Urban Sustainability: Challenges, Paradigms and Policies

Urban Sustainability
Challenges, Paradigms and Policies

George Bugliarello
Polytechnic Institute of NYU
Cities
Origins
10,000 years ago (Agriculture)
Dynamics
Gradual Evolution
e.g., Boston, New York, Paris
Creation ex novo & Subsequent Evolution
Purpose
St. Petersburg (Russia) window on Europe
maritime power
Washington seat of government
Brasilia
Isfahan
The Urban Explosion
Rural
Urban
1900 2005 2100
Time
50
100
World
Population
(%)
POPULATION OF THE 11 LARGEST
URBAN AGGLOMERATIONS
(Millions)
1980 1994 2015
Tokyo 21.9 Tokyo 26.5 Tokyo 28.7
New York 15.6 New York 16.3 Mumbai 27.4
Mexico City 13.9 Sao Paulo 16.1 Lagos 24.4
Sao Paulo 12.1 Mexico City 15.5 Shanghai 23.4
Shanghai 11.7 Shanghai 14.7 Jakarta 21.2
Osaka 10.0 Mumbai 14.5 Sao Paulo 20.8
Buenos Aires 9.9 Los Angeles 12.2 Karachi 20.6
Los Angeles 9.5 Beijing 12.0 Beijing 19.4
Calcutta 9.0 Calcutta 11.5 Dhaka 19.0
Beijing 9.0 Seoul 11.5 Mexico City 18.8
Paris 8.9 Jakarta 11.0 New York 17.6
131.5 161.8 241.3
Source: World Urbanization Prospects The 1994 Revision (United Nations)
Urban Sustainability:
The Intersection of Two
Enormous Challenges
URBANIZATION SUSTAINABILITY
TREND:
The Two Contexts
LOCAL CONTEXT
Conditions within cities that make them
livable indefinitely

GLOBAL CONTEXT
Impact of urban phenomenon on global
sustainability

The two contexts often clash, but ultimately one
implies the other.

Each context requires:
Science (What do we know?)
Technology (What can we do?)
Policies (What do we want to do?)
Examples of Physical And Demographic
Impact Of Cities On Environment
CITY
RESOURCES POLLUTION
FOOTPRINTS
TEMPERATURE
RAINFALL INFILTRATION
BIRTH RATES
Sustainability
Urban Risks Global Risks
EPIDEMICS
FINANCIAL DISRUPTIONS
SOCIAL UNREST
DISASTERS
HOSTILITIES

The city itself as a critical infrastructure

A socio-technological-
environmental
paradigm
is needed
5 4 3 2 1 TODAY
EARTH BIO
Life
SO
Society
MA
Machines
Humans
Cities
BILLION YEARS AGO
The Biosoma
The Biosoma
Predictability
BIO SO MA ENVIRONMENT

Semi- Semi- ~predictable Semi to Unpredictable
predictable predictable
The Biosoma Paradigm
The City As A Bio Social Machine Entity
Bio

Humans
Other Species
So

Organizations
Government
Business
Health Care
Families
Religion
Customs
Trust
. . .
Ma

Housing
Infrastructure
Transportation
Utilities

Other machines
Environment

Geography
Climate
Resources
Biological Social Machine Environmental
Capital Capital Capital Capital
Pathologies Pathologies Failures Threats

Solid Waste Disposal Individuals Jobs Automation

BIO SO MA
Birth Control Rhythms Social Pressure Contraception
Trade-Offs
SO Environment Policies
REACTIVE versus PROACTIVE

High Cost Cost-Saving
REMEDIATION CONSERVATION
Water
Material
Energy
ENVIRONMENT AS ECONOMIC GOOD
Decarburization
Clean water
Recreation
LAND USE TRASPORTATION
e.g. Light Rail Transit
GREEN BUILDINGS

Inhabitants/Dwelling in the U.S.

3.2
2.2
1950
Today
Persons
dwelling
SO Impacts on Machines

Club and Church Attendance in the U.S.
Attendance
Time
1960
MA Impacts on Society
THE CITY RESILIENT
HIROSHIMA
MANNHEIM - 1695
Resilience
Withstand a major disruption with acceptable
degradation

Recover with acceptable cost and time
The Resilience Triangle
Functional
Capabilities
Disruptions Time
Disasters
Biosoma Causes, e.g:
BIO : Epidemics
SO : War
MA : Explosives
Biosoma Failures
BIO : Flood
SO: Dysfunctional
MA: Failures
Resilience: Must be biosomic
Developed vs Developing World Cities
Developed Developing
L Urban Growth H
H Resources L
H Demographic Stability L
H Population Age L
H Tertiary Sector L
H Knowledge Resources L
H Good Internal Environment L
H Consumption L
H Ecological Impact L H
L Plasticity H
H Traffic Congestion H

L: Low
H: High
Overarching Principles and Policies
for Effective S&T Intervention
Political Realism
Graduality, Flexibility, Accessibility and
Affordability
Coordination
Interurban Synergisms
Solutions less intensive in
capital
materials and energy
Solutions geared to dynamics of rapidly evolving cities

Solutions providing accessibility and affordability

New S&T Needed for
processes
systems
materials

Graduality, Flexibility, Accessibility
and Affordability
NOT THIS THIS
Time
I
n
f
r
a
s
t
r
u
c
t
u
r
e

Time
Coordination
To eliminate a large number of
contradictory specific policies, e.g:
Subsidies
Efficiency versus employment
Taxation versus incentives
Different jurisdictions
Harmonization of Urban, Regional,
National and Global Policies
Urban needs, goals and policies cannot be
addressed only locally
Regional Decentralization
Industry & Business Location
Commonality of Services
Urban-Rural Watershed Partnership
Inter-Urban Synergisms
To facilitate innovations for common problems by
assembling more resources and creating bigger
markets.
- e.g. Joint R&D
Urban vehicles
Remanufacturing
Virtual Cities
Transportation Costs vs Performance
Investment
Cost
($)
Bus
Trolleybus
Busway
STREET TRANSIT
System Performance
(speed, capacity, comfort)
SEMI-RAPID
TRANSIT
Light Rail
Rail
Regional Rail Metros
Auto/Freeway
Some Engineering Design Frontiers
MA
Self-diagnose
Self-adapt
Self-maintain
Self-repair
Self-reproduce
Self-energize
Self-learn
YYY
BIO
Guided growth
Self-recycled
YYY
SO
Network engineering
YYY

Some Final Questions
Will urban concentration process abate?
Can it be sustained? Can it be controlled?
What are cities implications for the environment?
e.g. For regenerative role of nature?
For urban nature?
Can city adjusts to nature or nature to city?
What are the long-term economic and political
implications of urban concentration globally?

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Challenges, Paradigms and Policies

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