reproduction rates tend to drop and their population becomes better educated, leading to better health statistics from birth all the way to old age.


In resource terms, cities have historically represented an opportunity to do more with less. Urban density leads to efficiencies of scale - economic growth can be produced with less land and basic needs such as food, water, shelter and security can be provided through networks, rather than generated in isolation.


Part of the Problem A transition to urban living does not necessarily lead to more positive outcomes. In social terms, those living in cities in the developing world are often particularly vulnerable to health, security, and environmental risks, with one out of three people living in slums. In industrialized countries, the flight of the wealthy urbanite to the suburbs has led to urban blight in numerous city centers.


In resource terms, cities represent the majority of humankind’s energy and natural resources consumption. Now home to half the world’s population, today’s cities represent roughly 60-80% of the world’s energy consumption according to Pike Research.


Of course, there is a great deal of variation between cities on this front. European cities such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam which are generally lauded for their high quality of life, consume much less energy per capita than cities in the United States, Canada or Australia. One ingredient in this discrepancy is due to simple geography – some cities can more easily rely on hydropower, wind and solar due to their location. However, much of the variation between cities is not ‘locational’ but rather ‘organizational’ -- choices made by residents and their elected officials regarding the form and operation of their city.


The Role of Technology While the challenges of the urban way of life continue to grow more complex, our knowledge of how cities actually work, our understanding of the amazing complexity of urban systems, and the technologies for planning, designing, developing and running more effective and efficient cities is also developing. Miniaturized sensors now allow us to gather data about almost every aspect of day-to-day urban operations: how efficient water flows through pipes, where there is traffic congestion, the quality of air in a particular location, or whether an asphalt roadbed is wearing out. The list is extensive and growing rapidly. Simultaneously, the capacity to collect, analyze and respond to these data is also advancing, building on tried-and -tested wireless technologies and emerging cloud computing. We now have the ability to visualize complex urban systems on a computer before these systems are constructed; and we can optimize them, not only for construction efficiency but for subsequent operations to continue to advance. The


|38| ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE


application of building information modeling (BIM) to entire segments of urban areas – city information modeling—enables us to visualize the construction of multiple complex horizontal and vertical systems in real-time 3-D, project this into the future (4-D), and incorporate myriad levels of information and data, including financial implications (5-D).


Application of these new technologies and approaches is particularly relevant to the world’s coastal cities. As we experience climate change’s effects, urban areas will need to plan well in advance for the effects of catastrophic storms and sea level rise. Meanwhile, the impacts on agricultural yields will require more efficient and nimble supply chains to feed growing urban centers.


What is Required? To truly take advantage of humankind’s shift to urban living, we view the following steps as requisite.


1. Clarify what is meant by the term “sustainable city” so that urban planners can utilize the tools they already have to deliver these “cities of the future” (e.g., master planning, siting, permitting, and incentives). [We submit that one of these future cities, a truly sustainable city is one that, at a minimum, is managed as a “system of systems.” It integrates with its regional environmental context, includes resource and energy efficient buildings, emphasizes redevelopment, urban infill, and multi- modal transit-oriented development, creates minimal water pollution and solid waste, makes affordable clean energy available through efficient siting and distribution, and provides a high quality of life for all its citizens.]


2. Define key performance metrics for new developments, integrating cultural and historic concerns for contextual appropriateness with the need to be increasingly resource efficient. Data are evermore available to measure and monitor performance of buildings, infrastructure and entire communities. Appropriate indicators are necessary to measure what is important, relevant metrics are needed to make sure we’re actually measuring what matters, and achievable benchmarks to ensure we’re making progress to improve performance.


3. Dramatically increase the sentient nature of our cities, both increasing the availability of bottom-up data and structuring these data as relevant and perceivable feedback loops. We tend to take seriously that which we measure, and the more we measure the more information we can access as to relative performance and optimization. As we measure, we must adjust our systems and ways of life to adhere to what the data tell us, even if that means a radical shift in the ways things have been done.


4. Ensure “full cost pricing” for goods, through both regulatory and commercial methods. The price for a resource, particularly a non-renewable resource, needs


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192