In the 1920s, the U.S. cities were organized in an ideal structure of walkable neighborhoods. The entire city was walkable... Christina Pomoni (What is new urbanism?)
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thoughts, ideas + dialogues on urban revitalization, smart growth + neighborhood development
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The 19th century was a century of empires, 20th century was a century of nation states and the 21st century will be a century of cities... This outstanding infographic (courtesy of postscapes.com) begins with some information about our current state of urbanization. Did you know that 1.3 million people are moving to cities each week?! It then explains the need for smart cities and delves into what is required to establish these intelligent connected environments, how the smart city may take various forms in the developing worlds and what specific technologies are necessary to achieve such grand goals in practice. Delete the scoop?
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Despite improvements in air quality, four in 10 Americans still live where pollution levels are often dangerous to breathe. There is no doubt that great strides have been made in air pollution in the U.S. Awareness, stricter legislation and improved technology have all contributed to improved air, land and water conditions. Despite the improvements, four in 10 Americans still live where pollution levels are often dangerous to breathe. Since the American Lung Association began studying particle pollution, almost all of the most polluted cities have consistently remained among the worst. The ALA’s 2013 “State of the Air” report measures cities based on low-lying ozone pollution, as well as both short- and long-term particle pollution. Based on average long-term particle pollution figures collected between 2009 and 2011, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 most polluted cities in the country... Delete the scoop?
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'In honor of Bike to Work Day, we pulled together a list of America's most bike-friendly neighborhoods.' The neighborhood rankings below are based on the latest neighborhood-level data provided to us by Walk Score (Walk Score measures walkability, Bike Score measures bikeability). Bike Score places neighborhoods and cities into four categories based on a 100-point score (ranked on bike lanes, hills, destinations and road connectivity, and bike commuting mode share): Biker's Paradise (90-10), Very Bikeable (70-89), Bikeable (50-69), and Somewhat Bikeable (0-49). The data here cover more than 7,000 neighborhoods across the United States and the table at the article link shows America's 25 most bikeable neighborhoods. Delete the scoop?
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Mitsui Ocean Development & Engineering Company is planning to test the world's first hybrid wind-current power generating system this year off the coast of Japan Via Digital Sustainability 
Digital Sustainability's curator insight,
May 15, 9:27 AM
Offshore wind farms and tidal energy facilities harness the power of the wind and the ocean – but why should we have separate turbines for each task? Offshore technology company Mitsui is developing a hybrid wind-current power generating system that combines a floating vertical-axis wind turbine with an underwater turbine that generates power from ocean currents. The clever apparatus would cut down on material waste, and it could produce twice as much energy as a conventional wind turbine Renewable energy developers strive for improved efficiency in the solar, wind and hydro power industries – and the hybrid wind-current system effectively doubles the efficiency of a typical wind or ocean current turbine. Mitsui Ocean Development & Engineering Company says the system will provide cost-effective power generation while having very little impact on the environment. The turbines will be large in scale; according to NHK News, the wind turbine will be 47 meters (154 feet), and the underwater portion will have a diameter of 15 meters (49 feet). The turbines will be tested off the coast of Japan later this year. If they work as well as advertised, each turbine could generate enough energy to power 300 households. Delete the scoop?
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Resilience is the word of the decade, as sustainability was in previous decades. No doubt, our view of the kind and quality of cities we as societies want to build will continue to evolve and inspire a new goal. Surely we have not lost our desire for sustainable cities, with footprints we can globally and locally afford, even though our focus has rightly been on resilience. It speaks to the question: what is the city we want to create in the future? What is the city in which we want to live? Certainly that city is sustainable and resilient, so our cities are still in existence after the next 100-year storm, now apparently due every few years... And yet: as we build this vision we know that cities must also be livable. Indeed, we must view livability as the third indispensible—and arguably most important—leg supporting the cities of our dreams: resilient + sustainable + livable. 
ParadigmGallery's curator insight,
May 13, 2:31 PM
We thank you, Lauren Moss, for the interesting post. The post speaks to the three buzz words for our cities now and in the future...livable, resilient, sustainable....
New Yorkers exhibited a lot of personal and psychological resilience after Hurricane Sandy—they picked themselves up and started again, often rebuilding their lives in the same spot. This is true all over: people are resilient in the face of hard times..learn more Delete the scoop?
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Santiago Chile announced they’re going to become a “smart city” in 2013, and is just one example of a growing number of areas around the globe preparing and modernizing for the future. In fact demographers have long predicted the mass urbanization of metropolitan areas across the world. According to the United Nations, by the year 2050, 80% of the world will be living in urban areas. The equivalent of seven Manhattan size cities will be built each year until 2050. For these cities to thrive they must use smart technology to its fullest. Let’s take a look at what’s available now and what’s coming down the pipe... Delete the scoop?
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Ideas, talent, skills, and density remain key contributors to the growth of America's metros. Why do some cites and metros grow faster and better than others? It's a subject of considerable debate. Some say growth is a product of innovation and productivity and others counter that growth is powered more by resources, home-building and extractive industries. Sometimes debates like these need a referee. That's where a new report on America's "Best-Performing Cities" released this year by the Milken Institute comes in. The Institute's "Best-Performing Cities index" is a comprehensive and objective metric of metro economic performance and represents an outcomes-based accounting of short and long-term changes in economic output, high-tech industry, jobs, and wages. Read the complete article for details on the rankings for large metros. Four of the top five metros are noted high-tech knowledge economy centers. San Jose tops the list, high-tech hot spots Austin takes second and Raleigh third, and Washington, D.C., comes in fifth place... Delete the scoop?
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BIG with additional team members Tess, Transsolar, Base, Transitec and Michel Forgue is chosen to design an 80 Hectare cultural and commercial destination, EuropaCity in France. The new urban center EuropaCity is located between Paris and Roissy in France’s most populated region Île-de-France, and will offer a mixture of retail, culture and leisure on an unprecedented scale around the theme of the European urban experience, diversity and culture. BIG’s proposal is an urban form combining dense city with open landscape and will become a cultural and commercial gathering point for the surrounding cities of the Triangle de Gonesse. Like a city that is carved into the landscape, the entire facility is covered in an accessible green roof with recreational areas, hiking paths and urban farming. EuropaCity will be directly linked to the coming Grand Paris Express Metro to Charles de Gaule airport. “EuropaCity will be an experimental hybrid between urbanism and landscape design: Center and periphery overlapped in the simultaneous coexistence of a recreational open landscape of rolling hills superimposed on an urban neighborhood of walkable streets, plazas and parks. We find that Paris these years is taking on a holistic effort to ensure that the urban periphery is given equal opportunity to be as lively and inhabitable as its historic center. EuropaCity will be an important step in this agenda.” –Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG. Delete the scoop?
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Water has become a risk rather than an opportunity in our cities and that must change. At Ecobuild, Professor Tony Wong, chief executive of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, spoke about the steady progression up the agenda of water sensitive urban design (WSUD) in Australia. Successive years of flooding and some of the worst droughts in history have threatened the health and wellbeing of the population and nearly brought industry grinding to a halt, prompting the government to think differently about water. A new report published in March reinterprets the WSUD concept and its concludes: for too long, we have been designing water out of our cities when we should have been designing it in. For example, sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) – the creation of ponds, wetlands, swales and basins that mimic natural drainage – can be a cost-effective way to prevent surface flooding while creating valuable public amenities. But we need to go further and join the dots between flood risk management and water resource management, and put water at the heart of discussions about what makes places great to live... Delete the scoop?
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In honor of the opening of a new garden in Paris, Reuters has pulled together a list of some of their favorite green spaces. Here are a couple favorites... Delete the scoop?
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Many cities are coming to the realization that creating a smart and sustainable city means ultimately attaining a high level of economic efficiency, a high quality of life, a highly desirable place in which to live and do business, and a meaningful commitment to environmental responsibility. But what really makes for a green or sustainable city? And how can sometimes highly diverse urban areas attain it? LEED buildings and even LEED neighborhoods are surely a good thing, but they are not a sufficient thing to declare a municipality sustainable. This is an overview of the essential elements (there are many more, but these are the most basic):
Read the complete article for more on the green elements listed above... 
Jim Gramata's curator insight,
April 12, 9:59 AM
Nine basic concepts to achieve healthy sustainable buildings and cities. Piece of cake. Delete the scoop?
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U.S. natural gas prices are rising, while wind and solar are growing rapidly. The global transition to mostly renewable grid power may now be unstoppable... 'The energy transition juggernaut I previewed last May is rolling on unabated, despite U.S. natural gas prices falling to 10-year lows last year. According to a new Gallup poll, two-thirds of Americans would like to see more emphasis on solar, wind and natural gas, while less than half of them support more emphasis on nuclear, oil and coal. In addition to popular sentiment, installations of renewable generation are proceeding apace.According to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [PDF], the United States installed more power generation capacity from wind than for any other power source in 2012: 10,700 megawatts (MW), 23 percent more than natural gas (8,700 MW) and more than double the new coal capacity (4,500 MW). New solar capacity grew by 1,500 MW, a 31 percent increase over 2011. It seems that the widespread belief that cheap natural gas would kill the growth of renewables — which I always viewed skeptically and never found convincing data to support — didn’t have much substance after all...' Delete the scoop?
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Since 2000, a number of tools for measuring the quality of the walking environment have emerged. These tools are now used by researchers, local governments, and community groups to measure physical features related to walkability, such as building setback, block length, and street and sidewalk width. Yet individual physical features may not tell us much about the experience of walking down a particular street. Specifically, they may not capture people’s overall perceptions of the street environment, perceptions that may have complex or subtle relationships to physical features. The urban design literature points to numerous perceptual qualities that may affect the walking experience. Other fields also contribute, including architecture, landscape architecture, park planning, environmental psychology, and the growing visual preference and visual assessment literature. Visit the link for more information and the complete article explaining the 8 urban design qualities that enable more effective urban design planning solutions for creating quality pedestrian environments... 
Anji Connell's curator insight,
April 10, 10:40 PM
Fascinating........"Imageability is related to “sense of place.” Gorden Cullen (1961, p. 152) elaborates on the concept of sense of place, asserting that a characteristic visual theme will contribute to a cohesive sense of place and will inspire people to enter and rest in the space. Jan Gehl (1987, p. 183) explains this phenomenon using the example of famous Italian city squares, where “life in the space, the climate, and the architectural quality support and complement each other to create an unforgettable total impression.” When all factors manage to work together to such pleasing ends, a feeling of physical and psychological well-being results: the feeling that a space is a thoroughly pleasant place in which to be." Delete the scoop?
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Carbon levels in the atmosphere are at the highest levels in 3 million years and while politicians debate what to do about it, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California are putting forth a potential fuel solution, harnessing a carbon-neutral source of energy: the sun. Solar energy is not a new concept but the team at the Berkeley Lab have created an artificial forest that captures solar energy, converts it into oxygen and hydrogen, which can then be used to power fuel cells and produce renewable energy. The ‘forest’ is actually nanowire trees which absorbs sunlight and then mimics the natural process of photosynthesis that trees and plants usually perform. Read more and find links at the article. Delete the scoop?
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Engineering nature to sustain our needs is exactly what the Glowing Plant Project aims to do in efforts to engineer “a glow-in-the-dark plant using synthetic biology techniques that could possibly replace traditional lighting”. Bioluminescence – the production and emission of light by a living organism – is the overarching concept of the Glowing Plant Project, and the approach can be divided into three basic steps: design, print and transform. Visit the article link to learn more about this new technology... 
Norm Miller's curator insight,
May 20, 4:01 PM
Very cool idea. Maybe genetically modified food is not as cool, but this seems harmless enough, of course until it eats your cat. :-)
bancoideas's curator insight,
May 23, 10:58 AM
Árboles bioluminiscentes en reemplazo del alumbrado público, una idea sobrecogedora ¿no? Delete the scoop?
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High-speed rail is still just a dream in America. But why then aren't smart roads a reality? It is possible to imagine a world in which smart pavement, smart cars, and embedded monitoring and controls would turn highways from gulches that pollute a wide swath of land around them with both particles and noise would become more like rivers. Read more at the article link... Delete the scoop?
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'We know that the planet is warming up and the human population is growing, raising our demand for resources. The combination of these factors is why the battle against climate change will be decided in cities, particularly cities in the Asia-Pacific. These urban centres are triple ‘hot spots’: they face rising temperatures, increasing populations and escalating consumption. To tackle these challenges, we need practical and successful ideas that can easily be replicated. At the 4th Sustainable Cities Conference last week in Singapore, I discussed ways for Singapore and Hong Kong, already recognised as innovative cities in tackling these problems, to become even greener and establish themselves as leaders in creating sustainable city models for the Asia-Pacific.'
Norm Miller's curator insight,
May 14, 10:49 AM
Singapore transformed it's economy faster than any other nation in the world. It is not surprising to see them leading on other dimensions as well. Delete the scoop?
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As cities become more conscious of their environmental and social impact, smart growth has become a ubiquitous umbrella term for a slew of principles to which designers and planners are encouraged to adhere. NewUrbanism.org has distributed 10 points that serve as guides to development that are similar to both AIA’s Local Leaders: Healthier Communities through Design and New York City’s Active Design Guidelines: Promoting Physical Activity and Health in Design. Planners all appear to be on the same page in regards to the nature of future development. But as Brittany Leigh Foster of Renew Lehigh Valley points out, these points tend to be vague; they tell us “what” but they do not tell us “how”. 10 Rules for Smarter Smart Growth by Bill Adams of UrbDeZine San Diego enumerates how to achieve the various design goals and principles that these various guides encourage. Delete the scoop?
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Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, dedicated to sustainable architecture, has imagined and designed city so compact that nothing is more than a 15-minute walk away. Dubbed “Great City,” the prototype suggests a Chinese city that might be built in 2021 on the outskirts of Chengdu, a city in the southwest of Asia. Taking up just 1.3 square miles and 320 acres, Great City could be home to 80,000 people. The project proposes that 15 per cent of the total acreage would be devoted to urban parks and green areas, 60 per cent to buildings and 25 per cent to roads and walkways. To design the world’s first pedestrian-only city, the architects considered a massive transit centre where public transport would be concentrated... Delete the scoop?
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Gardens by the Bay is the newest addition to Singapore's green space innovations, making this architecturally brilliant metropolis truly a “City in a Garden.” Still a work in progress, Gardens by the Bay was named the World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival 2012. The use of innovative energy saving technologies is a noteworthy element of this unique project. More than 217,000 plants belonging to approximately 800 species and varieties are represented in the Gardens “with the hope that it will help to promote awareness of the wonders of nature and the value of plants to Man and the environment.” In this way, visitors are instilled with new or renewed awareness of plants, while experiencing different ecosystems without disturbing original forests. Gardens by the Bay also supports the sustainability of culture through a wide array of “edutainment” available onsite — from school programs to concerts – to further enhance an understanding of this experience... 
luiy's curator insight,
April 27, 2:10 PM
The Supertrees are vertical gardens that vary from 20-50 meters in height, which line the OCBC Skyway, a 128-metre long walkway that provide glorious views of the Gardens and Marina Bay area. These structures are created by wrapping a steel frame around a concrete core to support planting panels. The vertical “grove” allows the Gardens to showcase different plant species found in the different strata of forests, including epiphytes and orchids. In fact, there are approximately 162,900 plants representing more than 200 species on these manmade trees. Of the 18 total Supertrees, 11 are also embedded with environmentally sustainable functions such as photovoltaic cells that harvest energy that is later used in the nightly light up show. Some are also connected to the biomes and serve as air exhaust receptacles.
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The urban ecology framework of Patch Dynamics has been key in watching how city models such as the megalopolis and the megacity interact and generate urban ecosystem change. Urban Design practices have always been created in response to emerging and overlapping city models and the disciplinary contexts designers find themselves in. The urban ecology framework of Patch Dynamics has been key in allowing me to see how city models such as the megalopolis and the megacity interact and generate urban ecosystem change. One's first thought about a patch may be that of a shape that changes. However, the concept of a patch in this case describes a set of patches or a mosaic that changes over time. This search is not to find or create the best patch mosaics, or those that function in the most resilient ways. Instead, it is a project of creating urban design practices and strategies for a diversity of urban actors to engage their patches and democratize the resilience cycle in their own ways. Delete the scoop?
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Many projects under the banners of smart growth or transit oriented development are simply high density or near transit corridors, or they include gratuitous green space and walking paths. However, they fail in many of the finer points of smart growth, new urbanism, or transit oriented development. According to Wikipedia, smart growth “advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a range of housing choices.” The ”rules” postulated here are meant to supplement rather than reiterate or replace existing Smart Growth or New Urbanism principles. However, there is some overlap both with existing principles and with each other, as smart growth planning is an imperfect “science.” These rules attempt to look at the finer points, beyond the density of a project or its proximity to transit corridors, so that in 50 years hindsight, smart growth will have a better record than so much of the planned development of the early post war years (including failed redevelopment projects, affordable housing projects, and suburban residential and commercial projects).
Lauren Moss's insight:
A description of smart growth issues that goes a bit more in depth than the general characteristics typically cited... Delete the scoop?
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We need to take a whole systems approach to repairing and advancing our U.S. infrastructure. An important, yet not yet widely adopted solution is the application of a whole systems approach—one that considers the interconnections between infrastructure projects and their surroundings, and that spans the entire lifecycle of infrastructure projects, from design and construction to operation and maintenance. Although this approach may involve upfront costs, this model can bolster efficiency, garner public support, and improve resiliency to natural disasters, resulting in significant short- and long-term payback. A whole systems approach should simultaneously address the needs of all stakeholders, and provide community, environmental, and economic benefits for all types of infrastructure projects, from pipelines to bridges to ports to airports... Delete the scoop?
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An ambitious experiment in sustainable Fort Collins, Colorado, supporting development of the nation’s first major urban zero-energy district (ZED) is already hinting at important lessons for future implementation possibilities. Along the Colorado Front Range, the resulting data illustrates how the strategic integration of energy generation, storage, and conservation activities can reduce an electricity grid’s overall energy load at critical peak-demand periods. As workplaces become increasingly energy-efficient, they will also have to generate and store more energy on site. With distributed generation, electricity will ultimately be delivered in a far cleaner fashion than is generally the case with the mostly coal-powered mega–power plants that now feed American power grids. Working with the city-owned electricity supplier Fort Collins Utilities (FCU) and several locally based clean-energy specialists, participating employers were able to collectively reduce peak-load demand on a designated microgrid within the ZED’s boundaries by more than 20 percent during test periods that lasted more than four weeks...
Lauren Moss's insight:
An interesting case study on Zero Energy Districts, in practice... Delete the scoop?
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For the past two decades, demographers have generally agreed that global population growth will continue to inch steadily higher in the coming century, raising concerns about everything from pollution to housing to the world's water supply. But a new study out of Spain suggests those estimates may be way off—several billion people off—and that the earth's population could instead peak as soon as 2050. Applying a mathematical model to global population trends, these researchers believe that there will be fewer people living on earth in 2100 than there are today. In 2011, the United Nations population division predicted a global population of 10.1 billion by 2100, an increase of nearly 50 percent from the earth's current population of 7 billion. But scientists at the Autonomous University of Madrid and CEU-San Pablo University say their estimates, developed by using techniques from high-level physics to analyze UN population data between 1950 and the present, match that low-fertility curve. That path shows global population peaking in 2050 slightly above eight billion, and then falling back to 6.2 billion by the end of the century, the same as the total world population back in 2000... Read the complete article for more details and related diagrams. Delete the scoop?
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The Shams 1, a 100-megawatt concentrated solar power plant, has just started soaking up the Arabian sun outside of Abu Dhabi. That's the biggest of its kind on the planet. A joint venture between the French energy giant Total, the Spanish renewable energy wizards Abnegoa, and Masdar, Abu Dhabi's clean energy company, it will provide energy to some twenty thousand houses, and cut out of the atmosphere 75,000 tons of CO2 per year... Delete the scoop?
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