Sustainable cities are urban places that protect quality of life for both current and future generations. This is achieved by seeking to minimize their ecological footprint (a theoretical amount of land and water needed to provide all the resources needed by a city, and to dispose of all waste created by the residents and businesses under prevailing technology).
| Sustainable cities Keynote defines sustainable cities and outlines some measures that cities are using to become sustainable. | Curitiba article.pages | Curitiba Case Study |
| Geo File Sustainable Cities | Waste management Keynote.key | |
Last Word Activity – Read the article in the link that follows
Then each person identifies a sentence (or two, maximum) which they felt passionate, intrigued, appalled by or otherwise caught their attention. Person 1 reads out their selection. Person 2 comments on it, followed by person 3 etc. Nobody comments on other’s comments or interrupts. When it gets back to person 1, they explain why they choose it and can reflect upon others’ comments if they so wish. Then we progress to person 2 and so on… Clear? If not, it will become so!
Some links:
A Sustainable City? TianJin eco-city
Shanghai Tower – sustainable skyscraper?
The Rise of the Mega-City – an interactive exploration
Foreign Policy – Cities Issue: Dec 6 2012 – full subscription in library
TEDxPhilly – Diana Lind – On dismantling urban highways in cities
The Guardian – Over 100 cities now mostly powered by renewable energy
This link is to the Living Geography site and some info about a zero-carbon, zero-waste eco-city
The Zero-emissions city of the future:
Sir Peter Hall, on Sustainable Urban Growth:
AND THIS IS PERHAPS NOT THE BEST APPROACH TO URBANISATION: