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2011 | Buch

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Eco-city Planning

Policies, Practice and Design

herausgegeben von: Tai-Chee Wong, Belinda Yuen

Verlag: Springer Netherlands

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

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Über dieses Buch

Eco-city planning is a key element of urban land use planning in perspective and of ongoing debate of environmental urban sustainable development with a spatial and practical dimension. The conceptual basis of ecological planning is that we can no longer afford to be merely human-centred in approach. Instead, the interdependency of human and non-human species has forced us to appreciate the ‘rights’ and ‘intrinsic values’ of non-human species in our pursuit for a sustainable ecosystem. This volume has as approach an emphasis on environmental planning policies whereby, for example, energy saving, anti-pollution measures, use of non-car modes, construction of green buildings, safeguarding of nature and natural habitats in urban areas, and use of more renewable resources are promotional norms. Their aims and leading outcome serve to protect the Earth from adverse effects of global warming and different sources of pollution threatening the quality of life of human societies.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Understanding the Origins and Evolution of Eco-city Development: An Introduction

Abstract

City expansion and rising consumerism in an increasingly urbanized world has caused greater threat to the physical environment. Ecological planning has thus responded to guide urban development towards minimizing use of land, energy and other materials to help build healthy urban living. The key principle of eco-city planning is to make city habitat in harmony with nature. Earlier planning concepts of garden city, contemporary new urbanism, environmental ethics, deep ecology movement have all a significant influence on the evolution of eco-city planning. Sustainable consumption ideas have also acted as a balancing force. In implementation and planning practice, however, the “one size fits all” approach must be ruled out. The book covers policy, implementation and micro-planning approaches.

Tai-Chee Wong, Belinda Yuen

Macro Strategic Planning: Policies and Principles

Frontmatter

Chapter 2. How Cities Can Enter the Ecological Age

Abstract

The aim of eco-cities is to build a viable future for humanity with a healthy planet where the Earth, water and air will continue to support our complex solar-powered ecosystems. Presently, our over-dependence on depletable resources is destabilising the planet’s life-support systems. Three key issues that have exacerbated our problems are: (a) the continued growth of population; (b) the rapid growth of resource consumption associated with urbanization, especially in emerging economies; and (c) climate change. Against this background, this paper analyses current global knowledge and examine if and how we can reach a sustainable future. The authors believe that this is feasible if cities, driven by urbanization, population growth, and climate change, can lead the way. Working together globally and with the supporting policy framework in low, middle, and high income countries, and new eco-oriented business models, cities can reduce their carbon emissions, retain a limited ecological footprint, and improve their human development to enter the ecological age.

Peter Head, Debra Lam

Chapter 3. Three Ecological Cities, Examples of Different Approaches in Asia and Europe

Abstract

Developing countries and emerging economies have been active in creating ecological cities. An analysis of some Asian cases will be presented to show that the reasons to create a new neighbourhood or to introduce a different approach to urban planning are mainly environmental considerations. Since the 1990s a number of cities have created new neighbourhoods taking environmental factors into consideration. More recently Shanghai announced plans to build the city of the future on an island at the mouth of China’s Yangtze River, in the same way Singapore has planned new ecological neighbourhoods. These examples and one from the Netherlands (Rotterdam) will be reviewed to answer three questions like what would the ecological city of the future look like and what can we learn from these experiences for the ecological city of the future? Pollution, solid waste and wastewater problems, all aggravated by climate change require a different approach to urban management to build the ecological city of the future!

Meine Pieter van Dijk

Chapter 4. Eco-infrastructures, Feedback Loop Urbanisms and Network of Independent Zero Carbon Settlements

Abstract

More than half the world’s population now lives in cities, and the rate of urbanization is accelerating. Cities are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They are vulnerable to climate change. The limited success of the December 2009 Copenhagen climate negotiations heightens the urgency of cities’ efforts to adapt and mitigate to climate change. Urban growth in the developing countries of Latin America, India and China is fundamentally changing the lives of hundreds of millions of people. So far, these urbanization processes have dramatically increased developing countries’ environmental damage and vulnerability to climate change. This paper aims to show that urbanization can be a sustainable process capable to create secure urbanities through an eco-infrastructure approach for reducing urban vulnerabilities that explores a series of strategic responses in a weave of eco-infrastructures, feedback-loop urbanisms and networks of zero carbon settlements powered by renewable energies.

Carlos H. Betancourth

Chapter 5. The Relationship of Sustainable Tourism and the Eco-city Concept

Abstract

Asia currently has more than 100 cities with populations over one million. By 2015, Asia will account for 12 of the world’s largest cities. Many of these cities are doubling in population every 15–20 years. Alongside this significant urban growth tourism numbers have also significantly grown over the past 10 years in most major urban centres in Asia. It is within this context of the absolute growth of urban areas and the growing levels of tourism activity that this chapter examines the concept of eco-cities from a tourism perspective. Most eco-city concepts have been developed to deal specifically with resident needs and activities and protecting environmental values. However, developing the co-city concept becomes much more complex when many cities are faced with the challenge of meeting the needs and aspirations of tourists which introduces a number of new stakeholders to be involved in the overall planning and development process. This chapter will first look at the nature of tourism from an urban perspective and the challenges facing planners as they attempt to achieve the principles and goals of the eco-cities concept. The nature of eco-cities as they relate to that definition of tourism is then analyzed with the article concluding with a series of recommendations for innovative sustainable tourism destination creation within the overall objectives of the concept of eco-cities.

Scott Dunn, Walter Jamieson

Implementation and Practice

Frontmatter

Chapter 6. Down with ECO-towns! Up with ECO-communities. Or Is There a Need for Model Eco-towns? A Review of the 2009–2010 Eco-town Proposals in Britain

Abstract

The recent Labour Government proposed in England that ten new green clean “eco-towns” should be built by 2020. How did this government programme begin? What are the objectives? Is the British Government creating fabulous models for the future or is it bull-dozing through a programme that will create the slums of the future? The discussion examines the origins of the eco-town programme, and the pros and cons of the proposals. The English eco-towns appeared to be in danger, despite concerns about the under provision of housing. Has the economic crunch paid to the creation of eco-towns? When the Labour Government was under siege, the ongoing row over eco-towns added to their troubles. The idea of eco-towns is valuable as a source of housing but the execution has left a lot to be desired. Many of the original proposals are in the wrong location or are reincarnations of schemes that have already been deemed unsuitable. The new Coalition Government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, to the surprise of everyone, announced that they will only keep four of the proposed eco-towns, and at the same time bring back the focus onto brownfield land and urban extensions. Many consider that eco-towns can only make sense of where they are in relation to existing centres of population, transport, infrastructure and employment. Some cities prefer a number of eco-communities or urban extensions in brownfield locations instead of a few free standing eco-towns. The eco-town proposals are compared with the New Urbanism proposals in the United States which burst upon the anti-suburban scene in the 1980s. The principles and concepts of New Urbanism are reviewed with examples where it has been most successful. The proposed new town, Tornagrain, by Inverness, for 10,000 people on a green field site where Andreas Dulany, one of the creators of New Urbanism has prepared a master plan, is examined. In summary, the proposed eco-towns, unlike New Urbanism, offer important opportunities to bring together models of environmental, economic and social sustainability. They will provide testbeds for different methods of delivering, for example: (a) zero carbon building development, (b) offering 30% affordable housing, (c) creating 40% green infrastructure; and (d) looking after waste. Some would say that establishing models of development from which others can learn is their most important result and not the provision of 50,000 homes, a small portion of the proposed 3 million homes required for the United Kingdom.

Eleanor Smith Morris

Chapter 7. Eco-cities in China: Pearls in the Sea of Degrading Urban Environments?

Abstract

Economic reforms in China from the 1980s have created substantial material wealth and raised consumption to an unprecedented level. With rising affluence and demand for quality living, densely urbanized zones are increasingly being developed into eco-conscious townships or eco-cities. Whilst commercial entrepreneurship may have adopted norms of eco-city construction in selected sites including coastal areas, major cities and their rapidly extended metropolitan zones have encountered major pollution problems, threatening health and quality of life of ordinary residents. Will eco-cities serve as a normatic model for other Chinese cities to follow towards an improved urban environment? Or are they merely nodal points serving more commercial interests catering to the need of rising middle classes? This chapter investigates the hindrance and potential in developing an environmentally sustainable urban system in a country undergoing a late but rapid urbanization backed up by a huge surplus rural population eager to settle down in the cities. This is followed by analysis of public policy measures in energy saving, promotion of renewable energy, public transport, reforestation, recycling of water and other materials. Finally, the role of ecocities is studied in terms of whether they have the potential to lead a new development path towards a more sustainable urban future in China.

Tai-Chee Wong

Chapter 8. Green Urbanism: Holistic Pathways to the Rejuvenation of Mature Housing Estates in Singapore

Abstract

Cities play a crucial role in the way out of the environmental crisis. This chapter argues that our fast growing cities need to develop as more compact, polycentric mixed-use urban clusters, strongly inter-connected by public transport and highly mixed-use, towards sustainable “network city” models (Castells, The rise of the network society. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996). Cities are systems already under stress; cities are resource-intensive, and can sometimes be messy and chaotic. Not everything in cities can always be planned to last more than 25 or 30 years; mature components, such as housing estates, have to be re-engineered and retrofitted. Today, many mature housing estates, which play such a significant role of Singapore’s urban fabric, are over 3 decades old and in need of urgent rejuvenation and retrofitting. Some of them are relatively energy-inefficient and highly air-conditioning dependent – but what could be the most appropriate model for such rejuvenation? It is timely to rethink and re-conceptualize these aged estates and districts of Singapore, in order to future-proof them for a fast approaching low-to-no-carbon society. Eco-city planning and the retrofitting of existing inefficient housing estates involves the introduction of mixed-use programmes and smart densification of the urban form. These concepts go far beyond environmental aspects; they include systems’ integration and holistic thinking, rather than piecemeal approach or single-minded “techno-fix” approaches. System-integration and holistic conceptual approaches are necessary to ensure that these rejuvenated estates become part of a larger sustainable ecosystem, in regard to their management of waste, energy, water, public transport, materials and food supply. What is needed is a practical strategy for re-energising tired housing, to undergo radical modernization, to meet the changing aspirations and lifestyles of contemporary Singaporeans. It also requires new typologies for both public and private housing, appropriate to the tropical climate, with terraced gardens, courtyards, and environment friendly solutions. This study explores the typology and findings of a German case study: the city of Freiburg, where two recently completed eco-districts are analysed, as they could inform urban developments in Singapore. This case study shows that cities need to always find local solutions appropriate to their particular circumstances, and that government is key in driving the outcome. The argument is that good urban governance and governmental leadership is crucial to eco-development. In connection with this, the paper also examines a study conducted by the author at the National University of Singapore: an architecture master class, which was looking at careful neighbourhood re-configuration and the integration of the existing estates, avoiding the negative impact of demolition of these estates, to maintain the social community networks.

Steffen Lehmann

Chapter 9. Challenges of Sustainable Urban Development: The Case of Umoja 1 Residential Community in Nairobi City, Kenya

Abstract

Ineffective planning and implementation problems of urban residential plan in Umoja 1 have undermined the development of sustainable and livable urban community in line with the principles of affordable housing for eco-cities. Consequently, ex post measures designed to guide urban planning and implementation in the community have failed. Multi-story apartments are built in the community although these are not provided for in Umoja 1 residential comprehensive development plan. The project has failed to achieve its objective of building sustainable residential community due to several problems. For one, the planned capacity of roads and streets, water supply and sewerage disposal facilities can no longer cope with the new developments and/or those that result from unauthorized alterations of the original semi-detached units. Poor maintenance has degraded the roads and streets while social spaces are allocated and developed into private property. Chronic water shortage and periodic sewerage spills are common malaise in the community. Overstretched water supply and poor sewerage disposal systems have also exacerbated the problem. All these problems have severely altered the physical, ecological and social character of the community. Lack of consultation and participation of affected interest groups in implementation is one of the factors that have undermined sustainable urban development in the community. This chapter examines Umoja 1 residential plan and the challenges of plan implementation process. It focuses on factors that undermine sustainable development from eco-city perspective.

Asfaw Kumssa, Isaac K. Mwangi

Chapter 10. Towards a Sustainable Regional Development in Malaysia: The Case of Iskandar Malaysia

Abstract

Urban planners by duty play the role of developing functional and aesthetically pleasing cities with the most optimal use of land. At the same time, they ensure that the cities planned for are ecologically friendly, and that they develop low CO₂ emissions. The planning of the proposed high growth region, South Johor Economic Region (SJER), now commonly known as the Iskandar Malaysia, provides a good opportunity to achieve such a purpose. This chapter reexamines the concept of low carbon cities and explores the perspective and scenarios towards transforming the Iskandar Malaysia into an environmentally sustainable urban region.

Chin-Siong Ho, Wee-Kean Fong

Micro Local Planning: Design and Methods

Frontmatter

Chapter 11. Presentation of Ecological Footprint Information: A Re-examination

Abstract

In a short span of two decades, the ecological footprint concept as a framework for impact assessment and sustainability planning through the focus on earthly “capital” limits in the form of land resources has grown in popularity. A unique selling point of the concept is its focus on physical limits, thereby making it an “area-based analogue” of other popular impact assessment methodologies. In this chapter, a critical re-examination of the presentation of ecological footprint information is attempted with reference to past studies. In particular, the aspect of “spatiality” and “visualization” of the ecological footprint is explored by juxtaposing popular presentation techniques with the original goals of ecological footprint analysis. The result of the discussion is an identification of several shortcomings inherent in presentation techniques in ecological footprint literature and a subsequent suggestion of a standardized, spatial presentation technique that is in-line with present trajectories in the field of study. The ultimate aim of this chapter is to allow the various manifestations of ecological consumptions to be “mapped” in a comparable and meaningful manner (and traced dynamically), with a degree of flexibility among the different approaches to ecological footprint analysis.

Hoong-Chor Chin, Reuben Mingguang Li

Chapter 12. Towards Sustainable Architecture: The Transformation of the Built Environment in İstanbul, Turkey

Abstract

Towards the end of the twentieth century, new consumerist lifestyles coupled with technological innovations and rising environmental consciousness have changed the concept in environmental and building designs. Conscientious developers and city governments see green building and environmental designs as a useful approach to counter the adverse effects of global warming, fossil energy consumption and nature destruction that have threatened ecological and human health. Today, sustainable architecture and green design have become an important agenda of the built environment. The aim of this study is to examine the efforts made towards constructing sustainable office buildings in İstanbul, Turkey. In İstanbul, due to its unique location and historical background, innovative, modern and sustainable buildings have been built in its newly developed central city area, such as Büyükdere Avenue. Using a chosen set of green building rating systems as criteria, assessment was focused on site-environment, energy-water, materials-resources and indoor environmental quality. High-rise office buildings selected for this survey were Metrocity Office Building, İşbank Headquarters and the Akbank Tower along Büyükdere Avenue. Results showed that standards achieved were low but they were symbolic of a self-initiated will in line with the international agenda towards urban ecological conservation.

Selin Mutdoğan, Tai-Chee Wong

Chapter 13. Urban Air Quality Management: Detecting and Improving Indoor Ambient Air Quality

Abstract

Current air pollution management and air quality control are primarily focused on outdoor and atmospheric issues. In major cities today with large numbers of shopping malls, offices and public administration centers which act as public spaces, contaminated indoor air could be public health hazards. In Singapore, diagnosing the causes of “sick building syndrome” is as important as treating outdoor pollution as its workforce is increasingly service-oriented and many of whom spend a substantial amount of time working in air-conditioned premises. It is known that indoor air quality (IAQ) can be easily and adversely affected by gas pollutants which are internally generated or infiltrated from external sources. One important and practical example is carbon monoxide (CO) which can be emitted at high concentration levels in an urban structure by burning of tobacco and incense, and by incomplete combustion from gas stoves and fuel engines used in renovation work. In this research, the decay rates of CO concentration (ppm) in air were measured accurately using the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in the 2,050–2,230 cm^–1 wavenumber region. High levels of CO were obtained from sidestream environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). From the modeling of the decay curves of CO concentration with time, the air exchange rates in air change per hour (ACH) were derived for six different ventilation rates. They were found to be from 2.53 to 8.63 ACH. The ventilation rates for CO contained in a chamber were varied using different window areas. Half-lives of the CO decays at six different air exchange rates were also determined and found to decrease from 16.4 to 4.8 min as the air exchange rate increases. The implications of air exchange rate on the decay of indoor CO in ETS were discussed with reference to IAQ in air-conditioned buildings in Singapore, and to IAQ in general urban settings.

T. L. Tan, Gissella B. Lebron

Backmatter

Titel: Eco-city Planning
herausgegeben von: Tai-Chee Wong
Belinda Yuen
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Electronic ISBN: 978-94-007-0383-4
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0382-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0383-4