Anna Grether
With the ever growing world population (United Nations, 2017), denser urban areas (United Nations, 2018a) and our current way of living as a consumer society, it is of increasing importance to create and promote sustainable cities (United Nations, 2018b). With the goal to build a resilient habitat for humans during present but also for future generations the question arises: What models for such cities exist and are they sufficiently sustainable to support many coming generations all over the world?
The Ecocity model
An Ecocity is a city which was designed to have a minimal environmental impact with special focus on healthy ecosystems and living organisms (Ecocity Builders, n.d.). The Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) in London, UK is a eco-village project, which was completed in 2002 with 100 homes and 220 residents (Bioregional, 2016). The successes regarding the managing of the urban ecological footprint are that space-heating requirements decreased by 81% in comparison to UK averages, water consumption is 58% less, electric power use diminished by 45%, residents’ car mileage is 65% less and 15% of the houses consist of recycled materials (Bioregional, n.d.). In total that accounts to a 72% reduction of CO2 emissions from energy (Jacobson, 2012). However, there is also downsides to the BedZED. The main one being, that the ecological footprint is still more than 1. Therefore, if every human being on the planet lived equally like the people in the BedZEDs, we would need more than one planet to support our way of living. Additionally, quite a few machines and concepts that were created, did not work properly, which ended in £10.6m over budget and a total of about £25m in costs (Raiseupwa.com, n.d.). This led to costs of around £250,000 (Green Moves, 2018) per home, which only very few people can afford. The biggest problem with this eco-city concept hence is that because of its costliness, only HICs (High income countries) could possibly make use of it. Regarding that the use of the BedZED houses is momentarily happening at a very small scale, we have to reflect if this was also possible at a bigger scale. This is most likely not the case as some or rather most countries in the Global South don’t have the economical means. However, it’s still a good start and worthwhile to be discussed by the Global North in urban planning.
Figure 1: BedZED in Sutton, south London, UK (Source: Bioregional)
The smart city model
The goals of a smart city are to enhance efficiency, efficacy and resilience, whereby problems created by urbanization should be banished using monitoring technology (EnBW, n.d.). Songdo in South Korea is one case study of a smart city on reclaimed land. They succeed at efficient transport, reduced travelling because video conferencing is possible from every building, collection of waste from each home by a tube system and a recycling rate of 76% (Batista, 2019), 40% green space and most importantly very efficient technology with solar panels, geothermal heating and cooling, rainwater storage facilities (Jae-in et al., 2020) and a 40% water recycling rate (WE build value, 2019). The downside to this city model is again the enormous costs that are not bearable by LICs nor MICs (Middle income country). Furthermore, there is the risk of someone misusing the information coming from the total surveillance that goes with the smart city design. Hacking is another danger that appears since every system in Songdo is based on technology. Socially the city does not seem to be sustainable since actual human contact is reduced to a level that doesn’t seem healthy. In summary, it can be said that smart cities are definitely hindering congestion, minimizing overpricing and reducing pollution. However, only HICs could construct such a city and the resources consumption through maintaining state of the art technology is presumably not sustainable.
Figure 2: Smart city Songdo, South Korea (Source: WeBuildValue)
Conclusion
Models for cities that are more sustainable, than the ones we currently live in, exist. However, they are still not meeting the standard of being fully sustainable, meaning they aren’t meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs (Collins Dictonary, n.d.). The BedZED eco-village doesn’t have an ecological footprint of one even though that’s its main purpose and the smart city design requires a big amount of resources for its technology. By my knowledge models, which make a whole city sustainable don’t exist yet. Therefore in my consideration the two concepts (I) Ecocities and (II) Smart cities are not to be dismissed from consideration but rather have to be perfected and used in urban planning for the cities of the global north. Both models are not applicable in the global south due to their costliness. Other than that just being a disadvantage, it can also be seen as a possibility to keep up diversity. Diversity, because we have to come up with many different sustainable models which are adapted to the demands of a certain city and their culture.
Take home message
Sustainable city models are not actually sustainable yet. Even if all countries of the world had enough money to make their cities eco cities or smart cities like the BedZED or Songdo, we would still need more than the designated 1 planet to support the current needs of humanity.
Arising questions
- What can be done to improve these models until the ecological footprint is one or even less and humanity can live within only Earth’s resources?
- What are sustainable city models which also work for LICs?
Bibliography
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