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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. Urban governments are tasked with the responsibility of managing not only water resources but also sanitation, waste, food, and air quality. Without paying heed to finite resources, urban sustainability may be increasingly difficult to attain depending on the availability and cost of key natural resources and energy as the 21st century progresses (Day et al., 2014, 2016; McDonnell and MacGregor-Fors, 2016; Ramaswami et al., 2016). Book Description This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. Dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, nitrates, and bioindicators. Finally, the greater challenge of overpopulation from urban growth must be addressed and responded to through sustainable urban development. 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. 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. (2009), NRC (2004), Pina et al. 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. Maintaining good air and water quality in urban areas is a challenge as these resources are not only used more but are also vulnerable to pollutants and contaminants. Free and expert-verified textbook solutions. What are six challenges to urban sustainability? As one example, McGranahan and Satterthwaite (2003) suggested that adding concern for ecological sustainability onto existing development policies means setting limits on the rights of city enterprises or consumers to use scarce resources (wherever they come from) and to generate nonbiodegradable wastes. First, large data gaps exist. October 15, 2015. This study provides direct and easily interpreted estimates of the air quality and infant health benefits of the 1970 Act. 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. Because urban systems connect distant places through the flows of people, economic goods and services, and resources, urban sustainability cannot be focused solely on cities themselves, but must also encompass places and land from which these resources originate (Seto et al., 2012). Some of the most polluted cities in the world are located in areas of high manufacturing and industrialization. Sustainable development can be implemented in ways that can both mitigate the challenges of urban sustainability and address the goals. True or false? 4, Example of a greenbelt in Tehran, Iran (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tochal_from_Modarres_Expressway.jpg), by Kaymar Adl (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kamshots/), licensed by CC-BY-2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en). Fair Deal legislation and the creation of the GI Bill. 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. 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. Commercial waste is generated by businesses, usually also in the form of an overabundance of packaged goods. Sustainability Challenges and Solutions - thestructuralengineer.info In order for urban places to be sustainable from economic, environmental, and equity perspectives, pathways to sustainability require a systemic approach around three considerations: scale, allocation, and distribution (Daly, 1992). Fine material produced in air pollution that humans can breathe in. 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: Best study tips and tricks for your exams. The clean-up for these can be costly to cities and unsustainable in the long term. Thus, some strategies to manage communal resources, such as community-based, bottom-up approaches examined by Ostrom (2009a), may be more difficult to obtain in urban settings. Characterizing the urban metabolism constitutes a priority research agenda and includes quantification of the inputs, outputs, and storage of energy, water, nutrients, products, and wastes, at an urban scale. How can suburban sprawl be a challenge to urban sustainability? Fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides. 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. In recent years, city-level sustainability indicators have become more popular in the literature (e.g., Mori and Christodoulou, 2012). It focuses on nine cities across the United States and Canada (Los Angeles, CA, New York City, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Grand Rapids, MI, Flint, MI, Cedar Rapids, IA, Chattanooga, TN, and Vancouver, Canada), chosen to represent a variety of metropolitan regions, with consideration given to city size, proximity to coastal and other waterways, susceptibility to hazards, primary industry, and several other factors. (2012) argued that the laws of thermodynamics and biophysical constraints place limitations on what is possible for all systems, including human systems such as cities. In most political systems, national governments have the primary role in developing guidelines and supporting innovation allied to regional or global conventions or guidelines where international agreement is reached on setting such limits. 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. Right? Over the long term and at global scales, economic growth and development will be constrained by finite resources and the biophysical limits of the planet to provide the resources required for development, industrialization, and urbanization. How does air pollution contribute to climate change? Name three countries with high air quality. 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. Cities that are serious about sustainability will seek to minimize their negative environmental impacts across all scales from local to global. There is evidence that the spatial distribution of people of color and low-income people is highly correlated with the distribution of air pollution, landfills, lead poisoning in children, abandoned toxic waste dumps, and contaminated fish consumption. Will you pass the quiz? 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). In particular, the institutional dimension plays an important role in how global issues are addressed, as discussed by Gurr and King (1987), who identified the need to coordinate two levels of action: the first relates to vertical autonomythe citys relationship with federal administrationand the second relates to the horizontal autonomya function of the citys relationship with local economic and social groups that the city depends on for its financial and political support. Principle 3: Urban inequality undermines sustainability efforts. Here we advocate a DPSIR conceptual model based on indicators used in the assessment of urban activities (transportation, industry. The project is the first of six in the UCLA Grand Challenge initiative that will unite the university's resources to tackle some of society's most pressing issues.. How can sanitation be a challenge to urban sustainability? Poor waste management likewise can harm the well-being of residents through improper waste disposal. Once established, urban metabolism models supported by adequate tools and metrics enable a research stream to explore the optimization of resource productivity and the degree of circularity of resource streams that may be helpful in identifying critical processes for the sustainability of the urban system and opportunities for improvement. In a kickoff event at UCLA's Royce Hall (see event video), Chancellor Gene Block will describe the ambitious project . Activities that provide co-benefits that are small in magnitude, despite being efficient and co-occurring, should be eschewed unless they come at relatively small costs to the system. The roadmap is organized in three phases: (1) creating the basis for a sustainability roadmap, (2) design and implementation, and (3) outcomes and reassessment. Without regional planning, rural and suburban towns will grow but will have a massive amount of commuters demanding greater highway access. unrestricted growth outside of major urban areas with separate designations for residential, commercial, entertainment, and other services, usually only accessible by car. Sustainable urban development has its own challenges ranging from urban growth to environmental problems caused by climate change. True or false? Create beautiful notes faster than ever before. StudySmarter is commited to creating, free, high quality explainations, opening education to all. This is particularly relevant as places undergo different stages of urbanization and a consequent redrawing of borders and spheres of economic influence. Health equity is a crosscutting issue, and emerging research theme, in urban sustainability studies. However, air quality and water resources can be protected through proper quality management and government policy. This can include waste made by offices, schools, and shops. . It focuses on real world examples within two key themes - smart cities and transportation - as a way to look at the challenges and practical responses related to urban sustainability. It's a monumental task for cities to undertake, with many influences and forces at work. 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. There is the matter of urban growth that, if unregulated, can come in the form of suburban sprawl. Two environmental challenges to urban sustainability are water quality and air quality. For instance, domestic waste is household trash, usually generate from packaged goods. Clustering populations, however, can compound both positive and negative conditions, with many modern urban areas experiencing growing inequality, debility, and environmental degradation. The strategies employed should match the context. Cities in developed countries may create more waste due to consuming and discarding a greater amount of. However,. Health impacts, such as asthma and lung disease. Indicates air quality to levels to members of the public. In this step it is critical to engage community members and other stakeholders in identifying local constraints and opportunities that promote or deter sustainable solutions at different urban development stages. How many categories are there in the AQI? How can urban growth boundaries respond tourban sustainability challenges? Nongovernmental organizations and private actors such as individuals and the private sector play important roles in shaping urban activities and public perception. As discussed by Bai (2007), although there are factors beyond local control, the main obstacles to bringing the global concerns onto the local level are the reflection of contradictory perceptions, concerns, interests, and priorities, rather than the scale of the issue. This will continue the cycle of suburban sprawl and car dependency. 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). A practitioner could complement the adopted standard(s) with additional indicators unique to the citys context as necessary. outside of major urban areas with separate designations for residential, commercial, entertainment, and other services, usually only accessible by car. Urban systems are complex networks of interdependent subsystems, for which the degree and nature of the relationships are imperfectly known. In practice cities could, for example, quantify their sustainability impacts using a number of measures such as per capita ecological footprint and, making use of economies of scale, make efforts to reduce it below global levels of sustainability. Urban sustainability has been defined in various ways with different criteria and emphases, but its goal should be to promote and enable the long-term well-being of people and the planet, through efficient use of natural resources and production of wastes within a city region while simultaneously improving its livability, through social amenities, economic opportunity, and health, so that it can better fit within the capacities of local, regional, and global ecosystems, as discussed by Newman (1999). Urban areas and the activities within them use resources and produce byproducts such as waste and pollution that drive many types of global change, such as resource depletion, land-use change, loss of biodiversity, and high levels of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Particularly for developing countries, manufacturing serves as a very important economic source, serving contracts or orders from companies in developed countries. There is a need to go beyond conventional modes of data observation and collection and utilize information contributed by users (e.g., through social media) and in combination with Earth observation systems. Non-point source pollution is when the exact location of pollution can be located. 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). Such a framework of indicators constitutes a practical tool for policy making, as it provides actionable information that facilitates the understanding and the public perception of complex interactions between drivers, their actions and impacts, and the responses that may improve the urban sustainability, considering a global perspective. 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. Regional planning can also help create urban growth boundaries, a limit that determines how far an urban area will develop spatially. It is also important to limit the use of resources that are harmful to the environment. View our suggested citation for this chapter. This helps to facilitate the engagement, buy-in, and support needed to implement these strategies. Water resources in particular are at a greater risk of depletion due to increased droughts and floods. There are many policy options that can affect urban activities such that they become active and positive forces in sustainably managing the planets resources. Urban sustainability therefore requires horizontal and vertical integration across multiple levels of governance, guided by four principles: the planet has biophysical limits, human and natural systems are tightly intertwined and come together in cities, urban inequality undermines sustainability efforts, and cities are highly interconnected. 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. Identify your study strength and weaknesses. It will require recognition of the biophysical and thermodynamic aspects of sustainability. Create the most beautiful study materials using our templates. tourism, etc. 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. First, greater and greater numbers of people are living in urban areasand are projected to do so for the foreseeable future. Only about 2 hectares (4.94 acres) of such ecosystems are available, however, for each person on Earth (with no heed to the independent requirements of other consumer species). Long-term policies and institutionalized activities that can promote greater equity can contribute to the future of sustainable cities. This briefing provides an initial overview of how the . In practice, simply trying to pin down the size of any specific citys ecological footprintin particular, the ecological footprint per capitamay contribute to the recognition of its relative impacts at a global scale. Learning from existing menu of urban development solutions: Although addressing forced displacement in cities is a relatively new challenge, responses can be informed by proven urban development approaches , ranging from urban upgrading and community driven development to disaster risk management. Name some illnesses that poor water quality can lead to. The task is, however, not simple. Improper waste disposal can lead to air, water, and soil pollution and contamination. 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 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. Cities are not islands. 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. What is the ideal pH for bodies of water? In an era that is characterized by global flows of commodities, capital, information, and people, the resources to support urban areas extend the impacts of urban activities along environmental, economic, and social dimensions at national and international levels, and become truly global; crossing these boundaries is a prerequisite for sustainable governance. These goals generally include attracting new investment, improving social conditions (and reducing social problems), ensuring basic services and adequate housing, and (more recently) raising environmental standards within their jurisdiction. transportation, or waste. Create flashcards in notes completely automatically. 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. One challenge in the case of cities, however, is that many of these shared resources do not have definable boundaries such as land. By registering you get free access to our website and app (available on desktop AND mobile) which will help you to super-charge your learning process. Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features? Particulate matter, lead, ground level ozone, nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. Learn about and revise the challenges that some British cities face, including regeneration and urban sustainability, with GCSE Bitesize Geography (AQA). However, recent scientific analyses have shown that major cities are actually the safest areas in the United States, significantly more so than their suburban and rural counterparts, when considering that safety involves more than simply violent crime risks but also traffic risks and other threats to safety (Myers et al., 2013). 11: 6486 . 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. Urban Development Home. A Review of Policy Responses on Urban Mobility" Sustainability 13, no. All of the above research needs derive from the application of a complex system perspective to urban sustainability. Practitioners starting out in the field would be well served by adopting one or more of the best practice standards (e.g., United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Urban Sustainability Directors Network Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities, and International Organization for Standardization Sustainability Standards) rather than endeavoring to develop their own unique suite of metrics as their data would be more comparable between cities and would have some degree of external validity built in. Healthy people, healthy biophysical environments, and healthy human-environment interactions are synergistic relationships that underpin the sustainability of cities (Liu et al., 2007). Let's take a look at how the challenges of sustainable urban development may not be challenges at allit all depends on perspective! Upload unlimited documents and save them online. A suburban development is built across from a dense, urban neighborhood. 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. Concentrated energy use leads to greater air pollution with significant. When cities build and expand, they can create greenbelts, areas of wild, undeveloped land in surrounding urban areas. Some of the major advantages of cities as identified by Rees (1996) include (1) lower costs per capita of providing piped treated water, sewer systems, waste collection, and most other forms of infrastructure and public amenities; (2) greater possibilities for, and a greater range of options for, material recycling, reuse, remanufacturing, and the specialized skills and enterprises needed to make these things happen; (3) high population density, which reduces the per capita demand for occupied land; (4) great potential through economies of scale, co-generation, and the use of waste process heat from industry or power plants, to reduce the per capita use of fossil fuel for space heating; and (5) great potential for reducing (mostly fossil) energy consumption by motor vehicles through walking. Cities in developed countries may create more waste due to consuming and discarding a greater amount of packaging. Energy use is of particular concern for cities, as it can be both costly and wasteful. This definition includes: Localized environmental health problems such as inadequate household water and sanitation and indoor air pollution. The highest AQI range (at the level of concern of hazardous) means that air quality is extremely poor and poses dangerous health risks to all. Complementary research showed that clean air regulations have reduced infant mortality and increased housing prices (Chay and Greenstone, 2005; EPA, 1999).