Future cities: The way we develop our cities has a massive impact on sustainability and our quality of life.
Our Future Planet looks forward.
There are huge problems with today’s urban centres. These range from pollution and crime to poor infrastructure.
Certain theorists suggest one of the most pressing issues behind this is how cities have historically been designed around cars, not around people. In order to change this, a reorganisation of defining urban principles will be required.
There are other issues related to transport in places like Sydney or London. Increasingly, a sense of isolation and loss of community is related to the dominance of cars and buses. But more problems are involved in turning tomorrow’s conurbations into something more meaningful.
The importance of architecture and building design is pivotal to creating more sustainable urban environments. Buildings which block sun from streets, creating poorly lit areas encouraging crime and creating social enclaves are just one example of how this needs to be changed.
There are organisations looking to alter this. The EU’s Future Cities Network is developing new ways of thinking about urban networks. Its key argument is that global warming is going to affect a huge number of urban centres over forthcoming years, so the question is not when to ramp up sustainability in our towns, but how soon. How will cities look in 25 years? What steps must we take?
Standards for tomorrow
Sustainable Cities aims to tackle the challenges of urban sustainability. It recommends a four way model as a key driver in enabling positive change. Working with municipalities and councils is key, in order to make change sustainable and feed in economic and social needs identified by councils.
This needs to be combined with peer learning between urban centres, encouraging best practice and exchange of the most sustainable technologies and science. Another vital element is involving the poor, women and differing or lower social demographic groups in the picture.
These people often have the clearest ideas about what is wrong, and can enable and drive the participatory process from the bottom up.
In terms of on the ground action, plenty of cities worldwide are beginning to deliver change. In January 2010, Montpelier, Vermont announced $8 million US to fund a new combined heat and power district energy system that will run on locally sourced wood chips.
This was part of an overarching spend announced by US Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “Smaller, more localised renewable energy systems need to play a role in our comprehensive energy portfolio,” said Secretary Chu. “These projects will help create jobs, expand our clean energy economy, and help us cut carbon pollution at the local level.”
Five projects are to receive more than $20.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support deployment of community based renewable energy projects, such as biomass, wind and solar installations. These projects will promote investment in clean energy infrastructure that will create jobs, help communities provide long term renewable energy and save consumers money.
It’s estimated the Montpelier programme will provide 1.8 million KWh of power to the grid. And this kind of work is not limited to the developed world.
Cities in change
The PLUS Network African Cities project has three priorities: promoting good governance, advancing environmental sustainability, and accelerating the transfer of knowledge among and beyond cities.
Durban/eThekwini (South Africa), Dakar (Senegal), and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) are presently involved, funded by CIDA. Elsewhere, ‘Centering Women in Reconstruction and Governance’ is to build capacity for grassroots women in two tsunami-affected Sri Lanka cities.
This idea involves Women's Community Resource Centres (CRCs). These are being designed through a participatory community design process and will serve as women run and managed safe places for community members to organise, exchange information, receive and provide livelihood training and education, particularly in areas such as urban greening that enhance the environment.
By equipping women with income generation skills for livelihoods that enable them to sustain their families and communities and improve the environment, the partners are making a contribution far beyond the construction of physical buildings in tsunami affected cities.
This is part of the fundamental ethos required to change urban living, a concentration on equipping people to live more sustainable urban lives, rather than building high rise flats to cut off and disincentivise those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
The Partners for Long Term Urban Sustainability (PLUS) is another CIDA programme. It’s working in Dakar, Dar es Salaam, and Durban by ‘increasing the capacity of local governments to design and implement projects that reflect the priorities and interests of residents. It supports initiatives that address the environmental and social impacts of rapid urbanisation.’
It also appears that building sustainability into our cities can be fun. Rotterdam is one of the cities recognised on Sustainable Cities Net as making active changes to build sustainability into its ethos.
One of the more fun ideas presented by the city includes concepts for sustainable clubbing and dancing, where energy can be sourced from dancefloors. Whilst it might seem interesting but of little real value, there’s no reason why movement from trams or pavements couldn’t power more sustainable urban living.
More of this ‘out of the box’ thinking is what’s needed to shape the living environments of tomorrow.
What are your views? Not sure? Read the resources below for more information. Add your comment below. We welcome your thoughts and proposals. Not a Planetary Citizen? Sign up to Our Future Planet today!
Resources:
The Sustainable Cities: PLUS Planning Cycle
Sustainable Cities: Youth Led Development in Sustainable Cities: From Idea, to Policy to Practice
Shared Space: The Communities Agenda
Sustainable Cities: Next Generation Communities
Sustainable Cities: city to city learning
