ICTA UAB News

Less traffic, less noise: green axes reduce noise levels in cities

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 12:52:29 +0100

The implementation of green axes and the reduction of motorised traffic in cities is effectively consolidating itself as a strategy to significantly lower environmental noise levels. A study conducted in the city of Barcelona shows that, one year after pedestrianising several streets, the average daily sound level decreased by 3.1 decibels (dB).

Sustainability research overlooks key actors and actions in the face of the environmental crisis

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:29:58 +0100

Efforts to advance towards a more sustainable world focus heavily on a limited set of actions and actors while overlooking key strategies and sectors needed to address the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, according to a new study published today in Nature Sustainability. Conducted by the ICTA-UAB, and based on the analysis of 4 million scholarly documents, the study reveals major blind spots in global sustainable research and highlights the urgent need for a more inclusive and coordinated approach to address the environmental crisis.

How can cities tackle housing, climate, and economic issues concurrently?

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 09:30:37 +0100

Across the United States and Canada, city planners face a “polycrisis,” as the interacting challenges of adapting to climate change, ensuring housing affordability and security, and prioritizing economic inclusion put competing demands on localities’ limited resources, attention, time, and capacity.

Professor Giorgos Kallis brings the post-growth perspective to the Tokyo Forum 2025

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 13:15:58 +0100

ICREA researcher at ICTA-UAB, Giorgos Kallis, participated as a featured speaker at the Tokyo Forum 2025, held at the Yasuda Auditorium of the University of Tokyo. The event, jointly organized by the University of Tokyo and the Choi Jonghyun Academy of Social Sciences (South Korea), brought together researchers, business leaders, and institutional representatives to discuss the current challenges facing capitalism and explore its possible future transformations.

Indigenous Peoples and local communities in three continents report a drastic decline in bird body mass over the past eight decades

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 12:14:07 +0100

Birds currently inhabiting many territories across Africa, Latin America and Asia are, on average, considerably smaller than those that predominated in 1940. This is the conclusion of an international study led by the ICTA-UAB, which documents—drawing on the collective ecological memory of ten Indigenous Peoples and local communities—a reduction of up to 72% in the mean body mass of the bird species present in their territories between 1940 and 2020.

ICTA-UAB participates with ONAC in 204 climate proposals

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 11:20:05 +0100

Researchers from the ICTA-UAB have actively participated in the drafting process of the Working Document on Proposals from the Scientific Community in Response to the Climate Emergency, promoted by the Spanish National Office for Scientific Advice (ONAC), a Government of Spain body responsible for integrating scientific knowledge into public policymaking.

Microscopic plankton reveal tropicalization of the Mediterranean Sea

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 17:00:55 +0100

The Mediterranean Sea is rapidly changing under ongoing climate change. In the eastern basin, tropicalization is already well documented and driven by a combination of strong warming and the influx of tropical species through the Suez Canal.

The UAB to analyse community urban gardens and their effects on the wellbeing of Barcelona's inhabitants

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:59:55 +0100

The WELLCOM (COMmoning WELLbeing in Barcelona urban gardens) project, coordinated by Sergio Villamayor, researcher of ICTA-UAB and the Department of Political Science, was selected in the 2025 call for Research of the Barcelona City Council in collaboration with the ”la Caixa” Foundation. The UAB collaborates with three more projects that were also selected.

A new study refines the dating of human past on the Cantabrian coast 18,000 years ago

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 12:44:16 +0100

A new study refines radiocarbon dating of marine remains and significantly improves the precision with which the human past of the Magdalenian period in the Cantabrian region of Spain can be reconstructed, a key phase of European prehistory dating to around 18,000 years ago.