Sustainable Cities Program - Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability

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More than half of the world population lives in urban areas. By 2050, that share will approach 70%. Most of the infrastructure needed to support these growing cities has yet to be built, thus presenting an opportunity to shape cities that help reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen resilience to climate change, and improve the quality of life for billions of people. Our vision is to lead a new field of sustainable urban design to shape cities that benefit people and the planet. We work with partners across scales – from individual buildings to entire regions —and across planned, fast-growing, and aging cities.

Our scholarship will launch city-level pilots that demonstrate scalable approaches and improve urban wellbeing globally. Working with partners, applying a systems perspective and keeping scale in mind serve as the three core principles of the program’s work.

Bubbles describing their process: Partnership, systems thinking, and focus on scale.

Partnership – Place-based collaboration with public, private, and non-profit sector partners throughout the knowledge generation process is central to developing sustainable, effective solutions.

Systems Thinking – An interdisciplinary and systems approach is essential to engage with the complexity of urban sustainability challenges and to anticipate consequences.

A Focus on Scale – To increase the potential for global impact, we think about scale from square one and focus on understanding the conditions under which our solution will work.

Projects

A field experiment in Belle Air, San Bruno

PI: Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, Associate Professor of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

This project evaluates a new household flood resilience program in Belle Air, a neighborhood facing chronic flooding. In partnership with OneShoreline, our team is testing how micro-grants for household flood protection measures can help residents better prepare for and respond to floods. The study will monitor program uptake, resource selection and use, and changes in residents’ flood resilience over two years.

Designing cities from salvage: AI for city-scale material reuse

PI: Iro Armeni, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

This project advances circular design by developing an AI system that automates matchmaking between decommissioned yet reusable building elements and those seeking them for new projects. In collaboration with the City of San Francisco, the system uses natural language interaction to automatically generate and visualize design solutions. By connecting real-world inventories with AI-driven design generation, it streamlines repurposing of elements.

Risk-informed planning to enhance urban resilience to extreme natural hazards

PI: Gregory Deierlein, John A. Blume Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Co-PI: Jack Baker, William Alden Campbell and Martha Campbell Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

This project develops simulation tools to assess and reduce risks from climate-driven hazards in partnership with the City of San Francisco. Combining advanced computational modeling, AI-assisted building data, and synthetic population models, the research enables high-resolution analyses of how buildings, infrastructure, and communities are affected and how they recover, with pilot studies conducted in several San Francisco neighborhoods.

Where we work

Our affiliated faculty conduct partner-engaged research with a wide range of cities and urban regions worldwide.

Affiliated scholars

Michelle Anderson

Larry Kramer Professor of Law, Professor of Environmental Social Sciences and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment

Nicole Ardoin

Professor of Environmental Social Sciences and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment

Iro Armeni

Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Ines M. L. Azevedo

Perry L. McCarty Director at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Professor of Energy Science Engineering, Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy, at the Woods Institute and Professor, by courtesy, of Earth System Science

Jack Baker

William Alden Campbell and Martha Campbell Professor and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Greg Beroza

Wayne Loel Professor of Earth Science

Eva Bianchi

Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Sarah Billington

UPS Foundation Professor, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment

Biondo Biondi

Barney and Estelle Morris Professor

Patricia Bromley

Associate Professor of Education, of Environmental Social Sciences and, by courtesy, of Sociology

Bruce Cain

Charles Louis Ducommun Professor in the School of Humanities & Sciences, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, at SIEPR, at the Precourt Institute for Energy & Professor of Environmental Social Sciences

Gretchen C. Daily

Bing Professor of Environmental Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and, by courtesy, at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Jenna Davis

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, of Environmental Social Sciences and Higgins-Magid Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute

Gregory Deierlein

John A. Blume Professor in the School of Engineering

Sarah Fletcher

Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Center Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment

Zephyr Frank

Gildred Professor of Latin American Studies, Professor of Environmental Social Sciences, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Iberian and Latin American Cultures

Catherine Gorle

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and, by courtesy, of Mechanical Engineering

Gabriella Harari

Assistant Professor of Communication

Daniel Ho

William Benjamin Scott & Luna M. Scott Professor of Law, Professor of Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, at the Stanford Institute for HAI and Professor, by courtesy, of Computer Science

Jackelyn Hwang

Associate Professor of Sociology

Dan Iancu

Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at the Graduate School of Business

Rishee Jain

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Michael Kahan

Co-Director, Program on Urban Studies

Mathew Kiang

Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Population Health

Abby C. King

David and Susan Heckerman Professor and Professor of Epidemiology & Population Health and of Medicine (Stanford Prevention Research Center)

Hae Young Noh

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Khalid Osman

Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Center Fellow, by courtesy, at the Woods Institute for the Environment

Erica Plambeck

Charles A. Holloway Professor, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, and Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Ram Rajagopal

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, of Electrical Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy

Sean Reardon

Professor, Graduate School of Education

Alicia Seiger

Visiting Scholar, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability

Deborah Sivas

Luke W. Cole Professor of Environmental Law, Director of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic, Professor (Teaching) of Environmental Social Sciences and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment

Forrest Stuart

Professor of Sociology

Tiziana Vanorio

Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy and, by courtesy, of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Alisa White

LLM Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Law, Environmental Law and Policy Program, Stanford Law School

Gabrielle Wong-Parodi

Associate Professor of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment

12 Next

Sustainable cities news

12-10-2025

How natural disasters exacerbate inequity (link is external)

Using AI to analyze Google Street View images of damaged buildings across 16 states, Stanford researchers found that destroyed buildings in poor areas often remained empty lots for years, while those in wealthy areas were rebuilt bigger and better than before.

Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence

Hazards

11-20-2025

A Stanford–community model for regional climate resilience (link is external)

As climate threats outgrow city-by-city responses, partnerships highlight how counties can unify efforts and deliver tangible benefits for vulnerable communities.

Stanford Report

Events

10-03-2025