Eco cities Curitiba and Masdar

What is an eco-city

An eco city aims to reduce environmental footprint, through sustainable practices such as recycling, green energy, transportation, waste, water and urban planing

Where is curitiba + pop

Southern Brazil + 1.7 million pop

Curitiba Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), What is it?

BRT is a type of bus transportation that allows 2 million inhabitats to move across curitiba daily it includes:

“pre-boarding fairs” → insted of having to buy a ticket at the driver thus system is allowing faster boarding as individuals don’t crowd at the doors, and the bus can open all doors

These buses are also “biarticulated” meaning they are made of 3 sections connected by a flexible junction. This creates buses that can transport large amounts o fpeople and are relatively flexible in narrow corners

Dedicated bus lanes, in Curitiba, a “trinary road system” has been introduced, composed of two central lanes for high volume and priority transport such as buses. This greatly reduces traffic and encourages people to use bus transportation

Curitiba Flood protection (greenery)

In the 1970s, the city had on average 0.5 m² per inhabitant; today, this number has jumped to 50 m² per inhabitant. This is the result of a cheap yet effective resilient design; the city has transformed many flood-prone areas into parks, which are an effective tool that absorbs large quantities of water.

Curitiba Waste managemnet

Introduction of “Green exchange.”

Green exchange is a program that allows lower income indicudals to recycle their waste and, in turn, receive food or bus tickets

Curitiba recycles 70% of its total waste, one of the highest global rates

Curitiba Urban planning

The introduction of the trinary road system has greatly improved traffic and pollution. The city additionally incorporated mixed land use along these corridors, with residential and commercial units. This method encourages vertical development near the trinary road systems and prevents urban sprawl, this increases accessibility to many people

Curitiba conclusion of effects

improved transportation → less emissions, faster and more accessible transportation to services

Improved resilience → more flood-preventing infrastructure

Improved city layout → main services and homes located near the trinary road system, allowing easy and quick access

Improved waste control → 70% recylced + food and bus tickets for poor

where is Masdar Located

Masdar is located 17 km from Abudhabi

what is Masdar

Masdar is a city that was aiming to become the gold standard of eco-cities. The construction began in 2006 and was supposed to end in 2016. It’s able to host 40,000 people and 1,500 companies. The city was sponsored by the UAE government, which allocated 15 billion dollars for it.

Masdar: Architercture

The city infrastructure is low-rise and very dense. Additionally, it has been oriented northeast-southwest; these choices of design have been made to take advantage of solar movement and winds. Together, these adaptations reduce solar gain and also allow night cool winds to spread along the city. The result is that the city is on average 10 degrees cooler than Abu Dhabi

Masadr energy

The city sources a large portion of its energy from large solar plants located near the city, which help offset 15,000 tonnes of CO2 yearly.

Masdar Transportation and walkability

Masdar is a car-free city

Inhabitants and tourists utilise the autonomous electric Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) or electric shuttle buses.

PRT has transported over 2.5 million people since its conception

The dense urban layout resulted in many narrow passages shaded from the sun, which makes the city walkable, unlike many cities in the middle east deserts

Construction

The city has been sustainable even during construction

It used low-carbon cement, recycled aluminium and other sustainable materials for many of the infrastructure projects

The result is a 40% decrease in water and energy usage for construction compared to normal infrastructure development in other cities.

Advantages and limiations of Masdar

Advantages:

It has become the world's centre of sustainable and clean technologies

The Institute of Masdar is promoting academic and technological innovation

Has become a recognised model of ecocity development

Limitations

Is not fully carbon neutral, still sourcing some of its energy from the national grid

Was supposed to be accomplished in 2016 however, due to failure to attrcat inhabitants and investors it has been postponed the deadline till 2030