Sustainable city

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A sustainable city, or eco-city is a city designed with consideration of environmental impact, inhabited by people dedicated to minimisation of required inputs of energy, water and food, and waste output of heat, air pollution - CO2, methane, and water pollution. Richard Register first coined the term "ecocity" in his 1987 book, Ecocity Berkeley: building cities for a healthy future.[1] Another leading figure who envisioned the sustainable city is architect Paul F. Downton, who later founded the company Ecopolis Pty Ltd. The field of industrial ecology is sometimes used in planning these cities.

A sustainable city can 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 cities overall contribution to climate change will be minimal if such practices are adhered to.

It is estimated that around 50% of the world’s population now lives in cities and urban areas[citation needed]. Essentially these large communities are unsustainable, but they provide both challenges and opportunities for environmentally-conscious developers. In order to make them more sustainable, building design and practise, as well as perception and lifestyle must adopt sustainability thinking.

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[edit] Practical achievement

These ecological cities are achieved though various means, such as:

[edit] International examples

[edit] Kenya

Hacienda - Mombasa, Kenya. It is the largest development of eco-friendly residential properties in East Africa; construction is currently ongoing, and it will eventually be one of Africa’s first self-sustaining estates.

[edit] Brazil

Curitiba is often cited as an example of urban sustainability.

[edit] Sweden

Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm

[edit] Denmark

The industrial park in Kalundborg is often cited as a model for industrial ecology.

[edit] Ecuador

Loja, Ecuador won three international prizes for the sustainability efforts begun by its mayor Dr. Jose Bolivar Castillo.[2]:25

[edit] New Zealand

The city of Waitakere, the Western part of the greater Auckland urban region, was New Zealand's first eco-city, working from the Greenprint, a guiding document that the City Council developed in the early 1990s.

[edit] Republic of Ireland

South Dublin County Council announced plans in late 2007 to develop Clonburris, a new suburb of Dublin to include up to 15,000 new homes, to be designed to achieve the highest of international standards.[3] The plans for Clonburris include countless green innovations such as high levels of energy efficiency, mandatory renewable energy for heating and electricity, the use of recycled and sustainable building materials, a district heating system for distributing heat, the provision of allotments for growing food, and even the banning of tumble driers, with natural drying areas being provided instead.[4]

[edit] China

China is working with investment and technology supplied by the Singapore government to build an ecocity in the Coastal New District of Tianjin City in northern China, named the "Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city". [5]

Dongtan Eco-city is the name of another project on the third largest island in China at the mouth of the Yangtze River near Shanghai. The project was scheduled to accommodate 50,000 residents by 2010, but its developer has currently put construction on hold.[6]

Huangbaiyu is another major eco-city being build by China.

As of April 2008, an ecocity collaboration project is being proposed for a district in Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province on the Yangtze River, just west of Shanghai.

Rizhao mandates of solar water heaters for households, and has been designated the Environmental Model City by China's SEPA.[2]:108

[edit] U.S.

Arcosanti, Arizona

Treasure Island, San Francisco: is another project that aims to create a small eco city.

[edit] U.K

St Davids the smallest city in the United Kingdom aims to be the first carbon neutral city in the world [1]

[edit] Abu Dhabi

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Register, Richard (1987). Ecocity Berkeley: building cities for a healthy future. North Atlantic Books. 
  2. ^ a b Worldwatch Institute. (2007). The State of the World: Our Urban Future.
  3. ^ Clonburris
  4. ^ Construct Ireland Ecology of Scale.
  5. ^ http://www.tianjinecocity.gov.sg Website of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city
  6. ^ http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/12/23/in-china-overambition-reins-in-eco-city-plans In China, overambition reins in eco-city plans[]

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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