What are the 5 responses to urban sustainability challenges? Second, cities exist as part of integrated regional and global systems that are not fully understood. Stop procrastinating with our study reminders. As discussed by Bai (2007), the fundamental point in the scale argument is that global environmental issues are simply beyond the reach and concern of city government, and therefore it is difficult to tackle these issues at the local level. A set of standards that are required of water in order for its quality to be considered high. Big Idea 2: IMP - How are the attitudes, values, and balance of power of a population reflected in the built landscape? Every indicator should be connected to both an implementation and an impact statement to garner more support, to engage the public in the process, and to ensure the efficiency and impact of the indicator once realized. and the second relates to horizontal autonomy, which is a function of the citys relationship with local economic and social groups that the city depends on for its financial and political support. The future of urban sustainability will therefore focus on win-win opportunities that improve both human and natural ecosystem health in cities. As networks grow between extended urban regions and within cities, issues of severe economic, political, and class inequalities become central to urban sustainability. Although perfect class and economic equality is not possible, severe urban disparities should remain in check if cities are to realize their full potential and become appealing places of choice for multigenerational urban dwellers and new urban immigrants alike. 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. First, greater and greater numbers of people are living in urban areasand are projected to do so for the foreseeable future. . Furthermore, this studys findings cross-validate the findings of earlier work examining the recession-induced pollution reductions of the early 1980s. The spatial and time scales of various subsystems are different, and the understanding of individual subsystems does not imply the global understanding of the full system. Classifying these indicators as characterizing a driver, a pressure, the state, the impact, or a response may allow for a detailed approach to be used even in the absence of a comprehensive theory of the phenomena to be analyzed. 2 Urban Sustainability Indicators and Metrics, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities for the United States. Furthermore, the development of indicators should be supported with research that expresses the impact of the indicator. Healthy human and natural ecosystems require that a multidimensional set of a communitys interests be expressed and actions are intentional to mediate those interests (see also Box 3-2). The other is associated to the impact of technology intensity that is assumed for characterizing productivity in terms of the global hectare. Therefore, urban sustainability will require making explicit and addressing the interconnections and impacts on the planet. 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. How does air pollution contribute to climate change? But city authorities need national guidelines and often national policies. ), as discussed in Chapter 2. Cities are not islands. limate, precipitation, soil and sediments, vegetation, and human activities are all factors of declining water quality. The concept of planetary boundaries has been developed to outline a safe operating space for humanity that carries a low likelihood of harming the life support systems on Earth to such an extent that they no longer are able to support economic growth and human development . Fig. At its core, the concept of sustainable development is about reconciling development and environment (McGranahan and Satterthwaite, 2003). There are several responses to urban sustainability challenges that are also part of urban sustainable development strategies. There is a general ignorance about. Cholera, typhoid, diarrhea, hepatitis A, and polio. Urban governments are tasked with the responsibility of managing not only water resources but also sanitation, waste, food, and air quality. 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. Fair Deal legislation and the creation of the GI Bill. The task is, however, not simple. 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. True or false? Third, the critical task of developing finance models to support urban sustainability action requires urgent attention. Since materials and energy come from long distances around the world to support urban areas, it is critical for cities to recognize how activities and consumption within their boundaries affect places and people outside their boundaries. Ultimately, the goal of urban sustainability is to promote and enable the long-term well-being of people and the planet, yet doing so requires recognition of the biophysical constraints on all human and natural systems, as well as the acknowledgment that urban sustainability is multiscale and multidimensional, both encompassing and transcending urban jurisdictions. Another kind of waste produced by businesses is industrial waste, which can include anything from gravel and scrap metal to toxic chemicals. Given the relevance and impact of these constraints to the discussion of various pathways to urban sustainability, a further examination of these issues and their associated challenges are described in Appendix C (as well as by Day et al., 2014; Seto and Ramankutty, 2016; UNEP, 2012). What are some anthropogenic causes of air pollution? 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). Daly (2002) proposed three criteria that must be met for a resouce or process to be considered sustainable: Fiala (2008) pointed to two issues that can be raised regarding the ecological footprint method. Health impacts, such as asthma and lung disease. These areas can both improve air quality, preserve natural habitats for animals, and allow for new recreational opportunities for residents. The use of a DPSIR model posits an explicit causality effect between different actors and consequences and ensures exhaustive coverage of the phenomena contained in the model (Ferro and Fernandez, 2013). Farmland protection policies are policies that prevent the conversion of agricultural land to anything non-agricultural-related. The environmental effects of suburban sprawl include What are some urban sustainability practices that could prevent suburban sprawl? Right? Cities with a high number of these facilities are linked with poorer air quality, water contamination, and poor soil health. How can suburban sprawl be a challenge to urban sustainability? This paper focuses on adaptive actions in response to WEF challenges as well as the environmental implications of these responses in Harare, Zimbabwe. How can sanitation be a challenge to urban sustainability? It's a monumental task for cities to undertake, with many influences and forces at work. However, what is needed is information on flows between places, which allows the characterization of networks, linkages, and interconnections across places. Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email. Healthy people, healthy biophysical environments, and healthy human-environment interactions are synergistic relationships that underpin the sustainability of cities (Liu et al., 2007). See our explanation on Urban Sustainability to learn more! 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). doi: 10.17226/23551. For a renewable resourcesoil, water, forest, fishthe sustainable rate of use can be no greater than the rate of regeneration of its source. In recent years, city-level sustainability indicators have become more popular in the literature (e.g., Mori and Christodoulou, 2012). 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. 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. Without regional planning, rural and suburban towns will grow but will have a massive amount of commuters demanding greater highway access. To improve the threshold knowledge of sustainability indicators and their utility in defining an action strategy, it is necessary to have empirical tests of the performance and redundancy of these indicators and indicator systems.3 This is of increasing importance to policy makers and the public as human production and consumption put increased stress on environmental, economic, and social systems. 2 - River in the Amazon Rainforest; environmental challenges to water sustainability depend on location and water management. 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. In many ways, this is a tragedy of the commons issue, where individual cities act in their own self-interest at the peril of shared global resources. Poor resource management can not only affect residents in cities but also people living in other parts of the world. Water resources in particular are at a greater risk of depletion due to increased droughts and floods. Proper disposal, recycling, and waste management are critical for cities. The first is to consider the environmental impacts of urban-based production and consumption on the needs of all people, not just those within their jurisdiction. 3 Principles of Urban Sustainability: A Roadmap for Decision Making. Getting an accurate picture of the environmental impacts of all human activity, including that of people working in the private sector, is almost impossible. This is the first step to establish an urban sustainability framework consistent with the sustainability principles described before, which provide the fundamental elements to identify opportunities and constraints for different contexts found in a diversity of urban areas. What pollutants occur due to agricultural practices? Some obstacles a sustainable city can face can range from urban growth to climate change effects. The ecological footprint of cities is measured by the number of people in a city and how much they're consuming. In short, urban sustainability will require a reconceptualization of the boundaries of responsibility for urban residents, urban leadership, and urban activities. What sources of urbanization can create water pollution? Specifically, market transformation can traditionally be accomplished by first supporting early adopters through incentives; next encouraging the majority to take action through market-based approaches, behavior change programs, and social norming; and, finally, regulating to prompt action from laggards. Feedback mechanisms that enable the signals of system performance to generate behavioral responses from the urban community at both the individual and institutional levels. The article aims to identify the priority policy/practice areas and interventions to solve sustainability challenges in Polish municipalities, as well as . High amounts of nutrients that lead to an algal bloom and prevents oxygen and light from entering the water. Firstly, we focused on the type of the policy instrument, the challenge it wants to address, as well as its time horizon. New sustainability indicators and metrics are continually being developed, in part because of the wide range of sustainability frameworks used as well as differences in spatial scales of interest and availability (or lack thereof) of data. They found that while those companies lost almost 600,000 jobs compared with what would have happened without the regulations, there were positive gains in health outcomes. 2. This task is complex and requires further methodological developments making use of harmonized data, which may correlate material and energy consumption with their socioeconomic drivers, as attempted by Niza et al. unrestricted growth outside of major urban areas with separate designations for residential, commercial, entertainment, and other services, usually only accessible by car. Poor resource management can not only affect residents in cities but also people living in other parts of the world. Therefore, the elimination of these obstacles must start by clarifying the nature of the issue, identifying which among the obstacles are real and which can be handled by changing perceptions, concerns, and priorities at the city level. You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Further, sprawling urban development and high car dependency are linked with greater energy use and waste. 4, Example of a greenbelt in Tehran, Iran. Discussions should generate targets and benchmarks but also well-researched choices that drive community decision making. Principle 2: Human and natural systems are tightly intertwined and come together in cities. Factories and power plants, forestry and agriculture, mining and municipal wastewater treatment plants. Ready to take your reading offline? In this regard, access Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website. The roadmap is organized in three phases: (1) creating the basis for a sustainability roadmap, (2) design and implementation, and (3) outcomes and reassessment. What are some obstacles that a sustainable city faces? 11: 6486 . Understanding indicators and making use of them to improve urban sustainability could benefit from the adoption of a DPSIR framework, as discussed by Ferro and Fernndez (2013). Here we use the concept of ecological footprint, which has been proposed as an analytic tool to estimate the load imposed on the ecosphere by any specified human population (Berkowitz and Rees, 2003). Overpopulation occurs when people exceed the resources provided by a location. Best study tips and tricks for your exams. . Community engagement will help inform a multiscale vision and strategy for improving human well-being through an environmental, economic, and social equity lens. Cities that are serious about sustainability will seek to minimize their negative environmental impacts across all scales from local to global. I have highlighted what I see as two of the most interesting and critical challenges in sustainable urban development: understanding the 'vision' (or visions) and developing a deeper understanding of the multi-faceted processes of change required to achieve more sustainable cities. 3 Principles of Urban Sustainability: A Roadmap for Decision Making, 5 A Path Forward: Findings and Recommendations, Appendix A: Committee on Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities Biographical Information, Appendix B: Details for Urban Sustainability Indicators, Appendix C: Constraints on the Sustainability of Urban Areas. 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. Fill in the blank. Stop procrastinating with our smart planner features. Human well-being and health are the cornerstones of livable and thriving cities although bolstering these relationships with myopic goals that improve human prosperity while disregarding the health of natural urban and nonurban ecosystems will only serve to undermine both human and environmental. Examples include smoke and dust. This helps to facilitate the engagement, buy-in, and support needed to implement these strategies. The continuous reassessment of the impact of the strategy implemented requires the use of metrics, and a DPSIR framework will be particularly useful to assess the progress of urban sustainability. For the long-term success and resilience of cities, these challenges should serve as a current guide for current and future development. A Review of Policy Responses on Urban Mobility" Sustainability 13, no. Environmental disasters are more likely to occur with greater intensity; buildings, streets, and facilities are more likely to be damaged or destroyed. Together, cities can play important roles in the stewardship of the planet (Seitzinger et al., 2012). Register for a free account to start saving and receiving special member only perks. Urban sprawl reduces available water catchment areas, agricultural lands and increases demand for energy. Turbidity is a measure of how ___ the water is. when only one kind of use or purpose can be built. Urban sustainability goals often require behavior change, and the exact strategies for facilitating that change, whether through regulation or economic policies, require careful thought. View our suggested citation for this chapter. As described in Chapter 2, many indicators and metrics have been developed to measure sustainability, each of which has its own weaknesses and strengths as well as availability of data and ease of calculation.