Urban Sustainability
Urbanization, the environment, and what we can do to change
How do cities affect the environment?
- "Cities are responsible for up to 70% of global carbon emissions and 75% of global energy consumption."(1)
- "By 2050, it is estimated that 70% of the world's population will live in cities"(1)
Taking into account the exponential rate of population growth, With approximately 9.5 billion people populating the planet, this means that roughly 6.65 billion people will be living in urban areas.
This trend will be caused due to an "increase in density... as people from rural areas... enter and take advantage of the special attractions they offer in terms of jobs, culture, and education"(2)
What is the problem?
With cities being the place with the highest density of people, we are creating an environment that consists of massive amounts of concrete, air pollution, light pollution, sound pollution, and waste.
When designing a city, developers look at:
- Water
- Sewer
- Communication
- Industry (3)
Building breakdown: "It has been estimated that buildings use about 40% of global energy, 25% of global water, 40% of other global resources and 33% of global greenhouse gases." (4)
Urban Sprawl
Urban sprawl has allowed for people to live in urban areas without being too close to one another. This allows development to spread and give people more room to spread out. It does, however, have its drawbacks.
Urban sprawl is mostly criticized for its
- massive land consumption
- inaccessibility of certain resources
- Increase in commuting, leading to an increase in fossil fuel use
- "supersizing" of buildings, creating larger houses, stores, etc
What can we do?
Approaches
- Backcasting
- Regimes
- green buildings
Backcasting
By deciding what we want in the future, we can create goals to work towards. Starting small, and then working larger
Regimes
Regimes would be clusters of areas for which everything is within walking or biking distance. Each regime would have everything it needed to sustain a certain amount of people in an ecofriendly way.
Green Buildings
Combining the three
What will need to be eliminated
- Most all traffic
- Building waste
- Coal and natural gas produced energy
- Industrial waste
Techniques I will use
- Circular building to create regimes
- Green Buildings
- Wind and solar farms- integrated with the green buildings
Sources
1) Eames, Malcolm, et al. "City Futures: Exploring Urban Retrofit And Sustainable Transitions." Building Research & Information 41.5 (2013): 504-516. Business Source Premier. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
2) SCHMITT, GERHARD. "How To Create Sustainable, Pulsating Cities Of The Future." NPQ: New Perspectives Quarterly 32.3 (2015): 32-36. Business Source Premier. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
3) Greenberg, Michael R. "Sustainable Cities And Military Installations." Risk Analysis: An International Journal 35.4 (2015): 756-757.Business Source Premier. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
4) Seeliger, Leanne, and Ivan Turok. "Green-Sighted But City-Blind: Developer Attitudes To Sustainable Urban Transformation." Urban Forum 26.3 (2015): 321-341. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
5) Rérat, Patrick. "Housing, The Compact City And Sustainable Development: Some Insights From Recent Urban Trends In Switzerland." International Journal Of Housing Policy 12.2 (2012): 115-136. Business Source Premier. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
6) Blok, Anders. "Urban Green Assemblages: An ANT View On Sustainable City Building Projects." Science & Technology Studies 26.1 (2013): 5-24. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Nov. 2015
7) Logan, John R. "Great American City: Chicago And The Enduring Neighborhood Effect, By Robert J. Sampson." Journal Of Regional Science 53.2 (2013): 353-355. Business Source Premier. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
8) Mahzouni, Arian. "The 'Policy Mix' For Sustainable Urban Transition: The City District Of Hammarby Sjöstad In Stockholm." Environmental Policy & Governance 25.4 (2015): 288-302. Business Source Premier. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
9) McCann, Philip. "Keys To The City: How Economics, Institutions, Social Interaction, And Politics Shape Development." Journal Of Regional Science 54.3 (2014): 524-527. Business Source Premier. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
10) Malecki, Edward J. "Handbook Of Industry Studies And Economic Geography." Journal Of Regional Science54.5 (2014): 916-918. Business Source Premier. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.