cive230 lec 18 - sustainable cities

Ville Contemporaine

In 1922, Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier presented his radical vision of a modern city—the Ville Contemporaine or Contemporary City—designed for 3 million inhabitants.

Included skyscrapers, strict zoning for residential, business, and industrial areas, car-centric infrastructure, green space, and housing blocks with communal services and terraces

Salon d’Automne

t the 1922 Salon d’Automne, Le Corbusier’s Ville Contemporaine was exhibited. This marked a pivotal moment:

Urbanism (urbanisme) began to emerge as a distinct field within architecture and planning.

The exhibition emphasized planning at a city-wide scale, not just building design.

Urbanism became associated with modernist, rational, and functionalist approaches to space.

accommodating growing population

growing vertically - high density with close packed buildings, creating efficient surfaces (water, wastewater, waste collection), and more conducive to transportation

accommodating traffic

create more opportunities for public transit, minimising cars on road (more sustainable)

building wider and more highways/roads (less sustainable)

realistic futuristic cities

similar to todays cities with more sustainable tech, better use of infrastructure, better conveyance of water and wastewater, reduction of consumption and resources

unsustainable city

As the 21st century dawns, megacities – great and far-reaching concentrations of power and influence – have become centers of the phenomena of globalization and information exchange. These concentrations of people and activity are placing stress on the natural environment so great that it is beginning to have extensive regional, and even global impacts.

sustainable city

one in which its people and businesses continuously endeavour to improve their natural, built and cultural environments at neighbourhood and regional levels, whilst working in ways which always support the goal of global sustainable development.

report on urban design presented at the 22nd world gas conference

Proposals for the International Competition of Sustainable Urban Systems Design, part of the Report of the International Gas Union Special Project

attributes of a sustainable city

ecology - protecting natural resources and creating a less polluting environment

economy - creating economic activity in order to create decent jobs, income and a tax base

equity – ensuring that all citizens have access to economic activity

population that lives in cities

3.5 billion

how much of world’s population will live in urban areas by 2030 and 2050

60% and 70%

how much of urban expansion in next decades will take place in developing world

95%

how many people live in slums

828 million and rising

cities - land occupation, energy consumption, carbon emissions

3% land, 60-80% energy consumption, 75% carbon emissions

energy demand since 1980, expected by 2050

doubling, rising by another 85%

how much space does a ton of CO2 take up

8mx8mx8m cube

categories of GHG emissions

electricity, heating and industrial fuels, industrial processes, ground transportation, aviation, marine, waste

Geneva vs Cape Town, Denver, or Prague - electricity

Reducing electricity demand in Geneva, with low emissions intensity, would be a waste of resources, but reducing electricity demand in Cape Town, Denver, or Prague, which have high intensities, could yield a substantial return in emissions reduced.

Denver vs Toronto vs Barcelona - electricity

A high-emitting city like Denver, might learn more by comparing its metabolism with a city such as Toronto, which has a more similar climate and is closer in terms of population density than Barcelona.

London vs NY - heating and industrial fuels

London and New York City also have similar densities and heating degree-days; which would prompt both cities to compare each other’s building codes and other policies to attract alternative energy technologies and sustainable transportation.

emission scope 1

Direct emissions produced within the spatial boundary of the urban area.

emission scope 2

Indirect emissions produced outside the urban boundary, but as a direct result of activities within the boundary; limited to electricity and district heating/cooling

emission scope 3

Further indirect or embodied emissions produced outside the urban boundary as a result of activities within the boundary.

community vs corporate emission scopes

community emission inventory measures all GHGs occurring within a geographic boundary, corporate emission inventory measures GHGs from a specific organisations operations

GHG methodologies differ in

Boundaries and definitions of emissions attribution

Sectors included

Treatment of life-cycle emissions

Calculation methods

Data precision

Reporting format

low carbon infrastructure strategies: low density, low GHG intensity of electricity

electric vehicles and ground source heat pumps

low carbon infrastructure strategies: high density, low GHG intensity of electricity

heavy rapid transit and ground source heat pumps

low carbon infrastructure strategies: low density, high GHG intensity of electricity

building integrated photovoltaics

low carbon infrastructure strategies: high density, high GHG intensity of electricity

heavy rapid transit, import renewable electricity, district energy