Selma Smith Kvalvaag

Global Challenge: Creating sustainable and healthy urban environments under increasing density and climate pressures.

Abstract:

Cities around the world are getting denser, taller, and hotter. As skyscrapers crowd ever closer together, they create what scientists call "urban street canyons" - deep, narrow corridors where sunlight barely reaches the ground, air barely moves, and pollution gets trapped at street level. These conditions make urban neighborhoods less livable, increasing health risks for residents who breathe that trapped air every day. This paper focuses on Pine Street in New York City's Financial District, one of the most extreme examples of this phenomenon, where towering buildings create a canyon nearly eight times taller than it is wide. The goal of the research was to design a green infrastructure strategy - using plants, green walls, hedges, and rooftop gardens - tailored specifically to the challenging conditions of deep urban canyons rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach. The proposed plan, called "The Green Grand Canyon," layers vegetation at multiple heights to work with the canyon's unique airflow patterns rather than against them, avoiding the mistake of inadvertently making air quality worse. The paper also tackles real-world concerns: how much it would cost, who maintains it, and what city regulations would need to change. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that even the most difficult urban spaces can be transformed into cleaner, healthier environments through smart, evidence-based green design - and offers a model that other dense cities worldwide could adapt and apply.

This paper sits at the heart of my global challenge: creating sustainable and healthy urban environments under increasing density and climate pressure. SDG 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities, directly frames the research question: how do we make dense urban spaces more livable? The proposed green infrastructure intervention on Pine Street is a concrete answer, designed to improve air quality and thermal comfort for the communities that inhabit these corridors daily. The connection to SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-Being - runs throughout, as poor air quality in deep urban canyons poses real respiratory health risks to residents and workers. Through GLASS, I encountered this global challenge not as an abstraction but as a lived reality across multiple cities: urban greening strategies in Tokyo, regenerative infrastructure in Lisbon and Porto, and human-centered urban design thinking in Milan and Paris. My Tandon Impact Area: Industrial, Urban, and Environmental Sustainability gave me the technical foundation to translate those global observations into an evidence-based, data-driven design proposal. Together, these experiences taught me that sustainability in cities is not a single solution - it is a site-specific, community-relevant, and scientifically grounded practice.

Bio:

Selma is a graduate of NYU Tandon School of Engineering, where she majored in Sustainable Urban Environments with a minor in Urban Policy and Management. Her academic work sits at the intersection of urban planning, policy, and design innovation - an approach that reflects her deep fascination with how cities function, evolve, and can be reimagined for a more sustainable future.

Having grown up between Oslo, Norway, and Cape Town, South Africa, and completing her last years of high school at Lester B. Pearson United World College on Vancouver Island, Selma has always been drawn to diverse cultures and perspectives. These experiences instilled in her a global outlook and a commitment to designing environments that respond to the needs of different communities.

Selma's passion for the built environment has led her to immersive experiences beyond the classroom. She studied abroad in Milan, where she explored regenerative urban design at Politecnico di Milano, and continued her international studies in Paris. Her curiosity for how cities can better serve their inhabitants shaped her capstone project on urban street canyons, where she investigated how green infrastructure can mitigate air pollution and improve microclimates in dense urban areas.

Professionally, Selma has gained hands-on experience through internships with Møller Eiendom and OBOS Living Lab in Oslo, two of Norway’s leading urban development organizations. At Møller Eiendom, she worked on temporary park installations for the Regjeringsparken and attended development meetings with architects, policymakers, and private developers. At OBOS, she researched compact housing solutions, conducted interviews, and drew insights from international case studies—experiences that strengthened her understanding of how design and policy intersect to shape livable, sustainable communities.

Outside of academics, Selma is a passionate skier and dancer, and she finds creative expression through sewing and drawing. She also works at Norrøna’s flagship store in SoHo, where she connects with her Norwegian roots while sharing expertise in mountaineering and skiing gear. Whether exploring a new neighborhood or sketching ideas for future cities, Selma is constantly seeking ways to merge creativity, sustainability, and design to make meaningful contributions to the spaces we share.