Eco City Advantages And Disadvantages

Sustainable cities are an ecosystem with not many environmental issues. Some of the issues that are not present within a sustainable city are air pollution, mass population and excessive water and energy usage. A sustainable city does not have a negative impact on the environment. It has a small ecological footprint, which is the impact of a person or community on the environment. It would also have a lot of greenery, meaning a lot of vegetation and use renewable energy, solar panels and wind energy.

Urban sustainability is the idea that an urban area can be organised without excessive reliance on the surrounding countryside and be able to power itself with renewable sources of energy. The aim of this is to create the smallest possible environmental footprint and to produce the lowest quantity of pollution possible, to efficiently use land, compost used materials, recycle it or convert waste-to-energy, and to make the urban area overall contribution to climate change minimal. Therefore allowing the next generations and future generations to have the required resources without compromising them. However sustainably needs to focus also on other issues such as crime and economic factors.

Making a sustainble city of tommorrow requires extensive city planning. Urban cities in Canada are making strides to create large metropolitan areas more environmentally friendly by using the latest green technologies and strategies. With comittment and time, all Canadian cities can implemet methods that will create livable cities for future generations.

The Eco-City Charter serves as a document to guide City leaders and residents towards a more sustainable, holistic, and healthy environment (City of Alexandria, 2010). Ecologically, the charter ensures that all parts of the natural and built environments work together as a single ecological system; economically, it ensures a healthy economy that supports and sustains people and the environment in which they live over the long-term; and socially; it ensures that a community meets residents’ basic needs and has the resiliency to prevent and/or address problems in the future (City of Alexandria, 2010).

Bigio, G and Dahiya, B, (2004) “Urban Environment and Infrastructure towards Livable Cities.” The World Bank, USA.

Planning and management needs to happen in all countries over the world because no matter how different the level of development between countries the problems will be same in urban areas. These problems that need to be planned and managed in the urban areas of the city are becoming increasingly significant due to the fact that there has been a hug increase in the number of people living in cities worldwide, just over fifty percent of the world are now living in urban areas. The main reason for this is the huge increase in urbanisation which is defined as an increase in the proportion of

What do sustainable cities and communities look like? They are economically, environmentally, socially healthy and resilient. It should meet its challenges through integrated solutions rather than through disintegrated approaches that meets a goal at the expense of others. A sustainable city or community takes long-term perspectives that are focused on both the present and future and lasts well beyond the next budget or election cycle. It manages

Network City 2005 emphasizes on the importance of the efficiency of land use and infrastructure (compact and interconnected city), protection of the environment and heritage, efficiency of energy resource usage, and increasing community cohesiveness. While the State Sustainability Strategy provide a framework on plan making in order to in line with the vision, goals and strategy to achieve sustainability. The other document which is liveable neighborhoods ed. 3 provides guidance in developing regions that emphasizing on the convenience and safety for pedestrians by creating an interconnected environment, maximizing land use, designing more compact residential areas, providing public services and public transport, as well as increasing the community’s sense of place. While The Perry Lake Redevelopment Act 2005 provides specific requirements that must be included in the plan before it is approved by the Minister of

Nyuk Hien, W et al. 2011 ‘Integrated urban microclimate assessment method as a sustainable urban debelopment and urban design tool’ Landscape and Urban Planning, vol.100,

The city was becoming an inhumane place to live and today present different view. We are experiencing the emergence of a new urbanism that, unlike traditional planning does not seek the satisfaction only, of the maximum economic efficiency of a city, where the flow of capital, selling cars, real estate speculation and manufacturing productivity are above the minimum human needs. The "New Urbanism" offers a balanced city, where economic, social and environmental are in the same plane of importance, where humans and their physiological and psychological needs are the starting point of urban planning. The New Urbanism simply proposes a human city; we might well call, planning of the city for the Humans.

I think the United States can also build biophilic cities and integrate more nature into urban design and urban planning. Building biophilic cities is of great important for cities, residents, and the nature. Unsustainable urban sprawl damages open space and disturbs the function of the nature. Biophilic cities help us solve many environmental problems, such as climate change, air pollution, and decreasing biodiversity. For example, if we integrate more nature into the urban fabric, there will be more trees, animals, and rivers in cities. The urban heat island effect can be relieved and more air pollutants can be absorbed by trees. Rivers can help solve increasing floods and droughts.

A sustainable city is when harmony is reached between the environment, economy and society. Environmentally, sustainable cities are ecologically friendly by using alternative sources of energy such as solar or wind power. Economically, governments should share a similar decision-making process with institutions and with the public by having a common belief in what should be done by improving sustainability. Sorensen, Marcotullio, and Grant (2004), find that a good decision making process consists of planning and control at the municipal and national political levels which would allow local level functions to become reinforced. Socially, sustainable cities are classless, meaning that there are no social divisions which serve as limits; leading to a more equal society. One of the many ideas would be using mixed housing to remove the class divisions between people. Also, city streets would be walkable, with businesses and services located at close proximity to promote a healthier lifestyle and serve as an alternative to using cars for transportation. The writers differ in their analysis when examining the approaches to improving sustainability in cities. This section will analyze four important ideas on how cities can become more sustainable.

          The city I propose as a perfect city, would be as close to an ecocity as possible, although have some differences. For example, for electrical needs, I would suggest the city have a solar power plant, but on those desperate times, energy would be bought from other electrical plants from nearby towns or states.

As per the authors definition of what urban design should be he discusses three aspects of cities, control and process, activities of humans and also the physical form of the city. As a planner or urban designer one should pay attention to all these aspects which forms a better

Urbanization, which is becoming a buzzword during the last few decades, is enlarging at a booming speed. It is predicted that 93 percents urban growth will occur to the year 2020, in the developing world (Elliot J.A, 1999). Generally speaking, more than half of the people around the world have been moved to cities, which led to a series of “matters” connected with people’s life that changed in a dramatical way. In this period, sustainable development, another buzzword during the past few years, came into people’s view and gradually became the mainstream of society development. Its definition is to make the development continue in a long term, which means allowing appropriate economic growth and industrialization without