It focuses on real world examples within two key themes - smart cities and transportation - as a way to look at the challenges and practical responses related to urban sustainability. The task is, however, not simple. However, what is needed is information on flows between places, which allows the characterization of networks, linkages, and interconnections across places. Upload unlimited documents and save them online. 2 - River in the Amazon Rainforest; environmental challenges to water sustainability depend on location and water management. Energy use is of particular concern for cities, as it can be both costly and wasteful. Health equity is a crosscutting issue, and emerging research theme, in urban sustainability studies. Water conservation schemes can then be one way to ensure both the quantity and quality of water for residents. In short, urban sustainability will require a reconceptualization of the boundaries of responsibility for urban residents, urban leadership, and urban activities. Challenges to Urban Sustainability: Examples | StudySmarter For example, as discussed by Bai (2007), at least two important institutional factors arise in addressing GHG emission in cities: The first is the vertical jurisdictional divide between different governmental levels; the second is the relations between the local government and key industries and other stakeholders. Some promising models exist, such as MITs Urban Metabolism framework, that warrant further development (Ferro and Fernndez, 2013). (2015), and Rosado et al. This task is complex and requires further methodological developments making use of harmonized data, which may correlate material and energy consumption with their socioeconomic drivers, as attempted by Niza et al. Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name. Extra-urban impacts of urban activities such as ecological . The challenges to urban sustainability are often the very same challenges that motivate cities to be more sustainable in the first place. Proper disposal, recycling, and waste management are critical for cities. What are five responses to urban sustainability challenges? European cities have been at the forefront of the crisis from the very beginning, not only bearing the worst impacts but also becoming key actors in advocating for a green and just recovery. Here we advocate a DPSIR conceptual model based on indicators used in the assessment of urban activities (transportation, industry. The development of analysis to improve the sustainability of urbanization patterns, processes, and trends has been hindered by the lack of consistent data to enable the comparison of the evolution of different urban systems, their dynamics, and benchmarks. Concentrated energy use leads to greater air pollution with significant. Assessing a citys environmental impacts at varying scales is extremely difficult. Intended as a comparative illustration of the types of urban sustainability pathways and subsequent lessons learned existing in urban areas, this study examines specific examples that cut across geographies and scales and that feature a range of urban sustainability challenges and opportunities for collaborative learning across metropolitan regions. Sustainable management of resources and limiting the impact on the environment are important goals for cities. Cholera, typhoid, diarrhea, hepatitis A, and polio. To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter. MyNAP members SAVE 10% off online. Nothing can go wrong! Best study tips and tricks for your exams. The environmental effects of suburban sprawl include What are some urban sustainability practices that could prevent suburban sprawl? Furthermore, the governance of urban activities does not always lie solely with municipal or local authorities or with other levels of government. Urban Development Overview - World Bank Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book. Restrictive housing covenants, exclusionary zoning, financing, and racism have placed minorities and low-income people in disadvantaged positions to seek housing and neighborhoods that promote health, economic prosperity, and human well-being (Denton, 2006; Rabin, 1989; Ritzdorf, 1997; Sampson, 2012; Tilley, 2006). It is beyond the scope of this report to examine all available measures, and readers are directed to any of the numerous reviews that discuss their relative merits (see, for example, uek et al., 2012; EPA, 2014a; Janetos et al., 2012; Wiedmann and Barrett, 2010; Wilson et al., 2007; The World Bank, 2016; Yale University, 2016). Its 100% free. This is a challenge because it promotes deregulated unsustainable urban development, conversion of rural and farmland, and car dependency. Set individual study goals and earn points reaching them. Consequently, what may appear to be sustainable locally, at the urban or metropolitan scale, belies the total planetary-level environmental or social consequences. Stop procrastinating with our smart planner features. Meeting development goals has long been among the main responsibilities of urban leaders. Sustainable urban development, as framed under Sustainable Development Goal 11, involves rethinking urban development patterns and introducing the means to make urban settlements more inclusive, productive and environmentally friendly. This lens is needed to undergird and encourage collaborations across many organizations that will enable meaningful pathways to urban sustainability. Fig. Will you pass the quiz? Urban sustainability refers to the ability of a city or urban area to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The challenges to urban sustainability are also what motivate cities to be more sustainable. Cities that are serious about sustainability will seek to minimize their negative environmental impacts across all scales from local to global. For a renewable resourcesoil, water, forest, fishthe sustainable rate of use can be no greater than the rate of regeneration of its source. How can a city's ecological footprint be a challenge to urban sustainability? The unrestricted growthoutside of major urban areas with separate designations for residential, commercial, entertainment, and other services, usually only accessible by car. Climate, precipitation, soil and sediments, vegetation, and human activities are all factors of declining water quality. Without paying heed to finite resources, urban sustainability may be increasingly difficult to attain depending on the availability and cost of key natural resources and energy as the 21st century progresses (Day et al., 2014, 2016; McDonnell and MacGregor-Fors, 2016; Ramaswami et al., 2016). How can climate change be a challenge to urban sustainability? This is because without addressing these challenges, urban sustainability is not as effective. Poor resource management can not only affect residents in cities but also people living in other parts of the world. The majority of natural resources in the world are consumed in cities. Inequitable environmental protection undermines procedural, geographic, and social equities (Anthony, 1990; Bullard, 1995). First, large data gaps exist. Sustainable cities: research and practice challenges Particularly for developing countries, manufacturing serves as a very important economic source, serving contracts or orders from companies in developed countries. Front Matter | Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Challenges and This paper focuses on adaptive actions in response to WEF challenges as well as the environmental implications of these responses in Harare, Zimbabwe. New sustainability indicators and metrics are continually being developed, in part because of the wide range of sustainability frameworks used as well as differences in spatial scales of interest and availability (or lack thereof) of data. The clean-up for these can be costly to cities and unsustainable in the long term. Maintaining good air and water quality in urban areas is a challenge as these resources are not only used more but are also vulnerable to pollutants and contaminants. Thankfully, the world has many resources and the capacity to properly distribute them. 3 Clark, C. M. 2015. If a city experiences overpopulation, it can lead to a high depletion of resources, lowering the quality of life for all. Factories and power plants, forestry and agriculture, mining and municipal wastewater treatment plants. How can regional planning efforts respond tourban sustainability challenges? While urban areas can be centers for social and economic mobility, they can also be places with significant inequality, debility, and environmental degradation: A large proportion of the worlds population with unmet needs lives in urban areas. Cities are not islands. Although cities concentrate people and resources, and this concentration can contribute to their sustainability, it is also clear that cities themselves are not sustainable without the support of ecosystem services, including products from ecosystems such as raw materials and food, from nonurban areas. 4, Example of a greenbelt in Tehran, Iran. 3 Principles of Urban Sustainability: A Roadmap for Decision Making. With poor quality, the health and well-being of residents can be jeopardized, leading again to possible illness, harm, or death. The metric most often used is the total area of productive landscape and waterscape required to support that population (Rees, 1996; Wackernagel and Rees, 1996). Not a MyNAP member yet? There are several responses to urban sustainability challenges that are also part of urban sustainable development strategies. Science can also contribute to these pathways by further research and development of several key facets of urban areas including urban metabolism, threshold detection of indicators, comprehension of different data sets, and further exploration of decision-making processes linked across scales. Cities with a high number of these facilities are linked with poorer air quality, water contamination, and poor soil health. In order to facilitate the transition toward sustainable cities, we suggest a decision framework that identifies a structured but flexible process that includes several critical elements (Figure 3-1). As climate change effects intensify extreme weather patterns, disturbances in water resources can occur. True or false? For instance, with warmer recorded temperatures, glaciers melt faster. New Urban Sustainability Framework Guides Cities Towards a Greener Future City leaders must move quickly to plan for growth and provide the basic services, infrastructure, and affordable housing their expanding populations need. Urban Innovation 1: Sustainability and Technology Solutions - Udemy Clustering populations, however, can compound both positive and negative conditions, with many modern urban areas experiencing growing inequality, debility, and environmental degradation. The main five responses to urban sustainability challenges are regional planning efforts, urban growth boundaries, farmland protection policies, greenbelts, and redevelopment of brownfields. Understanding indicators and making use of them to improve urban sustainability could benefit from the adoption of a DPSIR framework, as discussed by Ferro and Fernndez (2013). Chapter 4 explores the city profiles and the lessons they provide, and Chapter 5 provides a vision for improved responses to urban sustainability. Health impacts, such as asthma and lung disease. Simply put, any sustainability plans, including those applied in urban areas, cannot violate the laws of nature if they are to achieve acceptable, long-term outcomes for human populations. urban sustainability in the long run. Often a constraint may result in opportunities in other dimensions, with an example provided by Chay and Greenstone (2003) on the impact of the Clean Air Act amendments on polluting plants from 1972 and 1987. The spread and continued growth of urban areas presents a number of concerns for a sustainable future, particularly if cities cannot adequately address the rise of poverty, hunger, resource consumption, and biodiversity loss in their borders. Thus, urban sustainability cannot be limited to what happens within a single place. Ultimately, all the resources that form the base on which urban populations subsist come from someplace on the planet, most often outside the cities themselves, and often outside of the countries where the cities exist. The future of urban sustainability will therefore focus on win-win opportunities that improve both human and natural ecosystem health in cities. Local decision making must have a larger scope than the confines of the city or region. Fresh-water rivers and lakes which are replenished by glaciers will have an altered timing of replenishment; there may be more water in the spring and less in the summer. Ecological footprint analysis has helped to reopen the controversial issue of human carrying capacity. The ecological footprint of a specified population is the area of land and water ecosystems required continuously. You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. This can include waste made by offices, schools, and shops. Urban sustainability challenges 5. Indeed, it is unrealisticand not necessarily desirableto require cities to be solely supported by resources produced within their administrative boundaries. Poor resource management can not only affect residents in cities but also people living in other parts of the world. Sustainability | Free Full-Text | Smart and Resilient Urban Futures for Two environmental challenges to urban sustainability are water quality and air quality. The challenge is to develop a new understanding of how urban systems work and how they interact with environmental systems on both the local and global scale. When poorly managed, urbanization can be detrimental to sustainable development. Where possible, activities that offer co-occurring, reasonably sized benefits in multiple dimensions of sustainability should be closely considered and pursued as primary choices while managing tradeoffs. Conceptually, the idea that there is an ecological footprint, and that sustainable cities are places that seek to minimize this footprint, makes great sense (Portney, 2002). Indeed, often multiple cities rely on the same regions for resources. There is the matter of urban growth that, if unregulated, can come in the form of suburban sprawl. These can be sites where previous factories, landfills, or other facilities used to operate. High amounts of nutrients that lead to an algal bloom and prevents oxygen and light from entering the water. When cities begin to grow quickly, planning and allocation of resources are critical. Activities that provide co-benefits that are small in magnitude, despite being efficient and co-occurring, should be eschewed unless they come at relatively small costs to the system. One is that the ecological footprint is dominated by energy as over 50 percent of the footprint of most high- and middle-income nations is due to the amount of land necessary to sequester greenhouse gases (GHGs). Urbanization is a global phenomenon with strong sustainability implications across multiple scales. Urban governments are tasked with the responsibility of managing not only water resources but also sanitation, waste, food, and air quality. Very little information on the phases of urban processes exists, be it problem identification or decision making. The scientific study of environmental thresholds, their understanding, modeling, and prediction should also be integrated into early warning systems to enable policy makers to understand the challenges and impacts and respond effectively (Srebotnjak et al., 2010). Water resources in particular are at a greater risk of depletion due to increased droughts and floods. 2. This is because as cities grow, more resources are needed for maintaining economic conditions in a city. Another approach is for government intervention through regulation of activities or the resource base.