what are five responses to urban sustainability challenges? what are five responses to urban sustainability challenges?

This requirement applies to governance vertically at all levels of administration, from local to federal and international, and horizontally among various urban sectors and spaces. Free and expert-verified textbook solutions. Further, unpredictable timing and quantity of precipitation can both dry up growing crops or lead to flash floods. We choose it not because it is without controversy, but rather because it is one of the more commonly cited indicators that has been widely used in many different contexts around the world. It can be achieved by reducing, reusing, and recycling materials. A comprehensive strategy in the form of a roadmap, which incorporates these principles while focusing on the interactions among urban and global systems, can provide a framework for all stakeholders engaged in metropolitan areas, including local and regional governments, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations, to enable meaningful pathways to urban sustainability. 2 - River in the Amazon Rainforest; environmental challenges to water sustainability depend on location and water management. First, greater and greater numbers of people are living in urban areasand are projected to do so for the foreseeable future. See our explanation on Urban Sustainability to learn more! Cities with a high number of manufacturing are linked with ____. 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). City-regional environmental problems such as ambient air pollution, inadequate waste management and pollution of rivers, lakes and coastal areas. Can a city planner prepare for everything that might go wrong, but still manage to plan cities sustainably? Regional cooperation is especially important to combat suburban sprawl; as cities grow, people will look for cheaper housing in surrounding rural and suburban towns outside of cities. ), as discussed in Chapter 2. The implementation of long-term institutional governance measures will further support urban sustainability strategies and initiatives. Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available. How can air and water quality be a challenge to urban sustainability? Institutional scale plays an important role in how global issues can be addressed. Climate, precipitation, soil and sediments, vegetation, and human activities are all factors of declining water quality. To avoid negative consequences, it is important to identify the threshold that is available and then determine the actual threshold values. There is the matter of urban growth that, if unregulated, can come in the form of suburban sprawl. The six main challenges to urban sustainability include: Other urban sustainability challenges include industrial pollution, waste management, and overpopulation. 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). Non-point source pollution is when the exact location of pollution can be located. Cities have captured more than 80 percent of the globes economic activity and offered social mobility and economic prosperity to millions by clustering creative, innovative, and educated individuals and organizations. Urban Development. Climate change overall threatens cities and their built infrastructure. Here it is important to consider not only the impact on land-based resources but also water and energy that are embodied in products such as clothing and food. It must be recognized that ultimately all sustainability is limited by biophysical limits and finite resources at the global scale (e.g., Burger et al., 2012; Rees, 2012).A city or region cannot be sustainable if its principles and actions toward its own, local-level sustainability do not scale up to sustainability globally. In this regard, access Poor resource management can not only affect residents in cities but also people living in other parts of the world. Another kind of waste produced by businesses is industrial waste, which can include anything from gravel and scrap metal to toxic chemicals. How many categories are there in the AQI? Here we advocate a DPSIR conceptual model based on indicators used in the assessment of urban activities (transportation, industry. Feedback mechanisms that enable the signals of system performance to generate behavioral responses from the urban community at both the individual and institutional levels. High amounts of nutrients that lead to an algal bloom and prevents oxygen and light from entering the water. outside of major urban areas with separate designations for residential, commercial, entertainment, and other services, usually only accessible by car. Long-term policies and institutionalized activities that can promote greater equity can contribute to the future of sustainable cities. For a pollutantthe sustainable rate of emission can be no greater than the rate at which that pollutant can be recycled, absorbed, or rendered harmless in its sink. How can climate change be a challenge to urban sustainability? This is a target that leading cities have begun to adopt, but one that no U.S. city has developed a sound strategy to attain. Sustaining natural resources in the face of climate change and anthropogenic pressures is increasingly becoming a challenge in Africa [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ]. I. Taking the challenges forward. How can a city's ecological footprint be a challenge to urban sustainability? Urban metabolism2 may be defined as the sum of the technical and socioeconomic processes that occur in cities, resulting in growth, production of energy, and elimination of waste (Kennedy et al., 2007). Over the long term and at global scales, economic growth and development will be constrained by finite resources and the biophysical limits of the planet to provide the resources required for development, industrialization, and urbanization. This is because without addressing these challenges, urban sustainability is not as effective. Particulate matter, lead, ground level ozone, nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. Test your knowledge with gamified quizzes. Energy use is of particular concern for cities, as it can be both costly and wasteful. Commercial waste is generated by businesses, usually also in the form of an overabundance of packaged goods. This is a challenge because it promotes deregulated unsustainable urban development, conversion of rural and farmland, and car dependency. As such, there are many important opportunities for further research. Transportation, industrial facilities, fossil fuels, and agriculture. 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. For a renewable resourcesoil, water, forest, fishthe sustainable rate of use can be no greater than the rate of regeneration of its source. The sustainability of a city cannot be considered in isolation from the planets finite resources, especially given the aggregate impact of all cities. A set of standards that are required of water in order for its quality to be considered high. Currently, urban governance is largely focused on single issues such as water. Given the uneven success of the Millennium Development Goals, and the unprecedented inclusion of the urban in the SDG process, the feasibility of SDG 11 was assessed in advance of . Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email. There is evidence that the spatial distribution of people of color and low-income people is highly correlated with the distribution of air pollution, landfills, lead poisoning in children, abandoned toxic waste dumps, and contaminated fish consumption. What are the 5 indicators of water quality? For instance, industrial pollution, which can threaten air and water quality, must be mitigated. What sources of urbanization can create water pollution? Local decision making must have a larger scope than the confines of the city or region. The six main challenges to urban sustainability include: suburban sprawl, sanitation, air and water quality, climate change, energy use, and the ecological footprint of cities. The highest AQI range (at the level of concern of hazardous) means that air quality is extremely poor and poses dangerous health risks to all. Clustering populations, however, can compound both positive and negative conditions, with many modern urban areas experiencing growing inequality, debility, and environmental degradation. In this context, we offer four main principles to promote urban sustainability, each discussed in detail below: Principle 1: The planet has biophysical limits. This can include waste made by offices, schools, and shops. Urban systems are complex networks of interdependent subsystems, for which the degree and nature of the relationships are imperfectly known. Providing the data necessary to analyze urban systems requires the integration of different economic, environmental, and social tools. AQI ranged 51-100 means the air quality is considered good. For example, in order to ensure that global warming remains below two degrees Celsius, the theoretical safe limit of planetary warming beyond which irreversible feedback loops begin that threaten human health and habitat, most U.S. cities will need to reduce GHG emissions 80 percent by 2050. Turbidity is a measure of how ___ the water is. Characterizing the urban metabolism constitutes a priority research agenda and includes quantification of the inputs, outputs, and storage of energy, water, nutrients, products, and wastes, at an urban scale. How many goods are imported into and exported from a city is not known in practically any U.S. city. In particular, the institutional dimension plays an important role in how global issues are addressed, as discussed by Gurr and King (1987), who identified the need to coordinate two levels of action: the first relates to vertical autonomythe citys relationship with federal administrationand the second relates to the horizontal autonomya function of the citys relationship with local economic and social groups that the city depends on for its financial and political support. However, what is needed is information on flows between places, which allows the characterization of networks, linkages, and interconnections across places. This discussion focuses on promoting a systems approachconnections, processes, and linkagesthat requires data, benchmarks, and guidance on what variables are relevant and what processes are most critical to understanding the relationships among the parts of the system. Fill in the blanks. 2, River in Amazon Rainforest (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:River_RP.jpg), by Jlwad (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Jlwad&action=edit&redlink=1), licensed by CC-BY-SA-4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en), Fig. Ecological footprint calculations show that the wealthy one-fifth of the human family appropriates the goods and life support services of 5 to 10 hectares (12.35 to 24.70 acres) of productive land and water per capita to support their consumer lifestyles using prevailing technology. Fine material produced in air pollution that humans can breathe in. limate, precipitation, soil and sediments, vegetation, and human activities are all factors of declining water quality. These goals generally include attracting new investment, improving social conditions (and reducing social problems), ensuring basic services and adequate housing, and (more recently) raising environmental standards within their jurisdiction. . True or false? There are several responses to urban sustainability challenges that are also part of urban sustainable development strategies. Human well-being and health are the cornerstones of livable and thriving cities although bolstering these relationships with myopic goals that improve human prosperity while disregarding the health of natural urban and nonurban ecosystems will only serve to undermine both human and environmental. It focuses on nine cities across the United States and Canada (Los Angeles, CA, New York City, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Grand Rapids, MI, Flint, MI, Cedar Rapids, IA, Chattanooga, TN, and Vancouver, Canada), chosen to represent a variety of metropolitan regions, with consideration given to city size, proximity to coastal and other waterways, susceptibility to hazards, primary industry, and several other factors. Indeed, often multiple cities rely on the same regions for resources. What are five responses to urban sustainability challenges? and the second relates to horizontal autonomy, which is a function of the citys relationship with local economic and social groups that the city depends on for its financial and political support. An important example is provided by climate change issues, as highlighted by Wilbanks and Kates (1999): Although climate change mainly takes place on the regional to global scale, the causes, impacts, and policy responses (mitigation and adaptation) tend to be local. Reducing severe economic, political, class, and social inequalities is pivotal to achieving urban sustainability. 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. What is the ideal pH for bodies of water? 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. Sustainable urban development has its own challenges ranging from urban growth to environmental problems caused by climate change. These tools should provide a set of indicators whose political relevance refers both to its usefulness for securing the fulfillment of the vision established for the urban system and for providing a basis for national and international comparisons, and the metrics and indicators should be policy relevant and actionable. You're a city planner who has gotten all the support and funding for your sustainability projects. The success of the Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) depends on the availability and accessibility of robust data, as well as the reconfiguration of governance systems that can catalyse urban transformation. Earn points, unlock badges and level up while studying. These same patterns of inequality also exist between regions and states with poor but resource-rich areas bearing the cost of the resource curse (see also Box 3-3). Information is needed on how the processes operate, including by whom and where outcomes and inputs are determined as well as tipping points in the system. Do you enjoy reading reports from the Academies online for free? I have highlighted what I see as two of the most interesting and critical challenges in sustainable urban development: understanding the 'vision' (or visions) and developing a deeper understanding of the multi-faceted processes of change required to achieve more sustainable cities. Urban sustainability requires durable, consistent leadership, citizen involvement, and regional partnerships as well as vertical interactions among different governmental levels, as discussed before. A description of each of these phases is given below. 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). Low density (suburban sprawl) is correlated with high car use. Designing a successful strategy for urban sustainability requires developing a holistic perspective on the interactions among urban and global systems, and strong governance. when only one kind of use or purpose can be built. Extreme inequalities threaten public health, economic prosperity, and citizen engagementall essential elements of urban sustainability. Three elements are part of this framework: A DPSIR framework is intended to respond to these challenges and to help developing urban sustainability policies and enact long-term institutional governance to enable progress toward urban sustainability. However, many of these areas may be contaminated and polluted with former toxins and the costs of clean-up and redevelopment may be high. Over 10 million students from across the world are already learning smarter. Launched at the ninth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF9 . Urban governments are tasked with the responsibility of managing not only water resources but also sanitation, waste, food, and air quality. When cities begin to grow quickly, planning and allocation of resources are critical. Urban governments are tasked with the responsibility of managing not only water resources but also sanitation, waste, food, and air quality. Regional planning can also help create urban growth boundaries, a limit that determines how far an urban area will develop spatially. Only about 2 hectares (4.94 acres) of such ecosystems are available, however, for each person on Earth (with no heed to the independent requirements of other consumer species). Third, the critical task of developing finance models to support urban sustainability action requires urgent attention. There is the issue, however, that economic and energy savings from these activities may suffer from Jevons Paradox in that money and energy saved in the ways mentioned above will be spent elsewhere, offsetting local efficiencies (Brown et al., 2011; Hall and Klitgaard, 2011). 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. Create and find flashcards in record time. tourism, etc. Register for a free account to start saving and receiving special member only perks. To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter. KUALA LUMPUR, February 10, 2018 - In an effort to support cities to achieve a greener future, a new Urban Sustainability Framework (USF), launched today by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), serves as a guide for cities seeking to enhance their sustainability. All of the above research needs derive from the application of a complex system perspective to urban sustainability. As climate change effects intensify extreme weather patterns, disturbances in water resources can occur. Nie wieder prokastinieren mit unseren Lernerinnerungen. Will you pass the quiz? Finally, the greater challenge of overpopulation from urban growth must be addressed and responded to through sustainable urban development. The unrestricted growthoutside of major urban areas with separate designations for residential, commercial, entertainment, and other services, usually only accessible by car. In a kickoff event at UCLA's Royce Hall (see event video), Chancellor Gene Block will describe the ambitious project . Generally, rural areas experience more levels of pollution than urban areas. of the users don't pass the Challenges to Urban Sustainability quiz! Indicates air quality to levels to members of the public. As simple and straightforward as this may sound, the scale argument encompasses more than spatial scaleit is composed of multiple dimensions and elements. According to the definition by Gurr and King (1987), the first relates to vertical autonomy, which is a function of the citys relationship with senior-level government. Identify your study strength and weaknesses. It nevertheless serves as an indicator for advancing thinking along those lines. Thus, localities that develop an island or walled-city perspective, where sustainability is defined as only activities within the citys boundaries, are by definition not sustainable. This is particularly relevant as places undergo different stages of urbanization and a consequent redrawing of borders and spheres of economic influence. How can the redevelopment of brownfields respond tourban sustainability challenges? 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. True or false? Because an increasing percentage of the worlds population and economic activities are concentrated in urban areas, cities are highly relevant, if not central, to any discussion of sustainable development. Name three countries with high air quality. There are many policy options that can affect urban activities such that they become active and positive forces in sustainably managing the planets resources. This lens is needed to undergird and encourage collaborations across many organizations that will enable meaningful pathways to urban sustainability. The results imply that poor air quality had substantial effects on infant health at concentrations near the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencymandated air quality standard and that roughly 1,300 fewer infants died in 1972 than would have in the absence of the Act. How can regional planning efforts respond tourban sustainability challenges? Assessing a citys environmental impacts at varying scales is extremely difficult. If a city experiences overpopulation, it can lead to a high depletion of resources, lowering the quality of life for all. Copyright 2023 National Academy of Sciences. The major causes of suburban sprawl are housing costs,population growth,lack of urban planning, andconsumer preferences. Key variables to describe urban and environmental systems and their interrelationships; Measurable objectives and criteria that enable the assessment of these interrelationships; and. This is the first step to establish an urban sustainability framework consistent with the sustainability principles described before, which provide the fundamental elements to identify opportunities and constraints for different contexts found in a diversity of urban areas. How can suburban sprawl be a challenge to urban sustainability? Urban sustainability challenges 5. The concept of planetary boundaries has been developed to outline a safe operating space for humanity that carries a low likelihood of harming the life support systems on Earth to such an extent that they no longer are able to support economic growth and human development . Cities are not islands. Name three countries with poor air quality. How did the federal government influence suburban sprawl in the US? 4, Example of a greenbelt in Tehran, Iran (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tochal_from_Modarres_Expressway.jpg), by Kaymar Adl (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kamshots/), licensed by CC-BY-2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en). A city or region cannot be sustainable if its principles and actions toward its own, local-level sustainability do not scale up to sustainability globally. Sustainability Challenges and Solutions - thestructuralengineer.info 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. Discriminatory practices in the housing market over many decades have created racial segregation in central cities and suburbs.