Mission and Activities

The UF| Center for Hydro-generated Urbanism (CHU) proposes new paradigms for the evolution of water-based settlements. From retrofitting the metropolis to envisioning future development on the water, we advocate a reconsideration of fluvial and coastal urbanism and a recalibration of our settlement patterns in the context of climate variability; sea level rise and flooding; water, waste, mobility, and energy management; global economic shifts; post-industrial legacies; urban retreat, environmental migration and population growth within a urbanizing world.

Over the next several decades, the surge in urbanization will continue and much of it will occur along our worlds’ coasts, rivers and deltas. CHU focuses its research on urban integrated design of hydro-generated environments and the importance of applying design thinking to the most pressing social and environmental problems associated with an increasingly dense world facing climate variability, sea level rise and flooding risks in a moment when the issue is understood as crucial across the planet. Our own state of Florida stands at risk of losing trillions of dollars of existing development. However, this extraordinary circumstance that the world finds itself confronting opens up new opportunities for reinventing our economic and development paradigms. CHU fulfills this critical research focus by bringing together synergistic and collaborative efforts by members of the center with broad knowledge and expertise in this area of research. The Center develops interdisciplinary research and organizes collaborative programs, symposia, and academic courses bringing global involvement in prospective studies on adaptation, environmental justice, and asset preservation of water borne cities around the world.