© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. AP Environmental Science Mr. Grant Lesson 68 Urban Sustainability

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

AP Environmental Science

Mr. Grant

Lesson 68

Urban Sustainability


Mastery Check

Why have so many city dwellers in the United States, Canada, and other nations moved into suburbs?


Objectives:

• Define the terms greenways and smart growth.

• Analyze environmental impacts and advantages of urban centers.

• Assess urban ecology, green building efforts, and the pursuit of sustainable cities.

• TED - Jaime Lerner reinvented urban space in his native Curitiba, Brazil. Along the way, he changed the way city planners worldwide see what’s possible in the metropolitan landscape.


Greenways:A strip of parkland that connects parks or neighborhoods; often located along rivers, streams or canals.

Smart Growth:A city planning concept in which a community’s growth is managed in ways that limit sprawl and maintain of improves residents’ quality of life. It involves guiding the rate, placement, and style of development such that it serves the environment, the economy. and the community.

Define the terms greenways and smart growth.


Analyze environmental impacts and advantages of urban centers.

• Cities are resource sinks with high per capita resource consumption, and they create substantial waste and pollution.

• Cities also can maximize efficiency, allow natural areas to be preserved, and foster innovation that can lead to solutions for environmental problems.


Urban sustainability


Urban Sustainability

Things that make cities safe, clean, healthy, and pleasant also make them more sustainable

A sustainable city functions effectively and prosperously over the long term Generations will have a good quality of life

Impacts on natural systems and resources are minimized

A city’s impacts depend on how we use resources, produce goods, transport materials, and deal with waste


Urban resource consumption brings a mix of environmental effects

Resource sinks: cities must import resources, relying on large expanses of land elsewhere to supply resources

We need natural land for Food, shelter, ores, water

Ecosystem services (air and water purification, nutrient cycling, waste treatment)

Moving resources to cities requires fossil fuel use But would it be greater if populations were widely

spread?


Urbanization impacts the environment

Many cities must import water from far places



Efficiency: dense concentrations of people in cities allow efficient delivery of goods and services Delivery of electricity is more efficient

High city density facilitates social services that improve the quality of life Medical services, education, water and sewer

systems, waste disposal, transportation


Urbanization’s effects: efficiency



Consumption: heavy use of outside resources increases the ecological footprints of cities

The footprints are far greater than their land area Cities take up 2% of the land surface, but consume

over 75% of the world’s resources

London’s ecological footprint is 125 times larger than the actual city

Urban dwellers have far larger ecological footprints than rural dwellers Urban residents tend to be wealthier, and wealth

correlates with consumption


Urbanization’s effects: consumption


Urbanization preserves land, but urban centers suffer and export pollution

Because people are packed densely in cities, more land outside cities is left undeveloped Without cities, we would have much less room for

agriculture, wilderness, biodiversity, or privacy

Cities export wastes through pollution and trade They transfer the costs of activities to other regions

Acid precipitation and garbage impact distant areas

Not all pollution leaves the urban centers Citizens are exposed to heavy metals, chemicals,

smog, acid precipitation, etc.


Cities preserve land but export pollution


Urban centers suffer and export pollution

Noise pollution = undesired ambient sound Degrades surroundings, stressful, hurts hearing

Light pollution = light that obscures the night sky, impairing the visibility of stars


Urban centers suffer and export pollution

Urban heat island effect = cities are hotter than surrounding areas Buildings, vehicles, factories, and people

generate heat

Dark buildings and pavement absorb heat

Those who bear the brunt of pollution by living downstream or downwind of polluting facilities are disproportionately poor or racial and ethnic minorities


Pollution in cities


Urban centers foster innovation

Cities promote a flourishing cultural life and mix a diverse group of people and influences They spark innovation and creativity, promoting

education and scientific research

They are engines of technological and artistic inventiveness that can solve societal problems

The wealth accumulated by urban residents allows them to serve as markets for organic produce, recycling, and environmental education


Urban centers foster innovation


Assess urban ecology and the pursuit of sustainable cities.

• The linear mode of consumption and production is unsustainable, and more circular modes will be needed to create sustainable cities.

• Although a true “eco-city” has yet to be built, many cities worldwide are taking steps to decease their ecological footprints.

• Most steps taken for urban livability also enhance sustainability.


Urban ecology helps cities toward sustainability

Cities must replace the one-way linear metabolism of importing resources and exporting wastes This destabilizes environmental systems and is not

sustainable

Urban ecology = field that holds that cities can be viewed explicitly as ecosystems Fundamentals of ecology and systems apply to cities


Urban ecology helps sustainability

Urban ecosystems include concentrations of people and the built environment ...


Urban ecology helps cities toward sustainability Cities should follow an ecosystem-centered model

by striving to Use resources efficiently Recycle Develop environmentally friendly technologies Account fully for external costs Offer tax incentives for sustainable practices Use locally produced resources Use organic waste and wastewater to restore soil

fertility Encourage urban agriculture


Cities following an ecosystem model…

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=gNGKTLbKmFQlAM&tbnid=0zNJ4mi9-ykIRM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_sanitation&ei=PGS7UpqQCZbesASf5YHIDA&psig=AFQjCNHT0vFwEwSM94a3GMoJ3H3PNXmycQ&ust=1388098834070286



Future “eco-cities,” built from scratch, have been planned but not yet been built

Urban sustainability is happening step by step across the world

Urban agriculture is thriving



Curitiba, Brazil has invested in mass transit, recycling, environmental education, job training, and free health care Its citizens are happier and economically better off

than residents of other Brazilian cities

PlaNYC is a program through which New York City is trying to become the first environmentally sustainable 21st-century city


Sustainability is happening, but slowly



Steps toward livability enhance sustainability

Making cities more livable (pleasant, safe, clean, healthy) helps make them more sustainable

Planning and zoning are long-term, powerful sources for sustaining urban communities They project farther into the future than most political

leaders

Smart growth and new urbanism reduce energy use Mass transit reduces gasoline use, carbon emissions

Because urban centers affect the environment in many positive ways, they are a key element toward global sustainability


Steps to livability enhance sustainability


TED Video

From building opera houses with wire to mapping the connection between the automobile and your mother-in-law, Jaime Lerner delights in discovering eccentric solutions to vexing urban problems. In the process he has transformed the face of cities worldwide.

“The message is simple, the quality of life for me is a turtle eternal because it is an example of labour, mobility, all together and at the same time the skin of the turtle resembles the map of a city, an urban area. What happens if we cut that skin, we would kill it, and that's exactly what we're doing in our cities, living here, working there, leisure is elsewhere, we are cutting, we are killing that turtle.”

Jaime Lerner sings of the city (15:40)

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jaime_lerner_sings_of_the_city.html

Documents

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. AP Environmental Science Mr. Grant Lesson 68 Urban Sustainability