The Importance Of Urban Planning On The City Of Vancouver

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.

The reason this question has to be answered is simple, Canada sits at a very important junction in its evolution; does it continue to push forward to become an energy superpower or does it let the environmental conversation win, pushing forward instead with a clean energy agenda? This essay will hopefully drive this conversation forward.

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.

Canada has the potential to be a “sustainable energy superpower” due to the vast amount of resources it contains. It has a large landmass and diversified geography which can be used to produce renewable energy from such resources; watermill, wind, biomass, solar, geothermal, and ocean energy. Renewable energy is energy obtained from natural resources that are able to be naturally replenished within a human lifespan (Natural Resource Canada, 2014). Currently, fossil fuel burning is the major source of energy in Canada and although it can be re-used, the process is so long that it is considered to be non-renewable. Also, fossil fuel burning for coal, natural gas, and petroleum gas pollutes the environment with greenhouse gases on a large scale, causing global warming. Non-renewable energy is taken from sources that re available on Earth in limited quantity, likely vanishing within fifty to sixty years from today (Conserve Energy Future, 2014). Thus, it is important for Canada to invest their money on resorting to more environmentally friendly and renewable ways to make electricity. Being a developed country, Canada has the financial stability to purchase the technologies over time in order to produce renewable energy. In addition, many organizations and the government have taken a step to educate the society about issues regarding energy usage, and to create programs which conserve energy for the future. In the future generations, Canada will be able to generate sufficient

Canada is one of the developed nations in the world and with that comes a certain type of lifestyle that its citizens are accustomed to and often expect. This lifestyle is definitely not conscious of the environment at most times, however is trying to improve or at least find some kind of alternative to environmental problems that we can’t actually fix because they’ve become an important part of our everyday life. For that, our lifestyle has been measured by way of an ecological footprint and the results obviously haven’t been something to be proud of. Although there are many reasons why the ecological footprint of Canada is so high, one of the reasons is because of our excessive fossil fuel emissions from our cars, trucks, busses and planes.

The city’s top three energy goals include increasing overall city energy efficiency by 5%, city building energy efficiency by 10%, and the renewable energy usage by 20 megawatts (City of Chicago, 2015a). Further, since 71% of carbon emissions come from the energy used by buildings in the city (City of Chicago, 2015a), it is unsurprising that government has taken notice. As stated by the City of Chicago (2015a), a goal has been set to increase renewable energy use 25% by the year 2026. Reductions in carbon emissions are not only beneficial in terms of energy efficiency, but they also reduce harm to the environment that can lead to climate change (City of Chicago, 2015a). It is also important to note that increasing energy efficiency can include building new, costly infrastructure that will pay off long-term, or can be as easy as replacing all street lights with energy efficient bulbs. In fact, updating street light energy efficiency is such a simple and cost-effective energy usage reduction tactic, it used in many of the cities we have studied this semester, such as Portland (Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, 2011). It is evident that the City of Chicago (2015a) believes that no sustainable effort is insignificant.

Canada, with an increasing population, vehicles, government budget, and GDP shows a high standard of living. With a high standard of living, water, environment and food are of good quality. However, this does not mean it will not damage the environment. With the cost of a high standard of living, Canada seems to be damaging the environment for other costs. Conversely, a high GDP illustrates a the emergence of environmental science or technology reducing environmental problems in the near future.. Following the data based throughout several provinces, Canada contains a growing GDP, and an increasing environmental budget that helps the environment, which illustrates a prosperous economy that is investing into the environment. The growing amount

Despite its well-known Economic Action Plan and its continued emphasis on the need for more jobs and growth, it is still quite disturbing that the Canadian government gave a cold shoulder to environmental concerns in its 2014 budget. However, what has become clear in the last few years is that Canada is not committed to fighting climate change. In truth, it is not Canada that is uncommitted to the climate change cause. It is its Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who is blocking all efforts to put Canada at the forefront of climate change efforts . And Canada should be leading climate change initiatives because it is one of the largest emitters in the world, and it is also a rich

Ontario has its own creative and effective strategies to combat climate change. One of Ontario’s goal is a low-carbon future. To accomplish this the province started making carbon reductions in 1990 and are on track to reduce carbon emissions by 15% in 2020, 37 per cent in 2030 and 80 per cent in 2050 (Climate Change Action Plan, 2017). Ontario’s target of reducing emissions by 6% was met on schedule in 2014 (Climate Change Action Plan, 2017). One of the reasons this has been made possible is because of Ontario’s investment in carbon reduction. For example, in 2015 Ontario committed $325-million payment to Ontario’s Green Investment Fund to support programs that help households and businesses implement

Canada is a role model for all countries hoping to reduce the human influence on climate change and preserve Earth’s natural beauty. Canada’s mission launched into action by raw fact doggedly continues to make a difference. Going forward, let us remember that we live on the same planet that our posterity will and let us strive to make our posterities’ planet better than

Town of Banff has a new “environmentally innovative public transit system”(www.ecovert.ca). The purpose of these busses are to increase ridership, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support Banff’s “Environmental Stewardship Policy—to nurture a sustainable community with a balanced approach to social and economic development”(www.ecovert.ca)

The green infrastructural plan: PlaNYC, specializes in a form of city planning that focuses on achieving a greener and greater New York. The goals of the plaNYC looks to strengthen the economy, combat climate change, and enhance the quality of life for all New Yorkers by implementing environmentally friendly goals. PlaNYC specifically targets ten areas, of which are Housing and neighborhoods; parks and public spaces, brownfields; waterways; water supply; transportation; energy; air quality; solid waste; and climate change. As generation’s come and go, different plans and projects arise accordingly to how the city is affected. In this generation, PlaNYC

. The city Is doing everything they can to show other cities that continues improvements can be made if they realize what they are doing wrong. This is probably the reason why Seattle’s sustainable development is improving. They are not leading science and growth be an obstacle but they considered as a tool they must use right in order to maintain our environment sustainable for us and future generations. As any other city, Seattle has water problems too, and they are debating on how to provide access to Seattle’s remarkable

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.