The Biggest Challengesfor Sustainable Cities

Figuring out ways to deal with the electricity, heating and cooling generation challenge for the future is crucial for living and maintaining high quality lifestyle.

Sustainable Cities Energy Storage

As we talk about sustainability like green energy and sustainable cities, we should also think of where to store the generated energy for later use either at night or during winter seasons when energy harvesting is usually less. Therefore, there are many ways to store energy. Pumped hydro, for example, is simply a high and low container with a turbine/pump in between that acts as a battery, so when there is excess energy, the pump works to pump water up to the higher container, and when there is a need for energy, the water in the high container is released to turn the turbine and generate energy. Still this option have the some restrictions most importantly space wise, still it could be applied in Suitable areas surrounding cities (World Economic Forum 2022).

Chemical batteries are something that everyone is familiar with nowadays is also important to mention, as well as thermal energy storage, which uses excess energy to heat material such as sand and then uses that heat when needed but is not a long-term storage system yet, and mechanical energy storage, which works on the principle of a crane, in which you use excess energy to lift a heavy object and then release it  to fall using gravitational force and pull a rope connected to a generator when energy is needed, yet also this option might face space and safety restrictions and can be applied only in suitable areas (World Economic Forum 2022).

Traffic jams

One of the key factors of having a sustainable city is eliminating all types of pollution caused by traffic jams and accompanied factors since they create noise pollution, emissions pollution, and affects human and animal health both mentally and physically ‘noise repelling animals away from their natural zones, and emissions causing diseases, as well as higher the surrounding temperature by running engines etc.…’.

Therefore, we must find ideas that would fix it sustainably. Such ideas could be: car- sharing clubs, cycling, and E-bikes; underground metro and Tram Systems, the creation of EV-zones, and encouraging reliable public transport like in Switzerland. Edinburgh has one of the largest car-sharing clubs in the UK, meaning households who subscribe do not necessarily own their own cars but pay a fee to join a club that provides membership to car usage only when necessary (bbc.co.uk 2019). Copenhagen encourages cycle commuting through cycles being given priority at traffic lights, creating a ‘green wave’ (bbc.co.uk 2019). Cities like London and Singapore have created high-quality bus and underground rail systems, as well as low-emission zones where only electric vehicles are allowed (bbc.co.uk 2019).

Wohnungen

Wohnungen means apartments in the German language and stands for resembling living spaces. Why did I use a German word to talk about living spaces in an English blog?! It is because people living in Switzerland, a German-speaking country in addition to Italian and French are witnessing big challenges finding living spaces, especially those who are less than 25 years old, among them, students, or people with humble monthly incomes. That is all because of several reasons which include mainly the high prices and limited amount of real estate; the law of Switzerland that forbids the construction of sustainable skyscrapers even in suburbs or provinces; and temporary rental companies that are very expensive who target tourists mainly seeking higher profit margins. In the 70s the trend to larger buildings had been slowed down and restrictive building codes were established. Then in 1984 the Swiss population decided to vote for the prohibition of skyscrapers in Switzerland (-SKYSCRAPERS-: Switzerland – Country without Skyscrapers 2021).

Some of the ways to deal with this challenge is building governmental or organizational non-profit living spaces with low rents and targeting people who need the living space according to their situation; allowing companies to build higher and more sustainable buildings in specific areas without affecting the style and culture of the country; building educational cities like universities and schools that contain living spaces with student- friendly rental fees and restricting the companies which have acquisition over residential living spaces by setting a law that limits them from renting those spaces to tourists.

Sustainable buildings

Buildings often use the most energy and emit the biggest quantities of carbon in cities compared to transportation for example. There are some very interesting examples of how cities around the world have approached this issue. For example, we know that creating efficient buildings (with insulating walls, windows, and roofs, and using energy-efficient lighting and heating systems) is often more cost- effective and productive than generating green energy (bbc.co.uk 2019). The German Passive House design is an example of a building so highly insulated it has almost no need to be heated (bbc.co.uk 2019). New York and Singapore have shown how tiny steps such as painting roofs white and planting trees can reduce city temperatures up to 2C, thus reducing city energy consumption significantly (bbc.co.uk 2019). In Scandinavian and Eastern European countries, hot water for heating is delivered to buildings through insulated pipes beneath the streets ‘which in Switzerland for example is luckily a usual common thing to exist’. The heat can be generated from highly efficient power stations that generate both electricity and heat, or use heat recovered from businesses such as breweries, bakeries, and distilleries (bbc.co.uk 2019). In the UK, Glasgow is fitting smart streetlights in some areas. Older yellow sodium streetlights can be replaced with LED lights that can reduce emissions while making streets safer (bbc.co.uk 2019).