What is a Sustainable City?

WHAT IS A SUSTAINABLE CITY?

-Punyashri Shetty

 

  • Satterthwaite, D. (1997) The past ten years have brought examples of considerable innovation among city and municipal authorities in most parts of the world in regard to sustainable development. In Europe and North America, many cities have put in place long-term programmes to improve their environment, reduce resource use and reduce waste. The ambiguity as to what `sustainable cities’ or `sustainable human settlements’ means also allows many of the large international agencies to claim that they are the leaders in promoting sustainable cities when, in reality, they have contributed much to the growth of cities where sustainable development goals are not met.
  • Kearns, P. (2012) A learning community is a city, town or region that goes beyond its statutory duty to provide education and training for those who require it and instead creates a vibrant participative, culturally aware, and economically buoyant human environment through the provision, justification and active promotion of learning opportunities to enhance the potential of all its citizens. The learning city idea is an overarching concept that can reach out to support a range of pillars of sustainable humane cities.
  • Hee-Sun., et.al.,(2023) Urban sustainability is the process of creating a pleasant urban environment for individuals, minimizing environmental problems caused by urbanization and creating cities that are safe and resilient to climate change and natural disasters. The transition to sustainable cities is important, as cities with concentrated populations and resources play a central role in sustainable development and solving environmental problems. conceptual difference exists because modernism focuses on technological and engineering infrastructure to plan a city as a separate component, and provides urban functions and a dualistic perspective that separates humans and the environment as two separate entities, while the ecological perspective regards the human and natural systems as dynamic, evolutionary, and interdependent.
  • Beah, T.,et al., (2002) Among the many global experiences in the transformation of existing cities towards sustainability, the research selected Hong Kong city and Frankfurt city for study and analysis to help existing Egyptian cities transform towards sustainability. By studying global best practices of Cities, it can be said that the transformation of existing Egyptian cities into sustainable cities requires: – High-efficiency administrative system and well-trained technical cadres to meet the social and economic requirements without damaging the environment and the right of future generations. – Involve the local community in setting the development vision for their city to reach comprehensive development plans, so it is necessary to increase the culture of citizens towards a sustainable city and change their lifestyle to get it. – Study the city’s weaknesses to overcome and its strengths to exploit by developing plans and strategies that can be implemented according to the city’s capabilities in terms of human, natural, and financial resources.
  • Amraotkar, S., et al.,(2023) To create more sustainable and liveable cities, it is essential to assess the performance of urban parks from the user’s perspective and understand their preferences. Parks are green open spaces that meet a community’s primary needs to get exposed to nature, connection, and communication. It also helps in improving the environment and user’s physical and psychological health. Urban parks are important indicators of quality of life and sustainable urban areas, as they provide green areas, mitigate the effects of urban heat island and harmful pollution effects and act as a habitat for numerous animal and plant species.
  • Baldi, G., et al.,(2023) The digital revolution is significantly changing daily routines, interpersonal relationships, and quality of life in medium-sized to large cities, where every activity, including innovation, sustainability, and resilience, will take place.The emergence of 5G, the Internet of Things, AI, and smart grids are strongly pushing in that direction, enabling an increasing number of new technologies and services developed and produced by thousands of start-ups that are essentially building a parallel economy to the traditional one, dense with the future and that, not surprisingly, tends to condense around large urban hubs, tying inseparably with the research activity carried out by universities and big businesses. Smart citizenship enables the citizen to change from a passive subject to an agent in the community where they live and work.
  • Rahayu, H. G., et al.,(2023) Environmental management of green cities is a development challenge in various parts of the world, especially for developing countries. Urbanization and industrialization have led to increased pollution and depletion of natural resources in many cities around the world. Green city environmental management requires a comprehensive and integrated approach that includes the use of renewable energy to achieve environmental sustainability goals. Then, environmental management of green cities must also pay attention to the entire energy cycle, from production to use and recycling. Reducing the use of fossil energy and the use of renewable energy must be combined with waste reduction and wastewater management to create a sustainable and environmentally friendly energy cycle.
  • Kopal, K., (2023) Current urban expansion is leading to various impacts on climate change and mobility behaviour. It is predicted that by 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities. This means that three out of four people will live in an urban setting. This poses several challenges for future urban planning. Changes in urban development and in transportation systems have the potential to improve or harm our health. On the one hand, a transportation system provides access to employment opportunities, education, services, recreation, and social participation. On the other hand, a transportation system continues to have negative impacts on the environment, health, and well-being. However, mobility provides a sustainable and easy opportunity for physical activity, especially through walking and cycling.
  • Ostárek, M. (2021). Energy intensity is linked to urban development and we are pushed into renewable resources by carbon limits where water, sun and wind serve as our source. Greener energy brings us a reduction in the cost of running the city and a reduction in pollution. Together, these aspects create a cheaper city with a better quality of life. In order for cities to be sustainable, there is a need to move to sustainable energy sources. Today, the energy used in cities is mainly generated from fossil fuels. Interestingly, even though cities occupy only 2% of the earth’s surface, they consume 60-80% of energy and at the same time generate ¾ greenhouse gas emissions thereby this situation is not sustainable.
  • Pareti, S., et al., (2022)To explore how to develop a sustainable architecture and recover the vernacular, strengthening the socioeconomic development of a city, making it sustainable considering its geographical advantages, natural resources and coast. For sustainable rehabilitation it is necessary to keep its culture alive, so local communities, which are socially and economically linked, must always be active. Sustainable architecture is a general term. It is the explanation of design techniques in architecture, which have a vision of ecology for designs, in addition to energy awareness, which makes it adapt to the environment, having modifications regarding its type of construction. Many of these elements can be of vernacular or ancestral architecture, which are adapted to provide a sustainable solution. According to the article by Masrour and Karbaschi, in their research, they suggest that the real utility of vernacular constructions and technologies should be tested in a critical and systematic way, which may cause modifications or updates for new sustainable buildings in order to reduce the environmental problems of this new millennium, without losing its identity.

CONCLUSION:

   It is import ant to understand that while talking about sustainability apart from the literal definition, we must also consider the excessive use of non-renewable resources and exploitation of communities might result into the fall of our resources since they are used inordinately. It must be contemplated that we are solely responsible for the future generations that are yet to come and hence, the resources shall be conserved and utilized mindfully. Among other activities, attention should be paid to counteracting overcrowding through effective housing management and spatial-development plans. Another problem that is to be considered is air pollution. Considering all of this, implementation of law and policies in relation to sustainability is important.

Reference:

  • satterthwaite, D. (1997). Sustainable cities or cities that contribute to sustainable development? Urban Studies, 34(10), 1667-1691. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/sustainable-cities-that-contribute-development/docview/236441610/se-2
  • Kearns, P. (2012). Learning cities as healthy green cities: Building sustainable opportunity cities. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 52(2), 368-391. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/learning-cities-as-healthy-green-building/docview/1270299647/se-2
  • Hee-Sun, C., & Seul-Ki Song. (2023). Direction for a transition toward smart sustainable cities based on the diagnosis of smart city plans.Smart Cities, 6(1), 156. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6010009
  • Beah, T., Kotp, H., & Al-menshawy, A. (2022). Transforming existing egyptian cities into sustainable cities.IOP Conference Series.Earth and Environmental Science, 1113(1), 012014. doi:https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1113/1/012014
  • Amraotkar, S., & Gangopadhyay, D. (2023). Assessing user satisfaction of urban parks for sustainable cities: A pilot study of two urban parks in chennai, india.IOP Conference Series.Earth and Environmental Science, 1210(1), 012039. doi:https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1210/1/012039
  • Baldi, G., Megaro, A., & Carrubbo, L. (2023). Small-town citizens’ technology acceptance of smart and sustainable city development.Sustainability, 15(1), 325. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010325
  • Rahayu, H. G., Warsono, H., Kurniati, R., & Purnaweni, H. (2023). The effect of green intellectual capital on green competitive advantage in sustainable city management.International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, 13(3), 532-537.
  • Kopal, K., & Wittowsky, D. (2023). The healthy and sustainable City—Influences of the built environment on active travel.Sustainability, 15(19), 14655. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/su151914655
  • Ostárek, M. (2021). Environmental urbanism and sustainable cities.IOP Conference Series.Earth and Environmental Science, 900(1) doi:https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/900/1/012031
  • Pareti, S., González, V., Flores, D., & Pareti, M. (2022). Green architecture as A facilitating mechanism for regional development and sustainable cities-the case of the island of chiloé, chile.IOP Conference Series.Earth and Environmental Science, 1044(1), 012010. doi:https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1044/1/012010

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