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The Smart Urbanism Research and Development Collaborative was established five years ago as an independent, free-thinking, open-source organisation. It focuses on what a better, appropriate 'new normal' for urbanism might look like in an increasingly complex, informal and local world. Massive Small is our way of showing how we can do this. Our team has collaborated on a number of groundbreaking publications from writing national policy, urban design guidance and a range of polemics on the subject of urbanism.

As economic development practitioners for the past 15 years, we have watched incentives become more important to the day-to-day work of economic developers. This is true for communities small and large, rural and urban, with large economic development staffs and with volunteer leadership. We have developed Smart Incentives because we believe that it is vital for economic development groups to have access to high-quality business intelligence, data and analytical tools in order to make the best decisions for their community.

The Underworlds project is the first of its kind, and a proof of concept that cities can make use of their waste water system to do near real-time urban epidemiology and understand human health and behavior with a fine spatio-temporal resolution. Probably the most obvious first application of smart sewage technology is infectious disease surveillance, and the prediction of outbreaks.

The report concludes, however, by cautioning that the high housing costs in these communities threaten that equity and must be addressed through "attainable housing programs." It also predicts that Detroit, Phoenix, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Miami, Atlanta and Cleveland display the greatest indications that they'll develop a walkable urbanism.