Urban Planning and Sustainable Development - Essay Example

Urban planning and sustainable development towards the progress of Venice :University : Year : Introduction Overview of Venice History One of the most important cities in both medieval and modern period of the European history is Venice. Situated in Italy, it marks as a strategically important location in the medieval history of Europe. Venice is also known as queen of Adriatic and is the capital of Veneto. The distinctive part of the city is its environment being engulfed with water. It forms along the part of Venetian Lagoon along Adriatic Sea. Due to its close proximity with water along its side, it was considered a major base for naval arcade. Venice was believed to be founded in 422 by refugees. Later many people like Huns, Lombards had their fair share of occupancy of the region. This led to new development of ports and shift of political administration to these places. During this time seat of governor was located in Malamocco. Later seat of Olivolo was created. Some time later the high seat of Malamocco was shifted to Rialto Island., This marked a historic change in the political administration of the Venice as the Rialto Island paved its way to form what we call the modern day location of Venice. This was subsequently bolstered by the fact that construction of monastery of St Zachary and basilica of St Mark. This formed the major defining moment of the futuristic idea of sustainable development of the city. In the year 828 the patriarchal seat was also moved to rialto and at the same time city of Venice started to grow in autonomous mode due to decline of Byzantine power. These events formed the development of city of Venice and from here started the great revolution of medieval world. After the decline of Byzantine power till 12th century Venice transformed from its dependency region into a city state. It shared its status along with Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi. No sooner than its transformation took place .everyone soon realized the importance of the location of place where Venice stood. Venice being at the mouth of Adriatic Sea made it a strategically important place .It soon became a naval and commercial power and became one of the most prominent chain links between the European or the western world to the other parts of the world. Soon the power of Venice was confirmed with the construction of Venetian arsenal. Venetian Arsenal was one of the most important areas of the city of Venice .Lying in the castello sestiere; it was a shipyard and naval depot. It was started around 1104 and was believed to play active role in the control affairs of the city by 12th century. The Arsenal became an important centre for rope manufacture.The people and the staff present in the shipyard also developed new firearms, during the later part of fourteenth century and numerous small arms against the Genoese a few years later.Later administaration extended its location scope till Adda river and lake garda. Similarly to develop its already advantegous location into a potential martime super power of the medieval world it started to aquire neighboring areas like aegean areas of crete. The city later was governed by Great Council .It appoints public offcials and elects a senate. The senate in turn chose a ten member team who looked after the administration of the city . and head of this team group was called as duke.. Now if we look at this whole picture of the government structure ,we can sense some similarity between the structure of the government present in venice and that present in rome in its ancient era.. The reason we have explained about its history and the government present in the city region is that we have to understand these events which were laid out in the timelines of history and the people who have governed this great city have also changed the way the city looks through its administrative planning and practices and thus the concept of urban planning and spatial planning practises have been realised later due to these events. Thus these all events which took place has changed the timeline of venice's history and tumultous repercrussions among the administraticve aurthorities over the years in order to aquire its status as maritime super power yielded the fundamental concern of the whole city -sustainable development of the city over the timeline. Now we will bring the discusion of sustainibilty development across the city and compare it with methods used in United Kingdom . but first to bring the clarity in the whole scheme of things we will need to analyze the situation of city through the facets of the information which it presents to the visitors,researchers and others. Probably the most important facet a city like venice could give our discussion on sustainable development a thrust is Tourism and its impact. Few of the other facets which are tools in determining the length of the discussion are environment issues,social and economic issues. Lets us discuss about of each of them in brief before we dwell into the concept of sustainable development. Urban Planning Urban Planningc can be described as the area which explores different aspects of the built and social environments of the communities present. Now we need to analyze the situation of the city and to understand it more clearly we will present with the following map structures. Fig: The Historic Core off Venice (Michelin) source (www.goole.com) The following map shows the core area map of the city of Venice. We also present map which consists of the greater city area limits of the city. Fig: Greater Venice (source: www.google.com) Now lets inderstand the issues of the urban planning in the city of venice. The major outline schematic concept of urban planning of the city bears great resemblance withs its structure it once possessed during its medieval era, which we can refer to as the imperial age. This can bolstered by the act of Duke Ziani who created a public place at Piazza San Marco.This one event of history changed the urban planning structure of the city as the city showed its affinity to the Baroque City Model. Now we can say that the comparisons to the model can only be done on a very abstract and perspective basis. The space measured were limited to a defined space .Open space was made to pave a way out as the six sesteri developed around the squares.If we look at map we can understand that gradens not shown in map can be understood to be placed at outskirts of the city.Also we can understand that land separtion was done in the layout to the extent possible with Venetian Arsenal located on the farthest edge of the island. Also it is present far away from the all residential and administrative localities.if we realize that the baroque model focus was primarily understood of its role on Piazza San Marco. Piazza was important area because it was home to the administrative functions of that area during that time.Not only was it home to administrative departments it also housed monuments and important buildings Now let's look at brief idea analysis of baroque plan model so as to understand the whole scenario clearly. Here in the baroque city plan we first see that a fortification line is laid out, which protects the region from the enemies. We also see spaces present for open areas or public/private areas, green areas for gardens/environmental aspects, areas devoted to commercial development, regions pertaining to residential localities and finally areas in synchronization with administrative region and industrial areas. The usual duels of Public versus private or residential versus industrial areas are the common trends visible in the spatial layout. One of the important reasons of the existence of baroque model was it enhances the prospects of the better city urban layout which in turn helps in building monuments and impressive building structures. Another reason for the usage and purpose was that people living in the city can be put at one place and thus utilizing the space of the city's area. In the model the center of the layout depicts open space which is surrounded by the commercial area. This also holds the important area of the whole city state structure. And as we move away from the center we can understand that the focal point of importance goes farther the area from the center, lesser is its importance in the city structural layout. Fig: Baroque planning city model (source: www.google.com) If we understand the urban planning layout methodologies used now, we can say that this is the answer to the problems city was experiencing. Various plans like old/general plan of 1959, new town plan have been tried to eliminate the problems. These problems present are all interlinked and here we try to share out few issues regarding the urban planning in order to understand the city structure and this will also help us to understand the need of sustainable development in the city's planning layout. Issues dealing with water (Flooding) Now we are in position to talk about potential problems dealing with planning layout the city of Venice. One of the most important areas dealing with is the presence of water bodies in and around the city of Venice and potential threat of flooding caused by it. One of the main problems with whole thing is that the location of the Venice with respect to the Adriatic Sea is troublesome. The presence of high tides coming from the sea and the flats in the city built on mud is creating wholesome problems to the urban planners. High tides from the sea usually are very frequent throughout out the year. This causes the flooding of canals, streets and campos. This flooding causes the pollution of canals and such canals prevent the flow of water when the tides hit the city again. This sometimes experienced in the catastrophic manner can result in the drowning of the whole city. Also the fact that, draining of the topsoil causes the island to sink worsens the whole issue. This is a serious concern as flooding blocks the transportation facilities of the city, which relies on its water based transportation. Also it washes the streets which make it difficult not only for the residents but also for the tourists who visit the city. High tides due to its force also plays role in destroying the foundations of the building structures present in the city. Several methods have been tried to prevent this problem. Both UNESCO whose project called Project Venice and INSULA have attempted by bringing new laws into place which clean and dredge the canals present in the city. Another project which has been designed to prevent these high tides is Project Moses. This project would implant the floodgates around the lagoon area thereby preventing the tides to enter the city Fig: Flooded Piazza San Marco (source: www.google.com) Other issues which concern any urban planning layout include tourism, environment, population etc We will discuss about each of them here Issues dealing with tourism Venice with a great historical structures and landscape attracts large number of tourists every year. So concept of urban tourism is born wherein the space available is being given to temporary tourists. As a result of this resident population on the island is on decline. Also large numbers of tourists who come for important occasions bring chaos to the environment and create pollution, thereby spoiling the environment of the city. They also block transportation and also leave garbage thereby creating problems for the city. An effective plan is being generated to discard all garbage and trash on the city. Also city has decided to include the limit of number of visitors on important occasions near the location site by giving cards etc. An effective tourism plan is also in the making to combat all problems created Fig: crowd at Piazza San Marco (source: www.google.com) Issues relating to Environment Venice being surrounded by the water is known to the people. The fact which should also be known to people is that much of the water is polluted .The lagoon's natural harmony has been thwarted by various activities done at Port of Marghera. Many canals have been dug across lagoon so that large barges enter the port. This causes environmental imbalance. Also the fact these canals in turn spoil the relationship lagoon hold with the sea. So in order to remove environmental imbalance we should make sure that port must be sustained. Other problems are barge sailing into the port carry oil and chances of oil spill is there which could harm the whole city. Also the port is known to generate air pollution. These all problems need to be eliminated when we are considering urban planning of the city to be at optimum level from wherein the city could be benefited. Fig: polluted canal (source: www.googl.com) It is seen that canals have become contaminated due to runoff from port and problems on the island. Narrow, shallow canals wedged between buildings are not easily reached for cleaning. Vacuum sewers have been installed, providing effective waste disposal, but the canals still require cleaning. UNESCO and INSULA are encouraging for the regular dredging of the canals to decrease the problems present. Other issues in the city Issues regarding space Venice with small area is struggling with space available. It has filled most of its spaces with buildings, residential localities. Increasing people meant to increase floors on the buildings which did only harm to the society and environment. Apart from this, the concept of urban tourism meant sacrifice of the green space available. Also the fact that city is limited to the island meant that there was no room to expand. Later the officials tried to expand by creating concrete extensions like Tranchetto, however these could not satisfy the demands of the people and soon people started moving to mainland. Apart from this space is required to accommodate the tourists who come to the city every year, but the sad part is that not enough space is available to build hotels, restaurants although it is understood that tourists are crucial for the city's economy. Fig: crowded Rialto district (source: www.google.com) Thus in this way we have realized various problems caused by various issues in relation to the urban planning of the city. Other issues which also create problems for the urban planning of the city of Venice are deterioration of the building structures and issues related population Issues related to the deterioration of the building structures If we look at the way Venice grew out of the timesheets of history, we will see one important point that Venice always shared relationship with water and water bodies. And this in paradox turned to out be its real asset and also its liability. It became asset due to the status of commercial power it gave to Venice, but at the same time it also posed a big threat to the environment of the region and also the threat to the residents living in the city. As the phenomena of flooding of the city due to high tides grew at an increasing pace, it was soon understood that the city of Venice was sinking in a way. Due to high tides and also the usage of the various ingenious draining procedures the island is receding into a lagoon. Also the building structures which are present near these water bodies are also sinking. The wood piles which have been in the city for over centuries are also rotting making easy for the building structures to drop into the alluvial soil. Other import issue is that the base of these building structures are also weakened by these high tides and like adding salt to wounds the pollution on air, by water bodies have spoiled the exterior part of these building structures making them vulnerable .Another point to be remembered by the planners and others is that Venice is ancient city with great historical tradition and it is bit challenging to maintain old, historical buildings the wake of modern society. Also due to this factor other structures which are not near these water bodies are also affected by it. Now this whole issue of the deterioration of the buildings is very critical issue for the development of the city and all are concerned about this city's landscape. There are many organizations working to combat this issue. One such is INSULA. They are working to restore the strength capacity of the canals structures, base of the building structures etc. Also another project Moses are also used to combat the issue by tackling in another format of the decreasing the effects of the high tides. So one way to tackle this issue in an effective manner is to combine the tasks provide by these projects and project them on to a case analysis at single moment enabling it get tackled by both positives of the project. In this way the problem can be alleviated to some extent But the fact is that the problem of deterioration in the city is occurring at fast rate and the solutions mentioned in the analysis are get slowed down by the perception and issues of the people to beautify the landscape present in the city. There is also another issue which interlinks this idea of renovation. Usually the renovation is only done to buildings in which the elite rich of the city live in and some of these people do not live in the city for the whole year. And due to the temporary stay the location also faces the problems of the under utilization of space. Issues relating to population One important thing we need to consider while talking about the planning of this city is the population factor. One important thing to notice while considering the demographics of the city is that population in the island is continuously decreasing from the past five decades. One important thing is noted that usually most of the population living as th residents of the city are either elder Venetians or younger university students. Many people are leaving islands of simple notion that they could expand their business if they elsewhere. The lack of space makes it difficult to raise a family. Another thing is that the land rates are expensive and people usually move outside the island to the place called mestre where the land rates are cheaper when compared to the island rates. Also the effects created by the canal system have caused problems for the residents. The movement of the transport has been slow and at the time of high sides it has been restricted. High tides also destroy the houses of the residents making them to move out of these places. To combat this issue organization are making attempts to reverse this demographic trend by the improving the area locations of the city which are prone to these high tides phenomena. Now let's move our discussion to the concept of sustainability Sustainable Development As such there is no single universal definition of sustainable development but the most widely used and commonly accepted is that of Brundtland definition which states sustainable development as ability to "provide for the needs of the present generation without compromising the abilities of future generations to meet their needs." The focal point of this whole concept is to have a balance between social, environmental and economic development. Probably we can also say that this concept of balancing act should be the goal of the societies present in today's world. At this point we also need to understand the need to measure progress. Firstly it helps in the methodology of decision making which can be a useful for sustainable development. Secondly it is important when talked in the terminologies of communication and participation. To understand the whole concept clearly we need to understand the methods which are used to assess the measurement of progress thus helping us finding out the level of sustainable development. There are basically four methods we apply in order to measure progress. These are sustainability indicator sets, index of sustainable economic welfare, barometer of sustainability and ecological impact. Now we need understand each of them in order gain complete understanding of the concept. Sustainability indicator sets Before talking about the topic, we will first define what an indicator is. Indicator translates data and statistics into compact readily available information which can be understood and used by the people. Sustainable indicators combine the aspects of social, economic and environmental viewpoints in one method as one entity rather than treating them as separate different entities. The main functions of sustainable indicators are firstly it will be used to measure progress towards sustainable development. Secondly it helps in monitoring policies. Thirdly it can be used a communication tool to simplify the information which can be termed as complex into parts of simpler information. For these functions to be performed we need to choose indicators which can satisfy the qualities of being significant, relevant, coherent, measurable and finally it should be valid from scientific point of view. After we choose indicators we select the set of indicators. This is done in accordance with the principles defined as per conference of bellagio. The only problem with indicators is that sometimes they are difficult to select as a set and also their usage may sometime make the overall progress difficult to comprehend. Index of sustainable economic welfare. We know that a Gross Domestic Product can be used as measure of a country's progress. We also have another alternative, called Index of sustainable economic welfare. It is an attempt to measure that part of the economic activity which delivers actual increase in our quality of life. It has its advantage wherein it can act as very good alternative to gdp but the disadvantage is that sometime it can show misleading picture of showing sustainability wherein the case actually did not show any. Barometer of Sustainability Barometer of sustainability can be defined as a tool used for measurement and communication of society's progress towards sustainability. In this way it facilitates a systematic way of organizing and combining indicators which will help people to conclude about the conditions of people. It is very much useful as communication tool for the very simple reason that it is very simple in nature. Also another feature is that it can be an important tool in comparison of countries on the basis of a given conventional data. One of the major disadvantages of this concept is that it uses two attributes called ecosystem and human wellbeing and it gives equal importance while sometimes this could not be the scenario at all. Ecological Impact It can be defined as the measure of what we consume of nature. It also shows the value of productive land and water which we occupy to produce all resources which we consume and to take all waste which we make. Well it can also be defined as the average impact of the bio-productive land and ocean required for a community to sustain. The main advantage of this approach is that it helps individuals present in the society to engage among themselves and resultant impact on the environment. The major drawback of the whole approach is that it considers only natural resources in account and does not take social and economic factors into consideration Now we need to apply the following approaches into an idea which can be applicable on a general and thereafter which can be extended to specifics like the city of Venice. Sustainability indicators are the measures which are commonly used by people in order to measure progress towards sustainability. Aggregate indices of all aspects like social, economic and environment has advantage over individual indicators while sending message to public in terms of progress towards sustainability. Barometer of sustainability reflects the issues of the local community and since it defines local issues, comparisons may not be consistent and hence the concept of ecosystem and human well being attributes equal importance needs to be considered while applying it to a particular situation. Ecological impact encourages individuals to change their living styles. Hence we observe that a considerable amount of progress being taken place when we talk about the approaches for assessing the progress towards the sustainable development. Specific Scenario: City of Venice As seen form the history and planning layout of the city, we can say that Venice has been blessed with aggregate of the factors like environmental, social and economic characteristics. Taking account of all these issues, we need to formulate a proposal for encouraging local public involvement and also to measure progress towards sustainable development in the city. Though the awareness levels in the city are high but due to lack of involvement of the public in the elimination of these issues, the development progress is not being taking place over the past few years. Other issues to be dealt are the costs and benefits factors involving issues like tourism. If we consider the scenario of tourism, it would involve great benefits in the economic perspective but it would also incur heavy costs due to environment perspective. So a balanced methodology needs to be considered to deal with such issues. If we consider implementing the approaches discussed so far to understand the specifics of the city, we would realize that the choosing sustainability set indicators would be a difficult task because of the varied conditions of the city. So in order to remove the difficulties some set of 150 indicators have defined as a part of Project Venice development. So using these set of indicators defined we try to gather information about the sustainable development of the city. Index of Social Economic welfare is also challenging task as we need to build a monetary index, which can show proper correlation between environment and economy. Also it is believed that huge costs for few issues pertaining to the city, makes the indicator less effective. Barometer of sustainability is a simple way of interacting with public by showing the progress. It contains entities like human wellbeing and ecology which requires public involvement and thus this approach is not suitable when applied to the city of Venice as we realize that there is lack of public involvement in the city. Finally the method of ecological impact will be particularly useful while considering the scenario of the city of Venice., because through this approach we can encourage the people in changing their lifestyle based on the environment scenario thus making difference for the sustainable development. Thus it can be a very effective tool in the whole scenario of the sustainable development of Venice. Sustainable Development in UK UK has realized the need of sustainable development after long observation of the current models used in the country. This can be attributed by the fact that there is considerable loss of environment due to falling of forests, consumption methods of the people living in the country. The increasing stress we put on the resources and environmental systems such as water, land and air cannot go on for ever. Especially as the world's population continues to increase The following figure shows the shared principles developed in order to build a sustainable development. They are living within Environmental Limits, Ensuring Strong and healthy society, achieving sustainable economy, using sound science responsibility and promoting good governance. Fig: UK Sustainable Development Principles (source: www.google.com) If we look at the priorities, Government felt the need on the following things. They are Sustainable Consumption and Production, Climate change and Energy, natural resource protection Sustainable communities. Conclusion After having understood the concepts of political history of Venice and having gone through the concepts of urban planning structure of the city of Venice and related issues pertaining to it .we have realized the importance of urban planning in the cities like Venice. Another major point to be understood is the correct methods to be used in order to provide better planned structures in the city. We have referred few issues pertaining to planning in the city and have covered the necessary steps in order to eradicate those weak points. Also we have understood the concept of sustainable development and approaches needed in order to maintain progress required for sustainable development. Also we have dwelled on the specific scenario of the city of Venice. Apart from this we also dwelled on the sustainable development scenarios in the United Kingdom. We need to understand that as time passes by, every society in this world is moving at different pace in a new different world to form a new society and this process we are missing important thing. In order to achieve new heights, we are spoiling our environment. We are destroying the ecological balance present in the world. So we need to understand that resources available today may not be sufficient for tomorrow. Climate changes, negative treatment to flora and fauna has only exacerbated the whole issue. All this will make us difficult to sustain. Taking the specific example of Venice itself, we can say that pollution created by air; water and noise can only spoil the beauty of landscape presented by it. Influx of Tourists though may lead to economic prosperity but will also take the road to environment perdition. We need to tackle the issues of tourism , weak foundation of building structures present in the city, space available for the development of the city and other issues like flooding and population into consideration in order to realize that sustainable development is possible . Only if we tackle the issues of urban planning by taking the aid of the concepts of sustainable development, we can remove all bad things of the city of Venice. Thus we see that Sustainable development and Urban Planning need to be combined together to eradicate the problems faced by Venice so that we can see the dream of every Venetian calling their city as 'Sustainable Venice'. References: 1. Carolyn Elayne (2004) Venice. New Jersey: Wiley & sons 2. Piero Codato (2003) Venice .Venice. Teneues Press 3. Martin Garret (2001) History of Venice. Edinburgh :Signal 4. Fredric Chapman (1997) Venice, a Maritime Republic. London: Dream Tech Press 5. Horatio Brown (2002) Venice; Historical sketch. Paris: Wiley 6. Naoum Cohen (2004) Urban Planning :Conservation and Preservation .London: McGraw hill 7. Robert Freestone (2000) Urban Planning in changing world. Glasgow: Spon Press 8. Robert Laurini (2001) Information About Urban Planning. Milan : Taylor & Francis Publications 9. Ignazio Musu (2004) Sustainable Venice: Suggestions for the future. Springer Press 10. Susan baker (2006) Sustainable Development. Paris: Taylor & Francis 11. Donald Brown (2005) Sustainable Development Science. New York. McGraw hill 12. C.J Fletcher (2005) flooding and Environmental Challenges to Venice. Venice: Dream Tech Press Bibliography 1. Robert Freestone (2000) Urban Planning in changing world. Glasgow: Spon Press 2. Antonio Callato (2001) Views of Venice. Genoa : Wiley & sons 3. Thomas Okey (2003) Venice & its story. Moscow: Taylor & Francis 4. Mathew Logan (1999) Golden History of Venice .Venice :McGraw Hill 5. Stanford Anderson (2001) Planning fro diversity & choice. Boston: Dream tech Press 6. P.K Singhal (2002) challenges in sustainable development. New Delhi: Pearson 7. A R Johnson (2001) Science of sustainable development. Hoboken : Pearson 8. S Ram Krishna (2002) concepts of Urban Planning. Chicago: Wiley 9. Doug Lansky (2003) Adventure Tour of Venice. Kiev: Signal press 10. Fiona Chow (2004) Hidden Aspects of Urban Planning. Colorado: Wiley Read More