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Lauren Moss
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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.'
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Lauren Moss
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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...
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Lauren Moss
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The United States population is expected to pass 400 million by 2051.
That’s 85 million more people who will need good jobs, sufficient space, clean water and energy.
We will need to make adjustments in order to have a healthy economy in the coming years. So what would happen if the world population – including in the United States – just kept growing? It’s simply not sustainable. The costs to both people and our planet would far outweigh the benefits. Read the complete article for the relevant facts on the potential impacts of population growth on environmental and social issues...
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Lauren Moss
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Placemaking is a process, accessible to anyone, that allows peoples’ creativity to emerge. When open and inclusive, this process can be extraordinarily effective in making people feel attached to the places where they live. That makes people more likely to get involved and build shared wealth in their communities.
“Placemaking, applied correctly, can show us new ways to help cultures emerge where openness is not so scary,” notes Dr. Katherine Loflin, the lead project consultant for the Knight Foundation’s groundbreaking study, which showed a significant correlation between community attachment and economic growth. “We could find with consistency over time that it was the softer side of place—social offerings, openness, and aesthetics—that really seem to drive peoples’ attachment to their place. It wasn’t necessarily basic services: how well potholes got paved over. It wasn’t even necessarily for peoples’ personal economic circumstances.” The study’s other key finding was that there is an empirical relationship between higher levels of attachment and cities’ GDP growth. Placemaking, in other words, is a vital part of economic development. And yet, there has long been criticism that calls into question whether or not this process is actually helping communities to develop their local economies, or merely accelerating the process of gentrification in formerly-maligned urban core neighborhoods. We believe that this is largely due to confusion over what Placemaking is, and who “gets” to be involved. If Placemaking is project-led, development-led, design-led or artist-led, then it does likely lead to gentrification and a more limited set of community outcomes.
Read the complete article for more on the process of placemaking and the roles community members play in creating vibrant spaces...
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Lauren Moss
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Urban populations are expanding at an exponential rate as people are migrating to city centers where economic opportunities promise social mobility and access to education, health resources, and where employment is more abundant than in rural areas.
Nations once considered in the “third world” are making leaps to accommodate growing populations with thoughtful considerations in designing these new urban capitals. Population trends have shifted considerably and have contributed to some of the densest urban cities never before seen in history. The rise in the classification of cities as “mega-cities” and the problems that such high population densities face speak to the fact that our cities have reached a saturation point that needs to addressing. Singapore, an island nation in the Asian Pacific, is the third densest country in the world. Last year the Center for Liveable Cities and the Urban Land Institute participated in a summit of leading planners and policy makers to discuss the steps that Singapore was taking in its development in response to its growing urban populations. The result of the conference was a list of ten points that contribute to making Singapore a liveable high dense city...
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Lauren Moss
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A new research study addresses the issue of the expanding populations in cities, and provides a solution for adapting urban infrastructure for the needs created by increased density and growth.
Drawing our attention to one core idea that can make our cities more liveable for good, ‘The Time Is Right for Connected Public Lighting Within Smart Cities‘, is a study that looks into the key concepts of urbanization but applies them to a specific context of “an intelligent, networked public lighting infrastructure”. The study dissects the current issues well, reminding us that the urbanization pattern across the world leads to an obviously problematic upswing in energy and resource demand, which in turn threatens the strong identities (inter-city competition and economic performance) that cities across the planet are attempting to shape and maintain.
The solution, according to the report, is the deployment of highly efficient connectivity within cities whether that be information, operational or communication systems – the solution is required urgently. It seems clear that connecting lighting infrastructures will minimize a city’s resource intake, reduce its carbon footprint and make it more resilient and future-proofed. The ripple effects of better lighting systems in cities include safer and more liveable streets (less crime, more appealing urban space and better road safety) and adds to a city’s pull factors for multi-national organisations and tourism...
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Lauren Moss
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U.S. cities are growing faster than the suburbs for the first time since the 1920s. Twenty-seven of the nation’s 51 largest metropolitan areas exceeded their suburbs in population growth in the nine months between July 1, 2011, and April 1, 2012, according to census data. “This is the culmination of a trend that’s been going on the last several years,” says William Frey, a demographer and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Using other data sets, you can see that this trend was kind of starting already around 2007.” But while the trends aren’t new, 2012 became the tipping point when cities finally overtook the suburbs. The data even showed growth in areas that historically had been declining in population. Midwest cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis all gained in population in the past year. But just because these cities are growing doesn’t mean that people want to be there. Experts say that even though the recent crash in property prices has made the suburbs more affordable, because of a lagging economic recovery, people can’t afford to move out of urban areas. Young families who would normally lead the exodus to the suburbs are “hunkering down” in cities, Frey says. Young professionals, especially, are living in low-rent apartments with roommates or moving in with parents rather than buying a house in the burbs. Urban growth isn’t all bad. “The crash also gives younger people and other households a chance to give cities a second look,” Frey says. Denver, Washington, Austin, Seattle and Atlanta have become “youth magnets” — areas that have had an influx of young people looking for jobs.
When you think about urban revitalization, you may envision a city center filled with derelict, abandoned buildings just waiting to be repurposed. Our vision of downtown is different. Rather than being filled with empty buildings, we have a lot of empty land in Las Vegas. Until new buildings are completed, which can be a long process, we need spaces to house new business.
To do address these needs, flexible urbanism is being employed to temporarily transform underused, high value urban areas by installing repurposed shipping containers to house small businesses such as cafes, boutiques, bars & galleries. These plans will incorporate community space, outdoor seating, and retractable shade structures while activating vacant lots in the heart of downtown...
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Lauren Moss
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Already, 1.2 million square feet of green space have been added to the city. In January of 2010, Toronto became the first city in North America to require the installation of green roofs on new commercial, institutional, and multifamily residential developments across the city. Next week, the requirement will expand to apply to new industrial development as well. Toronto’s requirements are embodied in a municipal bylaw that includes standards for when a green roof is required and what elements are required in the design. Generally speaking, smaller residential and commercial buildings (such as apartment buildings less than six stories tall) are exempt; from there, the larger the building, the larger the vegetated portion of the roof must be. For the largest buildings, 60 percent of available space on the roof must be vegetated. The industry association Green Roofs for Healthy Cities announced last fall in a press release that Toronto’s green roof requirements had already resulted in more than 1.2 million square feet of new green space planned on commercial, institutional, and multifamily residential developments. According to the association, the benefits will include more than 125 full-time jobs related to the manufacture, design, installation and maintenance of the roofs; reduction of more than 435,000 cubic feet of stormwater each year; and annual energy savings of over 1.5 million KWH for building owners. The longer the program is in effect, the more the benefits will increase...
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Lauren Moss
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Image Songdo International Business District is a sustainable city currently under construction on 1,500 acres near Incheon, the Republic of Korea. The success of Korea’s green growth can be attributed to at least three factors, including the visionary leadership of a political leader firmly committed to a new green growth strategy; the ‘me-first’ approach to carbon emissions reduction and environmental protection; and an effective coordination among all the relevant ministries. One of the objectives of Korea’s green growth policies is to promote the adoption of a green growth strategy in all countries, especially the developing ones. A global architecture for green growth will enhance the effectiveness of national green growth policies, offer a foundation for global sustainable development, and facilitate international cooperation for the mitigation of climate change...
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Lauren Moss
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Hard times or not, two urban development projects — from two centuries — plow ahead. How does a city expand and, at the same time, reduce car use and emissions? Officials in Copenhagen believe part of the answer is to build and extend a modern mass transit network while trying to eliminate the need for commuting altogether. Copenhagen, with a population of 1.2 million in the city and its suburbs, will need to find homes for a projected 100,000 new residents by the year 2025. Fortunately, the city still has room to grow. In 2001, the first building in a new master-planned suburb called Orestad, south of downtown and named for the Oresund, the channel separating eastern Denmark from Sweden, was completed. Work on preparing a second major site, Nordhavn, in the docks north of the city, has just begun on land freed up by the departure of heavy industry...
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Lauren Moss
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Smart cities are attracting residents -- and talent -- by making investments in infrastructure that save money, clean up and integrate sustainability into city functions. More people live in cities now than in any other time in human history -- nearly half the world's population. They are the economic engines of our society, but they are also the source of 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. We all have a choice in where we live, and a lot of us are moving to places where we can enjoy parks, clean air and healthy waterways. Smart cities are attracting residents -- and talent -- by making investments in infrastructure that save money, clean up and integrate sustainability into city functions (think sports arenas). We have found a few ideas about innovative cities on Planet Forward that have potential to change the game in our urban environments...
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Lauren Moss
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In less than 30 years, Taipei, Taiwan has undergone significant transformation in its cultural identity, its urban design, and its regional transportation systems. Taipei, the largest city of Taiwan, lies on the Danshui River 25 kilometers across the Taiwan Strait from China. Taipei City has approximately 2.6 million residents, and the metropolitan region has just shy of 7 million people. While Taipei is not the largest city in the world by any stretch of the imagination, the city is one of the most densely packed, due to the natural hilly topography and limited areas upon which to build city structures.
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Lauren Moss
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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...
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Lauren Moss
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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.
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Lauren Moss
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Conceived in response to a densely populated Chinese city's unchecked growth, Asian Cairns is an ambitious take on vertical farming.
A Belgian architect recently unveiled the 79-acre masterplan for Asian Cairns, a dizzying new vision of urban vertical farming in China. Consisting of a sextet of “sustainable monoliths for rural urbanity” — stacked, pebble-esque, steel-ringed transparent pods that are powered by both vertical wind turbines and photovoltaics — Vincent Callebaut Architects’ Asian Cairns is planned for the rapidly swelling, skyscraper-heavy port city of Shenzhen in the southern province of Guangdong north of Hong Kong. Beyond agricultural concerns, Asian Cairns is envisioned as a mixed-use development that also incorporates residential, retail, and recreational areas. Imagined as being completely emissions-free and producing more energy than they consume, the Cairns were conceived in direct response to Shenzhen’s unchecked urban development and the population growth and increased pollution levels that have accompanied it...
Global investment in smart grid technologies rose 7 percent in 2012 from the previous year. On top of direct investments, numerous countries around the world are making headway on smart grid regulatory policies, development plans, and frameworks to support future grid infrastructure upgrades.
Smart grids consist of many different technologies serving different functions. They are commonly defined as an electricity network that uses digital information and communications technology to improve the efficiency and reliability of electricity transport. Such modernized grids are becoming more important as current grid infrastructure ages and regions begin connecting more variable generation from renewable energy sources into the electricity network...
Via Joan Tarruell, Stephane Bilodeau
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Lauren Moss
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The future is urban... but is it sustainable? For decades, warnings have been issued: the burgeoning human population will outgrow the planet’s capacity to sustain us. The formula seems simple. More people equals fewer resources and greater environmental damage.
But today, we have a more nuanced understanding of the population-environment connection. We know that the relationship between human beings and the environment is complex, mediated by systems of production and consumption. And we know that population growth is not the only demographic change that matters: age structure and population distribution also shape environmental impact. In other words, the planet’s “carrying capacity” is not just about human numbers, but about how people live, and where...
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Lauren Moss
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Cities worldwide are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of and opportunities created by an investment in bicycle infrastructure. This is particularly true in Australia, with the various states and cities updating their biking networks to cater to a growing need for automobile-alternative transport means.
After completing Stage One of the Melbourne Bicycle Plan, the Victorian capital is following in the footsteps of iconic European cycling cities such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam in moving towards developing a more bike-friendly metropolitan area.
The first stage of the plans ran from 2007 until 2011 and focused heavily on making initial networking upgrades and developing the foundations for new cycling infrastructure. The key focuses of that development stage were setting the groundwork for safe networks and developing greater communication with the cycling community. Now, moving forward with the Draft Bicycle Plan for 2012 – 2016, the city’s commitment to providing ‘safe and connected bicycle routes’ has been further solidified.
According to The City of Melbourne, cyclists’ activities are expected to grow to make up six per cent of all trips to and within the city by 2016. This will account for 15 per cent of inner city peak traffic.
Now that the foundations have been set, city council hopes to build on them with the influence and inclusion of ‘cycling innovation’ standing as the next major goal...
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Lauren Moss
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It's not just millennials - families and baby boomers are also leaving their suburban homes. For the first time in a century, America’s largest cities are growing faster than their suburbs. An Associated Press story widely covered in the media yesterday, including in Time, said the findings from new 2011 census estimates reveal a “dramatic switch” from the previous pattern of suburban dominance. Between 1988 and 1996, central cities together had suffered an net out-migration of over two million people each year, while suburbs experienced a collective net gain of two to three million people each year. A lot has changed since those bleak times for cities, from revitalization of declining neighborhoods to transit investment to a disaffection among suburbanites with long commutes and rising gasoline prices...
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Lauren Moss
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How the city conquered its sprawl to create a bustling downtown. Not too long ago, Charlotte, North Carolina, was an emerging metropolis attempting to solve its explosive population growth issues through sprawling development. However, over the past 20 years, it has consciously reinvented itself as a city of sidewalks. At the beginning of the 20th century, Charlotte had fewer than 20,000 residents. By 2000, the city had a population of 540,800. In fact, from 2000 to 2010, no American city with one million or more people grew faster than Charlotte. Over that 20-year period, Charlotte shifted from a largely agricultural and manufacturing region into the region’s urban center with a financial stronghold. Initially, the city dealt with the onslaught of residents by building more roads and developing office space in the suburbs. Growth was accompanied by the familiar issues of sprawl, congestion, and urban decay. But Charlotte's top-tier workforce rebelled. The regional economic development partnership brought in an Urban Land Institute advisory services panel of real estate and land use planning experts to study the city's downtown...
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Lauren Moss
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From mean streets to green streets... Sustainable developments are forcing landlords to lift their game to stay competitive. A website is seeking to raise the profile of that rare newcomer, the green rental property. When greenmoves.com.au founder Dani King rattles off a list of significant sustainable property developments under construction around town, it certainly sounds promising. Impressive multi-unit residential developments, such as Breathe Architecture's The Commons in Brunswick, Lend Lease's Convesso apartments at Docklands and Stockland's Selandra Rise community, near Cranbourne, will increase the supply of green rental properties in Melbourne. With councils encouraging sustainable housing in municipalities including Melbourne, Moreland, Yarra, Darebin, Knox, Whitehorse and Banyule, Ms King predicts green properties will be much easier to find and rent...
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Lauren Moss
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What is a sustainable city? What kind of pressure do our urban spaces have to face? What examples can small and medium cities set and how can their successes be reproduced around Europe? Some of the lessons are being learned at the 5th European Summit of Regions and Cities, in Copenhagen. Approximately half of the world’s total population lives in urban areas. By 2030 80% of Europeans are expected to live in cities. This is why sustainable urban development is acquiring a crucial dimension in the debate over future European policies. Often local and regional areas manage to stand out for their eco-friendly practices, becoming open laboratories of sustainability, as the title of the summit suggests, “The European urban fabric in the 21st century”. “Historically cities have always been innovation centres, but it is especially from the typical medium-sized European city that innovation starts. Now even the Chinese have discovered that small is beautiful, or better, middle-sized is beautiful. They have found that cities of 500,000 to 600,000 residents are much more sustainable, and they are building medium-sized urban areas to avoid their cities turning into megalopoli,” says President of the Committee of Regions Mercedes Bresso...
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Lauren Moss
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Vision of a great place to live, work and play fueled by “Smart Growth”nwitimes.comTo date the results of Chesterton's "Smart Growth" plan speak for themselves in a town where the quality of life is already considered second to none by many.
To date the results of Chesterton's "Smart Growth" plan speak for themselves in a town where the quality of life is already considered second to none by many. There's a balanced mix of established and developing residential neighborhoods to meet the needs of homeowners in various price ranges, outstanding schools that are well-regarded in the state for academic excellence and quality programs, a re-energized downtown that routinely draws visitors from three states and an amazing Porter County location in close proximity to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Indiana Dunes State Park.
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Lauren Moss
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Places to Grow is certainly ambitious. Here's a look at the successes and challenges a couple years in. Perhaps most visibly, the new plan will allow the continued protection of a greenbelt comprising 1.8 million acres of rural and conservation land, an area over three times the size of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the US, and just a shade smaller than Yellowstone National Park. On the large map accompanying this post, the green area is the greenbelt and related protected land; the purple areas are urbanized zones, including Toronto and its suburbs; the lines represent existing and planned major transit; and the beige area defines the limits of the planning region. Best of all, Places to Grow has the full force and effect of law, thanks to Ontario’s Places to Grow Act of 2005. That law requires that local planning decisions, including zoning, conform to the policies in the regional plan. If there is a discrepancy, the provincial government has the authority to amend municipal decisions...
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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.