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2013 | Buch

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Quintessential Cities, Accountable to the Future

Sustainability, Innovation and Citizenship

verfasst von: Voula Mega

Verlag: Springer New York

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book can be seen as the third part of an unofficial trilogy on Sustainable Cities of the Future with the author's previous books 'Sustainable Development, Energy and the City' and 'Sustainable Cities for the third millennium: The Odyssey of urban excellence', both prefaced by Prof. Sir Peter Hall. All three books follow the evolving forefront of innovations towards Sustainable Cities. They collectively try to respond to the questions: What future cities wish to build (with their scarcities and capacities) on a finite planet? What do-they do to achieve this? How do-they contribute to redesign the world? The third book adopts, first and foremost, a strategic foresight approach including a scan of the future trends, tensions and risks in a more uncertain world, the possible and preferable futures, emerging policy issues, such as intergenerational cities or cities welcoming the immigrants and their impact on sustainable development, the Rio+20 prospects and the effects of the protracted crisis, efforts by world interconnected cities, including a case-study on Bangkok, a laboratory of urban change, and examples of frugal and resilient urban policies.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Insights from the Future: Trends, Risks, and Opportunities

Abstract

Humanity’s entrance into the era of homo urbanus is irreversible. As the second decade of the millennium advances, the future of the planet seems to be more and more decided in cities. Their sheer size is of the utmost importance, but also their potential to generate and capture positive synergies, their capacity for creativity and innovations, and the interconnected local political leadership that heralded the era of urban geopolitics. This chapter examines the trends, risks, and opportunities which may affect cities as major nodes of all energy fluxes of the planet, including diverging demographics in the developed and the developing world, migration movements, the rise of empowered citizens and sustainability ethics, the emergence of a new consuming class, and evolving modes of production and consumption, scientific and technological breakthroughs, citizen expectations, and governance deficits.

Cities are wonderlands of ingenuity and possibilities. Their ability to pool together so many diverse resources makes them seedbeds of invention and laboratories of innovation. Cities promise to address all interacting challenges concretely on the ground and offer a better life for all citizens, present and future, within the limits of the planet. In the post Rio + 20 era, cities have to out-innovate and enhance all aspects of their unique urban capital, natural and physical, human, intellectual and social, cultural and political, financial and constructed. In the context of protracted crisis, strong sustainability asks for all forms of urban capital to be preserved, enhanced, and transmitted to future generations.

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Chapter 2. Human Ecosystems in Harmony with a Resource-Scarce World

Abstract

The Rio + 20 conference insisted on the ecoresponsibility of cities, which have to become more resource-conscious and reduce their ecological debts. Sustainable cities, one of the seven priority areas of the conference, can also do much for other priorities, promoting decent jobs and preventing disasters and tensions over energy, food, and water. To thrive in harmony with the planet, cities need ecological and environmentally friendly cells and neurons. Urban organs and functions have to boost the resilience of urban areas and assist in the transition to the civilization of sustainability.

This chapter focuses on cities as vital ecosystems able to manage crucial amounts of scarce resources and materials and reduce emissions and waste. Urbanization affects land use and cover, biodiversity, the hydrologic cycle locally and regionally, air quality, and global climate. Cities should invent new resources if they wish to continue to prosper, while improving efficiency and reducing poverty, emissions, and pollution. Industry suggests that it is possible to live well, with not one particle of waste, and in ecological balance by 2050. Urban concepts such as the SymbioCity actively strive for this.

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Chapter 3. Cities ahead of the Energy Transition

Abstract

Responsible cities have to ensure access for all to clean, secure, competitive, and affordable energy. The advent of local renewable energy procumers, producers and consumers, of green energy, can lead to energy-producing cities instead of energy- (over)consuming cities. This chapter offers an insight into the components and vectors of sustainable energy production and consumption in cities and the efforts made at the local level to overcome national and supranational energy policy targets. Green electricity and hydrogen seem to be the energy vectors of the future and there is great potential for achieving energy efficiency in conjunction with cleaner energy options and technologies and behavioral improvements.

Sustainable energy is at the heart of the EU Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. Renewables are becoming a major and competitive player in the European energy market and a significant generator of employment. European leaders recognized that sustainable and renewable energy sources and smart systems will make the difference in safely reaching the ambitious EU 2050 goal of decarbonization and cities prepared action plans to surpass the European targets. In the United States, cities choose to invest in efficient lighting, better building materials, and solar energy for electricity.

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Chapter 4. Reinventing Smart, Green, and Inclusive Mobility in Cities

Abstract

Sustainable mobility and accessibility are fundamental to urban societies and economies, and vital for balanced growth and quality job creation. The quality of transport services has a crucial impact on citizens’ quality of life. The transport sector is highly energy-intensive and a major intractable contributor to global warming. Its performance has to be radically improved.

This chapter sheds light on the challenges for the future of transport services and infrastructure and the patterns and models in search of cleaner and better transport options. It discusses alternative mobility actions and focuses on sustainable public transport and social innovations for moving differently and better around the city. A bouquet of examples from events celebrating improved mobility demonstrate how cities can be made accessible to all.

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Chapter 5. Pioneer Cities in the Creative Sustainable Economy

Abstract

The future of cities depends largely on their capacity to innovate out of the crisis and generate and distribute sustainable wealth, while enhancing well-being in harmony with nature. As central scenes in national dramas and the global chessboard, cities generate agglomeration dynamics, enhanced by the mutual reinforcement of activities that cluster together. In times of uncertainty, the search for sustainable growth, in balance with the other components of sustainability, is critical. Multi-win innovations are essential for creating new assets, often out of liabilities, and ecoresponsible businesses have a key role to play in creating “value out of values.”

This chapter examines the competitiveness of cities in the interconnected world of scarce resources. Competitive cities try to foster, attract, and retain talent and promote smart and green businesses to generate wealth and move up the urban value stair. Cities themselves are important direct and indirect sources of new green employment and can influence markets in line with sustainable development. Green growth and the bioeconomy have a great potential for a better and more profitable use of resources. Innovative partnerships with ecobusinesses are cardinal for reconciling short-term economic benefits with long-term sustainability goals. Quality of life and sustainable access to resources and knowledge are key features of urban attractiveness and power.

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Chapter 6. Intergenerational Cities Embracing Diversity and Social Justice

Abstract

Concentration and diversity of people and activities are invaluable assets for cities, colorful beehives and schools for respecting difference and learning how to live in society. This chapter sheds light on the evolving social capital of cities and their capacity for intergenerational and intracity equity, social justice, and solidarity. Urban social capital is of increasing importance in cities that face new forms of poverty and exclusion, where more than three generations coexist, and immigrants come looking for better living and working conditions.

Citizens can play a major role in shaping vital urban spaces and forging bonds out of degraded spaces and estranged relationships. Distressed urban areas, the backstage of urban dramas where underprivileged and excluded citizens come together, can be transformed into innovative neighborhoods and vibrant inclusive communities acting as extended families for the disadvantaged. The participation of youth and women in projects can further extend opportunities, and education is always the most decisive productive investment towards a skill-intensive economy.

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Chapter 7. Cities of Education, Science and Innovation, Culture and the Arts

Abstract

Cities are places of interactions and exchanges where people can greatly benefit from the experience of others to learn, interact and innovate. Their identity is defined by heritage and traditions, culture, science, and the arts. They also constitute forums of intercultural dialogue, places where patterns and lifestyles are collectively shaped before they are disseminated to the wider world. A sustainable city has to cultivate the seeds of freedom and offer a space to all for expressing their creativity and enhancing their abilities.

This chapter examines the role of intellectual and cultural resources as key assets for urban sustainability and presents a spectrum of inspiring actions to reinforce urban identity and make citizens proud of the places in which they live. Knowledge cities invest in education, and partnerships with universities and businesses provide valuable models for targeting investments towards world cities of excellence.

Cities are living heritages and legacies in which citizens project their hopes and desires for a better future. The urban cultural heritage is as important for humanity as exceptional rural natural sites. Arts in the city represent the ultimate expression of collective intelligence, imagination, and ingenuity. Many innovative actions focus on the cultural enhancement of urban spaces and the artistic creation that transforms everyday environments into unique experiences.

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Chapter 8. Sustainable Regeneration and Enlightenment

Abstract

This chapter sheds light on the continuous process of urban renewal that is essential for sustainability. Land use planning and transport are fundamental instruments for the sustainable regeneration of the cities, of their physical parts, and of their extraordinary diversity. Brownfields and ageing infrastructures should be converted into smart, green, and welcoming spaces, well integrated into the urban fabric. Many cities demonstrate that the intensification and consolidation of the urban fabric can prevent uncontrolled urban sprawl and reduce the heavy burden of emissions and congestion.

Sustainable architecture in search of excellence can lead to new forms of urban expression and a better performance of buildings and neighborhoods. Public and cultural buildings and spaces can promote collective life and local democracy and bring more value to places. Symbolic and structural projects can become beacons of the urban future. Breaking down barriers, forging partnerships with citizens and sealing relationships with the surrounding regions and the world are cardinal values to be enhanced in “imagineering” the cities of the future. Collective imagination and engineering have to become mobilized and cross-fertilized for creating the fair cities of the next generations.

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Chapter 9. The Civic Bond: Cities for and with Citizens

Abstract

Present and future citizens are the political stakeholders of cities in a multipolar and interconnected world. They have the right to consultation and involvement and the duty to exercise democratic scrutiny of policies. Active citizenship means participation in and responsibility for decisions on the future of a city. New governance architectures seek to enhance the potential of all invisible hands of urban societies and economies and build a social consensus on a future vision to be realized with the efforts of all. Citizen empowerment is increasingly considered as ethically correct and a recognized driver of change.

This chapter examines the emergence of new models of citizen participation in responsible cities, a sine qua non condition for sustainability. Innovative partnerships can maximize the potential of synergies, enrich the content and the methods of cooperation, and serve as catalysts of change. Institutional alliances are enriched with a variety of participatory schemes. A world bond involving coalitions of cities, both from the developing and the developed world, can play a major role in addressing global common challenges and achieving the millennium goals for the renaissance of the planet. It can build on the C40 alliances.

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Chapter 10. Codesigning Fair Cities for the Next Generations

Abstract

From enlightenment and anticipation to action, strategic foresight can provide the insights to build a sustainable vision for a preferred future out of many possible futures. Thinking ahead and together with citizens can spectacularly open the spectrum of optimal futures but also help coevaluate the drivers, the barriers, and the conditions for change. Strategic planning for the implementation of a compelling transformative urban agenda has to address many spatiotemporal patterns in cities and must therefore focus not only on the three spatial dimensions but also the time dimension. Time is a scarce and most precious resource. Local time plans can enhance the capacities of cities as chronotopes and improve resource efficiency and quality of life.

The aim of better codesigned policies is to achieve better lives. Urban observatories and sustainability indicators can take the pulse of cities and their citizens and serve as compasses in the journey of sustainability. Impact indicators are powerful instruments and could serve as yardsticks and compasses for prospective policy making and also for assessing and reorienting policy implementation.

A strategic global CityPedia by and for world cities and citizens could bring together trends and opportunities, visions and plans, best, good, and appalling practices, and enrich distributed capacity to synthesize insights. Such a global effort could foster solidarity among world citizens and enhance noble emulation towards the civilization of sustainability.

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Chapter 11. European Cities and Interconnected World Experiences

Abstract

This final chapter addresses the European urban constellation, a unique polycentric archipelago of large, medium, and small cities, and reviews, in a nutshell, two decades of visions, declarations, and policies for urban sustainability in the European Union. The recognition of the four dimensions of subsidiarity, local, regional, national, and European by the Lisbon treaty highlighted the importance of multilevel governance. Cities have an essential role in the implementation of the strategy Europe 2020 for a smart, sustainable, and inclusive Europe on the ground and the upholding of the European social model, the shared value of social justice and citizenship, human rights, and democracy.

European responses to global urban challenges could inspire world cities, even the small ones like Brussels, but also inspired by cities such as Bangkok, an amazing urban laboratory. Strategic partnerships such as the EU–China Partnership on Sustainable Urbanization are crucial in order to share the European experience with China preparing for its urban billion citizens. The US–Brazil Joint Initiative on Urban Sustainability, another exemplary public–private partnership supporting investment in sustainable urban infrastructure, is indicative of cities and citizens working together to illuminate the emerging world of tomorrow.

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Backmatter

Titel: Quintessential Cities, Accountable to the Future
verfasst von: Voula Mega
Verlag: Springer New York
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4614-7348-0
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-7347-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7348-0