Sustainability E-Book

Gabrielle Lawrence

• Herausgeber: BookThug
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 37

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

In recent years, the way to plan and develop large urban centers has changed drastically. Around the world, there are proven models to build more lively, ecologic and safer cities, which offer a high quality of life to all its inhabitants.

Leseprobe

Inhalt

Introduction

Keys to a Sustainable City

Planning and Efficient Use of the Land

Housing

Public Services

Sustainable Mobility

Prioritizing Pedestrians

Riding Bikes

Using Public Transportation

Urban Renewal

Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change

Mitigating Risks

Adapting to Climate Cha

Water Management

Efficient Plans for Waste Management

Tax Sustainability and Governance

Proper Administration

Transparency

Efficacy and Efficiency of Public Management

Modernization

Economic and Social Sustainability

Introduction

Which place in the world hosts the largest amount of living people who have won the Nobel Prize? This question, as tricky as it may seem, holds a clue to today’s most avant-garde concepts associated with urban planning: sustainability and intelligence.

The particular make up of a population, regardless of the features that distinguish them, speaks not only of the qualities that bring them together, but also, more importantly, of the place itself, the living space it provides and the reasons as to why it represents a meeting point for them.

David Sim, of Gehl Architects and the Danish creative director and architect of the consulting study on urban quality, explains:

“People are currently using many concepts, such as ‘all cities should be smart,’ ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation, innovation, innovation.’ We can use these words, but we should take a step back and ask ourselves what does innovation do and what is a smart city supposed to be? Someone could even say it’s about technology, but it’s so much more than that: It’s human interaction, because real innovation takes place when different people meet. This meeting between different people leads to friction and, from that friction, sparks fly. That’s when innovation occurs.”

Only by comprehending this premise can we understand the answer to the question posed at the beginning. Which place in the world hosts the largest amount of living people who have won the Nobel Prize? To the surprise of many, according to Sim and his colleagues from Gehl Architects, that place is the Bytes Cafe, located at Stanford University (USA).

“We believe Bytes Café has the highest concentration of living Nobel Prize winners. The reason is biologists, physicians and chemists, among others, find it a place where they can relax and feel comfortable. They meet, have a long lunch and, at some point towards its end, they start exchanging data. Soon, this exchange leads to a connection between physics and biology or between chemistry and physics, and along with these connections comes the spark to begin research that could potentially result in a Nobel Prize or a new product. . . This is the reason why creating meeting points is necessary.”

A similar conclusion could be made when thinking about cities and their intelligence. That is, the level of intelligence available is provided by the people residing there (or about to) and the meetings they can have. Only then will the sparks mentioned by Sim fly. Consequently, for better or worse, these meetings are brought about by situations that urban cores can provide with public spaces.

“People are choosing cities for many reasons. But if more smart people choose a city, there’s a likelihood, for example, that when a smart woman from Denmark goes to Buenos Aires, she’ll meet a smart Argentinian man. This becomes a very interesting connection because, in this way, cities can attract more smart people and keep them. It’s like a search for talent. This is how smart cities truly become smart. They are the places where smart people live and want to raise their children, and where creativity, innovation and money-making come about. All of this gives way to a positive behavior cycle -- smart cities are those where people decide to go.”

Now, what makes people decide to meet in a particular city and not in another one? Contrary to most assumptions and beyond differences that may exist because of cultural characteristics of each country or society, it’s all based on a simple premise that is demonstrated at the Bytes Cafe, at Stanford University: Those spaces have features that let people feel comfortable.

At a cafe, these features can be associated with the size of the space and the physical location where the person is sitting; for instance, positioned with his back against the wall, enjoying a pleasant view and meeting away from the busiest places. In a city, people can interact with each other by meeting in nice places where people can walk or take their bikes to; where they can enjoy their free time; and where they don’t have to lose time daily because of traffic.

This is one of the reasons why, nowadays, the concept of ‘livability’ in cities is increasingly more relevant1