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A city has to be beautiful, though the definition of “beauty” is so vague. The beauty can be physical, such as enjoyable parks, streetscapes, architectural facades, the sky fragment through freeways and trees; or it can be the beauty of livelihood, people, and history. As landscape architects, we are creating beautiful things or turning the unpleasant memorial. As we can see, the unmeasurable factors are mostly about social consciousness, culture and a higher level of development stages. Most developing countries are still struggling in the first stage to balance development, environmental quality and living quality. Re-assemble: in a dynamic perspective The disassembled factors basically describe the properties of sustainable cities of a …show more content…
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 …show more content…
I consider it’s not very appropriate to say “sustainable X” because these “X”s are only sub-systems which exchange energy and materials within a larger overall system. Only a single small system reaching the “equivalence of sustainability” (if this ever exists) doesn’t mean the whole system is sustainable. That is to say, the hierarchy and complexity of systematical thinking must be taken into consideration of the definition of “sustainable city”. We should evaluate the city-system in its ecosystem and context. Sustainable is used to describe the overall complex system in which there are sub-systems exchanging energy and
The following case study critiques Upton’s vision to establish a sustainable community through implementing comprehensive sustainable strategy. The urban periphery development is thought to demonstrate superior execution of sustainable principles in development (Jackson 2007). As a parallel, the report focuses on the development of Upton’s design code and demonstrates how large -scale mix-use developments can incorporate sustainable practice and principles of urban growth.
Figure 2 also has tall building with a great amount of green vegetation. On the other hand figure 3 shows a non-sustainable city with dirty air and not a lot of people walking around. It also show broken down houses and building that are all rundown and destroyed. How is my city sustainable?
Growing up in the Bay Area next to San Francisco ha slead me to become fascinated by the complexity of the cities of the world and how they affect so many people. I love the idea that these cities were all planned and thought up of by individuals working together for a larger goal. The planning of cities affects all its inhabitants in ways that they probably do not even realize which makes these plans and the planning process even more compelling. I am also interested in what makes cities unique. Cities are all made up of roughly the same things: blocks, big buildings, parks, cars, and people. Even though the basic elements of cities are the same they all still have there own unique character. I think one of the most distinguishing factors of cities is how they were designed to accommodate certain needs of their inhabitants outside of where they live or work. Cities can easily be overwhelming or a harsh place to live, which is why certain areas need to be set aside to offer some kind of escape. In addition to being a place to withdraw, parks and recreational areas can be a distinguishing characteristic of a city. In San Francisco, the Golden Gate Park, Union square, the Presidio, the wharfs and many other areas set it apart from all of the other cities of the United States and the world. How the planners of San Francisco thought about the areas that the inhabitants needed outside of work and home helps give it its individuality as a major city. Just like how someone must plan all cities, people planned all the parks and recreational areas of cities that have such a widespread effect. By looking at Fredrick Law Olmsted and the Urban Design and Social Context approach he represents, one can learn more about landscape architecture in...
The re-occupation of the landscape facilitated by the Landscape Park has transformed the site’s place in the minds of the populace. It has become symbol of the region’s cultural heritage and hope for the future (Ganser 10). In his seminal work Landscape and Memory, Simon Schama proposed that, "before it can ever be the repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from
Global urbanization is known to be an ongoing process nowadays, which originates in Western world, but continues to spread in developing world as well and is especially significant in Asia at the moment. In particular, global urbanization is a population shift from rural to urban areas, the gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas . Living in a city provides the residents various opportunities: gives easier access to health care and schools, as well as offers many more job possibilities and better services in general. However, due to widespread rural-urban migration, one out of four people living in a city becomes a dweller of slums instead of living the fulfilling urban life they had anticipated . The slums are settlements, neighborhoods, or city regions that cannot provide the basic living conditions necessary for their inhabitants to live in a safe and healthy environment . In fact, residents of slums live in contaminated, impoverished, dangerous and brutal areas that are arduous to move away from to start a new life in better conditions. Hence, sociologists and anthropologists have argued that slum residents deviate from the morals, norms, and standards of public decency held up by the wider conventional community (Gans 1962; Anderson 1999). In comparison to wealthy city
promote/advise tourists on how to behaviour to stay safe, and respect cultures to aim towards sustainability, but with the high amount of tourists not everyone will listen, and the actions of locals cannot be determined even with policy.
Other resources include retirement villages, bowling clubs, libraries and fantastic hospitals. A sustainable city looks after the environment and has better air quality and land for people to live. With this environmental difference in mind a sustainable city should meet the needs of the society without changing the amazing surroundings for the future generations, instead preserve what it already has. How is your suburb a sustainable community?
2.0 THE CONCEPT OF URBAN SUSTAINABILITY Most people live in the urban areas because of better a life; research indicates that over half of the world’s population lives in the urban centers (Brown et al. 2012). People are looking for employment which they believe can be easily found in the urban areas (Dixon & Eames 2014). Therefore, the problems or challenges experienced in the urban areas are mostly contributed by this huge population. Most people have always held the perception that life in the urban areas can be more comfortable than rural areas; indeed, there are a lot of opportunities in the urban areas.
When do we say stop and enough? More importantly, as ordinary citizens, what is our role in all this? This is where we lay the groundwork for sustainability. Right now, we are enjoying the benefits of progress and development.
As previously implied, cities are currently the antithesis of even the barest sense of sustainability. To succinctly define the term “sustainability” would be to say that it represents living within one’s needs. When it comes to the city, with almost zero local sources of food or goods, one’s means is pushed and twisted to include resources originating far beyond the boundaries of the urban landscape. Those within cities paradoxically have both minimal and vast options when it comes to continuing their existence, yet this blurred reality is entirely reliant on the resources that a city can pull in with its constantly active economy.
Every day the world around us is changing ever so slightly in many different ways. Humans can affect the environment through our day to day lifestyle without even noticing the change. An ecological footprint is a measurement of how much a person uses the environment around them to live their life. This given measurement can help one to see their impact on the earth. It is an important tool to understand what actually a human does to change the habitat near them. My ecological footprint results gave me a perspective of how my daily life can impact the world I live in, as well as, how I as an individual can change my actions to make less waste on earth. It is also useful for each person to know their own ecological footprint since no one live
This notion of big data, of which the importance increases day by day, has started to present new solutions to the challenges in these fields by helping to develop new methods in many areas. One of these areas is the concept of sustainable economic development that contains the solutions to various issues in the world. Although there are many definitions of the concept of sustainable economic development, the utmost frequently used definition is as follows, "a development model that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [Brundtland report]. In other words, it signifies the programming of today's and future's life and development so that it will enable the needs of future generations to be met by keeping a balance between the human being and nature without exploiting the
The hypothesis of the chapter ‘Suitability in cities’ was that this ‘challenge-scope’ is more on environmental sustainability than ‘emerging’ and ‘transitional’ megacities. Focused on higher level environmental problems that affect not only the city, but act on a global scale, are being confirmed by the challenges that were found in the selected literature. London does this with a strong emphasis on challenges causing and being caused by climate change. They are now facing the difficult task to change from the old techniques where they relied on for ages to a more sustainable techniques. Changes already occurred but these were mainly focused on improving existing methods. This can be seen by water use, waste and energy supply. Water use is reduced by improving old systems, waste is not dumped anymore but burned using heat for other purposes, and energy supply still relies on existing technologies that are improved to be more sustainable. To become sustainable major shifts in technologies are needed. They should rely more on the resources that are already in the city to reduce their impact on the environment. Water from precipitation should be used, energy should be supplied locally and waste should be recycled as much as possible. They should, as stated in chapter two, become more circular than linear. How they
...e effective action and leading roles in the development of their communities.’ Masdar City on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, has until recently been held up as an example of best practice in environmental sustainability and green building. Designed as a zero-waste, car-free and carbon-neutral city for 50,000 people, it was intended to promote innovation in energy efficiency, resource recycling, biodiversity and sustainable transport. However, even this experiment has failed to consider the social needs of people trying to live in a model environmental city. In conclusion, I would like to see social sustainability to be the aspiration for the next generation of new cities and communities around the world; with governments, planners, developers and architects committing to learn from the many lessons of the past: cities and communities need to work as places for people.
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