Research Areas

Together with the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, the urban affairs and planning program’s current research program includes several major initiatives:

The Knowledge Region initiative explores the urban and regional development implications of emerging innovative and entrepreneurial industries.

The New Metropolis research initiative explores changing regional growth, demographics, land use, and transportation patterns, and will consider ways new technology shapes regions.

The Fair Growth research initiative examines regional equity issues such as fair share housing, environmental justice, and transportation accessibility and studies their impact on metropolitan growth patterns and policies.

The Green Regions research initiative studies the intersection of policies, programs, and projects that create more environmentally sustainable places through better building and community design.

The Metropolitan Governance research initiative attempts to understand how politics influences metropolitan growth patterns.

The World Cities research initiative assesses how major metropolitan areas fit into the world economy and the world system of cities.

The Small Town Sustainability research project explores the ways in which small and medium-sized cities are responding to economic, environmental and equity challenges resulting from globalization.