Where is an outstanding blog about cities. It contains insightful posts on a variety of topics related to the urban environment, along with links to additional resources. I look forward to following future articles.

Photo from the Where website, taken by Flickr user gonebiking

Quoted: A blog about urban places, placemaking, and the concept of “place.”

Of Desert, Water and Wells, Gardens from Mauritania to India was an exhibition on historic and contemporary gardens in the arid regions of the Muslim world. Photos, drawings, and plans of these amazing gardens are posted on the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA) website. The site also includes features on the garden designers Abdelhalim I. Abdelhalim, Kienle/Makiya, Kamran Diba, and Fernando Caruncho.

Photo by G. Niedermeiser

Quoted: This exhibition presents not only traditional and current examples of water management, but also a number of contemporary gardens which have succeeded in merging form and function, traditional and modern ideals and different cultures.

Globalis provides a visual mapping of data from the UN and other organizations on global ecological impacts and progress in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Quoted: Globalis is an interactive world atlas where you decide what is to be displayed on the map. Globalis aims to create an understanding for similarities and differences in human societies, as well as how we influence life on the planet.

The Merton Rule website provides a thorough description of the rule (see below) and how it is influencing the move toward low-carbon planning in the United Kingdom. It includes a list of boroughs that have adopted Merton Rule policies, as well as resources (e.g., documents, case studies, and events) for other communities interested in following suit. The site is a great source of information on environmental planning, which fits in well with Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s call for all new houses to be carbon neutral by 2016.

Quoted: The ‘Merton Rule’ is the groundbreaking planning policy, pioneered by the London Borough of Merton, which requires the use of renewable energy onsite to reduce annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the built environment.

Walk Score provides “walkability” ratings for your address based on proximity to useful places such as libraries, grocery stores, and restaurants. The information is drawn from Google Maps.

Quoted: Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks…

Conservation International provides a short, helpful series of questions to help determine your “eco-footprint.” At the end it calculates your “eco-rating” and offers ideas on how to reduce negative impacts on the environment. The images above appear along with the quiz on the Conservation International Web site.

At the Great Public Spaces section of the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) Web site, people can post pictures and discriptions of their favorite public spaces. It is also an amazing visual archive of submissions from all over the world. The photo above is of the Piazza San Carlo in Turin, Italy. It was submitted by Giacinto Chiosso, and can be found at the Turin Historical Center entry on the PPS Web site.