UrbanShift Labs

UrbanShift Labs are applied, city-specific workshops that support governments in designing and implementing sustainable, data-informed urban development strategies. Rather than one-size-fits-all solutions, these Labs offer structured engagements grounded in real needs, through which cities build capacity to tackle complex urban challenges using systems thinking, data, and participatory methods. 

In each city, Labs are co-designed with municipal teams to align with national and local development plans and are tailored to the city’s most pressing needs. Over two days, stakeholders explore interdependencies across sectors such as land use, mobility, climate adaptation and biodiversity, revealing opportunities and trade-offs. The Labs inform tangible actions, from Climate Action Plans to land use and zoning plans, capital investment and development decisions and heat and urban resilience planning, depending on the city. This model supports actionable priorities and pathways that can be financed, scaled, and institutionalized. The process also catalyzes collaboration across departments, embedding systems thinking in city governance. 

This report synthesizes learnings from eight UrbanShift Labs to demonstrate how targeted geospatial analysis can support cities' sustainability and resilience goals, and to offer a template for scaling this capacity-building model to other cities.