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Impact of buildings on the environment
Nature of sustainable development
Sustainability in definition
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Sustainability has been widely acknowledged as a significant component of cities’ long-term development. Although scholars hold different views on the definitions of sustainability, however, the core pillars of sustainable development are generally classified as environment, economy and society (United Nations General Assembly 2005). These elements are equally important and mutually affected. Hence, a sustainable city is to make corporate development and sustainability in terms of environment, economy and society. Sustainable cities are basically planned and constructed aiming at these three objectives.
To develop a framework for assessing the sustainability of urban development, firstly, I will identify what mainly constitutes sustainable urban form and function within neighborhood scale, then critically analyze some existing approaches to assessing sustainability of urban development, finally give my own framework for sustainability assessment.
There are many aspects that contribute to sustainable urban form. From a large scale, land use and sustainable transport system are two key points. In the aspect of land use, mixed land uses and green spaces are two important things that need to be considered.
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Wheeler (2013) says, “buildings are one of the world’s principal users of energy and materials”. Indeed, building construction uses a large percentage of wood, concrete and steel, and buildings leave massive landfill waste after they have been demolished. Not to mention that heating and cooling consume much energy such as electricity and gas in addition to release large amounts of carbon dioxide. Green architecture is to minimize the negative impact on environment and provide a better living experience for residents through proper and scientific design by architects. Since architecture is the main body of a city, their sustainability is certainly a key factor to long-term development of the
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.
Finally in 1991, the federal government initiated a ‘Better Cities Program’ which aimed to make Australian cities sustainable and more liveable. It encoura...
This investigation is based on the assumption that gentrification with all its troubles can’t be prevented and is an inherent part of every city. What are the negative impacts of gentrification? What are the underlying mechanisms that feed these impacts? What drives these mechanisms? What would be an alternative scenario?
There are many examples of cities reforming itself over time, one significant example is Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. More than a hundred years after the discovery of gold that drew thousands of migrants to Vancouver, the city has changed a lot, and so does one of its oldest community: Downtown Eastside. Began as a small town for workers that migrants frequently, after these workers moved away with all the money they have made, Downtown Eastside faced many hardships and changes. As a city, Vancouver gave much support to improve the area’s living quality and economics, known as a process called gentrification. But is this process really benefiting everyone living in Downtown Eastside? The answer is no. Gentrification towards DTES(Downtown Eastside) did not benefit the all the inhabitants of the area. Reasons are the new rent price of the area is much higher than before the gentrification, new businesses are not community-minded, and the old culture and lifestyle of the DTES is getting erased by the new residents.
Despite general declining rates of morbidity and mortality in the United States over the past century, African-Americans still find themselves at a health disadvantage and account for more than 40% of diagnosed cases of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, obesity and cancer . Studies within the fields of sociology and public health have directed their focus towards individual-level determinants of health such as socio-economic status and individual health behaviors. However, there has been insufficient attention to how and why place and neighborhood contribute to racial/ethnic health disparities. This analysis examines the health implication of racial segregation as a result of gentrification on African Americans, explores systems of segregation measurement, and proposes ways to move beyond traditional public health and health care approaches to impact relevant policy.
Gentrification is a term that has come to be associated with today’s modern culture. Gentrification is the process whereby wealthier people settle into a struggling neighborhood to evict existing residents. Justin Gomer states in their article that “[t]he most common feature of gentrification is the rise of property prices as well as house rents, thus pushing out poor residents who are unable to cope with the high prices” (Gomer, 2017). Therefore, gentrification is a term that is synonymous with the displacement of the poor communities that have inhabited an area over time, sometimes over several generations, due to arrival of richer new residents. The act of gentrification causes the displacement of lower income
Gentrification is a highly important topic that has not only been occurring all over the United States, but especially closer than we may have thought. San Francisco is home to hundreds of thousands of people who have been a part of how amazing this city has become. San Francisco is one of the most visited places in the world with many of its famous landmarks, endless opportunities not only for daytime fun but also has an amazing nightlife that people cannot get enough of. People come for a great time and could not be done without the help of the people who have grown up to experience and love this city for what it truly is. The cost of living in such an important city has definitely had its affect of lower income San Francisco residents. For decades we have seen changes occurring in parts of San Francisco where minorities live. We have seen this in Chinatown, SOMA, Fillmore district, and especially the Mission district.
Of the many problems affecting urban communities, both locally and abroad, there is one issue in particular, that has been victimizing the impoverished within urban communities for nearly a century; that would be the problem of gentrification. Gentrification is a word used to describe the process by which urban communities are coerced into adopting improvements respective to housing, businesses, and general presentation. Usually hidden behind less abrasive, or less stigmatized terms such as; “urban renewal” or “community revitalization” what the process of gentrification attempts to do, is remove all undesirable elements from a particular community or neighborhood, in favor of commercial and residential enhancements designed to improve both the function and aesthetic appeal of that particular community. The purpose of this paper is to make the reader aware about the significance of process of gentrification and its underlying impact over the community and the community participation.
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.
Urbanization is the process of becoming a city or intensification of urban elements. Since modernization, the meaning of urbanization mostly became the transformation that a majority of population living in rural areas in the past changes to a majority living in urban areas. However, urbanization differs between the developed and developing world in terms of its cause and the level of its negative outcomes. Korea, as one of the developing countries, experienced what is called ‘ overurbanization,’ and it experienced a number of negative consequences of it, although it could achieve a great economic development by it. This paper examines how urbanization differs between the West and the rest of the world, the characteristics and process of urbanization in Korea, problems sprung from its extreme urbanization, and government policies coping with population distribution.
... architectures would led to a more organic organization beneficial to the people that choose to make their lives in this city. Although this model of a sustainable city is not a perfectly closed loop, it lays the foundation for one that is. Over time, with constantly evolving and improving technology and new methods of design from the scale of products to buildings, the gaps in the loop could be closed, and a “true” sustainable city could be fully realized.
A green building (also referred to as sustainable building or green construction) is a structure that employs an approach that is responsible for the environment besides being efficient in regard to resources all through its life cycle: This is from selecting the site to designing it, constructing, operating, maintaining, renovating and demolishing it. To achieve this, the client, the engineers, the architects and the entire design team closely cooperate at all stages of a project (Yan and Paliniotis, 2006). Practicing Green Building complements and expands the conventional building design areas of comfort, durability, utility and economy.
The first is to encourage economic growth and sustainable development. It emphasizes the need for economic growth, the need to improve the level of contemporary human welfare through economic growth, enhance national strength and social wealth. However, sustainable development should not only pay attention to the amount of economic growth, but also to the pursuit of quality of economic growth. That is economic development, including growth in the number and quality improvement in two parts. Growth in the number is limited, and rely on scientific and technological progress and improving the effectiveness of economic activity and quality, adopt a scientific mode of economic growth is sustainable. Flag of sustainable development is the sustainable use of resources and good ecological environment. Economic and social development can not exceed the carrying capacity of resources and the
The use of green materials is better for the environment because they have a positive impact on the planet. Looking at our environment today we see a place that has been facing a massive climate change. Scientists have been concerned over global warming for decades. The ongoing increase of the earth’s temperature is believed to be caused by the greenhouse effect (“Global Warming” 27). Building with green materials produces significantly lower greenhouse gas emission. Specifically, wood as a material for building products, requires considerably less energy than other building products such as steel and concrete. Wood product manufacture results in fewer greenhouse gas and other air-polluting emissions (“Green Building Benefits”). Green building also results in waste reduction. In the United States, construction and demolition creates a huge amount of solid waste. Green building limits the waste prod...
Sustainability can be defined in a number of different ways and is characterized by three main principles and several major components. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, “sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations” (“Sustainability”). Sustainability is made up of three principles: environmental, economic, and social. The social aspect of sustainability involves ensuring that all people are treated justly and liv...