1 Introduction
“Estidama” is an Arabic word for sustainability. Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council’s (UPC) Estidama Program is the government’s initiative to integrate principles of sustainability into Abu Dhabi’s urban development and economic master plan. Bespoke to the region’s culture, climate and physical environment, Estimate is developed to be more than just a set of principles or a rating system. It is presented as a way of life in the Arab world that will encourage sustainable urban and economic growth, protect the natural environment, and preserve Abu Dhabi’s unique cultural identity and historical assets (Estimate, 2010).
The past few years have seen a global trend towards development of sustainability policy initiatives. These are based on the notion that the existing development paradigms are a threat to the sustainability of the natural environment. If these paradigms remain unchallenged they will soon deplete earth’s natural resources and threaten the survival of future generations. Therefore, sustainable practices are adapted across the construction industry, sustainability rating systems are developed to assess environmental performance of the developments, and cities are planned based on low and zero carbon technologies (Mills, et al., 2012). While Abu Dhabi is still affluent in its natural resources, with approximately 10 % (98 billion barrels) of total world oil reserves and the world’s 3 % (212 trillion cubic feet) natural gas reserves (Jordan, 2012), they are adapting sustainability to remain competitive and relevant to the rest of the world (Urban Planning Council, 2011).In line with this objective, in 2005, the government presented the “Abu Dhabi Plan 2030”.UPC defines this plan as a “road map” to reinvent th...
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... based on behavioral change and retrofitting existing developments, Abu Dhabi is presenting a paradigm of sustainable city based on technology that is only affordable by the rich and privileged. Reiche (2010) agrees that expenditures and strict regulations required for implementation of the sustainable development model presented by Abu Dhabi is only possible for extremely rich and non-democratic governments.
On a different front,Cugurullo(2013) questions if sustainability is the real driver of Estidama. He argues that while the economic benefits of Estidama are concrete, its environmental advantages are vague. Therefore, theenvironmental aspects of sustainable development, have a minimal role in Abu Dhabi’s sustainability policy, while its real objective is to expand Abu Dhabi’s influence on the world economy through renewable technology industry (Cugurullo, 2013).
Finally in 1991, the federal government initiated a ‘Better Cities Program’ which aimed to make Australian cities sustainable and more liveable. It encoura...
Generational conflicts, political strife, environmental regulations, stakeholders in big oil, and many more hurdles affect the push to fully sustainable economies around the world and even here in America. In a world where coal, oil, and natural gas are limited, countries are gobbling it all up as fast as they can before other poorer countries come on the grid. Even though America and other countries gobble up these resources the life of the people is still a struggle to meet basic needs. Sustainability is an intermingling of resource use and protection of the “quality of life”, it is met by using resources sparingly and by recycling or reducing the use of other non-renewable resources to provide for our immediate need, but also to conserve and protect the needs of the next generation and to improve the quality of all the lives to come.
Movements Towards Sustainability “The Death of Sprawl,” an article written by Warren Karlenzig, makes strong points on how urban and suburban development led to a non-sustainable future for the environment. The author is strongly against suburban boom and he implies every aspect of the growth is a disadvantage. His study proves heavy researches were done, however, it lacks of suggestions on how a reader can make changes effectively. On the other hand, “Local Government in a Time of Peak Oil and Climate Change,” written by John Kaufmann, provides responses and solutions to a number of problems the population is facing. This article is intended for audiences from local government as well as to people who are willing to involve and make changes.
Cities all over the world are developing. As war ended in 1942, a significant number of people move to the city because they want to improve life. This urbanization process is causing a number of problems and should be met by sustainable development policies. In the beginning, it is important to know the definition of sustainable development. There are some definitions for sustainable development, but simply they say that sustainable development is a development which using resources now and preserving them for future generations (Adams, 1999, p.137). This concept has been agreed internationally at a Rio Conference in 1992 to be implemented by all government policies which mostly known as “Agenda 21” principles (Adams, 1999, p.141). This paper will show that traffic jams and housing problems caused by urbanization can be met by sustainable development policies. The structure of this paper will first explain the situation that leads to traffic jams and housing problems. Next, it will elaborate the sustainable development solutions, implications for the solutions, and evaluations how effective the sustainable development solutions solved the problems.
Melbourne city is faced with social class discrimination threat; where the upper class enjoys every privilege including better houses because they can afford it, while the lower and middle class continue to struggle. Melbourne is not different to other cities across the world that experience urban challenges. However, the city’s management has enacted various strategies that can help the city achieve its goals. Some of the goals of Melbourne is to become a city of people by supporting every member of the community irrespective of his/her religion, sex, disability, economic and social status, to be a creative city by supporting the artistic expressions, be a prosperous city by supporting investors, and be an eco-city by building a sustainable town that is more competitive in terms of environmental conservation and urban planning (Lorenz et al. 2008). To be able to achieve these goals, the city needs to come up with effective sustainability strategies that will place it at a competitive level locally and
The EIA Directive aims to be integrative of all interested actors and to make a wide range of projects sustainable, in order to protect the environment, enhance the quality of life and reduce any friction between planners, developers and local communities [European Union (EU), 2009]. It is a process constituted by different stages from screening to evaluating and monitoring the impacts of the project implemented (Wood, 2003).
Sustainability must be defined to include meeting human physical, emotional and social needs (Rogers et al. 2012) and scholarly research and thinking on well being and its connection to the environment, sustainability, growth and sustainable development considers aspects that move towards social and environmental benefits . While environme...
Over the past 200 years, mankind discovered the fossil fuels and they used this source to produce hug energy. This affects the environment in many negative ways and caused many issues worldwide such as urban air pollution and acid rain, oil spills and the high temperature of earth. Saudi Arabia has the biggest oil reserves in the world by 19.66% (the world factbook, 2011) and the second oil producer country in the world with roughly 10.121 million barrels a day – which account for 12% of the total world production of oil in 2010 (Fontinelle,2011). Moreover, the country relies heavily on oil industry. And the most successful companies in the country are thus whose work in oil industry such as ARAMCO Company. The reason behind this success is because most of these companies get financial support and attention from the Saudi government and sometimes the government owes these companies. Because of the massive reserve of oil and the high income that generated from oil, the country has less attention to seek for other sources of clean energy such as solar energy and wind energy which leads to the increase of air pollution in the country. However, oil is expected to last in the next 50 to 100 years (Hubbert, 1956). Furthermore, the International organizations have made many decisions to protect the environment and environmental resource such as Kyoto Protocol which decided to raise the use of solar energy to 50%of the total global energy use by 2020 (UNFCCC ,2005 ). Recently, these issues lead the Saudi government to realize problems, such as air pollutions, and start to invest in clean energy area but not as expected. These days many people in Saudi Arabia argue the uses of clean energy and replace with the fossil fuels. And they d...
In a world where over half of the human population calls a city their home, the need to restructure and revolutionize the way we design our urban environments has never been greater. Currently, the notion that these vast metropolises of metal, concrete, and sludge could one day be fully realized pillars of sustainability is certainly laughable. However, when these same cities are constantly growing and multiplying across the globe, all the while using a greater and greater chunk of our planet’s energy, this impossible task becomes a necessary focus. To strive towards the closed, continuous loop of “true” sustainability could greatly alter the image of the modern city. Any improvement over the current state of urban affairs could carry weight, and even if that goal is not entirely fulfilled, the gained benefits would be immense.
Moore said that we can understand sustainability as “a storyline, a narrative thread that people use to understand how the past, present, and future can be connected in different ways” (Moore 2007). Since the understanding of sustainability has been changing, we can neither predict what will happen in the future nor establish a set of rules for the future generation to follow. As Norton argued, sustainable activities can be conducted in the present “without negatively impacting the range of important choices that should be left open to the next generation” (Norton 2005:432). Therefore, it’s crucial to apprehend the nature of sustainable cities in order to set up the framework while never kill
Ayres (2008) advances the concept of ‘sustainability economics’, which deals with the issue of maintaining economic growth while paying special attention to environmental concerns of energy utilization and resource exhaustion, especially carbon fuel consumption and its relation to climate change.
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. If we follow this definition, it becomes easy to see that the vast majority of the “developed” world has not, and is not developing sustainably. The idea of sustainable development requires us to consider how our action of developing will affect other countries, and future generations. Many people believe in “the butterfly effect”, where the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of t...
As it is well known, law and economics is based on the principles, amongst others, of “efficiency criterion” which is also intertwined with the “wealth maximization” principle. In other words, law and regulations should aim at the development of appropriate policies, but emphasis should be put on the right strategies and instruments which would ultimately lead to a sustainable development criterion. For these reason, economic literature has been heavily influenced by enviro...
I have understood that the Sustainability study involves the transformation of our civilization toward a regenerative system that promotes healthy and stable ecosystems, consumes natural resources no faster than they can replenish, releases toxic pollutants into our habitat no faster than they can be absorbed, fosters healthy and cohesive habitats that can coexist and continue long time in the future. Sustainability initiatives work to change the world by changing activities in our personal and professional lives to achieve these objectives. I have learned that the Sustainability Revolution is a collection of values centered on healthy ecosystems, economic activities, and social justice. From the intensive focus on this topic during the last few weeks and from further readings on this subject, I have learned that Sustainability encompasses not just conservation and pollution, but a wide array of other issues, including Eco literacy, biodiversity, globalization, socially responsible investing, corporate social responsibility, human rights, population explosion, health, social and environmental justice, farming, labor issues, and women’s rights. I have also learned that Sustainability strategies are essential, transformative, and collaborative work involving participation of hundreds of thousands of citizens, communities and businesses around the world. Every organization and informed citizen needs to understand the perils that lie ahead and contribute their part towards Sustainability
It has taken 20 to 30 years, based on images taken in space of the Earth during the late 1960s, for people to realize that the environment ‘is like a bathtub of limited capacity’. Cities have been developing based on human culture whilst trying to be sustainable at the same time. Although it may be sustainable, the production process and the energy producing systems where they burn fossil fuels, contributes to the amount of carbon emissions that we produce each day. Green city is an expression for eco-city which is a city built off the principles of living within the means of the environment. It has been perceived as a concept rather than it circumstantially solving an ecological collapse like the ‘green Disneyland’ in Masdar City described