In the late 1960's in the UK the national rail system was revisited strategically and this lead to a more efficient overall system but the massive loss of many small branchlines that served many communities sitting away from the major conurbations. Post modern efficiency or loss of a valuable community asset ?, I suppose in the late 60's nobody really envisages just how much the car would take over. One great example where this disaster had a positive outcome was the Bristol to Bath branch line. Bristol is a city of circa 0.5m people and Bath is a smaller city of circa 100,000 people and they are separated by 15 miles. Between 1979 and 1985 a cycling organisation called Sustrans (*) with the help of many volunteers converted this disused line into a 3 metre wide cycle path, and it has been hugely popular for cyclists and pedestrians ever since (**). So why is great from a sustainability perspective for urban Bristol ?. It is because it has been used by millions of cyclists since it opened and this clearly has impacted on overall emissions from the car within the area. It promotes a healthy lifestyle, contributes to easing congestion, and provides education at it's many stops, which are located to where the original railway stops were positioned. It is a treasure in the west of England and shows that ill thought efficiency measures carried out nearly 50 years ago can still provide a significant benefit in sustainability terms. In the 1960's sustainability as a concept would have not been taken seriously at all, so the tools and analysis we have today to show impacts of strategic infrastructure would not have been developed. Lets hope now that we have the tools the lessons of the past are learned for the future. (*) http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/bristol-and-bath-path (**) http://www.bristolbathrailwaypath.org.uk/plan-about.shtml
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Much has been written about smart cities since the 1990's and many believe they are the future for all urban areas whilst others have heavily critiqued academic view on this topic. This is too big a topic for a blog so I am going to focus on the The Australian Smart Cities Plan (*). This was launched on the 29th of April 2016. It's objectives at a strategic level is to see Australia rethink how it plans, builds and manages going forward. The key issues within the plan is tackling housing affordablilty, access to jobs, traffic congestion and protection of the natural environment. It has what it calls a 3 pillar vision, which is smart investment, smart policy and smart technology, and has set aside funds for States and Cities to partner the Government in City Deals. An example of this is the Western Sydney City Deal (**). This covers a wide geographical area that has an anticipated population growth of 1m over the next 20 years. The 5 targeted drivers for deliver are as follows 1) transport investment to reduce congestion 2) reduce business regulation to increase employment 3) increasing housing numbers through changes to the planning system 4) Biodiversity and conservation 5) joined up working between the National Government, NSW and the regional Governing bodies on the ground. On the 21st of October 2016 the prime minister of Australia and the premier of NSW signed a memorandum of understanding to formalise a partnership to take this forward. Only time will tell how smart this initiative turns out to be, but the signs are good, as the political will is in place, funds are set aside, and the aims are deliverable if everybody works together to achieve them (*) https://cities.dpmc.gov.au/ (**) https://cities.dpmc.gov.au/western-sydney-city-deal When looking to develop infrastructure within urban environments it is crucial to ensure they are designed in a resiliant manner and are both efficient in terms of functonality and efficient in terms of sustainability principles. Getting this right is the difference between a poor or successful outcome. Many infrastructure projects look to scientific tools to assist in the design of the project to enable as much information to be captured before the project is delivered. There are many tools that assist in this but the 3 most common ones are as follows 1) The Australian Green Infrastructure Council's IS tool (*) 2) The Institution of Civil Engineer's CEEQUAL tool (**) 3) The Institute of Sustainable Infrastructure's ENVISION tool (***) The first is popular within Australia and and provides consistency when evaluating tendering, analysis on the whole life cost of assets, waste reduction and innovation. It is self assessed but independently verified and provides an IS scorecard for the client The second is a global tool which is used predominantly on large key infrastructure projects or masterplans, and has a focus on infrastructure and public realm. It also provides an assessment and rating and has been used on hundreds of projects around the world. The third is more of a free toolkit to developers who can test their designs in terms of sustainable outcomes and would therefore be much more likely to be used on smaller bespoke projects. The role of these tools is to enshrine best practice within new developments and can work as a metric for ensuring the most efficient outcomes of a project in terms of the life of the project beyond construction where is it serving it's functional use. This is clearly key in terms of resiliance going forward (*) http://www.agic.net.au/ISratingscheme1.htm (**) http://www.ceequal.com/ (***) https://sustainableinfrastructure.org As cities continue to grow it is a key planning policy to ensure that key infrastructure grows with it. If purely left to developers who have a responsibility to their Board's and shareholders to maximise profit, the urban expansion would always favour the easier, clean, non polluted and vacant fringe areas at the edge of the city. There are many reasons why renewing urban areas that have outlasted their original use is beneficial to the city and the environment. Many cities developed in a time of industrial expansion and it was often the case that the industrial factories were built side by side with the work cottages or tenements where the workers lived. This was before the advent of the motorcar and before planners were aware of the environmental issues that affect the world today. Many of these industrial areas in inner cities are not fit for the modern economy, and the buildings that sit on them are not suited to the modern working environment. This is now seen as a huge opportunity within urban areas. Bringing these areas back to life does not impact on urban fringe, makes these areas active again and brings financial gains for cities in terms of more efficient public services. This can be observed by bus services serving a smaller area of higher density housing as opposed to covering a much larger area of low density housing as an example. Of course there is also the aesthetic of the city as well, where these areas can be transformed from a blot on the landscape to a modern and vibrant new quarter. This is an efficient use of redundant land already within an urban area, and if designed with sustainability principles, can have a huge benefit to the city without impacting on the environment on the fringe. They represent an opportunity to improve the landscape of the city and the green areas of the city which all contribute to reducing the urban heat island effect and the health issues associated with it. The images above are from the brownfield programme in Lawrence where older industrial areas are being transformed and brought back to life (*). There are many examples such as Lawrence globally and it is a crucial function of sustainability to ensure the growth in population within cities is fully considered, and the re-use of brownfield sites is a crucial piece of the puzzle (*) www.groundworklawrence.rog/brownfields An urban heat island is where the built up area is warmer than the surrounding rural areas. In simple terms human activity creates this by building surfaces that soak up the heat (solar radiation) in the day and slowly releases that heat in the night. Urban areas have less green space and trees as well, so evapotranspiration is also significantly less in urban environments. Less vegetation means less natural shading and also means less trees to help deal with carbon emissions.
Tall buildings also create urban canyon effects, which means they contribute to the reflection and absorption of sunlight which contributes to the phenomenon. All of these things, when combined, contribute to the overall effect. The effects of heat islands are complex and wide, but the key of which this blog is concerned is the effect on health. They can contribute directly to heatwaves, and this is a killer once temperatures reach certain levels, especially for the older generation (*). Increased temperatures also contribute towards heat strokes, heat exhaustion and heat cramps (**). A solution that is currently being promoted globally is cool surfaces. The advantage of this is it is simple solution and cost effective. This is about increasing the albedo, or solar reflectance of surfaces to mitigate the problem. Existing technologies can increase urban surface albedo by 10% (***). By having something as simple as white roofs can have a huge benefit and is a cost efficient and easy methodology that can be used everywhere. Another area that can help mitigate the issue is the use of green space within urban environments. Trees are crucial to this as they provide shading and soak up carbon emissions and also contribute to cooling the environment through evapotranspiration. Many cities fully understand this, not only for cooling but also for aesthetic reasons associated with mental health. 202020vision is an organisation in Australia that is promoting the increase of green space within Australia by 20% by 2020 (****). It is focussing on 28 projects across the country and to date has over 400 organisations signed up. Our cities are predicted to continue to grow in size, and the overall world population is predicted to see a higher percentage growth of people living in urban environments so it is crucial that technology and design incorporate the principles of cool surfaces going forward, as they will be an important facet of the overall sustainability goals needed for urban environments of the future. This, tied in with more thought towards the use of green space, can have a significant beneficial effect on the effects of the Urban Heat Island globally (*) R. W. Buechley; J. Van Bruggen & L. E. Trippi (1972). "Heat island = death island?". Environmental Research. 5 (1): 85–92 (**) Kovats, R. Sari; Hajat, Shakoor (April 2008). "Heat Stress and Public Health: A Critical Review". Annual Review of Public Health. 29 (1): 41–55 (***) Akbari H, Menon S, Rosenfeld A. 2009. Global cooling: increasing world-wide urban albedos to offset CO2. Climatic Change, 94 (3-4), 275-286. (****) 202020vision.com.au Sustainable and ecological concepts have increasingly become more high profile over the last 10 years, with the awareness of environmental issues now widespread throughout the world, and an increasingly aware public demanding to see change. Well publicised world summits have led the way in terms of trying to get global responses to a complex set of global problems, which has led to many countries signing up to global protocols to a higher or lesser extent to monitor and work towards targeted outputs in terms of reduction of activities harmful to the planet. The obvious example is green house gas emissions but there are many many more. But what does this look like on the ground ?. Increasingly countries are promoting events to encourage change and to further increase awareness of residents. A good example of this is the 2016 Eco Action Day held in Singapore (*). Singapore already leads the way in environmental good practice and is seen as a shining beacon, and it continues to promote good practice more and more, and perhaps it is no coincidence that a tiny country like Singapore has risen to become a top 3 financial centre globally due to it's visionary approaches across the board. It is an annual event and is held on June the 5th, to celebrate world environment day. It provides a platform for organisations and individuals to pledge environment actions, and calls on them to join the movement to "green" Singapore. The movement is called "Green the Red Dot" and is very much a focal policy point within the city state. Events such as these are invaluable for fostering togetherness to deal with serious issues that effect the lives of everybody (*) www.ecoaction.sg The image attached is a promotional image for the Singapore Eco Action Day 2015 Noise pollution is a serious issue globally within urban environments. Uncontrolled growth of urban environments in terms of residential density, mixed use development, and the increased use of the car on already congested roads when combined is a huge health issue. Sleep deprivation causes many illnesses, both physical and mental, and puts added pressure on health services in most urban areas, where scarce resources are already stretched to deal with all other health issues. Noise in the longer term can also seriously damage hearing. The economic cost is not just related to health services, it also relates to working days lost through illness, and inefficiency of a proportion of the urban workforce through tiredness. Mumbai in February 2016 was announced as the noisiest city in India by the Central Pollution Control Board (*), and the Mumbai illustration serves as a good example of what can be done when the combination of legislation, law and people-power work together to facilitate change. Mumbai decided to tackle this head-on and this was a coordinated approach by courts, local noise activists and the legislators. They have pushed through court rulings which have introduced noise mapping in certain areas, silence zones, regulations surrounding the use of firecrackers and further traffic initiatives. The key traffic initiative is a very simple one, and that is to discourage the use of the car horn. Heavy fines have been introduced for motorists who persistently offend and in 2016 3,176 offenders were taken through the courts. The overall proposals within Mumbai when combined means it is not the noisiest city within India anymore, and the lessons learned are being shared across the country. A high profile example of a significant reduction achieved is the lowest decibel level recorded since 2013 for the biggest festival in Mumbai, the Ganeshotsav. This was publicised as a success throughout India (**) Of course the bigger issues such as the sheer scale of traffic congestion and not having coherent zoning in planning terms in many urban environments will take longer to solve, but the knowledge base surrounding the environmental impact of noise is now analytical and proven, and it remains to be seen how this works itself through when city leaders are tasked with prioritising conflicting priorities going forward (*) cpcb.nic.in (**) www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/noise-pollution Urban Air pollution is a global issue affecting many cities. It also affects rural areas but this blog will focus on urban areas. The health risks associated with pollution are far and wide, and stem from particulate matter (PM) (*) in the air being breathed in. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has carried out extensive research on this topic and has formulated an interesting database based upon 51 cities with data collected between 1990 and 2014 (**) The purpose of the data collection is to establish the key reasons for air pollution and map them across the cities studied. This is to inform policy change within these cities in terms of trying to tackle the problem. It is clear that not all cities or geographical areas suffer from the same causality and effects so the solutions need to reflect that. The 5 categories of sources of air pollution are as follows 1) Traffic (25%) - worst in India, SE Asia, SW Europe and Brazil 2) Combustion and Agriculture (22%) 3) Domestic fuel burning (20%) - worst in Africa and central and eastern Europe 4) natural dust and salt (18%) 5) industry (15%) - worst in Japan, southern Asia, Turkey and Brazil It is clear that in terms of pollution in city environments that numbers 1, 3 and 5 cause the most health issues and deaths. The solutions needed to tackle this issue is hugely complex as invariably all of the above result from economic activity that is considered crucial in the areas studied. To conclude, the key areas to be tackled moving forward to make a real and tangible difference is prioritising healthier transport solutions and reducing emissions, reducing emissions within industry and proving access to clean access within households globally. Clearly this is highly complex and difficult with differing global cities having different characteristics in terms of development, politics and legislation, but the WHO are working hard to improve awareness and garner political support to assist in the changes needed over time (*) EU Science Hub https://ec.europa.eu (**) WHO source apportionment database for PM10 and PM 2.5 updated August 2014 http://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/global/source_apport/ (***) The image above is from the WHO database Green walls have become an increasing feature within urban environments over the last 10 years. But the jury is still out in terms of whether the environmental benefits they can bring justify the cost of installation.
Green walls can keep a building warm in the winter, and can contribute to keeping a building cool in the summer. The primary cause of heat build up in cities is insolation, the absorption of solar radiation by roads and buildings in the city and the storage of this heat in the building material and it's subsequent re-radiation. Plant surfaces, as a result of transpiration, do not rise 5 degrees centigrade above the ambient heat and are often cooler(*). This means a green wall will not contribute to this build up of heat within the built form of an urban area, so the theory is that if there is multiple green walls within a location it helps brings the heat down when combined with the natural trees and green spaces on the ground within the area. Active living green walls even have the ability to contribute to the cooling systems within buildings, however cooling regulations still require all the normal components to be installed anyway, so this therefore means an additional cost over and above the norm, with the benefit being the same. Aesthetically green walls can add greatly to the attractiveness of an area, but this in itself is not always a powerful enough argument to convince developers of the merits. There are differing methods of building green walls and the differing methodology tends to be driven by geographical location. For example simple loose media structures can only become functional in environments with no seismic activity and low wind and rainfall, due to the maintenance issues these weather events bring. Many green walls incorporate water systems and some, such as Sheet media systems, can hold water well as the capacity can be designed into the polyurethane system which can last for 15 years with minimal maintenance due to the non-biodegradable nature of the product. So why aren't there more of these ? Currently the burden of cost lies with the developer who is always under pressure to manage construction costs, and also acutely aware that the end product they look to sell will be worth more if there are not costly maintenance issues going forward. Herein lies the conundrum. It is worth noting that the majority of larger green walls globally are on public sector buildings which set great examples to the private sector, but ultimately are paid for by tax payers (*) Ong, B (2003) Landscape and Urban Planning 64(4) The image above is of a building in Chile designed by Enrique Browne Architects Flooding and storm water management is an increasing problem within urban areas as they have expanded over time. Simply put, if you build over an existing 1,000 acres of greenfield agricultural land to expand an existing urban area, it is absolutely clear that if you do not design in a water strategy for this, you will hugely increase the run off of water within storm periods as the surfaces of the houses, roads, footpaths and other features needed for a housing development are clearly much less able to absorb the water in the way a field would. This can cause significant problems downstream for the existing settlement and beyond. One simple but effective part of any water strategy for an urban extension is the principle of permeable paving, This allows the water to move through the paving into the ground below and therefore reduces the run off significantly and allows water to be stored more naturally within the ground. The advantages are ground water recharge, easier surface water management, an overall reduction in irrigation demand in surrounding areas, the lowering of heat islands effects through the ground being cooler and a reduction in pollutants in storm water drains as the pollution is broken down through natural processes. This rather simple technique can use existing products, and although not as cheap to construct as impermeable paving, is still a relatively small cost within the build stock of a developer. It can be incorporated into walkways, driveways, squares, piazza's and parking areas. The overall cost benefit to a town is potentially huge as avoids huge infrastructure costs elsewhere to deal with increased stormwater run-off, and is therefore at the forefront of planning policy in many urban areas globally to a greater or lesser extent. To conclude, it is a relatively simple concept, and therefore straightforward for developers to incorporate, and has massive gains from an environmental and sustainable perspective. Sometimes the most simple of technology and ideology are the most effective, and allows the decision makers within development firms to incorporate them with the minimum of cost. |
AuthorGerald Walker. BA Hons Economics and Studying for a Masters at UNSW in Property and Development Archives
June 2017
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