THESIS: Sustainable cities are worth it, however building from scratch is not necessarily the answer
Conclusions (evaluative, possibilities)
Context
What are sustainable cities?
Meeting people's needs + future generations
Environmental sust: min. footprint; environmental regeneration; circ system of urban areas
Social: Quality of life...
Economic sust: everyone has economic opportunity; promote business; attract industry/business
Why are sustainable cities pertinent?
Projected population increases, urbanisation and growth of megacities - particularly in LICs and NICs
Urban environments constantly face economic and demographic changes that create a range of issues
overurbanisation; slum formation; pressure on city services
Economic shift > deindustrialisation
Suburbanisation, urban sprawl, car dependence
Industrialisation > consumption changes > linear system of resource use and pollution
The importance of a foundation to build upon
Sustainable cities built from scratch (planned)
Songdo - Smart city
Describe place
- 600Ha reclaimed land
- 23 billion pound project
- 65,000 residents; 300,000 workers
Explain processes - how achieves sustainable
- Use of ICT for efficiency/optimisation: water, energy, traffic, heating
- Pneumatic waste delivery to reduce traffic
- 25km bike lanes
- Microgeneration of renewable energy
- Water conservation - 30% reduction to avg
- Special economic zones for business with tax incentives
- Green space - 'Central Park'
Evaluate
- Big assumption: build it and they will come
- Profitability? if not attracting business and residents...
- Environmentally sustainable potential
- Ideas prototyped; can be shared to other cities
- Fabrication of culture; city lacks identity
- Affordability and attracting resident diversity
Masdar - Eco city
Evaluate
- Currently 2000 employed
- Sense of place
- Applicability/possibility for LICs
Describe place
- Abu Dhabi
- Cost: $22 billion
- Planned to employ 60,000 commuters into city - currently only 2,000
- Planned to house 50,000
- Desert climate
Explain processes - how achieves sustainable
- Powered by 88,000 solar panels in a 20 hectare field - reducing non-renewable energy inputs and GHG emissions outputs.
- Solar thermal concentration and storage energy: heliostats concentrate and send to a receiver > heating
- Connected to public transport; cars not permitted. Narrow roads, no longer than 70m, buildings at road ends cause turbulence that force air to rise = air circulation and cooling, reducing UHI
- Passive heating/cooling building design
Sustainable cities (organic/retrofitting/evolving)
PlaNYC
Describe place
Explain processes - how achieves sustainable
- Resilience > wetland regeneration to adapt to climate change
- Investment in public transport and bike sharing network
Evaluate
- Wetlands bring economic and social benefits: buffer to storm surge, flooding reducing economic and social losses; green space for social (health), environmental (habitat) and economic benefits (tourism)
Paris
- Critair sticker restrictions, vertical gardens, car-free days to combat traffic congestion and air pollution...
Dharavi - interesting - how does it fit here?
Tommy - China visit: build smart, but lacks community
What about population control?
Sustainability also involves keeping people safe and economies functioning in the face of terrorism
- How? London's physical management
- Social changes: awareness, habits and use of public spaces
Beijing - eastern renewal; relocating government functions to encourage business
What about sustainability in LICs?
Shanghai
Explain processes - how achieves sustainable
- 400km rail network servicing 5 million passengers
- Improvement to wastewater treatment
- Some incineration to electricity treatment of waste
- Some recycling of watste
C40
- A network of 83 of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change, sharing technical expertise and best practice
- Improving public transport - public, hybrid, electric taxis and buses; personal - encouraging cycling
- Making infrastructure and water supply more reliable and efficient
- Retrofitting homes and offices to be more energy efficient
- The importance of this for China, India and Nigeria...
Lagos, Nigeria
- Small-scale rapid transit bus system
- Floating schools
- Practicality, affordability
The possibilities for LICs and NICs
Detroit
- Diversifying industries...
Feedback:
- Defining 'is it worth it' = to what extent sustainable
- Questioning was effective
- Silence is good = people are thinking
- Illustrate through developed case studies
- This is just one way to answer; you would strategically select SOME of the best case studies and examples
Practical, simple, feasible methods..?
Categories: resilient, eco, smart...