Critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of an exemplar Eco-City - Essay Example

?CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF AN EXEMPLAR ECO DEPARTMENT GRADE 28TH NOVEMBER Urban Regeneration Practice “Critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of an exemplar 'Eco-City' Abstract This paper contains pertinent information analyzing the concept of an exemplar eco-city and its implications. The concept of an eco-city is a fascinating one but seriously complex. Therefore, the whole idea of coming up with eco-cities involve a lot of strategic planning and sustainability development strategies. The development of these cities from scratch or even converting existing ones into eco-cities has never been an easy task. It incorporates financial and technological backing as well as policies that are viable. The financial implications of the strategic planning may lead to the relevant authorities seeking or lending support from other sectors like the private corporations. This paper aims at evaluating the weaknesses and strengths associated with the eco-cities development. The paper further tries to assert that development and sustenance of eco-cities requires not only the project implementation, and its success, but also the long term safeguarding of the sustainable characteristics and recognition to the public. On the same note, existing policies and practices will be discussed critically, to support the argument with utmost emphasis on Europe and particularly the United Kingdom. Key words: Eco-cities, Policy, Practice, Sustainable Development, ‘Zero waste Cities’, Climate Change.Figure 1: Christie Walk Adelaide, available at: http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5026/5554542175_bc95af6384_s.jpg Figure 2: Roof top native grasses available at: http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5060/5554536201_984635224a_b.jpg Introduction Urban regeneration involves The growth and development of eco-cities is one of the recent responses made by the world towards climate change. As a result, of industrialization and over-urbanization of the existing cities, among many other activities induced by human beings; they have resulted to degradation of the environment in the past years (IPCC, 2001). The recent initiatives have been in response to solving climatic change menace, and the environmental degradation, as well as, scarcity in energy. This has been realized with the idea of setting up eco-cities. Developed countries like the United States of America, Germany and the United Kingdom, as well as, developing countries such as Brazil, UAE, India and China have launched projects aimed at the development of eco-cities. Every aspect of life involving complex planning and strategising is bound to experience challenges in the course of its implementation. Not forgetting the global population increase and projected outcome that more than half of world’s population reside in urban areas, it is imperative that proper planning, development and regeneration are truly essential. The vision of an eco-city involves the planning of model settlements, incorporates appealing and highly fundamental concepts like improving the quality of people’s life and enhancing harmony with the cherished environment. On the same note, the vision and plans considering their attachment to nature contain some elements that to some might appear utopian. This brings about difficulties in predicting to what degree the strategies will be implemented, although implementation that is oriented perceptively in an explicit eco-city requirement. Crewe and Forsyth (2011) argue that planners are bound to aim at creating cities that are more ecologically sensitive. These two writers say that the authorities, planners and designers in every of the world claim to be just coming up with eco friendly urban areas. The legal and policy issues in the development of eco-cities have led to challenges as well as achievements in the realization of eco-cities. With sustainable development being an issue of the present globalization, this paper will substantially dwell on analyzing the strengths, as well as, weaknesses in the coming up with exemplar eco-cities. This is highly vital in the context that many will utilize the ideas formulated to generate sustainable plans for future eco-cities. This will be realized in learning from what have been done by counting on the strengths and rectifying on the weaknesses. The sections that follow in the paper will critically discuss what an eco-city is and then evaluate existing policies for strengths and weaknesses; lastly, the future of eco-cities with probable changes on the current sustainability development strategies will be highlighted. What is an Eco-city and exemplar Eco-city? In every country, a city plays a vital role in the social and economic growth, also provides the necessary environment to the residential, corporate and administrative people who work and live there in, where they can achieve their economic and social goals. Therefore, it is truly noble that a city is efficient and productive for the growth of the national economy. There is also greater need for proper governance that allows, and facilitates the generation of resources required for investment to achieve development of social and physical infrastructure as well as alleviate poverty from the people. An Eco-city according to the Urban Ecology Australia (2007) has been identified by the key features it should possess. It elaborates that the buildings in an eco-city should make efficient use of the natural resources like the sun, wind and rainfall in the generation of energy and supply of water needed by the people there in. the building should also utilize the land effectively by ensuring the construction of multi-storey buildings. This maximizes on the land available and ensures there is land for green space. Planting of trees should be an essential in every empty ground to ensure that there is green vegetation to enhance clean atmospheric air. Also, cutting of transportation cost can be enhanced by sourcing food from around the cities. Other measures involve residents living in areas where they can walk to work or even cycle and cut down on motorized transport. Production of industrial goods should be in such a way as to ensure recycling and re-use of by-products to minimize on pollution due to biodegradable materials. Generally, according to Hancock (1997); as cited in Roseland (1997), an eco-city is one that utilizes appropriate technology, embraces community economic development and social ecology. It enhances the green movement and bioregionalism as well as promoting sustainable development. Therefore, an eco-city is closely attached to the concept of sustainable development with the adoption of sustainability as the driving objective of the factor behind the incorporation of principles, that enhance the management of ecology, and resources entrenched in the urban planning decision making process (Wong & Yuen 2011). However, it is imperative that the success of an eco-city would not only depend on the carbon footprint in the city, but also on the recognition of the idea by the community and their effectual participation in the sustenance of it. New Labour and the Economic Revival of Deprived Neighborhoods The election of the first New Labour government in 1997 saw strategic plans being laid down to revitalise the neighbourhoods that were deprived in the policy on landscape. This brought about a number of experimentation to the policies with regard to social exclusion and finding new economic basis for these areas. According to North and Syrett (2010), emphasis was made to improve the economic conditions of the deprived communities by tackling lack of employment and promoting commercial activities among the individuals to earn a living. The overall achievement of the strategy has been the improvement of livelihood of the poor communities. With the presence of a dedicated Labour government, the tackling of the problems at that time in the U.K. was enhanced. Initiatives to stimulate the economic development and build strong communities as well as delivering improved public services helped in tackling the problem of social exclusion. Prior to the labour, government, the Thatcher administration had tackled spatial policy involving the state assisted de-industrialization and flexible reconstruction of traditional manufacturing of regions in the North (Sadler, 1992; Hall, 2003) plus the creation of profitable investment opportunities in the private sector within the inner cities (Deakin & Edwards, 1993: Hall, 2003). This laid down a foundation for the development of the urban policy with the future administrations. The progress of this policy agenda resulted in various initiatives aimed at improving the general welfare of the neighbourhoods. The eventual result of the wide range of reforms was an array of overlapping policy initiatives leading to frequent changes in programmes, departmental names and responsibilities and national as well as local schemes backed by the municipality of the agencies. The action on employment has not been effective as much investment has been done on infrastructure and too little to the people (Hall, 2003). The coming up with affordable homes was not viable idea as many viewed that as just but a dream which they could not realize. The Notion of the “Zero Waste City” According to Lehmann and Zaman (2001), this involves a 100 per cent recycling rate and recovery of all resources present in waste materials. With recycling of waste materials, considerable achievements are made in the sense that, biodegradable materials that are harmful to the environment are well taken of. This is particularly vital in the sense that environmental pollution is minimized as well as resource management enhanced. The concept of zero waste practice is one concept that should be embraced in the sustainability development measures as it not only ensures safe waste management but also ensure social, economic, political and technological advancement in the quest for waste management. According to Scotland’s “zero waste plan’ (2010), large proportion of materials treated as waste can be can be utilized to yield valuable resources. Efficient use of resources and control of unnecessary wastes has seen many businesses and industries reduce their costs and gain a competitive advantage. Some of the wastes materials can also be utilized to generate energy. Product design is done in such a way that it ensures reduction in consumption. The packaging materials are in such a way that they are recyclable. This minimizes on the chance of having near waste material during consumption. In the U.K. according to Leadership for the environment (2011), lobbying on waste issues by the Green Alliance has seen the development of environmental performance indicators in the waste industry. The indicators are now in use by the Environmental Services Association. Waste and refuse management is a task that can be enhanced sustainably, to bring development to the current world. With waste management, vegetation growth is heightened ensuring clean environment, as well as, uncontaminated water sources. The implementation of the zero waste concepts has been hampered negatively by the lack of commitment from the authorities above. On looking at the United Kingdom clearly, it is clear that, that waste management has not been high on the political agenda. The Leadership for the environment (2011) argues that it has taken considerable time for the interim revision of 2000 waste strategy to be produced. On top of slow and poor implementation of set policies on waste management, lack of proper funding towards the management of wastes has derailed the realization of the concept of zero waste cities. The Urban Policy of the U.K The conservative government backed the policy of urban development in the U.K. and continued to support it amid the controversy arising. Imrie and Thomas (1999, pp 5) illustrates that the introduction of Urban Development Corporation (UDC) proffered a new institutional context for the development and delivery of the urban policy. Harvey (1987) as cited in Imrie and Thomas (1999) notes that organizations like the UDCs represented new forms of urban governance, predicated on entrepreneurial activity and the giving of new instructions of welfare provision and spending. This posed a strong point for the polices to thrive and bring out tangible impacts. Further the local embeddedness of the UDCs, forging links variously with local politicians, community groups, and local civil servants was a prime source of the success (Imrie and Thomas, 1999). The recommended creation of the Inner City Partnerships (ICPs), combined central-local states initiatives in conjunction with the private sector interests developed projects that revived the economy of the inner cities. Combination of active leadership from the central government of U.K. on various issues like ensuring that the work citizens do pay back, and the concept of poverty reduction, superior flexibilities for cities and regions on issues like renewal and haulage, as well as, national support of urban areas was evidently a strong point towards UK urban policy. Though the partnership was aimed at developing a common approach to seven of the most undeveloped localities in England, utilizing a wide range of expertise the ICPs failed to agree on a corporate approach (Imrie and Thomas, 1999). Thus, this derailed the whole process urban policy implementation. Freiburg’s approach to sustainable development Freiburg is a small city in South-Western Germany and has been leading in environmental policy and practice. The utilization of solar energy has seen the town being termed as the solar city. This has led to the cutting down of energy consumption. The solar city as it is popularly known, has worked on three pillars; energy conservation, use of new technology like combined heat and power and the use of renewable energy like the solar to meet the energy demand (Dauncey, 2003). Proper implementations of laws by the authorities have seen the sustenance of the strategies and development enhanced. The use of renewable energy has helped in the reduction of carbon emission with a resolution to 25% below the 1992 level by the year 2010. This has been achieved by incorporating the areas of transport, waste and manufacturing production as well as power. The plan has created jobs in the production of solar appliances and gadgets. The cutting down of car transport and encouraging tram, bus transport, and cycling have seen considerable cutting down of the use of fossil fuel that lead to carbon emission. The awareness of the importance of using solar energy has been made efficient with the city council providing a solar information desk in central Freiburg. According to Dauncey (2003), the solar PV is extremely costly in the open market for most builders and developers. This creates a massive disparity to 100% achievement of full usage of solar energy. On the same note, the subsidies reimbursements made by the German federal government on renewable energy are quite high in comparison to the standard electricity. This is to enhance the production of renewable energy in the future. This clearly illustrates that the Freiburg’s approach to sustainable development has proved to be an outstanding success in the realization of the concept of an eco-city concept. The strengths of its implementation far surpasses the weaknesses; thus, it is certain to say that, with the achievement of a Freiburg eco-city, it is highly possible to come up with many more eco-cities in the world following the example of Freiburg. Figure 3: Solar cells being cleaned by a worker on Solar World in Solar Valley, Freiburg: (Carsten Koall/Getty) available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/23/freiburg.germany.greenest.city [Accessed on November 27, 2011]. Urban and Metropolitan Tourism The nature of tourism and its impact on cities and surroundings require serious consideration with respect to the concept of eco-cities. The coming up of eco-cities is intertwined with the concept of tourism in the sense that tourism is an essential part of the overall process of urban planning and governance. Tourism in the recent past has gained popularity with recognition from urban authorities with sustainable planning in order to achieve the benefits of tourism as part of achieving its benefits (Wong & Yuen (2011). Tourism depend on the nature for it to thrive. Natural scenery, wildlife and aquatic life are aspects that back tourism development. With increased policy making on tourism development across the borders, it imperative that it has contributed considerably to the realization of green cities. Tourists will aspirations to visit places with a clean environment and therefore, boosts the implementation of the eco-city sustainability measures. The Eco-Town of Leicester With landholding that is adjacent to the city of Leicester, this offered a unique opportunity to design and build an eco-town in a large area where new shelter and rejuvenation is much needed. The presence of potential creation of job creation and projected improvement in the economy the project is bound to receive strong development backing (Eco-town for Leicester, 2008). There has been potent room for resource investment hence, the creation of this eco-town will go along the way in the creation of avenues to implement the resource investment. The town has also availed the necessity for integration of procurement strategies that will go along with the vision of economic development. Amid the considerably projected growth, the plans have been viewed as not incorporating the increasing population growth as well as not utilizing the right land for large scale development. The area to the South –East of Leicester is not the best for large scale development. There is a lack of appropriate infrastructure there are severe constraints to provide them. The large scale development of Penn bury, certainly undermines the implementation of the strategy. Figure 4: The one third of the ground that is projected to hold 15,000 homes. Figure 5: http://www.ecotownforleicestershire.coop/background-and-vision.html CONCLUSION The concept of eco-city is a global strategy that needs s to be embraced across all borders. With population increase and climatic changes due to the industrialization resulting to global warming, the only solution left is to go green. The eco-city of Freiburg in Germany is an excellent example of how a place can be transformed to become environmental, friendly, and at the same time utilize its resources towards the realization of the vision of globalization. With proper implementation and sustainable measures, there is significant hope that the world will be a better place to live. There is therefore, great need for the relevant authorities to push for proper implementation of sustainable development measures. Amid the weaknesses observed in the paper, there is clear evidence that the strong points surpass the weaknesses. It only calls for cooperation among all the stake holders towards the sustenance of the strategies. References Crewe K, Forsyth A, 2011, "Compactness and Connection in Environmental Design: Insights from Ecoburbs and Ecocities For Design With Nature" Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 38(2) 267 – 288 Dauncey, G., 2003. Freiburg Solar City: Sustainable Communities Consultancy, Victoria, B.C., Canada. Available at http://www.solarregion.freiburg.de/solarregion/freiburg_solar_city.php Hall, S., 2003. The ‘Third Way’ Revisited: “New” Labour, Spatial Policy and the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal. Planning, Practice & research, Vol. 18 (4) Carfax Routledge, London. pp. 265-277 Imrie, R, and Thomas, H., (Ed). British Urban Policy; An Evaluation of the Urban Development Corporations. 1999. 2nd ed, Sage Publications, London. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2007. The Physical Science Basis: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: and Mitigation of Climate Change. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. Lehmann, S. and Zaman, A., 2011. What is the “Zero Waste City” Concept? Zea Waste Research Centre for Sustainable Design and Behaviour. University of South Australia. Available at http://www.unisa.edu.au/artarchitecturedesign/ZeroWasteSAResearchCentre/docs/ZWC %20Concept.pdf Roseland, M., 1997. Dimensions of the Eco-City. Elsevier Science Ltd. Great Britain. Vol. 14(4) pp 198-202 Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan, 2010. Scottish Government, June 2010. Available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/314168/0099749.pdf [Accessed on November 27, 2011] Urban Ecology of Australia. 2007. www.urbanecology.org.au/ [Accessed on November 27, 2011] Wong, T. and Yuen, B. (Ed), 2011. Eco-City Planning: Policies, Practice and Design. Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London. pp 94-100. Read More