what are five responses to urban sustainability challenges?
The results do show that humans global ecological footprint is already well beyond the area of productive land and water ecosystems available on Earth and that it has been expanding in the recent decades. To analyze the measures taken at an urban level as a response to the challenges posed by the pandemic (RQ1), we used a set of criteria. Health equity is a crosscutting issue, and emerging research theme, in urban sustainability studies. Environmental disasters are more likely to occur with greater intensity; buildings, streets, and facilities are more likely to be damaged or destroyed. With poor quality, the health and well-being of residents can be jeopardized, leading again to possible illness, harm, or death. In other words, the needs call for the study of cities as complex systems, including the processes at different scales, determining factors, and tipping points to avoid adverse consequence. Instead they provide a safe space for innovation, growth, and development in the pursuit of human prosperity in an increasingly populated and wealthy world (Rockstrm et al., 2013). Waste management systems have the task of managing current and projected waste processing. Currently, many cities have sustainability strategies that do not explicitly account for the indirect, distant, or long-lived impacts of environmental consumption throughout the supply and product chains. For instance, greater regional planning efforts are necessary as cities grow and change over time. Discriminatory practices in the housing market over many decades have created racial segregation in central cities and suburbs. As such, there are many important opportunities for further research. How can suburban sprawl be a challenge to urban sustainability? This common approach can be illustrated in the case of urban food scraps collection where many cities first provided in-kind support to individuals and community groups offering collection infrastructure and services, then rolled out programs to support social norming in communities (e.g., physical, visible, green bins for residents to be put out at the curb), and finally banned organics from landfills, providing a regulatory mechanism to require laggards to act. Development, i.e., the meeting of peoples needs, requires use of resources and implies generation of wastes. Goals relating to local or global ecological sustainability can be incorporated into the norms, codes, and regulations that influence the built environment. Cities have central roles in managing the planets resources sustainability (Seitzinger et al., 2012). To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter. The effort of promoting sustainable development strategies requires a greater level of interaction between different systems and their boundaries as the impacts of urban-based consumption and pollution affect global resource management and, for example, global climate change problems; therefore, pursuing sustainability calls for unprecedented system boundaries extensions, which are increasingly determined by actions at the urban level. A suburban development is built across from a dense, urban neighborhood. More regulation and penalties can assist with waste management, but many countries, both developed and developing, struggle with this. Furthermore, the governance of urban activities does not always lie solely with municipal or local authorities or with other levels of government. Best study tips and tricks for your exams. Sign up for email notifications and we'll let you know about new publications in your areas of interest when they're released. Because an increasing percentage of the worlds population and economic activities are concentrated in urban areas, cities are highly relevant, if not central, to any discussion of sustainable development. ir quality and water resources can be protected through proper quality management and government policy. The six main challenges to urban sustainability include: suburban sprawl, sanitation, air and water quality, climate change, energy use, and the ecological footprint of cities. Fig. Finally, the redevelopment of brownfields, former industrial areas that have been abandoned, can be an efficient way of re-purposing infrastructure. The scientific study of environmental thresholds, their understanding, modeling, and prediction should also be integrated into early warning systems to enable policy makers to understand the challenges and impacts and respond effectively (Srebotnjak et al., 2010). Let's take a look at how the challenges of sustainable urban development may not be challenges at allit all depends on perspective! Dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, nitrates, and bioindicators. The development of analysis to improve the sustainability of urbanization patterns, processes, and trends has been hindered by the lack of consistent data to enable the comparison of the evolution of different urban systems, their dynamics, and benchmarks. The environment has finite resources, which present limits to the capacity of ecosystems to absorb or break down wastes or render them harmless at local, regional, and global scales. Indicates air quality to levels to members of the public. Urban sustainability is a large and multifaceted topic. This could inadvertently decrease the quality of life for residents in cities by creating unsanitary conditions which can lead to illness, harm, or death. Urban sustainability is the goal of using resources to plan and develop cities to improve the social, economic, and environmental conditions of a city to ensure the quality of life of current and future residents. Create and find flashcards in record time. Stop procrastinating with our smart planner features. This requirement applies to governance vertically at all levels of administration, from local to federal and international, and horizontally among various urban sectors and spaces. Healthy people, healthy biophysical environments, and healthy human-environment interactions are synergistic relationships that underpin the sustainability of cities (Liu et al., 2007). Cities in developed countries may create more waste due to consuming and discarding a greater amount of packaging. More about Challenges to Urban Sustainability, Fig. . AQI ranged 51-100 means the air quality is considered good. Decision making at such a complex and multiscale dimension requires prioritization of the key urban issues and an assessment of the co-net benefits associated with any action in one of these dimensions. How can a city's ecological footprint be a challenge to urban sustainability? This is because as cities grow, more resources are needed for maintaining economic conditions in a city. The key here is to be able to provide information on processes across multiple scales, from individuals and households to blocks and neighborhoods to cities and regions. Cities with a high number of manufacturing are linked with ____. Set individual study goals and earn points reaching them. The metric most often used is the total area of productive landscape and waterscape required to support that population (Rees, 1996; Wackernagel and Rees, 1996). Can a city planner prepare for everything that might go wrong, but still manage to plan cities sustainably? Simply put, any sustainability plans, including those applied in urban areas, cannot violate the laws of nature if they are to achieve acceptable, long-term outcomes for human populations. This study provides direct and easily interpreted estimates of the air quality and infant health benefits of the 1970 Act. Some of the most prevailing indicators include footprinting (e.g., for water and land) and composite indices (e.g., well-being index and environmental sustainability index). Fresh-water rivers and lakes which are replenished by glaciers will have an altered timing of replenishment; there may be more water in the spring and less in the summer. Fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides. These can be sites where previous factories, landfills, or other facilities used to operate. Second, cities exist as part of integrated regional and global systems that are not fully understood. 3 Clark, C. M. 2015. Successful models exist elsewhere (such as British Columbia, Canadas, carbon tax), which can be adapted and scaled to support urban sustainability action across America. What are some anthropogenic causes of air pollution? For the APHG Exam, remember these six main challenges! These same patterns of inequality also exist between regions and states with poor but resource-rich areas bearing the cost of the resource curse (see also Box 3-3). An important example is provided by climate change issues, as highlighted by Wilbanks and Kates (1999): Although climate change mainly takes place on the regional to global scale, the causes, impacts, and policy responses (mitigation and adaptation) tend to be local. The transition to sustainable urban development requires both appropriate city management and local authorities that are aware of the implications posed by new urban sustainability challenges. How did the federal government influence suburban sprawl in the US? This can include waste made by offices, schools, and shops. The DPSIR framework describes the interactions between society and the environment, the key components of which are driving forces (D), pressures (P) on the environment and, as a result, the states (S) of environmental changes, their impacts (I) on ecosystems, human health, and other factors, and societal responses (R) to the driving forces, or directly to the pressure, state, or impacts through preventive, adaptive, or curative solutions. One challenge in the case of cities, however, is that many of these shared resources do not have definable boundaries such as land. How can farmland protection policies respond tourban sustainability challenges? Regional cooperation is especially important to combat suburban sprawl; as cities grow, people will look for cheaper housing in surrounding rural and suburban towns outside of cities. In a kickoff event at UCLA's Royce Hall (see event video), Chancellor Gene Block will describe the ambitious project . Fine material produced in air pollution that humans can breathe in. This is a target that leading cities have begun to adopt, but one that no U.S. city has developed a sound strategy to attain. See our explanation on Urban Sustainability to learn more! Conceptually, the idea that there is an ecological footprint, and that sustainable cities are places that seek to minimize this footprint, makes great sense (Portney, 2002). Each city's challenges are unique; however, many have implemented one or more of the following in their efforts to develop their own integrated solutions: unrestricted growth outside of major urban areas with separate designations for residential, commercial, entertainment, and other services, usually only accessible by car. However, some cities are making a much more concerted effort to understand the full range of the negative environmental impacts they produce, and working toward reducing those impacts even when impacts are external to the city itself. Complementary research showed that clean air regulations have reduced infant mortality and increased housing prices (Chay and Greenstone, 2005; EPA, 1999). Principle 4: Cities are highly interconnected. Copyright 2023 National Academy of Sciences. Cities that want to manage the amount of resources they're consuming must also manage population increases. Ready to take your reading offline? 11: 6486 . Feedback mechanisms that enable the signals of system performance to generate behavioral responses from the urban community at both the individual and institutional levels. Urban governments are tasked with the responsibility of managing not only water resources but also sanitation, waste, food, and air quality. Science can also contribute to these pathways by further research and development of several key facets of urban areas including urban metabolism, threshold detection of indicators, comprehension of different data sets, and further exploration of decision-making processes linked across scales. Reducing severe economic, political, class, and social inequalities is pivotal to achieving urban sustainability. The second is an understanding of the finite nature of many natural resources (or the ecosystems from which they are drawn) and of the capacities of natural systems in the wider regional, national, and international context to absorb or break down wastes. Although cities concentrate people and resources, and this concentration can contribute to their sustainability, it is also clear that cities themselves are not sustainable without the support of ecosystem services, including products from ecosystems such as raw materials and food, from nonurban areas. Urban Development. Learn about and revise the challenges that some British cities face, including regeneration and urban sustainability, with GCSE Bitesize Geography (AQA). Will you pass the quiz? . Everything you need for your studies in one place. The main five responses to urban sustainability challenges are regional planning efforts, urban growth boundaries, farmland protection policies, greenbelts, and redevelopment of brownfields. Ultimately, the laws of thermodynamics limit the amount of useful recycling. What is the ideal pH for bodies of water? Upload unlimited documents and save them online. A multiscale governance system that explicitly addresses interconnected resource chains and interconnected places is necessary in order to transition toward urban sustainability (Box 3-4). Much of the current information on urban areas is about stocks or snapshots of current conditions of a single place or location. Here we advocate a DPSIR conceptual model based on indicators used in the assessment of urban activities (transportation, industry. These opportunities can be loosely placed in three categories: first, filling quantitative data gaps; second, mapping qualitative factors and processes; and third, identifying and scaling successful financing models to ensure rapid adoption. Another kind of waste produced by businesses is industrial waste, which can include anything from gravel and scrap metal to toxic chemicals. Specific strategies can then be developed to achieve the goals and targets identified. Thus, localities that develop an island or walled-city perspective, where sustainability is defined as only activities within the citys boundaries, are by definition not sustainable. It's a monumental task for cities to undertake, with many influences and forces at work. Water resources in particular are at a greater risk of depletion due to increased droughts and floods. The following discussion of research and development needs highlights just a few ways that science can contribute to urban sustainability. Thus, urban sustainability cannot be limited to what happens within a single place. According to the definition by Gurr and King (1987), the first relates to vertical autonomy, which is a function of the citys relationship with senior-level government. This paper focuses on adaptive actions in response to WEF challenges as well as the environmental implications of these responses in Harare, Zimbabwe. This is a challenge because it promotes deregulated unsustainable urban development, conversion of rural and farmland, and car dependency. 1 Planetary boundaries define, as it were, the boundaries of the planetary playing field for humanity if we want to be sure of avoiding major human-induced environmental change on a global scale (Rockstrm et al., 2009). In an increasingly urbanized and globalized world, the boundaries between urban and rural and urban and hinterland are often blurred. Power plants, chemical facilities, and manufacturing companies emit a lot of pollutants into the atmosphere. First, greater and greater numbers of people are living in urban areasand are projected to do so for the foreseeable future. A comprehensive strategy in the form of a roadmap, which incorporates these principles while focusing on the interactions among urban and global systems, can provide a framework for all stakeholders engaged in metropolitan areas, including local and regional governments, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations, to enable meaningful pathways to urban sustainability. Principle 2: Human and natural systems are tightly intertwined and come together in cities. The article aims to identify the priority policy/practice areas and interventions to solve sustainability challenges in Polish municipalities, as well as . Poor resource management can not only affect residents in cities but also people living in other parts of the world. Long-term policies and institutionalized activities that can promote greater equity can contribute to the future of sustainable cities. Nie wieder prokastinieren mit unseren Lernerinnerungen. UA is thus integral to the prospect of Urban Sustainability as SDG 11 ("Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable") of the U.N.'s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The success of the Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) depends on the availability and accessibility of robust data, as well as the reconfiguration of governance systems that can catalyse urban transformation.
