MAKE CITIES AND HUMAN SETTLEMENTS INCLUSIVE, SAFE, RESILIENT, AND SUSTAINABLE
SDG 11 includes equitable access to housing, basic services, transportation, and public spaces while protecting cultures, improving the resilience and sustainability of cities, and increasing civic engagement in urban planning. From supporting the next generation of urban planners to building municipal partnerships for improved flood resiliency, Waterloo is helping to shape more prosperous and sustainable cities. And it is integrating sustainable natural spaces and transportation planning into its own development as a key part of the local community fabric.
Sustainable Transportation Programs
Sustainable Transportation Programs at the University of Waterloo support students and employees to walk, cycle, carpool, take transit to and from campus, or even to work remotely. Programs include transit passes for students, transit discounts for employees, bike repair facilities, secure bike parking, carpool matching, an emergency ride home program, EV charging, and more.
School of Planning
The School of Planning at Waterloo offers undergraduate and graduate programs dealing with social, environmental, and economic sustainability issues at various scales. The programs offer insight into a unique blend of municipal, urban, and regional planning. The aim is to expose students to a number of areas of professional planning while helping them develop specific skills in their area of choice.
Warrior Home Design Team
The Warrior Home Design Team is an opportunity for some of the University of Waterloo’s brightest and most compassionate thinkers and doers to design sustainable and affordable housing. Warrior Home members develop and share their building science, design, project management, and social equity knowledge at weekly meeting and through community design projects. Members of the team represent the University at the US Department of Energy’s annual Solar Decathlon competition.
Partners for Action
Partners for Action is an applied research network advancing flood resiliency in Canada in the face of a changing climate and extreme weather. Their collaborative approach brings together diverse stakeholders to create and share knowledge, address information needs, and drive action. Their mandate is to facilitate increased risk awareness and improved decision making to help Canadian communities become more resilient to flooding.
Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology
The Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology strives to find solutions to help the industry and the transportation authorities in Canada to build more sustainable and resilient transportation infrastructure through the innovation in construction materials, structural design, and asset management approaches. Their research contributes to redefining the road of the future, ensuring it is sustainable, resilient, connected, adaptable, self-healing, a source of energy, smart and versatile, and with climate change being the major focus.
Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation
The Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation is a research hub that delivers transdisciplinary research and training around complex systems, such as urban environments, where the built, natural, and social aspects of life all converge.
