Green urbanism
Encyclopedia
Walker Wells Director of the Green Urbanism Program at Global Green USA
, in his blog, ‘Urban areas as opportunity for innovation
’, has defined ‘Green Urbanism’ as the practice of creating communities beneficial to human and the environment
. According to him, ‘Green’ denotes environmentally sound or beneficial and ‘Urbanism’ is the practice of creating communities . According to Beatley ‘Green Urbanism effectively captures both the central urban
and environmental dimensions. He further argued that it is a revised approach of sustainable cities which is more ecological in design and functioning and ecological limit is in its core. This phrase reflects on the role of cities and positive urbanism in shaping more sustainable places, communities and lifestyles.
It has been said that half of the world’s population live in the cities and consume 75percent of the world’s resources. As a result, cities generate waste and, consequently, turn into one of the leading sources of environmental problems. Besides, they are the principle emitters of green house gases (Beatley, 2000). Since cities are the engines of national and regional economic growth
they use large amounts of fossil fuel
for industry
, transport
of goods and people, food provision, heating, lighting and so on. As output, they release green house gases, solid waste and waste water. Ayers (1994) and Foster (1999) described the whole process of resource input and discharge output as ‘metabolism
’, whereas, Tickell (1998) used the word ‘organisms’, sucking in resources and emitting wastes’(cited in Beatley, 2000). In this perspective, entirely new city models and typologies were likely to emerge with given emphasis to minimise fossil fuel consumption and climate change
, Green Urbanism.
But how can urbanism be green? Scholars try to find its answer and Lehmann came to a conclusion that the aim must be to drive deep, fast, cost-effective greenhouse gas emission cuts in the built environment at the district-wide and neighbourhood scale. He further stressed that cities need urban strategies and methodologies that also deal with the social and economic dimensions. Since, green urbanism is interdisciplinary it requires the collaboration of landscape architects, engineers, urban planners, ecologists, transport planners, physicists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and other specialists in addition to architects and urban designers.
(GDP) growth. However, high productivity rate could not be able to eradicate the poverty
and environmental degradation in cities. But it has been argued that urban areas are the centre of innovation and entrepreneurial activities that can harness to mitigate climate and build resilience to environmental impacts. To further this idea, the basis of this transformation
of the built environment is the synthesis of urbanism with late 20th Century environmentalism that has started with Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’. Various scholars have emphasized on recognising various other aspects and also tried to find diversified ways to minimize ecological footprint
, for example, urban politics
(Rydin, 2010), technology
(Archibugi, 1997), knowledge sharing, i.e. networking
and informed consultation (Leitmann, 1999), strong policy planning (voluntary labelling schemes for buildings and building materials) (Elkin et al., 1991), environmental strategy and planning (Ling, 1995), and local economy and geo-political situation (Karlenzig et al., 2007).
. He further pointed out that throughout the 19th century; developing countries were more concerned of the public health impacts of poor sanitation and pollution. Moreover, he figured out the links between cities and ecosystems into three phases. Early Urbanisation phase, starting from 3000 BCE to 1800 CE, was of more productive agricultural techniques yielding a surplus that was able to support non-agricultural concentrations of people. In second phase, Urban Industrialisation (1800 CE - 1950 CE), energy consumption, particularly fossil fuels, was increased rapidly with mechanisation of production. Since the 1950s the city/environment relationship has entered into third phase, Global Interdependence, with rapid population growth and globalisation of economy. Cities became the nodal points for large and globally interconnected flows of resources, wastes, and labour. Also, environmental problems are local, regional and global in scale, with cities increasingly contributing to global environmental damage.
Rydin (2010) accused the cities as both villains and victims of climate change
pattern. Climate change affecting urban sustainability in regards to temperature
increase which may exacerbate urban heat island (UHI) effect and rainfall patterns (Rydin, 2010). Some other cities may also go through environmental catastrophes, like cyclone
and storm
, coastal erosion
, sea-level rise, ground instability and changes in biodiversity
. The whole scenario called for an urgent need to focus on rebuilding the urban ecosystem
with given emphasis on the human settlements.
. At the end of the World War II, the US government offered its citizens affordable housing in easy loan to boost up city population and also introduced a new federal Interstate System, combined with a rise of automobile ownership, gave away to a novel way of life called ‘Suburbia’. Meanwhile, in the 1950s the inhabitants of other industrial cities, including Chicago
, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland and Philadelphia, had already experienced greener suburban pastures. But all those green trees died because of old age or pollution
, and were not replaced. After a decade of the ‘Urban Renaissance
’, the term used by Richard Rogers, came into light in 1990. Europe was never far behind to endorse urban sustainability. ‘The Green Paper on the Urban Development’ published in 1990 has been considered as a ‘milestone’ document in promoting sustainable city projects as a solution to global environmental role (Beatley, 2000). Lehmann (2010) mentioned that since then cities have engaged themselves in a global-scale competition with each other in three distinct areas. These are, firstly, to be regarded as an attractive, creative place and a cultural hub to attract highly-skilled workers and Melbourne
, Australia
was strong competition with arts, museum and university; secondly, to get recognition as a place for secure investment, mention worthy, Dubai, Shanghai, and Singapore have topped in attracting and facilitating global investment capital; and thirdly, to become a leader of green vision for the future by technological advancement and offering environmentally sound lifestyles and also providing green jobs and Hannover, and Copenhagen did well in this field.
After the earth Summit, 1992, different terms, including, sustaining cities (Leitmann, 1999), sustainable cities (Beatley, 2000), sustainable urbanism (Farr, 2008), green city
(Karlenzig, 2007), eco-towns, eco districts and eco-cities (Lehmann, 2010), have tried to reduce environmental impacts on the cities and to achieve sustainable development
and thus to live more peacefully, there. Both the green and sustainable cities present fundamental opportunities to apply new technologies for example, public transport, district heating, green building and green design and also bring major lifestyle changes such as, walking, bicycling, and reduce energy consumption. The major agenda of the all kinds of the above mentioned cities are tackling global climate change, biodiversity loss, and also lift themselves as ‘hosts’ of all environmental challenges.
It has been argued that the focus of these theories are mainly on adjusting the relationship between the city and nature and also creating new cities other than renovating existing cities. To address the gap, Timothy Beatley and Steffen Lehmann used the ‘green urbanism’ theory that aims to transform existing cities from fragmentation to compaction.
and zero emissions especially aimed for low-to-no-carbon emissions. Lehmann(2010) tries to put up a strategic case study of green urbanism with the seaport city of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. According to him, there are 15 such principles of green urbanism those are practical and holistic and integrated framework, including all the aspects needed to achieve sustainable development
and encouraging best practice models, as follows:
Based on climatic condition prior to selected city, every sustainable design project needs to maintain a complexity within biodiversity, eco-system or neighbourhood layout. Enhance the opportunities offered by topographies and natural settings and use of the buildings’ envelope to filter temperature
, humidity
, light
, wind
and noise
.
Transform city districts into local power stations of renewable energy sources including solar
PV, solar thermal, wind on-and-off-shore, biomass, geothermal power, mini-hydro energy and other new technologies. Some most promising technologies are in building – integrated PV, urban wind turbines, micro CHP and solar cooling.
Waste prevention is way better than the treatment or cleaning-up after waste is formed. So cities should adopt zero-waste urban planning in line with the manufacturing of metals, glass, plastics, paper into new products and better understanding of nutrient flows is needed to control global nitrogen cycle
.
Cities can be used as a water catchment area by educating the inhabitants in water efficiency, promoting rainwater collection and using waste water recycling
and storm water harvesting techniques. In terms of food yielding level, less water needed and drought resistant crops can be developed.
Introduce inner-city gardens, urban faring/agriculture and green roofs to maximise the resilience
of the eco-system through urban landscape thus to mitigate UHI effect. Plants can be used for air-purification and narrowing of roads for urban cooling. Moreover, preserving green space, gardens and farmland, maintaining a green belt around the city is necessity to absorb CO2.
An integration of non-motorised transport, such as, cycling or walking and bi-cycle or pedestrian-friendly environment with safe bicycle ways, eco-mobility concepts and smart infrastructure that is electric vehicles, integrated transport system of bus transit, railway and bike stations, improved public space networks and connectivity and a focus on transport-oriented development (Green TODs).
City construction by using regional, local materials with less embodied energy and applying pre-fabricated modular systems.
The city is with retrofitted districts, urban infill, and densification/intensification strategies for existing neighbourhoods.
The city, here, applies deep green building design strategies and offers solar access for all new buildings.
The prime concern of the city is for affordable housing, mixed-use programmes and a healthy community.
High food security and urban agriculture
by introducing ‘eat local’ and ‘slow food’ initiatives.
A sustainable city with high air quality, no pollution for good health, fosters resilient communities having public space networks and modern community facilities.
The city applies best practice for good urban governance through combined management and governance approaches and sustainable procurement methods, such as, environmental budgeting.
The city with education includes technical training and up-skilling, research, exchange of experiences and knowledge dissemination for all in sustainable urban development.
Particular sustainability strategies are needed for cities in developing countries, such as, train local people to empower communities, creating new jobs and diversifying new job structures to harmonize the impacts of rapid urbanisation and globalisation.
Global Green USA
Global Green USA is the U.S. arm of Green Cross International. It is one of 30 national offices with over 70 professional staff worldwide. Global Green USA is a national environmental organization.-References:*, Global Green USA Website...
, in his blog, ‘Urban areas as opportunity for innovation
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
’, has defined ‘Green Urbanism’ as the practice of creating communities beneficial to human and the environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
. According to him, ‘Green’ denotes environmentally sound or beneficial and ‘Urbanism’ is the practice of creating communities . According to Beatley ‘Green Urbanism effectively captures both the central urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
and environmental dimensions. He further argued that it is a revised approach of sustainable cities which is more ecological in design and functioning and ecological limit is in its core. This phrase reflects on the role of cities and positive urbanism in shaping more sustainable places, communities and lifestyles.
It has been said that half of the world’s population live in the cities and consume 75percent of the world’s resources. As a result, cities generate waste and, consequently, turn into one of the leading sources of environmental problems. Besides, they are the principle emitters of green house gases (Beatley, 2000). Since cities are the engines of national and regional economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
they use large amounts of fossil fuel
Fossil fuel
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...
for industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
, transport
Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...
of goods and people, food provision, heating, lighting and so on. As output, they release green house gases, solid waste and waste water. Ayers (1994) and Foster (1999) described the whole process of resource input and discharge output as ‘metabolism
Metabolism
Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...
’, whereas, Tickell (1998) used the word ‘organisms’, sucking in resources and emitting wastes’(cited in Beatley, 2000). In this perspective, entirely new city models and typologies were likely to emerge with given emphasis to minimise fossil fuel consumption and climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
, Green Urbanism.
But how can urbanism be green? Scholars try to find its answer and Lehmann came to a conclusion that the aim must be to drive deep, fast, cost-effective greenhouse gas emission cuts in the built environment at the district-wide and neighbourhood scale. He further stressed that cities need urban strategies and methodologies that also deal with the social and economic dimensions. Since, green urbanism is interdisciplinary it requires the collaboration of landscape architects, engineers, urban planners, ecologists, transport planners, physicists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and other specialists in addition to architects and urban designers.
Urbanism
Wirth (1938) has seen ‘urbanism’ through the prism of social perspective as a way of life. He defined ‘urbanism’ as a complex of traits which makes up the characteristic modes of life in cities. After almost half a century Elkin et al. (1991) has widened their view from the physical structure to social and economic system at a global scale. They visualised urbanism as a crucial centre of economic activities, production, exchange and consumption. In antiquity, cities have exploited surplus food and materials which linked the process of urbanism with desertification of the remote areas. In contrast to that, Leitmann (1999) argued that development of cities indicates the highest Gross Domestic ProductGross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
(GDP) growth. However, high productivity rate could not be able to eradicate the poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
and environmental degradation in cities. But it has been argued that urban areas are the centre of innovation and entrepreneurial activities that can harness to mitigate climate and build resilience to environmental impacts. To further this idea, the basis of this transformation
Transformation
-Mathematics:* Transformation * Transformation * Integral transform* Data transformation * Transformation matrix-Natural science:* Phase transformation, a physical transition from one medium to another...
of the built environment is the synthesis of urbanism with late 20th Century environmentalism that has started with Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’. Various scholars have emphasized on recognising various other aspects and also tried to find diversified ways to minimize ecological footprint
Ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to...
, for example, urban politics
Urban politics
Urban politics is politics in and about cities. This term refers to the diverse political structure that occurs in urban areas where there is diversity in both race and socio-economic status. Urban politics is political science that falls into the field of urban studies, which incorporates many...
(Rydin, 2010), technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
(Archibugi, 1997), knowledge sharing, i.e. networking
Business networking
Business networking is a socioeconomic activity by which groups of like-minded businesspeople recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities. A business network is a type of social network whose reason for existing is business activity...
and informed consultation (Leitmann, 1999), strong policy planning (voluntary labelling schemes for buildings and building materials) (Elkin et al., 1991), environmental strategy and planning (Ling, 1995), and local economy and geo-political situation (Karlenzig et al., 2007).
Urbanisation and environmental degradation
Urbanisation and environmental consequences has always moved hand in hand. Odum in 1989 has called cities as ‘parasites’ on natural and domesticated environment, since it makes no food, cleans no air and cleans only a little amount of water for reuse and Mayur (1990) has argued that such disharmony may result in environmentally catastrophic events (cited in Leitmann, 1999). Leitmann (1999) mentioned such critical urban environmental problems as the ‘brown agenda’ which deals with both environmental health and industrialisationIndustrialisation
Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...
. He further pointed out that throughout the 19th century; developing countries were more concerned of the public health impacts of poor sanitation and pollution. Moreover, he figured out the links between cities and ecosystems into three phases. Early Urbanisation phase, starting from 3000 BCE to 1800 CE, was of more productive agricultural techniques yielding a surplus that was able to support non-agricultural concentrations of people. In second phase, Urban Industrialisation (1800 CE - 1950 CE), energy consumption, particularly fossil fuels, was increased rapidly with mechanisation of production. Since the 1950s the city/environment relationship has entered into third phase, Global Interdependence, with rapid population growth and globalisation of economy. Cities became the nodal points for large and globally interconnected flows of resources, wastes, and labour. Also, environmental problems are local, regional and global in scale, with cities increasingly contributing to global environmental damage.
Rydin (2010) accused the cities as both villains and victims of climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
pattern. Climate change affecting urban sustainability in regards to temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
increase which may exacerbate urban heat island (UHI) effect and rainfall patterns (Rydin, 2010). Some other cities may also go through environmental catastrophes, like cyclone
Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth. This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth. Most large-scale...
and storm
Storm
A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...
, coastal erosion
Coastal erosion
Coastal erosion is the wearing away of land and the removal of beach or dune sediments by wave action, tidal currents, wave currents, or drainage...
, sea-level rise, ground instability and changes in biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
. The whole scenario called for an urgent need to focus on rebuilding the urban ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
with given emphasis on the human settlements.
History of Green Urbanisation
A glimpse on the history of green urbanism of US as found in Karlenzig, et al. ‘How Green is Your City’ book (2007, 06-07). The concept had a gradual start in the late 1800s, when some large cities of United States (US) started using advanced drinking water, sewage and sanitary systems. Consecutively, public parks and open spaces were implemented in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. At the end of the World War II, the US government offered its citizens affordable housing in easy loan to boost up city population and also introduced a new federal Interstate System, combined with a rise of automobile ownership, gave away to a novel way of life called ‘Suburbia’. Meanwhile, in the 1950s the inhabitants of other industrial cities, including Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland and Philadelphia, had already experienced greener suburban pastures. But all those green trees died because of old age or pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
, and were not replaced. After a decade of the ‘Urban Renaissance
Urban Renaissance
Urban renaissance is a term used to describe the recent period of repopulation and regeneration of many British cities, including Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and parts of London after a period of inner city urban decay and suburbanisation during the mid-20th...
’, the term used by Richard Rogers, came into light in 1990. Europe was never far behind to endorse urban sustainability. ‘The Green Paper on the Urban Development’ published in 1990 has been considered as a ‘milestone’ document in promoting sustainable city projects as a solution to global environmental role (Beatley, 2000). Lehmann (2010) mentioned that since then cities have engaged themselves in a global-scale competition with each other in three distinct areas. These are, firstly, to be regarded as an attractive, creative place and a cultural hub to attract highly-skilled workers and Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
was strong competition with arts, museum and university; secondly, to get recognition as a place for secure investment, mention worthy, Dubai, Shanghai, and Singapore have topped in attracting and facilitating global investment capital; and thirdly, to become a leader of green vision for the future by technological advancement and offering environmentally sound lifestyles and also providing green jobs and Hannover, and Copenhagen did well in this field.
After the earth Summit, 1992, different terms, including, sustaining cities (Leitmann, 1999), sustainable cities (Beatley, 2000), sustainable urbanism (Farr, 2008), green city
Green City
Green City* Trivandrum - capital city of Kerala state in India; known as "Evergreen city of India".* Zelenograd - a city in Russia under jurisdiction of Moscow.* Zelenogradsk - a city in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia....
(Karlenzig, 2007), eco-towns, eco districts and eco-cities (Lehmann, 2010), have tried to reduce environmental impacts on the cities and to achieve sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
and thus to live more peacefully, there. Both the green and sustainable cities present fundamental opportunities to apply new technologies for example, public transport, district heating, green building and green design and also bring major lifestyle changes such as, walking, bicycling, and reduce energy consumption. The major agenda of the all kinds of the above mentioned cities are tackling global climate change, biodiversity loss, and also lift themselves as ‘hosts’ of all environmental challenges.
It has been argued that the focus of these theories are mainly on adjusting the relationship between the city and nature and also creating new cities other than renovating existing cities. To address the gap, Timothy Beatley and Steffen Lehmann used the ‘green urbanism’ theory that aims to transform existing cities from fragmentation to compaction.
The Vision of Green Urbanism
Beatley, in his revolutionary book ‘Green Urbanism: learning from European cities’ has mentioned that the vision of green urbanism includes the programs, policies and creative design ideas for urban renewal and environment sustainability. Lehmann added the phrase also provides a proactive vision of what might be our zero-carbon, fossil fuel free future: overlapping mixed-use activities, living and working building typologies explored on the urban scale, infrastructures systems for renewable energies, public transport and individual energy-efficient building designs. According to Beatley, cities that exemplify green urbanism are:- Cities that strive to live within their ecological limits, fundamentally reduce their ecological footprints, and acknowledge their connections with and impacts on other cities and communities and the larger planet.
- Cities that are green and that are designed for and function in ways analogous to natureNatureNature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
. - Cities that strive to achieve a circular rather that a linear metabolism, which nurtures and develops positive symbiotic relationships with and between its hinterland (whether that be regional, national, or international).
- Cities that strive toward local and regional self-sufficiency and take full advantage of and nurture local/regional food production, economy, power production, and many other activities that sustain and support their populations.
- Cities that facilitate and encourage more sustainable, healthful lifestyles.
- Cities that emphasize a high quality of life and the creation of highly liveable neighbourhoods and communities.
Principles of Green Urbanism
It has been noted that urbanisation is widely understood to be a key driver of carbon emissions, resource depletion and environmental degradation. The principles of green urbanism are based on the triple-zero frameworks. These are zero fossil-fuel energy use, zero wasteZero waste
Zero waste is a philosophy that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused. Any trash sent to landfills and incinerators is minimal. The process recommended is one similar to the way that resources are reused in nature...
and zero emissions especially aimed for low-to-no-carbon emissions. Lehmann(2010) tries to put up a strategic case study of green urbanism with the seaport city of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. According to him, there are 15 such principles of green urbanism those are practical and holistic and integrated framework, including all the aspects needed to achieve sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
and encouraging best practice models, as follows:
- Principle 1: Climate and Context
Based on climatic condition prior to selected city, every sustainable design project needs to maintain a complexity within biodiversity, eco-system or neighbourhood layout. Enhance the opportunities offered by topographies and natural settings and use of the buildings’ envelope to filter temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
, humidity
Humidity
Humidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...
, light
Light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has wavelength in a range from about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm, with a frequency range of about 405 THz to 790 THz...
, wind
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...
and noise
Noise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
.
- Principle 2: Renewable Energy for Zero CO2 Emissions
Transform city districts into local power stations of renewable energy sources including solar
Solar
Solar may refer to:Astronomy* Of or relating to the Sun** A device that utilizes solar energy** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate the position of the earth on its revolution around the sun* Solar Maximum Mission, a satellite...
PV, solar thermal, wind on-and-off-shore, biomass, geothermal power, mini-hydro energy and other new technologies. Some most promising technologies are in building – integrated PV, urban wind turbines, micro CHP and solar cooling.
- Principle 3: Zero Waste City
Waste prevention is way better than the treatment or cleaning-up after waste is formed. So cities should adopt zero-waste urban planning in line with the manufacturing of metals, glass, plastics, paper into new products and better understanding of nutrient flows is needed to control global nitrogen cycle
Nitrogen cycle
The nitrogen cycle is the process by which nitrogen is converted between its various chemical forms. This transformation can be carried out by both biological and non-biological processes. Important processes in the nitrogen cycle include fixation, mineralization, nitrification, and denitrification...
.
- Principle 4: Water
Cities can be used as a water catchment area by educating the inhabitants in water efficiency, promoting rainwater collection and using waste water recycling
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
and storm water harvesting techniques. In terms of food yielding level, less water needed and drought resistant crops can be developed.
- Principle5: Landscape, Gardens and Biodiversity
Introduce inner-city gardens, urban faring/agriculture and green roofs to maximise the resilience
Resilience
Resilience is the property of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed elastically and then, upon unloading to have this energy recovered. In other words, it is the maximum energy per unit volume that can be elastically stored...
of the eco-system through urban landscape thus to mitigate UHI effect. Plants can be used for air-purification and narrowing of roads for urban cooling. Moreover, preserving green space, gardens and farmland, maintaining a green belt around the city is necessity to absorb CO2.
- Principle 6: Sustainable Transport and Good Public Space: Compact and Poly-Centric Cities
An integration of non-motorised transport, such as, cycling or walking and bi-cycle or pedestrian-friendly environment with safe bicycle ways, eco-mobility concepts and smart infrastructure that is electric vehicles, integrated transport system of bus transit, railway and bike stations, improved public space networks and connectivity and a focus on transport-oriented development (Green TODs).
- Principle 7: Local and Sustainable Materials with Less Embodied Energy
City construction by using regional, local materials with less embodied energy and applying pre-fabricated modular systems.
- Principle 8: Density and Retrofitting of Existing Districts
The city is with retrofitted districts, urban infill, and densification/intensification strategies for existing neighbourhoods.
- Principle 9: Green Buildings and Districts, Using Passive Design Principles
The city, here, applies deep green building design strategies and offers solar access for all new buildings.
- Principle 10: Liveability, Healthy Communities and Mixed-Use Programmes
The prime concern of the city is for affordable housing, mixed-use programmes and a healthy community.
- Principle 11: Local Food and Short Supply Chains
High food security and urban agriculture
Urban agriculture
Urban agriculture is the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food in, or around, a village, town or city. Urban agriculture in addition can also involve animal husbandry, aquaculture, agro-forestry and horticulture...
by introducing ‘eat local’ and ‘slow food’ initiatives.
- Principle 12: Cultural Heritage, Identity and Sense of Place
A sustainable city with high air quality, no pollution for good health, fosters resilient communities having public space networks and modern community facilities.
- Principle 13: Urban Governance, Leadership and Best Practices
The city applies best practice for good urban governance through combined management and governance approaches and sustainable procurement methods, such as, environmental budgeting.
- Principle 14: Education, Research and Knowledge
The city with education includes technical training and up-skilling, research, exchange of experiences and knowledge dissemination for all in sustainable urban development.
- Principle 15: Strategies for cities in developing countries
Particular sustainability strategies are needed for cities in developing countries, such as, train local people to empower communities, creating new jobs and diversifying new job structures to harmonize the impacts of rapid urbanisation and globalisation.
Further reading
- Evans, J. (2011). Environmental Governance. Routledge: London
- The Course Team (1973). The Future City. Social Sciences: a second level course Urban Development Units 30-33. The Open University Press; Walton Hall Milton Keynes
- Schuyler, D.(1988). The New Urban Landscape: the redefinition of city form in nineteenth-century America. The John Hopkins University Press: London
- Karlenzig, W. (2007) How Green is Your City? New Society Publishers: Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada
- Riddell, R. (2004). Sustainable Urban Planning: tipping the balance. Blackwell: Oxford
- Burtenshaw, D., Bateman, M. and Ashworth, G. (1991). The European City: a western perspective. David Fulton Publishers: London
- Smith, M. P. (1988). City, State, & Market: the political economy of urban society. Basil Blackwell: Oxford
- Heynen, N., Kaika, M., and Swyngedouw, E. (2006). The Nature of Cities: urban political ecology and the politics of urban metabolism. Routledge: London
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAh1RRJUdAw&feature=related Personal rapid transit (PRT) synchrotrain (en)