attempt to classify contending energy agendas and to examine their implications for public life.