Sustainable Cities Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Urban environmentalism is at least as old as environmentalism outside of the cities. The origins of urban planning in squalid industrial cities, the rise and decline of the Green Bans in Australia during the 1970s, and the contemporary Environmental Justice Movement in the United States are examples of urban environmental action that challenges environmentalists to rethink notions of the environment, environmentalism, and how we construct boundaries and define cities and nature.

The concept of sustainable cities has increased in popularity since the early 1990s. Some authors tend to emphasize one aspect of sustainable cities, such as transport (Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy), energy (Roberta Capello, Peter Nijkamp, and Gerard Pepping), or eco-partnerships (Takashi Inoguchi, Edward Newman, and Glenn Paoletto).

The sustainable cities idea emerged from a discourse of sustainability that was formed at the global level. The concept of a sustainable city is both appealing and oxymoronic. William Rees claimed that strictly speaking, a city cannot be sustainable. Phil McManus writes about moving “toward sustainable cities”; Andre Sorenson, Peter Marcotullio and Jill Grant titled their book “towards sustainable cities”; while in Australia the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Environment and Heritage favored ” “a vision for a sustainable city’ and a pathway to sustainability.”

Mike Douglass highlights the links between world cities and livable cities in relation to Pacific Asia. Improving “amenities” is seen as a viable strategy to create livable cities, which attract economic growth because “catering to the lifestyle needs of investors has become a critical consideration to be added to providing production-related facilities for their companies.” This approach of the livable city, where environmental quality is seen as a way of enhancing international competitiveness, may give minimal attention to environmental issues from a sustainability perspective.

The dangers of such an approach are highlighted by the ecological footprint analysis, as expounded by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees and by the notion of a “vortex city” reported by Phil McManus. In both cases, the issue of boundaries is crucial. Cities import and export resources and wastes from surrounding areas (hinterlands) and increasingly from distant parts of the planet. Can a city be more sustainable within its built area, or political boundary, and do so without exporting the impacts of unsustainable practices to its hinterland or other parts of the planet? The issue of measuring the sustainability of cities is dependent on how sustainability is defined. These questions are being considered in relation to the prospects of sustainability for world cities and include the use of concepts such as the ecological footprint.

Moving toward sustainability, or away from unsustainable cities, is a big challenge. Applying the idea of sustainability to cities requires recognition of local context and cultures. What is considered sustainable or unsustainable may vary, and the processes of achieving sustainability are also specific to the cultural and political-economic contexts of a city. Some cities, such as Leicester in England, promote themselves as green cities. Other cities throughout the world have adopted various aspects of sustainability, including the city of Melbourne’s “Triple Bottom Line” of economic, social, and ecological framework for decision making. Examples of particular actions to promote sustainability (whether making purchasing decisions, organizing conferences to promote the concept, initiating major projects to show what is possible, or development control that constrains unsustainable practices) can be found in many cities around the world.

The significance of agriculture in or near cities and its contribution to sustainability is often overlooked in urban planning. Land used for urban agriculture, the rural-urban fringe, peri-urban land, or areas described by similar terminology have often been seen by developers and others as land waiting to be developed for housing, industry, and other uses associated with cities. Despite its economic importance, much of the remaining agriculture in cities will be lost unless we change our geographical imaginations about cities. This loss in agriculture is likely to lead to food traveling over even greater distances from its production to its consumption. The provision of healthy, sustainably produced food close to where it is being consumed is an important part of sustainable cities. Sustainable food production is, however, only one part of a sustainable city.

Throughout the world there are various awards given in recognition of the efforts of some cities to move toward sustainability. Winning such an award is recognition of effort and success in at least one activity, but it does not mean that the city can be considered sustainable in every aspect of its operations. The award recognizes one step in a journey toward sustainability. There is a need for participation so that moving toward sustainable cities becomes an agenda for many people, not the exclusive realm of trained urban planners, engineers, and other design professionals.

The importance of participation is highlighted by Rees, who recognized that “the best-designed and most sensitively administered city cannot be sustainable if its inhabitants live unsustainable lifestyles.” Sustainable living programs, as a way of moving toward sustainable cities and promoting sustainability generally, are becoming increasingly important. The moves toward sustainable cities require issues such as infrastructure investment, urban planning, governance, lifestyles, and education to be integrated and aligned toward sustainability for successful implementation to occur.

Bibliography:

Australian House of Representatives, Sustainable Cities (House of Representatives Standing Committee on Environment and Heritage, 2005);
Roberta Capello, Peter Nijkamp, and Gerard Pepping, Sustainable Cities and Energy Policies (Springer-Verlag, 1999);
Mike Douglass, “From Global Intercity Competition to Cooperation for Livable Cities and Economic Resilience in Pacific Asia,” Environment and Urbanization (v.14/1, 2002);
David Goode, “Environmental Strategies for London,” in Julian Hunt, ed., London’s Environment: Prospects for a Sustainable World City (Imperial College Press, 2005);
Julian Hunt, ed., London’s Environment: Prospects for a Sustainable World City (Imperial College Press, 2005);
Takashi Inoguchi, Edward Newman, and Glenn Paoletto, eds., Cities and the Environment: New Approaches for Eco-Societies (United Nations University Press, 1999);
Phil McManus, Vortex Cities to Sustainable Cities: Australia’s Urban Challenge (UNSW Press, 2005);
Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy, Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence (Island Press, 1999);
Kent Portney, Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously: Economic Development, the Environment, and the Quality of Life in American Cities (MIT Press, 2003);
William Rees, “Is ‘Sustainable City’ an Oxymoron?” in Local Environment (v.2/3, 1997);
Andre Sorenson, Peter Marcotullio, and Jill Grant, , Towards Sustainable Cities: East Asian, North American and European Perspectives on Managing Urban Regions (Ashgate, 2004);
Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees, Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth (New Society Publishers, 1996).