Sustainable urban living

• sustainable living- means living in a way to meet our needs now without reducing the ability of people to meet their needs in future
• Sustainable living features

  • Public transport is viewed as a good alternate to cars
  • areas of open space
  • resources and services in city accessible to all
  • public transport safe and reliable
  • many renewable resources are used instead of non- renewable
  • communities work together to deal with issues (crime)
  • walking and cycling is safe
• unsustainable features

  • not all new homes are energy efficient
  • recycling is minimal= large waste amounts
  • cars are considered best way of getting around
  • walking and cycling dangerous
  • resources and services are inaccessible to some people
  • public transport not safe and reliable
• Freiburg, Germany sustainablity

  • 800km of cycle paths with 9000 parking spaces for bikes
  • jobs been created in research and build of solar tech
  • range of trees and plants planted in 900 hectares of parks
  • city plans to be 100% powered by renewable energy by 2050
  • rainwater collected and reused
• Water conservation schemes

  • collecting rainwater for use on gardens or flushing toilets
  • installing toilets that flush less water
  • installing water metres - means people pay for water they use
  • encourage people to turn off taps
• Example of water conservation schemes - Curitiba, Brazil

  • gov. introduced policies like water metres in homes (people pay for what they use) and hosepipe bans
  • these successfully reduced Curititbas water consumption
• energy conservation schemes

  • reduce fossil fuels
  • use wind or solar power over gas or coal power stations
  • gov lets people who generate their own renewable energy (eg solar panels) sell excess energy to national grid
  • new homes use minimum energy
  • encourage people to use public transport
• Example of energy conservation scheme- Curitiba, Brazil

  • 2009 Curitiba renovated its ‘green-line’ transport system
  • these include lanes dedicated for biofuel buses
  • scheme to replace cities street lights with energy efficient bulbs
  • city gets 84% of its energy from hydroelectric power
• Green spaces -

  • provide naturally cooler areas for hot weather
  • relaxing
  • encourage people to exercise and use alt transport like bikes = people less stressed and more healthy
  • make people feel happier
  • provide break from noise and rush of city
  • reduce air pollution
  • risk of flooding reduced - dm if open space is flooded
• Recycling

  • More recycling = less resources are used
  • less waste to landfill- releases greenhouse gases
  • waste recycling schemes - kerbside collections of recycling and websites where things can be given away for free to re use
• Example of recycling- Curitiba, Brazil

  • collects 100% of its waste of 70% is recycled
  • launched ‘the green exchange programme’ where residents receive 1kg of food or bus tickets for every 4kg of recycling
• Traffic congestion problems

  • environmental - air pollution and greenhouse gases = climate change
  • economic - make people late for work and delay deliveries- companies loose money
  • social - higher chance of accidents. Frustration for drivers and health issues for people who breath in polluted air. delayed emergency vehicles
• Traffic management- public transport London

  • londons underground system takes 3 million people off roads a day
  • self service bikes available and are cheaper than other public transport - bike lanes for safety