Program for Urban Global Systems (PUGS)

Program for Urban Global Systems (PUGS) Overview:

The Program for Urban Global Systems (PUGS) is CUNY Institute of Sustainable City’s endeavor to both quantitatively and qualitatively model urbanization at the global scale. PUGS aims to help us better understand modern urbanization dynamics and current trends in the global urban landscape.

Models implemented by PUGS will incorporate a wide range of datasets and variables, including but not limited to trends in population growth, projected total population, industrial development, and regional climatic dynamics, as a means to electronically develop cities that represent a wide range of conditions from across the globe. These “grown ” cities will allow us to forecast potential urban impacts on the global environment and further understand interactions between urban settings and their surroundings as well as potential limiting factors – such as limited water access – to urban sustainability. Our efforts will vastly improve our capacity to predict trends in urbanization, to comprehend the spatial allocation of varying populations, and to understand how both developed and developing cities will continue to grow in the future.