Geography Week 7

Sustainability In The City

(D'Alterio 2011, 'Sustainable Green City')

 

When comparing city living to the countryside, most people would suggest that living rurally is better for your health and the environment yet population figures show that more and more people are migrating to the cities than ever before (United Nations 2012, ¶4). Surprisingly, city inhabitants have a ‘much lower carbon footprint’ per capita than their rural counterparts owing to ‘the use of public transport and denser housing’ (Vaughan 2009, ¶6). Currently however, there are ‘3.2 billion people’ or  approximately 50% of the population  living in urban areas with numbers expected to soar to ‘5 billion by 2030,’ a rapidly increasing rate that without proper city planning and taking viable and appropriate sustainability measures could lead to a rise in slum areas rather than green, sustainable cities (United Nations 2007, p.15 ¶3). According to LandLearn (n.d., ¶3), sustainability at a basic level is ‘an ability or capacity of something to be maintained or to sustain itself,’ however it seems pointless to create a green city if the inhabitants are themselves an endangered people. The accelerated development of urban areas, particularly in less affluent regions, ‘make it challenging to improve living conditions quickly enough to meet targets’ (United Nations 2007, p.5 ¶4). Nevertheless it is essential that city planners and government bodies come up with solutions to create an environment whereby a growing population has ongoing access to the resources it requires to maintain itself whilst reducing the environmental impact of rapidly expanding urban areas. In order to create ‘more ecologically and resilient cities,’ greater attention must be focused on behavioural change as well as adapting current infrastructure to ‘reduce car dependency’, more funds dedicated to ‘creating sustainable buildings’ and heightened awareness of ‘water conservation’ so that we do not neglect our intergenerational responsibility (Australian Conservation Foundation 2012, ¶5; Urban Ecology Australia 2007).

 References

Australian Conservation Foundation 2012, Creating Sustainable Cities, http://www.acfonline.org.au/be-informed/sustainable-living/creating-sustainable-cities, [Accessed 2 November 2012]

LandLearn NSW n.d., What Is Sustainability?, http://www.landlearnnsw.org.au/sustainability/what-is-sustainability, [Accessed 2 November 2012]

Urban Ecology Australia 2007, Cities, http://www.urbanecology.org.au/topics/cities.html#main, [Accessed 2 November 2012]

United Nations 2007, The Millennium Development Goals Report, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/mdg2007.pdf, [Accessed 2 November 2012]

United Nations 2012, Sustainable Cities, http://www.un.org/en/sustainablefuture/cities.shtml, [Accessed 2 November 2012]

Vaughan, A 2009, ‘City Dwellers Have Smaller Carbon Footprints Study Finds’, The Guardian, 23 March, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/23/city-dwellers-smaller-carbon-footprints, [Accessed 2 November 2012]

Images

D’Alterio, E 2011, ‘Sustainable Green City’, picture, http://designbuildsource.com.au/planning-sustainable-australia, [Accessed 2 November 2012]