Urban Knowledge

The city is the key to face the problems of our time...

Spatial Planning_Natalia Franquet Lpez-Mosteiro

INDEX
Current Problems
Solutions: ECO-CITIES
Definition
Characteristics
Sustainability
Some examples
>Tianjin Eco-city (Singapore)
>Eco-city inside a one kilometre crater (Siberia)
>Masdar (Abu Dhabi)
>Dongtan (China)

Some alternatives
Saving energy
Water and waste

Easy solutions and conclusion

Bibliography

Current problems
The urban cores, that emerged some centuries ago as centres where the civilization
was developing, have been transforming into places threatened by the mass-production,
the noise, the waste... problems that get worse in the called megapolis, with more than
ten million inhabitants, whose number don't stop growing. The urban challenge which the
Environment and Development World Commission talk about has to face many
problems: The pollution, of course, but also those that pose the massive consumption of
energy resources, the destruction of agricultural areas, the degradation of the historical
centres, and so on. A sustainable world will not exist without sustainable cities, so it is
necessary to harmonize urbanization and sustainability, developing proposals that
guarantee the advance towards the cities that contribute to the sustainability and with it the
continuity of the human species and the future generations.

Example of a megapolis, where the population density is clear; Mexico

Solutions: ECO-CITIES
This way arises the concept of eco-city or ecological city. The eco-construction is
based on the study of the qualities of the traditional construction, use of materials and
techniques of water supply with the less impact possible, respecting the place, taking care
of the access roads, and so on.
Definition
An eco-city is a city designed according to the ecological principles. This idea
appears as a new approximation to the sustainable development. Generally,
developmental experts agree that a sustainable city should meet the needs of the present
without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The ambiguity
within this idea leads to a great deal of variation in terms of how cities carry out their
attempts to become sustainable. However, a sustainable city should be able to feed itself
with minimal reliance on the surrounding countryside, and power itself with renewable
sources of energy. The crux of this is to create the smallest possible ecological footprint,
and to produce the lowest quantity of pollution possible, to efficiently use land; compost
used materials, recycle it or convert waste-to-energy, and thus the city's overall
contribution to climate change will be minimal, if such practices are adhered to.

It is estimated that over 50% of the worlds population now lives in cities and urban
areas. These large communities provide both challenges and opportunities for
environmentally conscious developers, and there are distinct advantages to further
defining and working towards the goals of sustainable cities. Humans are social creatures
and thrive in urban spaces that foster social connections. Because of this, a shift to more
dense, urban living would provide an outlet for social interaction and conditions under
which humans can prosper. Contrary to common belief, urban systems can be more
environmentally sustainable than rural or suburban living. With people and resource
located so close to one another it is possible to save energy and resources things such as
food transportation and mass transit systems.
Characteristics
The eco-cities can be characterized by several aspects, for example:
Small scale agriculture, supported by the community and in the suburbs, to reduce
the transport distances of the produced food.
Renewable energy sources such as wind turbines, solar cells or biogas created of
waste water. The cities provide economies on a large scale that make viable these
sources of energy.
Several methods to reduce the need of using air conditioning (that demands a lot of
energy), such as constructing low-height buildings to allow a better air circulation or
to increase the green areas in order to equal them at least to the 20 % of the total of
the urban surface.
Improved public transport system and development of the pedestrian areas to
reduce fuel emissions from cars. This requires a radical change in urban planning.
Sustainability
The term of sustainable or lasting development, is applied to the socioeconomic
development. Its definition was formalized for the first time in the document known as
Formless Brundtland (1987), fruit of the works of the Environment and Development
World Commission of United Nations, created in Assembly of the United Nations in 1983:
Meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs ( Brundtland Commission )

The field of sustainable development can be conceptually divided into three parts:
ecological, economic and social. The social aspect is considered for the relation between
the social welfare with the environment and the economic prosperity. The triple result is a
set of indicators of performance of an organization in this three areas.

The needs of the society must be satisfied, such as food, clothes, housing and work,
because if poverty were common, the world would be guided to several types of
catastrophes, including ecological ones. Furthermore, development and social welfare are
limited by the technological level, the environmental resources and the capacity of the
environment to absorb the effects of human activity.
In this situation, appears the possibility of improving the technology and the social
organization so that the environment could be recovered at the same pace that it is
affected by the human activity.
The goal of the sustainable development is to define viable projects and reconcile the
economic, social, environmental and human activities issues; Three are the pillars that
should be taken into account by the community, both companies and individuals:
Economic: 'classic' financial performance, but also aptitude to contribute to the
economic development in the area of entrepreneurship at all the levels.
Social: social consequences of business activity at all levels workers (working
conditions, wage levels, etc.), suppliers, customers, local communities and society
in general, basic human needs.
Environmental: compatibility between the social activity of the company and the
preservation of the biodiversity and the ecosystems. It includes an analysis of the
impacts of the enterprises social development and of their products in terms of
flows, consumption of difficult or slowly renewable resources as well as in terms of
waste generation and emissions... This last pillar is required for the other two to be
stable.

Some examples:
>Tianjin Eco-city (Tianjin, Singapore): The Eco-city site is located 40 km from the
Tianjin city centre and 150 km from Beijing. It is the result of a collaborative
agreement between the governments of China and Singapore to jointly develop a
socially harmonious, environmentally friendly and resource-conserving city in China.
Designed to be practical, replicable and scalable, the Tianjin Eco-city will
demonstrate the determination of both countries in tackling environmental
protection, resource and energy conservation, and sustainable development, and
serve as a model for sustainable development for other cities in China.

The Urbanscape, Surbana Urban Planning Group

Earthscape, Surbana Urban Planning Group

>Eco-city inside a one kilometre crater (Siberia): The project would be located
inside a giant man-made crater of more than one kilometre in diameter and 550
meters deep that used to be one of the worlds largest quarries. The idea is to
create a new garden city that will be shielded from the harsh Siberian environmental
conditions characterized by long and severe winters and short hot summers. The
new city would attract tourists and residents to Eastern Siberia and would be able to
accommodate more than 100,000 people. The new city is planned to be divided in 3
main levels with a vertical farm, forests, residences, and recreational areas. On of
the most interesting aspects of the proposal is the glass dome that will protect the
city and would be covered by photovoltaic cells that will harvest enough solar
energy for the new development. A central core houses the majority of the vertical
circulations and infrastructure along with a multi-level research centre. The housing
area is located in the first level with outdoor terraces overlooking a forest in the
centre of the city. The idea is to create a new type of highly dense urbanism in
harmony with nature.

Proposal, aerial view, architectural studio AB Elis Ltd

Cross section, architectural studio AB Elis Ltd

>Masdar (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates): Its core is a planned city, which is
being built by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, with the majority of seed
capital provided by the government of Abu Dhabi. Designed by the British
architectural firm Foster and Partners, the city will rely entirely on solar energy and
other renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste
ecology. The city is being constructed 17 kilometres east-south-east of the city of
Abu Dhabi, beside Abu Dhabi International Airport.
Masdar City will host 42,500 inhabitants and the headquarters of the International
Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The city is designed to be a hub for cleantech
companies. Its first tenant is the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, which
has been operating in the city since it moved into its campus in September 2010.
The city as a whole was originally intended to be completed by 2016 but that date
has now been pushed back to 2025.

General view,

Foster & Partners

The sunflower umbrella" captures sunlight during the day; At night closes and releases the
stored heat, and then reopen the next day, Foster & Partners

>Dongtan (Shanghai, China): is a plan for a new eco-city on the island of

Chongming. The name of the city literally translates as "East Beach". By 2050 the
city was expected to be one-third the size of Manhattan, with a total planned
population of 500,000. However no construction of the eco-city has taken place yet,
so the project has fallen behind schedule.
Dongtan proposes to have only green transport movements along its coastline.
People will arrive at the coast and leave their cars behind, traveling along the shore
as pedestrians, cyclists or on sustainable public transport vehicles. The only
vehicles allowed in the city will be powered by electricity or hydrogen. Houses are
now selling here to Shanghai middle classes for use when spending weekends
away from the city. The Controlling authorities are now backtracking on these
commitments and allowing private vehicles onto the site.

Aerial view,

Arup

Rendering, Arup

Some alternatives
Despite the studies of eco-cities that were made, they are many projects in the world
which have failed due to the economic fact, principally. However, even though all of them
had taken place, their effect over the global energetic consume and gas emissions would
be have resulted minimum, owing to the fact that the vast majority of the inhabitants would
still living in the current cities. For this reason, we must look for other solutions.
The first requirement is to count on future. The cores of the cities are nowadays, in
many ways more environmentally friendly than the suburbs. Among other things because
urban dwellers use less energy and emit less CO2 per house than the inhabitants of the
periphery due to the fact that they live in compact neighborhoods and use public transport.
But this is not enough for the ecological approved. Cities also have to be sustainable,that
is, they must satisfy what we previously said required in 1987 by the Environment and
Development World Commission:
Meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs

In view of the high number of existing cities, would be more profitable to recondition
them in order that they were sustainable. Saskia Sassen, sociologist and expert in urban
planning from Columbia University, claims we should work on the current cities. This fact
would cost less than reconstruct them again and would contribute to save huge amounts
of water and energy, which would allow these cities continue to prosper in the coming
centuries.
Saving energy
Cities are the main centers of global economic activity that
consume significant amounts of energy and generate almost threequarters of the world's carbon emissions. For this reason, the C40
(planning group of 59 large cities that have been proposed to fight
against the climate change), has a great interest in incorporating
energy improvements to old buildings.
The replacement of the black tar roofs, by others of white colour that reflect sunlight
and keep temperatures cooler in summer, or the installation of solar water heaters, would
contribute to a significant energy save.
Current cities could also apply transport systems originally designed for urban
ecological future. In the U.S.A. The car's exhaust pipes thrown to the atmosphere 1.7
billion tons of CO2 per year. By contrast, electric vehicles proposed for some ecological
cities do not emit any gas. In the short term, some simple changes such as the conversion
from diesel to compressed natural gas in urban buses, would reduce the air pollution and
also improve energy efficiency.

Water and waste

Large areas of the planet are already approaching the limits of its
water. In order to improve urban consumption, the C40 has
developed a list of best practices based on the strategies that
have followed a number of cities, including Austin (Texas) and
Tokyo.
Austin began in 1983 its water-saving program in answer to a
residential and commercial boom. It offers various incentives to
stop the consumption, among others, a discount on the
installation of rainwater capture or on high-efficiency toilets.
Tokyo, meanwhile, is a world leader in detention and control of leaks in water pipes.
The urban project of Masdar, in the Union of Arab Emirates, adopts a kind of Big
Brother approuch to avoid leaks. The showers are closed automatically after a few
minutes, and both water usage and energy consumption of each resident are under the
supervision of an intelligent computer network that allows the provider to act if users
wasted.
Water must be clean. But poor waste management affects other aspects in addition
to the water quality. Sometimes it is worthy to trough the waste into a landfill than to
transport the material by truck to remote treatment plants.
There are some projects that were created to control this rubbish movement; For
exameple, the Trash Track Project pursues the monitoring of garbage in the waste
management chain to create a "channel of escape" more efficient. To this end, in the trash
are placed electronic tags that transmit information through cellular networks.
However, better than rejecting the residues or recycling them, is to transform them
into something useful.

Easy solutions and conclusions

Current cities will need to apply advanced techniques to achieve their long-term
sustainability.
If we take the sociability as a starting point for the design of the new towns and their
citizens as a source of innovation, we could achieve a smarter city. A good start would be
to take advantage of the electronic devices that almost all of us take with us diarily, and
use them as urban sensors, in stead of depending exclusively on an external
infrastructure. A good example of this is the traffic function of google maps.
To conclude, we must consider that the strategies that optimize the supply of energy,
food and water as well as transport and waste treatment, will be critical to offer a more
prosperous future for humanity.
The city is the key to face the problems of our time...

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Research and Science Magazine (November 2011): CITIES
http://www.ref.pemex.com/octanaje/27fut.htm (The future of the cities)
http://www.concienciaeco.com/2011/06/03/las-ecociudades-una-alternativasana-a-la-polucin-de-las-grandes-urbes/(Ecocites, an alternative to the pollution)
http://www.forumambiental.org/pdf/huella.pdf (Models for more sustainable
cities)
http://www.arqhys.com/arquitectura/urbanismo-futuro.html (The urbanism of
the future)
http://books.google.es/books?
hl=es&lr=&id=nGPBwDgTvAYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=eco+cities&ots=34ZFvjOnj&sig=x2L5zCGtHilAwaG-YBKFuxp6mfM#v=onepage&q=eco%20cities&f=false
(EcoCities: Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature)
http://www.eco-cities.net/Static/main.htm (Eco-cities forum)