CLIMATE CHANGE AND URBAN DESIGN The Third Annual Congress of the Council for European Urbanism Oslo, Norway, 14‐16 September, 2008
CONFERENCE READER Background Papers and Excerpts* Selected Conference Papers
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Acknowledgements This reader, and the conference for which it was produced, was made possible in part by grants from the European Union’s Leonardo da Vinci Programme in vocational education and training, and the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme, whose purpose is to build a skilled workforce across Europe. They are sponsors of two pilot projects in innovative education and development to meet the most urgent challenges of European urbanism, the European School of Urbanism and Architecture (ESUA), and the European Dissemination of Urbanism, Architecture and Crafts (EDUAC). For more information please see www.esua.org
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CLIMATE CHANGE AND URBAN DESIGN The Third Annual Congress of the Council for European Urbanism
Oslo, Norway, 14‐16 September, 2008 CONTENTS Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………. 9 About the Council for European Urbanism……………………………………………………… 11 About the European School of Urbanism and Architecture……………………………………..13 TOPIC 1: Urban Morphology: Measuring It, Re‐shaping It Policy, Urban Form and Tools for Measuring and Managing Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The North American Problem Nicole Miller, Duncan Cavens, Patrick Condon Ronald Kellett and Armando Carbonell………………………………………………………….. 15 Environment and urban form ‐ The real scale of its morphological anatomy Teresa Marquito Marat‐Mendes Lisbon University Institute – ISCTE……………………………………………………………... 28 Low‐carbon, Attractive, Resilient Communities: New Imperatives for Sustainable Retrofitting of Existing Neighbourhoods Dr. Stephen R.J. Sheppard, Ellen Pond, and Cam Campbell Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning (CALP) University of British Columbia…………………………………………………………………… 42 Abstract: Urban Form, Energy and the Environment: A Review of Issues, Evidence and Policy William P. Anderson Urban Studies, Volume 33, Issue 1 February 1996 , pages 7 – 36………………………………. 60 Abstract: Urban Structure and Energy—A Review Peter Rickwood; Garry Glazebrook; Glen Searle Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology, Australia Urban Policy and Research, Volume 26, Issue 1 March 2008 , pages 57 – 81……………………………………………………60 Excerpt from: Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America Marilyn A. Brown, Frank Southworth, Andrea Sarzynski Brookings Institution, May 2008…………………………………………………………………….61
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TOPIC 2: Historic Fabric and Embodied Energy Building Reuse: Finding a Place on American Climate Policy Agendas Patrice Frey Director of Sustainability Research National Trust for Historic Preservation………………………………………………………….65 TOPIC 3: Adaptation and Mitigation Socio‐spatial Vulnerability Analysis of Coastal Regions during Disaster: Experience of a Pilot Research Project in Bangladesh Bishawjit Mallick, PhD Student; Tamer Soylu, PhD Student; Prof. Dr. Joachim Vogt, Institute for Regional Science/Planning, University of Karlsruhe (TH)……………………………………………………………………….88 The influence of urban features on air temperature distribution Martina Petralli, University of Florence Luciano Massetti, Institute of Biometerology, IBIMET – CNR Simone Orlandini, University of Florence………………………………………………………..110 Febrile cities: the influence of construction materials in the production of heat islands in low‐income districts of urban areas with tropical climate in Brazil . João Lima Sant’Anna Neto Margarete Cristiane de Costa Trindade Amorim Department of Geography, Sao Paulo State University, UNESP………………………………119 A new thermal comfort index for urban design: The case of São Paulo, Brazil. Leonardo Marques Monteiro (corresponding author) Marcia Peinado Alucci Department of Technology Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism University of São Paulo…………………………………………………………………………….134 Earth monitoring and Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS) for Climate Change Mitigation Nina Milkova Ilieva Architect and Independent Scholar, Sofia, Bulgaria……………………………………………143 Disappearances and apparitions: Urban ecosystem research and education relating to the Chao Phraya River delta and the city of Bangkok, Thailand. Brian McGrath Department of Architecture, Parson the New School for Design Danai Thaitakoo Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, Phyathai Rd., Bangkok 10330, Thailand…………………………154
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Urban micro‐climate in the City of Mosul, Iraq Turki Hassan Ali Department of Architecture College of Engineering, Mosul University Bahjat Rashad Shaheen Department of Architecture College of Engineering, Baghdad University……………………………………………………170 Urban Heat Island: Urban analysis, assessment and measuring mitigation in cities of extreme dry weather Jorge Villanueva Solis* Francisco Raúl Venegas Cardoso** Onofre Rafael García Cueto *** Universidad Autonomica de Baja California………………………………………………….…180 Micro Climatic House Design: A Way to Adapt to Climate Change through Urban Design? Kh Md Nahiduzzaman Tigran Haas, PhD Department of Urban Planning and Environment KTH, Stockholm…………………………………………………………………………………….191 Urban geometry parameters as indicators for urbanization effects: A case study in Paranhos, Portugal Licinia Balkeståhl*1, Ana Monteiro*1, Joaquim Góis*2,3 , Roger Taesler*4 1Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Departamento de Geografia, Portugal 2Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Portugal 3Centro de Investigação em Geoambiente e Recursos, CIGAR, Porto, Portugal 4 Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrköping, Sweden…………………………………214
TOPIC 4: Local and Regional Policy Issues ABSTRACT: Climate Change and the Future of Havana: A Heritage of Beauty Under Threat Julio César Pérez Hernández Chair, Cuban Chapter, CEU……………………………………………………………………....224 A Regional Government’s Effort to Manage Growth in California’s Central Valley Cynthia van Empel City of Modesto…………………………………………………………………………………….225 Climate Change: How Local Authorities in the Lake Victoria Basin can rise to the challenge Cecilia Kinuthia‐Njenga Human Settlements Office UN‐Habitat Nairobi, Kenya………………………………………………………………………………………235 “Cities and Climate Change: What is to be Gained or Lost from Reframing
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an Urban Sustainability Agenda in Terms of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions?” Shiri Bass Specktor, Yodan Rofè, Alon Tal Department of Man in the Desert J. Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research Ben Gurion University, Israel……………………………………………………………………...246 Walking the Talk? Climate Change and UK Spatial Design Policy Dellé Odeleye & Michael Maguire London Borough of Brent, UK Anglia Ruskin University, UK……………………………………………………………………..259 Twenty Percent By 2020: A Local Carbon Reduction Strategy for the US Ken Hughes Energy Conservation and Management Division State of New Mexico, US…………………………………………………………………………...287 TOPIC 5: Codes, Certification and Legal Reforms Sustainable Nrighbourhood Rating Systems: An International Comparison Faith Cable Fukbright Scholar Berlin Technische Universität..........................................................................................................302 Plan Implementation for Smart Growth: The U.S. Standard Climate Change Enabling Act Lora A. Lucero, AICP, Esq. Editor, Planning & Environmental Law American Planning Association......................................................................................................337 TOPIC 6: New Curricula Proposals on China’s City Planning Education and Climate Change Jian Guo College of Architecture of Wuhan University of Technology, China…………………………353 Designing for Change: A Studio Model Associate Professor Penny Allan Victoria University of Wellington, NZ…………………………………………………………...358 TOPIC 7: Best Practice Case Studies Resilient Urban Design Models Brian McGrath Victoria Marshall Parsons New School of Design, US……………………………………………………………….363 The mixed‐use urban block: A fundamental brick for an economic and sustainable urban development Michael Stojan City of Garbsen, Germany…………………………………………………………………………381
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Adaptive urban design Prof. Arch. Benno Albrecht, Arch. Mauro Frate University IUAV, Venice, Italy, Faculty of Architecture……………………………………….384 The dramatic increase of car traffic in and around Romanian cities after 1990: The case of Timişoara, Romania Prof. Arch. Smaranda Maria Bica, Ph.D. Ass. Prof. Arch. Liliana Lucia Roşiu, Ph.D. Universitatea “Politehnica” din Timişoara, Facultatea de Arhitectură……………………….395 The role of landscape ecology applied to urban realms in climate change mitigation Roberto Bio Architect and Urban Designer Via Gioia 11 10040 Rivalta di Torino……………………………………………………………………………..400 Assessing the Incorporation of Watershed Protective Techniques in New Urban Development Site Plans: What are the Implications for Mitigating Climate Change? Joseph A. MacDonald, Ph.D., AICP Program Development Senior Associate American Planning Association, US Philip R. Berke, Ph.D. Professor Department of City & Regional Planning The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US…………………………………………..410 TOPIC 8: Aesthetics, Biophilia and Evidence‐Based Design Thermal comfort and psychological adaptation as a guide for designing urban spaces Marialena Nikolopoulou Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES) Koen Steemers The Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies University of Cambridge…………………………………………………………………………..457 View from a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery Roger S. Ulrich Texas A&M University……………………………………………………………………………..458 Urban Design Aesthetics: The Evaluative Qualities of Building Exteriors Jack L. Nasar Ohio State University in Columbus………………………………………………………………458 Excerpt from Aesthetics, Well‐Being and Health: Abstracts on theoretical and empirical research within environmental aesthetics Birgit Cold Formskrift, Oslo………………………………………………………………………………….…459
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TOPIC 9: Social and Economic Issues Protect and Grow Ogunlande Davidson Dean, Post‐Graduate Studies University of Sierra Leone CO‐Chair, Working Group III Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change……………………………………………………462 Climate Change and Land Use: The Choices Before Us Laura Hall Hall Alminana Michael Mehaffy Sustasis Foundation………………………………………………………………………………...465 Social housing in Latin America: A method to utilize processes of self‐organization Nikos Salingaros David Brain Andres Duany Michael Mehaffy Ernesto Philibert‐Petit……………………………………………………………………...………476
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FOREWORD The paper excerpts that follow are meant as a beginning point of the conference discussion, and a stimulus to that discussion. They are not and cannot be an exhaustive summary of the topic of climate change and urban design, or even of the work of the many remarkable people gathered for the conference. (Although they do represent a topical selection of the papers that will be presented, supplemented by a few others.) Nonetheless we hope these papers and excerpts will also offer useful links and connections to the growing body of work of others beyond the conference itself. The Council for European Urbanism is meant to be a meeting place of ideas and resources for urbanists of all disciplines and interests. It seeks to promote greater collaboration and advancement of best practice, and the research, policy and education needed to advance it. In that spirit, this conference will be a success if it helps to catalyse more diverse international collaboration on the vital topic of climate change as it relates to urbanism. During the conference we will consider a range of key topics: new research, new understanding of the potential effects of urban design, new opportunities for mitigation and adaptation, and new approaches to policy, education and best practice. Among all these topics, we suggest that one in particular looms large. In tackling climate change, the role of urban morphology – the pattern of urbanism, operating as a system ‐ has been a less prominent factor up to now. That is for obvious reasons: it is harder to quantify, harder and slower to alter, and complex by nature. Naturally we want to pursue the lower‐hanging fruits of energy generation, transport systems and building systems. And that is very sensible, up to a point. But in a deeper sense, we cannot expect merely to provide technical solutions to increase the efficiency of current ways of life – that is, those ways of life that were made possible by the historically bounded era of cheap fossil‐fuel energy. The current crisis surely demands a thorough‐going re‐assessment of those patterns of living and of making things that developed during this exceptional period – and in that re‐assessment, urban settlement patterns must loom large. After all, these are the patterns that have made the modern world what it is, for better and for worse – and the negative side of the ledger includes such intolerable and unsustainable phenomena as climate change, and more. At such a gathering it is important to remind ourselves that, as grim as it is, climate change is not the only thing we have to worry about. Our modern industrial ways are also producing the 9
unintended consequences of resource depletion, toxic pollution, habitat destruction, species extinction, soil and water degradation, and a host of other familiar ills. While we are at it, let us re‐assess the return in terms of human happiness and quality of life. Let us not merely concentrate on the technical and the quantitative – and risk being the sorts of “bean‐ counters” who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. There are reasons to think these qualitative matters are much more important than they may appear, and more connected to the quantitative issues before us. As new research from the promising new field of evidence‐based design is showing, the pleasurable quality of a streetscape is linked to the walkability of the streetscape, which in turn is linked to the question of whether people actually will walk (emitting hardly any carbon) or drive (emitting quite a lot of carbon). Many other factors appear to link to qualitative ones: for example, whether high residential density, which is a lower‐carbon pattern on average, can be made desirable and marketable and culturally valuable. Or whether low‐density suburban development is really a satisfying pattern of living in human terms, in relation to its high cost – or an increasingly desperate chase after an unfulfilling form of consumption. Or, even more broadly, whether the current system of marketing and advertising and volume is really delivering sufficient quality of life, on a sufficiently sustainable basis. (Does anyone really believe this any more?) And there are many other such qualitative factors to consider, that go to our core ways of living and operating today. The current challenge forces us to put everything on the table for discussion and careful re‐assessment. Having taken such a hard look, then we must ask questions about how we are going to make the transitions it appears we must: what specific policy changes, educational reforms, innovations in best practice, are going to be needed – and what are the practical, collaborative steps from here? What changes will be needed in our economics, in our institutional structures, in our national and international governmental operations? What assumptions about modern life – consumption, debt, other economic foundations – must be changed, by choice now, or perhaps by grim circumstance later? These are the kinds of questions we aim to begin to explore in the conference. It may well be (and it is this author’s hunch) that in doing so we will confirm a core proposition of the Council for European Urbanism: that beautiful, diverse, high‐quality urbanism is a key ingredient in a survivable future, and a future worth surviving into. It will be a most worthwhile achievement if this congress of the Council for European Urbanism serves to explore and to deepen that idea. Michael Mehaffy Chair, CEU Academic Committee
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ABOUT THE COUNCIL FOR EUROPEAN URBANISM Welcome to our third world congress ‐ this year on Climate Change and Urban Design. The Council for European Urbanism (C.E.U.) is a pan European movement that includes members from across Europe. The Council for European Urbanism started at a gathering in Bruges in the early 2000s as a movement dedicated to promoting (and protecting) the qualities that make European cities, towns, villages and countryside unique and humane. We launched our Charter in Stockholm in 2003. It aims to distil these qualities and aspirations and is a starting point for national, regional and local action on urbanism. A section is reproduced below: MISSION ‐ The Council for European Urbanism is dedicated to the well being of present and future generations through the advancement of humane cities, towns, villages and countryside in Europe. CHALLENGE ‐ Cities, towns and villages are being destroyed by social exclusion and isolation, urban sprawl, waste of land and cultural resources, monofunctional development, lack of competitiveness, and a loss of respect for local and regional culture. OBJECTIVES ‐ Cities, towns and villages should have mixed uses and social diversity; make efficient and sustainable use of buildings, land and other resources; be safe and accessible by foot, bicycle, car and public transport; have clearly defined boundaries at all stages of development; have streets and spaces formed by an architecture that respects local history, climate, landscape and geography; and have a variety that allows for the evolution of society, function and design. ACTION ‐ The C.E.U. will promote: the distinctive character of European cities, towns, villages and countryside; consolidation, renewal and growth in keeping with regional identity and the aspirations of citizens; where appropriate, the creation of new towns and villages according to these objectives; the reorganisation and redesign of declining suburbs into thriving mixed use areas; respect for the natural environment and its balance with human habitation; and the protection of our built and landscape heritage. To that end we have developed chapters and networks in a number of countries and regions that promote human scaled urbanism based on the European City Model ‐ fine grained, mixed use, transport centred, walkable, inclusive and socially rich and robust. We think that such places are good in their own right and that if we can stick to designing urban places with these kinds of qualities we have a better chance of limiting and mitigating sprawl. We’ve held two world congresses so far ‐ on the European City (in Berlin in 2005), and on Sustainable Urbanism (in Leeds in 2006) ‐ as well as many smaller meetings, workshops and symposia on issues as broad as urbanist education (in Viseu in 2004) and waterfront 11
development (in Lisbon in 2007). We take part in charrettes and summer schools to help teach the message of sustainable urbanism to students involved in architecture, planning and urban design. And more latterly we have become involved in the development of curricula for a planned European School of Architecture and Urbanism to the same end. This year’s World Congress ‐ our third ‐ is in Oslo from the 14‐16th September. The topic is the extremely urgent issue of Climate Change and Urban Design. This exceptional gathering is bringing together researchers and institutions from around the world, representing 30 countries from every continent except Antarctica. It promises to be an excellent opportunity for people from all parts of the world to come together to both learn from European Urbanism and to suggest ways to improve its capacity to both mitigate and adapt to climate change effects, in keeping with our Stockholm Charter principles. This year we appointed a new chair, Dr Harald Kegler, while last year we established a foundation in Stockholm where our CEO and secretariat is based. At the same time we initiated our constitution to make sure we have a proper basis for our activities in future. While we have very active chapters in places as diverse as Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom ‐ and excellent links with other urbanists in places as diverse as Israel, Cuba, the United Kingdom and the United States ‐ we are keen to start chapters or more informal networks in other European countries ‐ especially in the south and east where there are of course many significant urban issues. So if you would like to get involved wherever you are in Europe please contact us. We are very open to proposals for new networks, new projects and new events within the framework of our Charter principles. It’s worth pointing out that the Council for European Urbanism is not just another professional association that only includes architects or planners. People involved come from a very broad range of backgrounds. What we share is a passionate concern for the future of urbanism in Europe. Please look at our website to find out more about us: http://www.ceunet.org/index.html. There are links there to national chapters and to interesting research through the Journal of Urbanism which presents peer reviewed international research on place making and urban sustainability: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t782882883~db=all If you would like to join discussion and debate about urbanist issues, anther good start is to join Euro‐Urb ‐ a lively, moderated email group where many of these issues are aired. Find out more at http://www.ceunet.org/euro‐urb.html. So please do join us if you feel the same way! To contact us directly please email Tigran Haas, the C.E.U. Board Secretary based in Sweden:
[email protected] Susan Parham C.E.U Board September 2008
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ABOUT THE EUROPEAN SCHOOL OF URBANISM AND ARCHITECTURE Partner in the Council For European Urbanism 2008 Congress The European School of Urbanism and Architecture is a pilot programme in European education for careers in the built environment, aimed at the most pressing issues for the built environment today. The programme recognises that practitioners and stakeholders face an unprecedented combination of challenges: chaotic growth of our built environment, and severe degradation of our natural environment; rampant globalization and erosion of local identity; and increasing disparity in economic and social opportunity. Educators must prepare practitioners to meet these challenges for today, while also meeting their timeless obligation to promote the health and well‐being of humanity, today and for generations to come. Therefore, the European School of Urbanism and Architecture offers a programme of study that is founded on: • urbanism and architecture as an integrated discipline; • immersive, project‐based learning, provided both in the field and through coordinated studio simulations, as the core of the educational process; • rotating studies in different European locations; • an inter‐disciplinary curriculum combining science, history, philosophy, the arts, design, engineering and construction; • recognition of the social and economic value and strength of Europe’s diversity; • learning from precedent, as a resource to evolve and innovate in a rapidly changing Europe; • understanding the ever‐present human need for beauty, livability and identity of place; • sustainable urban and architectural design, crafts and building processes; • real‐world skills of problem‐solving, collaboration, facilitation and leadership, across disciplines, sectors and national boundaries, and with specialists and stakeholders; • ʺlearning to learnʺ throughout life. The 2008 Council for European Urbanism congress topic of “Climate Change and Urban Design” is a premier example of the programme’s commitment to engage the most formidable challenges of the built environment today. The programme is built on partnership and collaboration, as is the Council for European Urbanism, and we welcome the inquiries or proposals of sympathetic organisations. For more information please visit www.esua.org/
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TOPIC 1: Urban Morphology: Measuring it, Re‐Shaping It Policy, Urban Form and Tools for Measuring and Managing Greenhouse Gas Emissions; The North American Problem. Nicole Miller, Duncan Cavens, Patrick Condon Ronald Kellett and Armando Carbonell 24 July 2008
INTRODUCTION The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, in collaboration with planning experts and planning directors from many of North America’s major cities, has identified a critical need to measure the influence of urban form on greenhouse gas emissions for US and Canadian metropolitan regions. To address this issue, the Lincoln Institute convened two meetings for policy makers in the Cascadia mega-region, an area that includes the coastal regions of the US states of Oregon and Washington, and the highly urbanized south-western corner of British Columbia, in Canada. This region is currently at the forefront of North American climate change mitigation policy. At the first event, held in October, 2007, representatives from the three major Cascadia metropolitan areas – Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, BC, joined by leading technical experts, identified the need for new tools and knowledge to support planning decisions and assist municipalities in meeting greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. At the second meeting, held in April, 2008, these same representatives began formulating a research agenda to develop such tools. Workshop participants agreed that achieving challenging GHG reduction targets, such as those recently adopted by governments in the Cascadia region will require new levels of integrated decision making. New tools supporting these processes must be robust enough to speak to decision makers engaged in various disciplines, who manage efforts at different scales and who regulate different elements of public infrastructure or private enterprise (building code regulators, departments of transportation, etc.). This suggests a level of coordination in decision making at the policy level which is presently uncommon, particularly in the US where the rights of lower levels of government and private property interests are protected by the US constitution.
POLICY AND THE DECISION MAKING CONTEXT Nevertheless, in both the US and Canada, new state and provincial laws are demanding that cities reduce GHG emissions to specified levels in relatively short time. City and regional planners are under new obligations to meet these reduction targets and to provide quantitative evidence on the impacts of their policy decisions. For example, a bill recently passed in Washington state calls for emission reductions of 25% below 1990 levels by 2035 and 50% by 2050 with mandatory reporting and statewide annual VMT (vehicle miles traveled) reduction goals (SSB 6516 2008). The California Global Warming Emissions Cap established a statewide GHG cap for 2020 based on 1990 emissions levels and has adopted mandatory reporting rules effective in 2008 (AB 32 2006). In British Columbia, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act requires the reduction of GHG emissions by at least 33% below 2007 levels by 2020, and 80% below 2007 levels by 2050 (Bill 44 2007). Recent calculations done within the province of British Columbia suggest that at least 43% of total provincial GHG emissions are under the control or influence of local governments. A significant majority of these emissions can be linked to urban form, particularly the GHG produced by transportation and building energy consumption. At the scale of local government, the multiplicity of urban form-related decisions (official community plans, development guidelines, development permits, etc.) can be informed by a clear understanding of their contributions to, or competition with, higher level policy; however, this is most often not the case. Currently here is a lack of spatial, real-word data on the relationships between urban form and GHG production. Some of the key information and data necessary to make sound, locally-relevant policy decisions is not easily accessible to policy makers or understandable and meaningful for the public. Addressing these challenges requires understanding the current US and Canadian policy decision-making process. In reality, such processes are iterative and complex social-political processes that vary among agencies and locations; however, a simplified model of the process provides a starting point. At present, the process through which planning decisions are made in the US and Canada can be described as a series of stages, moving from information gathering and processing, though interpretation and collaboration facilitated
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by a variety of experts, and finally to policy and implementation (Table 1). Participating in this process is a diverse set of players, interacting at specific stages and bringing with them a diverse spectrum of (sometimes disparate) interests, interpretations, and inputs towards eventual policy decisions. Actors involved in the various stages and scales of decision-making often speak arcane languages that create difficulties for communication, collaboration, and consensus. This breakdown in the process means that decisions are often being made in the absence of good, applicable evidence regarding the potential impacts of policy decisions on GHG emissions.
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POLICY AND URBAN FORM ACROSS SCALES Developing effective GHG policies is complicated by the fact that GHG emissions are influenced by decisions made at a variety of scales. While targets are being set at the provincial or regional scale, the decisions that impact GHG emissions are spread across many scales, ranging from the building-level to the region. The increasing recognition that cities, and the relationship between land use and transportation, are significant drivers of GHG emissions implies that urban form – the streets, blocks, land uses, buildings and infrastructure that shape regions, cities and neighbourhoods – must be understood at a variety of scales in order to fully access its capacity to mitigate climate change. Much like the relationship between cell and body, the various scales of urban form are inextricably connected. It has been argued that in the US the disconnect between land use and transportation planning has been comparatively extreme. With the single exception of Oregon, no US state or region has established an overarching set of land use goals linked to transportation expenditure. Absent regional controls the US interstate highway program became the de facto national planning entity, providing an armature for national development which could only reasonably accommodate sprawling low density development and an urban landscape that was hostile to walking and biking. Not surprisingly this spawned a culture where 89 percent of all trips are by car and only 2 percent of trips by transit and 7 percent by foot.1 These numbers are only meaningful in comparison to other advanced nations. Auto trips in western European countries account for roughly half of all trips with transit, walking and biking capturing the rest. It does not appear however that tendency for Americans to use their car to the exclusion of all other modes is a purely national trait. Only 33 percent of those who work in the City of New York use their car to get there, a much higher percentage than Rome, where somehow 57 percent bring their car to work despite their national affection for the passeggiata.2 Clearly something beyond national norms is at work. The finger of reason clearly implicates urban form and the options that urban form precludes (or opens up) as the main determinant of travel behaviour. In this and in many other things Canada is neither here nor there – neither US, nor European. Canada’s less aggressive but still substantial metropolitan highway building programs established a more modest but still robust armature for auto dependence. Vancouver now services its region with only .2 meters of freeway per capita while St. Louis, a city of similar size, provides its citizens with five times more freeway lane miles per capita. 3. Auto trips that account for 76 percent of all trips is the legacy of that still substantial effort, generating the currentrelatively anaemic transit trip share of 10 percent, albeit a proportion still five times higher than that of the US. Efforts to control regional growth, while more frequent than in the US, have waxed and waned as competing interests and opposed parties occupied provincial legislatures, with more or less interest in the topic. Thus it seems that steady increases in per capita VMT, along with growing per capita building energy consumption, are attributable in large part to urban form and related policy at several scales. For example, at the regional scale, funding a new freeway will most certainly have some impact on decisions to drive or take transit. At the municipal scale, zoning for high density development will greatly impact the viability of transit service, district energy systems and efficient land use. At the neighbourhood scale, development guidelines promoting mixed-use communities enable opportunities to walk or cycle to meet daily needs, and at the parcel scale, appropriate building forms and orientation reduce heating and cooling loads. Recent studies have concluded that urban form decisions made at the district scale (mixed use housing, interconnected streets, higher density, walking distance to services and jobs) can impact per capita automobile travel by as much as 40% (Ewing et al. 2007). Higher density building forms, where units share walls, have intrinsic advantages for reducing energy consumption (Ewing 2008, Norman et al. 2006). These nested scales are each shaped by a variety of policy decisions (Table 2); however, related policies in both the US and Canada are often disconnected, segregated into “policy silos” such as building codes and zoning bylaws at the parcel scale, community or local area plans at the neighbourhood scale, municipal development plans at the municipal scale and regional growth strategies at the regional scale, among others. In addition, these policies are often created by different groups and, in the case of regions, by different governing agencies. The discontinuity of policy between scales of urban form imposes challenges on understanding urban form holistically. Presently very little consideration is given to how regional decisions may affect neighbourhoods or individual parcels and vice versa. 1
Transportation Research Board. http://www.trb.org/ Statistics from US census and from urbanaudit.org. 3 Canadian Cities American Cities. Our Differeneces are the Same. Patrick M. Condon. http://www.jtc.sala.ubc.ca/bulletbody.html 2
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AVAILABLE TOOLS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIPS TO DECISION MAKING AND SCALES Understanding the wide variety of tools available, their place in the decision making process and the scale or scales at which they are most relevant can help to clarify the current context within which the Lincoln Institute’s work is situated. At present, the decision making process for climate change policy is dominated by incomplete or difficult to use tools, limiting their abilities to support the processes of interpretation and collaboration. Often these tools require the guidance of skilled operators, particularly when even moderate degrees of accuracy are demanded. Other tools are designed primarily to be easy-to-use and thus influential but fail to answer the complex, data intensive questions generated by the need to mitigate climate change. At the same time, tools tend to deal with only one scale of urban form, without the ability to consider multiple scales simultaneously. A majority of existing tools best serve the information stage of the policy decision making process, while fewer tools are available to fully support interpretation and collaboration. The following matrix describes this condition using an illustrative (albeit incomplete) set of available tools (Figure 1). The matrix, for reasons of clarity, does not address the additional need for tools that provide education to the public during policy processes or tools at later implementation and monitoring stages. It should be noted, however, that many existing tools have substantial potential to support these areas with improved usability. In other words, there are still only limited resources for developing and translating GHG data, at any scale, into policy-relevant information that evidences the impacts of urban form. In addition, although there are at least some tools available at every scale, few of these tools have the ability to assess or provide information about GHG emissions across scales, meaning that understanding the impact of parcel or project scale decisions on the region and region scale decisions on individual blocks and parcels is still a challenge to be addressed.
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CURRENT TOOL APPROACHES The majority of tools in Figure 1 are measurement tools that can be used to quantify the implications of different strategies and/or scenarios on GHG emissions. Each of these tools work at different scales, and are the products of very different goals, approaches, methods and academic disciplines. While this allows them to measure different aspects of an urban region’s GHG emissions, it means that it is more difficult to integrate them into a comprehensive, easy-to-use tool for informing policy choices. While not exhaustive, the following pairs of parameters can be used to categorize many available tools: •
Spatial/non-spatial: Even though the spatial arrangement of urban areas (i.e. proximity of residences to jobs, transit, and commercial services) is a key driver of transportation-related GHGs, many tools (spreadsheet-based tools and scorecard tools in particular) are not sensitive to the specific spatial arrangement of scenarios. This makes them much less data-intensive and quick to prepare, as they do not require a detailed GIS representation of the urban area, but also means that they are not able to represent spatial arrangements of specific urban areas, which can have a large impact on transportation GHGs, especially at the regional scale. They are also less able to reflect what is actually (as opposed to theoretically) possible in a specific urban area given existing infrastructure, ownership patterns and history. More complex tools such as MetroQuest, INDEX, and other land use and transportation simulations explicitly model a city’s spatial patterns, and use spatial scenarios to drive their analyses. The down side is that such tools can be time consuming and expensive to use, and thus may not be applicable for many day to day development choices at the site, block and even district scales.
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Top down/bottom up: Planning in metropolitan areas is done primarily at two scales: approvals of specific site-level projects and the development of municipal and/or regional plans. Available GHG tools reflect these two approaches: many bottom-up tools focus on the performance of specific buildings or projects (building energy models, RETScreen), while other, top-down tools start with regional-level scenarios (land use and transportation simulations, cell-based models). Few, if any, tools make an effective link between individual projects and regional performance.
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Simulation/end state assessment: Many tools are designed to assess the end-state of scenarios, where users are expected to provide as inputs the information that describes a predicted future condition. Tools use the data provided for these scenarios to generate performance estimates. Other tools, (ILUTE, UrbanSim) are simulation models. Users provide the current conditions for a region and a set of land-use/transportation policies, and a tool projects selected policies forward to generate a scenario of how these policies would develop spatially.
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Process-based/observation-based: Process-based simulation models (i.e. building energy tools such as ESP-r and urban simulation tools such as UrbanSim) represent and explore the behaviour of and interactions between the individual components that make up the entire system. For instance, in building energy models, detailed information (size, orientation and R-value) of every surface in a building is used, in conjunction with information about specific room uses and mechanical systems, to calculate the heating and cooling load for the entire building. For regional simulation systems like UrbanSim, a detailed behavioural model is used to simulate how each individual makes decisions, such as the location of their homes and jobs, to represent effects on urban form. Other tools, such as most of the spreadsheet-based calculators, use empirical data collected from representative buildings and/or regions to summarize various effects as algorithms. These can be used to generate values based on a number of parameters without simulating underlying individual actions. While the latter is likely to be accurate for known conditions, tools based on measurements of existing conditions are not able to generate results for conditions that are outside of the range of their observed data. For instance, if a transportation model was calibrated based on how mode splits in a suburban environment change in reaction to increased transit service, it is unlikely to be accurate when extrapolated to much higher levels of service such as those found in a dense urban area. “PLANNING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE” The preceding information was presented to participants at the “Planning for Climate Change” workshop held in Vancouver, British Columbia in April, 2008. At this workshop, regional modeling and policy experts were asked to comment on material and to further elaborate their needs for new GHG modeling tools towards the creation of a research agenda for the Lincoln Institute and its partners. Three major findings arose from this meeting:
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1) Two key needs for local governments: a GHG target allocation method from the state/provincial level down to cities and regions, and a tool for understanding planning consequences and solutions 2) Goals and characteristics for a new type of GHG tool 3) A three-track action plan for forwarding tool development Key needs Throughout North America, governments are taking action to reduce GHGs. This movement is particularly pronounced in the Cascadia region where two states and one province have approved legislation aimed at reducing GHGs substantially over the next 50 years (SSB 6516, HB 3543, Bill 44). Despite impressive policy changes, little is known about how these targets are to be met. Even less is known about how regulations will impact the building and retrofitting of communities. Under these conditions, participants identified two key needs for meaningfully moving forward with GHG reduction goals. First, in the US and Canada, no means for equitably distributing GHG reduction targets has been established. For example, one could determine that it would be more equitable to require suburban communities to shoulder the largest burdens for reductions, as suburban dwellers have been shown to produce up to four times more GHGs per capita than inner city dwellers (Center for Neighborhood Technology 2006). Conversely, one could argue that since inner city dwellers often have the advantage of transit and other key pieces of infrastructure, they have the greater capacity and responsibility for reductions. Such issues are complicated further by considering the challenges and opportunities of high-growth versus low-growth communities, as well as questions of per capita versus total reduction targets. In the case of British Columbia, the Province plans to negotiate with local governments with the intention of arriving at an equitable allocation on a municipality by municipality basis. Second, policy makers need to know what capacity exists in communities for GHG reductions and what costs related changes would generate – physically, socially and economically – before they can act. Policy makers need to know, for example, how the gradual rebuilding of the suburbs as more complete, transit friendly communities might overcome, in time, car dependency. Policy makers also need to know how much the GHG reductions already achieved in center cities like Portland, Vancouver and Seattle can be accelerated while addressing market forces and therefore political and economic issues. To answer these questions, a new tool– likely building on and accessing the available suite of GHG models and related methods – is needed. The characteristics of such a tool are described in the following section.
A new GHG tool: goals and characteristics Based on the above, it seems clear that a new tool or set of tools is needed. While the exact attributes of such a tool and its performance are not yet known, a few things can be said. The tool needs to be relevant to the way policy is made and implemented; information by itself is not enough. It needs to be based on real cities and their real forms; tools that are blind to the role of block configuration on one end of the scale spectrum or the influence of regional scale decisions like freeway construction on the other will fail. The tool must move fluidly between processes that generate GHG performance data and the policies that might influence this performance; it’s not enough to do only one and expect the tool to be used. New tools must also be particularly sensitive to the aggregate effects of site scale decisions - how building form, shared walls, and orientation, for example, influence GHG performance, not at the site scale only, but in the aggregate, at the district and regional scale. Finally, the tool must also model the feasibility of district scale infrastructure such as district heating; it is not enough to generally ascribe a value to such systems absent a cognizance of the neighborhood characteristics necessary to implement them practically. Feedback from workshop participants on their goals for a new GHG tool (or tools) for policy makers reflects the diverse challenges and questions facing city planners today. When asked what a new tool or suite of tools for GHG policy planning would look like, planners and technical experts responded with comments that can be summarized as seven key characteristics: •
Iterative: A new tool will have the capacity to iteratively test scenarios, ideally in a charrette-like environment. Results generated by any modeling tool must be capable of rapid integration into collaborative decision making processes where participants can collectively suggest and assess the costs and benefits of alternative options.
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Spatial: A new tool will generate scenarios based on alternative urban forms. The urban elements of building, parcel, block and street network configuration are the essential media for planning decisions and, when assembled into districts and regions, predetermine transportation demands and key aspects of building energy performance. A form-based tool enables opportunities for visualizations, particularly at the neighbourhood scale, allowing decision makers and the public to understand the impacts of policy and other choices “on the ground.”
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Scaleable: A new tool will move between small and large scale policies in order to understand the relationship between differently scaled decisions, including state/provincial, federal and global initiatives. Available tools fail to connect large scale decisions to small scale consequences and vice versa - for example, decisions on freeway construction have substantial consequences on local scale land use and VKT averages.
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Synthetic: A new tool will build on and link to existing modeling and measuring tools and related applications. A reasonable design for such a tool must take advantage of existing simple tools and also have the capacity to connect to more complex and data intensive tools when the situation or scale demands. Technically, this will require the development of a standard “language” among tools, as well as connections to planning process tools, such as design charrettes and other public participation mechanisms.
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Multi-issue: A new tool will be holistic and able to consider issues beyond building energy and transportation, such as infrastructure, and be responsive to the impacts of economy, affordability, and livability, among others.
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Accessible: A new tool will be widely accessible to local governments and other decision makers in terms of both availability and usability for the full range of potential users. A new tool must also be accessible by providing data and results that are understandable to all appropriate audiences and should be transparent (i.e. not a “black box”) in terms of assumptions and methods of analysis.
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Economical: A new tool will be economical in terms of cost, time, and staffing required to achieve desired results. Ideally, such a tool would be able to provide both quick comparisons within an iterative process such as a charrette, and also allow “drilling down” to more accurate, absolute values with increased effort and calibration time.
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A new tool approach Given these characteristics, an approach where generic and ubiquitous neighbourhood types or patterns are identified seems fruitful. It may be possible to characterize a limited number of generic North American neighborhood configurations, and the related district configurations into which they assemble. Once characterized, their inherent or potential capacity for GHG reductions could be assessed, thus avoiding the necessity of assigning attributes on a much smaller parcel by parcel scale. Once assembled, these patterns could then be used to generate regional scenarios. There are a number of reasons why using a form-based methodology grounded in neighbourhood patterns has the potential to meet demanding functional requirements. Neighbourhood scale “development patterns” have the potential to simplify the data requirements commonly associated with more data intensive models. Existing models typically rely on detailed, measured data (i.e. census measures) to represent the current condition. This results in a model that requires similarly detailed data for future scenarios, which can be very time consuming to produce and calibrate. A development pattern approach, on the other hand, would enable the assembly of an existing region or future scenario comprised of a few hundred neighbourhoods from a smaller palette of neighborhood types and base computations on that limited set of inputs. With this method, it would be possible to develop a tool that would simplify data input, analyze scenarios quickly and cheaply, and potentially function in real-time in collaborative, public processes. Accessing existing tools and methods as sub-models to generate GHG measures for regional scenarios, a development pattern-based tool could absorb and translate data from available models into the characterization of neighbourhood and regional scale energy and GHG performance. Key sub-models would include building energy use (e.g. ESP-r), alternative energy feasibility models (e.g. RETScreen), and travel behaviour (regional and neighborhood scale). Ideally, the methods by which information emanating from submodels is absorbed should be transparent and modifiable as circumstances dictate.
A way forward: the action plan Conclusions from the April 2008 meeting on a course of action for developing a new GHG tool varied. Participants with modeling expertise, some with related projects completed or underway, were of the opinion that tool needs and requirements varied significantly and that more than a single tool was necessary. Building a more comprehensive, synthetic “tool suite” or meta-tool from a mosaic of existing tools, supplemented with remodeled and new components was considered the more robust and resilient approach. Generally, these participants were interested in a collaborative and coordinated effort able to cross geography, scales and energy sectors. The resulting suite of tools would be rationalized through a consensus around best research and experience, and would share a common engine of methodological concepts and standards, be open-source, scaleable and incrementally developed. Getting the core of this shared effort “right” was a high priority. Conclusions forwarded by policy representatives, on the other hand, were influenced by the rapid emergence of similar policy in all three Cascadia states/provinces, requiring dramatic reductions in GHGs by 2020 and up to 80% reductions below current levels by 2050. Among participants, there was a sense of urgency and a shared feeling that efforts to characterize the GHG performance of current municipal and regional forms must begin immediately. State and provincial laws will soon require jurisdictions at various levels to bring their transportation, zoning, building code and economic development policies into alignment with mandated GHG reduction goals. Workshop participants recognized that they have a limited amount of time to provide guidance to policy makers and legislators as new laws increase emphasis on the assessment of GHG performance and the mitigation of GHGs through planning actions in the absence of a complete understanding of potential solutions. The action plan for this group would have trial-run mapping and visioning exercises commence within the year with the objective of characterizing existing GHG performance for one or more of the three main metro planning areas as well as generating future scenarios for comparison purposes. After consideration of these comments by the organizing team, it was felt that these positions, while seemingly contradictory, can be compatible. Compatibility is structured by conceptualizing a “three track” process where several parties work in parallel over time (Figure 2). At the base of this process, a technical research track involves specialists who continue working on the models, data collection, calibration and analysis necessary to develop a sufficiently robust understanding of the impacts of urban form on climate change, increasing in depth and sophistication over time. The top track, policy, involves those policy makers and senior planners who, in order to carry out their responsibilities, require immediate information and action on GHG targets as well as long-term strategies for allocating, implementing and monitoring climate change policies. This track will necessarily proceed with the best available information for a given point in time. The 24
central (and critical) track in this process involves experts who will continue work on tool development, insuring that the goals and desired tool characteristics articulated above are achieved over time. A key objective over the course of tool development in this track should be to provide initial, on-going and growing capacity to take new research as it becomes available and incorporate it in ways accessible to the top track of policy makers. A successful process would mean that policy makers quickly have access to a simple, useable, tool using the best available data and increasingly improved, more complete and sophisticated versions of the tool and underlying data over the duration of the process.
CONCLUSION The challenge for both Canada and the US is to find a way to think and act across scales and coordinate many different realms of policy regulation. Coordination of this type is not common and in the case of the US is often looked at with outright hostility. The daunting challenge is made even more intimidating by the absence of tools that explain to citizens and policy makers what would be the benefits of such coordination. Therefore, the challenge for the Lincoln Planning for Climate Change project is to identify an effective point of intervention in this dynamic context. It would seem that participation in the “Tool Development” track would be most fruitful; as it is here that the research and policy come together as applied to the questions of future city form. As a starting point, it seems appropriate that test cases from one or more of the three Cascadia states/provinces (for example Vancouver’s Sustainability by Design initiative, a fifty year plan for Portland, or a low-carbon vision for King County, Washington) could utilize the earliest iterations of a developing tool as a means to explore its potential effectiveness in both top down (regional scale effects on neighbourhoods) and bottom up (neighbourhood level effects on regions) policy decision making. Established early, these cases could then continue to provide testing grounds and critical feedback over the duration of GHG tool development. Lincoln will continue to play a strategic role, bringing together the necessary experts and organizations in support of this process. It is by no means clear that the mere existence of such a tool will produce positive policy actions. It IS however clear that rational policy action is not possible in the absence of such a tool.
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SOURCES AB 32. 27 September 2006. California Global Warming Emissions Cap. California Assembly Bill. http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_california/California_Legislative_Update_101006.html#SB_1368_Global_Warming_Emissions_Standar Bill 44. 20 November 2007. Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act. British Columbia Parliament Bill. http://www.leg.bc.ca/38th3rd/1st_read/gov44-1.htm Center for Neighborhood Technology. 2006. Regional CO2 emissions maps of Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. http://www.cnt.org/resources Ewing, Reid, and Fang Rong. 2008. The Impact of Urban Form on U.S. Residential Energy Use. Housing Policy Debate. Volume 19, Issue 1. HB 3543. 25 June 2007. Oregon House Bill. http://landru.leg.state.or.us/07reg/measpdf/hb3500.dir/hb3543.en.pdf Norman, Jonathan, et al. 2006, March. Comparing High and Low Residential Density: Life-Cycle Analysis of Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Journal of Urban Planning and Development. SSB 6516. 13 March 2008. Washington State Senate Bill. http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/4126CF5A-3BF2-4169-8312 49FD60A28FBA/0/2008StateLegislativeBills.pdf
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Environment and urban form - The real scale of its morphological anatomy Teresa Marquito Marat-Mendes, (MSc., Ph.D.), Auxiliary Professor Lisbon University Institute - ISCTE Department of Architecture and Urbanism Av. Das Forças Armadas 1649-026 Lisboa – Portugal
[email protected] Abstract This paper introduces the debate of climate change and urban design by calling attention to the importance of reading the parameters of urban form, whereas examining the urban morphological parameters from a fresh perspective; i.e. recognizing the measures of urban form that better optimize performance across whole nature systems and whole life cycles. Accordingly, through a comparative analysis of a number of case studies within the Lisbon area, in Portugal, this paper aims to demonstrate how did the impact of subterranean and surface water management determined specific urban morphological parameters of urban design over time in a sustainable manner.
Keywords: urban form, environment, natural resources, morphological parameters
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1. Introduction This paper introduces the debate of climate change and urban design by calling attention to the importance of reading the parameters of urban form, i.e., the ground rules or the urban arrangements, that when allocated appropriately, enable change to occur within the urban layout and that at the same time contribute to more sustainable urban forms. As a supplement to the contribution on Sustainability and urban morphology by Stanilov (2003) MaratMendes and Scoffham (2005) have also drawn attention to a method of analysis of urban form that bears on the notion of Sustainability. Whereas, the analysis of the physical dimensions of urban forms that have been able to adapt and transcend over time in a sustainable manner constitutes the focal point of such methodology. A sustainable urban form is here defined as one that has the capacity to survive processes of change, and that at the same time provides an environmental quality that responds to the variety of needs over time (Marat-Mendes, 2002). Furthermore, by challenging the debate of climate change and urban design into areas wherein strong urban tensions have been caused by the phenomenon of the ‘diffuse’ and ‘sprawl’, this paper proposes a fresh insight into the discipline of urban design, at a time when a widespread demand for renewal in this discipline is being claimed. The phenomenon of ‘diffuse’ and ‘sprawl’ have demanded for different and new forms of action from those of the traditional urban models; as these have been claimed to no longer respond according to the idea of an original nucleus around which a succession of urban expansions and transformations took place. Besides, a line of thought that is being defended by several authors such as Laureano (1995), Tello (1999), Marat-Mendes and Cuchi (2008), the natural environment should not be understood as a single support for the allocation of different activities, infrastructures, equipments or buildings but instead as an intrinsic part of a complex global system. Recognition and identification of the inherent proprieties or the qualities of the natural environment, as part of a more general ecological system is therefore important. As a consequence, the view of nature as something “external” to the urban environment is now open for revision. Several authors are also claiming revision of the traditional architecture and landscape practices, such as Ábalos (2008) in his work Atlas Pintoresco. Indeed, when referring to the death of Robert Smithson in 1973, Ábalos considers this moment to be the time of the first energetic crisis and the birth of a new awake for the need to articulate other nature policies, and among them, other strategies for the construction of the territory. Besides, Ábalos (2008) also claims for a revision of the academic routes, and of the professional inherences of modernity, with a specific agenda: The construction of observatories able to promote new dialogues between humans, in order to create new places and techniques capable to enrich and to intensify our condition in the world. (Ábalos, 2008, p. 235). It is precisely the recognition for the need of revision of the models of urban form and land use in practice that have performed good results on the dialect climate-urban form that it is here argued as
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being crucial in order to renew the discipline of urban design. Whereas the emphasis attributed to the identification of the dimensions of the urban form layout and the real scale of the ecological impacts in the urban planning process, thus appear to be all important and reveal an urban agenda that should be recovered in urban design curricula. This Agenda embraces recognition of land use planning with great respect to the biophysical environment – such as climate, soil, and vegetation, in order to enhance an appropriate exploitation of its natural resources. Understand the most adequate manner to approach such knowledge is determinant to extract the lessons that we must learn when addressing new proposals of urban design. In order to demonstrate how does the biophysical environment can intrinsic respond to the built environment, whereas enhancing an appropriate exploitation of its natural resources, this paper will now demonstrate how did the impact of subterranean and surface water management determined specific urban morphological parameters of urban design over time and in a sustainable manner. To do this, this paper will now focus on the analysis of a Portuguese case study that is situated in the western area of Lisbon region. 2. The Climate, soil and the ecological aspects of the Lisbon Region
Figure 1 – Portugal and the location of the Territory of Lisbon. Source: National Library of Lisbon.
The Portuguese case study refers to a specific geographical area that is situated on the west region of Lisbon; delimited at west by the Atlantic Ocean, at East by the Alcântara water stream, at South by the mouth of Tagus River and at North by the Sintra Mountains. Located in the territory of the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon, this area belongs together with other adjacent territories to a region of Lisbon, called “saloia”, its old term, with which it established since
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very early times, close interdependence ties with particular characteristics, such as architectural, social, cultural, and others. Moreover, such territory is situated in a geographical area considered by Ribeiro (1988) to be of a transition zone, where de great contrasts of the Ocean presence and the Mediterranean influence separates the country and comes to dissolve themselves. Lisbon Region lies in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean climatic zones, thereby enjoying a pleasantly temperate climate year-round. Its mean annual temperature is 17°C, with average temperatures in winter of 13°C and 27°C in summer. Even when summer temperatures reach the mid 30ºC, the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean insures some cooling breezes. July and August are the hottest, driest months, while November to February are the wettest and the coldest. The Sintra Mountains, that bounds the north area of the Lisbon Region, hosts a series of climatic phenomena that results in considerably cooler, damper conditions than in Lisbon, with frequent mists that occur even in midsummer. The soil of this area is constituted by a rich variety of geologic elements, that over different times was subject of different phenomenon of volcanic, tectonic and sedimentary origins. Such phenomenon’s have contributed to shape the actual topography of this territory with a geographic structure that can be regarded as a plane surface undulated by water streams that crosses it from north to south and that finally drains the continuous mountains situated northwards between Sintra and Montejunto Mountains. Such strategic situation of the mountainous area allows the taking hold of the humidity of the marine air and therefore granting the clouds formation that after rain allows the feed of the water streams and the increment of the ground water levels.
Figure 2 - Carta Corográfica dos Arredores de Lisboa, Guerin de Lamotte, 1821. Source: Instituto Geográfico Português.
This territory climatic condition together with other natural conditions provides very different geographical environments and a rich landscape diversity, of natural and human occupancy, from which the greater area can be identified as being of Mediterranean characteristics. 31
3. The human occupations and morphology of the Lisbon Region Significant and valuable archaeological findings have proved that this territory must have been very attractive since very early times, such as the Palaeolithic period. The small inhabitant nucleus, positioned in the inner areas of this region, can have found their origin in the precarious occupations of the Palaeolithic period or already on the Neolithic and Calcoolític. Furthermore, they might have continued their establishment with a much more sedentary occupation based on the “Casais Agrícolas” at the Final Bronze and the Iron Age and, finally were found as inhabited settlements in the following periods, with a special remark to the Roman and Medieval occupation, including the Muslim period, in a continuous occupation that we dare here to propose. As Lisbon was supplied by the ‘saloia’ region, also other smaller urban centres within this region, such as Oeiras, Carcavelos or Cascais, needed their own suppliers from the ‘saloia’ region, such as laundrywomen, salesmen of goods and fresh goods. Thus, to a subsistence economy, of historical origins, for some ‘saloios’, there was in addition the trade of excess, the servant work in the closest urban areas or the employment as stonemason, consigning to proximity a dependence that would pursue over time. A long period of economic stagnation seems to have characterized the history of these urban settlements until very recent times; even Cascais and Oeiras promotion to a “Village of the Court”, its XIX century development, together with the littoral developments as beach resorts, had any influence to emphasize in this sleeping inner region. But, it can have been exactly this extraordinary isolation that, at the same time, allowed the consolidation and the emergency of the ‘saloia’ identity. Generally considered as descending from the Moorish populations that were banned from the re-conquered Lisbon, to whom Afonso Henriques’ allowed to settle in the Term, is most likely that its genealogy submerges into a variety of populations that have fixed here, and that formed its character and appearance mainly through the long hospitality of several generations of Christians and Muslims (Marat-Mendes & Cabrita, 2007). Alongside with this isolation and the coexistence of ways of living based on a subsistence economy, most of the interior area of the neighbour municipalities of Lisbon, situated in this saloia region, have allowed until 1950’s the possibility to describe this territory’s landscape as of merely “villages and deserts” as the summary that a writer from the end of 15th century makes of the country (Ribeiro, 1988, p95). Such “deserts” were however a vast area of countryside disposed along the territory, and explored by different cultures through inherited knowledge as already stressed, but always according to the availability of resources, such as sun, soil and water. It was later during the 17th and 18th centuries that with the intensification of agriculture, mainly with the olive tree and the promotion of summer houses and estates for nobility and royalty, that such “deserts” testified a new transformation input in its landscape, however without neglecting the most appropriate use of the natural resources available. The pattern that reflects such landscape it is here argued as essential in order to desiccate the morphological anatomy of Lisbon’s territory.
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4. The morphological anatomy of Lisbon and its environments. As already stressed, during the 17th and 18th centuries, the territory of Lisbon in analysis, assisted to the establishment of the Royal Estates of Lisbon Region. These Royal Estates, together with other non Royalty Farms, Framhouses, Estates, Casais and Azenhas and other productive structures were responsible for the guarantee of the sustainability of Lisbon’s environments, whereas assuring a natural symbiosis between man, nature and the built environment. In an attempt to better understand this territory and its inherent landscape Marat-Mendes & Cuchi (2008) throughout their analysis of the water basin of Barcarena Basin, licated in the surroundings of Lisbon. Such case study refers to the distribution of the Farms along the water basin of Barcarena water stream that is also located in the western region of Lisbon territory. The analysis of the territory of Lisbon proposed by Marat-Mendes & Cuchi (2008) refers to the application of a model of reading the landscape that is drawn up on a requisite that is the relevance of the resources management. Wherein, the identification of the distribution of the Farms along the western region of the Lisbon Territory was its primary instrument. Moreover, Farms, Farmhouses, Estates, Casais, Azenhas and other productive structures were distributed all over this territory. The same territory, that during the 18th century supplied and feed the City of Lisbon, with its fresh goods, trade, services and material resources. Such structures represent the most visible elements of an elaborated management process of the territory biophysics materials matrix, which is characterized by the drainage of the water captured from the mountain system towards the river. Moreover, such territory that is successively modulated by different water basins also provided navigation connection through its water streams in conjunction with the road system that connected Lisbon to Paço de Arcos, Oeiras, Cascais and Sintra (Marat-Mendes & Cuchi, 2008). The farms that until the 1755 earthquake have gradually assisted to the transformation of their main function into the residential one, lead a complex production unit that incorporates various uses. Its main part usually presents an enclosed precinct, sheltered by walls, which provides protection for highperformance crops in opposition to the lower-performance crops, mainly cereal cultures, which in turn dominate all the other available territory. In addition to the main residence and its gardens, when they do exist, vegetable plots and fruit plots of various types occupy the above-mentioned walled spaces. These plots constitute the irrigated crops that assume the use of the water resource as a flow that needs to be managed through the restrictive available conditions that the traditional systems could permit (Marat-Mendes & Cuchi, 2008). The dry land crops, the crops of lower-performance, exploits the infiltration of rainwater that falls directly on the ground with the help of farm operations, thus promoting competitors elimination and permeability of soil increment through tillage; therefore, ensuring their maximum availability for cultivation in moments of growth and maturation. Instead, the irrigation crop system or the crops of high-performance exploits the overflow and the infiltration that is not evaporated by the plantations, in order to concentrate water and to make use of it to fertilize exotic crops or crops of higher productivity (Marat-Mendes & Cuchi, 2008). However, the traditional water management system is conditioned by the use of the gravity power as the main element of water transport, as in the traditional societies there was not enough power to move systematically the quantities of necessary water fluid for agriculture. Thus, the capture, regulation and distribution of water were determined by the same geography of the territory, by the topography, the
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substrate, and the technical capacity for the management of the necessary elements for its government. As one defines these parameters, the availability of water reveals also to be very different at different spots in the territory, whereas the potential of agricultural production under irrigation systems are differentiated (Marat-Mendes & Cuchi, 2008). If one assumes that in the 18th century there was enough market demand in Lisbon to accept the increases of the agricultural capacity of Lisbon’s surroundings, and that neither the man-power nor the investment capital constituted restrictive elements, one must assume that at that time, it was produced the maximum utilization of the opportunities that the differential biophysics matrix generated to establish irrigated crops in the study area. Only local constraints, such as the lack of access to the distribution channels such as roads or some water streams, could justify the non-exploitation of plots or land that was positioned in places capable of crop irrigation use. Accordingly, the readings of the farms study disposition throughout the territory, at that time, should show which were those spots and how do they responded to the availability of these factors through the dimension of its own farm, the existing crops and the ability to capture water (Marat-Mendes & Cuchi 2008). Moreover, the work of Marat-Mendes and Cuchi (2008) considers the basin as the basic unit when considering the water flow.
5. The 23 water basins of Lisbon Territory and the real scale of Lisbon’s urban environment morphological anatomy. In order to contribute to Marat-Mendes & Cuchi (2008) analysis and to need of finding better relationships between environment and urban form, the present paper will now introduce a broader analysis of Lisbon’s Territory that was established through a method of territory analysis that bears on the notion of Sustainable Urban Form according to Marat-Mendes (2002) and Marat-Mendes & Scoffham (2005). Wherein a Sustainable Urban Form is here defined as one that has the capacity to survive processes of change, and that at the same time provides an environmental quality that responds to the variety of needs over time. Although Marat-Mendes & Cuchi (2008) have already implemented such model on the analysis of one water basin, the Barcarena Basin, the present paper will identify and analyse a territory that is constituted by a total number of 23 water basins. Moreover, such analysis hopes to promote a broader conscience of the need of more detailed territory analysis in order to better implement principles of sustainable urban environment and urban form. Supported by a strong environmental and ecological perception this methodological framework consisted on an analysis of the territory and in the recognition and identification of its morphological structure. Such analysis was followed on information provided by the military maps of the surroundings of Lisbon from 1893-1899 at the scale 1:20.000 (Corpo do Estado Maior, 1893-1899); thus enabling the establishment of the farms disposition throughout the territory. More current cartography was also used in order to compare the 19th century information with the actual one. The different steps that were followed throughout the methodology were the following ones: a) Delimitation of the territory in analysis throughout its natural features; b) Identification and delimitation of the 23 water basins that constitutes the study area of the territory; c) Recognition of the natural conditions of the water basins: geological, topographic and climatic;
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d) Identification of the human and physical conditions of the water basins: urban agglomerations, Farms, road systems, types of uses; e) Delimitation of the different walled farms located in each water basin; f) For each farm it was identified its respective water basin, that was defined by considering the geometry of the territory situated above the farm highest topographic level; g) Identification of the type of crops and location in every identified walled farm; h) Analysis of the landscape use (through type of occupation and crops) regarding its distribution throughout the territory in analysis, and finally the establishment of some final remarks, throughout a comparative analysis between the 23 water basins. While the analysis was elaborated, several walled properties were identified. However, these presented different designations, namely “Qta”, “Q” and “C”. After and analysis of the areas of these properties it was possible to verify several differences in their areas. While the “Qtas” presents an average area of 130.000m2, the “Q” presents an average area of 51.000m2, and the “C” approximately 14.600m2. Moreover, while the number of properties designated with a “C” is relatively reduced in comparison to the other two cases, it is possible to conclude that such designations have a correspondence to the areas of the properties. The analysis of the territory has also allowed the identification of other properties, however not walled ones. These non-walled plots were not considered for the comparative analysis; as they do not represent high-performance crops plots, as defended by Marat-Mendes & Cuchi (2008), and therefore these non-walled plots do not assume the use of water resource as a flow that needs to be manages, and therefore an important morphological element of urban planning. Only the walled properties or plots were therefore considered for analysis. Interestingly, these were greatly found under the 250m heights, and with predominance between the 0m and 50m high. Such situation might owe to the area of each farms own water basin; as the lowest the level of the farm, greater will be its own water basin. From the 23 identified water basins it is in basins 21 (Barcarena Basin), 22 (Jamor Basin) and 23 (Algés Basin) that one can find the greater number of farms; each basin with more than 20 farms. Interestingly, these are the basins that are closely located to the city of Lisbon. The location of the farms is superior throughout the two main accesses (Lisbon-Cascais) and (LisbonSintra). The first one is situated closer to the Tagus river coast, and the second one where the water streams initiate their course. Other farms are located along the north-south water streams that run each water basin, although in a less number. Around the Sintra Mountain it is also possible to verify a great concentration of farms, located in its basement level, approximately at the 200m level, concentrated in three main locations; where the mountain faces South, North and on its top level (510m height). This last location presents the biggest farms. However, due to the aggressive natural conditions, such the high level, the accentuated topography and the Atlantic influence, the farms located at the Sintra Mountains have as principal crops type pine trees and trees. Another concentration of farms is contained in the area of Oeiras, close to the Marginal (the route that connects Lisbon to Cascais). The majority of these farms belong to the Marques of Pombal (the Count of Oeiras). In this same area, it is possible to identify good quality soils, of great solar exposition in a flat slope, thus favouring the vineyards plantation.
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Regarding the types of crops identified in the entire area in analysis, one can identified pine trees, olive trees, trees, vineyards and also worked land. The greater number of crops production is found at the 250m high level. Above this level the crops production is almost null, remaining however only to the growth of pine trees and other trees; crops that did not depend on watering subsistence. Vineyards are found in farms situated under the 150m high. However, registering prevalence at the 50m-height level. Preference seems also to be given in territories facing a south solar exposition. Only one vineyard faces north, and this is located at the Sintra Mountains. Concerning the growth of trees, there is no information regarding its species, but it was possible to verify a great concentration of farms that growth trees situated between the 100m and 150m heightlevel (15 in 25 farms). The other farms that growth trees are dispersed at the different levels, having however a greater predominance in water basin number 9 (Ribeira de Colares basin). Moreover, there is no predominant solar exposition. Olive trees are predominately located at the 100m height-level; and there is no presence of this type of tree above the 250m height-level. This crop is constantly associated to the worked land identified crops. There is also no predominant solar exposition for this type of crop. Finally, the worked land appears to be located always associated to the growth of other type of crops, and are mainly located at the lowest levels (under the 250m high), with a greater predominance at the 50m height. The reason for this situated might be the need for watering and the need for the biggest farms own water basins, that are precisely located at the lowest levels. From all the identified farms 37% of them do not have any indication of crops. There might be two reasons for this situation. One refers to an abandonment of the respective farm, and the second reason refers to the use of the farm, that might be of Summer Houses use instead of a productive use. The Summer houses were very common during the 18th century. And, this possibility is coherent with the great number of farms without crops type identification and of reduced dimensions that we can find in water basin number 23 (Algés basin), the one nearest to Lisbon. Summarizing, basins number 18 (Maradas basin), 19 (Lage basin), 20 (Porto-Salvo basin), 21 (Barcarena basin), 22 (Jamor basin) and 23 (Algés basin) are the ones that present a greater number of productive farms, principally privileged by its proximity to Lisbon and to the regularity of its topography and south solar exposition. From the analysis of the road systems and of the urban nucleus, indentified in the 1893 cartography, one can identify a close interdependence between these and the localization of the farms. The principal routes, such as the rail trail structure the two main axes of access for both principal routes LisbonCascais and Lisbon-Sintra. The connection between these two principal routes is effectuated by secondary roads that runs perpendicular to the main routes, along the top levels of the identified water basins. Regarding the analysis of the sobreposition between the road system and the existing urban nucleus with the identified farms on the maps of 1893, one has found permanence on the localization of such roads and urban nucleus. However, a third road emerges between the two previous identified main
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axes. A new motorway built during the 1980’s generated the expansion of new urban nucleus along its route. Thus, allowing the occupation of the less occupied territory of the 18th century. Finally, the analysis effectuated over the 1893 cartography has allowed identification of the land use rules that regulated this territory occupation since 18th century, while urban development was however elaborated according to an idea of natural resources management synchrony.
Figure 3 – Lisbon’s Territory and the identified water basins of the study area.
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Figure 4 – Lisbon’s Territory Hypsometry and the location of the farms.
Figure 5 – The location of the old urban nucleus, the principal roads and the farms.
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Figure 6 – The location of the actual urban nucleus, the principal roads and the farms.
Table 1: Relation between Type and number of crops per altitude
No crops Trees Worked land Olive trees Vineyards Pine trees
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6. Conclusions The present work has shown different ways of approaching landscape analysis, such as adequate tools to read and understand the traditional productive systems of such landscapes, which in the end is the expression of the resources management model that used it. Moreover, it reflects on the need to better understand landscape when environmental enhancement is demanded for urban form improvement. Indeed, urban form when resulting from a parcelling inherence reflects previous models of land use that needs to be better perceived in order to extract the lessons of environmental control. Indeed, as one can conclude from the analysis of the 23 water basins identified in the western region of Lisbon’s Territory, one can confirm that the previous isolated territory as defined by Marat-Mendes & Cabrita (2007) was subject of agricultural intensification during the 18th century as confirmed by Marat-Mendes & Cuchi (2008). Therefore, such agricultural intensification responded to an urban and rural parcelling order that responded however to a model of natural resources management, wherein water was the main resource. Moreover, this same territory, has proved, that until very recently it has kept the parcelling structure, although suffering some annexations or plots divisions. Nevertheless, such parcelling structure did assure until very recently to the natural conditions of the site in a sustainable manner. Thus, if improvements of the natural conditions of the site need to be done in the future, a better acknowledgment of the previous resources management model and its intrinsic parcelling structure are therefore needed. In order to better respond to a more positive relationship between Environment and Urban Form, the scale of analysis that should approach such relationship is therefore important. It concerns not only the scale of the natural resources that flows in such territory, and that determines the physical constrains of the natural system, but also the scale of change that such territory structure can determine in future urban arrangements. Thus, landscape seems to appear as the real scale to approach urban form and environment, as the most adequate one when analysing the morphological anatomy of each site in analysis.
Credits: Figures 3, 4, 5, 6 and Table 1 were elaborated by the students of the Master Course of Architecture, at the Department of Architecture and Urbanism at the High Institute of Lisbon-ISCTE (2007/2008) - Liliana Vieira, Luciana Lameirinhas, Mário Nunes, Paulo Saiote and Susana Santana, for the course of Ecology and Territory, supervised by Prof. Teresa Marat-Mendes.
References Ábalos, I., 2008. Atlas pintoresco, Vol.2: los viajes. Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili. Corpo do Estado Maior. Carta dos Arredores de Lisboa (1893-1899), scale 1:20.000. Laureano, P., 1995. La Piramide riovescita. Il modello dell’oasi per il planeta Terra. Marat-Mendes, T., 2002. The Sustainable Urban Form: a comparative study in Lisbon, Edinburgh and Barcelona. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. United Kingdom: University of Nottingham. Marat-Mendes, T. and Cabrita, M. A., 2007. From the Territory to the City: the Ground Rules that have governed order to Lisbon’s surroundings. In Proceedings of the 1st Euro-Mediterranean Regional
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Conference on Traditional Mediterranean Architecture, Present and Future - REHABIMED, Barcelona, Spain, 12-15 June 2007. ISBN: 84-87104-79-7, pp.199-201. Marat-Mendes, T. and Cuchi, A., 2008. The role of resources management on shaping landscape patterns: the water in the Royal Estates of Lisbon region. In Proceedings of the International Conference on HERITAGE 2008, Vila Nova de Foz Coa, Portugal, 7-9 Maio 2008. ISBN: 978-98995671-0-8. pp.441-446. Marat-Mendes, T., and Scoffham, E., 2005. Urban Sustainability and the ground rules that govern urban space. Urban Morphology, 9 (1), 45-46. Ribeiro, O., 1988. Portugal. O Mediterrâneo e o Atlântico. Lisboa: Livraria Sá da Costa Editora. Stanilov, K., 2003. Sustainability and urban morphology. Urban Morphology, 7 (1), 43-45. TELLO, E. 1999. “La Formación histórica de los paisjes agrários mediterráneos: una aproximación evolutiva”, História Agraria, 19, pp.195-211.
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Low-carbon, Attractive, Resilient Communities: New Imperatives for Sustainable Retrofitting of Existing Neighbourhoods. Dr. Stephen R.J. Sheppard, Ellen Pond, and Cam Campbell Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning (CALP) Department of Forest Resource Management/Landscape Architecture Program Forest Sciences Centre 2424 Main Mall, UBC Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4
ABSTRACT Climate change poses multiple challenges for sustainable community planning and retrofitting. In particular, three specific linked dimensions require more explicit and thorough consideration on the best practice list of sustainability indicators. First, the need for radical reduction of carbon footprints in existing communities is becoming more evident, due to the urgency of stabilizing climate change and staying below 2°C average global warming. This will require a profound paradigm shift in society, beyond technological advances and legislation on greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, and necessitate changing landscapes, urban patterns and behaviour sufficiently to meet critical low-carbon emission thresholds. Secondly, a continuously changing climate threatens the integrity of the community fabric and the success of GHG reduction strategies. We need more holistic climate change planning that considers resilience under various possible future impact scenarios, and promotes synergies between adaptation and mitigation, such as using urban forestry to reduce heat island effects and GHGs. Thirdly, in most North American communities, a high-carbon aesthetic prevails, reflecting and shaping high levels of consumption and waste; both mitigation and adaptation measures can meet resistance on aesthetic grounds. Thus, for sustainability and climate stabilization to succeed, people need to be convinced that key aspects of quality of life will be protected. Retaining the character of well-loved communities, ensuring attractive design, and expressing greener performance will therefore be vital. Planners will need to assess impacts on character and the acceptability of new technologies such as biomass-fuelled district heating plants, photovoltaics, and wind power; designers will need to fit new technologies into existing and beloved landscapes. The challenges are great, requiring comprehensive changes in many aspects of our lives and all sectors of society; these in turn are likely to require shifting of public preferences through intelligent, informing informative processes that reveal the true trade-offs in design choices. Local Climate Change Visioning is one new participatory planning and capacity-building process that attempts to integrate low-carbon targets, improved community resilience and character changes resulting from climate change actions in the community, using GISbased visualisations. Visioning case studies conducted at the University of British Columbia illustrate some approaches to meeting quantified low-carbon thresholds and retro-fitting for resilient and attractive neighbourhoods. Such approaches call for profound changes in how we plan our communities in the short and long term, including the need to use better metrics and techniques for measuring, mapping and modelling performance on all three new imperatives for sustainability.
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1
INTRODUCTION
Climate change poses multiple challenges for sustainable community planning and retrofitting. This paper calls for more explicit and systematic consideration of three vital sustainability dimensions that are still often given short shrift in sustainability assessment and planning exercises: carbon (GHG emission) levels relative to aggressive reduction targets, resilience in terms of reduced vulnerability to direct and indirect effects of global change, and the attractiveness or acceptability of urban design/retrofitting required for climate change solutions. The first dimension, low-carbon, sets an essential threshold for sustaining human life into the future. The need for radical reduction of carbon footprints in existing communities is becoming clearer, due to the urgency of stabilizing climate change at GHG concentrations of 450 ppm4 or below (Hansen, 2008); without this, the world has no hope of staying below the level of 2°C average global warming believed by many scientists to represent the threshold for dangerous climate change (IPCC, 2007). John Ashton, the UK Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change, writes that “we should no longer speak of avoiding dangerous climate change. That is yesterday’s issue. We have dangerous climate change already; what we now need to focus on is avoiding catastrophic climate change” (Ashton, paraphrasing John Holdren, President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in MacCracken et al., 2008). The latest science reveals unexpectedly rapid loss of summer arctic sea ice -- with possibly complete loss by 2013 -- and much faster melting of the Greenland ice sheet than predicted, leading to a potential 6-7m of sea level rise (Homer-Dixon, 2008; Hansen et al., 2007). Hansen et al. (2008) conclude that the current levels of atmospheric CO² are too high: “Continued growth of greenhouse gas emissions, for just another decade, practically eliminates the possibility of near-term return of atmospheric composition beneath the tipping level for catastrophic effects.” (15). The Stern Review (2006) also demonstrated the costs of doing too little, including mass population migrations, increased regional conflicts (eg. Darfur), massive water shortages, and other human catastrophes. We must therefore move quickly: the world only has about 10 years to pass through “peak carbon” and drop GHG emissions rapidly thereafter; developed countries, and by extension their communities, must reduce GHG emissions 80-90% by 2050 , in keeping with emerging international standards and urgent calls for action from scientists (IPCC, 2008). However, “there is an enormous gap opening up….between those people who are looking at the possible futures that an unstable climate will create …. and the assessment being made by the people who are rooted in the policy community….. What the policy community thinks is the best that we can do is nowhere near what the people on the frontlines say is what we have to do” (Ashton, in MacCracken et al 2008, xvi). Hansen et al. add that “Present policies, with continued construction of coal-fired power plants without CO2 capture, suggest that decision-makers do not appreciate the gravity of the situation. We must begin to move now toward the era beyond fossil fuels” (2008: 15, emphasis added). In fact, most countries including Canada and its communities, are still heading in the wrong direction on total carbon emissions. While the concept of lowcarbon is now starting to be accepted in some parts of the world, the speed and depth of needed emission cuts is not widely grasped. New sustainable developments need to have much higher benchmarks for low-carbon, and existing communities need to be retrofitted as quickly as possible. Specific and radical thresholds need to be adopted in comprehensive plans with rapid on-the-ground implementation to ensure that low-carbon communities become a reality in time. Climate change is arguably the biggest sustainability driver of all, providing the frame for all other sustainability issues and making carbon reduction the pre-eminent criterion. If we get this one wrong, other sustainability dimensions will become irrelevant. As we correct for climate change, we will of course need to manage all the 4
Current GHG concentrations approximate 385 ppm. 43
other sustainability dimensions and indicators as well, in part to maintain vital ecosystems and community resilience. However, in planning terms, getting greener is no longer enough. Anything less than massive cuts in GHGs in developed nations represents failure. For the first time in the history of sustainability, we now have and must meet hard quantifiable targets, set by the climate science fraternity. The rate of the cut, size of cut, and the one-chance-only imperative to hit the target are unprecedented. To meet this challenge, we argue that resilient and more localized communities will be necessary both to reach the low-carbon targets and reduce vulnerabilities and impacts from that part of climate change that is already unavoidable. Adaptation strategies could negate mitigation (and vice versa) if the two are not considered in an integrated way: for example, the adaptation of air conditioners to handle warmer temperatures increases CO². Further, communities will need to pay serious attention to their attractiveness, maintaining or enhancing their character so as to make a low-carbon and resilient lifestyle attractive and acceptable to residents. Low-carbon communities therefore need to be measured both quantitatively – we must meet and exceed stringent greenhouse gas emission goals – and qualitatively – we must want to live in them – so that low-carbon community strategies can be implemented with minimal delays due to public or stakeholder opposition. Putting these three dimensions together, we argue that converting existing communities to a Lo-CAR (LowCarbon, Attractive, Resilient) state is essential, going beyond current open-ended ‘Green” or sustainability objectives. Existing indicator systems such as Smart Growth often miss or only implicitly embed low-carbon, resilience and character dimensions. Accordingly, we need Lo-CAR indicator sets, which can explicitly show us how far we have to go to achieve true low-carbon communities, facilitate decision-making among multiple climate change strategies, accelerate implementation, and aid performance monitoring. Beyond simply adding three new sustainability indicators, we argue that these new imperatives herald a profound shift in planning for sustainability. This paper examines all three dimensions, and illustrates how climate change design moves can be critically assessed using them. We review the reasons why each of them is important, how they are defined, and ways of measuring and achieving success in each dimension. We suggest how sustainable urban design can and should bundle these three dimensions together, and identify synergies between them to advance implementation of a low-carbon society. We argue that such transformations will require a paradigm shift in society (Kok et al., 2002; Raskin et al., 2002), moving beyond technological advances and legislation on greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, to encompass significant changes in our landscapes, urban patterns and community behaviour that are necessary to meet critical low-carbon emission thresholds. The role of participatory planning processes is clearly critical to achieving this shift. The paper draws upon new research findings on community visioning processes in the Vancouver area that consider multiple climate change issues and future scenarios as a prototype for holistic planning and outreach for behaviour change. One visioning case study, conducted as a graduate Landscape Architecture project (Pond, 2008), proposed a neighbourhood retrofit plan that met 80% reduction targets in a low-density suburb of Burnaby, BC, which is used to illustrate key points in this paper. The paper focuses on retrofitting existing North American communities, some of the worst per capita carbon emitters in the world, with a particular emphasis on the Pacific Northwest, although many of the concepts apply much more widely. North America’s traditional approach to environmental and resource problem solving has been expanding to new frontiers and greenfield development sites. But we cannot sprawl, grow or new-build our way out of our current predicament as a general strategy. Even if all new development were zero carbon, everybody else would have to cut by 80%; the more that new development is not zero carbon, the more the rest of us have to cut our own footprints (beyond 80% reduction) in order to compensate. The imperatives of climate change and dwindling cheap energy require us to retrofit existing communities. While the existing building stock will continue to be replaced over time – moving towards zero carbon as rapidly as possible so as not to add to our problem – future energy deficits will make new building more costly and critical resource shortages could inhibit timely completion of new projects. And, as we argue below, there are other reasons to value and protect the urban fabric of existing communities, even as we retrofit them. 44
2
LOW-CARBON
2.1 Why ‘Low-Carbon” is Important In addition to the reasons given above for urgent and drastic cuts in GHG emissions to mitigate and minimize climate change, there are increasingly policy and legislated mandates for reducing community carbon footprints. For example, the BC Government has established targets for GHG emission reductions of at least 33% from 2007 levels by 2020, and 80% by 2050 (Bill 37, May 2008); Toronto’s target is 30% reduction from 1990 levels by 2020 (Toronto Environment Office, Framework for Public Review and Engagement, March 2007). In reality, meeting these targets will require even greater reductions by each individual or community if we are to account for continued growth in population and the economy. Co-benefits of such targets include healthier lifestyles due to increased walking and cycling, increased tranquility due to noise reduction, increased jobs in green industries, and a feeling of empowerment in taking positive action to address climate change. Low-carbon communities also are adapted to a lower-carbon (post peak-oil) future (see Section 3 below). 2.2 Definition of ‘Low-Carbon’ Carbon emissions are typically measured in terms of CO² equivalent (CO² e) to account for differential effect of various GHGs on global warming. However, it is not enough to measure simply carbon emissions; we must define ‘low-carbon’ in relation to the levels that need to be achieved. These are defined here as: reduce to approximately 10% or less of current carbon usage levels (if these exceed 1990 levels), or 20% of 1990 levels, by 2050, with half of the reduction by 2035, in general accordance with the emerging international consensus e.g. BC, UK, and EU (IPCC, 2008; Monbiot, 2006) apply comprehensively across the transportation, food, energy, housing, water, production, other consumption, and waste disposal sectors apply to all materials/energy used in a community, including their supply, production, processing, transporting, use and disposal ensure the problem of carbon emissions is not simply transported in space or time (Berg and Nycander, 1997) as in the current use of some biodiesel and carbon offsets. 2.3 Achieving and Measuring ‘Low-Carbon’ Our case studies on planning low-carbon communities suggest that effective mitigation measures will be site and region-specific; solutions are not ubiquitous. For example, in BC, it is only necessary to replace the relatively small proportion of electrical generation which is coal-fired, since most electricity is generated by hydropower. Given the singular importance of attaining the targeted carbon reduction, indicators used in assessing carbon reduction measures must address not only process (eg. establishing policies, designing new green developments,) but also performance (ie. actual emissions reduction achieved as a result of policies, designs and behaviours). The Burnaby case study found that implementation levels would need to be very high (see Box A) to reach and exceed 80% reductions (Pond, 2008). Our experience to date suggests that low-carbon retrofit of existing suburban communities in the Pacific Northwest could be achieved by combining all of the following strategies/measures (suggested indicators are listed in Table 1): 1) Reduced energy use, improved conservation, and efficiencies in buildings: These constitute a critical first step in reducing energy usage and therefore fossil fuels to 2020, and must be widely and deeply implemented. Energy gains from widespread efficiency implementation can and must be considerable (Torrie et al., 2002 ), with close to 100% deployment across all sectors, and high efficiency targets with near-term fixed dates. For example, 85-100% of all existing homes need to be retrofit for higher energy performance, and all homes must go to clotheslines, low-e lightbulbs, etc. 2) Changing energy sources by moving from fossil fuel to renewable energy/decentralized energy/local energy. The amount and type of green energy needed will depend on local baseloads and renewable energy potential in the area (on-site) or region (off-site). Solar technologies including passive solar heating/cooling and 45
solar thermal hot water need to be widely deployed to ensure that electrical generation can be used for more critical services (Box A). 3) Change transportation by both mode and fuel source, which requires technological innovation, modified planning, and behaviour change among residents. Communities need a rapid shift to effectively zero-carbon mobility (walk, bike, equestrian) and renewably powered electric public transit, such as the wind-powered LRT C-train in Calgary. Fuel switching to private electric vehicles is likely to be available only for small, efficient vehicles such as electric bikes and scooters (EV2-3), if electricity is needed for other uses. Distances from residential locales to services must include the distance to actual supply sites, which may require broadening of current compact community measures such as 400m “walking circles”. The implications of transportation changes are large, particularly in North America where post-1940s communities have been almost wholly designed around the large, private vehicle. Society will need to undertake a major attitudinal (paradigm) shift as we move from the freedom of the car and the open road to more localized communities and rail/bus service for community-to-community movement. Density in sprawling suburbs must increase to support efficient transit, and some currently developed, remote areas may become non-viable as housing tracts. 4) Re-localization, particularly of food production: acquisition of food and other consumables account for a significant portion of a community’s carbon footprint. Local production of foods will likely require another paradigm shift if it is to be interwoven back into the sub/urban fabric; other critical needs including water, waste and materials must increasingly be met locally as well. Figure 1 shows the conceptual transition proposed for Burnaby. The overall critical change in retrofitting existing urban form follows from and incorporates all of the above strategies holistically. It requires a new definition of ‘compact, complete communities’. This definition includes not only the urban cores but also the required productive land that is linked by rail, water, and roads/tracks to the community. Land use needs to be mixed to enable not only “live-work-play” activities but also “produce” activities, that take into account carbon miles from imported food/materials versus local sources. Land use changes may require both smart density (increased in certain nodal or corridor locations – see Kellett et al., elsewhere in this issue) and reduced density as high-energy using low-density housing tracts are reallocated to food and industrial production (Balfour and Keenan, 2007). A productive land indicator must therefore be included in mixed-use land planning, eg. amount (percent) of industrial land, agricultural land, or possibly biomass/forest land within the community. In addition, optimal or acceptable density ranges (with locally defined upper and lower thresholds) will be needed: for example, too much density may reduce solar thermal coverage (Roaf et al., 2005), limit stormwater infiltration ,and increase heat island effect (Penney 2008); too little density increases energy use and makes public transit infeasible. The range and magnitude of changes in the community arising from GHG reduction will depend on housing type, existing density, proximity to public transit, and available local food production, among other things. It is crucial to measure both per capita GHGs and total emissions (see Section 6.2). The inventory, mapping and projection of community carbon is still in active development, with few methods yet including food and material consumption. Kellett et al. (in this issue) explore mapping carbon based on land use patterns. Pond (2008) has conducted mapping of renewable energy capacity in suburban neighbourhoods in Burnaby, based in part on architectural and landscape form (Figure 2). In lieu of specific quantitative indicators for low carbon, distinct and widely separated scenarios can be used to frame and benchmark major (Figure 3) conducted in Greater Vancouver (Sheppard, 2008). 3
RESILIENCE
3.1
Why Resilience is Important 46
A continuously changing climate threatens the integrity of both the community fabric and the success of GHG reduction strategies. Resilience improves a community’s ability to persist (and thrive) through dangerous or potentially catastrophic climate change and diminishing cheap energy. Climate change impacts on communities may include: 1) the direct local effects of prevailing conditions and extreme events associated with issues such as sea-level rise, snowpack reduction, drought, heavy precipitation and flooding, rising temperatures, etc. (eg. Lemmen et al., 2008); and 2) the indirect effects of climate change in other places, such as storm disruption of remote energy supply-lines, drought in other food-exporting regions, and in-migration of environmental refugees displaced from other countries. Thus resilience needs to address both diverse kinds of climate change adaptation, and adaptation to the end of cheap fossil fuels that currently drive our food, transportation, infrastructure, buildings, consumer goods and medical systems. Other future shocks requiring resilience include globalization/technology shifts and mineral shortages. Without careful and systematic planning for resilience, we are likely to increase community vulnerability through inappropriate urban/infrastructure design and land use planning, e.g. expansion of suburbs into fire-prone forest areas or overbuilding downtown cores that are vulnerable to black-outs or heat-island effects. 3.2 Definitions of Resilience Used loosely, resilience often refers to the capacity of a system to return to normal following a disruption. However, resilience should not be mistaken for stability or “the ability of a system to return to an equilibrium state after a temporary disturbance” (Holling 1973: 17). Resilience encompasses our ability to maintain core structure, functions, identity and drivers while undergoing change (Walker et al., 2004; Berkes and Turner, 2006). Thus, following a disturbance, a resilient system or community does not necessarily return to how it used to be, but is able to meet the needs of its residents, maintaining continuity and integrity while reorganizing in response to change. Homer-Dixon defines resilience simply as “the ability to withstand shock without catastrophic failure” (2007). Given the current and anticipated disruptions due to climate change and the end of cheap energy, communities will need to reorganize frequently and transition between states as they withstand variable and ongoing shocks into the future. Thus a dynamic rather than a stability-based definition is required with anticipated climate change impacts. Dynamic resilience itself may be adaptive or transformative, with adaptive resilience comprising gradual and consensual actions within existing institutions. Transformative resilience retains key functions, but the system itself may not be stable, and may move towards a new set of relationships (Goldstein, 2008). Transformative resilience may be what is required to meet the urgent and stringent greenhouse gas reductions required to stabilize climate, while adapting to the other changes underway. 3.3 Achieving and Measuring Resilience How do communities become more resilient? How should we judge or measure resilience? Current engineering (and many design) solutions tend to favour rigid, single-solution strategies -- controlling, reducing or eliminating natural cycles rather than working with them (Hough, 2004). These favour a stability mode where fluctuations are minimized and systems solidified. However, resilient solutions will need flexibility, adaptability, dynamic systems, interdependence and heterogeneity (Berg and Nycander, 1997; Goldstein, 2008; Pickett et al., 2004; Walker et al., 2004; Holling, 1973; Hough, 2004; and Hester, 2006). Holling posits that resilient systems “maintain flexibility above all else” (1973:18), and that “the more homogenous the environment in space and time, the more likely is the system to have….low resilience” (ibid). Resilience in cities depends on physical form, people’s capacity, and social behaviour, which in part relates to form (Hester, 2006). Community resilience requires self-reliant, skilled and capable citizens who are knowledgeable about the systems they live in (Goldstein 2008), have developed iterative learning (Berkes and Turner, 2006) with mature face-to-face social networks (Tompkins and Adger, 2003; Hester, 2006), resulting in strong place-based social capital (Sydneysmith, 2007). Citizens and governments then become co-producers of a flexible, resilient community that can respond to change and disruption, and proactively reduce vulnerabilities. Note that urban form resilience and community resilience may not always be one and the same. Indicators and 47
thresholds for resilience are likely to be quite site-specific (Lemmen et al., 2008), but may be categorized as shown in Table 1. For example, Figure 4 suggests ways of reducing the vulnerability of island communities to resource shortages and cost fluctuations through increased local production and cycling of food, energy and water (see Lyle, 1994). The indicators of resilience suggested in Table 2 clearly overlap with indicators for low carbon communities, as pointed out by Penney (2008) among others. Pursuing resilience thus offers communities holistic mechanisms to achieve low-carbon conditions. Resilience indicators need to be assessed across scales: at the parcel/block, neighbourhood, municipal, and regional levels, so as to articulate more clearly the key relationships between the community and its hinterland for supply of resources and waste disposal. Spatial analysis of resilience is thus critical in answering the big questions such as: how large is your water supply, how much forest is available to produce biomass, how far away are your supplies, where are the pinch points and vulnerabilities? Beyond downscaling of climate change impacts (e.g. Murdock et al., 2007) and some emergency response plans, much needs to be learned about mapping, modelling, and projecting adaptation and resilience at the community scale, in forms suitable for use in planning (see early precedents such as Cohen, 1997). There is much uncertainty about identifying meaningful thresholds for resilience such as capacities and targets for community food production. One approach would be to derive these from requirements for community GHG reduction requirements. In terms of action on resilience, one of the most important adaptation measures to implement first is to develop a community-based process (Penney, 2008) that will build capacity and support better decision-making. Approaches on this include top-down guidance from local government (e.g. the King County Adaptation Guidebook (Snover et al., 2007)0 and bottom-up programmes such as the UK Transition town movement (Hopkins, 2008). 4
ATTRACTIVENESS/CHARACTER
4.1 Why Attractiveness/Character is Important The range and depth of community changes required to eliminate most GHGs and adapt to climate change have major implications for our community landscapes. For example, green energy solutions such as wind farms, rooftop solar panels, and passive solar retrofits/greenhouses will be highly visible. Neighbourhood character will change as productive landscapes replace non-productive ones, and streets will look different, perhaps for the better, as we replace wide expanses of single-use asphalt with increased social and ecological functions on public rights-of-way. Some of these landscape changes can be expected to raise substantial acceptability barriers to implementing low-carbon/resilience neighbourhoods. Careful consideration of the qualitative social dimensions of climate change solutions will be critical to achieving our targets in democratic societies. Two kinds of barriers related to community character can be identified: 1) Attachment to existing landscape forms that may be modified or eliminated: people tend to love where they live and typically do not like change. The loss of trees, lawns, heritage buildings, and even ordinary but familiar features is controversial. In most North American communities, a high-carbon aesthetic prevails in the symbolism of quality-of-life and individual/family achievement, even though these are tied to high levels of consumption, waste, and carbon emissions: residents of most affluent communities would be unwilling to give up big single-family homes, the best views from the highest topography (furthest from services), multiple luxury cars, imported furnishings, etc. 2) Objections to new landscape forms that may be introduced: .proposals for new developments in community landscapes are often met with resistance from resident populations (Sell and Zube, 1986). These public responses can provide serious barriers to otherwise viable climate change solutions, such as local wind farms (Elliot, 2003). Other community intrusions such as high-rise towers or even neighborhood stores regularly 48
provoke opposition. In our case study in Delta, BC (Sheppard et al., 2008), we found that aesthetics trumped adaptation to sea-level rise where until very recently, the raising of the sea wall in a traditional beach-front neighbourhood had been successfully fought by the community in order to preserve open views and beach access (Figure 5). However, landscape character and attractiveness are important not just because of barriers to sustainable design. Sense of place is recognized as a key measure of social sustainability and community well being (eg. Stedman, 2003; Swanwick, 2003; Parkins et al., 2004). Community identities may be rooted in tangible attributes of landscape (Stewart et al, 2004) that are often the most tangible symbol of many other socio-economic factors. Community character can be associated with resilience through its influence on social cohesion and the visible demonstration of caring for the community and the environment (Sheppard, 2001). In our work with various BC communities, we have been told it is an entry-point for discussions on carbon footprints where community concern over threats to character greatly outweighs awareness of climate change imperatives. Public perception studies in places such as West Vancouver (Mikicich, 2007) and Lake Tahoe (Logan Simpson Design Inc., 2005) reveal growing opposition to “monster homes” and other trappings of a high-carbon society (massive grading, construction activity, traffic, etc), but on primarily aesthetic grounds. Thus, character is a powerful force that, as planners, we ignore at our peril. 4.2 Definitions of Attractiveness/Character ‘Attractiveness’ is used here as short-hand for a combination of factors related to community character and reflective of community values. These include: The more physical/visible aspects of sense of place (the meaning and importance of a setting for individuals and communities), with stronger sense of place associated with distinctive, historically or socially meaningful, and imageable local characteristics (Lynch, 1976). Landscape quality or level of preference, relating to how attractive the community is to look at, its scenic quality, etc. Compatibility or fit of parts with the overall character. Visual expression of sustainability, eg. revealing to the community key landscape functions which contribute to a ‘green’ community identity. Ultimately, attractiveness and character contribute to the acceptability of current landscape conditions and proposed community changes. 4.3 Achieving and Measuring Attractiveness Communities need to have tangible local symbols and familiar anchors to hold on to and feel good about if we are going to ask them to make big changes and sacrifice their high-carbon aspirations. People need to be convinced that other key aspects of quality of life are being protected. Attractive communities tend to be wellloved, and people are more likely to look after what they love through the coming transformations. If planners are able to identify desirable community character and can design strategies that achieve or maintain it, in the face of inevitable changes, we should have a higher chance of success at implementing climate change solutions that are acceptable to communities. However, communities will need to implement some actions that are less desirable to their current residents and cannot be designed away. It is now widely recognized at all levels of government that public education to build awareness and promote behaviour change is needed; this may also require an aesthetic attitude adjustment in some cases, in much the same way as wetlands have shifted from being seen as ugly wastelands to being valued for their beauty and ecological richness. Therefore, the planning and outreach process has a key role to play in shaping new aesthetic standards associated with lowcarbon, resilient communities. Heavy-handed processes and technological or top-down solutions that do not respect local values/preferences will be less successful than respectful processes and solutions emerging from local collaboration, as shown by the emerging Transition Towns initiatives (Hopkins 2008).
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Workable techniques for character assessment can be used or adapted, with indicator sets that are measurable and proven, as shown in Table 2. Examples of indicator sets can be found with expert-evaluation systems, public preference methods, and combinations thereof, as in the following examples: the expert-based visual quality objective system used in various versions for decades by the US Forest Service (1974) and BC Ministry of Forests (1997) the expert-based UK Landscape Character Assessment process (Swanwick, 2003) urban perception studies measuring relative preference of community residents (eg. Kaplan et al., 1998). participatory and expert character mapping/assessment conducted as part of Smart Growth design charrette processes (see Figure 6) Such techniques enable assessment of character impacts and the acceptability of new technologies including biomass-fuelled district heating plants, photovoltaics, wind power, and community-wide retrofitting alternatives. Thus, how climate change strategies may be received, where barriers to adoption may lie, and where needed changes can be designed to protect or enhance key community values can be identified. 3D visualisation, as an additional tool, is valuable not only in character assessment and design development, but also in clarifying overall strategies and community preferences for alternative solutions (Sheppard, 2005). However, these approaches are not well known, taught, or widely used, for various reasons (see Sheppard et al., 2004). There is very poor understanding of socio-cultural/perceptual impacts of projected climate change or resulting mitigation/adaptation strategies on sense of place and other important social values associated with community landscapes. Designers, as the only professionals trained in aesthetics and perceptions, have a critical role in moving actions needed for sustainability from outside the acceptability/character circle to within it, as shown in Figure 7. 5
INTEGRATING LOW-CARBON, RESILIENCE, and ATTRACTIVENESS
5.1 Importance of Combining Lo-CAR Dimensions in Community Planning Low carbon and resilience need to be twinned: low carbon reduces our reliance on fossil fuels, which enhances our resilience to external disruptions if we localize more of the solutions. Enhancing community self-sufficiency reduces carbon footprints. We need to look for synergies between climate change mitigation and adaptation, and avoid mitigation that increases vulnerability to local climate change impacts and dependence on external sources, long supply lines and complex, rigid systems. We also need to avoid adaptive emissions (Robinson et al., 2006) from measures that increase use of energy or fossil fuels, eg. air conditioning or continuous groundwater pumping. Community character must also be considered, allowing us to embed mitigation and adaptation sensitively within existing communities, fostering more rapid diffusion of needed actions with less public opposition. Using explicit Lo-CAR criteria encourages us to look for more synergies such as adapting to worsening heat island effects by cooling streets and buildings through an increased urban forest, reducing both the energy load and GHG emissions, and improving urban character. As an example of the need to apply Lo-CAR criteria to climate change planning moves, Vancouver’s “ecodensity” initiative proposes densification across many single-family dwelling neighbourhoods and corridors. Citizen concerns about impacts of high-rise towers on neighbourhood character, little neighbourhood involvement in developing the programme/solutions, and inflexible attitudes towards the changes needed have led to widespread opposition. Examining ecodensity from a Lo-CAR perspective would point to the need to respect character while determining the type/extent of density increases, enhance levels of community involvement early in the process, and raise concerns about the long-term viability of high rise towers. High density reduces GHGs by enabling walking to services, conserving heat, and supporting high quality transit. However, towers require high-embodied energy and CO² emissions from concrete manufacture, and can also be high-energy consumers, with recent research showing that their energy requirements per square meter are almost as high as single-family houses (Norman et al., 2006; Compass, 2007). In terms of resilience, high levels of densification can increase urban heat island effects and exacerbate flooding (Penney, 2008). Towers in 50
particular are difficult to cool without A/C and difficult for citizens to modify as conditions change. In a blackout, an increasing risk with energy shortages and climate disruptions, towers can become traps as emergency workers may only be able to reach the first 9 to 10 floors (Roaf et al., 2005). In a recent Toronto example, Homer-Dixon extrapolatess that: If the blackout had lasted for a couple of days …the situation could have become grim, especially for seniors living in condominium high-rises. Many of these buildings are thirty or more stories high, and some don’t have windows that open. With the power off, many residents had no elevators, air conditioning, or water. After a couple of days of 35-degree temperatures, we would have been taking some of them out in body bags (2005). What would ensure long-term resilience, respect local character, and have higher acceptability while cutting carbon footprints? Potential synergistic solutions in BC include: a diversity of urban form solutions fitted to each neighbourhood, with walkable heights of about 4-6 stories, enabling connections to the street and social networks; a mix of density types emphasizing wood-frame buildings (using sustainable wood products that lock up carbon and can be easily repaired), with natural lighting and adequate cross-ventilation for cooling; rainwater capture, storage and use (as in China); retention of open space/vacant land within the community for future food production and ecological services; and a balance of local and regional energy, food and water production. 5.2 Precedents for Whole Landscape Planning with Climate Change In order to deliver such integrated climate change solutions, in combination with other sustainable development requirements, we need improved holistic planning methods that also build in public engagement and behaviour change. We need a whole landscape approach (Dolman et al., 2001) that considers trade-offs and avoid conflicts between objectives wherever possible. This involves system thinking, linking the urban cores to their resource hinterland in more tangible ways, and considering multi-functional landscapes. Our carbon inventories need to include all carbon sources attached to specific places and communities, not just the ones that municipalities' control or that are easy to measure. In order to replace carbon fuels, we need to assess and utilize all the renewable energy and conservation options that are available, feasible, and can be made consistent with resilience, character, and other sustainability objectives. We increasingly need mapping to spatialize/quantify inventories and community capacities, and modelling of alternative scenarios and outcomes, with the ability to aggregate across scales up to the regional/cumulative level (Condon, 2008), in order to determine performance against higher government targets. We also need to engage the social, educational, and behavioural dimensions of community participation in planning, recognizing the key role of community residents and not limiting ourselves to the physical aspects of urban form and infrastructure. Collective action is essential; urban and landscape design can enable and reinforce the shifts in attitudes and behaviour required (Lyle, 1994; Sheppard, 2001). Participatory planning processes are vital in educating communities and building capacity for the necessary changes, helping to overcome the kinds of social barriers described above. It is equally important to ensure that planners, engineers, and their councils fully understand the urgency/rate of cut required in carbon emissions, the size of those cuts, and the importance of actually meeting the targets. New models for this kind of holistic climate change planning bundled with outreach are beginning to emerge. The earliest procedures tend to live within narrower silos of adaptation (e.g. King County guidelines) or mitigation (eg. Climate Protection Plan for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities), sometimes with very short-term planning horizons (eg. carbon reduction targets to 2012). Broader approaches with emphasis on action and policy change are emerging as Smart Growth design processes are adapted to address additional climate change goals. For example, the City of North Vancouver 100 Year Visioning Plan for a carbon-neutral city (see Condon, elsewhere in these Proceedings), has modified Smart Growth principles to address carbon emissions, plus adding an additional indicator to address climate change 51
adaptation. These studies tend to have a heavy focus on mitigation via urban form, drawing on transportation and mixed-use/high density/walkability as the chief actions. A number of community-led planning and action campaigns have arisen particularly in Europe to address climate change and peak oil holistically. Most notably, the Transition Town process (Hopkins, 2008) involves grass-roots social learning and action planning to build resilience and attain a low-carbon society, drawing on community sense of place and civic spirit to conduct a future visioning process. This culminates in a Transition Plan, such as Kinsale’s “Energy Descent Action Plan”, which is related to but not led by the official municipality. It is not yet clear how these plans will be implemented, though they are spreading to other communities. A more planning-specific Local Climate Change Visioning process has been recently developed from participatory landscape planning and scenario assessment techniques, which addresses a broad array of mitigation and adaptation issues within a global/regional/local framework (Sheppard and Shaw, 2007). Tested in two Metro Vancouver communities, the process integrates downscaled regional climate modelling, scientific data, GIS mapping, local stakeholder knowledge, and hybrid modelling to spatialize, localize, and visualize alternative future scenarios with climate change impacts and responses (Figure 8). 4D visualisations bring the science down to the street or back-yard level. Evaluation research has shown that these techniques can enhance local climate change understanding, increase participants’ sense of urgency, and increase support for new mitigation and adaptation policies (Sheppard et al., 2008). In a further extension of the Local Climate Change Visioning Process, conducted in suburban Burnaby, BC (Pond, 2008), a more quantified vision of a low-carbon, attractive, resilient future was developed as a community retrofit plan. The project assessed the potential for radical climate change mitigation – 80% by 2050 across food, transportation and housing – within three low-density neighbourhoods, while maintaining key elements of the well-loved suburban character, and building considerable local self-reliance in what is now a largely fossil fuel dependent community (Figure 9). The project developed new techniques for mapping and/or estimating carbon footprints from buildings, transportation, and food consumption; it also mapped capacity for retrofitting/ on-site energy and food production, taking into account slope, architectural types, road network, etc. Calculations show that the design could achieve an 80% reduction in total GHGs by 2050, with a 60% increase in population. Of the many urban design actions on climate change considered in the overall plan, we illustrate how two of its design strategies might be assessed using Lo-CAR principles: increasing street trees (Box B) and introducing passive solar retrofits (Box C). 6
DISCUSSION
6.1 Limitations, Other Issues, and Research Questions Use of Lo-CAR criteria does not mean that we can drop other sustainability criteria/indicators as some mitigation strategies could have other destabilizing consequences or environmental impacts, such as corn-based ethanol biofuels. Climate change responses and general land use planning need to be assessed against a range of indicators in order to reveal co-benefits and achieve as many positive goals as possible while minimizing adverse impacts. Some Lo-CAR indicators will be hard to define and enforce within policy and regulation. Many barriers to climate change mitigation and adaptation exist; those created by interactions between community character and carbon reduction or resilience are of particular concern to designers and planners, and unlikely to be pragmatically addressed elsewhere. Clearly, making radical cuts in carbon emissions in existing communities (through retrofitting) will be much harder to achieve than with complete redevelopment where new design standards and innovations would be less disruptive to existing vested interests. In many communities, climate change impacts may not yet be apparent and there will be heavy pressure to maintain the status quo. Community character often represents the touchstone or meeting ground for such arguments.
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There is debate whether a real paradigm shift in community attitudes, design, and lifestyles is required, or whether climate change targets can be met through technology, regulation, and taxation. Our experience so far working with community scenarios suggests that the more radical forms of resilience and associated rapid, deep cuts in carbon emissions will require some major transformations in the community, which exceed the more acceptable, iterative forms of adaptive change and conventional greening such as LEED. Combining climate change mitigation with community resilience provides opportunities to improve our communities, rather than only asking for sacrifices. There is, for example, the opportunity for designers to develop a distinctive, lowcarbon, resilient West Coast vernacular that strengthens sense of place, community, and property values. We have fewer historical precedents for sustainable communities, but we can draw on a rich heritage through First Nations and global immigrants to develop modified urban forms; for example, mixing agriculture into urban areas and low-rise buildings, as used in China, Europe and elsewhere. At the same time, we argue that the Pacific Northwest has a crucial international role in demonstrating how quickly existing communities can be turned around on carbon emissions and providing attractive feasible solutions, given the region’s links and influence with Asia and the Pacific Basin. Further research on Lo-CAR indicators is called for, with attention to defining appropriate thresholds or targets for performance. How much density or local energy production is enough? It is not yet clear if simply adapting conventional sustainability indicators can deliver the substantive GHG cuts now required. Tangible indicators of resilience in particular need more development. We also need better mapping, modelling and visualisation tools to measure, analyze, and interpret the indicators. Evaluation of new indicator sets and planning methods is required, tailored to meet regional priorities with follow-up implementation in real neighbourhoods. We must learn more about perceptual barriers to planned climate change responses at the community level, in order to formulate more acceptable and effective solutions. Demonstration retrofits, preferably stemming from grassroots community action, are urgently needed. Given the urgency of achieving climate solutions on the ground, the role of universities and colleges in disseminating emerging results and training other practitioners should be expanded. We need guidelines on how to implement climate change planning methods, including: mitigation/ resilience/character assessment; mapping and simple visualisation methods; and participatory visioning processes using scenarios. 6.2 Recommendations for Practice Initial recommendations for conducting participatory climate change planning processes include: • ensuring that low-carbon, resilience, and character/attractiveness indicators are explicitly applied, moving beyond vague or unmeasurable definitions and identifying desired thresholds and target dates; • explicitly expanding the definition of ‘compact, complete communities’ to include food, energy, water, and other supplies. This requires clearer articulation of the links between urban centers and their hinterland/region for production. • considering whole landscape solutions: eg. role of street trees (as one landscape component) in community identity, shading buildings, and food production; and comprehensive consideration of all renewable energy sources within or near the community. improving planning methods through practical applications of proven tools such as GIS, simple modelling, and 3D visualisation Community strategies and policies for collective climate change retrofits are urgently needed to provide direction to individuals, local businesses, municipal staff and councils. While some of the measures described in this paper may seem radical, sober analysis of the alternatives suggests that these may be the next lowest hanging fruit, once the initial easy steps (over-inflating tires, conserving energy, greening fleets) have been taken. Many of the strategies for low-carbon/resilient communities have well-known historic precedents, use proven locally accessible technology, and deliver valued co-benefits: the barriers are primarily social and in some cases governmental, meaning that they are highly mutable given political will, financial incentives, and effective public communication. Policies could be quickly phased in to encourage, and if necessary require, 53
almost 100% solar-heated, earth-sheltered, multi-family homes with clotheslines in any new or retrofit development, for example. Policy-makers in British Columbia, for example, also need seriously to consider, question and perhaps reduce growth assumptions, allocating where it goes to minimize energy use, solve existing sustainability problems, and take advantage of secure water supplies and land productivity; lastly identifying areas of contraction in areas unable to reduce carbon emissions any other way. 7
CONCLUSIONS
Sustainable urban design, in the context of climate change, needs to consider three critical and linked dimensions: low-carbon communities, resilient communities, and communities that enhance character so as to make a low-carbon life attractive to residents. The urgency and severity of climate change and its quantification in GHG levels means that GHG emission reduction becomes the pre-eminent sustainability criterion. For the first time, the practice of sustainable design has hard targets to meet. Getting ‘greener’ is good but no longer enough. It is vital that performance matches or exceeds the goals. We argue that combining stringent GHG reduction targets with community resilience and attractive design is crucial for effectiveness and social acceptance in the transition to a low-carbon, climate-stabilized future. Building resilient communities will become critical as we adapt to dangerous and potentially catastrophic levels of climate change and also prepare for the necessary (due to climate change) and inevitable (due to peak oil) decline of cheap fossil fuel over the coming years. Relocalization of services and production of food, energy, etc. in the community will reduce carbon usage and reduce risk of essential service disruption. Given the breadth of changes required, especially in retrofitting existing neighbourhoods, opposition to many climate change strategies can be expected, in part due to impacts on community character and identity. Widespread rejection of low-carbon strategies such as wind farms and urban densification could delay low-carbon implementation past catastrophic tipping points. We believe that climate change solutions would be more locally acceptable and more easily implemented through careful consideration of character and site-adaptive solutions, and thus better urban design. Urban designers have a unique role to play in bringing the technical requirements of climate change mitigation and resilience together with the human need for desirable and attractive communities. Using Lo-CAR criteria within inclusive, educational processes to assess climate change urban design moves, we can begin to see which changes will be more acceptable or less acceptable, which changes require a greater attitude shift, which changes provide more benefits, and which ones will require more sensitive urban design. Through holistic planning and visioning methods, designers and planners can catalyze behaviour change, and interact with community-led plans or grassroots movements. We need to ensure that the Lo-CAR criteria are explicitly built into sustainability indicator sets and assertively used in decision-making, supported by better mapping, modelling, and visualisation. The need for low-carbon and resilient community retrofits requires a radical realignment of our priorities. Given what now seems a shocking and tragic 18 year gap between the science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Houghton et al., Tegart et al.1990) and our response as community planners, who are only now starting to factor in climate change mitigation and adaptation systematically, it is clear we have a critical role to play in responding to these new imperatives. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank: our colleagues at the Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning and Design Centre for Sustainability, UBC, including Adelle Airey, David Flanders, Sarah Burch, Patrick Condon, Ron Kellett, Nicole Miller, and Duncan Cavens; and the staff/officials of our numerous partners and funding organisations, including the GEOIDE Network, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, BC Ministry of Environment, Integrated Land Management Bureau, BC Ministry of Community Development, Fraser Basin Council, Metro Vancouver, Corporation of Delta, District and City of North Vancouver, City of Burnaby, and Union of BC Municipalities.
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Nassauer, J.I. “Messy ecosystems, orderly frames.” Landscape Journal 14:161-171, 1995. Norman, Jonathan, Heather L. MacLean, and Christopher A. Kennedy. “Comparing High and Low Residential Density: Life-Cycle Analysis of Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” Journal of Urban Planning and Development. 132(1): 10-21, 2006. Pachauri, R.K. and A. Reisinger, Core Editors. Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC, 2007. Parkins, J., et al.“Identifying indicators of community sustainability in the Robson Valley, British Columbia.” BC Journal of Ecosystems and Management 4(2): 126-144, 2004. Penney, Jennifer. Presentation at Community Climate Change Solutions workshop, Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning, UBC, Vancouver, BC. 7-8th July 2008. Pickett, S.T.A., M.L. Cadenasso, and J.M. Grove . “Resilient Cities: meaning, models, and metaphor for integrating the ecological, socio-economic, and planning realms. Landscape and Urban Planning 69: 369-384, 2004. Pond, Ellen. “Revealing Climate Change Mitigation in the Landscapes of the Future: Retrofitting Residential Neighbourhoods: a Burnaby Case Study.” Unpublished MLA Thesis, University of British Columbia, April 2008. Raskin, Paul. “Global Scenarios: Background Review for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.” Ecosystems. 8: 133–142, 2005. Raskin, Paul et al. Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead. A Report of the Global Scenario Group. Boston: Stockholm Environment Institute and Tellus Institute, 2002. Roaf, Sue, David Crichton and Fergus Nicol. Adapting Buildings and Cities for Climate Change: a Twenty-First Century Survival Guide. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2005. Robinson, J., M. Bradley, P. Busby, D. Connor, A. Murray, B. Sampson, and W. Soper. “Climate change and sustainable development: Realizing the opportunity.” Ambio 35(1): 2-7, 2006. Sell, J. L., Zube, E. “Perception of and Response to Environmental-Change.” Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 3(1): 33-54, 1986. Sheppard, S.R.J. “Beyond visual resource management: emerging theories of an ecological aesthetic and visible stewardship.” Chapter 11 in Forests and Landscapes: Linking Ecology, Sustainability, and Aesthetics, eds. S.R.J. Sheppard, and H.W. Harshaw. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing, IUFRO Research Series 6: 149-172, 2001. Sheppard, S.R.J. “Landscape visualisation and climate change: The potential for influencing perceptions and behaviour.” Environmental Science and Policy, 8: 637-654, 2005. Sheppard, S.R.J. “Local Climate Change Visioning: A new process for community planning and outreach using visualization tools.” Plan Canada 48(1): 36-40, 2008. Sheppard, S.R.J., C. Achiam, & R.G. Deon. “Aesthetics: Are we neglecting a critical issue in certification for sustainable forest management?“ Journal of Forestry 102(5): 6-11, 2004.
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Sheppard, S.R.J., and A. Shaw. “Future visioning of local climate change scenarios: Connecting the dots and painting pictures to aid Earth System Governance.” Conference Proceedings, Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit, 24-26th May 2007. Sheppard, S.R.J., A. Shaw, D. Flanders, & S. Burch. “Can Visualisation Save the World? Lessons for Landscape Architects from Visualizing Local Climate Change.” In Procs. Digital Design in Landscape Architecture 2008, 9th International Conference on IT in Landscape Architecture. Dessau/Bernburg, Germany: Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, May 29-31 2008. Snover, A.K., et al. Preparing for Climate Change: A Guidebook for Local, Regional, and State Governments. Prepared by Climate Impacts Group (Centre for Science in the Earth System), University of Washington, and King County, Washington, in association with and published by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, Oakland, California, 2007. Stern Review (a). “The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change: Executive Summary.” UK: HM Treasury, 2006. All Stern Review documents can be accessed at: www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm Stern Review (b). “The Stern Review: Part II: Impacts of Climate Change on Growth and Development.” UK: HM Treasury, 2006. Stern Review (c). “The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change: Summary of Conclusions.” UK: HM Treasury, 2006. Stern Review. “Paper A: The case for action to reduce the risks of climate change.” UK: HM Treasury, February 2007. Stedman, R. C. “Sense of place and forest science: Toward a program of quantitative research.” Forest Science 49(6): 822-829, 2003. Stewart, W. P., Liebert, D., et al. ”Community identities as visions for landscape change.” Urban Planning 69: 315-334, 2004.
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Swanwick, C. “The Assessment of Countryside and Landscape Character in England: An Overview.” In From Global to Local: Developing Comprehensive Approaches to Countryside and Nature Conservation. (Eds). Bishop, K. and Phillips, A. London: Earthscan, 2003. Sydneysmith, Robyn. The Co-management of Climate Change in Coastal Communities of British Columbia: Social Capital, Trust and Capacity, Final Report, prepared for Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Program, Project: A111, 2007. Tegart, W.J., G.W. Sheldon, and D.C. Griffiths, Eds. Impacts Assessment of Climate Change – Report of Working Group II. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1990. Thayer, R. L. Jr. Grey World, Green Heart: Technology, Nature and the Sustainable Landscape. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.
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Urban Form, Energy and the Environment: A Review of Issues, Evidence and Policy William P. Anderson Urban Studies, Volume 33, Issue 1 February 1996 , pages 7 - 36 Abstract The spatial configuration of cities and its relationship to the urban environment has recently been the subject of empirical, theoretical and policy research. Because of the disciplines involved, relevant articles are scattered over a large number of journals. The objective of this paper is to put the issues in perspective by reviewing the basic concepts and relationships involved, and to evaluate critically the current state of knowledge about urban form, energy utilisation and the environment. The scope of the paper is limited to urban transport energy use and the associated emissions. Suggestions for further progress in the field are offered, with emphasis placed on integrated urban models as useful and policysensitive analytical tools. Urban Structure and Energy—A Review Peter Rickwood; Garry Glazebrook; Glen Searle Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology, Australia Urban Policy and Research, Volume 26, Issue 1 March 2008 , pages 57 - 81 Abstract The nature and form of the urban environment is a critical determinant of the sustainability of our society, as it is responsible directly for a large proportion of consumed energy, and influences indirectly the patterns and modes of energy consumed in everyday activities. We examine the current state of research into the energy and greenhouse gas emissions attributable directly or indirectly to urban form. Specifically, we look at the embodied (construction) and operational energy attributable to the construction, maintenance and use of residential dwellings, and we review the literature on the relationship between urban structure and private travel behaviour. While there is clear evidence from both intra- and inter-city comparisons that higher density, transit-oriented cities have lower per-capita transport energy use, the effect of housing density on residential (in-house) energy use is less clear. More detailed research is needed to examine the relationships between urban form and overall energy use.
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Excerpt from: SHRINKING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF METROPOLITAN AMERICA Marilyn A. Browna, Frank Southworthb, Andrea Sarzynskic May 2008 Marilyn A. Brown, Professor, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology
[email protected] bFrank Southworth, Senior R&D Staff, Oak Ridge National Laboratory And Principal Research Scientist, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.
[email protected] cAndrea Sarzynski, Senior Research Analyst, Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings
[email protected] a
Full paper at: www.brookings.edu/.../~/media/Files/rc/papers/2008/05_carbon_footprint_sarzynski/carbonfo otprint_brief.pdf
3. Development patterns play a role in emissions from transportation and the built environment The spatial arrangement of buildings and transportation infrastructure in communities and urban systems can play a role in carbon reduction. Urban form links the energy consumed in different building designs, densities, and land‐use configurations to the energy required to support daily travel, provide freight pickups and deliveries, and support a rapidly growing number of on‐the‐job service trips. Carbon‐reduction benefits from more spatially compact and mixed‐use developments that have access to rapid transit include: • Reduced residential heating and cooling costs owing to smaller homes and shared walls in multi‐unit dwellings • The use of district energy systems for cooling, heating, and power generation • Lower electricity transmission and distribution line losses • Shorter freight and personal trips • More use of public transit, and more walking and cycling instead of car trips • Reduced waste streams • Reduced municipal infrastructure requirements, including the reduced need for local street construction and shorter electric, communication, water, and sewage lines, requiring less energy and water treatment • The use of microgrids to meet local electricity requirement with highly efficient distributed power generation
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• Reuse of existing structures Some studies have quantified the role of compact development in carbon reductions. For instance, the number of dwellings per acre is directly related to GHG emissions. With shared walls and generally smaller square footage, households in buildings with five or more units consume only 38 percent of the energy of households in single‐family homes.(31) At a suburban density of four homes per acre, carbon dioxide emissions per household were found to be 25 percent higher than in an urban neighborhood with 20 homes per acre.(32) Studies also show that household vehicle miles traveled vary with residential density and access to public transit.(33) Higher residential and employment densities, mixed land‐use, and jobs–housing balance are associated with shorter trips and lower automobile ownership and use.(34) In comparing two households that are similar in all respects except residential density, the household in a neighborhood with 1,000 fewer housing units per square mile drives almost 1,200 miles more and consumes 65 more gallons of fuel per year over its peer household in a higher‐density neighborhood.(35) Less is known about how household behavior may change in response to changes in density or the concentration of housing or jobs. A recent simulation estimates that shifting 60 to 90 percent of new growth to development that is more compact would reduce VMT by 30 percent and cut U.S. transportation carbon dioxide emissions by 7 to 10 percent by 2050, relative to a trajectory of continued urban sprawl.(36) This effect is comparable to what might happen with a doubling of fuel prices.(37) It may be unrealistic to expect 60 to 90 percent of new growth in compact development, however, suggesting the secondary role that compact development might play to advances in efficiency, technology, and fuels. Other efficiency studies project even greater and more rapid GHG reductions, with savings of 10 percent of the U.S. 2001 level of GHGs possible within as few as 10 years, although again these results may be optimistic.(38) Despite the contribution of these earlier works, the empirical evidence quantifying the role of development patterns on carbon reductions remains limited. Studies to date rely on single‐sector, case study, or simulation approaches, which do not allow analysts to draw accurate or broad‐based conclusions about the effects of policy changes on national emissions. What might seem true from a study in Seattle may not be true for residents in Cleveland or Atlanta. A recent policy brief by Edward Glaeser and Matthew Kahn summarizes research that offers a more comprehensive study of metropolitan carbon footprints.(39) In addition to quantifying the transportation and residential carbon
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emissions of 66 large metropolitan areas, the analysis examines differences between central city and suburban emissions. Their major data sources are different from those employed here; they rely on the 2000 individual Public Use Microsample for household electricity and fuel consumption and the 2001 National Household Travel Survey for information on gasoline use from automobile transportation. Glaeser and Kahn’s preliminary findings are largely consistent with the findings reported here, with some subtle differences.(40) The Vulcan project at Purdue University has also recently released an inventory of carbon emissions data from multiple sources at very fine‐grained detail for 2002.(41) The purpose of the Vulcan project is “to aid in quantification of the North American carbon budget, to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks, and to support the demands posed by the upcoming launch of the Orbital Carbon Observatory.”(42) The data will provide valuable context for understanding the carbon footprints of metropolitan areas, although it will take time to correlate the emissions data with the energy consumed by metropolitan households, businesses, and associated activities. Data that are more recent are needed to allow analysis of emissions change over time. In short, before researchers can appropriately study the impact of proposed federal policy changes—or even the experiences from state and local efforts—the nation needs a consistent set of emissions data for multiple periods and at a level of resolution and scale that can be tied to the activities, land uses, and the infrastructure networks of metropolitan areas. [end of excerpt] 31) Brown, Southworth, and Stovall, ʺTowards a Climate‐Friendly Built Environment.” 32) Patrick Mazza, ʺTransportation and Global Warming Solutions.ʺ Climate Solutions Issue Briefing (May 2004): 1–4. 33) John Holtzclaw, ʺA Vision of Energy Efficiencyʺ (Washington: American Council for an Energy‐Efficient Economy, 2004). 34) Mary Jean Bürer, David Goldstein, and John Holtzclaw, ʺLocation Efficiency as the Missing Piece of the Energy Puzzle: How Smart Growth Can Unlock Trillion Dollar Consumer Cost Savingsʺ (Washington:, 2004). 35) Thomas F Golob and David Brownstone, ʺThe Impact of Residential Density on Vehicle Usage and Energy Consumption,ʺ available at http://repositories.cdlib.org/itsirvine/wps/WPS05_01 (March 31 2008). 70 BROOKINGS ∙ May 2008 36) Reid Ewing and others, ʺGrowing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Changeʺ (Washington: Urban Land Institute, 2007). 37) Based on a ‐0.3 long‐term elasticity of VMT with respect to fuel price, a doubling of fuel prices would reduce VMT by 30 percent. Victoria Transport Policy Institute, ʺTransportation Elasticities: How Prices and Other Factors Affect Travel Behavior,ʺ available at www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm11.htm (April 8 2008). 38) Bürer, Goldstein, and Holtzclaw, ʺLocation Efficiency as the Missing Pieceʺ; Holtzclaw, ʺA Vision of Energy Efficiency.”
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39) Edward L. Glaeser and Matthew Kahn, ʺThe Greenness of Citiesʺ (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2008). 40) For example, Glaeser and Kahn find that “Per capita emissions generally are lowest in Western metropolitan areas and highest in Southern ones. Metropolitan areas in the Northeast and Midwest fall in between these two extremes.” Ibid, This empirical analysis arrives at slightly different conclusions about the Midwest and South. 41) These data are available at an hourly timescale and a common 10 km grid. For more information, see www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/index.php 42) Ibid.
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TOPIC 2: Historic Fabric and Embodied Energy
Building Reuse: Finding a Place on American Climate Policy Agendas
By Patrice Frey Director of Sustainability Research National Trust for Historic Preservation With research assistance from Paul Anderson, Monica Andrews, and Carl Wolf
National Trust for Historic Preservation 1785 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington DC, 20009 65
[email protected]
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Building Reuse: Finding a Place on American Climate Policy Agendas Despite—and perhaps because of—an abdication of leadership at the federal level of government in the United States, public policy at the local level is playing a vital role in combating global climate change. But too few cities focus on greening the existing building stock as part of their climate change initiatives. Even fewer cities support building reuse as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The common perception is that historic buildings are energy sieves, and that the environmental costs of demolition and new construction are far outweighed by the energy saved by the operation of more energy efficient buildings. Yet preliminary research reveals that there are major environmental impacts associated with demolition and new construction. Reusing buildings and reinvesting in older and historic neighborhoods offer a means of avoiding these negative impacts. Furthermore, research suggests that many historic and older buildings are actually more energy efficient than buildings of more recent vintage because of their site sensitivity, quality of construction, and use of passive heating and cooling. Nonetheless, the energy efficiency of many older and historic buildings can and should be improved through retrofits. An increasing number of green historic rehabilitation projects demonstrate that these retrofits can be undertaken with the utmost respect for the unique character of historic buildings. The research case for the importance of reusing buildings and reinvesting in older communities is the subject of Part I of this paper, as is the rationale for retrofitting the existing building stock. Although the environmental benefits of retrofitting existing buildings can be estimated with some accuracy, research assessing the environmental benefits of reusing buildings is less straightforward.5 Preliminary evidence suggests that building reuse creates significant carbon and energy savings, but additional research is needed. Research on the value of reinvesting in older, more traditionally planned communities, which offers the benefit of relying on existing infrastructure and promoting other modes besides the automobile, is also examined. In Part II, this paper provides a brief overview of the federal policy landscape related to buildings and the built environment, then examines local climate change policy in the United States as it relates to preserving and protecting the existing built environment. This paper finds that while building-related climate change policy in most cities and states is directed toward greening new construction, some cities and states are developing innovative policy to address the goals of reuse, reinvestment, and retrofits. Background: The National Trust for Historic Preservation Sustainability Initiative In the United States, historic preservation—known as heritage conservation in other Englishspeaking countries—has traditionally focused on the conservation of our irreplaceable cultural resources, including buildings, monuments, and landscapes. Yet heritage stewardship is also inextricably linked to the responsible management of our natural resources. After all, our cultural treasures include everything from the majestic landscapes of the American West to 5
A note on terminology: By reuse of buildings, I mean the act of keeping an existing building in service rather than demolishing or abandoning the structure. Retrofitting buildings, however, refers not just to reusing a building – but improving its energy performance and reducing other negative environmental impacts associated with the building. 67
buildings and other structures that required a significant investment of natural resources to construct. As the United States mobilizes to address the climate crisis, it is clear that we must make responsible and sustainable use of all of our resources, whether human-made or natural. Although global warming is the result of the over-consumption of natural resources, the discussion of solutions often turns on activities that lead to further consumption. New green products—whether cars, homes, or office buildings—are presented as the solution to climate change. The National Trust for Historic Preservation launched its Sustainability Initiative in 2007 in order to bring to the conversation towards an understanding of the value of conserving our existing resources rather than consuming more. The National Trust’s Sustainability Initiative was also born out of concern about the reckless treatment of historic resources in the name of green building. For example, a new 24-hour television network dedicated to “greening” will feature a show called “Wrecklamation,” which celebrates the demolition of perfectly sound older homes and construction of new green houses (albeit while salvaging demolished materials of value).6 In Lexington, Kentucky, a developer has proposed to level 14 historic buildings7 along a historic Main Street – including the oldest building in Lexington -- to make way for a new green hotel. The show stresses the environmental benefits of this approach. However, the conservation of older and historic buildings has important and often overlooked environmental benefits. The National Trust’s Sustainability Initiative is guided by four core principles of sustainable stewardship. First, the reuse of our existing buildings reduces the amount of demolition and construction waste deposited in landfills, lessens the unnecessary demand for new energy and other natural resources needed to construct a new building, and conserves the energy originally expended to create the structures. Reinvestment in older and historic communities also has numerous environmental benefits. Older and historic communities tend to be centrally located, dense, walkable, and are often mass-transit accessible – qualities promoted by Smart Growth advocates. Reinvestment in these communities also preserves the energy expended in creating the existing infrastructure, such as roads, water systems and sewer lines. Retrofits of historic buildings can and should be undertaken to extend building life and better capture the energy savings available through newer technologies. Finally, respect for our existing built environment is an important component of the Sustainability Initiative’s strategy. This paper is primarily concerned with three of these four principles – reuse, reinvestment, and retrofits. The more technical aspects of integrating green technology with respect for the integrity of historic buildings, which are not addressed herein, deserve far more attention. Part I: Why Existing Buildings Matter
6
Margaret Foster, "Block of Historic Downtown Lexington may be Leveled for ‘Green’ Hotel," Preservation Magazine, April 16, 2008, 2008, http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2008/todays-news/block-ofhistoric-downtown-lex.html (accessed Sept. 1, 2008). 7 Discovery Channel Planet Green, "Why Demolish a Home," http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/wrecklamation/why-demolish.html (accessed Sept. 1, 2008). 68
Although the United States is home to five percent of the world’s population, it is responsible for 22 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.8 In 2006, China surpassed the United States as the single largest emitter of carbon dioxide, the chief contributor to global warming.9 However, Americans have among the highest per capita emissions in the world. Per capita emissions in the United States amount to double those of other industrialized countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany.10 The U.S. Energy Information Agency reports that approximately 28 percent of emissions come from the transportation sector, 36 percent are attributed to industry, and 36 percent are attributed to the operations of residential and commercial buildings.11 Brookings Institution scholar and developer Christopher Lineberger has further analyzed this data and determined that fully 73 percent of carbon emissions are attributed to the built environment. Building operation and construction account for 45 percent of GHG, while the transportation sector (the means through which we move about the built environment) produces 28 percent of the harmful gases.12 Annually, buildings also consume 70 percent of electricity in the U.S., and 40 percent of raw materials.13 The United States federal government has been slow in responding to the global warming threat in general, and has been particularly sluggish in addressing the challenge of reducing the environmental impacts associated with the nation’s building stock. Compared to the federal government, state and local governments have been somewhat more progressive in this arena. Much of the progress made at any level of government has been driven by the work of the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Formed in 1993, the USGBC has brought considerable attention to the building-climate connection through advocacy, research and education. Shortly after its founding, the USGBC developed a rating system for sustainable buildings. After pilot studies in the late 1990s, the LEED-NC (New Construction and Major Renovation) standard became available for public use in 2000. Since the beginning of the decade, additional rating systems have been added for neighborhoods (LEED-ND), homes (LEED-H), existing building (LEED-EB) and other building types. The LEED standards are designed to incentivize private developers and building owners to improve energy efficiency of buildings and reduce other environmental impacts associated with building operations and construction. LEED standards have quickly become the gold standard in green building rating systems in the United States. Despite widespread public and private support, a number of criticisms of LEED have been raised, including that there is insufficient sensitivity to building location in the current standards. The current version of LEED-NC awards points for dense locations and masstransit accessibility, but does not require that projects be constructed or rehabilitated in smartlocations. In fact, it is possible that a Platinum-certified building (the highest level of LEED certification attainable) could be located on the urban fringe. As has been demonstrated, poorly selected locations have a significant environmental impact. A study by Environmental 8
U.S. Energy Information Agency, "Emissions of Greenhouse Gases Report," http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/ggrpt/ (accessed Sept. 1, 2008). 9 Brad Knickerbocker, "China Now World's Biggest Greenhouse Gas Emitter," Christian Science Monitor June 28, 2007, http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0628/p12s01-wogi.html (accessed Sept. 1, 2008). 10 World Resources Institute, "Climate Analysis Indicators Tool," http://cait.wri.org/ (accessed Sept 1, 2008). 11 U.S. Energy Information Agency, Emissions of Greenhouse Gases Report 12 Christopher Leinberger, "Sustainable Urban Redevelopment and Climate Change Briefing" July 17, 2008. 13 U.S. Green Building Council, "Green Building Research," http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1718 (accessed Sept 1, 2008) 69
Building News demonstrated that energy efficient gains made with green building technology are easily negated by high vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by employees at offices in sprawl locations.14 The allocation of points under the current version of LEED poses significant challenges. In particular, the distribution of credits undervalues the benefits of building reuse. For example, projects can earn one credit for reusing 75 percent of the core and shell of an existing building, or one credit for installing environmentally friendly carpeting. Fortunately, the USGBC has taken such criticisms seriously. In May 2008, the USGBC released a draft of LEED 2009, which addresses the location and weighting concerns, among other issues. The proposed rating system is more context-sensitive than the previous version and provides many more points for placing or reusing buildings in environmentally responsible locations. This updated version of LEED will adopt a new system where credits are weighted according to Life Cycle Analysis Indicators (explained further below), and will take into consideration the durability of materials.15 It will also incorporate what the USGBC calls an “Alternative Compliance Path” which will make it easier for reuse projects to accumulate points. But even with significant changes to LEED, convincing the American public of the importance of building reuse and retrofits and changing consumer preferences for “the new” will continue to be a challenge. Enormous financial obstacles and market distortions must be addressed before meaningful change can begin to occur. Public policy at every level of government must lead the way. The remainder of this section examines more closely the environmental benefits associated with reusing buildings, reinvesting in older neighborhoods, and retrofitting the existing building stock. A. The Value of Building Reuse Embodied Energy We are accustomed to thinking of buildings as mass consumers of energy. But they are also vast repositories of energy. It takes energy to extract and manufacture building materials, more energy to transport them to a construction site, and even more energy to assemble them into a building. All of the energy required to provide a finished product is known as embodied energy. Interest in quantifying the embodied energy in building materials first emerged during the 1960s and the 1970s. New York-based architect Richard Stein and researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign led the American field with research published in Energy Use for Building Construction..The report provides the typical embodied-energy values for multiple types of building materials. During the oil embargo of the late 1970s, historic preservationists saw the opportunity to link environmental and energy concerns with the reuse of older buildings. Stein’s analysis of building materials became the foundation for the preservation-motivated arguments regarding the value of energy embedded in historic buildings. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation commissioned a study on the subject of energy conservation and historic preservation that is based on Stein’s data. This study assessed four issues, including the energy already existing in structures to be rehabilitated, energy needed for construction 14
For further information, see a blog posting by the National Trust for Historic Preservation at http://blogs.nationaltrust.org/preservationnation/?p=625 15 Life Cycle Analysis is described in greater in Section I below. 70
and rehabilitation, energy needed for demolition and preparation of a construction site, and energy needed to operate a rehabilitated or newly constructed building. The goal of the study was to produce simple formulas so that energy calculations could be applied to any historic building to better quantify the energy benefits of building conservation and rehabilitation. The final report, Assessing the Energy Conservation: Benefits of Historic Preservation: Methods and Examples, concludes that in all of the examined case studies, preservation saves more energy than demolition and reconstruction. According to the Stein data, for example, constructing a 4600 square meter building requires approximately the same amount of energy needed to drive a car over 22 million kilometers - or more than 600 times around the earth.16 Recent calculations using Stein’s data suggest that when an existing building is demolished it takes between approximately 25 and 60 years to recover the energy used in demolition and new construction.17 However, there are qualifications that must be made regarding the Stein data and the calculations produced by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. First, because these numbers are based on embodied energy values of materials used in new construction in the 1960s, they are not a precise calculation of the energy value of historic buildings. Instead, they offer an estimate of the amount of energy that would be needed to construct a new building in the 1960s. Since material manufacturing has changed over time, some critics argue that embodied energy values based on studies of 1960’s new construction no longer accurately represent the amount of energy embodied in a new structure today. There is also significant variation in the embodied energy numbers produced by Stein and more recent research in the field. Raymond Cole, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, has compared embodied energy data on commercial buildings from several sources and found sizable differences. For example, at an estimate of 18.6 MJ/m2, Richard Stein’s embodied energy estimates for commercial structures are approximately double that of Japanese Researcher Oka at approximately 10.9 MJ/m2, and more than four times those produced by Cole’s own research, which estimates the energy value at around 4.5 MJ/m2. 18 The embodied energy research field is plagued with methodological issues. There is no scientifically-agreed upon standard for calculating embodied energy, and uncertainty and controversy surrounds the data collection process. For example, undefined boundary conditions muddle the collection of data. Some data collection relies on cradle-togate calculations, which measure the energy involved from raw material extraction up until materials leave the gate of the factory. For example a cradle-to-gate measurement of a building would include energy extracting raw materials (wood, steel, and other natural goods) and converting them in the building materials. Cradle-to-site calculations also include the energy costs associated with the actual buildings construction process on-site, and cradle-tograve calculations include all energy costs through the disposal of a building. Numerous other methodological issues also await resolution. With such dramatic differences in data and such methodological challenges, it is unsurprising that there is little scientific agreement about the importance of embodied energy relative to other energy used in buildings. In the past, embodied energy was believed to be 16
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Assessing the Energy Conservation Benefits of Historic Preservation: Methods and Examples (Washington, DC, 1979), 91. 17 An embodied energy calculation is available at www.thegreenestbuilding.org. 18 Raymond Cole, "Life-Cycle Energy use in Office Buildings," Buildings and Environment 31, no. 4 (1996), 307317. 71
relatively insignificant, amounting to no more than 10-15 percent of a building’s total energy usage over a 50 year life span. According to the Athena Institute, a leader in life cycle research in North America, the vast majority of energy usage over a building’s lifespan is used in operations. Reoccurring embodied energy, or the energy needed for remodeling and retrofits over a building’s life span, accounts for another 10 percent of total energy usage. 19 Recent research from outside North America looks at more energy efficient buildings and suggests that the Athena Institute findings may significantly underestimate the total ratio of embodied to operating energy. A 2007 study by Klunder Itard finds that embodied energy can account for 30 percent of total energy use in homes.20 Research that assessed green multi-family housing in Sweden found that up to 45 percent of lifecycle energy costs are attributed to embodied energy.21 One Israeli study found that embodied energy accounted for 60 percent of a building’s energy usage over a 50 year life cycle.22 With ever-increasing concerns about energy and other resource use, scientists must reach a consensus on an accepted methodology for calculating embodied energy. A renewed effort must then be made to accurately account for the embedded energy in buildings. Even with questions about the reliability of current data, one thing is certain: as buildings become more and more energy efficient, embodied energy will account for a proportionally larger share of a building’s total lifetime energy usage. As energy becomes more scarce, and energy operations in existing buildings can be made more efficient (discussed more below), destroying buildings in the name of constructing new, energy-efficient buildings will become less justified. Embodied Carbon Interest in embodied carbon is a more recent phenomenon, driven by concerns about climate change inducing carbon dioxide emissions. Like embodied energy, embodied carbon calculations estimate the amount of carbon emitted through building construction, including the carbon emitted extracting and manufacturing building materials, carbon emitted in transporting materials, and carbon emitted assembling a building. In 2006, a comprehensive assessment of carbon associated with building materials was conducted by researchers Craig Jones and Geoff Hammond from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. Jones and Hammond’s draft of Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) drew data from secondary resources, including books, conference papers, and the web. The ICE draft selected what the researchers believed to be the best of this data to create the ICE database. Jones and Hammond found that the embodied carbon figures are less accurate than those for embodied energy. Only about 20 percent of the researchers that produced embodied energy data used in the Inventory also provided estimates of embodied carbon; thus, Hammond and Craig relied on other sources, such as data for average fuel mix per industry.23 In addition, embodied carbon numbers are also compromised by other 19
Athena Institute; http://www.athenasmi.org/about/ Itard Klunder, "Comparing Environmental Impacts of Renovated Housing Stock with New Construction," Building Research & Information 35, no. 3 (2007), 252-267. 21 Catarina Thormark, "A Low Energy Building in a Life-Cycle –its Embodied Energy, Energy Need for Operation and Recycling Potential," Building and Environment 37, no. 4 (2001). 22 N Huberman and D. Pealman, "A Life-Cycle Energy Analysis of Building Materials in the Negev Desert ," Energy & Buildings 40, no. 5 (2008), 837-848. 23 Geoff Hammond and Craig Jones, Inventory of Carbon and Energy (Version 1.5 Beta) (Bath, U.K.: University of Bath,[2006]).pg. 2 20
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methodological issues that plague researchers. Nonetheless, the Inventory of Carbon and Energy is still the most complete study to date that synthesizes research on embodied carbon. Using ICE data, New Tricks with Old Bricks, a March 2008 study from the British Empty Home Agency, compares carbon dioxide emissions in new construction with the refurbishment of existing homes. The study concludes that when embodied CO2 is taken into account, new, energy-efficient homes recover the carbon expended in construction only after 35-50 years of energy efficient operations.24 Architect Stephen Tilly has noted that while new construction may offer carbon savings in the longer term (30-50 years, according to the UK analysis), most climate scientists have argued that carbon emissions must be reduced radically within the next 20-30 years. New construction appears to have a damaging impact on the environment in the short to midterm, and environmental benefits would be recognized only after up to a half-century of efficient operations.25 Since the climate crisis requires immediate action to reduce global warming gasses, reuse and retrofits of existing buildings offer a more environmentally responsible way of reducing carbon emissions in the short term than demolition and new construction.
Life Cycle Analysis Estimates of embodied energy or embodied carbon look at only one dimension of the impacts of building construction, and are therefore limited tools. According to Canadian Architect, “the internationally accepted method for evaluating the environmental effects of buildings and their materials is life cycle assessment (LCA).”26 This process evaluates the direct and indirect environmental impacts associated with a building by quantifying energy, material usage and environmental releases at each stage of the life cycle. The calculation also includes resource extraction, goods manufacturing, construction, use, and disposal. LCA is considered superior to other forms of environmental assessment because it examines impacts during a building’s entire life, rather than focusing on environmental impacts at one particular stage. Unlike embodied energy or embodied carbon calculations, LCA provides an assessment of environmental impacts such as air and water pollution, toxic releases in landfills, and natural resource depletion. The Athena Institute is one of the leading developers of LCA software in North America. In Renovating vs. Building New: The Environmental Merits, Wayne Trusty, President of the Athena Institute, discusses the application of Athena’s Environmental Impact Estimator software. The software is able to compare the environmental costs of renovation versus new construction. Trusty explains the importance of looking at a variety of indicators to understand a building’s environmental impact. 24
Building and Social Housing Foundation and Empty Homes Agency, New Tricks with Old Bricks (London, U.K.) Empty Homes Agency, http://www.emptyhomes.com/documents/publications/reports/New%20Tricks%20With%20Old%20Bricks%20%20final%2012-03-081.pdf. 2008 25 Personal conversation with Stephen Tilly, AIA. July 28, 2008 26 Canadian Architect, "Measures of Sustainability," http://www.canadianarchitect.com/asf/perspectives_sustainibility/measures_of_sustainablity/measures_of_sustai nablity_intro.htm (accessed June 7, 2007). 73
“In the case of buildings, the energy required to operate a building over its life greatly overshadows the energy attributed to the products used in its construction. However, for other embodied effects such as toxic releases to water, effects during the resource extraction and manufacturing stages greatly outweigh any release associated with building operations. The essence of LCA is to cast a wide net and capture all of the relevant effects associated with a product or process over its full life cycle.”27 Trusty’s analysis suggests the importance of assessing and weighing all impacts of new construction – not just the energy used – to understand the full environmental costs and benefits of new construction relative to rehabilitation. Yet his analysis regarding the energy dimension of the LCA methodology raises important questions. As discussed above, there are significant methodological issues that call into question the accuracy of embodied energy estimates, and since these numbers are embedded in LCA models such as those used by Athena, the resulting LCA analysis may be inaccurate. Nevertheless, a recent study by Dian Ross with the University of Victoria uses the Athena software to perform three separate life cycle analyses for a heritage building and a newly constructed building. The Ross study concludes that the “Hypothetical House [newly constructed house] consumes more energy in its construction, and at a substantially higher environmental cost than the Original house.” She notes that operating cost comparisons alone do not fully consider the environmental impact of demolition and new construction. 28 Both Ross’s and Trusty’s work demonstrate the need for a comprehensive assessment of the environmental impacts of reuse versus new construction, and underscores the importance of ensuring that embodied energy and embodied carbon data are accurate. This is all the more important now that the influential U.S. Green Building Council has made Athena’s LCA model the basis for the distribution of points under LEED. B. Reinvestment: Why Neighborhoods Matter While building reuse represents an important means of reducing carbon emissions and the use of energy and other natural resources, reinvestment in older neighborhoods offers a means to capitalize not only on the embodied energy and carbon in existing buildings, but also on the infrastructure that serves buildings. As will be examined, older and historic neighborhoods offer other environmental advantages as well. Land Use In recent years, land has been developed in the United States at a rate of approximately three times that of population growth. In fact, the average American uses five times more land than just 40 years ago. For example, while the city of Baltimore, Maryland lost about 250,000
27
Wayne Trusty, Renovating vs. Building New: The Environmental Merits, 200?), http://athenasmi.ca/publications/docs/OECD_paper.pdf (accessed October 12, 2007). 28 Dian Ross, "Life Cycle Assessment in Heritage Buildings" (Work Term Report, Victoria, British Columbia, 2007). 74
residents in the last quarter century, its suburbs expanded by 67 percent.29 In yet another older Northeast city, Philadelphia, metropolitan population growth has grown by 66 percent in the past 50 years, but land development has grown by 401 percent.30 Land use has a tremendous impact on carbon emissions. Research has demonstrated that in the United States, people who live in more sprawling locations drive 20-40 percent more than those who live in more compact urban areas.31 Yet as the authors of the recent Growing Cooler report note, “for 60 years, we have built homes ever farther from workplaces, created schools that are inaccessible except by motor vehicle, and isolated other destinations – such as shopping – from work and home.”32 The planning and transportation theory of “smart growth” has emerged as an alternative to such sprawling development, and promotes high concentration of growth, transit-oriented development, and walkable, mixed-use communities. The research surveyed in Growing Cooler “shows that much of the [projected] rise in vehicle emissions can be curbed simply by growing in a way that will make it easier of Americans to drive less.”33 Smart growth tactics could “reduce total transportation-related emissions from current trends by 7 to 10 percent as of 2050,”34 according to some projections. The Brookings Institution notes that carbon savings from smart growth extend well beyond those associated with decreased driving. Compact development often means reduced heating and cooling costs because homes are smaller, or are in multi-family buildings. District energy systems can be used for power generation, which also creates substantial carbon savings. Municipal infrastructure requirements for roads, sewers, communication, power, and water are reduced by high density developments. Brookings points out that the reuse of existing structures provides carbon savings as well. 35 Sprawl is a relatively recent phenomenon, because pre-World War II communities were built more compactly out of necessity. These neighborhoods tend to be dense, walkable, feature mixed uses, and are very often accessible to public transit. It makes sense that a significant component of a smart growth strategy would be to reinvest and redevelop in older urbanized areas to take advantage of their inherently sustainable features. Nevertheless, there are numerous obstacles to reinvestment in these older areas. Demographic Shifts and the Abandonment of Sustainable Communities
29
Chesapeake Bay Foundation, "Growth Sprawl and the Chesapeake Bay: Facts about Growth and Land use," http://www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=resources_facts_sprawl (accessed Sept. 1, 2008). http://www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=resources_facts_sprawl 30 Brookings Institution Center on Metropolitan Policy, Back to Prosperity: A Competitive Agenda for Renewing Pennsylvania (Washington DC: The Brookings Institution,[2003]), http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/pa/chapter1.pdf. 31 Reid Ewing, Keith Bartholomew, Steve Winkelman, Jerry Waters and Don Chcen, Growing Cooler: Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change Executive Summary (Washington, D.C.: The Urban Land Institute,2008), http://www.1kfriends.org/documents/Growing_Cooler_Executive_Summary.pdf (accessed Sept. 1, 2008) pg. 4 Cooler pg. 4). 32 Ibid pg. 2 33 Ibid pg.4 34 Ibid pg. 9 35 Marilyn A. Brown, Frank Southworth and Andrea Sarzynski, Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 2008), pg. 11-12 http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2008/05_carbon_footprint_sarzynski/carbonfootprint_report.p df. 75
Major demographic shifts in the last half-century have resulted in the movement of millions of Americans from older and historic communities in the Northeast and Midwestern United States to points south and southwest.36 This southward flight has been fueled by the significant restructuring of the American economy, including the loss of manufacturing jobs that were previously concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest. While older industrial cities (now known as rustbelt cities) hollow out, tremendous population growth has occurred in areas such as Atlanta, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, where sprawl is the dominant form of development, and where water resources in particular are scarce. The result is the movement of millions of people from more sustainably designed places to far less sustainably developed areas that face uncertain futures given rapidly escalating gas prices and water scarcity. There is some good news, however. Reinvestment in many traditionally planned communities in some regions of the U.S. – largely on the coasts - is occurring. With gas hovering between $115-135 a barrel, Americans now have more incentive than ever to reduce VMTs and live and work in transit-accessible areas. Recent analysis suggests that while housing prices have dropped between significantly nationwide, homes in center cities or in transit accessible areas have retained, or even increased in value.37 Nonetheless, rustbelt cities lie fallow, and remain significantly underused and potentially undervalued assets. This poses several important questions: Is it environmentally responsible to encourage growth in areas of the country that are environmentally unfit to handle it – while masses of infrastructure and buildings in sustainable designed cities rot? What are the real environmental consequences of such decisions? Or is disinvestment in the rustbelt just a simple – if troubling -- economic and political reality with no solution? The answers are not so clear. But with millions of square feet of abandoned building stock, the questions seem to warrant at least some consideration. This is an area in which additional research and thought is of enormous importance. C. The Value of Green Retrofits In addition to reinvestment in older and historic communities and building reuse, building retrofits offer a significant and essential means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. Researchers from McKinsey and Company identified five major clusters of abatement potential, including the building and appliance sectors. Buildings and appliance efficiency is projected to reduce carbon emissions by at least 710 megatons by 2030.38 Significant barriers to retrofitting buildings exist, including: Cost: Many home and business owners expect a short payback period. Many consumers are reluctant or unable to make the capital investment needed to retrofit a home or building. Visibility: Energy consumers often do not see the real price of power, or how power usage can be reduced dramatically based on behavioral changes.
36
Bruce Katz and Robert Lang, Redefining Urban and Suburban America: Evidence from Census 2000 (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2005). 37 Eric M. Weiss, "Gas Prices Apply Brakes to Suburban Migration," Washington Post August 5, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/08/04/ST2008080402649.html. 38 Jon Creyts et. al., Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much and at what Cost? McKinsey & Company,[2007]), pg. 33, http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/ccsi/pdf/US_ghg_final_report.pdf. 76
Agency. Landlords frequently pass on utility costs to tenants. While the market for energy efficient buildings is improving, there are not enough incentives to outweigh the substantial capital outlay required for owners to retrofit their buildings. Quality. Consumers may worry that efficient appliances may not perform as well as conventional ones. Availability. Energy efficient products and/or skilled labor to perform retrofits may not be readily available in certain geographic areas.39 These barriers often make it more attractive to demolish and rebuild a new green building rather than reuse and retrofit an existing building. Historic Buildings and Energy Efficiency There is a widespread perception that buildings constructed prior to World War II are “energyhogs,” and are far less energy efficient than more recently constructed buildings. However, data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency suggests that buildings constructed before 1920 are actually more energy efficient than buildings built at any time afterwards – except for those built after 2000. Even then, the improved performance of new construction is marginal.40 Average annual energy consumption Btu/sq. ft Commercial Buildings (non malls) Before 1920 80,127 1920 – 1945 90,234 1946 – 1959 80,198 1960 – 1969 90,976 1970 – 1979 94,968 1980 – 1989 100,077 1990 – 1999 88,834 2000 – 2003 79,70341 This data suggests that only in the last ten years have we constructed buildings that are more efficient than those constructed prior to 1920. Furthermore, in 1999, the federal General Services Administration (GSA) examined its buildings inventory and found that utility costs for historic buildings were 27 percent less than for more modern buildings.42 The relatively superior performance of historic buildings is due 39
Ibid pg.41 U.S. Energy Information Agency. Consumption of Gross Energy Intensity for Sum of Major Fuels for Non Mall
40
Buildings.
2003.
Available
at:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cbecs/cbecs2003/detailed_tables_2003/2003set9/2003pdf/c3.pdf 41
Ibid U.S. General Services Administration, Financing Historic Federal Buildings: An Analysis of Current Practice (Washington, D.C.: Office of Business Performance, Public Building Service, General Services Administration,[1999]).
42
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largely to difference in construction methods. Many historic buildings have thick, solid walls with thermal mass that reduces the amount of energy needed for heating and cooling. Buildings designed before the widespread use of electricity often feature transoms, high ceilings, and large windows for natural light and ventilation, as well as shaded porches and other features to reduce solar gain. In the past, architects and builders also paid close attention to siting and landscaping as methods for maximizing sun exposure during the winter months and minimizing it during warmer months. Despite data suggesting the overall efficiency of pre-1920 buildings, there are many instances in which historic buildings do not use energy efficiently. Older forms of heating and cooling do not often match the precision of today’s technology. Elaine Adams from the General Service Administration noted that alterations to many historic buildings over the years have actually made buildings that were once efficient more energy inefficient.43 Modern buildings, or those constructed between 1940 an 1970, present a different and more complicated set of challenges. Architect Carl Elefante has noted that modern era buildings perform very differently than buildings constructed before World War II.44 These buildings were often constructed of experimental materials and systems that failed or never performed as expected. This lack of quality was also driven by a building ethic and philosophy that posited that buildings should only last about 30 years and that each generation should have the opportunity to build anew. Since these buildings were constructed during an era in which cheap energy was abundant, there were also few concerns about designing buildings efficiently. Government data provided above illustrates the poor energy performance of these buildings. However, demolishing these buildings and replacing them is not a realistic solution. Elefante notes that “in practical terms, the quantity of the modern-era building stock dictates that we find ways to use these buildings far into the future. Their (lack of) quality requires that we find efficient yet effective ways to transform them, elevating their performance to sustainable levels.”45 The Challenge Ahead Although building reuse, reinvestment in existing neighborhoods, and retrofits of existing buildings are important strategies for reducing carbon emissions in the United States, these are not yet market-driven outcomes. Because of a range of market realities, consumer preferences, and ill-formed policies, buildings are often demolished to make way for new construction, older communities are abandoned in favor of the new, and green retrofits of existing structures do not occur at nearly the rate needed. Policy changes at every level of government offer a means to addressing some of these challenges. The following section offers a very brief overview of the federal policy landscape vis-àvis the built environment, with the goal of establishing the context in which local governments have been left to develop their own approaches to climate change policy, particularly as it relates to the goals of reuse, reinvestment, and retrofits. Recent developments in the cities of New York (NY), San Francisco (CA), Tacoma (WA), and Dubuque (IA) will be assessed.
43
This chart was created by Elaine Gallagher Adams, AIA LEED APN, formerly with the GSA’s Denver office. Carl Elefante, "The Greenest Building is...One that's Already Built," Forum Journal 21, no. 4 (Summer 2007), pg. 26-38, http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/sustainability/additionalresources/Forum_Journal_Summer2007_Elifante.pdf. 45 Ibid pg. 29 44
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II. Policy The Federal Policy Landscape Federal climate-related policy in the United States consists of a patchwork of programs and laws that are estimated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a small margin. In fact, given projections about population increase in the United States, carbon emissions are expected to rise by 1.5 percent a year between now and 2025, and it is doubtful that existing federal measures will result in net carbon emission reductions in the near term.46 Specifically, a small number of federal policies and programs have focused on reducing carbon emissions in privately owned homes and buildings. For example, in 1992, the Department of Energy’s Energy Star program was created to provide energy efficiency ratings for homes and appliances. This program enables consumers to make wiser choices about their purchases, and is widely viewed as successful. In addition to the Energy Star program, tax credits for solar panel installation have existed since 2006 and provide homeowners with up to $2000 to cover the cost of installation of solar units. However, these credits are set to expire at the end of 2008. Although helpful, such programs are a far cry from the over-arching policy framework needed to tackle carbon emissions associated with the buildings. Looking Ahead After many years of inaction on climate issues by the Republican controlled Congress and Administration, the mid-term elections of 2006 brought about a Democratic-dominated Congress that was more inclined to consider climate policy. The current session of Congress, which draws to a close in January 2009, produced a large amount of legislation related to climate change that was grand in scope, but less so in substance. Legislative proposals sought to address every aspect and dimension of climate change. Topics included conservation, energy efficiency, producing renewable sources of energy, and market-based incentives to save energy and reduce the industrial carbon footprint. The only significant piece of legislation enacted was the Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection, and Energy Efficiency Act of 2007. This law mandates the improvement of vehicle efficiency to increase the fuel efficiency of automobiles. The law includes an increase in vehicle efficiency from 27.5 miles per gallon to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 and requirements to increase the use of renewable fuels by nearly five times current levels. Other provisions are targeted at improving the energy performance of buildings. The law provides for the creation of an Office of High-Performance Green Buildings, and sets out increased efficiency standards for federal buildings. The law also includes increased efficiency standards for state residential and commercial building codes and authorizes grants to support state implementation of green building codes. The 111th Congress considered one particularly notable piece of legislation that did not become law: the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. Lieberman-Warner would have established a mandatory cap-and-trade program requiring power plants, petroleum refiners, and other big smokestack industries to either cut their own emissions or buy and sell credits on a new carbon market from carbon-reducing companies. Emissions from about three46
U.S. Energy Information Agency, "Annual Energy Outlook 2005," U.S. Department of Energy, http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/sustainability/additionalresources/Forum_Journal_Summer2007_Elifante.pdf (accessed Sept 1, 2008). 79
quarters of the U.S. economy would be covered under the bill, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas levels by about 70 percent from 2005 levels by mid-century. The bill suffered from a lack of sufficient political support for passage and was withdrawn in June 2008. The fate of similar climate change legislation in the 112th Congress will depend on a multitude of factors in the coming year – most notably on who will occupy the White House in 2009. Climate change proponents are optimistic about passing legislation in the next Congress to cap greenhouse gas emissions and allow polluters to buy and sell emissions allowances. Both presidential nominees, Barrack Obama and John McCain, support their own cap-and-trade plans and will greatly influence climate change sentiments in the White House. While both Obama and McCain make serious commitments to pass comprehensive energy legislation to address climate change, Obama generally favors more aggressive action. He pledges an 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050, whereas McCain calls for a 60 percent reduction. In the short and medium term, both candidates’ priorities revolve around achieving efficiency goals and the transition to renewable forms energy. It remains to be seen whether either candidate or the new Congress will create the larger policy framework needed to incite meaningful change in the way we build and use buildings. Far more is needed to both incentivize energy conservation and develop cleaner sources of energy, such as on-site renewables. In the mean time, state and local governments are leading the way. Leading the Way: State and Local Policy Despite the near absence of federal support or guidance, state and local governments have taken numerous measures to reduce carbon emissions and address other environmental concerns. The commitment of local government to meeting the climate challenge is particularly noteworthy, and demonstrated by the National Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which was launched in February 2005. By signing the agreement, mayors pledge to meet or exceed Kyoto targets in their cities through land use policies, building codes, forest restoration projects, education, and other measures. As of August 2008, 850 mayors have signed the pact. This following sections profile the progress of four cities in addressing greenhouse gas emissions associated with the built environment. Special emphasis will is placed on evaluating the extent to which these programs promote the goals of reusing existing buildings, reinvesting in traditionally planned communities, and fostering green retrofits of buildings. Local Policy Typically, the response from municipal governments to global warming has been to develop climate change action plans that involve efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and simultaneously tackle the problems of recycling waste, conserving and recycling water, and creating green jobs. While these plans generally acknowledge the fact that buildings are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, they generally offer little in the way of strategies for reducing emissions through reuse of buildings, promoting reinvestment in older areas, and encouraging retrofits of the existing building stock. To varying degrees, the cities of New York (NY), San Francisco (CA), Tacoma (WA), and Dubuque (IA) are exceptional in that they address one or more of these principles of sustainable stewardship to a greater extent than most other communities.
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NYC – Leading the way in addressing the retrofit challenge In April 2007, New York City released its PLANYC 2030, which establishes a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030. Around 80 percent of New York City’s carbon emissions are attributed to the operation of buildings. In no other American city is the need for policy to address buildings more pronounced.47 As the PLANYC 2030 authors explain, “Nationwide, energy efficiency efforts are focused on industry and automobiles, but in New York, our challenge is different—it is primarily the buildings.” Furthermore, “when buildings are mentioned [in the context of other climate action plans] the context is usually new construction.”48 PLANYC 2030 addresses the reality that by 2030, at least 85 percent of energy usage is expected to come from buildings that exist today.49 The city acknowledges that significant efforts must be made to reduce emissions in extant buildings. PLANYC 2030 finds that “under-investment, a series of fragmented programs, and the absence of cityspecific programs or planning have prevented us from achieving our efficiency potential.”50 It also notes that participation in existing programs has been disappointing because of the relatively high costs of going green, and because building owners have no incentive to improve energy efficiency, since lower utility costs will only benefit their tenants. PLANYC 2030 establishes a number of strategies for reducing energy demand in buildings, including improving the energy efficiency of government buildings, enhancing building and energy codes, and creating targeted incentives, mandates and challenges. These incentives, mandates and challenges are specifically directed to the city’s largest energy users, including institutional buildings, commercial and industrial buildings, and multifamily residential buildings. Targeting these consumers is expected to produce the largest energy savings possible initially, while creating the expertise and best practices needed to tackle energy efficiency improvements in smaller buildings. The enormity of the challenge is vastly acknowledged. “With 5.2 billion square feet of space parceled into almost a million buildings, reining in the energy consumption of New York’s building sector presents a challenge of remarkable complexity and scale.”51 An April 2008 progress report indicated only small steps forward in meeting these goals. While Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed into law a revision to the city’s building and energy codes that incorporates many green elements, these will primarily affect new construction and major renovations. Progress in retrofitting major commercial and institutional buildings that are not undergoing major renovation has been slow.52 Like most other climate action plans reviewed for this paper, PLANYC 2030 does not identify the reuse of buildings as a priority to help reduce carbon emissions. Historic preservationists have expressed particular frustration that the values of historic buildings have not been called out in the plan. Perhaps even so more than most other cities, New York is subject to tensions between the value of building reuse and higher levels of density. 47
City of New York, PLANYC (New York, NY: City of New York,[2007]), pg. 101, http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/downloads/pdf/full_report.pdf. 48 Ibid. pg. 106 49 Ibid pg. 106 50 Ibid pg. 102 51 Ibid pg. 107 52 City of New York, PLANYC Progress Report 2008 (New York, NY: City of New York,[2008]), http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/html/downloads/download.shtml (accessed Sept 1, 2008).
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The increasing value of land located near transit introduces a conflict between the value of reusing existing buildings and increasing density in areas served by mass-transit. Reusing existing buildings, as discussed above, reduces the negative impacts associated with new construction. However, increasing density in areas well served by mass transit reduces VMTs, and the development of environmentally costly new infrastructure. PLANYC 2030 acknowledges the potential conflict between density and neighborhood preservation, noting “we must ask which neighborhoods would suffer from the additional density and which ones would mature with an infusion of people, jobs, stores and transit. We must weigh the consequences of carbon emissions, air quality, and energy efficiency when we decide the patterns that will shape our city over the coming decades.”53 But this densitypreservation challenge has not always been handled well in recent years. For example, New York’s Lower East Side was listed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of the 11 Most Endangered Places in 2008. Few places in America can boast such a rich tapestry of history, culture and architecture as New York's Lower East Side. This legendary neighborhood was the first home for waves of immigrants since the 18th century. The area is now undergoing rapid development with new hotels and condominium towers being erected across the area, looming large over the original tenement streetscape. Neither the density-preservation conflict nor the green retrofits of more than five billion square feet of building stock lend themselves to easy solutions. Acknowledging these challenges and making them explicit in PLANYC 2030 is a significant step in the right direction. Whether the city is able to develop the right combination of policies to tackles these challenges remains to be seen. But New York remains a city to watch, and one that may well serve as an example for others. Making Reuse a Priority: San Francisco, California and Tacoma, Washington San Francisco San Francisco, California, has developed an even more aggressive goal of reducing carbon emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2012. Like PLANYC 2030, San Francisco’s SForward climate action plan places significant emphasis on improving energy efficiency in buildings. Strategies include providing subsidies and loans to businesses, homeowners and multi family housing owners, and assisting with solar roof installation.54 Unlike New York, or any other city evaluated for this paper, San Francisco is unique in directly addressing the density-preservation dilemma described above. The City’s New Green Building ordinance, which the City touts as the most progressive in the country, requires LEED Gold certification of every private project over 5,000 gross square feet, beginning in 2012. Developers who demolish buildings and rebuild new structures must meet additional, more stringent requirements. For example, if an owner demolishes a building, the project must earn 10 percent more LEED credits than would normally be required. When a new building triples the density of the demolished structure, 8 percent more credits are required
53
City of New York, PLANYC 2030 pg. 18
54
City of San Francisco, Building A Bright Future: San Francisco's Environmental Plan 2008 (San Francisco, CA: City of San Francisco,[2008]), http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/mayor/SForwardFinal.pdf (accessed Sept. 1, 2008). 82
under the LEED system. If density is quadrupled, the point penalty is 6 percent of total LEED credits. 55 The point penalties for demolition are somewhat arbitrary because they are not based on a rigorous assessment of the relative environmental benefits of building reuse versus increasing density. However, San Francisco appears to be the first community to begin to grapple with the value of reuse of relative to density. San Francisco offers a model to other communities that will inevitably face the challenge of balancing increased density with the value of conserving the existing building stock. Tacoma The City of Tacoma, Washington, is among the more progressive in developing policy that is favorable toward reuse. As with most other cities, Tacoma’s climate action plan identifies green building as an important strategy. The plan suggests that energy audits be required before the sale of any building and proposes hiring a “green building advocate” to provide technical assistance to homeowners, builders, architects, and developers. Tacoma also identifies smart growth as an important strategy for reducing carbon emissions. Such policies are largely centered on development that creates dense, walkable neighborhoods with a mixture of uses, and mass-transit accessibility.56 The City’s recently released a climate action plan also establishes the reuse and recycling of buildings as a strategy for addressing global warming. It is noted that “using older buildings for new purposes should be encouraged by city policy.”57 While more is needed in the way of substantive recommendations to implement this strategy, Tacoma remains a leader among cities in calling out the reuse of buildings as a goal. This focus on reuse is also reinforced by the development of a stronger demolition ordinance, This ordinance will require review of all permits issued for buildings over 50 years of age and provide an opportunity to determine whether a structure is historically significant and should be listed on the Tacoma register. (Structures listed on the register cannot be demolished.) This proposed policy change is designed to reduce the number of “teardowns” of historic homes and other buildings. Similar to people in other cities in the United States, many homeowners in Tacoma have decided to demolish their older home in order to build new, usually much larger homes.58 While teardowns present an enormous challenge for those concerned with retaining community character, they also present environmental concerns. Tacoma’s demolition ordinance is therefore motivated not only by an interest in historic preservation, but also by concerns about landfill waste and reducing the negative environmental impacts associated with new construction. Putting it All Together: Promoting Reinvestment in Dubuque, Iowa’s Warehouse District
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2008 Green Building Ordinance, (2008): , http://www.sfenvironment.org/downloads/library/sf_green_building_ordinance_2008.pdf. 56 Green Ribbon Climate Action Task Force, Tacoma's Climate Action Plan (Tacoma, WA: City fo Tacoma,[2008]), http://www.cityoftacoma.org/Page.aspx?nid=674. 57 Ibid pg. 18 58 See more about teardowns at http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/teardowns/ 83
Perhaps no single city is doing more than Dubuque, Iowa, to reuse older buildings, reinvest in urbanized areas, and retrofit buildings as part of its sustainable development policy. The Dubuque City Council “is committed to sustainable stewardship of our built environment through the adaptive reuse of existing structures that represent high volumes of embodied energy.” Through the Sustainable Dubuque Program, the city has launched the Dubuque Warehouse District project to revitalize a 17 block neighborhood that used to serve as the city’s mill-working area. The Warehouse district contains approximately 1 million square feet of space that is currently underutilized and energy inefficient. 59 The Dubuque Warehouse District Project includes the development of an Energy Efficiency Zone (EEZ) pilot program: The EEZ program, similar to an Enterprise Zone60, would make assistance available to an existing, defined neighborhood to encourage energy efficient redevelopment of the area. Building owners in the EEZ would be eligible for technical assistance on greening their building, as well as grants and low-interest loans. The EEZ will also be home to a Zero Solid Waste pilot project, which will seek to dramatically reduce waste deposited in landfills. Still, there are significant economic and social dimensions to the Warehouse project. City officials and council members see revitalization of the district as key to attracting high quality jobs and new residents to the area. According to the City, “this pedestrian friendly, urban cultural atmosphere creates a ‘Live, Work, and Play’ product that will promote the values of economic development, workforce recruitment, and energy efficiency to the growing number of individuals that place value on these components.” Social and cultural values are also promoted by the retention of the rich historic fabric of the neighborhood. Conclusions The urgency of climate change requires us to act even before we have all the facts at our disposal. Since each historic building can be seen as a nonrenewable resource, it would be wise -- even without all needed evidence -- to care for our existing built environment and encourage a conservation-based approach to sustainable development that values our existing buildings. Existing research indicates the environmental value of existing buildings. Specifically, research concludes that it can take between 25 and 60 years to recover the energy lost through demolishing and reconstructing a building, and that it can take between 35-50 years to recover the carbon expended in constructing a new home. Reinvesting in older and historic communities takes advantage of the embodied energy and embodied carbon in existing buildings, and also directs population growth to neighborhoods that are typically sustainably designed. Retrofits of older and historic buildings also offer important means of reducing energy usage. However, more research is needed to quantify the benefits and tradeoffs of building reuse, neighborhood reinvestment, and green retrofits. There has been a notable absence of federal policy that directs attention and resources to the environmental costs of buildings, leaving local jurisdictions and some states to step alone into the fray; some localities have begun to address their built environment as a chief contributor—and potential ally in combating—climate change. These cities offer 59
Cindy Steinhauser and Teri Goodmann, City of Dubuque, Iowa Power Fund Pre-Application (Dubuque, Iowa: , 2008). 60 Enterprise Zones are geographic areas targeted for economic redevelopment. These zones are often eligible for special economic incentives to promote revitalization. 84
practical policy strategies that can serve as examples for other communities, and inspire hope that the value of existing buildings will be integrated into sustainable development policy at all levels of government.
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Bibliography Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Assessing the Energy Conservation Benefits of Historic Preservation: Methods and Examples. Washington, DC: 1979. Brookings Institution Center on Metropolitan Policy. Back to Prosperity: A Competitive Agenda for Renewing Pennsylvania. Washington DC: The Brookings Institution, 2003, http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/pa/chapter1.pdf. Brown, Marilyn A., Frank Southworth and Andrea Sarzynski. Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 2008, http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2008/05_carbon_footprint_sarzynski/ca rbonfootprint_report.pdf. Building and Social Housing Foundation and Empty Homes Agency. New Tricks with Old Bricks. London, U.K.: Empty Homes Agency, . Canadian Architect. "Measures of Sustainability." http://www.canadianarchitect.com/asf/perspectives_sustainibility/measures_of_sustainabli ty/measures_of_sustainablity_intro.htm (accessed June 7, 2007). Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "Growth Sprawl and the Chesapeake Bay: Facts About Growth and Land use." http://www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=resources_facts_sprawl (accessed Sept. 1, 2008). Cindy Steinhauser and Teri Goodmann. City of Dubuque, Iowa Power Fund Pre-Application. Dubuque, Iowa: 2008. City of New York. PLANYC Progress Report 2008. New York, NY: City of New York, 2008, http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/html/downloads/download.shtml (accessed Sept 1, 2008). ———. PLANYC 2030. New York, NY: City of New York, 2007, http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/downloads/pdf/full_report.pdf. City of San Francisco. 2008 Green Building Ordinance City of San Francisco, 2008a, http://www.sfenvironment.org/downloads/library/sf_green_building_ordinance_2008.pdf. ———. Building A Bright Future: San Francisco's Environmental Plan 2008. San Francisco, CA: City of San Francisco, 2008b, http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/mayor/SForwardFinal.pdf (accessed Sept. 1, 2008). Cole, Raymond. "Life-Cycle Energy use in Office Buildings." Buildings and Environment 31, no. 4 (1996): 307-317.
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Creyts, Jon et. al. Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much and at what Cost?McKinsey & Company, 2007, http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/ccsi/pdf/US_ghg_final_report.pdf. Discovery Channel Planet Green. "Why Demolish a Home." http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/wrecklamation/why-demolish.html (accessed September 1, 2008). Elefante, Carl. "The Greenest Building is...One that's Already Built." Forum Journal 21, no. 4 (Summer 2007, 2007): 26-38, http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/sustainability/additionalresources/Forum_Journal_Summer2007_Elifante.pdf. Ewing, Reid, et. al. Growing Cooler: Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change Executive Summary. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Land Institute, 2008, http://www.1kfriends.org/documents/Growing_Cooler_Executive_Summary.pdf (accessed Sept. 1, 2008). Foster, Margaret. Block of Historic Downtown Lexington may be Leveled for "Green" Hotel. Preservation Magazine, April 16, 2008, 2008. , http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2008/todays-news/block-of-historicdowntown-lex.html (accessed September 1, 2008). Green Ribbon Climate Action Task Force. Tacoma's Climate Action Plan. Tacoma, WA: City fo Tacoma, 2008, http://www.cityoftacoma.org/Page.aspx?nid=674. Hammond, Geoff and Craig Jones. Inventory of Carbon and Energy (Version 1.5 Beta). Bath, U.K.: University of Bath, 2006. Huberman, N. and D. Pealman. "A Life-Cycle Energy Analysis of Building Materials in the Negev Desert ." Energy & Buildings 40, no. 5 (2008): 837-848. Katz, Bruce and Robert Lang. Redefining Urban and Suburban America: Evidence from Census 2000. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2005. Klunder, Itard. "Comparing Environmental Impacts of Renovated Housing Stock with New Construction." Building Research & Information 35, no. 3 (2007): 252-267. Knickerbocker, Brad. "China Now World's Biggest Greenhouse Gas Emitter." Christian Science Monitor, June 28, 2007, 2007, http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0628/p12s01wogi.html (accessed September 1, 2008). Leinberger, Christopher. "Sustainable Urban Redevelopment and Climate Change Briefing.". Ross, Dian. "Life Cycle Assessment in Heritage Buildings." Work Term Report, Victoria, British Columbia.
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Thormark, Catarina. "A Low Energy Building in a Life-Cycle –its Embodied Energy, Energy Need for Operation and Recycling Potential." Building and Environment 37, no. 4 (2001). Trusty, Wayne. Renovating Vs. Building New: The Environmental Merits200?. U.S. Energy Information Agency. "Emissions of Greenhouse Gases Report." http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/ggrpt/ (accessed September 1, 2008, . ———. "Annual Energy Outlook 2005." U.S. Department of Energy. http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/sustainability/additionalresources/Forum_Journal_Summer2007_Elifante.pdf (accessed Sept 1, 2008). U.S. General Services Administration. Financing Historic Federal Buildings: An Analysis of Current Practice. Washington, D.C.: Office of Business Perforce, Public Building Service, General Services Administration, 1999. U.S. Green Building Council. "Green Building Research." http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1718 (accessed Sept 1, 2008, . Weiss, Eric M. "Gas Prices Apply Brakes to Suburban Migration." Washington Post, August 5, 2008, , http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/story/2008/08/04/ST2008080402649.html. World Resources Institute. "Climate Analysis Indicators Tool." http://cait.wri.org/ (accessed Sept 1, 2008).
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TOPIC 3: Adaptation and Mitigation
Socio-spatial Vulnerability Analysis of Coastal Regions during Disaster: Experience of a Pilot Research Project in Bangladesh 1. Bishawjit Mallick PhD Student Institute for Regional Science/Planning University of Karlsruhe (TH) Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe Germany E-Mail:
[email protected] ;
[email protected] 2. Tamer Soylu PhD Student Institute for Regional Science/Planning University of Karlsruhe (TH) Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe Germany E-Mail: Tamer.
[email protected] 3. Prof. Dr. Joachim Vogt Professor and Director of the Institute Institute for Regional Science/Planning University of Karlsruhe (TH) Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe Germany E-Mail:
[email protected] Abstract Coping with a natural hazard is a process of concern, response and survival, where every individual of every society plays a vital role. Our study considers the “society” rather than the individual as the most important aspects for preventing the causalities and damages of natural hazards. It focuses upon the endogenous and exogenous approaches of disaster management and emphasis on cultural manifestation and people’s beliefs within a community of a region. It tries to design a research concept on sustainable strategies for mitigating natural calamities in the coastal belt of Bangladesh.
Key Words Disaster, Vulnerability, Coastal Region, Bangladesh
1. Introduction The linkage between development, environment and disaster is critical, thus it requires a test before any intervention. Non-participatory or top-down planning implementation can fulfil their agenda of service delivery, but it is only the people who experiences disasters or bad impacts of any development
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interventions, and it is them who have been marginalized or so called “vulnerable” in the process more than others. As a result natural or even man-made disaster experiences along with “social disasters” (Braun and Shoeb 2008; Cannon et al. 2004) and it seeks for “social protection” (Devereux and Sabates-Wheeler, 2004) and finally the question of “planning” is raised. We can speak about the concept of “planning with the coping strategies (Mallick et al. 2005)”. Yet the concept itself is questioned by some people . They are arguing that what goes by the name of “coping”, might be “adjusting” to the inevitable by the sufferers. The fact is that, whatever their natural capacity to cope was,, it is diminishing because of the increasing trend of natural disasters, falseplanning practice or non-participatory planning, lack of national legal supports and unorganized localized interventions from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or community based organizations (CBOs). It seems that development initiatives may cause disasters and interventions in disaster may heighten disaster as well (Najam 2004). This has largely happened because the victims are not really participants in any of the process, although development practitioners have started their trend with Community Based Management (CBM) approach (Pandey and Okazaki 2005; Miyan 2005; Morshed and Huda 2002, Sumathipala 2002; ADPC 2001; ISDR 2000). Or may be because the policy maker or scientists didn’t address the adverse vulnerable issues, although there exist a lots of vulnerability management programmes in the world. Taking such discrepancy of planning into consideration our study concentrate on the planning problems of coastal regions with the help of an empirical pilot study in a coastal union of Bangladesh. In the followings a conceptual descriptions leading towards the findings of the pilot study and on the basis of the findings a proposal for vulnerability oriented regional planning research is discussed briefly.
1.1 Problems of development - unaddressed vulnerability Newton’s theory of “action-reaction” is very operational in planning practices and initiatives as well, if someone does not consider the adverse effect of the taken measures. It appears that in many cases, action taken to the end of the disasters often ends up creating another one. ‘Flood Action Plan-2000’ of Bangladesh is a good example which has been challenged at the court by activists on the ground that this mitigation plan could create another disaster (Wiebe 2000). Another important example is that of arsenic contamination in Bangladesh (Safiuddin and Karim 2001), people were advised to sink tubewell to get rid of diarrhoeal disease crisis, which was dubbed as a “tubewell revolution”. The community never thought about the water quality or contained minerals in the underground water. Thus development delivered disaster due to “unaddressed vulnerability”. In both cases the development was perceived as service delivery and inspired by a limited and externally inspired understanding of development (Chowdhury 1998). In many cases it is providing excuses for going ahead and act disregarding the impact on these people with the argument that they will be able to cope. Numerous research on natural hazards and disasters in recent years focuses increasingly on the society (Wisner and Blaikie 2004; Dikau and Weichselgartner 2005; Müller-Mahn 2007), which interprets the so called ‘social disaster’ as a result of natural disasters. The effects of such natural disaster can also be determined on the social situation and adaptation capability of the affected peoples. For the reason of the affect of disasters and increasing vulnerability individual or even collective groups can become aware about their coping strategies to reduce risks and to respond to a disaster (Callon and Law 1989; Bankoff 2004). Thus empowering them and making them able to identify problems and needs; and increasingly assuming responsibility themselves to plan, to manage, to control and to assess the collective action that are needed for the situation. The concept of “vulnerability” expresses the multidimensionality of disasters by focusing attention on the total social systems, environmental situations and it stands between the intersections of nature and culture of the individual or the group in general (Oliver-Smith 2004). The modern integrative approach
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to vulnerability comes from the disaster community and is set out in the Hyogo Framework 2005-2015 adopted by the UN in 2005. It is defined here as ‘the conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards’ (Yamin et al. 2005). Although vulnerability is not defined as poverty but today’s poverty is yesterday’s unaddressed vulnerability (Chambers 1989; Yamin et al. 2005) and it is shorthand for factors that drive people into poverty, keep them in poverty and block their exit-route from poverty (ActionAid 2005), it introduces the ‘social vulnerability’ (Braun and Shoeb 2008; Cannon et al. 2004), and finally emerges ‘social protection’ (Devereux. and Sabates-Wheeler. 2004). Accordingly understanding of vulnerability should spread out our understanding on climatic, economical, generational, geographical, political and social processes of the society that generate poverty, particularly the poverty traps (Chambers 1989; Barrett and McPeak 2004). Procedural and institutional frameworks are also important because they help to define actors, funding flows and types of policies that must be linked to support successful community-led adaptation strategies (Yamin et al. 2005; Sperling and Szekely 2005). Thus “vulnerability” issues were taken into consideration in our work as the concerns for disaster mitigation planning.
1.2 Study Questions Cyclones that are formed in Bay of Bengal and crashed into the coastal belt are the main causes of increasing susceptibility of the coastal belt community in Bangladesh. It is just like a regular event for the coastal people, and it let them develop locally organized strategies and mechanisms to cope with it. Again, the scenarios of climate changes result in an increment of the frequency and intensity of cyclone disaster and make it necessary to examine the socially, culturally and economically accepted preventive measures. That will be possible to know, if we analyse their existing reaction samples and their vulnerability issues during any natural calamities. Vulnerability depends on the interaction of socio-economic and natural factors of a region. Thus it raises the question of how the societies of the coastal countries react on this menace and risk; and how they perceive it, particularly in the field of disaster prevention and spatial planning. In the industrialized countries of the North have several established state sponsored programs to respond on the vulnerability issues of their coastal areas - for example, the German coasts are secured through extensive embankment construction, and other measures; which are primarily not available in most of the developing countries. Neither knowledge, consciousness and relevant government responsibilities nor appropriate material resources are available in the developing countries; and some appear as an unmatched dream forever for those poor countries of the South in comparison with the high technical and societal standards of the North. Despite of huge financial expenses in prevention, prediction and protection of the natural disasters, the Hi-Tech country like the United States also responds to hurricanes with frightening helplessness in their coastal regions. Accordingly what should be in developing countries, where almost all the conditions are missing, unplanned and unimplemented? So, it is important to know the applicability of the instruments and methods in the South, which are applied for reducing vulnerability in the North. Are such instruments transferable to them, or not? It is rather important to make question: what adjustments are possible at the real social and cultural conditions of the country; which are socially “acceptable” rather than “need” and, therefore, can be implemented with the help of participatory planning; and where and how the critical weaknesses of vulnerability oriented spatial planning can be resolved. Our study concentrates on those questions and tries to identify the problem areas with the help of a pilot survey’s findings.
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2. Socio-spatial analysis of vulnerability: Findings of a pilot survey 2.1 Brief description about the pilot research and its methods The Institute for Regional Science (IfR) of the University of Karlsruhe in Germany focuses upon the research on the issues related with planning problems in tropical coastal regions. A part of this research goal of the institute, this pre-test of our research concepts was undertaken in cooperation with Urban and Rural Planning Discipline, Khulna University, Bangladesh during February-March 2008. It helped particularly to learn the experiences of the victims of cyclone Sidr, which hit Bangladesh on November 15, 2007. Reviewing the newspaper information and different media, we selected one of the most devastated union61s, namely Baniasanta union of Dacope Upazila in Khulna district during cyclone Sidr. Our co-partners of Bangladesh conducted other researches in the same Upazila, which helped us to have better access on information. Total area of our studied union is around 29 km² with a population of 17300 and total 3331 households (Source: Dacope Upazila Parishad, 2008). Fishing is more favourable occupation rather than agriculture here, though most of them are also involved primarily or secondarily in agricultural activities. Due to poverty most of them worked as day labourer inside and even outside their locality. There exist 4 primary schools, one high school, 2 cyclone centres with 7 religious centres, where people can take shelter during any emergency, like disaster (Figure-1). The quantitative data collection phase i.e. household survey constituted with a sample size of 124 households. The questionnaire concentrated on the immediate action of the victims of Sidr, taken initiatives for their family, success of their initiative, relief and rehabilitation opportunities for them, their housing conditions before and after Sidr, institutional and community involvement as well as their socio-economic situations to cope with abnormal situations. We had taken in-depth interviews with the victims of Sidr and also asked some old people about their life experiences with respect to disasters. Results of questionnaire survey were also verified with the qualitative interviews. Our field data shows that there are different types of natural calamities like flood, tornadoes (locally called ‘Kalboishaki’), cyclone, drought, river bank erosion, salinity and even water logging exist in this locality. However, more than 50 percent respondents identified Kalboishaki as the frequently experienced disaster in their locality. In the followings we described how they responded to Sidr. Figure 1: Study Area Source: Field data 2008
2.2 Response to cyclone Sidr: plan vs. (re)action 2.2.1 Household level Every population at risks designs and plans its own strategies to cope, to response and finally to overcome the difficulties of a disaster. Every steps of managing risk is influenced by the earliest way of having information. In our study we found that radio (50 percent) was the main sources of having information during Sidr, following with the information from relatives or neighbours (29 percent),
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community volunteer (17 percent) and television (4 percent). It seems that the information flown by the neighbours, relatives and community volunteer can be most rationale for a poor country like Bangladesh, where the poor people are not capable to buy a radio or a TV. Unity is strength and for mitigating disasters’ risks people should take decision in combined. Most of the respondents (73 percent) took decision alone immediately after having the information, whereas 25 percent discussed with their neighbours regarding the problems and tried to repair their own houses and made own residence safer. It was also found that 60 percent people who took decision alone could not implement their immediate action plan and had faced major problems (Figure-2). Figure 2: Divergence-Convergence their immediate action plan Source: Field data, 2008
Around 86 percent of the respondents decided to stay at own house to protect their own family, only 11 percent planned to take their old family members and children to other safer places, like neighbours or relatives house; and only 3 percent had plan to take their family in cyclone centre. It was shown that 81 percent of them tried to stay in their own houses, whereas only 19 percent had left their own house and took shelter in cyclone centre or neighbours house. Amongst those 19 percent, who left their house, only 4 percent took shelter in cyclone centre and 54 percent were in neighbours house (Table 1). The reasons of such decisions stand firstly on the distances of cyclone centre or safer places from their own houses. Table 1: Plan versus real action to save family Source: Field Data 2008
It was easy to reach to their neighbours house, when they felt at risk in own houses. If we see the spatial and temporal distance of cyclone centre (Table 2) it is assumed that one can reach to the cyclone centre during normal period by an average of 10-20 minutes time from any corner of their village. Thus one must reach in cyclone centre before the beginning of cyclone. And spatial distance is in an average of 1 Kilometre. If the road-network is well planned and constructed with bricks or paved materials, then this spatial distance of cyclone centre is not a problem during any calamities, only if they leave their houses before the calamities strikes. These issues of infrastructural uses and conditions are not well discussed in our study due to lack of land use survey. It is also found that 50 percent of the people who live within 1 Kilometre spatial or 10-20 minutes temporal distance from cyclone centre (around 50 percent of the respondent) wanted to take their family in cyclone centre (Table 2) during Sidr. Is this a positive impression to take shelter in the cyclone centre within the community? Table 2: Spatial and temporal distance of cyclone centre in relation with the surviving plan of the respondents’ family Source: Field data, 2008
It strictly depends on their motivation and knowledge to handle the crisis with respect to their culture, norms, religion and social strata. As per the field data it is seen that 63 percent of the respondents who left their house (19 percent of total respondents) during Sidr, constructed their house for less than $145 (likely 10000 Bangladeshi Taka) and can be termed as poor segment of the society. It also depends on their occupational status and sources of income to improve their housing condition as well as their motivation to mitigate risks. It is found that those who have regular and relatively good income opportunities, mostly the business group, people in job, and trading wanted to stay their own houses and their housing condition is relatively good. Interestingly amongst the day labourers (44 percent of the total respondent) 80 percent wanted to stay their own houses though 51 percent of them have no good conditioned-house in terms of monetary investment in preparing house (Table 3). Table 3: Plan to save their family in respect of occupation and housing conditions Source: Field data, 2008
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The middle income groups always tried to preserve their resources, re(de)construct or repair their own shelter, as reported here that 16 percent tied down the roof of houses with the rope and bamboo into the ground, 31 percent tried to preserve some dried food like fried rice, chira, sweet etc. using mud-pot or poly-packet under the ground. Interestingly those people who preserved food (31 percent respondents) had also collected relief foods (74 percent of who preserved food). Thus in one hand it raises the issue of “dependency on relief works” and on the other hand it accuses the sources of income. It shows that mostly day labourers (93 percent), fishermen (80 percent), small business people like hunting, trading etc. were dependent on relief foods (Table 4). Table 4: Dependency on relief in terms of occupation and preservation of food Source: Field data, 2008
Further 53 percent reported that they had faced food shortages during Sidr, amongst them 14 percent didn’t receive any relief at all. Whereas, 84 percent of them, who didn’t face any food shortages had received relief foods. This shows misappropriation of relief works, thus weakens the community resilience to risks management, increases corrupt acts, favouritism, conflicts and let the poor be deprived. And it indicates the sign of individuality and individual strategies to cope with risks, which in total could strengthen the community resilience to the risk, if it is properly managed (Gupta 2002). Otherwise in the long run it will increase the poverty ratio and pressurize them to stay in “vulnerability trap” for any kind of calamities. 2.2.2 Community level In Bangladesh the Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) set up by the Red Cross Society is charged to spread the message through the community via hand-held microphones. In 1991, though there was ample warning that a cyclone might strike, few people were convinced of the imminent danger until they saw the embankment overtopped or the wave advancing. Analysts of the ’91 cyclone event concluded that the warning system in that place was not really designed to convey information to local people. Further investigations showed that many people did not believe the warning in 1991 because the number 10 warning (which means “Great Danger”) had been issued on several occasions prior to this event, with no cyclone occurring. In 1991, the “Great Danger” warning was broadcast well in advance of the cyclone but when it increased in intensity and a new, more urgent warning needed to be broadcast, the imminent arrival of the storm could not be communicated to the public (EU, 1998). This experience of 1991 helped to aware the people during cyclone Sidr. Our field study shows that the community level efforts were not too satisfactory as the respondents awaited for more initiatives from the community volunteer. The messengers, local volunteers were shouting through loud speakers or megaphones to warn the people about the impending cyclone and let them to bring people to cyclone shelters. Many of the affected people, who had mobile phone, maintained contact with the rest of the country. 25 percent of the respondents replied that they got support from their community initiative, like as information distribution, rescue and relief work. However, there were few rooms in the cyclone shelter and hardly accessible for all the people and a majority of people didn’t leave their own houses. It was very common in the coastal belts that peoples did not want to leave their houses They tried to reconstruct their houses or shelter and wanted to preserve their foods and other resources; but most of them never want to take shelter in cyclone centre. One of the problems was scarcity of resources and the others were lack of coordination, favouritism, nepotism by the local chairmen and ward commissioners. The women and children were somewhat lagging behind in securing relief materials. Although government of Bangladesh with Red Cross Society (RCS) had implemented a project “Cyclone Preparedness Programme” to reduce the communication problem, there also existed the
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problems with social status and relationship which explored that middle-class farmer and fishermen in the cyclone-prone areas suffered most (The Daily Star, 2007).
2.3 Social domains of Disaster response: experience of Sidr 2007 Social domains are areas of social life such as family, community and institutions whose nature allow one to understand how social norms and ordering work. The following part of this work starts from the premise that disaster research should accord central importance to mutuality and complexity in the relation between nature and society. It allows us to focus upon the everyday practices and movements of actors who negotiate the conditions and effects of vulnerability and disaster with respects to his/her culture with available institutional supports. 2.3.1 Culture, mentality and perceptions of the society The heterogeneous characteristic of the community shows that the impact of disasters varies from individual to individual, groups to groups and community to community. Communities are differentiated in terms of access to resources and factors such as gender, age, class and ethnicity and these differences are highly significant to the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of particulars individuals (Yamin et al. 2005). Our study replied with the similar understanding amongst the respondents with respects to their mitigating approach and responds to cyclone Sidr. We found that more educated people (although only 1.6 percent of the respondent) invested more capital in constructing their house, as they face regularly different types of natural calamities. The poor segment or the illiterate (47 percent of the respondent) group did not invest much money to construct their residence, as they knew that after every disaster somebody would come to rehabilitate their settlements with lots of housing materials. Such mentality of waiting for relief materials introduces “dependency” and let them to be more “vulnerable” to any calamities. It is also seen that more than 85 percent of the respondents had received relief during Sidr amongst them 91.2 percent had below secondary level educational qualifications. Though the education qualification helps to expand the income opportunities and changes the mentality of the person, we found in our study that 50 percent of the more than secondary education group had taken the chance to collect relief although most of them have regular income sources (Table 5). Table 5: Stands of receiving relief in respects of the education and occupation Source: Field data 2008.
Previous section of this paper showed that 81 percent did not want to leave their house during Sidr, though most of the houses and trees were damaged severely (Figure 3). This convergence surely interprets the issue of self resilience, religion and cultural belief. Usually the Muslims don’t like to take shelter in common place with their female and children because of their religious beliefs and norms, whereas other religion is relatively more flexible during any unnatural situations. Although 76 percent of our respondents were Hindus, the rate of taking shelters in a cyclone centre was also very minimal (4 percent of the total). It raises the questions of not only the social beliefs but also the personal habits and customs or particular issues of social segregation due to local political power exercises. Figure 3: Damage Status during Sidr Source: Field data 2008
As example it is reported that the middle-income group didn’t receive enough relief as they felt shy to collect relief standing behind the poor people in a queue (Daily Star, 24.11.2007). It led them to sell their own property or to take credit from other sources. Such continuous trend of taking loan from different sources due to natural disasters makes them more susceptible to poverty traps. And in the long run it will introduce a community without middle class, and in general it hinders the capabilities of the community to responds on disasters as well as development tempo of the country. 95
2.3.2 Gender Aspects of vulnerability In a study of European Union (1998) it was seen that women in most cases, do not feel willing or able to take refuge in cyclone shelters. This shyness relates as much to women’s perceptions of social appropriateness, mobility and domestic responsibility as to the design and location of current cyclone shelters. As managers of a household, women recognise that they are responsible for its assets in the absence of the male head of household. However, they may not leave the Bari (Homestead) in many cases, without her husband’s permission. In a cyclone emergency, women are placed in an invidious position. Before going to the refuge or depositing their cattle on the Killa (where, cattle can take shelter during disasters), women know that they must prepare fodder and water for their livestock as well as for their families. Thus in extreme emergencies, some women have gone to cyclone shelters for once or twice, but in the shelter, women find that no separate facilities are provided for their needs. In the past, some women had been rejected by their husbands if Pardah (one kind of dress in Muslim religion only for female that help the women to hide herself from outsider of the family) is seen to be compromised by going to an unlit and crowded cyclone shelter. When cyclone shelters are used for exclusively male activities (mosques in particular) women do not believe themselves to have sanctioned access and will not enter. This suggests that future cyclone shelters should be designated as gender-neutral places for multipurpose, community use. Access to shelters is dominated by the elites and inactive shelter management committees. Minority groups and others may not be granted entry and at the same time, religious centres of minority groups are often not opened to outsiders. Unless these issues are addressed in a community-managed plan, it may be futile to construction further refuges. 2.3.3 Institutional vulnerability Preconditions are first stage where the planning process begins. Likely, for ten thousand populations or for minimum two villages government should provide a primary school in Bangladesh. Other institutions like cyclone centre, high schools, religious places etc, where people can take shelter in case of emergency, like disaster, should also maintain some basic preconditions before the establishments. Table 6 shows the preconditions and with respects to those an analysis of the existing scenario of different institutions in the study area is given. Table 6: Existing scenario of the institutions in study area Source: Islam 2006: 20, Rahman, 2004: 49
After 1991 cyclone the government had planned to develop cyclone centre in coastal belt for multipurpose. During normal period those cyclone centres are treated as primary school and high school. In our study area, we found that two cyclone centres are constructed near the existing primary school, without improving the conditions of those schools (Figure 4). The primary school is not yet shifted to this cyclone centre, although the condition of primary school buildings was very vulnerable and it didn’t supports to take shelter during Sidr. Table 6 shows that two more cyclone centres are required there to supports the whole population of the union. Figure 4 shows the catchments areas of the cyclone centres, and shows the deficiency of supports for all the inhabitants in the study area. Figure 4: Catchments area of available institutions Source: Field data 2008
If we consider the supports and catchments area of high school, it is also seen that there requires one more high school for this union. And the location of present high school is not effective for supporting the whole union. To supports this argument, there requires analysis of proximity of another high school in the adjacent unions. The religious places like the Mosques, Temple, and Church have a very little 96
capacity of accommodating people during disaster and most of them are not well constructed. We took the religious places where the people had taken shelter during Sidr and as per their descriptions in an average 80-100 people can take shelter during any emergencies. In this view, it is very difficult to estimate either the present institutional supports are effective for the local population or more supports are needed there. In our analysis we tried to define the catchments areas of existing institutions (Figure 5). Figure 5: Catchments different institutions Source: Field data 2008
It seems here that all the populations had a chance to take shelter in a safer place. However, from our household survey we found that only 19 per cent of the total respondents had left their houses and taken shelter in safer places, like cyclone centre (only 16 percent of those 19 percent). This result raises not only the questions of adequate institutional supports but also the questions of their socio-cultural motivation to leave house in emergency. Why they didn’t like to leave their own house, as their house was risky to stay during any natural calamities? Why they didn’t like to improve their housing conditions, as they face such types of natural disasters in very frequent? Are these problems really related with their lack of knowledge or motivation? Or there are some other indigenous strategies, knowledge, norms or customs, which influence their life styles, their communications behaviour and their ways of thinking. Our analysis cannot reply all these questions. It requires further field based intensive analysis, especially with the methods of endogenous and exogenous approaches of fact findings analysis. That may help to design or plan for a sustainable resilience for the community based disaster mitigation. 2.3.4 External supports and question of “Interdependency” As the infrastructure, health and education systems of Bangladesh lag far behind, people who live in the cyclone’s path had their homes and livelihoods destroyed, with no safety net to help them recover. Effective disaster risk management relies on a strong legal policy, inter-institutional coordination mechanism and of course community participation (IISD, 2003). After the devastating cyclone of 1970, Government and other agencies undertook construction of multi-purpose cyclone shelters. During 1972-79, a sum total of 238 shelters were constructed in coastal districts out of which 11 appeared to have been washed away. Each centre was capable of accommodating about 2000 people during cyclone and tidal surge. After 1985 cyclone, Bangladesh Red Crescent Society constructed 62 shelters and Caritas and other NGO’s constructed 20 shelters. These shelters are 2-storied frame building with free ground floor 3 meter height on R.C.C columns, which can accommodate 800 people during cyclone and tidal surge. After devastating cyclone of 1991, various organizations like Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, Ministry of Education under Saudi grant, E.E.C, local Government Engineering Bureau as well as several NGO’s have constructed considerable number of cyclone shelters which are of different types and design. At present about 2400 cyclone shelters are available in the country for usage of the coastal people (Karim 2000). Differences are also seen in forecasting, detection, communications and public awareness everywhere in the world. As for example, a shift from the traditional ‘top-down’ approach (Victoria 2002) is emphasized by the Bangladesh Urban Disaster Mitigation Project (AUDMP 2002, BUDMP 2002). And still up to $2.2 trillion of the U.S. economy are believed to be affected annually by weather and climate events (Dutton, J. 2001). Though the cyclones or tornadoes are more common in the U.S than anywhere else in the world (it is reported that in an average 1000 tornadoes reported nationwide in US per year), the amount of damage and losses (70 deaths and 1500 injuries per year) compared to Bangladesh (death of 3406 human lives in cyclone Sidr 2007) are quite negligible. Conversely the paid out amount for the recovery in Bangladesh is very little with respect to the investment of the Federal 97
Emergency Management Assistance of US government. During last decades, a total number of 102 tornados US disbursed $1.72 billion (SDR 2003), whereas Bangladesh spends $1 billion emergency help during cyclone Sidr 2007. It is also noticeable that Joint Damage Loss and Needs Assessment (JDLNA) Mission of 11 donors proposed to the Bangladesh government a $4 billion programme to mitigate natural disasters like cyclone Sidr to be implemented in the next 15 years (GoB 2008). Such perception between developed and developing countries for disaster management augments the intradependency of disaster preparedness amongst rich and poor countries and leads the rich to spend for the problems of the poor (Turner et al. 2003; IDS 2005). Thus it makes the poor countries more dependable and redundant upon rich countries and more vulnerable to natural calamities. Therefore it is urgent to develop strategies that will be originated from the community itself and will be sustainable in the long run. This point leads the expert community to enlarge the ‘risk-hazard model’ to a ‘vulnerability model’ (Wisner and Blaikie 2004; Cutter 1996) and it ultimately adds up the environment to population and place in order to determine resilience (Adger et al. 2005; Turner et al. 2003). Accordingly during any disaster, people at the community level must use coping and survival strategies to respond the situation long before the arrival of outside help from NGOs or the government. In the following sections we discussed on our research concepts.
3. Our Proposal: “necessity” or “acceptance”? The frequent visits of cyclones cannot be stopped in future due to rise of sea level, increased temperature of sea, and the amplification of the greenhouse effects due to climatic change. To mitigate such unavoidable natural disasters it is needed now to draw up a sound plan for the people. Community Based Disaster Management (CBDM) requires the importance of people’s participation (ADPC 2006; Pandey and Okazaki 2005; Steins 2001; ISDR 2000) and technical improvement which can provide early warnings to successful evacuation of people from vulnerable areas prior to cyclones. Thus it results in fewer casualties, but it could not resist the damages done to houses, crops and trees, proving it imperative that measures should be planned to curb the possibility of such damages. With risk embedded in the vulnerability concept, a more vulnerable population is one that is frequently exposed to, is easily harmed by, and has low levels of recovery, buffering, and adaptation to a hazard (NRC 2007). Therefore, we should consider the approach of “what is accepted by the community” rather than “what is necessary for the community”. Numerous reports and news on Sidr reported that the villages behind the Sundarbans (the biggest mangrove forest in the world) were saved! Can we think of having such mangrove trees planted on the water edge throughout the length and breadth of the coastal area? Can we motivate the villagers who live near the rivers and seashore to plant them on their own volition? Are there leaders to undertake the task? Our study goal undertakes research to know the methods and strategies already exist within community for capacity building of the common people to cope with disasters rather to focus in a way to take predetermined initiatives. It also aims to strengthen the local governments, institutions, and above all on enhancing the government's capacity of negotiation with the developed countries that had pledged assistance for developing nations. It also must be asked whether after a disaster the individual and collective learning process inhibit and how they are sustained, and in particular whether the provision to the next disaster subjects to or reaches the typical pattern of individual or collective displacement processes. Public policies must be geared to local policies and must secure the social changes, rather than to call by technical means of prevention from foreign experts. Figure 6: Model Research Concept Source: Drafted by Authors, 2008
98
There are many best practices to mitigate cyclone disaster in the world, but sustainable mitigating approach should always be developed within the community and by the community considering the aim of “accepted by the community rather than necessary for the community” (Pandey and Okazaki 2005). Therefore, our proposed research work considers “society” as the key element for understanding acceptable approaches for preventing the causalities and damages of natural hazards by the community (Figure 6) and then tries to develop alternative sustainable local strategies for mitigating natural disasters through an endogenous approach of research (Clausen et al. 2003). Technical supports and development works can be supported exogenously but at first we should identify the local strategies endogenously. The figure 6 shows the endogenous and exogenous approaches for this new concept of disaster mitigation research. Considering the cultural manifestation and people’s beliefs within a community, our research work will try to find out the sustainable local strategies for mitigating natural calamities in coastal region of Bangladesh. Local experiences during cyclone Sidr will result in designing the endogenous methods of our aimed work.
4. Conclusion and implications A holistic approach with vulnerability and local knowledge as a concept of assessing disasters within their cultural, socio-economic, political and environmental context is now very important for disaster mitigation and planning. This concept provides a helpful guide in formulating approaches and policies in hazard management. In spite of that, there exists lack of methodological and conceptual advances of this approach. It is still hampered by a one-dimensional construction of the processes that transform a hazard into a disaster (Bankoff 2004). In particular, the relationship between society’s vulnerability and the adaptation its culture in terms of local strategies and knowledge has not been adequately explained. The absence of a holistic approach to vulnerability that assesses it different characteristics – seems to have contributed to a decrease in the effectiveness of disaster management. An approach – combining exogenous and endogenous methods for vulnerability research – would help to improve the effectiveness of management and to identify and to prioritize factual and efficient measures for the adequate reduction of risks by the local communities and authorities, who are undoubtedly the fundamental actors in achieving a preventive attitude.
Note: 1. Union is the third level unit of local administration in Bangladesh. It consists of 9 wards, which is the lower most unit of local administration
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Safiuddin, M. & Karim M. M., 2001. Groundwater arsenic contamination in Bangladesh: Causes, effects and remediation, In: Proceedings of the 1st IEB international conference and 7th annual paper meeting; November 2-3; Chittagong, Bangladesh: Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh. Sperling, F. and Szekely, F., 2005. Disaster risk management in a changing climate. Discussion Paper, prepared for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction on behalf of the Vulnerability and Adaptation Research Group. Steins, N., 2001. New directions in natural resource management: the offer of actor-network theory. In: L. Metha, M. Leach and I. Scoones., eds. Environmental governance in an uncertain world. IDS Bulletin. 32 (4). SDR (Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction) 2003. Reducing Disaster Vulnerability through Science and Technology. An Interim Report of the Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction, National Science and Technology Council, Executive Office of the President of the United States, Available online http://www.sdr.gov/SDR_Report_ReducingDisasterVulnerability2003.pdf, [accessed on 12.01.2008]. Sumathipala, G., 2002. Community Participation in Disaster Mitigation in Nawalapitiya Urban Council, Sri Lanka, Paper presented at the Regional Workshop on “Best Practices in Disaster Mitigation” in Bali, Indonesia. September 24-26. The Daily Star dated on 24.11.2007. Relief distribution in cyclone hit areas: poor coordination cause of concerns. Reported by Ashfaq Wares Khan. Turner, B.L. II, Kasperson, R.E., Matson, P., McCarthy, J.J., Corell, R.W., Christensen, L., Eckley, N., Kasperson, J.X., Luers, A., Martello, M.L., Polsky, C., Pulsipher, A. and Schiller, A., 2003. Framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100: 8074-8079.
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Table 7: Plan versus real action to save family
What did you plan to save your family?
To take them in cyclone shelter Wanted to stay at own house Wanted to send children and old family members to others relative Total
Did your family leave your own house during Sidr? No If yes, where did they take shelter? Cyclone Well House of shelter constructed neighbour religious place 1% 4% 0 8% 99% 0
8% 4%
81%
19%
8% 0
13% 54%
Source: Field Data 2008 Table 8: Spatial and temporal distance of cyclone centre in relation with the surviving plan of the respondents’ family
What did you plan to save your family?
Cyclone Shelter distance in meter To take your 250 to 500 family meter member in 750 m to 1 km cyclone shelter more than 1 km Total
Cyclone shelter distance in time up to 10 10 to 20 20 to 30 min min min
Total
25%
0
0
more than 30 min 0
0 0
25% 25%
0 25%
0 0
25% 50%
25%
50%
25%
0
100
25%
105
Wanted to stay up to 250 at your own meter house 250 to 500 meter 500 to 750 meter 750 m to 1 km more than 1 km Total Wanted to 250 to 500 send children meter and old family 500 to 750 members to meter relative's safe- 750 m to 1 km house more than 1 km Total
2%
0
0
0
2%
13%
0
0
0
13%
7%
2%
0
0
8%
9% 0
21% 22%
0 8%
0 16%
30% 46%
31% 7%
44% 0
8% 0
16% 0
100 7%
7%
0
0
0
7%
0 0
21% 50%
0 0
0 14%
21% 64%
14%
71%
0
14%
100
Source: Field data, 2008 Table 9: Plan to save their family in respect of occupation and housing conditions
Occupation of family head
What did you plan to save your family?
Farming
Wanted to take them in cyclone shelter Wanted to stay at own house Wanted to send children and old family members to others relative Total
Fishing
Hunting
Cost of construction of the residential house before Sidr in US$ (1 US$= 69.73525 BDT, dated on 19.06.2008) up to 145- 290- 435 - 725 $145 290 435 725 + 6%
Total
6%
66%
6% 11%
6%
5%
83% 11%
72%
17%
6%
5%
Wanted to stay at own house Wanted to send children and old family members to others relative Total
56% 8%
20%
8%
4%
4%
100 % 92% 8%
64%
20%
8%
4%
4%
Wanted to stay at own house Wanted to send children and old family members to others relative Total
50% 50%
100 % 50% 50%
100%
100
106
Occupation of family head
What did you plan to save your family?
Cost of construction of the residential house before Sidr in US$ (1 US$= 69.73525 BDT, dated on 19.06.2008) up to 145- 290- 435 - 725 $145 290 435 725 +
Timber business
Wanted to stay at own house Wanted to send children and old family members to others relative Total
34% 33%
33%
67%
33%
Wanted to stay at own house
40%
20%
20%
20%
Total
40%
20%
20%
20%
Wanted to take them in cyclone shelter Wanted to stay at own house
2%
2%
2%
40%
29%
7%
Wanted to send children and old family members to others relative Total
9%
3%
2%
51%
34%
Wanted to stay at own house
20%
Total
20%
Wanted to stay at own house
50%
50%
Total
50%
50%
Wanted to stay at own house
11%
56%
11%
11%
11%
Total
11%
56%
11%
11%
11%
Trading/ shop/ small business Day labour
Job
Housewife
Others
Total
% 67% 33% 100 % 100 % 100 % 6%
4%
80,0 % 14%
11%
4%
20%
20%
20%
20%
20%
20%
20%
20%
100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %
Source: Field data, 2008
Table 10: Dependency on relief in terms of occupation and preservation of food
Occupation of family head
Did you receive any relief?
Have you preserved food for your family? Yes No
Total
107
Occupation of family head
Did you receive any relief?
Farming
Yes No Total Yes No Total Yes Total Yes Total Yes No Total Yes No Total Yes No Total Yes Total Yes No Total
Fishing Hunting Timber business Trading/shop/small business Day labour Job Housewife Others
Have you preserved food for your family? Yes No 16% 67% 6% 11% 22% 78% 12% 68% 8% 12% 20% 80% 100% 100,0% 33% 67% 33% 67% 60% 20% 20% 80% 20% 27% 66% 5% 2% 32% 68% 40% 40% 20% 40% 60% 100% 100% 33% 44% 11% 11% 44% 56%
Total 83% 17% 100% 80% 20% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 80% 20% 100% 93% 7% 100% 40% 60% 100% 100% 100% 77% 22% 100%
Source: Field data, 2008 Table 11: Stands of receiving relief in respects of the education and occupation
Education of family head Illiterate
Primary
Occupation of family head Farming Fishing Timber business Trading/shop/small business Day labour Housewife Others Total Farming
Did you receive any relief? Yes 12% 15% 3% 2%
No
43% 3% 10% 88% 13%
4%
4% 2%
2% 12% 5%
Total
12% 19% 3% 4% 48% 3% 12% 100% 18% 108
Education of family head
Secondary
SSC
HSC Graduate and more
Occupation of family head Fishing Hunting Timber business Day labour Job Total Farming Fishing Trading/shop/small business Day labour Job Total Farming Fishing Day labour Job Others Total Others Total Job Total
Did you receive any relief? Yes 16% 5% 3% 45% 3% 85% 18% 23% 18%
No 5% 5% 15%
35% 6% 6% 12% 12%
94% 13% 37%
13% 13% 50,0%
50% 100% 100% 50% 50%
50% 50%
Total
21% 5% 3% 50% 3% 100% 18% 23% 18% 35% 6% 100% 12% 25% 37% 13% 13% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Source: Field data 2008.
1 km
2 km
8000/1000 200/ 250 0
2 km
3- 4 km
Deficit/ Surplus
200/ 250
Existing situation
Distance between two same institutions
10000
Demand in respects of total number of populations
Distance in Km (on foot)
Primary school High School
Minimum number of beneficiaries
Preconditions Minimum total Population for supporting the institution
Type of Institutions
Minimum area in square meter
Table 12: Existing scenario of the institutions in study area
40.53
2
4
+2
1
1
-1
109
Cyclone centre Religious centre
5000
800
1
2
No data
80-100
0.5 km No data
No data
4
2
-2
It is not calculable
7
-
Source: Islam 2006: 20, Rahman, 2004: 49
110
The influence of urban features on air temperature distribution Martina Petralli1* Luciano Massetti2 Simone Orlandini1
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
*Corresponding author 1 – Interdepartmental Centre of Bioclimatology, University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine, 18 – 50144 Florence (Italy) 2 – Institute of Biometeorology, IBIMET - CNR, Via Caproni, 8 – 50145 Florence (Italy) Abstract The knowledge of the influence of urban features on air temperature distribution in a city is very important, especially considering the population increase worldwide and the impact of urban climate on human health. The aim of this study is to investigate the distribution of air temperature in the city of Florence during the summer and to evaluate its relationship with building height, urban density and presence of trees. A significant positive relation between minimum air temperature and mean height of buildings and urban density was found throughout the entire summer period especially during the hottest months (July and August). Keywords: Urban density, green areas, microclimate, air temperature Introduction: In the last few years, and even more for the future, the importance of urban climate and of thermal comfort within the cities is increasingly being recognised (Mills, 2007), as can be observed by the growing number of international conferences and of sessions in conferences on meteorology and climatology concerning urban climate (for example: ECAC – European Conference on Applied Climatology; ICB – International Conference on Biometeorology; ICUC – International Conference on Urban Climate). The increasing interest of urban meteo-climatic conditions is related to the growing importance of the consequences of climate change on human health, and it is also related to the increase of percentage of people that in the future will live in urban areas, as forecasted by the last “State of the World Population” by United Nations Population Fund: “For the first time in history, more than half of human population, 3.3 billion people, will be living in urban areas and by 2030, this is expected to swell to almost 5 billion: in the next few decades we will see an unprecedented scale of urban growth, especially in the developing world” (United Nations Population Fund, 2007). The increasing size of urban areas will have a great influence on urban climate, and it is for this reason that it is very important to study the relationship between urban features and air temperature distribution (Oke, 1988; Ali-Toudert and Mayer, 2006). The use of meteorological stations located in cities and in areas characterized by different level of urbanization in order to study temporal and spatial air temperature distribution is increasingly widespread (Huang et al., 2008; Ren et al., 2008). In fact, air temperature is the most important parameter used in biometeorology, combined with other environmental and subjective parameters, to describe the thermal comfort and the impact of weather condition on human health in urban areas (Nikolopoulou et al., 2001; Johansson and Emmanuel, 2006). Therefore, it is very important to study the air temperature distribution within a city, in order to find a relationship between urban structures and human well-being (Botty’an et al., 2005): in this way, urban
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planners could take into account some suggestions for managing the rapid growth of the cities expected by the UNPF forecasts. Materials and methods In this study, the relationship between urban features and air temperature distribution in the city of Florence were analysed during the summer of 2007. Florence is a very well-known tourist city, located in the centre of Italy. The city covers an area of approximately 102 km2 with a population of about 360.000 citizens and it is situated in a plain surrounded by hills along the Arno river (lat: 43°47’N, lon. 11°15’E, elevation: 50m a.s.l.). Rainfall averages about 850 mm per annum and occurs mainly in spring and autumn, while summer is dry and hot. The study area was preliminary divided in 72 areas using a pre-existing partition made by the Statistic Department of the Florence Municipality (SDFM): for each area, data about the mean building height (expressed as number of floor per Km2) (F) and the urban density (expressed as number of buildings per Km2) (UD) were taken from the last Italian building census (2001). Moreover, a geo-referenced database of the trees managed by the Environmental Department of Florence Municipality (in public green areas and along the streets) was used to estimate the percentage of green area (number of trees per km2) (GA) in each sector. A categorization of F into terziles (values 33rd; 34th – 66th; > 66th percentiles) and of UD and GA into quartiles (values 25th; 26th – 50th; 51st – 75th; > 76th percentiles) was performed. According to these categories, 21 types of sectors, from the previous 72 areas, were identified and a network of air temperature sensors (Hobo Pro Series logger ) was placed in a representative area of each sector (Figure 1). (Figure 1) Hourly air temperature data were collected to calculate daily minimum (Tmin), maximum (Tmax) and average air temperature (Tave) and daily temperature range (dTr); even monthly averages of these variables were calculated. Temporal distribution of air temperature during the day was analysed in order to compare differences of this variable among the stations. Mean monthly diurnal changes of air temperature (TM) were calculated; (1) the value of the ith hour (TMi) was calculated as the average of the ith values (Tij) of every day (j) of each month: (1) TMi = ∑j TiJ/n; n number of the days of the month The stations were then grouped according to their position in street (S) and garden (G). To compare differences between the two groups, the series of mean daily changes (TMG) of each group was calculated as the average of the daily series (TM) of each station (2). (2) TMGi = ∑j TMij/N; N number of sensors of the group Pearson product moment correlation (r) was used to investigate the influence of the sensor's location characteristics (building height, urban density and percentage of green areas) on monthly averages values of air temperature. Results: Air temperature variables showed a great variability among the stations during the study period: differences in monthly values among the stations varied from 3°C to up 3.9 °C in Tmin , from 2.9 °C to up 3.5 °C in Tmax, from 2.6°C to up 3.1 °C in Tave and from 3.6°C to up 5.9 °C in dTr (Table 1).
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The air temperature distribution analyses (Table 2) showed that F is positively related to almost all the monthly average (rTminJun = 0.655** p = 0.001, rTaveJun = 0.643** p = 0.002; rTmaxJun = 0.458* p = 0.037; rTminJul = 0.624** p = 0.003; rTaveJul = 0.675** p = 0.001; rTminAug = 0.699** p < 0.001, rTaveAug = 0.697** p < 0.001), with an higher correlation for Tmin, especially in August. Furthermore, monthly temperature averages showed also a positive relation with UB, even if less meaningful than F parameter (rTminJun = 0.531* p = 0.013, rTaveJun = 0.573** p = 0.007; rTmaxJun = 0.458* p = 0.037; rTminJul = 0.579** p = 0.006; rTaveJul = 0.609** p = 0.003; rTminAug = 0.520* p = 0.016, rTaveAug = 0.548* p = 0.01). (Table 2) Conversely no significant relation was found between GA and monthly temperature averages. Finally air temperature differences between streets and gardens were analysed. Mean hourly values of air temperature collected by sensors located in streets were higher than those collected by sensors in gardens during the whole day and this difference was higher during the night. In June and August, temperature difference was about 1.2 °C in the afternoon and 1.7 °C in the night (data not shown), while in July it ranged from 0.9 °C to 1.9 °C (Figure 2). (Figure 2) Discussions and conclusions: The results of this study show the important relationship between air temperature and mean building height and density, supporting the hypothesis of many authors on the connection between air temperature distribution and the sky view factor (SVF) (Oke, 1981; Unger, 2004; Petralli et al., 2006a). The higher relation was found with the mean building height, especially as regards Tmin and, consequently, Tave. The rise in minimum air temperature according to the height of buildings had a statistical significance in all the months analysed. As regards monthly average of maximum temperature, a significant, although weak, relation was found only in June, both with building height and urban density. These results support the well known theory that UHI effect is stronger during nighttime (Oke, 1981). The higher values of Tmin in urban environment have some very important consequences on biometeorological studies. Human health, in fact, is strongly linked with minimum air temperature: the daily number of emergency calls, for example, rises with the increase of minimum air temperature (Petralli et al., 2006b) and the same do the number of hospital admissions of tourists (Morabito et al., 2004), with great logistic and pecuniary problems for the Health Care System. As regards the number of trees, no relation with air temperature parameter was found: this is in contrast with many urban climate studies that underline the importance of trees in the UHI mitigation (Streiling and Matzarakis, 2003), but it can be due to the fact that trees data used in this study were incomplete and limited only to the green areas managed by the Florence Municipality. In fact many authors underline the benefits of shade trees concerning the reduction of urban air temperature (Thorsson et al., 2004) and the potential energy savings in air conditioning of buildings during summer (Carver et al., 2004; Akbari, 2002). According to this, our analyses of hourly differences of temperature between sensors located in streets and gardens underlines the importance of the mitigating effect of green areas, especially during the night. For this reason further studies must be done including data concerning both public and private green areas in Florence. The increase in the number of people who will live in cities and the expected growing of the cities size will strenghten the UHI effect with important consequences on human health. Therefore, it is important
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that biometeorologists and urban foresters contribute to improve the knowledge on urban climatology to support urban planners that will play an active role in the UHI mitigation. Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank the Florence Municipality: Direzione Ambiente for providing georeferenced environmental data and Ufficio di Statistica for providing data from the Italian Building Census (2001). This study was supported by Tuscany Region “Servizio Sanitario Regionale”, the Interdepartmental Centre of Bioclimatology of the University of Florence and the Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council of Italy.
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References: Akbari, H., 2002. Shade trees reduce building energy use and CO2 emissions from powerplants. Environmental Pollution116, suppl1:s119-126. Ali-Toudert, F., Mayer, H., 2006. Effects of street design on outdoor thermal comfort. In: A. Kiss, G. Mezösi and Z. Sümeghy (Hrsg): Landscape, Environment and Society. Studies in Honour of Professor Ilona Bárány-Kevei on the Occasion of Her Birthday. Szeged: SZTE Éghajlattani és Tájföldrajzi Tanszék, Természeti Földrajzi és Geoinformatikai Tanszék; 45-55. Botty’an, Z., Kircsi, A., Szegedi, S., and Unger , J., 2005. The relationship between built-up areas and the spatial development of the mean maximum urban heat island in Debrecen, Hungary. International Journal of Climatology 25: 405–418. Carver, A.D., Unger, D.R., Parks, C.L., 2004. Modelling energy savings from urban shade trees: an assessment of the CITYgreen energy conservation module. Environmental Management 34(5), 650655. Huang, L., Li, J., Zhao, D., and Zhu, J., 2008. A fieldwork study on the diurnal changes of urban microclimate in four types of ground cover and urban heat island of Nanjing, China. Building and Environment, 43, 7-17. Johansson, E., Emmanuel, R., 2006. The influence of urban design on outdoor thermal comfort in the hot, humid city of Colombo, Sri Lanka. International Journal of Biometeorology, 51, 119–133. Mills, G., 2007. Cities as agents of global change. International Journal of Climatolology, 27, 18491857. Morabito, M., Cecchi, L., Modesti, P.A., Crisci, A., Orlandini, S., Maracchi, G. Gensini, G.F, 2004. The impact of hot weather conditions on tourism in Florence, Italy: the summer 2002 – 2003 experience. In: Advances in Tourism Climatology (Matzarakis A, de Freitas CR, Scott D). Vol. 12 Freiburg, 158165. Nikolopoulou, M., Baker, N., Steemers, K. (2001). Thermal comfort in outdoor urban spaces: the human parameter. Solar Energy, Vol. 70, No. 3. Oke, T., 1981. Canyon geometry and the nocturnal urban heat island: comparison of scale model and field observations. International Journal of Climatology, 1, 237-254 Oke, T., 1988. Street design and urban canopy layer climate. Energy and Buildings, 11, 103-113 Petralli, M., Prokopp, A., Morabito, M., Bartolini, G., Torrigiani, T., Orlandini, S., 2006a. Role of green areas in urban heat island mitigation: a case study in Florence (Italy). Italian Journal of Agrometeorology, 1, 51-58.
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Petralli, M., Morabito, M., Cecchi, L., Torrigiani, T., Bartolini, G., Orlandini, S., 2006b. Relationship between Emergency Calls and hot days in summer 2005 (Florence - Italy). Preprints of “Sixth International Conference on Urban Climate”, Goteborg (Sweden) 230-233. Ren, G., Zhou, Y., Chu, Z., Zhou, J., Zhang, A., Guo, J., and Liu, X., 2008. Urbanization effects on observed surface air temperature trends in North Cina. Journal of Climate, Vol. 21, 1333-1348 Sterling, S., Matzarakis, A., 2003. Influence of single and small clusters of trees on the bioclimate of a city: a case study. Journal of Arboriculture 29(6), 309 –316. Thorsson, S., Lindqvist, M., and Lindquist, S., 2004. Thermal bioclimatic conditions and patterns of behaviour in an urban park in Goteborg, Sweden. International Journal of Biometeorology 48(3),149156. Unger, J., 2004. Intra-urban relationship between surface geometry and urban heat island: review and new approach. Climate Research, vol 27, 253-264. United Nations Population Fund, 2007. State of world population 2007- Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth. New York, USA.
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Table 1 – Variation of monthly mean averages of Tmin, Tave, Tmax and dTr among the sensors: Min: minimum value; Mean: mean value; Max: maximum value; DT difference between the maximum and the minimum value. June Tmin
June Tave June Tmax June dTr July Tmin
July Tave July Tmax July dTr August Tmin
August Tave August Tmax August dTr
Min 16.0 21.0 25.9 7.8 16.4 24.0 30.7 10.4 16.4 21.9 26.8 7.6
Mean 17.6 22.6 27.3 9.7 18.3 25.4 32.5 14.2 18.0 23.3 28.4 10.4
Max 19.5 24.1 28.8 11.4 20.3 26.7 34.1 16.3 19.4 24.5 30.2 12.1
DT 3.5 3.1 2.9 3.6 3.9 2.7 3.5 5.9 3.0 2.6 3.4 4.5
Table 2 - Pearson product moment correlation values (r) among monthly averages of temperature parameter and urban density (UB), building height (F) and trees density (GA) UB .531(*)
F .655(**)
GA -.386
June Tave June Tmax June dTr
.573(**)
.643(**)
-.418
.458(*)
.458(*)
-.233
-.222
-.368
.250
July Tmin
.579(**)
.624(**)
-.330
July Tave July Tmax July dTr
.609(**)
.675(**)
-.347
.287
.299
.068
-.337
-.368
.332
August Tmin
.520(*)
.699(**)
-.355
August Tave August Tmax August dTr
.548(*)
.697(**)
-.356
.232
.377
-.169
-.294
-.342
.192
June Tmin
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Figure 1 – Map of Florence showing the subdivision in 72 areas and the location of the 21 sensors used in this study
Figure 2 – Mean daily changes of air temperature in streets (unbroken line) and gardens (broken line).
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Febrile cities: the influence of construction materials in the production of heat islands in low-income districts of urban areas with tropical climate in Brazil62. João Lima Sant’Anna Neto Rua Bela Vista, 180 - Presidente Prudente, São Paulo, Brasil PhD – Department of Geography, Sao Paulo State University, UNESP
[email protected] Margarete Cristiane de Costa Trindade Amorim Rua T. Nicolau Maffei 1743 - Presidente Prudente, São Paulo, Brasil PhD – Department of Geography, Sao Paulo State University, UNESP
[email protected] Abstract The fast demographic growth associated with high levels of urbanization over the last decades has been responsible for a territorial urban expansion never before seen in Brazilian history. As a result of lowincome people migrating from the countryside to urban areas which form attraction spots, common condominiums have spread throughout suburban areas of cities, in a large number using inappropriate constructive materials, both from the point of view of quality of life and thermal efficiency. In this project, five cities of small and medium size located in the Brazilian states of Sao Paulo and Parana were analyzed, where their air temperatures were measured by mobile transects, automatic stations fixed on representative spots of the urban spatial structure and satellite images from Landsat (infrared thermal channel) in synoptic situations of summer and winter. The types of roofing on buildings were classified into four groups: ceramic, metal, fibrocement and zinc. The results indicate that fiber cement roofing (common houses) produces between 10o C and 12o C higher than the external temperatures, ceramic roofing between - 0.1° C and – 0.3° C (middle and high class houses), and metal and zinc roofing (industries and services) between 16o C and 20o C. The studies demonstrated a rise of 2.5o C in the mean temperatures in the cities studied in the past thirty years, as well as a difference of 10° C between urban and country areas. The main problem concerns common houses which are not only being built in small constructed areas but are also too crowded. Besides the production of heat and low quality of life, these areas are the main focus of respiratory illnesses. Introduction At the turn of the XXth century, Brazil had a little more than 17 million inhabitants, for the most part, living in narrow coastal strip, despite its expanse of 8.5 million km2. The eastern part of the state of São Paulo, in this period, still had a substantially indigenous population, and since the 1910s , adventurers began the conquest of the “sertão,” i.e., the interior, for the incorporation of new lands and the expansion of farming and ranching.
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The city of Presidente Prudente is the principal urban center of this region and occupies an area of approximately 20,000 km2. It was founded in 1917, primarily dedicated to grazing, and later with the arrival of the railroad came the beginning of commercial agriculture. Natural factors favored the expansion of the coffee crop, which between the 1940s and 1970s was responsible for the rapid demographic growth of the region, as well as for the structuration of the territory (Abreu 1972). Accelerated clearing of forests and vegetation for pastures and the damming of the hydrographic network indicated profoundly the degradation of the natural landscape and changes in the water cycle. There are indications that this process of occupation has increased temperature and rain concentration, modifying the climatic regime. In urban areas, the increase in temperature, according to Amorim (2000), was even greater due to the concentration of buildings and the impermeability of the ground. Besides these factors, it is necessary to consider the construction materials utilized, mainly by the low-income population, which produces thermal inertia and human discomfort. Hypothesis, objectives and methodological procedures. The urban areas constitute poles of population attraction. Since socio-spatial segregation is one of the characteristics of capitalism, in general and in Brazil in particular, the usual barriers have been established on the urban periphery, to a large part utilizing construction materials that are inadequate from the point of view of quality of life as well as thermal efficiency. This hypothesis was the basis of this work whose aim was to identify how the production of the urban climate develops in medium-sized cities in eastern Sao Paulo State (Figure 1), based on an analysis of structuration of space forms and characteristics of land use and of the constructive materials in the generation of islands of heat and their implications in environmental comfort.
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Fig. 1. Localization of state of São Paulo and region of Presidente Prudente. The idea is based on the concept of perception channels of the urban climate proposed by Monteiro (1976) and Monteiro and Mendonça (2004), emphasizing the principal thermo-dynamic channel responsible for thermal comfort factor. Intra-urban air temperatures were determined taking measurements using moving transects running north and south (42 recordings) and east and west (78 recordings) on five typical days of summer and five other days in winter in 2002, under stable atmospheric conditions (Figure 2).
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Fig. 2. Presidente Prudente - location of moving transects Source: Urban Map - Prefeitura de Presidente Prudente – 1995 Digital thermometers were utilized with the sensors fixed on wooden boards 1.5 m in length, connected to the side two vehicles that went from the periphery (rural area), passing through the center, arriving at the extreme opposite of the city. The measurements were made between 20:00 h and 20:45 h, as this period is the most adequate for temperature readings in heat islands in the tropical world, when air temperatures do not undergo rapid changes and construction materials release their stored heat with the setting of the sun. The regional atmospheric systems that occurred on the days of the field survey were analyzed by means of synoptic charts of the surface made available at the website Marinha do Brasil63 (Brazilian Army) and from images of the Goes satellite.64 Isothermic charts were elaborated for analysis of the results using the software Surfer for Windows,65 thereby permitting the visualization of the variation in temperature in different points of the city. The urban temperature chart was produced based on the image from Landsat ETM7, with a spatial resolution of 60 m, on the thermal channel (band 6), treated by means of the software Idrisi. 63
www.mar.mil.br http://satelite.cptec.inpe.br/imagens/ 65 Surfer is a trademark of Golden Software, Inc. 64
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Population and territorial urban expansion
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The first demographic census of the region recorded in 1920 only 846 persons in the urban area of Presidente Prudente and a little more than 4000 inhabitants in the rural area. With the arrival of the railroad (Companhia Sorocabana de Estradas de Ferro), came migrants from various regions of the country, besides a large contingency of Italians and Japanese who dedicated themselves to coffee agriculture, the principal export product of Brazil up until the middle of the XXth century. The local population grew rapidly until the 1970s, and from then on slowed in growth due to the eradication of coffee plantations and the substitution of the main agricultural activities with cattle ranching. This change in the agrarian structure gave rise to a rural exodus causing a rapid urbanization process (Figure 3).
Décadas
Fig. 3. Population growth of Presidente Prudente (1920/2007) Source: IBGE, 2008. As the territorial expansion was not accompanied by a respective structure of services and urban equipment, a significant portion of the population lived and still lives under inadequate conditions from the point of view of quality of life and indicators of sustainability. The urban area of Presidente Prudente shows a great diversity with regard to the occupation of the land, because the oldest barriers (constructed between 1950s and 1970s) are densely constructed and with significant arboreal vegetation cover in the streets and yards. On the other hand, the residential areas that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, for the most part, had lawns and trees and few buildings. In this same period, to attend the demand for living accommodations for the common classes, housing complexes and lots were constructed for the lowincome population with smaller plots and construction materials less suitable for the tropical climate and thermal and environmental comfort (thin walls and roofs of fiber cement), which store substantial heat and produce thermal inertia. The use of urban land was characterized by the predominance of residential homes (87%), while industrial, commercial and service uses amounted to only 13% of the total construction area. The territorial urban expansion gave preferred status to the western section of the city due to both political and economic reasons such as regarding the higher ground characteristics. In this area the
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water dividers show more elongated convex profiles, forming smoother interfluvial areas separated by less narrow valleys, representing today about 80% of the total urban mesh. In the East quadrant, the terrain has steep slopes making it difficult for the expansion of the urban mesh where the low-income population lives. Construction materials and thermal comfort The territorial urban expansion is characterized by the increase in built-up and paved areas, which generate thermal inertia and heat. Heat islands cause not only thermal discomfort in tropical climate environments but are also responsible for greater demand of energy and for unwholesome urban environments, which affect people’s health. Building roofing is the main factor responsible for the heat produced both inside and around buildings. This head is determined by the variables albedo (reflectance) and emissivity of materials. The albedo represents the portion of incident solar radiation that is reflected by the material, while emissivity determines the thermal performance characterized by the surface temperature. Thus, surfaces with high albedo and emissivity tend to be cooler when exposed to solar radiation, because they absorb less radiation and emit more thermal radiation into the air, transmitting less heat to their lower surroundings. On the contrary, when the albedo is low and emissivity greater, heat is absorbed more and stays in the surroundings. Various types of construction materials have been utilized in buildings in urban areas. In the eastern part of Sao Paulo State, there is a prevalent use of three types of roofing materials: ceramic, fiber cement and metal (aluminum, zinc and galvanized steel). Ceramic roofs are more utilized in middle and upper class residences, while those of fiber cement prevail among the districts and housing complexes of the low-income population. The metal roofs are used in commercial and industrial buildings. Due to their physical properties, roofing materials show the following thermal responses (Ferreira and Prado 2003). Table 1. Surface temperature of materials (ASTM and 1980-98)66 Material Albedo Emissivity Surface Temperature difference (a) (e) temperature (oC) Between air and material Red ceramic 0.53 0.9 36.8 - 0.1 White ceramic 0.54 0.9 36.2 - 0.6 Fiber cement 0.34 0.9 47.1 + 10.3 Aluminum without 0.57 0.05 69.4 + 32.6 paint Aluminum, light 0.40-0.47 0.9 40.1 - 43.3 + 3.2 to + 6.5 colors Aluminum, dark 0.26-0.38 0.9 45.0 - 51.4 + 8.1 to + 14.5 colors Galvanized without 0.57 0.25 57.9 + 21.1 paint Regional climatic characteristics
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ASTM and 1980-98: Standard Practice for Calculating Solar Reflectance Index 124
The sub-humid continental tropical climate of the central east of Brazil is characterized by two well-defined seasons of the year: a warm, rainy summer from October to March and a mild, dry winter from April to September. However, due to the great climatic irregularity of the of the region, explained by its localization in the latitude of Tropic of Capricorn, an area of conflict between the tropical and extra-tropical systems, Presidente Prudente shows a marked seasonal variability (Figure 4).
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45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5
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Fig. 4. Climatogram de Presidente Prudente (1969/2007) In general, the tropical systems prevail in the region most of the year, sometimes more humid with its Atlantic arm and other times warmer and drier with continental trajectories. In the spring and summer, daily temperatures oscillate between 20ºC and 32ºC, with absolute maxima close to 40ºC. About 75% of the annual precipitation of 1300 mm is concentrated in this period of the year. In the fall/winter, the temperatures decrease slightly, but are still high, with the exception of episodes of polar anticyclone fronts when the minimal temperatures vary between 15ºC and 20ºC, with absolute values dropping down to as low as 0ºC. The mean annual temperature (1969/2007) has oscillated between 21ºC and 24ºC, in an increasing manner since the expansion of the municipal urban area surpassed the limits of the meteorological station, as demonstrated in Figure 5 for the development of the temperatures in this recording period. It is seen that there has been a warming of 1.7ºC in less than 40 years.
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y = 0,0411x - 0,8625 2 R = 0,6075
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Fig. 5. Development of the mean annual temperature for Presidente Prudente. Intra-Urban Thermal Structure The temperature of the urban area of Presidente Prudente was analyzed using two different techniques. First, field studies were conducted (transects) in two situations characteristic of the regional seasonality, in January (representative of summer) and July (winter) of 2002. Later, a thermal chart was created utilizing an image from the Landsat ETM 767 (thermal channel of band 6), with a spatial resolution of 60 m, from March 21, 2001. The temperatures were converted into surface values considering a fixed value of 1 for emissivity. The thermal response of the urban structure demonstrated that urbanization and the characteristics of the use of the land are responsible for the distribution of air temperature creating heat islands in the densely constructed districts and in the city center. This distribution pattern, however, can be modified by the direction and velocity of the wind, which moves these heat islands to other parts of the city. Very strong heat islands were observed with the difference between the warmest point and coolest point being 3.6ºC to 5.6ºC on days representative of summer and 4.9oC to 9.6oC in winter. The differences were less on days with a little stronger winds (3.0 m/s to 4.0 m/s) (Table 2). Table 2. Maximal and minimal temperatures and thermal differences between points. January (summer) July (winter) o Temp.( C) 15/01 16/01 17/01 18/01 23/01 14/07 16/07 17/07 23/07 25/07 Max. 27.5 26.2 26.3 25.9 27.8 17.9 22.3 20.1 22.3 26.7 Min. 21.9 22.6 21.1 21.9 24.2 11.9 14.8 14.7 17.4 17.1 Difference 5.6 3.6 5.2 4.0 3.6 6.0 7.5 5.4 4.9 9.6 Source: Field work – January and July of 2002 (TABLE 2) 67
The satellite image utilized was acquired at the Global Land Cover Facility website, http://glcfapp.umiacs.umd.edu:8080/esdi/index.jsp 126
During the night, the city produces heat islands with temperatures increasing in the densely constructed districts and in the center, and diminishing in the direction of the rural area. Besides the density of constructions, the materials utilized also contribute to the storage of heat. In the majority of studies of heat islands conducted at night, the center of the island is well defined and is frequently located in the center of the city with the highest density of constructions or in industrial districts. In Presidente Prudente, however, at least two separate cells of heat islands were detected, which could be directly attributed to urban structures. A major cell of warmer air was localized in the central zone in the direction north and south of the city, where the oldest and most densely constructed districts are located. As the density of the constructions diminished, a fall in temperature was seen in the direction of the rural area. The second cell was located in the west part of the city, where there are two common housing complexes, which densely constructed. The temperatures in this cell, although also elevated in comparison to other points in the city, were 1o to 2oC lower in relation to the center. Therefore, besides the temperature being slightly lower than the center of the city, its size was much smaller in relation to the center and its surrounding. The diminution in the density of construction produces a pronounced effect with respect to the break in the continuous distribution of the more elevated temperatures. Under calm conditions and wind velocities up to 0.5 m/s, much lower temperatures were observed between the cell in the east part and that in central area (Figure 6).
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Fig. 6. Presidente Prudente: air temperature, July 14, 2002, 20:00 h The limit of lower temperatures between the two main cells of higher temperatures was broken on July 17, due to the presence of weak winds from the southeast, between 1 m/s at 20:00 h and 3 m/s at 21:00 h. The movement of air was sufficient to mix the warmer air throughout the west part of the city, independent of the density of constructions (Figure 7). The heat produced in the area most densely constructed was distributed by winds predominantly from the southeast, and only the rural area and the city districts to east of the center had lower temperatures on this day.
N T oC 19.5 19.3 19.1 18.9 18.7 18.5 18.3 18.1 17.9 17.7 17.5 17.3 17.1 16.9 16.7 16.5 16.3 16.1 15.9 15.7 15.5 15.3 15.1 14.9 14.7 14.5
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Fig. 7. Presidente Prudente: air temperature on July 17, 2002, 20:00 h
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The borders of the constructed areas in the direction of the rural zone clearly defined the borders of the heat island. However, the intra-urban areas that are less densely constructed, were subject to higher temperatures because of breezes coming from the west quadrant where higher temperatures are found usually at night. On cloudless nights, the valleys were favorable to lower temperatures in the rural environment, as observed in this study in the south, west and east portions of the urban sprawl. It is important to observe that the streams located in the urban environment, for the majority, have been channelized. In the nocturnal period, the points with lower heights did not cause diminution of the main heat island found in the city. Even the Parque do Povo (principal green area for relaxing), where the Veado Stream was channelized and the area was covered by low and arboreal vegetation, the intense flow of traffic and the use of the land as avenues encroaching on the valley (commercial and residential), caused temperatures to remain high. In a previous study, Amorim (2000), showed that in the summer stronger magnitudes of heat islands (between 4oC and 6oC) during the day were observed mainly between 10:00 h and 16:00 h, coinciding with times of greatest insolation and diurnal warming and thereby intensifying the thermal discomfort occurring in the summer in tropical cities. At other times (7:00 h, 8:00 h, 9:00 h, 17:00 h and 18:00 h), there were frequent heat islands of medium magnitude (between 2oC and 4oC), but also recorded on some days were heat islands of strong magnitude, albeit with less frequency. In summer, the main factors for the greater differences between the warmest points were the densely constructed areas and those with little vegetation. The presence of trees in the streets and backyards exerted an essential role in this warmer period. The densely treed areas and in some cases with high density of constructions had lower temperatures. However, the densely constructed areas with little vegetation or areas with few constructions but without vegetation had higher temperatures. The localization of the higher temperatures correlated directly with the density of constructions and nocturnal heat is attributed to the release of heat stored during the day by buildings, as seen in the treated image from the thermal channel of Landsat 7 shown in Figure 8.
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Fig. 8. Presidente Prudente: Surface temperature: treated image from Landsat 7 Thermal channel Thus, it can be stated that the presence of vegetation plays an essential role in easing the heat from the high temperatures during the day, a fact also observed in the image from Landsat 7 satellite (Figure 8). However, in the nocturnal period, as demonstrated in this study, the presence of vegetation in streets and backyards do not contribute to the softening of high temperatures in densely constructed areas. The lowest temperatures were observed in the outer districts sparsely occupied, in the rural areas and essentially in the valleys of the rural region close to the city. The two transects started and ended in the rural region where the lowest temperatures were clearly at these points, in valleys with few buildings and in districts close to the rural area, which have high temperatures eased by breezes that are formed due to warming. Urban Climate and Sociospatial Segregation The thermal structure of the urban area interpreted in the image from Landsat 7 (Figure 8), shows the current occupation, the density of constructions and the arborization. In the districts densely constructed, mainly in the common, low-income housing complexes with fiber cement roofs and little amount of arboreal vegetation in the streets and backyards, the temperatures detected on the surface were more elevated, reaching 25ºC (Figures 9 and 10). In the central districts, the residences with smaller plots of land, in which buildings do not occupy all the area, which have ceramic roof tiles and sparse arboreal vegetation, the temperatures were lower, around 21º C (Figures 11 and 12). In the parks and other green urban areas, the temperatures varied between 19 and 21ºC, depending on the type of vegetation, low or arboreal.
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Fig. 9. Common district with fiber cement roofing. Image from Google (2007)
Fig. 10. Common house with fiber cement roof, small windows and high walls.
Fig. 11. Middle class district
Fig. 12. Middle class house with tile roof, grided and wide windows.
In medium-sized cities with continental tropical climates, the creation of the urban climate is a result of the interaction between the radiation received and that reflected basically by the types of construction materials of residential buildings that store heat during the day and release heat in the first hours after sundown. As tropical cities are naturally warm, these urban heat islands are responsible for the intensification of thermal discomfort and can therefore be considered an indicator of urban environmental quality. The low-income population, unable to acquire more suitable construction materials and larger urban lots, is the most harmed by the adverse effects of heat stored in buildings. In the major part of the days in spring and summer, daytime air temperatures oscillate between 30oC and 35oC, which when summing the heat produced and stored by the fiber cement roofing can supercede 45oC, exposing the population, notably the elderly and children (who remain indoors most of the time) to unwholesome situations which are manifested in the form of ailments such as respiratory and circulatory diseases.
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Therefore, urban areas of greatest socio-spatial segregation are those in which there is the greatest morbidity due to respiratory diseases, which are very dependent on climatic influences (Figure 13). They are also the areas in which a greater intensity of heat islands is produced, in contrast to metropolitan areas in which the dynamism of the traffic and the sources of particle emissions are the major concerns. Thus, climate also constitutes an important factor in quality of life and indicator of social fairness.
Fig. 13. Map of social exclusion of Presidente Prudente Source of information: CEMESPP (FCT/UNESP) / IBGE, Censo Demografico 2000.
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References ABREU, D. S., 1972. Formação histórica de uma cidade pioneira paulista. Presidente Prudente: Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras. AMORIM, M. C. C. T., 2000. O clima urbano de Presidente Prudente. São Paulo: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo. FERREIRA, F.L. and PRADO, R.T.A., 2003. Medição do albedo e análise de sua influência na temperatura superficial dos materiais utilizados em coberturas de edifícios no Brasil. São Paulo: Boletim Técnico da Escola Politécnica da USP. MONTEIRO, C. A. de F., 1976. Teoria e Clima Urbano. São Paulo: IGEOG/USP, MONTEIRO, C. A. F. and MENDONÇA, F., 2004. Clima Urbano. São Paulo: Contexto.
Bibliography GOMEZ, A. L. and GARCIA, F. F., 1984. La isla de calor en Madrid: avance de un estudio de clima urbano. Estudios Geográficos, 45 (174), 5-34, enero-marzo. JOHNSON, D. B., 1985. Urban modification of diurnal temperature cycles in Birmingham, U. K. Journal of Climatology. 5, 221-225. OKE, T. R. and MAXWELL, G.B., 1975. Urban heat island dynamics in Montreal and Vancouver. Atmospheric Environment, 9, 191-200. PITTON, S. E. C., 1997. As cidades como indicadores de alterações térmicas. São Paulo, Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo. SANT’ANNA NETO, J.L., 2002. Os climas das cidades brasileiras. Presidente Prudente: UNESP.
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A new thermal comfort index for urban design: the case of São Paulo, Brazil. Author: Leonardo Marques Monteiro (corresponding author) Co-Author: Marcia Peinado Alucci Department of Technology Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism University of São Paulo Rua Oscar Freire, 1523, s.82, São Paulo - SP - Brazil, 05409-010 Tel: +55 11 9831-0512 e-mail:
[email protected] ABSTRACT This paper presents a research that proposes a thermal comfort index, allowing the verification of the thermal adequacy of urban spaces in the city of Sao Paulo, the greatest Brazilian metropolitan area, with over eighteen million inhabitants. The method adopted is experimental inductive (research of micro-climatic variables and subjective answers) and deductive (simulations of predictive models). The field research consists of 72 different micro-climatic scenarios and closely 2000 applied questionnaires. The empirical data is treated through multiple linear regression analysis, providing a simple and easyto-use empirical equation to be used as predictive model.
INTRODUCTION The city of Sao Paulo is the greatest Brazilian metropolitan area, with over eighteen million inhabitants. This paper presents a research that proposes a thermal comfort index, allowing the verification of the thermal adequacy of its urban spaces. The method adopted is experimental inductive, with field research of micro-climatic variables and subjective answers, and deductive, with regression analysis of the data gathered. Simulations of predictive models, which were computationally processed, were done in order to comparatively check the results. The originality of this paper is to provide a thermal comfort index which can be properly used for predicting thermal comfort in outdoor spaces of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Last, the experimental comparative study of different outdoor thermal comfort predictive models allows the verification of the results.
BACKGROUND This study considered twenty-two predictive models and their indexes. They will be here briefly presented. Houghten et al. (1923), of ASHVE laboratories, propose, the Effective Temperature (ET), as determined by dry and wet bulb temperature and wind speed. Vernon & Warner (1932) propose the Corrected Effective Temperature (CET) substituting dry bulb temperature with globe temperature.
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Siple & Passel (1945) develop the Wind Chill Temperature (WCT) from the data obtained with experiences in Antarctica. Belding & Hatch (1965) propose the Heat Stress Index (HSI), relying on a thermal balance model with empirical equations for each exchange. Yaglou & Minard (1957), propose the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT). ISO 7243 (1989) gives an alternate equation for situations under solar radiation. Gagge (1967) presents the New Standard Effective Temperature (SET*), defining it as the air temperature in which, in a given reference environment, the person has the same skin temperature (tsk) and wetness (w) as in the real environment. Givoni (1969) proposes the Index of Thermal Stress (ITS), which considers the heat exchanges, metabolism and clothes. Originally, it did not consider the radiation exchanges. Masterton & Richardson (1979) propose the Humidex, an index calculated based on air temperature and humidity. It is used by the Environment Canada Meteorological Service to alert people of the heat stress danger. Jendrizky et al. (1979) developed the Klima Michel Model (KMM). It is an adaptation of Fanger’s model (1970), with a short wave radiation model, computed in the mean radiant temperature. Vogt (1981) proposes the evaluation of thermal stress through the required sweat rate (Swreq). This index was adopted by ISO 7933 (1989). Dominguez et al. (1992) present the research results of the Termotecnia Group of Seville University, also based on Vogt (1981). The authors accept low sweat rates according to the conditioning required. Brown & Gillespie (1995) propose an outdoor Comfort Formula based on thermal budget (S) with some particularities in its terms. Aroztegui (1995) proposes the Outdoor Neutral Temperature (Tne), based on Humphreys (1975) and taking into account the solar radiation and air speed. Blazejczyk (1996) proposes the Man-Environment Heat Exchange model (Menex), based on thermal balance. The author proposes three criteria, which are supposed to be considered as a whole: Heat Load (HL), Intensity of Radiation Stimuli (R’) and Physiological Strain (PhS). He also proposes the Subjective Temperature Index (STI) and the Sensible Perspiration Index (SP). DeFreitas (1997) presents the Potential Storage Index (PSI) and the Skin Temperature Equilibrating Thermal Balance (STE), both using the Menex Model. Höppe (1999) defines the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) of a given environment as the equivalent temperature to air temperature in which, in a reference environment, the thermal balance and the skin and core temperatures are the same of that found in the given environment. Givoni & Noguchi (2000) describe an experimental research in a park in Yokohama, Japan, and propose the Thermal Sensation Index (TS). Bluestein & Osczevski (2002) propose the New Wind Chill Temperature (NWCT), through a physical modelling of a face exposed to wind. Nikolopoulou (2004) presents the works developed by the project Rediscovering the Urban Realm and Open Spaces (RUROS), proposing the actual sensation vote (ASV).
Empirical Research Data gathering The procedures were done following guidelines and data from [24, 25, 26, 27, 28], and are briefly presented in the following paragraphs.
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For the measurements and application of questionnaires, three bases were set: the first one under open sky, the second one shaded by trees, and the third one under a tensioned membrane structure. In each one of the three bases, micro-climatic variables (mean radiant temperature, air temperature, air humidity and wind speed) were measured and a hundred and fifty people answered a questionnaire, in six different hours of the day. These people came from different regions of Brazil. Further studies will consider not only the results from acclimatized ones, but also comparatively the results from those who were not acclimatized. The questionnaire considered questions of personal characteristics (sex, age, weight, height), acclimatization (places of living and duration) and subjective responses (thermal sensation, preference, comfort and tolerance). Pictures were taken of everyone who would answer the questionnaire, in order to identify clothing and activity. A forth base, at 10m high, was set for measuring meteorological parameters (global radiation and wind speed). The equipment used in each base was the following. Under open sky: meteorological station ELE model EMS, data logger ELE model MM900 EE 475-016. Shaded by trees: meteorological station Huger Eletronics model GmbH WM918 and personal computer for data logging. Under tensioned membrane structure: station Innova 7301, with modules of thermal comfort and stress, and data logger Innova model 1221. At 10m high: meteorological station Huger Eletronics model GmbH WM921 and a piranometer Eppley. In each base, globe temperature was also measured through 15cm grey globes and semiconductor sensors, storing the data in Hobo data loggers. The measurements were done in intervals of one second, and the storage was done in intervals of one minute, considering the average of measurements.
Data sample On the field researches, 72 different micro-climatic scenarios were considered and 1750 questionnaires were applied during summer and winter of 2005 and 2006, in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The limits in which the empirical data were gathered are: air temperature (ta) = 15°C~33°C; mean radiant temperature (mrt) = 15°C~66°C; relative humidity (rh) = 30%~95%; wind speed (va) = 0,1m/s~3,6m/s. It should also be mentioned that, although it is not a limiting factor for normal situations, the maximum and minimum clothing thermal insulation values found were 0,3 and 1,2 clo, with mean values between 0,4 and 0,9 clo. Considering the Typical Reference Year (TRY) for Sao Paulo (Goulart et al., 1988), the ranges presented represent over 90% of the general climatic situations during day time. On the other hand, if it is necessary to make an extrapolation, it must be done carefully and would better be object of further researches.
thermal comfort index proposal Modelling The multiple linear regression to be presented was obtained considering the data from thirty-six microclimatic situations, regarding the application of 875 questionnaires. Only half of the entire sample was used in order to allow the following comparative study with other predictive models. Using only half of the sample to perform the regression, allow confirming if the results are valid to the whole sample. Thus, considering that the whole sample was constituted by empirical researches done during summer and winter of 2005 and 2006, only the results from 2005 were took into consideration to perform the following regression:
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tsp= -3,528 + 0,0698 · ta + 0,0603 · mrt + 0,0134 · rh - 0,306 ·va
(1)
where: tsp = thermal sensation perception [dimensionless], ta = air temperature [oC], mrt = mean radiant temperature [oC], rh = relative humidity [%], v = air velocity [m/s] with: r= 0,925; r2= 0,855; r2aj= 0,836; se= 0,339; P< 0,001. Considering the thermal sensation perception (tsp), following the categories of the applied questionnaires, result from -0,5 to 0,5 means neutrality; from 0,5 to 1,5 means warm; from 1,5 to 2,5 means hot; above 2,5 means very hot; from -0,5 to -1,5 means cool; from -1,5 to -2,5 means cold; and below -2,5 means very cold. Table 1 presents a statistic resume of the constant and the four dependent variables, where: ct= constant, c = coefficient, se= standard error, t= statistical test t, p= significance, vif= variance inflation factor. Table 2 presents the analysis of variance, where: DF= degrees of freedom, SS= sum of squares, MS= mean square, F= statistical test F, p= significance. [TABLE 1 and TABLE 2]
Equivalent Temperature Monteiro & Alucci (2005), reviewing the state of the art of outdoor thermal comfort modelling researches, observe that there is a tendency to use equivalent temperatures instead of interpretative ranges, since an equivalent temperature itself, without an interpretative range, would give a notion of the thermal sensation, taking into account a reference environment. In this research, in order to propose an equivalent temperature model, the following assumptions to the reference environment where done: mrt = ta; rh=50%; va=0 m/s. Considering these assumptions, the relationship between the air temperature of the reference environment and the thermal sensation perception is the following: ta,re = 21,968 + (7,686 · tsp)
(2)
where: ta,re = air temperature of the reference environment [oC], tsp = thermal sensation perception [dimensionless]. By equations 1 and 2, the Temperature of Equivalent Perception [oC] is proposed: TEP = -5,148 + 0,537 · ta + 0,464 · mrt + 0,103 · rh - 2,352 · va
(3)
The Temperature of Equivalent Perception (TEP) of a given environment can be defined as a thermal sensation scale which presents values numerically equivalent to those of the air temperature of a reference environment (mrt=ta, rh=50%, and va=0) in which the thermal sensation perception is the same to the one verified in the given environment. Following equation 2, one may observe that the air temperature of neutrality, in the case of a reference environment, is approximately equal to 22°C. Yet the advantage of equivalent temperatures is the intuitive interpretation of their values, it is also interesting to provide an interpretative range, since the intuitive interpretation is only possible after the exposition to several environments and their respective equivalent temperatures. Thus, Table 3 presents the interpretative ranges for the Temperature of Equivalent Perception, considering the mean values gathered in the empirical research.
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[TABLE 3] In the topic 3.2, the limits in which the empirical data were gathered were presented. On the other hand, as mentioned, the multiple linear regression presented was obtained considering only half of the entire sample in order to allow the following comparative study with other predictive models. As a consequence, the limits in which the Temperature of Equivalent Perception (TEP) is valid are not the same as the one presented before. Table 4 presents the limits of the microclimatic variables, in which TEP is based. Further studies to be developed, with more comprehensive empirical data, would test the validity of the results beyond those limits. [TABLE 4]
Comparative verification Criteria Three criteria were established for comparing the simulation results with the field research results aiming to verify the significance of the results provided by the new proposed predictive model. The first criterion is the correlation between the results of the model parameter and the results of the thermal sensation responses obtained in the field study. The second criterion is the correlation between the results of the index and the results of the thermal sensation responses obtained in the field study. The last one is the percentage of correct predictions. All the criteria are based on results concerning all the 72 different micro-climatic scenarios and the mean thermal sensation responses for each one of the scenarios (1750 questionnaires applied). Concerning the indexes based on equivalent temperatures, the criterion for interpretation of the indexes used was the one by De Freitas [19]. Yet the author proposes this one only for effective temperatures, it was used for other equivalent temperatures because no other references were found; except for STI, for which was used Blazejczyk [18].
Calibration Aiming better results to the specific evaluation of open spaces of Sao Paulo, a calibration was performed in order to fit the results from the simulations to the results found in the empirical researches. In order to do so, each index was linguistically compared to seven values (the same used in the field researches): three positive ones (warm, hot, very hot), three negative ones (cool, cold, very cold) and one of neutrality (negative values do not apply for models that consider only hot environments). The calibration was done through iterative method, changing the range limits of each index in order to maximize the correlation between its results and those found in the empirical researches. The calibration could be done, also iteratively, to maximize the percentage of correct predictions. However, it was assumed that is more important to assure the maximization of the correlation between the results of the index and those from empirical data, once this correlation expresses the tendency of correctly predicting other situations.
Results Table 5 presents the final results considering the comparison criteria presented in 5.1. This table presents the correlation modules between field study results and simulation results, without and with the calibration process presented in 5.2
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In such table, C= Correlation with the model parameter; Co= Correlation with the original index without calibration; Po= Percentage of correct predictions without calibration; Cc= Correlation with the index with calibration; and Pc= Percentage of correct predictions with calibration. [TABLE 5]
Conclusion The empirical data gathered was treated through multiple linear regression analysis, providing an empirical equation to be also used as a predictive model. The results from this equation, compared with those from the calibrated predictive models, showed that, for the specific case of Sao Paulo, they present better correlations with the data gathered. Concluding, the methods used provided a simple, easy-to-use and reliable thermal comfort index to assess outdoor thermal comfort in urban spaces of the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Acknowledgements The authors thank the Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP), for the financial support in this research.
References Aroztegui, J. M., 1995. Índice de Temperatura Neutra Exterior. In: Encontro Nacional Sobre Conforto No Ambiente Construído (ENCAC), 3, 1995, Gramado. Anais... Gramado: ENCAC. ASHRAE, 2005. Handbook of fundamentals. Atlanta: ASHRAE. Belding, H. S.; Hatch, T. F., 1955 Index for evaluating heat stress in terms of resulting physiological strain. Heating, Piping, Air Conditioning, 27, p.129-42. Blazejczyk, K., 2002. Menex 2002. www.igipz.pan.pl/klimat/blaz/menex.htm. Accessed on 24/04/2004. Blazejczyk, K.; Tokura, H.i; Bortkwcz, A.; Szymczak, W., 2000. Solar radiation and thermal physiology in man. In: International Congress of Biometeorology & International Conference on Urban Climatology, 15, 1999, Sydney. Selected Papers from the Conference... Geneva: World Meteorological Organization, p. 267-272. Bluestein, M.; Osczevski, R., 2002. Wind chill and the development of frostbite in the face. Preprints, 15th Conference on Biometeorology and Aerobiology, Kansas City, MO: Amer. Met. Soc., p. 168-171. Brown, R. D.; Gillespie, T. J., 1995. Microclimatic landscape design: creating thermal comfort and energy efficiency. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Dominguez et al., 1992. Control climatico en espacios abiertos: el proyecto Expo'92. Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla. Fanger, P. O., 1970. Thermal comfort: analysis and application in environment engineering. New York: McGraw Hill. Gagge, A. P.; Stolwijk J. A. J.; Hardy, J. D., 1967. Comfort and thermal sensations and associated physiological responses at various ambient temperatures. Environ. Res., 1, p. 1-20. Givoni, B., 1969. Man, climate and architecture. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Givoni, B.; Noguchi, M., 2002. Issues in outdoor comfort research. In: Passive And Low Energy Architecture, 17, 2000, Cambridge. Proceedings... London: J&J, p. 562-565. Goulart, S. et al., 1998. Climatic data for energetic evaluation of buildings in fourteen Brazilian cities. Florianópolis: UFSC. Höppe, P. R., 1999. The physiological equivalent temperature: a universal index for the biometeorological assessment of the thermal environment. Int. J. Biomet., 43, p. 71-75. Houghten, F.C.; Yaglou, C.P., 1923.Determining lines of equal comfort. ASHVE Transactions, 29. 139
Humphreys, M. A., 1975. Field studies of thermal comfort compared and applied. BRE Current Paper, 75/76, London. ISO. ISO 10551, 1995. Ergonomics of the thermal environment: assessment of the influence of the thermal environment using subjective judgment scales. Genève: ISO. ISO. ISO 7243, 1989. Hot environments: estimation of the heat stress on working man, based on the WBGT-index (wet bulb globe temperature). Genève: ISO. ISO. ISO 7726, 1998. Ergonomics: instruments for measuring physical quantities. Genève: ISO. ISO. ISO 7933, 1989. Hot environments: analytical determination and interpretation of thermal stress using calculation of required sweat rate. Genève: ISO. ISO. ISO 8996, 1990. Ergonomics: metabolic heat production. Genève: ISO. ISO. ISO 9920, 1995. Ergonomics of the thermal environment: estimation of the thermal insulation and evaporative resistance of a clothing ensemble. ISO: Genève. Jendritzky, G. et al., 1979. Klimatologische Probleme – ein einfaches Verfahren zur Vorhersage der Wärmebelastung, in Zeitschrift für angewandte Bäder und Klimaheilkunde. Freiburg. Masterton, J. M.; Richardson, F. A., 1979. Humidex: a method of quantifying human discomfort. Environment Canada, CLI 1-79. Ontario, Downsview: Atmospheric Environment Service. Monteiro, L.M.; Alucci, M.P., 2005. Outdoor thermal comfort: numerical modelling approaches and new perspectives. In: Passive And Low Energy Architecture, 22, 2005, Beirut. Proceedings... . Nikolopoulou, Marialena (org), 2004. Designing Open Spaces in the Urban Environment: a Bioclimatic Approach. Atenas: CRES. Siple, P. A.; Passel C. F., 1945. Measurements of dry atmospheric cooling in subfreezing temperatures. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 89 (1), p.177-199. Vogt, J.J., 1981. Ambiances thermiques. In: Scherrer, J. et al. Précis de physiologie du travail, notions d’ergonomie, Masson, 2ème édition, 217-263. Williamson, S. P. (coord.), 2003. Report on wind chill temperature and extreme heat indices: evaluation and improvement projects. Washington: OFCMS Supporting Research. Yaglou, C. P.; Minard, D., 1957. Control of heat casualties at military training centers. A.M.A. Archives of Industrial Health, 16, p. 302-16.
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Table 1: Statistic summary c se t ct -2,858 0,831 -3,439 ta 0,0698 0,0400 1,744 mrt 0,0603 0,00928 6,495 rh 0,0134 0,00302 2,220 va -0,306 0,173 -1,764
p 0,002 0,091 . [Accessed: 06/2008] 15. The Institute for Geospatial Technology at Cayuga Community College, Inc.2008. Climate Mapper for SERVIR VIZ. [online].Available from: < http://www.iagt.org/servir/servir_viz/climatemapper.asp>.[ Accessed 06/2008] 16. Michael Weinstock, “Morphogenesis and the Mathematics of Emergence,”AD Profile 169 (2004):11
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Disappearances and Apparitions: Urban ecosystem research and education relating to the Chao Phraya River delta and the city of Bangkok, Thailand. Brian McGrath
[email protected] Associate Professor of Urban Design Department of Architecture, Parson the New School for Design 25 East 13th St. New York, NY, U.S.A. Danai Thaitakoo
[email protected] /
[email protected] Lecturer Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, Phyathai Rd., Bangkok 10330, Thailand. Abstract The urban hydro-agricultural complex of the Chao Phraya Delta was radically transformed as a result Bangkok's rapid and expansive car-based urbanization over the last fifty years. While the delta and the city are now in conflict, they were once entangled in a highly resilient absorbent agricultural matrix in concert with climatic cycles of monsoon and dry seasons. This paper will argue that urban design education and research can begin to address the pressing need of adaptation to climate change in Asia’s delta mega-cities through a careful reexamination of the evidence of the resilient performative capacity of this delta city’s past through systematic archival, remote sensing and field observation. The Politics of Cultural Disappearances and Apparitions in Urban Design Akbar Abbas, (1997) has identified cinema, architecture and writing as three spheres where Hong Kong culture has been defined through tracing the process of cultural disappearances. As Marshall Berman (198?) has pointed out, urbanization is always marked by both creation and destruction. He captures the destructive force of modernization by quoting Karl Marx in the title of his book on modernity and the city, “all that is solid melts into air.” While the focus of Berman’s book is 19th century Paris and 20th century New York, Abbas has demonstrated the viability of the politics of cultural disappearance in the modernization of Asian cities. This paper will examine Abbas and Berman’s cultural readings not only in terms of disappearances but also in relation to the apparition of different actors and agents in urban design and will argue for both comprehensive and detailed urban design research and education on the implications of this landscape of disappearances and apparitions in relation to in the context of climate change. The paper will be organized around three overlapping eras of historical research in the socionatural systems which constitute the Chao Phraya Delta region, as well as three periods of modern
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urbanization change in Bangkok. The first, from around 1950 to 1970 comprises the Cold War era and Thailand’s geopolitical alliance with the U.S. American advised, financed and directed much of the planning of the city and the Kingdom during this period of rapid growth. The long term field work on the social ecology of rice growing village of Bang Chan east of Bangkok by social scientists from the Cornell Thailand project, will be examined. Lucien M. Hanks’ Rice and Man: Agricultural Ecology in Southeast Asia (1972) will be examined along with Bang Chan: Social History of a Rural Community in Thailand. The second period of examination will be from 1970 to 1990, which in the vacuum following the American military withdrawal from Southeast Asia, was filled by foreign investment and research from the Center for South East Asian Studies at Kyoto University in Japan. Works examined include Shigeharu Tanabe’s Historical geography of the canal system in the Chao Phraya, 1977, Yoneo Ishii’s Thailand: A Rice-Growing Society of 1978, and Yoshikazu Takaya’s Agricultural Development of A Tropical Delta : A Study of the Chao Phraya Delta of 1987.Together they produced comprehensive historical surveys of a rice growing society. While the American’s anthropological work is marked by a fascination with the “other” in their close examination of one village, The Japanese scholars, impressed by the capability of Southeast Asia’s deltas as “the world’s rice bowl,” focused on the common rice growing culture they shared. Comparing the American and Japanese research reveals differing cultural concepts of nature, and the relationship between the urban and rural. Finally, we will examine the development of Bangkok from 1990 to the present and the emergence of transnational researchers in the last twenty years in new research the Faculty of Architecture and Chulalongkorn University which reflect an acute understanding of the challenges facing the city in the near future. Of particular importance for current education and research programs is a deeper understanding of the early modernization of Bangkok between 1890 and 1940. This emergent research and education field in Thailand represents a hope for achieving urban design models which grow out of more intimate knowledge of the Thai cultural and environmental historical contexts, especially in its examination of a more complex ecosystem outside of the American and Japanese research infatuation with rice cultivation. As both Abbas and Berman demonstrate, disappearance and destruction have both cultural and political dimensions. While Berman has tied this to capitalism and modernization, in Abbas we see how colonialism and post-colonialism also contribute to the political dimensions of disappearance. Like Turkey and Japan, while Thailand has never been colonized, it has had to modernize and develop in different periods according to outside models. This has resulted in the disappearance of much indigenous knowledge as expertise and answers have been sought from abroad. In tracing the recent history of this tension between indigenous and foreign knowledge, this paper asserts the importance of an urban design educational and research framework that balances transnational discourse with investment in indigenous knowledge in order to begin to develop resilient urban design models in the face of the imperatives of climate change.
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1950-1970: American Cold War Research and the Planning of Greater Bangkok When Chulalongkorn University first hosted Columbia University’s Urban Design Program in 2003, we traveled to Minburi, in search of the “rural” rice growing village of Bang Chan, the research field site chosen by Lauriston Sharp in 1948. (Sharp and Hanks, 1978) Sharp and Hanks, together with numerous doctoral students and researchers conducted long term anthropological research on the adaptation of social and agricultural practices in response to changing economic conditions in Thailand. While the American researchers’ decades of close-up field observation, documentation, oral histories and interviews with village informants comprises a robust archive of knowledge on the interrelationships between economic conditions based on access to markets, social structures of family and work force, and changes in agricultural practices. Sharp realized that a comprehensive study of rice growing villages in Thailand was unfeasible and his decision to focus the Cornell Thailand Project research on this single village was based on its proximity to Bangkok, and therefore its inevitable disappearance within the duration of the study. In Rice and Man: Agricultural Ecology in Southeast Asia, Lucien M. Hanks (1972) points to three significant shifts in socio-ecological practices by the villagers in Bang Chan. The first rice farmers began to cultivate the scrubby wilderness east of Bangkok following the construction of the San Saeb Canal by King Rama 3 between 1837 and 1840. This 53.5 kilometer long canal was built as part of the infrastructure for war with the the conflict with Vietnam over Cambodia to establish a water transport for soldiers and weapons to Cambodia. While in Rice and Man Hanks refers to his research as a agricultural ecology or social ecology and Sharp and Hanks (1978) in Bang Chan: Social History of a Rural Community in Thailand emphatically refer to Bang Chan as a rural community, by its location along this important artery and the conclusion of the research about the adaptation of the village to changing urban markets in Bangkok, their work can be interpreted as urban ecosystem studies with a great relevance to urban design research and education in respect to the changing social economic and environmental conditions of climate change. Hanks begins his discussion on the relation between the village of Bang Chan and the cultivation of rice by examining the qualities and history of rice as a crop and a food source. He also establishes rice as part of dynamic ecosystems in Nature that require social energy for cultivation. This is the key framework through which in the second part of the book he examines the adaptations of rice cultivation to a changing economic environment. He divides these changes into three successive periods of changing chultivation by first tracing back to the years of shifting cultivation between 1850 and 1890, the transitional years of broadcasting which just preceded the Cornell field work between 1890 and 1935, and the years of transplanting immediately from 1935 through 1970 when the study was published. The first method of the first migrant farmers that the Cornell researchers deduced through interviews with the oldest resident informant from Bang Chan was shifting cultivation (1850-1890). This method is the least labor and tool intensive, requiring just the digging of holes and planting seeds, but requires a surplus of land to support the periodic moving of fields and their regeneration to forests. Broadcast cultivation was introduced by new migrants who brought water buffalo and plows to more restricted land holdings. New world markets opened up by the modernizations of King Rama 5 (18681910) and the great inflation in prices following World War I. Water supplies the nutrients to a broadcast fields which are planted perennially. Finally, in the context of a world economic depression
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and deflation and World War II, there was a great increase in labor, yet an even larger global demand for rice. Larger extended family units invested in the labor of constructing the complex of dikes and paddies for transplanting rice from nurseries to paddies. In spite of the increase in demand and production, Rice and Man concludes with the demise of rice farming in Bang Chan in 1970 as factories and housing for their workers takes over rice farms. The distinctive cultural feature that the Cornell researchers marvel at is the flexibility of the Thai household. Unlike the rigid nuclear family, both the Thai house and the thai household can be added to and adapted to the needs. On the village level the larger extended families generate more wealth and stronger client/patron ties, as well as the ability to support Buddhist monastic communities and government institutions. The micro world of the village of Minburi gives us an close-up vantage point of a micro ecology over a long time period. The methodology, if not the conclusion, of this research is a significant research and educational model which we, at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Architecture, have continued to adapt in our long term socio-ecological research in the Bangkok Metropolitan region. While during the workshop with the Columbia students, we were not able to find any rice fields in Minburi, we did find some turf farming developed to serve the new suburban subdivisions which ring Bangkok, which continues to validate Sharp and Hanks’ research on landscape transformation fifty years later. This continued validation of the importance of bottom-up social behavior that is so valuable to the issues Bangkok is now facing as it seeks to develop resilient and adaptable urban design models. Benedict Anderson, a successor to Sharp and Hanks at the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell, describes the origins and spread of nationalism in Southeast Asia as the creation of Imagined Communities. (1983) Bang Chan, for the Cornell Thailand Project was an imagined community. Their close-up lens could not take in the rapid change that was happening just outside the geographical frame of their research. Modern industrial Bangkok was being created with the Cold War geo-political and economic alliance with America, and the city was being recreated not with the knowledge uncovered in their exhaustive study but with Los Angeles and Houston as urban design models. What was imagined by the Cornell Thailand Project was that Bang Chan was “rural” when it had always been an extension of the first canal and then road tentacles of Bangkok. Anderson’s essay “Withdrawal Systems” (1998) marks the student revolts of October 6, 1976 as a turning point in Thai history in larger part due to the impact of American influence. In May 1975, the Royal Thai Government asked the United States to remove all of its combat forces (27,000 troops, 300 aircraft) by 1976. (wikipedia) The American’s withdrew from their military involvement in Southeast Asia between 1973-1975, but the influence in Bangkok urbanism has been indelible. American lifestyle continues to be an apparition which has accompanied the disappearance of the bucolic rural agricultural society Sharp and Hank’s imagined. Thongchai Winichakul, (1994) an exiled student revolutionary from 1976 and a student of Benedict Anderson, has produced the seminal work on the disappearance of the hydro-body of Thai urbanism and the appearance of land based urbanism in Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation. It is in the survey and mapping projects that Thongchai locates the traces of this disappearance of a tributary culture in relation to modernization projects undertaken by the King Chulalongkorn at the turn of the 20th century. This study of the disappearance of waterbased urbanism will return in the final era of our research survey.
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1970-1990: Japanese research and The Urban Hydro-agricultural industrial complex of the Chao Phraya River Delta. The Center for South East Asian Studies at Kyoto University was founded in 1965, but soon replaced Cornell University as the international center for Thai studies following the American strategic withdrawal from South East Asia in 1975, while essentially following the American Cold War model of area studies. While the American’s focused in depth on an anthropological study one rice farming village which was eventually absorbed into the Bangkok Metropolitan region, the Japanese conduct a more comprehensive and more richly illustrated geomorphological study of a “rice growing society.” While anthropology was the tool for American’s to discover the “other” outside of Bangkok, the Japanese research establishes affinities between its own rice growing culture and those of Southeast Asia. Yoneo Ishii has assembled eleven interdisciplinary research projects between 1963 and 1974 which overlap with the last visits of the Cornell researchers to Bang Chan. history, geography, anthropology, political science, sociology, geomorpolgoy, soil science are all represented, but agronomy, its history and economics frame the anthology in the initial and three concluding chapters, and the other disciplines all circulate around agriculture as the dominant them. This research must have had great significance for rapidly modernizing and industrializing Japan following World War II, and formed the basis for a strategic economic alliance between Thailand and Japan which resulted in the Japan-led industrialization of Thailand itself. Shigeharu Tanabe (1977) researched the historical geography of the canal system in the Chao Phraya delta from the Ayutthaya period to the fourth reign of the Chakri Dynasty, while Yoshikazu Takaya continued this research in his book on the agricultural development of the Chao Phraya Delta. (1987) This period of research accompanied a relocation and expansion of Japan’s industrial base to the lower wage regions such as Thailand. While the American’s close-up research of the American team neglected the urban changes just outside its village framework, the Japanese research exhaustively studies the landscape that its national economic development will assist in destroying in the decades between 1970 and 1990 when Thailand became the world fastest growing economy. (Pasuk and Baker, 1998) The Chao Phraya River delta’s rice growing society is a complex socio-economical-ecological relationship of structures and functions and changes (Ishii 1978). Base upon the condition of climate (Kyuma 1978), topography (Takaya 1978) and soil (Hattori and Kyuma 1978), according to the Japanese researchers cultural imagination, the low land/wet rice cultivation has been adopted in according with nature (Hattori and Kyuma 1978). Landscape and people evolved together through rice cultivation in sync with the indispensable rhythms of water cycles into a rice-economy (Ishii 1978). The rice-economy was significantly influence by water availability, thus traditional water management was in place for distribution of water and flood control at a small scale in according to hydrological and topographical characteristics with unique local social organization (Ishii 1978). The lower part of the Chao Phraya River, the geomorphologically younger part of the delta, is a part of “the center of the geographical living space” of Thailand. (Tanabe, 1977). This view was built upon the capability of the landscape to provide functions or potentials for human inhabitation and exploitation, such as the capacity to produce foods and resources, the capacity to build human’s habitat
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and places, a self-regulated environment, based on the resilience of the landscape’s ecosystem and the capability to link with aesthetic, scientific, cultural and other interest of human kind. (Zonneveld, 1988) However, the rapid development of the lower delta for export rice cultivation affected the rapid urbanization of the city of Bangkok (Takaya, 1987). In the early years, many canals were constructed and functioned as highways rather than for irrigation. (Takaya, 1987). The canals radiated outward from the center of the city, providing access to the city center as well as the agricultural market towns along the waterways. While the Cornell Thailand Project is notable in its close-up observation of one micro-ecology over generational time frames, the SEAS research is much broader historical and geomorphological contexts. Yet the question remains why did this comprehensive knowledge of a water based urbanization based in agriculture not direct an alternative urbanization model to the car based designs that exploded following American withdrawal. Why did Japan continue to finance car-based urbanism rather than model the development on mass transit oriented Tokyo? Thailand has become the “Detroit of the East, ” but it is mostly populated by Japanese auto manufacturers and their subcontractors. An elaborate foreign financed modern expressway system was built in and around Bangkok before mass transit could take a foot hold and the economic crisis of 1997 curtailed most plans. Industrial zones and automobile infrastructure now dominate the Chao Phraya Delta, that fertile and fragile human altered landscape so celebrated in the research work at CSEAS. 1990-2010: Long term ecosystem research at Chulalongkorn University Our research in Bangkok began with the desire to combine the capability of remote sensing to describe large scale land cover change as well as the close-up long term ethnographic research. The hope is to develop cross-disciplinary, multi-scaler and transnational research methodologies without the nostalgia for disappearance that created a huge gap between the Cornell and Kyoto research projects. This work has since been complimented by an effort at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Architecture to recognize the agricultural, rural and village landscape as the basis of Thai urbanism, and to survey and archive the historical records of that urban transformation. In our first project, “Tasting the Periphery” (McGrath and Thaitakoo 2005) we complimented remote infrared sensing with field sites along the Outer Ring Road of Bangkok. The road has yet to be completed, and in the area southeast of Bangkok that still awaits the construction of the last link of the beltway we found the of first Honda motorcycle factory. Discussions with farmers reveal the struggles they have had in the thirty year limbo of waiting for the highway to be built, while trying to grow crops in water that is contaminated by nearby industrial zones. Our method which senses the city both close-up and remote, combines the comprehensiveness of Japanese scholarship with the thick local knowledge ascertained by the Cornell Thailand project. (McGrath and Shane, 2005) Of particular importance for the research at Chulalongkorn is on the early modernization of Bangkok between 1900 and 1940, before the domination of American and Japanese influence, particularly the period of King Chulalongkorn, (Rama 5) who the university is named after. Of special interest is the cartographic development which accompanied modernization, and the historical maps of the fifth reign are important artifacts which give rich detail on the changes the city went under during this period, but also what has happened in the post World War II period. Other important documents include the British aerial survey of the city conducted by William Hung in 1950 and the continuous aerial survey’s since 1967 by the Royal Thai Airforce. Additionally civilian satellite imagery, from
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Landsat since 1972 and the Japanese-US Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) imagery since 1999, form our large scale data base. Remote sensing thermal and reflection analysis is complimeted by research in the historical changes of land use in Bangkok during 1890s to 1930s utilizing old maps and GIS. This research intends to put forth methods of studying urban evolution and urbanization in order to understand historic urbanization and its impacts. Moreover, this research intended to delineate the patterns of historic physical-environmental and socio-economic factors and their influence in urbanization processes of Bangkok during 1890-1932. This research lays the foundation of this type of research in Thailand and will be the case study for further research in similar and related subjects. It is also will be a case study for students, researcher to look upon as a case study for the subject of urban study. Understanding historical context of urbanization and urban evolution in terms of urban patterns and their underlying processes could be critical knowledge and information pertains to urban planning and urban development policy especially the issues around climate change. The knowledge and information can also be contributed to build a foundation of a knowledge base society that have critical knowledge and information to make a proper decision for its future and help developing a democratic society that can evaluate its own choices and making intelligent decision that affect its quality of life and be able to build the place that could produce richness of human life and activities. Bangkok is one of Asian mega-city with rapid growth rate. Bangkok is a place with more than 6 millions inhabitants with desire and expectation for richness of human life and activities. The alteration of the landscape overtime through the course of urbanization and modernization has turned the way of living in concert with nature into a modern way of living without the realization of natural process. This direction of urbanization creates unforeseen consequences, which result in negative impacts on urban environment. During 1900s-1940s periods can be view as an early evolution through modernization. Bangkok started to expand and modernized following the influences from European prototypes. Although rather slowly, the pattern created by urbanizing and modernizing reflex the evolution of the city through the complexity of intermingle among ecological, economic, social, cultural, and political processes and characteristics of that period. Bangkok started to become the center of modern political, administration, economic, commercial, industry and services. This is a very important transitional period of changes and modernization. Understanding the historical dynamics of urban patterns and changes would be a critical knowledge that can be use as a foundation to study urbanization and its’ impacts on the urban inhabitants. Maps as historical documents represent the state of the landscape of urban and its' environ during the period of data collecting. There are physical and biological and land use patterns that represent underlying processes of urbanization and urban evolution. These pattern represent human ecosystem at the specific period of time which indicate the driving factors that change the landscape of urban intermix that thought to be vital to the conditions of urban environment and urban life. By comparing and analyzing the different patterns and morphology of different period of times, this research aims to understand the characteristic of urban changes in term of land use and morphology and their underlying processes of a part of Bangkok. GIS, in general terms, means “a computer system designed to allow users to collect, manage and analyze large volumes of spatially referenced information and associated attribute data”
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(www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/documents/glossary/G.htm) In our research, we would like to make a more specific definition according to our purpose, maps and information pertaining to the study of the past land use and urban morphology, so our definition of “Historical GIS” is “a system designed to allow users to collect, manage and analyze large volumes of spatially referenced information and associated attribute data extracted from historical maps and documents for the purpose of studying the past” In our study, we primarily use GIS as a conceptual and organizational framework for constructing, restructuring, organizing and managing spatial data and attributes. Furthermore GIS is also used as a tool in analyzing and synthesizing data such as disaggregating, aggregating and visualizing information pertaining to urban patterns and processes. This research intended to use the new methodology in the form of “Historical GIS” to explore and investigate the possibility in visualizing and understanding the past patterns and urban morphology of Bangkok during 1890-1932. We anticipate that this methodology would enable us to better visualizing spatial patterns of land use and urban morphology and let us to investigate spatial patterns that this methodology would reveal to us. We produced and used three forms of GIS data base. The first data is geo-referenced images of historical maps (1890, 1908s and 1932 maps). The second data is the point data of places digitized from 1908s and 1932 maps. The third data is polygon data of land parcels digitized from 1908s maps. The attribute data attached to the point data of places are the name of the places labeled in the maps. The attribute data attached to the polygon data of land parcels is the records of land owners as the accompanying records with the 1908s maps. These records contains the names of the land owners and the size of the land parcels. All of these data were need to be built from the ground up from a paper based data to a digital based data because there is no previous work in the field of historical GIS in the area of Bangkok before. Since maps from each period were made by different methods, skill and technology, we are confronting the completely different map systems to analyze, and synthesize in our study. The discrepancy among map data digitized from these maps mostly the systematic shifting of maps and reference points are inevitable and make a directed and quantitative comparison unfeasible at this stage of the study. We can characterize the macro scale changes of land use as the transformation of agricultural lands to urbanized areas. There are two major characteristic of land transformations the first one is the transformation of small remnant orchard patches within the urbanized mosaic of inner urban areas. The second characteristic of land transformations is the transformation of the rice fields along the edge of the urbanized areas into new urbanized residential land use. In terms of urban structures, although there were evidences of canals uses as a major transportation routes, the building of more new roads were the major landscape changes that transformed urban morphology, land uses and relationship of urban inhabitants to water based transportation. As mentioned as the limitation of the data, we will need to find the effective and efficient way of reducing the discrepancy among map data digitized from historical maps from different periods. The solution will enable us to perform directed and quantitative comparison of map data from historical maps. We need to classify and delineate, in detail, urbanized land and agricultural land for the purpose
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of studying the dynamics and characteristic of urbanization and transformation of agricultural land to urbanized land through the 1890-1932. This will reveal the dynamics and characteristic of changes from agricultural based town into commercial, industrial and service based city. During our detailed exploring and investigating the list of the land owner of the 1908 maps, we discovered the details in terms the prefix, noble rank and others of the name of the land owners appear in the list. These prefix can point out to the ethnic group, social and economic status, relationship to royal family and certain types of land use. In our initial analysis, historical GIS help us delineated patterns that we were able to visualize the clustering patterns of the ethnic group, social and economic status, relationship to royal family, and certain types of land uses. So the in depth analysis and interpretation of the land owner list need to be performed in order to delineate a thematic map of the ethnic group, social and economic status of 1908 Bangkok as a tool to study social structure and dynamics and urban morphology in Bangkok during 1908. The further research will put forth a method of analyzing and synthesizing historical maps in systematic and explicit analytical manner using Geographic Information System. Better understanding the characteristic of spatial and temporal of urban changes in term of land use and morphology and the relationships with their underlying processes through the broader framework of human ecology could lead to a better preparation for a more sustainable urban planning. The work of the researchers from Kyoto provides the basis for systematic study of urban as well as their intended agricultural ecosystems. Upstream capitals like Chiang Mai sent tribute downstream first to Sukhothai, then Ayutthaya and finally to Bangkok. The design of these cities reflects the divine order of the Buddhist monasteries and royal palaces, with adaptations to local geographies. Chiang Mai is a moated city built within a mountain valley. The city uses and filters the water that comes from the near by Doi Suthep Mountain before feeding the orchards and rice fields which line the Ping River. Sukhothai is the first Siamese capital city, and its builders adjusted the geometry of the city away from the ideal east/west alignment of the older Khmer settlement, instead orienting the city in line with a water axis that travels down the hills and into the river valley comprising a similar orchard/paddy agricultural landscape. The great city of Ayutthaya was built on a constructed island at the confluence of three rivers which fed a regular grid of canals which crisscrossed the city. Ayutthaya replaced Angkor as the dominate capital in the region and the surrounding wet agricultural landscape provided a natural protective barrier for the city. Finally, Bangkok was the site of the reconstitution of the Siamese Kingdom by the Chakri dynasty in the Chao Phraya Delta. The tributary cultural geography in the Chao Phraya River Basin terminates in the distributary network of an endlessly meandering network of natural streams and constructed waterways in and around Greater Bangkok. Absorbing, distributing and retaining water during the dry season and draining excess water during wet season, the vast network of canals brings tangible evidence of the regions larger hydrological cycles to the details of every-day life in the historically urbanized delta. The research of the formative basis of canal building and rice farming in the Chao Phraya Delta has been complimented by the groundbreaking work of Terdsak Tachakitkachorn on the orchard farming west of Bangkok. Bangkok is situated in a slight deltaic high amidst a predominantly low lying, flat terrain of the lower Chao Phraya River Delta. The area was first urbanized during the Ayutthaya period, as a vast network of mixed fruit orchards and market towns planted within a harsh marshland. (Tachakitkachorn, 2005) Along the canal banks were homes and shop houses. The lands in between were fruit orchards and rice paddies.
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The research of Terdsak has demonstrated that from the Ayutthaya period, this delta was a vast planted forest of productive orchards which supported a network of market towns interconnected by waterways. (Terdsak, 2005) The landscape of Chao Phraya River Delta in the 20th century went through the processes of modification and transformation to become the world’s rice bowl and the undisputed world leader of rice production for export. The locally managed system of rice farming was modernized beginning with the arrival of Dutch engineer Homan van der Heide in 1902. (Brummelhuis, 2005) The inhabitants of the Chao Phraya Delta have been through long periods of adaptation and resilience in dealing with various kinds of landscape change, and the complex distributed city of orchards, rice, fish and prawn farms, as well as electronics and automobile factories now faces new challenges related to climate change, lands subsidence and rising sea levels. The other major research project of the Chulalongkorn period is on Homan van der Heide, a Dutch engineer who worked for the Thai government between 1902 and 1909 and the creator of the royal irrigation department proposed an ambitious plan for economic development that would significantly increase the wealth of the nation by the way of building irrigation and drainage system in the Chao Phraya River delta (Brummelhuis 2007). A hydro-economy was viewed as: A good irrigation and drainage system would maintain water supply throughout the year, thus a period of rice cultivation can be extended and also the area for rice cultivation can be expanded. Quality and quantity of rice could be improved, and the major canals and their branches would deposit more silt on the plot as the way to replenish the field from fertilizing effect. Moreover, flooding of village and gardens could be prevented as a result orchards lands can be expand and fruit production can be improved. Pure dinking water would become available throughout the region and during the whole year. Besides, extensive network of canals would improve transportation which include road building on the embankment (Brummelhuis 2007). The promise of this research and educational direction at Chulalongkorn is in its close ties with the Bangkok Metropolitan Admistration’s new climate change initiatives. Bangkok, a tropical megacity, occupies a vast area of the lower Chao Phraya Delta with an estimated area within the administrative boundary is around 1568 Sq.Km. and urbanized area around 613 Sq.Km.(BMA 1999, 2003). This vast area contains a daytime population around 10 million people and around 7 million registered population (BMA 2004c). The Bangkok metropolitan area can be classified into three categories as (BMA 1999, 2003): 1. Inner city: It is the area consists of old city core, high-density commercial centers, and highdensity residential area with high population density. 2. Urban fringe: It is the area between the inner city and the outer part, which characterized by the urban sprawl with high growth rate of population and development. 3. Suburb: It is the outer part of the city consists of mostly agricultural areas and open space, a mixture of urban and rural characteristics. The recent trend of urban growth is concentrated in the urban fringe area, a transition between the inner city and the outer part or suburb area. This urban-rural intermixed area can be characterized by the sprawl of old and new residential estate developments, clusters of industrial estate, strip developments of commercial areas along the roads and large shopping centers. These settlements situate in the old agricultural areas that can be viewed as the pattern of patchy human developments in
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the matrix of agricultural and open fields. The current governor of Bangkok has joined the international consortium of cities, C40 that is committed to reducing carbon emissions. It is as part of this initiative that the most recent group of Columbia University Urban Design students participated in a workshop sponsored by Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Architecture and the BMA. We conclude our paper with a report on this student work completed just this Spring Semester, 2008. The lower Chao Phraya Delta including Bangkok metropolitan area is under the influence of following hydro-ecological factors (Jarupongsakul, 2000). 1. The rainfall in upland watershed of the Chao Phraya River creates excessive flow from the northern part of the river basin. The excessive flow runs through Bangkok towards the sea and causes
overflow from the Chao Phraya River. It also creates the flow of run-off from the northern and eastern areas runs through Bangkok due to geomorphic and topographical characteristics of the area. 2. The rainfall in the lower Chao Phraya Delta and Bangkok creates excessive runoff in the area. 3. The backup of the Chao Phraya River due to the high tides slows water discharge.
Compounded with the low-lying flat terrain, the topography has an elevation of less than 2.5 meters with virtually no gradient. The landscape of the area is greatly dominated by these hydroecological characteristics that compounds the flood conditions severely. As a result, draining excessive runoff is very difficult.
Lying on the low-lying of the lower Chao Phraya Delta, Bangkok encounters periodic floods every year. As an agricultural settlement in the past, flood, a natural process, was a part of life and considered life’s nourishment. Historically people lived in concert with the natural process of flooding as essential to the wet rice growing economy, while the modern city depends on the immediate release of excess rain water, upstream runoff and tidal surge through elaborate technologies of flood control dikes and gates, which too often remain closed to water flows and discharge. The alteration of the land and waterscape overtime through the course of urbanization and modernization has turned the effect of flooding into a negative impact, especially in urban areas. Flooding has become a natural hazard and is considered threatening to life and property, although several factors contributing to urban flood are the consequences of human activities. Engineering solutions (structural controls) to prevent flooding were introduced at great cost. Unforeseen consequences due to the limitation of structural controls have changed the landscape and natural process that have affected the way of life for people to a great degree. Moreover, when the structural controls fail, it causes greater damage (Jarupongsakul, 2000). The plight of climate change compounds an already complex ecosystem with many conflicts between delta and the city dynamics. More hot days, longer summers, higher rain intensity, more water, and sea level rise (SEA START RC 2007) are among the main concerns in the Bangkok metropolitan area and vicinity. These changes would be compounded by the increasing threats of urban heat island phenomena, periodic flood during rainy season, drought during dry season, loss of coastal land due to coastal erosion, industrialized prawn production, and land subsidence due to industrial ground water withdrawal. The delta and the city present threats to each other only because of a lack of recognition of 164
natural hydrological processes and the indigenous and traditional knowledge of living in concert with natural cycles of wet and dry seasons. The dynamic of space-time relationships of human and nature has failed to recognize the importance of the hydro-ecology of the landscape of the city. Liquid Perception: Disappearances and Apparitions Along the 14th parallel, day and night oscillate neatly between predictable twelve hour divisions and months pass with little change in temperature barely affected by the earth’s axial tilt. However between May and October, a slight shift in atmospheric currents brings monsoon rains from the Indonesian archipelago north to the mountain ranges ringing northern Thailand whose runoff feeds the Mae Nam Chao Phraya River Basin - and Bangkok sprawling across its flat, silted tidal delta. Seasonal cycles of precipitation rather than temperature extremes of winter and summer bring rhythm to life just above the equator, putting into motion human cycles of planting, harvest and migration, as well as shaping Thai beliefs and rituals. The mountain rainforests release a sacred mixture of rain and nutrients which follows the historical geography of the capital cities of the Kingdom of Siam through the alluvial valleys at Sukhothai (13th century); terraced floodplains converging at Ayutthaya (14th-18th centuries) before finally depositing in deltaic Bangkok (18th to present). Thai urbanity and domesticity evolved from intimate association with climatic, topographic and hydraulic conditions. River, canal and lagoon based garden cities retained six months of rainwater for the following six dry ones, staging ceremonies and rituals in sync with attentive observation of hydrological cycles and variations. The Thai fluvial geography was overcoded by a feudal tributary power system. Up stream vassals and lesser kings sent annual gifts to the royal houses in the successively downstream capitals, from which auratic power was reflected back to village hinterlands. (Winichakul,1995) Honorific space materialized a layered Buddhist cosmology of distant Kings and river valley kingdoms comprising distinct watersheds. Power was primarily symbolic, as villages made decisions about land and water management locally.
Contemporary life in a newly industrialized country follows the less predictable flows and fluctuations of global capital. Thailand’s strategic Cold War alliance with America catapulted the Kingdom’s economy to a world stage, and new ideas and fantasies from abroad now freely mix with ancient myths and rites. When rice prices fall and word of jobs in Bangkok reaches small subsistence agricultural settlements, economic migrations trickle and then flood the capital city. Now, media flows in a reverse direction of the watershed, and television broadcasts from Bangkok infiltrate nearly every household in the Kingdom. Modern Bangkok disseminates images and messages much more rapidly and viscerally to the rural majority’s village T.V. screens than news and laws from the distant Kings of the past, producing more impulsive and less predictable human responses. Today, the Chao Phraya River Basin is managed by a vast network of hydro-electrical and draught control dams and reservoirs by ministries in Bangkok rather than tributary kingdoms. Modern dams and huge reservoirs replaced cities as locally controlled and maintained water retention systems modeled on the Tennessee Valley Authority with World Bank and American assistance during the Cold War. Water and floods were thought to be technologically controllable and manageable in a system that is more ideologically aligned with techno-rational models than with the complexities of indigenous Thai socio-hydrology and urbanism. 165
The vanishing views of natural processes and the vanishing land and waterscape that reflect the relationship between human and natural processes are clearly visible in the Bangkok metropolitan area. These views are also reflected in the recent transformation of agricultural areas to built-up areas in the urban fringe of the metropolitan area. As consequences of these different views, the roles and functions of natural processes and the landscape are perceived differently. These different values play a major role in dictating different changes in the land and waterscape and land and water use. The future in the past Early settlements along the bank of rivers, canals and flood plain areas were subjected to flooding and draught every year. This settlement characteristic was the result of cultural, topographical and hydrological characteristic of the delta. The vast agricultural settlement benefited from flooding without serious problem or flood damage. Flood, a natural process, was a part of life and considered as life’s nourishment. People adapted to the rhythm of the natural process by building their living environment according to flooding and draught characteristic without any action against the course of the natural process. Contemporary Bangkok might look to the historical context of Thai waterscape urbanism for solutions to the pressing problems of climate change: a pre-modern, locally controlled, human ecosystem watershed model structured and sustained Thai cities for centuries. An animist tradition combined with an inherited Hindu-Buddhist cosmological framework created a tributary culture for a locally managed, forest and agricultural production society with a Dhamma King, as the symbolic Lord of Life symbolized through water. A reassessment of how river and water flows have been adjusted to pass around and through cities rather than flushed under them is critical in order to create new dynamic design models of urban ecosystems. The understanding of historical resilience and adaptability of living with water of indigenous and traditional processes would be crucial for dealing with future uncertainty. This is not just a historical model, but contemporary urban ecosystem designs around the world are looking for ways to retain water in cities. (McGrath, 2008) The discipline of landscape and urban planning and design is being added to this ecosystem framework in order to create new dynamic planning and design models of urban ecosystems. Contemporary urban ecosystem science and Thai urbanism both point to the creation of cities as water retention systems for socio-cultural as well environmental reasons. We suggest a radical shifting in emphasis from the current “solid state” of “land”scape urbanism, towards a more systemic approach to urban ecosystem understanding in urban design – a “water”scape urbanism inspired by the concept of liquid perception (Deleuze, 1986) and long term urban ecosystem research in Greater Bangkok, Thailand. Contemporary ecosystem science, in its search for controlled research field sites in which to monitor and model the complex interrelationships switched between the studies of terrestrial island ecosystems to the watershed approach. (See Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest web site) It would be important for architects, landscape architects and urban designers to understand the difference between these two land and water based models to critically analyze current trends in landscape urbanism. While landscape urbanism has developed an argument around North American post-industrial cities and the creation of large parks as islands in these cities, we suggest the exploration in depth the watershed approach as a new model for urban design, allied with the new modes of perception Deleuze calls for, waterscape urbanism
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Abbas, Akbar, 1997. Hong Kong and the Politics of Cultural Disappearance, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. BMA 2004: Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, General Information WWW page,
http://www.bma.go.th/bmaeng/body_general.html#geography, December, 2004. Brummelhuis, Han ten, 2005. King of the Waters, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books. Deleuze, Gilles, 1986. Cinema 1: The Movement Image, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Hanks, Lucien 1972. M., Rice and Man: Agricultural Ecology in Southeast Asia, Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company. Ishii, Yoneo, 1978. Thailand: A Rice-Growing Society, translated by Peter and Stephaie Hawkes. Monographs of the Center for South East Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii. Jarupongsakul, T. and Kaida, Y. 2000. The Imagescape of the Chao Phraya Delta into the year 2020, Proceedings of The International Conference: The Chao Phraya Delta: Historical Development, Dynamics and Challenges of Thailand's Rice Bowl: 12-15 December 2000, Bangkok: Kasetsart University. Jarupongsakul, T. 2000: Chapter 2: Geomorphology Aspects Affecting the Occurrence of Floods and influencing the Drainage in the Lower Central Plain, Thailand, in the Analysis and Preparation for Flood-risk map in the Lower Central Plain, Thailand, Jarupongsakul, T. edited. Bangkok: Center for Disaster and Land Information Studies, Chulalongkorn University. McGrath, Brian et. al., 2008. Designing Patch Dynamics, New York: Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. McGrath, Brian and Danai Thaitakoo, (2005) “Tasting the Periphery: Bangkok’s agri and aquacultural fringe” from Food and the City, guest edited by Karen Franck, London: AD Vol. 75, No. 3. McGrath, Brian and Grahame Shane, (2005) Sensing the 21st-Century City: Close-up and Remote, AD Vol. 75, No. 6. SEA START RC 2007. South East Asia START Regional Center: A Decade of Climate Change Research in Thailand, South East Asia START Regional Center, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. Sharp, Lauriston and Lucien M. Hanks, 1978. Bang Chan: Social History of a Rural Community in Thailand, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Sternstein, L. 1982. Portrait of Bangkok, Bangkok: Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. Tanabe, Shigeharu 1977. Historical geography of the canal system in the Chao Phraya Delta from the Ayutthaya period to the fourth reign of the Ratanakosin Dynasty, Monographs of the Center for South East Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Takaya, Yoshikazu, 1987. Agricultural Development of A Tropical Delta : A Study of the Chao Phraya Delta, translated by by Peter Hawkes, Monographs of the Center for South East Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii. Tachakitkachorn, Terdsak 2005: A comparative Study on the Transformation Process of Settlement Developed form Orchards in the Chao Phraya Delta, Doctoral Dissertation, Kobe University. Winichakul, Thongchai 1995. Siam Mapped, a History of the Geo-Body of a Nation, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Zonneveld, I.S. 1988. Landscape Ecology and its Application, in Landscape ecology and Management, Proceedings of the First Symposium of the Canadian Society for 168
Landscape Ecology and Management: University of Guelph, May, 1987, Polyscience Publications Inc., Montreal, Canada.
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Urban micro-climate in the City of Mosul, Iraq Turki Hassan Ali*. Bahjat Rashad Shaheen** *Department of Architecture- College of Engineering, Mosul University
[email protected] Tele: +9647701698904 **Department of Architecture- College of Engineering, Baghdad University Tele: +9647701698904 ABSTRACT The proportion of the world's population living in urban areas is constantly increasing. Different urban shapes result in different micro-climates. The way cities are planned and build is therefore important for the global energy use. The city of Mosul ( north of Iraq) had witnessed a rapid urbanization during the second half of the last century, adopting the open grid iron system in planning the new residential areas which now exist beside the traditional compact system. This study present result from measurements of Max. air temperature during hot season in (156) points in the traditional paths of the old city (called zuqaqu) and (44) points in the streets of the modern neighborhoods, more over the engineering-physical characteristics of each point had been measured. Using statistical analyzing for determining the impact of each of these characters on the urban micro climate (Max. air temperature). The primary results show that sky view factor has the major impact on air temperature, and that confirm the important role of the urban designers and planners in the urban micro-climate.
INTRODUCTION The proportion of the world's population that lives in urban areas is constantly increasing. Urbanization gives rise to economic growth, which results in higher energy use for e g: cooling and heating buildings. The way cities are planned and built is therefore important for the global energy use, and for creating livable spaces for the individuals within the urban fabric. Most of the Arabic cities adopt the gridiron type (wide open streets) in their planning without any regard to the hot-dry climate consideration, which prevail in most of them. This work aims at studying the degree of influence of the urban path physicalengineering characters on urban microclimate (AIR TEMPERATURE). Accordingly, we look at the relationship between the built space and environment, so it is assumed that variations of urban path configurations and characters cause significant climate
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modifications, and has significant impact on the thermal comfort of the individuals and energy use. From this general hypothesis, fundamental question rises, is there any valid way making it possible to quantify the impact of these physical-engineering characters of urban path on the air temperature in the urban micro climate? However, we do not dispute the already formalized links between urban form and the climate. They have been addressed in several studies (Ait-Ameur 2000), (Rosenlud et al 2000). In the context of our work, we look for the precise interpretation of these links, by using a statistical analysis to evaluate the influence of urban path characters on the climatic factor( air temperature). Background Mosul, with almost two million inhabitants, is the third largest city in Iraq. Mosul is situated 36.19 N, 43.09 E, at 230 m above sea level in a hilly area between the Mountains in the North and the Al-jazeera plane in the South and the West, Tigress River divides the city into two parts. The climate of Mosul is characterized by hot and dry summers and cold winters with rare snow, (Aljanabi 1991). Annual mean temperature is 19.5◦ C and rainfall is 383 mm, (Ali 2007). Monthly climate data is shown in figure (1, 2). Mosul consists of two contrasting parts: the traditional Arabic-Islamic, organic urban pattern, the old city, and the modern city with its gridiron urban pattern. Six housing neighborhoods in each part of the city were studied. The old city is one of the most densely developed areas. Introverted courtyard buildings in two to three stories surround the narrow streets, which cut deep ravines through the city. The street network is irregular. This means that the buildings shade each other, there is a great variation of traditional building elements and a large number of building details provide shade at street level. Problem Different urban shapes result in different urban micro-climates. This study seeks to define the relationship between urban space characters (physical-engineering factors) and urban micro-climate (Max. temperature) in traditional and modern living areas of Mosul city. The aim is to quantify the effect of these factors so the urban designer can make use of this in their designs to enhance the quality of urban micro-climate, which reflect to the comfort level of users of the urban space and energy consumption. METHODOLOGY In the traditional neighborhoods (156) measuring points were studied, and (44) measuring points in the modern neighborhoods, figure (3, 4). Measurements were made
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in different types of paths, (cul-de-sac, and open and covered paths). The streets had different orientations. For each measuring point, Max air temperature (measured in the middle of the street canyon, 2 m above street level), physical characters (reflection coefficient of the ground and the walls material and color) and engineering characters (orientation, height to width (H/W) ratio, sky view factor) were measured. See table (1) and figure (5). The instrument was protected from sunlight during the measurements. The measurements took place at 2 am. The measurements were made in each neighborhood at one day, with other measurement took place at meteorological station synchronously. The Climate Measurements were made during summer, 20 July to 5 august in 2007, the non-urban climate for Mosul for the actual periods, measured at the meteorological situated on the outskirts of the city, Air temperature was measured with the testo-179-H2. The accuracy of the air temperature is ±0.5°C. After defining the physical-engineering characters of each measuring point in the two set of the neighborhoods (traditional and modern), the research consider these characters as dependent factors , and the climatic factor as independent factor, as the following: The dependent factors are: X1= type of urban fabric. X2= orientation of the path. X3= sky view factor. X4= width to height ratio (W/H). X5= reflection factor of ground material. X6= reflection factor of facades material. X7= reflection factor of facades color. The independent factor is: Y1= Max air temp. at measuring point- Max air temperature at meteorological Station. Using statistical program (SPSS), in order to make regression analysis to explore the relation between the factors, and the effect of each physical-engineering factors on urban air temperature. RESULTS Table (1) shows that the summary of the field survey of the physical-engineering characters and Max air temperature of measuring points, we can notice the following: 9 The mean difference in Max. air temperature between measuring points in the traditional urban path and Meteorological Station was (-1.05) ◦ C, while the same indicator in the modern urban fabric measuring points was (+2.11) ◦ C. The lowest reading in the traditional fabric was (- 3.30) ◦ C, while the in the modern fabric was (0.1) ◦ C, The highest reading in the traditional fabric was (+0.6) ◦ C, while the in the modern fabric was (+7.3) ◦ C
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9 Standard deviations of reading in the traditional fabric is the lower than the reading in the modern fabric. 9 The average width of urban path in the traditional fabric was (3) meters, while the average width of the modern street was (12) meters. The average height of the traditional facades was (6.5) m and (2) m for the modern facades. 9 Mean Sky view factor (SVF) for the traditional spaces was (0.14), and (0.77) for the modern spaces. The regression analysis shows a significant relation (p1.0 to 1.5 FAR (2 points); 31-40 DU/acre, >1.5 to 2.0 FAR (3 points); 41-50 DU/acre, >2.0 to 2.5 FAR (4 points); 51-60 DU/acre, >2.5 to 3.0 FAR (5 points); 61-70 DU/acre, >3.0 to 3.5 FAR (6 points); 71+ DU/acre, >3.5 FAR (7 points).
• Density for a Residential area: (2,0): Lot Coverage: 0,6 and FAR: 1,8+ (3,0): Lot Coverage: 0,4 and FAR: 0,4-1,2 (4,0): Lot Coverage: 0,2 and FAR: 0,2-0,4 (5,0): Lot Coverage: 0,1 and FAR: 0,1-0,2 Mixed-use area: (2,0): Lot Coverage: 0,8 and FAR: 2,4+ (3,0): Lot Coverage: 0,6 and FAR: 1,8+ (4,0): Lot Coverage: 0,5 and FAR: 1,5+ (5,0): Lot Coverage: 0,5 and FAR: 1,5< Weight: 4.0%
Walkable Design
• None
• NPD PRQ: Dedicate streets to the public and no gates on the community.
4%
• NPD CR: Do not locate parking in front of any building, minimize the amount of parking surface area to less than 20% of the development footprint and provide bicycle or carpool parking. (2 points) • NPD CR: Provide building entries on the street, square or park, create a minimum of a 1:3 building-height-to-street-width ratio for 30% of the project, provide continuous sidewalks, limit speed to 20 mph for residential and 25 for mixed-use. (4 points) Additional points given for building near the property line, having frequent building entries, no blank walls, unshuttered ground level windows, on-street parking, street trees, ground floor retail and shade along the sidewalks. (up to 8 total points) • NPD CR: Build a street network of 20-29 or over 30 centerline miles per square mile. (1-2 points) • NPD CR: Build through-streets every 800 feet (250 meters) along the project boundary. (1 point). 4. Protecting the Natural Environment 324
Weighting Water
14%
27%
• SLL PRQ: Locate where there is no wetlands or water bodies, compensate for impacts to those if the area is highly developed; if not highly developed, only minimal impacts are allowed.
• Impervious surface change: there is less impervious surface and major impaired or contaminated areas would be improved (1,0); there is no impervious surface change and minor contaminated areas are improved (2,0); 10-50% more impervious surface is created (3,0-4,0); over 50% more impervious surface is created (5,0-6,0). Weight: 2.0%
• SLL PRQ: If located in a floodplain, use only previously developed areas and follow federal recommended standards for floodplain development.
• Ground absorption of rainwater: will increase and be cleaned by a filtering process (1,0); will increase (2,0); does not change (3,0); will decrease somewhat (4,0); will greatly decrease (6,0). Weight: 7.0%.
• SLL CR: Conserve all water bodies, wetlands and a buffer around them (may substitute habitat conservation). (1 point)
• The nearby surface waters will be: improved (1,0); not changed (2,0); impaired (4,0); significantly impaired (6,0). Weight: 3.0%.
• SLL CR: Restore predevelopment water bodies or wetlands, in an area equal to 10% of the development footprint (may substitute native habitat restoration). (1 point) • SLL CR: Create a management plan and funding for habitat sites or wetlands and water bodies for 10 years (may substitute native habitat site management). (1 point) • GCT CR: Stormwater treatment should infiltrate, reuse or evapotranspirate runoff from 90% of average annual rainfall or 1 inch rainfall. Points awarded by percent of impervious surface treated, with the lesser number for previously developed sites: 15-20% (1 point); 30-40% (2 points); 45-60% (3 points); 60-80% (4 points); 75-100% (5 points) Habitat
Site Disturbance
• SLL PRQ: Comply with an existing Habitat Conservation Plan or create one if there is a high likelihood of imperiled species existing.
• Protected areas are: positively influenced (1,0); not affected or protected areas are not existing (2,0); affected and the protected area’s goals are not met (3,0); are considerably impaired (6,0). Weight: 6.0%
• SLL CR: Use native plants for previously developed sites; or conserve all important natural habitats (may substitute for water body conservation). (1 point)
• Habitat protection is: positively influenced (1,0); not affected or habitat is not existing (2,0); only affected to a small extent (3,0); are greatly affected (6,0). Weight: 6.0%
• SLL CR: Restore native habitat in an area equal to 10% of the development footprint (may substitute for water body restoration). (1 point)
• Flora and fauna are: positively influenced (1,0); not affected (2,0); only affected to a small extent (3,0); are greatly affected (6,0). Weight: 3.0%
• SLL CR: Create a management plan and funding for habitat sites for 10 years(may substitute for water body management). (1 point) • SLL CR: Do not develop on steep slopes over 15% or limit development to 40-60% of the site with slopes of 15-40%; no development of slopes over 40%. (1 point)
• None
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• GCT PRQ: Implement an Erosion and Sedimentation Control Plan for construction activities. • GCT CR: Minimize site disturbance by locating on a previously developed site or by leaving 10-20% of the site undisturbed. (1 point) • GCT CR: Minimize site disturbance during construction by locating on a previously developed site; or by limiting disturbance within 40 feet (12 meters) beyond buildings and 10-25 feet (3-8 meters) beyond sidewalks and roads; or by preserving significant tree species and majority of all trees. (1 point) 5. Social Issues Weighting Diversity of Housing Types
Affordable Housing
10%
5%
• NPD CR: Provide a variety of housing types, small and large, of detached residential, townhomes, and a range of multi-family buildings. Points based on Simpson Diversity Index. (1-3 points)
• None
• NPD CR: Provide affordable rental (15 or 30% of units) depending on level of subsidy. (12 points)
• None
• NPD CR: Provide affordable for-sale housing (10 or 20% of units) depending on level of subsidy. (1-2 points) Universal Accessibility
• NPD CR: Provide 20% of the housing to be handicap-accessible and apply universal design to common areas and recreational facilities. (1 point)
• None
Community Outreach
• NPD CR: Meet with neighbors and local officials during all phases of project development and modify project based on feedback. (1 point) • NPD CR: Provide a neighborhood farm or garden, buy shares in community supported agriculture or locate near a farmer’s market. (1 point)
• None
• None
• Appearance of the Townscape and Scenery: the best score is given for enhancing the image of the city(town)scape and scenery and a poor score with any negative influence. Weight: 5.0%
Local Food Production
Appearance of the Townscape and Scenery
6. Resource Efficiency Weighting 21% Green Buildings • GCT CR: Include 20-40%+ LEED-Certified Green Buildings. (1-3 points)
• None
10% • None
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Energy Efficiency
• GCT CR: Energy Efficiency in Buildings: provide a minimum standard increase of 1020% based on the baseline ASHRAE standard or comply with the prescriptive measures of the ASHRAE Advanced Energy Design Guide; for residential buildings 3 or fewer stories, comply with or exceed the ENERGY STAR for Homes requirements. (1-3 points)
• None
• GCT CR: Use street lights, water and wastewater pumps and treatment systems to use 15% less energy than the base line. Use LED technology for traffic lights. (1 point) Water Efficiency
• GCT CR: Reduced Water Use: use 20-30% less water than the baseline of the Energy Policy Act; install low-flow fixtures in residential buildings 3 stories or fewer; use rainwater or graywater for irrigation or landscaping that does not require irrigation. (1-3 points)
• None
• GCT CR: Divert at least 50% of the wastewater by treating and reusing it to replace potable water. (1 point) Building Reuse
• GCT CR: Reuse one or more buildings, keeping at least 50% of one building and 20% or more of other buildings. (1-2 points)
• None
• GCT CR: Reuse a Historic Building designed by a local government or the National Register of Historic Places and rehab according to federal “Standards for Rehabilitation.” (1point) Heat Island Effect/ Microclimate
• GCT CR: Heat island reduction achieved by installing most roofs with a high solar reflective index or green roofs or by providing 50% of impervious site landscape with shade, paving with a high solar reflective index or open grid paving. (1 point)
• Microclimate: the best score is for having a positive effect, or good score for a no or little effect on the microclimate. Poor scores are given for compromising fresh air currents through the site and surrounding area. Weight: 5.0%
Solar Orientation
• Solar orientation achieved by orientating blocks north-south or by or orientating buildings east-west. (1 point)
• None
Energy Generation/ Renewable Energy
• GCT CR: Provide on-site energy generation for at least 5% of the project’s electrical and/or thermal load. (1 point)
• For renewable energy options, better scores are given when the plan area is more suitable for renewable energy and poor scores when it is not possible. Weight: 5.0%
• GCT CR: Use solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric and biomass for 5% of the project’s electrical and/or thermal load. (1 point) Recycling & Reusing
• GCT CR: Use recycled content in asphalt and concrete infrastructure, based on layer and type of material. (1 point)
• None
• GCT CR: Recycle or salvage 50% of construction waste. (1 point) • GCT CR: Provide a hazardous waste dropoff site; a recycling or reuse station or locate in a city that provides recycling; and include a compost station or locate in a city that provides composting. (1 point) 327
7. Pollution Weighting Brownfields
Light, Noise and Other Pollution
2%
10%
• Note SLL CR: Reuse and clean a brownfield site (located in Prior Use of Site category) • GCT CR: Use clean up methods that treat and remediate (not remove or cap) contaminated material onsite. (1 point)
• None
• GCT CR: Only light areas for safety and comfort; do not exceed 50-80% of lighting power densities in ASHRAE. (1 point)
• Other potential problems evaluated (odor, light, poor air) receive a good score when there are no negative effects; the score declines as the amount of these problems increase. Weight: 3.5% • Traffic noise issues receive a good score when there are no negative effects; the score declines as the amount of noise increases. Weight: 3.5% • The potential for the plan to produce any emissions or other polluting effects is also evaluated, with a good score when there are no negative effects and a poor score declines as any emissions increase. Weight: 3.0%
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Appendix 2: Assessment Matrix For climate equality and ecological responsibility neighborhood location decisions Introduction In the context of a Bachelor Project Class at the Institute for City and Regional Planning (ISR) in the topic area of building and planning law, an Assessment Matrix was developed for the environmental guidance of plan areas where residential uses are permitted. Different to other matrices, not only are the regularly assessed environmental aspects (protected water, land, fauna and flora, people…) considered, but additionally a particular aspect of CO2 emissions are addressed through the evaluation of traffic conditions. With the matrix, the planners in- and outside of the urban planning and building zoning processes (land use planning - FNP) are offered help by an indicator system for environmentally just urban development decisions which are also ecologically appropriate with regards to general (global) climate protection (regulated by § 1 Paragraph 5 of the German Federal Building Code). The Assessment Matrix consists of several sections which have individual evaluation criteria. These criteria use the German educational grading system which allows for a more nuanced evaluation. The grading system is as follows: 1,0 = very good 2,0 = good 3,0 = satisfactory 4,0 = sufficient 5,0 = poor 6,0 = unsatisfactory/ very bad It is recommended, if consistently applied, that foreseeable changes to the general conditions of the area (i.e. a new tram line will be provided in three years for better public transit connections) are included in the evaluation. If current conditions must be confirmed or if conditions for a later area need to be described, the field for “notes” can hold that information as well as other provisions or goals. The Assessment Matrix begins by entering the names of each potential plan area. Four areas can be compared parallel to each other in the current version of the FNP Assessment Matrix. These are evaluated in the following sections: 1. Mobility / Location / Reachability (30%) 2. Emissions / Immissions (10%) 3. Microclimate (5%) 4. Ground & Area (new) Use (20%) 5. Nature (Flora & Fauna) (15%) 6. Water (10%) 7. Energy (5%) 8. Overall Appearance of the Townscape and Scenery (5%) The evaluation of the individual sections creates grades for the criteria together that describe the entire section. Click on the following items: first on the evaluation field (beginning with green) of the appropriate planning area and then on the plus (+) or minus (-) buttons to adjust the grade. 1. Mobility/Location/Reachability Mobility influences the environment in significant ways, especially the use of motorized individual transport (generally automobiles). They contribute significantly to CO2 production and in this way influence global climate change. The avoidance of auto use is an important binding element to city 329
development that is environmentally conscious and climate friendly. This section receives a 30 percent weight (the highest weighting of all sections) in the overall grade. Location of the area/Reachability Weight: 9.0% The Plan area is located… (1,0) in a neighborhood center (2,0) inside the residential area near the neighborhood (or city district) center / reachable by bicycle or transit within 15 minutes; by auto is comparable (2,3) inside the residential area near the neighborhood (or city district) center / reachable by bicycle or transit within 15 minutes; by auto is faster (3,0) in an inconvenient location to the neighborhood (or city district) center / reachable by bicycle or public transit within 30 minutes; by auto is comparable (4,0) distant from the neighborhood (or city district) center outside the residential area/ reachable with good public transit connections more easily by car (4,3) in an inconvenient location to the neighborhood (or city district) / reachable by bicycle or public transit within 30 minutes; by auto is faster (5,0) distant from the neighborhood (or city district) center outside the residential area/ poor public transit connections /reachable only by car within 30 minutes Public Transportation Connections (25%) Weight: 7.5% Rate public transit according to how well it competes with auto travel, considering the following factors: • type of transit • frequency • proximity to the station or stop • other stops along the line(s) • regional and trans-regional connections. Suitability for bicycle transportation (15%) (1,0) The plan area accommodates bicycles well (appropriate ground surfaces, connections between neighborhoods, a bicycle network safe from traffic and that reaches practical goals such as a neighborhood center or nature trails) (2,3) The plan area has a limited ability to accommodate bicycles; however, no high potential endangerment for bicyclists is noticeable (5,0) The plan area is inappropriate for bicycles, comparatively high potential endangerment for bicyclists (due to higher traffic, a lack of bicycle lanes or paths, cobblestones, or bad connections to important goals such as a neighborhood center) Availability of daily needed goods (15%) Shopping for daily needs can have traffic-causing effects. Therefore, the plan rates if and to what extend suitable daily needs are located nearby. In the evaluation, the following nearby services should be influential – groceries, supermarket, bakery, stationary store, book store, newspaper, post office, hairdresser, bank – or other commonly demanded daily needs… Daily needs are… (1,0) available within walking distance (2,0) easily reachable by bicycle or public transit (within 5 minutes) 330
(3,0) reasonably reachable by bicycle or public transit (within 10 minutes) (4,3) farther away, and are more convenient to reach by car than by transit Reachability of Social Infrastructure (5%) Especially for families with small children and people with limited mobility, a day care, school, other public services, general doctor or medical care facility are… (1,0) quickly and easily reachable without an auto (3,0) not well reachable but transit is not inferior time-wise to driving (4,0) not well reachable but transit is inferior time-wise to driving (5,0) poor and easier to reach by auto than by transit Recreational Options Count the recreational options (suitable for the neighborhood) available, such as: usable green space, playgrounds, river bank or sea coast, beach, water sports or other sports: (1,0) there are at least two recreational options in the neighborhood (2,0) in the nearby area (10 minutes by eco-mobility) there are suitable recreational options (4,7) the way to the closest suitable recreational possibilities can only by reached by auto Proximity to Cultural Offerings Cultural and entertainment offerings (theater, museum, etc.) suitable for the neighborhood are… (1,0) quickly reachable (and without an auto) (3,0) not well reachable but eco-mobility is not inferior time-wise to driving (4,0) not well reachable but eco-mobility is inferior time-wise to driving (5,0) poor and easier to reach by auto than by eco-mobility 2. Emissions / Immissions This section – despite its importance for city planning – will have a lesser proportion weight of 10 percent. However, this section is partly based on the component ‘traffic noise,’ which is also indirectly rated in the first section, “Mobility / Location / Reachability.” Traffic Effects on the Local Area In the nearby area, traffic noise from the new use will have… (1,0) no negative effects (2,0) only minimal negative effects (4,0) negative and disruptive effect yet without significantly exceeding the respective noise limits (6,0) significant negative effects / the respective noise limits would be significantly exceeded Other Negative Effects on the Local Area Due to the new use, the potential consequence of other new emissions (such as odor, light, poor air) that affect the nearby environment result in… (1,0) no negative effects (2,0) only minimal negative effects (4,0) negative and disruptive effect yet without significantly exceeding the respective noise limits (6,0) significant negative effects / the respective noise limits would be significantly exceeded Immissions from the Plan Area The plan will… (1,0) not expose the environment to any polluting emissions (2,3) not expose the environment to any disruptive polluting emissions (4,0) expose the environment to disruptive polluting emissions only at specific times or places (5,0) expose the environment to significant polluting emissions / a health hazard can be avoided by suitable protection measures
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(6,0) expose the environment to significant polluting emissions / a health hazard is feared / suitable protection measures are possible only with at high cost or are not possible 3. Microclimate The block, “microclimate” is weighted at a percentage of 5 percent. For the location decision, the block cannot have a great significance since there are many possibilities to mitigate negative microclimate effects through greening actions. The result of these counterbalancing effects can compensate for location. Microclimate For the microclimate for the plan area and surrounding environment, the plan implementation would … (1,0) have positive effects (2,0) have no effects (3,0) have only minimal negative effects (3,7) have measurably higher temperatures as a result (4,0) partly compromise the fresh air currents that are important for the adjacent neighborhood (5,0) eliminate the fresh air currents that are important for the adjacent neighborhood 4. Ground and Space (new) Use For the section “ground and space (new) use” the influence on the ground and soil is evaluated. To this goal, the Assessment Matrix has 21 different biotope type options. For plan areas with one biotope, the score must be weighed based on the ratio of each to the total area so the weight of each area correctly influences the overall final grade. In Criteria 2, Before-After Evaluation, the first line determines the extent of the alteration of prior biotopes. The future density is rated by the last criteria, so that a meaningful contribution of the land to ecological quality can be achieved. This section is weighted at 20 percent of the total score. Rating of Existing Land Use by Biotope Rate the plan area by which biotope type exists. For area with more than one biotope, weight each grade by its percentage of overall land. (1,0) • Completely built-up or entirely sealed space • Contaminated area • Garbage, construction waste, other waste • Military special development area • Docks, Airport (1,3) • Storage space (2,0) • Sport place, mainly impervious surface (ex.: artificial turf) (3,3) • Rail tracks, lower amount of ruderal vegetation • Camping place • City field land (3,7) • Sport place (mainly grass area) • Play place (4,0) • Rail tracks, higher amount of ruderal vegetation with some older trees • Small garden area 332
• (5,0) • • • (6,0) • • •
Cemetery/ Church land Park area, green space Rented garden on public land Other natural, unaltered green space Other natural, unaltered green space with many old groves of trees Forest Environmentally protected areas
Before – After Evaluation (1,0) Use results in a noticeable removal of impervious surface (unsealing) with positive effects on the protected land / remediation of serious negative influences (inherited waste, seriously impaired waters, contaminated ground, etc.) would be completed. (2,0) Use results in no additional impervious surface (to 10% of total requirements) / minor negative influences (non-toxic pollutants from waters and non-toxic old waste deposits) would be remediated. (3,0) Use requires additional area impervious surface in a small to medium extent (to 10 - 50% of total impervious) of ground that had more intensive use (i.e. agriculture). (4,0) Use requires additional area impervious surface in a small to medium extent (to 10 - 50% of total impervious) of ground that had less intensive use (i.e. wetlands). (5,0) Use requires additional area impervious surface to a higher extent (over 50% of total impervious) of ground that had more intensive use (i.e. agriculture). (6,0) Use requires additional area impervious surface to a higher extent (over 50% of total impervious) of ground that had less intensive use (i.e. wetlands). Density Projection Based on Surrounding Area (20%) A potential location as a realistic density that can be implemented based on the surrounding context. For a residential area, the density is between: (2,0) Lot coverage ratio: 0.6 and FAR: 1.8 and more (3,0) Lot coverage ratio: 0.4 and FAR: 0.4 – 1.2 (4,0) Lot coverage ratio: 0.2 and FAR: 0.2 – 0.4 (5,0) Lot coverage ratio: 0.1 and FAR: 0.1 – 0.2 For a mixed-use area, the density is between: (2,0) Lot coverage ratio: 0.8 and FAR: 2.4 and more (2,7) Lot coverage ratio: 0.6 and FAR: 1.8 and more (3,3) Lot coverage ratio: 0.5 and FAR: 1.5 and more (4,0) Lot coverage ratio: 0.5 and FAR: 1.0 or less 5. Nature (Flora/Fauna) According to German Protected Natural Areas laws, nature and landscape are to be protected due to their own value as the basis of human life and also with responsibility to future generations within the settled and unsettled places in such a way to protect, to maintain, to develop and to the extent necessary, to restore that: (1) in the long term the performance and function of the ecosystem are secured, (2) the regenerative ability and the lasting use of natural goods, (3) the animal and plant world including their living places and habitats, and (4) the variety, characteristics and beauty as well as the recreational value of nature and landscape. In the context of this, the Assessment Matrix – in the overall view – it depends particularly on the protection and maintenance of important existing natural and landscape features. On this level, legally protected areas as well as – from what 333
is known – protected areas or areas that should be protected must be considered. In a further step, the general effects of planning on flora and fauna are also evaluated. This section is weighted at 15 percent. Protected areas (40%) Through the plan, legally protected areas will be… (1,0) positively influenced (2,0) not affected / no protected areas here (3,0) altered, but the protected area’s goals are not affected (6,0) negatively impacted and their goals will probably also be impacted Biotope Protection (40%) For the entire area, important or protected biotopes will be… (1,0) positively influenced (2,0) not affected / no protected areas here (3,0) only affected to a small extent (6,0) negatively affected to a considerable extent Flora and Fauna (20%) The potential area has… (1,0) a positive influence on the nearby flora and fauna (2,0) no damage to any flora and fauna (3,0) only a little damage to any flora and fauna (6,0) significant damage to the quality of flora and fauna 6. Water Water is becoming a scarce resource. Within the water framework guidelines, there are high goals to maintain and increase the cleanliness of groundwater and water bodies: all the countries of the European Union have to have their water bodies and groundwater in good condition by at least 2015. The improvement of the condition of water bodies will become more important in the coming years and decades. The use of water bodies as a public area for recreation is also considered, however far more important is their role n the maintenance and/or re-establishment of a healthy water circulation and ecological system. This section is weighted at 10 percent. Groundwater (70%) (1,0) Through development and ground cleanup, more accumulated rainwater will be able to be absorbed by the ground from a larger area. (2,0) Through development, more accumulated rainwater will be able to be absorbed by the ground from a larger area. (3,0) The rainwater absorption would be the same as the current condition (4,0) The rainwater absorption would be somewhat less than the current condition (6,0) The rainwater absorption would be significantly less than the current condition Water Bodies (30%) Through the plan implementation, the nearby water bodies will (1,0) be improved (2,0) not be changed (4,0) be adversely affected (6,0) be severely adversely affected 7. Energy 334
In principle, the section “energy” is a lesser concern during the location decision part of the urban planning process. It becomes more important that the energy balance is considered when the plan is implemented. However, it is worth questioning whether the plan area is suitable for renewable energy and whether there are connection possibilities that exist from an ecological view of energy networks. This section is weighted at 5 percent. Use of Regenerative and Climate-friendly Energy Forms (1,0) The plan area is extremely well-suited for renewable energy forms (i.e. solar energy, geothermal, hydropower, etc…). (2,0) The plan area is suitable for the use of renewable energy or the application of cogeneration facilities. (5,0) A connection to the central energy supply network is provided. 8. Overall Appearance of the Townscape and Scenery The last section deals with the effects on the nearby environment and the existing overall appearance of the cityscape or townscape and scenery, since the preservation and/or the value of the existing environment is an indication of the quality of town construction. This section does not have a direct influence on the ecological quality. However, successful cityscapes or townscapes and scenery develop an indentifying impression with the result that the city space is positively perceived and accepted. This section is weighted at 5 percent. Overall Appearance of the Townscape and Scenery (1,0) The new use will increase the image of the city(town)scape and scenery (2,0) The valuable city(town)scape and scenery stay in place (3,0) The city(town)scape and scenery without specific qualities will not be negatively influenced (4,7) Through the new use, the city(town)scape and scenery will be substantially disturbed.
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Plan Implementation for Smart Growth The U.S. Standard Climate Change Enabling Act
Lora A. Lucero, AICP, Esq. Editor, Planning & Environmental Law American Planning Association 122 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 1600 Chicago, IL 60603 (505) 247-0844
[email protected]
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ABSTRACT The connection between the built environment and climate change is clearly established; addressing that link in our communities’ land use plans is growing. The challenge lies less with planning and more with the implementation of those plans. We can plan for smart growth to reduce our carbon footprint, but the majority of states in the U.S. are laboring beneath antiquated planning and land use laws drafted in the early 1920s. A Standard Climate Change Enabling Act is needed for land use and development decisions that support smart growth and implementation of the community’s land use plan.
Disclaimer: The opinions, recommendations and conclusions contained in this paper are solely the author’s.
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The transportation sector contributes approximately one-third of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. (Gerrard 2007) Sprawling development which segregates land uses and requires people to drive everywhere is a big culprit. (Ewing 2008) Effective and efficient transit options are the exception, not the rule, in most communities. Walking from home to school, work or shopping is nearly unimaginable. In the 1920s, Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce and later the 31st President of the United States, led a blue-ribbon committee to draft the model enabling laws which have guided community growth and development for the past eighty years. (Meck 2000) In large measure, the form and function of American communities today may be attributed directly to the work of Hoover and his colleagues. The Standard State Zoning Enabling Act (SZEA) in 1926, followed by the Standard City Planning Enabling Act (SCPEA) in 1928, served as the foundation for the land use laws enacted in more than three-quarters of the states. The goal was to provide a legal framework to support the increasingly popular zoning ordinances that communities were adopting around the country, beginning with New York City in 1916. The SZEA provided the regulatory tool – zoning – while the SCPEA provided the policy backdrop – community plans. Zoning had a simple purpose; it was designed to avoid locating nuisances (such as industry and smokestacks) in residential neighborhoods. One of the unintended consequences of separating land uses, however, was to require people to travel further distances to work and shop, ultimately locating the ‘peaceful’ suburbs away from the noise and grit of the city. Despite the words of caution from the early drafters of the SZEA and the SCPEA that zoning ordinances should be prepared “in accordance with a comprehensive plan,” (SZEA, Section 3), a number of preeminent land use law commentators have pointed out that the connection between the two was called into question right from the very beginning. (Haar 1955a, Larsen & Siemon 1979, Mandelker 1976) This zoning-planning enigma might have resulted from the unfortunate fact that the authority to zone contained in the SZEA preceded the authority to plan in the SCPEA by two years. Many communities enacted zoning ordinances before they ever prepared and adopted a comprehensive plan, creating the analytical disconnect which has spawned a large body of litigation and corresponding commentary and analysis on the question of regulatory consistency. (Delaney 2008, Haar 1955b, Netter 1981, Sullivan 2000) This unfortunate disconnect has created a situation in many communities throughout the United States where they prepare comprehensive plans but fail to implement them. They have elevated the importance of their zoning and land use regulations above their comprehensive plans; their short-term decision-making over long-term goals and policies. The zoning-planning disconnect has serious consequences for addressing climate change successfully. Would Herbert Hoover (1874 – 1964), if he were alive today, recognize the cities and metropolitan regions sprawling across the American landscape? Would he appreciate the traffic jams on an Interstate Highway System that wasn’t even on the drawing boards in the early years of the Twentieth Century? Would he fathom the connection between how and where we build our communities today and the dangerous warming of the planet? Most certainly he would not; but the zoning and planning laws he helped to create nearly a century ago are the basis for most land use regulations guiding the growth and development in communities throughout the United States today. In all fairness to Secretary, then President Hoover, we would be hard-pressed to envision the landscapes and communities of 2100 and draft land use and planning laws for our great-great grandchildren. With dogged determination, or perhaps a mere reluctance to upset the applecart, most states are holding on to Hoover’s SZEA and SCPEA despite the growing recognition that these model acts are ill-suited for addressing the challenges of climate change. There is reason for hope, however, as some states begin to experiment with new enabling laws. Oregon, Maryland, California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Arizona and Wisconsin have each stepped into the TwentyFirst Century with “smart growth” legislation. (Salkin 2007) Recent trends include: benchmarking and measuring progress (lack of progress) in implementing smart growth goals, statewide 338
coordination of smart growth programs, intermunicipal and regional planning, new urbanism principles incorporated into local zoning codes, using the state’s purse-strings to encourage local governments to implement sustainability goals, linking transportation and land use decisions, and the vast number of energy and climate change initiatives. (Salkin 2007) As one recent example, California’s Senate Bill 375, introduced in August 2008, uses a mix of incentives – such as priority for transportation funds and better-defined environmental reviews – to reduce sprawl, provide affordable housing, shorten commutes and curb greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming. If adopted, SB 375 will require local governments to adopt zoning rules to implement state-required housing elements and tighten some parts of CEQA (California’s environmental review law) to make it more difficult for opponents to derail housing projects that are consistent with the basic density and other requirements spelled out in local zoning ordinances. There’s a very big carrot to help promote that goal – the $5 billion in state transportation funds will be redirected to first help communities which comply with the bill’s “smart growth” objectives. Unlike the SZEA and SCPEA, designed as a national model for the states to adopt, the current experimentation is bubbling up from the states. The American Planning Association (APA) advocates “smart growth” using comprehensive planning to guide, design, develop, revitalize and build communities that: * have a unique sense of community and place; * preserve and enhance valuable natural and cultural resources; * equitably distribute the costs and benefits of development; * expand the range of transportation, employment and housing choices in a fiscally responsible manner; * value long-range, regional considerations of sustainability over short term incremental geographically isolated actions; and * promote public health and healthy communities. (APA 2002) Clearly, the SZEA and SCPEA were never meant to accomplish “smart growth,” but rather to avoid nuisances. In addition to the definition of “smart growth,” the APA adopted thirteen core principles of “smart growth” that include the following: * recognition that all levels of government, and the non-profit and private sectors, play an important role in creating and implementing policies that support smart growth; * state and federal policies and programs that support urban investment, compact development, and land conservation; * planning processes and regulations at multiple levels that promote diversity, equity and smart growth principles; * increased citizen participation in all aspects of the planning process and at every level of government; * a balanced, multi-modal transportation system that plans for increased transportation choice; * a regional view of community; * one size doesn’t fit all – a wide variety of approaches to accomplish smart growth; * efficient use of land and infrastructure; * central city vitality; * vital small towns and rural areas; * a greater mix of uses and housing choices in neighborhoods and communities focused around human-scale, mixed-use centers accessible by multiple transportation modes; * conservation and enhancement of environmental and cultural resources; and * creation or preservation of a “sense of place.” (APA 2002) Professor Patricia E. Salkin warns that that “the United States will lose the war on sustainability” and, by implication, the battle to mitigate the impacts of climate change, unless the States continue to innovate and refine the programs they have adopted. 339
“States should encourage local governments to conduct local and regional smart growth audits, engage public support for improved intergovernmental coordination, develop programs for more effective review of local and regional comprehensive plans, provide incentives or funding to municipalities to update zoning ordinances, provide statutory authority for the use of more flexible land use regulatory tools, incentivize the adoption and implementation of local land preservation programs, and engage in public education programs about sustainable development and smart growth. Among the range of incentives states can offer municipalities to engage in smarter growth are: grant opportunities, the promise of indemnification by the state from certain legal challenges arising from appropriately adopted smart growth strategies, awarding of added points on existing competitive funding opportunities, state recognition of local plans adopted consistent with regional and/or state plans, and special revenue raising authority including tying of impact fees and other fiscal tools to smart growth strategies. Governors could also implement no-cost awards programs, recognizing local smart growth initiatives with media attention. And, most important, states should follow the Maryland lead and use the power of state budget funding priorities to only invest in programs that promote the smart growth agenda.” (Salkin 2007) The American Planning Association’s Policy Guide on Planning and Climate Change echo many of Salkin’s “smart growth” recommendations. (APA 2008) However, the SZEA and SCPEA are unproductive detritus from an earlier era which must be cast aside now in favor of a more progressive enabling law that facilitates and encourages this innovation at the state and local levels. There are stark differences between the challenges of the 1920s and 2010. There is a more significant intergovernmental dimension to planning and land use decision-making today. There are different societal attitudes about land today – it is not merely a commodity to be bought and sold. There is a more engaged and active citizenry concerned about sustainability issues and climate change. There is certainly a more challenging legal environment. (Meck 2002) And finally, the impacts of local land use decision-making on global climate change could not possibly have been comprehended in 1920. A new generation of land use and planning enabling acts in the United States are needed to support sustainable growth and development which effectively address the serious challenges presented by climate change. Standard Climate Change Enabling Act – A Proposal: One of the first priorities of the new Administration in Washington should be the appointment of a blue ribbon commission to prepare the Standard Climate Change Enabling Act (SCCEA). Unlike the commission under Herbert Hoover’s leadership, this new blue ribbon commission should engage the public and leaders from state and local governments in miniconferences across the country designed to address various aspects of sustainability. The commission should be tasked with the responsibility of synthesizing all of the information flowing up to the federal level from these mini-conferences to recommend a new 2020 Vision plan for the country. There is a wealth of information and lessons learned from all of the experimentation that has been occurring in the states to address climate change. (Callies, Nolon, Salkin, Ziegler 2008) Although land use control is jealously guarded at the local level, the federal government must show leadership, as it did in the 1920s. There are examples where Congress has determined a strong federal role is necessary to address perceived problems at the local level which implicate land use control. The Highway Beautification Act (23 U.S.C. 131), the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601), the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (42 U.S.C. 2000cc), and the Telecommunications Act (P.L. No. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56 (1996)) are four such examples. The 2020 Vision plan would not stifle local innovation or replace the initiatives occurring at the state level, but it would help coordinate federal actions across many different agencies and departments and lead the country towards a sustainable future by providing fiscal incentives for states, regional planning agencies, local communities, and the American people to make decisions consistent with the 2020 Vision. (Callies, Nolon, Salkin, Ziegler 2008) Global warming and the devastating impacts of climate change warrant a strong federal role in developing a 2020 Vision plan first and then a Standard Climate Change Enabling Act (SCCEA) to replace the SZEA and SCPEA. 340
There is a fatal flaw in the SZEA and the SCPEA that is rarely mentioned, but should not be overlooked in the preparation of the new SCCEA. Although local governments have the authority to prepare and adopt a comprehensive plan for land use and growth, in the majority of states today they are not required to follow their own plan, much less a regional or state plan. Current development decisions, the budget and infrastructure priorities are often not in sync with the goals contained in the comprehensive plan to foster sustainability. This disconnect between planning and action is pervasive and seriously undermines all of the good intentions to mitigate climate change. The SCCEA must not make the same mistake. The origins of this disconnect, as discussed above, originated with the “in accordance with a plan” language and the inverse order in which the SZEA and SCPEA were published. Although the majority of states today still consider the community’s plan as merely advisory in nature, the national trend appears to be moving towards establishing a stronger link between land use decisions and the plan. This trend can be seen in many state legislatures,dddd and the courts,eeee and even state agenciesffff across the country. The cornerstone of the SCCEA must be mending this disconnect between plans and actions. In the abstract, it certainly seems rational to require communities to link their decisions and actions to their adopted plans. Otherwise, why plan? In a democratic society, the residents of the community express their goals for the future in two ways – by participating in a public planning process which culminates in an adopted plan, and by electing representatives to implement that plan. Local officials implement the community’s plan day-by-day when they, among other things, approve the local government’s capital infrastructure budget, when they adopt land use regulations such as zoning and subdivision ordinances, and when they approve or reject development applications. Connecting development and land use decisions to the adopted plan is the best way to achieve the community’s goals, or at least to increase the odds that the community’s goals will be achieved. (Lucero 2008a) The consequences of failing to plan or failing to implement the community’s comprehensive plan can be serious. Professor John R. Nolon notes that in just 35 years, … the nation’s population will grow by 100 million people: an increase of 33%. The private sector will produce for these new Americans over 70 million homes and over 100 billion square feet of offices, stores, factories, institutions, hotels, and resorts. Researchers predict that two-thirds of the structures in existence in 2050 will be built between now and then. This growth cannot proceed randomly without great cost to the economy, environment, and public health. This is neither an ideological nor a political issue. The consequences of haphazard development are not popular with the vast majority of Americans. They complain about the results of current growth patterns: an increase of asthma and obesity among the young, traffic congestion that stalls commuters, insufficient housing for the workforce and the elderly, the decline of dddd
See eg., Arizona [Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 9-462.01 (1999)], California [Cal. Gov’t Code § 65860 (1997)], Delaware [Del. Code tit. 9 §§ 2653, 2656 (1999)], Kentucky [Ky. Rev. Stat. § 101.213 (1997)], Maine [Me.Rev. Stat. tit. 30A §§ 23-114.03 (1999)], Nebraska [Neb. Rev. Stat. § 23-114.03 (1999)], Oregon [Or. Rev. Stat. § 197.010(1) (1997)], Rhode Island [R.I. Gen. Laws §§45-24-31, -34 (1998)], Washington [Wash. Rev. Code § 36.70A.040(1) and § 35.63.125 (1999)], and Wisconsin [Wis. Stat. § 66.0295 (1999)]. eeee Although the United States Supreme Court has not directly considered this issue, Justice Stephens in his majority opinion in Kelo v. City of New London, acknowledged the important role of the planning process and the adopted plan to sustain his conclusion that the power of eminent domain had been properly exercised in the City of New London. 545 U.S. 469, 125 S.Ct. 2655 (2005). ffff On September 10, 2007, the New Mexico Development Council, a part of the Department of Finance and Administration, adopted new rules for awarding Community Development Block Grants to local communities which includes a requirement that the local comprehensive plan be adopted by ordinance in order to elevate the plan as a regulatory mechanism. TITLE 2 – PUBLIC FINANCE; CHAPTER 110- LOCAL GOVERNMENT GRANTS; PART 2 – SMALL CITIES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT. 341
cities as economic and cultural centers, threats to drinking water quality and quantity, reduced habitats and wetlands, higher incidences of flooding, rampant fossil fuel consumption, and an ever larger carbon footprint. (Callies, Nolon, Salkin, Ziegler 2008) The new blue ribbon commission should consider the following elements when they draft the SCCEA: 1. Plans must be mandatory, not optional. If a community chooses not to engage in a planning process or adopt a comprehensive plan, then the land use authority should rise to the next level of government that has adopted a plan. 2. Substantive elements or requirements should be spelled out for plans. APA’s Growing SmartSM Legislative Guidebook includes recommendations for substantive elements for both state plans and local comprehensive plans. (Meck 2002) The required elements that APA recommends be included in every comprehensive plan include: a) Issues and Opportunities Element b) Land-Use Element c) Transportation Element d) Community Facilities Element, including a Telecommunications component e) Housing Element f) Economic Development Element g) Critical and Sensitive Areas Element h) Natural Hazards Element i) Program of Implementation Optional elements and subplans include: a) Agriculture, Forest, and Scenic Preservation Element b) Human Services Element c) Community Design Element d) Historic Preservation Element e) Neighborhoods Plans f) Transit-Oriented Development Plans g) Redevelopment Area Plans Climate change impacts and mitigation measures should be woven throughout each element of any community’s comprehensive plan. 3. Require land use regulations be consistent with the plan. To mend the disconnect between the adopted plan and the community’s land use regulations (such as zoning, subdivision, and impact fees), there should be an explicit requirement of consistency. 4. Require land use decisions be consistent with the plans. After the comprehensive plan and land use regulations are determined to be consistent, it is critical that decision-makers conform their actions to the plans as well. The SCCEA should require such a link. 5. Require plans be reviewed and updated regularly. Too many plans today are sitting on the shelf for many years. They must be relevant and current to be an effective guide for decisionmakers. Benchmarking and a report card to the public about progress or lack or progress in implementing the comprehensive plan is also worthy of consideration by the blue ribbon commission. 6. States must reclaim some of the planning powers. Although local land use authority is optimal, there are circumstances when local officials cannot act in the public’s interest because the affected public includes the region. In this era of growing understanding about climate change and its impacts, the affected public is now global. Planning and land use authority in the U.S. is ultimately delegated from the various States to the local governments. Under certain circumstances, 342
States should reexamine their role in building sustainable communities and reclaim some of that authority when necessary. The Consistency Doctrine: The consistency doctrine is the cornerstone of the future SCCEA. Why is the consistency doctrine important? The answer in a single word is – “implementation.” (DiMento 1980, Lincoln 1996) There are a number of reasons why the community’s comprehensive plan must be successfully implemented. • Serious challenges – such as climate change – require that we take a longer view. Implementing the goals and policies in the comprehensive plan provides better odds that our community leaders are taking the longer view and not merely responding to short-term exigencies. • In a democratic society, the public participates in setting the goals for the future. A comprehensive plan that is preceded by a meaningful public planning process presumably represents the desires of the community’s residents and the inevitable competing interests have been heard and reconciled in that process. • Successful implementation of the provisions of the comprehensive plan engenders greater public trust and confidence in the local decision-making process. “One of the greatest failings of contemporary zoning law,” a land use law commentator notes, “has been the vulnerability of the system to influence by politically powerful individuals, a vulnerability that can only be overcome by establishing a procedural and substantive framework for individual decisions ---- planning.” (Siemon 1987) • The general public, property owners, and developers have a desire for stability and predictability in the land use regulatory regime. Connecting development and land use decisions to the adopted plan not only implements the plan, but also provides a measure of stability to the zoning game and helps avoid ad hoc decision-making disconnected from the plan. (Babcock 1966) • Planning is a process by which we evaluate and weigh alternatives, and then select the best given our understanding today. The information available to us may change, and the plan may need to be amended, but the planning process is very different from the development review process. Too often, local officials either ignore the plan or amend the plan on the fly in order to conform to a development application – blurring the lines between these two distinct processes. • And perhaps most importantly from the perspective of the local government, connecting its land use decisions to the comprehensive plan provides further evidence that the decisions are rational and reasonable. The consistency doctrine is a way of getting at substantive due process via statute, as a way of shoring up the constitutional argument that the decision is neither arbitrary nor capricious and advances legitimate interests. Professor Nolon points out that “[t]he development called for by the next 100 million Americans will largely be reviewed and approved by local officials applying locally adopted land use standards. Our historical approach to influencing human settlement patterns and the use and conservation of the land has relied on private-sector forces and we have delegated the principal authority to regulate those forces to the local level of government through the adoption of land use plans and regulations.” (Callies, Nolon, Salkin, Ziegler 2008) Fortunately, there are concrete examples of the consistency doctrine in the planning and land use regime. In August 2008, the American Bar Association adopted a Model Statute on Local Land Use Process which requires consistency between the land use decisions and the comprehensive plan. (ABA 2008) (a) A local government may approve or deny a development permit application, or may approve an application subject to conditions. Any approval, denial, or conditions attached to a development permit approval shall be based on and implement the land development regulations, and goals, policies, and guidelines of the local comprehensive plan. (b) Any decision on a development permit application shall be based upon and accompanied by a written statement that: 343
1. states the land development regulations and goals, policies, and guidelines of the local comprehensive plan relevant to the decision; 2. states the facts relied upon in making the decision; 3. is consistent with the land development regulations, the goals, policies, and guidelines of the local comprehensive plan. 4. responds to all relevant issues raised by documents and materials submitted to the administrative review; and 5. states the conditions that apply to the development permit, the conditions that must be satisfied before a certificate of compliance can issue, and the conditions that are continuing requirements and apply after a certificate of compliance is issued. (ABA) The Model Statute on Local Land Use Process defines consistency as: “Consistent with the Comprehensive Plan” means that development regulations, a proposed amendment to existing land development regulations, or a proposed landuse action is consistent with the local comprehensive plan when the regulations, amendment, or action: (a) furthers, or at least does not interfere with, the goals and policies contained in the local comprehensive plan; (b) is compatible with the proposed future land uses and densities and/or intensities contained in the local comprehensive plan; and (c) carries out, as applicable, any specific proposals for community facilities, including transportation facilities, other specific public actions, or actions proposed by nonprofit and for-profit organizations that are contained in the local comprehensive plan. In determining whether the regulations, amendment, or action satisfies the requirements of subparagraph (a) above, the local planning agency may take into account any relevant guidelines contained in the local comprehensive plan. The APA’s Growing SmartSM Legislative Guidebook also recommends that States reform their planning statutes by including a consistency requirement, and notes that a number of States have done exactly that in recent years. (Meck 2002 at 8-33 – 8-38). The Blue Ribbon Commission must ensure that the consistency doctrine is firmly rooted in the new SCCEA and encourage all states to adopt such a requirement. The consistency doctrine should be the rule, not the exception, if communities are going to successfully implement their comprehensive plans and effectively address the serious impacts of climate change. The City of New Orleans, a community devastated by climate change and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is providing the most recent leadership on the consistency doctrine. An important proposal to amend the city charter has been forwarded by the New Orleans City Council to the citizens for a vote in November 2008. (See Appendix) If approved, the city’s charter will require that “all land use actions by any governmental body shall be consistency with the Plan” and that “all land use actions not consistent with the Master Plan … shall be null and void.” The zoning ordinance, capital improvement plan, and the capital budget will also be consistent with the Master Plan. Perhaps it is fitting that the City of New Orleans is providing, by example, the leadership for a new SCCEA, and recognizing the importance of including the consistency doctrine in its city charter. Global warming is the ultimate public nuisance. All levels of government must plan for climate change mitigation and adaptation, but plans without implementation are not going to 344
effectively address this challenge. A new climate change enabling statute is needed to replace the SZEA and SCPEA of the 1920s, and the consistency doctrine must be its cornerstone.
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Appendix A Citizen’s Guide to Land Use Reform: Summary of Smart Growth Amendments to Home Rule Charter of New Orleans (emphasis added) City Council given legislative authority to adopt or amend the Master Plan and the Comprehensive Zoning ordinance. Art. III, Sec. 3-112(5)(c). City Planning Commission shall consist of nine members to serve for terms of four years. Two members of the Planning Commission shall be nominated by the Mayor, two by the Council members at large, and five by each Council district member. All Commission members shall be confirmed by ordinance of the City Council and can serve no more than two terms. Art. V, Chap. 4, Sec. 5-401. City Planning Commission required to prepare a 20-year Master Plan for the physical development of the city. Elements of the Master Plan are defined. Id. Sec. 5-402(1). The Land Use Element of the Master Plan shall consist of text and a map setting forth categories of allowable land use issues and density for each of the city’s thirteen Planning Districts. Id. The Land Use Element of the Master Plan provides the city with the authority to do form based zoning – traditional neighborhood development, transit oriented development, smartcodes, etc. Id. Sec. 5-402(3)(c). City Planning Commission shall prepare and recommend to the City Council a zoning ordinance and zoning map for the purpose of implementing the Master Plan. Both the ordinance and the map are required to be consistent with the Plan. Id. The city’s capital improvement plan and its capital budget shall be consistent with the Master Plan. Id. Sec. 5-402(4). In preparing the Master Plan, the City Planning Commission must hold at least one public hearing in each of the 13 Planning District to solicit the opinions of citizens that live and work in that District and a public hearing to solicit the opinion of citizens from throughout the community. Id. Sec. 5-404(1). The City Planning Commission shall forward the Master Plan to the City Council for adoption. Any modifications of the Plan by the Council before adoption shall be referred back to the Planning Commission for a public hearing and comment. Id. Following the adoption of the Master Plan, all land use actions by any government body shall be consistent with the Plan, as well as amendments to the Plan. Id. Sec. 5-404(3)(a). The Land Use Element of the Master Plan and the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance shall each contain a table or matrix specifying which zoning districts in the Zoning Ordinance are consistent with each of the land use categories in the Land Use Element of the Master Plan. Id. Sec. 5404(3)(b). All land use actions not consistent with the Master Plan, or amendments to the Plan, shall be null and void. Id. Sec. 5-404(3)(d). At least every five years, but not more often than two years, the City Planning 346
Commission shall comprehensively review the Master Plan and shall determine whether the Plan requires amendment or comprehensive revision. If it is determined that amendment or comprehensive revision is required, the Planning Commission may take appropriate action. Id. Sec. 504(4). The City Planning Commission may amend the Master Plan, including the Land Use Element and Land Use Map, following application effecting a particular parcel or parcels of property, provided all such amendments shall be considered on a regular schedule which shall allow all such amendments to be considered at one time and no more than twice per calendar year. The City Planning Commission shall hold at least one public hearing in the Planning District where the effected parcel or parcels of property are located to solicit the opinion of citizens that work or live in that district and a public hearing to solicit the opinions of citizens from throughout the community. Id. Sec. 504 (5). Any zoning ordinance, or amendment to the zoning ordinance, that is adopted by the City Council that is not consistent with the Master Plan shall be null and void. Id. Sec. 5-406 (1). Simultaneous with any amendment to the Master Plan, the City Planning Commission shall review the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, after one or more public hearings, to determine whether the ordinance requires revision and amendment. Id. Sec. 5-406(2). The City Planning Commission shall hear and decide all applications for conditional uses authorized by the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance. Id. Sec. 5-406(3). The Board of Zoning Adjustments shall consist of five members who shall serve for terms of four years. The Board members shall be nominated by each Council District member and confirmed by ordinance of the City Council and shall serve no more than two terms. Id. Sec. 5-408(1). City is required to create and support a system for organized and effective neighborhood participation in land use decisions and other issues that effect quality of life. Art. V, Chap. 10, Sec. 10-101. City Planning Commission shall identify and map the number, boundaries, and names of each neighborhood in the city, listing each neighborhood in its respective Planning District or Districts. Id. Sec. 10-102. City is required to establish a Neighborhood Participation Office under the supervision of the City Planning Commission. Id. Sec. 10-103. Neighborhood Participation Office shall provide technical assistance and guidance to citizens and neighborhood organizations so that they will be in a better position to participate in government decisions in their respective Planning Districts. Id. Sec. 10-103 (2). Neighborhood Participation Office authorized to make recommendations concerning a particular action, policy, or other matters to any city agency on any topic affecting the livability, safety, and economic vitality of neighborhoods. Id. Sec. 10-104(1). Neighborhood Planning Office authorized to make recommendations to the City Planning Commission in the formulation, revision, or amendment of the Master Plan. Id. Sec. 10-104(3). 347
Neighborhood Planning Office authorized to make recommendations to the City Planning Commission concerning District, neighborhood, and target recovery plans that could be adopted by the Planning Commission as part of the Master Plan. Id. Sec. 10-104(4). For the purposes of clarifying Articles, Chapters and Sections of the Home Rule Charter amendments, eight terms relating to land use planning were added and defined. Art. V, Chap. 11.
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References Advisory Comm. on City Planning & Zoning, U.S. Dep’t of Commerce, A Standard State Zoning Enabling Act (rev. ed. 1926) Advisory Comm. on City Planning & Zoning, U.S. Dep’t of Commerce, A Standard City Planning Enabling Act (1928) American Bar Association, Model Statute on Local Land Use Process, prepared by a Joint Task Force of the State and Local Government and Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Sections of the American Bar Association; adopted by the House of Delegates August 2008. (available at http://www.abanet.org/statelocal/docs/ModelLandUseCode.pdf ) American Planning Association, Policy Guide on Smart Growth (2002), available at http://www.planning.org/policy/guides/pdf/SmartGrowth.pdf American Planning Association, Policy Guide on Planning and Climate Change, (April 27, 2008), available at http://www.planning.org/policyguides/pdf/climatechange.pdf Arnold, Anthony (Tony) Craig, 2007. The Structure of the Land Use Regulatory System in the United States. 22 J. LAND USE & ENVTL. L. 441. Babcock, Richard, 1966. The Zoning Game: Municipal Practices and Policies, 120-21. Barnett, J., Ed., 2007. Smart Growth in a Changing World. Chicago: American Planning Association. Callies, D., Nolon, J., Salkin, P., and Ziegler, E., 2008. A Land Use and Planning Agenda for the Next President, PLANNING & ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, Vol. 60, No. 1, Chicago: American Planning Association. Delaney, John J., Charles M. Haar, and Theodore C. Taub. 2008. “Maryland’s Highest Court Opines on the Relationship Between Plans and Development Decisions.” PLANNING & ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, July. DiMento, Joseph F., 1980. The Consistency Doctrine and the Limits of Planning (Cambridge, Mass.: Oelgeschlager, Gunn, and Hain) Ewing, R., Bartholomew, K., Winkelman, S., Walters, J., and Chen, D., 2008. Growing Cooler – The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change. Washington DC: Urban Land Institute. Freilich, Robert H., Mark S. White and K.F. Murray, 2008. 21st Century Land Development Code. Chicago: American Planning Association. Gerrard, Michael B., Ed., 2007. Global Climate Change and U.S. Law. Chicago: American Bar Association. Haar, Charles M., 1955a. “In Accordance with a Comprehensive Plan,” 68 HARV. L. REV. 1154
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Haar, Charles M., 1955b. “The Master Plan: An Impermanent Constitution,” 20 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 353 Larsen & Siemon, 1979. “In Accordance With A Comprehensive Plan – The Myth Revisited,” 1979 INSTITUTE ON PLANNING, ZONING AND EMINENT DOMAIN 105 Lewyn, Michael, 2003. Twenty-First Century Planning and the Constitution. 74 U. COLO. L. REV. 651. Lincoln, Robert, 1996. “Implementing the Consistency Doctrine,” The Growing Smart Working Papers, Vol. 1, PAS Report No. 462/463. Chicago: American Planning Association. Lucero, Lora A., 2008a. “The Consistency Doctrine: Merging Intentions with Actions,” Zoning Practice, August. Lucero, Lora A., 2008b. “Climate Change Litigation and Policy – A Rapidly Changing Landscape,” PLANNING & ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, August. Mandelker, Daniel, 1976. The Role of the Local Comprehensive Plan in Land Use Regulation, 74 MICH. L. REV. 899. Meck, Stuart, 2000. The Legislative Requirement that Zoning and Land Use Controls Be Consistent with an Independently Adopted Local Comprehensive Plan: A Model Statute, 3 WASH. U.J.L. & POL’Y 295 (2000). Meck, Stuart, Gen. Ed., 2002. The Growing SmartSM Legislative Guidebook: Model Statutes for Planning and the Management of Change. Chicago: American Planning Association. (at 834, 35). Nelson, A.C. and Dawkins, C.J., 2004. Urban Containment in the United States: History, Models, and Techniques for Regional and Metropolitan Growth Management. Chicago: American Planning Association, PAS 520. Netter, Edith M. and John Vranicar, 1981. Linking Plans and Regulations: Local Responses to Consistency Laws in California and Florida, Planning Advisory Report No. 363. Chicago: American Planning Association. Salkin, Patricia E., ____. Smart Growth and the Greening of Comprehensive Plans and Land Use Regulations. _________________ Salkin, Patricia E., 2007. Squaring the Circle on Sprawl: What More Can We Do? Progress Towards Sustainable Land Use in the States. WIDENER LAW JOURNAL, Vol. 16, No. 3. Siemon, Charles L., 1987. The Paradox of “In Accordance With a Comprehensive Plan” and Post Hoc Rationalizations: The Need for Efficient and Effective Judicial Review of Land Use Regulations. 16 STETSON L. REV. 603, 627. Sullivan, Edward J., 2000. The Rise of Reason in Planning Law: Daniel R. Mandelker and the Relationship of the Comprehensive Plan in Land Use Regulation. ____ Sullivan, Edward J. and Lester, Isa, 2005. The Role of the Comprehensive Plan in Infrastructure Financing. 37 URB. LAW. 53. 350
Sullivan, Edward J. and Pelham, Thomas G., 1996. Comprehensive Planning and Growth Management, 28 URB. LAW. 819. Sullivan, Edward J. and Richter, Carrie, 2002. Out of the Chaos: Towards a National System of Land-Use Procedures. 34 URB.LAW. 499. Wolf, Michael Allan, 2008. The Zoning of America: Euclid v. Ambler. University Press of Kansas.
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TOPIC 6: New Curricula Proposals on China’s City Planning Education and Climate Change GUO Jian Lector of city planning and architecture, College of Architecture of Wuhan University of Technology, China (e-mail:
[email protected])
Postal address: GUO Jian ( ' ' in Chinese) The Department of Architecture The College of Civil Engineering and Architecture Wuhan University of Technology The South Luoshi Road, Wuchang District Wuhan City Hubei Province China
Abstract China has proclaimed China’s National Climate Change Programme in June 2007. As an important support system, city planning has not been specially brought forward in the Programme. City planning education of China should be modified in order to enhance the awareness and knowledge of city planners on Climate Change. Four modifications of city planning education are put forward in the article. Increasing awareness, adding to knowledge system about climate change and corresponding technology, adding to investigation practice education about urban disaster reduction in professional education and building major orientation of city planning research about climate change. The article concludes with several points about the necessary climate change research on the China’s future city planning education and the connection between city planning and China’s National Climate Change Programme.
Introduction The global climate change brought much influence to the whole world. Climate change has become one of the most important problems in the process of policy making and economy development, especially in China. Climate change has been paid great attention to by the governments, but also has been concerned much about by the scientific field. Human are faced with how to slow down the climate warming process and how to adapt to the influence that climate change brings to the agriculture, industry, energy security, water resource, coastal belt and ecology environment. In addition, to prevent and mitigate the climate disasters are also important. All these are the hotspots in science field now. Taking one with another, the researches in climate change are involved with kinds of important aspects of global ecology system. With great efforts in slowing down the climate change, China has established urban climate disaster reduction system, and proclaimed China's National Climate Change Programme in 2007[1], which decides the directions of the climate change research and policy and measures making. As an important support system, city planning has not been specially brought forward in the Programme. As is known, city planning has great influence on city economy, energy exchange, city life and city morphology and etc. Some researchers have worked on this field for long time and some achievements have been used in the city construction and development. China has encountered a big snow disaster this year. The snow disaster last several weeks and brought great loss to China. The governments make great efforts in the disaster succor, but we could find many problems in urban disaster reduction system, especially in city planning and construction. The urban disaster reduction system didn’t respond well to the 352
climate disaster. Traffic transport, urban energy supply, food supply and city life were influenced greatly. Some cities almost fell into unprecedented critical conditions. If the local governments have set down climate change tackling strategy in city planning, many problems wouldn’t be serious, and even some problems wouldn’t come into being. Through several years of study, Chinese local government officials know that climate change is a crucial problem in local strategy and city planning is the important for local development, but they seldom emphasize climate change in city planning. for urban climate disaster reduction system and energy efficiency. And they don’t know where and how they should begin with city planning climate change.Indeed, the ignorance of the climate change in city planning has great relation to city planning education. So in order to enhance the awareness and knowledge of city planners on Climate Change, China’s city planning education should be modified according to the research achievement and government policy macroscopically. So four modifications of city planning education are put forward in the article. The first point is to increase awareness of climate change in professional education. The second point is to add to knowledge system about climate change and corresponding technology in professional education. The third point is to add to investigation practice education about urban disaster reduction, which is most important to increase awareness of participators in climate change. And the last point is to build major orientation of city planning research about city disaster reduction in Climate Change. The article concludes with several points about the necessary climate change research on the China’s future city planning education and the connection between city planning and China’s National Climate Change Programme. Disadvantages in china’s city planning education system and climate change There are some disadvantages in China’s city planning education system, which make against the prevalence of the climate change programme. China’s city planning education system is not open enough and pay more attention to the planning formulation education. The first disadvantage is that China’s city planning education system is not an open system. Most of the students out of the system know the environment and society superficially. They have little knowledge about the climate change, which is a hotspot in the world now. So the city planning that they attend or leading would ignore much of climate change and may not adapt to the new problems more and more that the urbanism, global ecology balance and climate warming brought to the city development. Climate change is an dynamic development process and the knowledge of it cover many of fields and becomes complicated always. Climate change brought many negative influences to the world, and some of them would break out suddenly and some would take out gradually. But the China’s city planning education knowledge system always keeps steady, seldom update knowledge and methods. For example, some of the main teaching materials are often used for more than 10 years without update and teachers teach the same knowledge by the same method. This kind mode of city planning education concerned less about the contemporary society and the new problems of the cities. As an hotspot problem, Climate change couldn’t be concerned about deeply and be updated in city planning education. As is well known, China is stepping into a great power with high-speed economy development and urbanism. It’s so strange that China’s city planning education doesn’t keep update to the city and society development. It indicates that China’s city planning is lack of enough interactivity with the city and society development. This is a serious shortage. When new climate problems come to the city planners, there should be something to be done to speed up the spread of climate change knowledge between the planners. So it is necessary to establish a kind of mechanism to enhance China’s city planning education system more open. It would also do great contribution to policy making and make the policy efficient. The second disadvantage is that China’s city planning education system pay more attention to the planning formulation education than the conception and consciousness education. Students concerned less about the reality and don’t know enough about the urbanism and society development nowadays. They prefer to study more techniques about the planning formulation. This is the result of the city planning mode of government. Of course this kind of the condition is changing better gradually. Conception and consciousness education is becoming an important part in city planning education. The two disadvantages have negative effect on the development of climate change education in city planning education system. In order to combine city planning with climate change better, four particular modification are put forward.
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Four proposal s of modifications for city planning education Four modifications of city planning education in china are put forward in the article. The first point is to increase awareness of climate change in professional education. Climate change is important in national policy, but it hasn’t form a real education system in city planning education. And the efficiency of the national policy about climate change would drop. There are some knowledge about climate change in city planning education, which focus mainly on the techniques. No matter how advanced the techniques are, the awareness education is the first important thing in city planning education. Students should know what climate change is and what it would bring to the world, and they should know the basic knowledge about the climate change and could find some of the influences in the real society and the city development. It is necessary for them to study urban disaster prevention and reduction and energy efficiency strategy. They should know where and how they get more information about climate change. They have to be provided with basic awareness of the climate change. This kind of awareness education of Climate change includes students and city planners. The improvement of awareness of climate change could promote the efficiency of the climate change policy. The second point is to add to knowledge system about climate change and corresponding technology in professional education. Increasing awareness of the climate change in China’s city planning is necessary, meanwhile the main technology and methods of slowing down climate change in city planning should be taught to the students. Some other technology need to know about. The students should know what the newest technology about climate change is and what the technology would bring to the climate change and city planning. Through the combination of technology and reality in climate change and city planning, students may have more Sense of urgency and know more about the reality of the city and society. It is necessary to be taught to students that the reason and forming process of climate change, the framework of climate change programme in China, the main points of the city planning and architecture, the basic operation principle of urban disaster prevention and reduction system and the city planning of reconstruction after disaster and etc. The knowledge system includes principles, technology methods, and framework of technology system. Teachers and students should know about these basic frameworks of knowledge of climate change and city planning. The snow disaster brought huge loss to China. People found some important faults in the disaster prevention and reduction system, but the report of the snow disaster hasn’t been conveyed to the city planning education field. With no correct and integrative reports about the snow disaster, the city planning education won’t improve the technology rapidly in the climate change and urban disaster prevention and reduction. It doesn’t do good to the self-reflection of the city planning and climate change. So integration of the climate change technology and city planning education need to be update according to the development of the technology of the climate change reduction in city planning and to the disadvantages that were revealed in the climate disaster . The third point is to add to investigation practice education about urban disaster prevention and reduction, which is most important and easier to increase awareness of participators in climate change. China has frequent climate disasters. The investigation practice may be arranged in the season with frequent climate disasters. The investigation practice place could be the place that climate disasters often take place or is easy damaged by the climate disasters. In addition, the old town or historical districts with weak power in the disaster prevention and reduction are good choices in the investigation practice. The participators should track record the process of the climate disasters, the loss of the city in the climate disasters and what the people could do and have done in the disaster succor and so on. The participators should pay attention to the influence that the climate disaster brought to the city planning and to what have to be done with the city planning in the 354
reconstruction of the city. Then they are asked to make assessment of the climate disaster prevention and reduction ability in city planning. The snow disaster in China could be a good opportunity to exhibit the influence of climate change and the operation process and effect of urban disaster prevention and reduction system and the city planning. Climate disasters investigation practice would give the investigation participators the climate change education and awareness increasing face to face, which would bring a better effect than the TV and books. After investigation practice, investigation participators should be encouraged to give their own opinions of resolving the problems in the city planning against climate change. Through the investigation practice, the students have more reflection on the relationship between climate change and city planning. And they may change their design mode and conception of the city planning. With higher awareness of climate change, they would have better technology and creativity and higher social responsibility. The investigation practice could also bring a lot of concerned data and information to the research in the climate change in city planning. The investigation practice gives the city planning education update information. The last point is to build major orientation of city planning research about city disaster prevention and reduction in climate change. In the long run, China need to setup orientation of research about urban disaster prevention and reduction in climate change in city planning, which including city development and layout strategy with energy efficiency, energy efficiency in city planning, urban disaster prevention and reduction planning, city planning and reconstruction after disaster. In order to improve the education level in city planning and climate change, it is necessary to improve the research level.At present, the research about the technology and strategy of climate change in city planning field is in a good way. Many western researchers put forwards their advice about the climate change on the city planning. But China’s systemic city planning strategy for climate change have not come into being yet. It’s urgent to begin the setup of the research system. This give China opportunities and challenge. In china, at least four research orientation in city planning should be setup at first. The first one is the strategy research of city planning in climate change. It includes the mode research of city development, the research of city residential and commercial layout, and new type of compact city in China. This is the basic research for city planning in China. The second one the is the research of China’s energy efficiency in city planning. It includes energy efficiency research in land use, traffic system and city dynamic connection, greenbelt and landscape system, and public facilities. China’s cities is in high speed of urbanism and need to do so many city plannings. Whether the city planning is energy efficient decides basic amount of energy consumption of a city. So it’s important to establish the research orientation as early as possible. The third one is the research of climate disaster prevention and reduction system in city planning. It include the research of climate disaster prevention and reduction planning, the disaster succor planning, emergency traffic and supply system planning and control, and reconstruction planning after the disaster. In fact, some of them could be put together with the other kinds of the disaster prevention and reduction system. The last one is the research of climate change adaptation in residential community layout and public traffic transportation. As is well known, China has the largest population in the world. The total amount of energy consumption of the buildings is so huge. The research about residential layout and the community relation is realistic and urgent. The research of the public traffic transportation in China is emphasized by the institutions and university now. Although it began early in China, but researchers are faced to many difficulties. Case study to increase awareness and skills about climate change in city planning education 355
The old towns and historical districts have many natural advantages in the community development. But it is so weak in front of the climate change nowadays. Through particular consideration, the historic district in the old city wall of Hanyang was chosen to do a investigation practice in education experiment. Hanyang is one of the three towns in Wuhan. Wuhan is divided by the two rivers into 3 towns, named Hankow, Hanyang and Wuchang. The students were assigned a project about the conception city planning of protection and development of the old Hanyang. In the investigation practice, an evaluation report about the influence of climate change and the ability of disaster prevention and reduction of the old Hanyang was required.The students were asked to collect information by questionnaire surveys and literature surveys. They collect the climate disaster history of the old Hanyang, the snow disaster loss and the city planning information this year, the status of the buildings and traffic transportation in the disaster. When they got all of the data, they began to analyzed the city planning and climate change, and thought over the new type of the city development and make protection and development planning. They gained much from the investigations, especially the relation between climate change and city planning. They know exactly the importance of the climate change, and have the primary awareness and knowledge to analyze the influence that climate change brings to the cities. This is a simply investigation practice. But the effect of the investigation practice is very good. It is better than ten hours’ lecture. In order to improve the planning skill with climate influence, the next step is to do some practices with a quantitative survey of long term. It gives the education more veracity, and bring the students better way to improve skills and awareness, which could also bring much information to the research. conclusions The proposals for China’s city planning about climate change contain the macroscopical and microcosmic modification advice in city planning education system. And the proposals are feasible and realistic. Climate change is so important to the development of China and the global life. City planning have to be modified gradually. China’s reality decides the way of climate change education in city planning. Whether the proposals are accepted depends on the reformation of directions of the government. The disadvantages have to be decreased through the efforts of the government and education institutions and lectors. But the reality is urgent, the university of China should begin their establishment of the climate change research and education in city planning now. In China's National Climate Change Programme, the strategy of the city planning have not been point out yet, there may be many problems hard to solve. with the research about climate change and city planning improving, the programme would add to the strategy of the city planning early or late. However, the city planning education is easier to begin than the strategy of city planning to proclaim. It is urgent to for China to modify the city planning education in front of the frequent climate disasters. Notes and references
[1] National Development and Reform Commission of People’s Republic of China, China’s National Climate Change Programme, 2007.
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DESIGNING FOR CHANGE: A STUDIO MODEL Associate Professor Penny Allan Victoria University of Wellington
While there is a growing body of literature on the mitigation of climate change through legislation and policy, there is a shortage of research relating to design as a strategy for enhancing a city’s adaptive responses to change that is already happening. In this context, the design studio model, with its holistic, problem-based approach and ‘what if…’ propositions has proven to be a valuable research tool because it provides an opportunity to propose and test multiple and complex ideas quickly. In 2007, two Australasian landscape architecture programs (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RMIT, Australia and Victoria University of Wellington VUW, New Zealand) collaborated with a wide range of disciplines and government bodies in a design studio project to address these issues. The studio posed the following questions: how will sea level rise affect the low lying areas of both cities within the next 50-100 years? And how can design affect the capacity of cities, traditionally designed for efficiency, to cope with change? The approach of each studio reflected quite different local concerns. While RMIT’s focus was on the design of new types of urban spaces, in response to the inundation of terrain and major drainage infrastructure, VUW investigated resilience as a conceptual framework for design with strategies including scenario planning, new techniques for mapping change over time and staged processes of ‘managed retreat’. Both studios interpreted the threat of inundation as an opportunity to address intractable social and environmental urban issues. Both reflected the inherent capacity of the design process to encourage integrative thinking. This ongoing research highlights the importance of an effective integrative, multidisciplinary process to resolve complex climate change issues, suggests ways that design propositions might inform climate change policy and establishes design studio as an important vehicle for the creation and rapid testing of strategies for resilient responsive urban environments.
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INTRODUCTION Global warming has delivered the prospect of rising sea levels, droughts, floods and a variety of other catastrophes. Pictures of a partially submerged Manhattan, San Francisco and other great cities have been widely broadcast. However the pictures only tell part of the story. A portion of the surface elements are submerged, but more importantly a complexity of natural, cultural, social, historic and infrastructural systems are seriously affected, revealing just how fragile our systems of urbanity are. In 2007 Cath Stutterheim from RMIT and I conducted parallel climate change design studios to assess the threat and implications of sea level rise in two very different cities; Wellington, New Zealand and Melbourne, Australia. The studios produced quite different responses but both saw the sea level rise scenario as an opportunity to deal with a wide range of social and environmental urban problems. This paper discusses a design studio undertaken in 2007 and the subsequent testing of student work against two frameworks: resilience and scenario planning (both concepts from ecological sciences via other disciplines) which resulted in a descriptive glossary which might be used to describe and design for change and complexity in the urban environment. The studio has generated a body of research at the Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) into climate change and urbanism which then inspired 2008 curriculum. A book, Moved to Design documents this process, discussing student work and proposing specific strategies for response through design, both in teaching and in practice. THE 2007 STUDIO It’s a little odd to propose a sea level rise studio in Wellington because we are actually due for a massive earthquake which would probably cancel out the effects of any sea level rise. During the last earthquake in 1855 (measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale), the ground rose by 6m in some places and a shelf of land, which now supports important coastal infrastructure, rose out of the sea. But the point of the studio was not to predict the future. It was 1. to encourage a new way of looking at urban form and infrastructure and their capacity to respond to change 2. to experiment with design methodologies that not only accommodated but were reliant on the idea of flux and uncertainty The Brief We chose four low lying coastal sites in the Wellington city area, each with a specific set of qualities and problems; e.g. low lying pipes, contamination, ageing infrastructure. Then we proposed four stages: Part 1: Develop a ‘hunch’ based on thorough reading of the site. Part 2: Design a protective structure Part 3: Plan a managed retreat. Part 4: Based on the previous two tests, develop an appropriate strategy Then we developed 2 ‘change’ frameworks together with associated vocabularies against which to test the student work. THE FIRST FRAMEWORK: RESILIENCE There are two quite different definitions of ecological resilience. The first considers resilience to be a measure of how quickly a system returns to an equilibrium state after a disturbancegggg. The second, is defined by C.S. Holling as ‘the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change, so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks.hhhh’ The first definition is about speed and efficiency; the second focuses on the processes of change, describing the mechanisms of any open system that allow it to change in response to change while remaining relatively stable. Holling provides us with 4 variables that facilitate that processiiii: gggg
Holling, C 1998 ‘Two Cultures of Ecology,’ Conservation Ecology. 2(2): 4 [online] viewed 27 August 2007 http://www.consecol.org/vol2/iss2/art4/, p2 hhhh Ibid iiii Holling, C 2004 ‘Resilience, Adaptability and Transformability in Social-Ecological Systems’, Ecology and Society 9(2): 5 [online] viewed 27 August 2007 http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss2/art5 4, p3
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Latitude The maximum amount a system can be changed before losing its ability to recover. Resistance The ease or difficulty of changing the system. Precariousness How close the current state of the system is to a limit or “threshold.” Panarchy Influences from states and dynamics at scales above and below. For example, external oppressive politics, invasions, market shifts, or global climate change. How does this relate to urban design? If a city can be described as a system, we obviously want it to still act like a city (i.e. ‘retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks’) while experiencing the impacts change associated with, say, climate change. If as designers we can identify these variables and influence them, theoretically we should be able to design for, or retrofit resilient cities. Tonle Sap: A Resilient Settlement The villages at Lake Tonle Sap in Cambodia might be regarded as resilient settlements. The lake levels rise and fall by about 12m during the wet and dry seasons. In terms of urban form, the locals have employed two types of house construction: one that responds to lake level rise by floating, the other is built on 12m high stilts. One type of house floats and rises and falls with the level of the lake. The others are on 12m high stilts, becoming waterfront properties when the lake is full. Both have different amounts of latitude built into their systems. The first is ‘precarious’ if the lake levels start to rise above 12m, the second, if the lake levels dry up all together. The aim of both types of structure is to allow the settlement to ‘stay in the game’jjjj the ‘game’ being a settlement which retains its physical, economic and social structure regardless of lake levels. THE SECOND FRAMEWORK: SCENARIO PLANNING Another strategy that supports ‘staying in the game’ is scenario planning, a strategy developed by futures planner Pierre Wack at Shell Oil in the 60s. According to Wack, the point of scenario planning is that if you’re unprepared because you’re focusing on something else, you could precipitate system collapse. The resilience vocabulary helps to shed light on the relevance of this strategy. For example, it might be said that scenario planning encourages resilience by developing a range of likely futures based on the intensive analysis of a number of key drivers of change. Being prepared on a number of fronts encourages latitude and planning for a preferred scenario builds resistance to system collapse. Finally, Wack noted that scenarios need to operate in association with a point of reference; at Shell Oil it was the manager’s vision for the company; ‘you should have a clear, structured view of what you want your company to be, which precedes your view of what you want your company to do’. kkkk Scenario based learning Scenario Planning is a useful teaching tool because it develops an understanding of the complexity and interaction of systems. An example is the current fashion in medical school curricula around the world which focuses on teaching by case study rather than anatomical system. Students start with a scenario and are asked to determine the factors contributing to it rather focusing on a system and its pathologies in isolation (think of the way cases are presented on the television program ‘House’). In both urban design and medical school curricula, scenarios encourage integrative, holistic thinking.
THE GLOSSARY During the course of our framework assessment, we established a glossary, drawn from a variety of disciplines to help us better understand the ‘change frameworks’. By reviewing more closely how other disciplines have described and dealt with change and testing this against the 2007 studio student work we were able to come closer to developing a specific design methodology for dealing with change. Homeostasis jjjj
Pickett, S 2003 ‘Resilient Cities: Meaning, Models, and Metaphor for Integrating the Ecological, Socio-economic, and Planning Realms,’ Landscape and Urban Planning 69(4), pp369-384 Wack, P 1985 ‘Scenarios. Shooting the Rapids’, Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec., p. 147
kkkk
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Homeostasis describes how it’s possible to talk about change and relative stability at the same time. The human body offers some clues. At one scale the body is relatively stable, but to achieve that stability in the face of a constantly changing external environment it needs to undergo millions of minute, internal changes at a different scale. The relative stability of the body’s system depends on its capacity to change in response to a changing environment. In a similar way, city systems operate at a variety of scales. At Tonle Sap, for example, the continually changing relationship at the scale of the land/ house/water interface allows for a relative stability at the scale of the community. Feedback mechanisms The body uses a series of feedback mechanisms to achieve a core internal temperature of approximately 36-37 degrees centigrade. It manages changes generated by the body and the external environment in order to maintain that temperature through a series of feedback mechanisms (e.g. shivering and sweating). These feedback mechanisms enhance the body’s resistance, making it less vulnerable and keeping it away from dangerous thresholds. The mechanisms are so powerful that they make the body’s position less precarious, helping it to achieve relative stability or homeostasis. A road network is another example of the way feedback mechanisms work. The size of a road determines the amount of traffic it will take. Too much traffic, too many jams and people will stop using it, returning it to its optimum state. Latency Stanford Anderson in his preface to the book ‘On Streets’ discusses the latency of the physical environment; the capacity of a designed environment to support a change in functionllll. Latency in the urban environment is like Holling’s latitude, or room to move. This is easy to achieve with a ‘loose fit’ often described as ‘robustness’. But what’s really interesting, and useful for this discussion, is that even with a ‘tight fit’, you can find latency in unexpected places. For example, Parc Trinitat, designed by Roig and Battle in 1997 exploits the latent potential of something (a freeway) that Anderson would have described as a ‘machine’, his definition of a space with no potential for latency, and yet 25 years later someone has managed to graft a sports park onto a freeway intersection. STUDENT WORK Student work was produced without any reference to either resilience or scenario planning and yet the best work exhibited elements of both. This, in fact, is what prompted us to investigate these ideas more closely for their usefulness as teaching tools and also their effectiveness in practice. Resilience and XYT Rongotai has been subjected to a number of changes in its short history. It rose out of the sea during the 1855 earthquake then settled into a relatively stable state of shifting dunes and wetlands. New urban infrastructure has been constructed to allow for occupation but in doing so has affected the environment’s capacity to respond to change. For example: The sea wall, constructed to protect the suburb and Highway One from storm surge has fixed the coastal edge in place preventing the active response of the dunes to sea level rise while the scouring action of the waves against the wall causes erosion of the beach sand during storm periods. Raising the level of the wall will merely exacerbate scouring of the sand and cut the town off from the beach. Sea level rise will precipitate failure of the stormwater system, widespread flooding, loss of the beach and collapse of the Highway. XYT identifies ways to maintain the relative stability of Rongotai at one scale (the scale of the suburb) by identifying interventions that would allow vulnerable systems to respond to change. Referring again to the model, the project proposes to introduce latitude into each system by identifying backups: for stormwater by exploiting the latent storage potential in the open space network, for traffic and housing, by rerouting Highway One and decanting the residential strip to a new medium density development on higher ground and for the coastal edge by removing the wall and allowing the dunes to reestablish. XYT proposes to do this in stages, calibrated to the occurrence of impacts. A graph shows the relative vulnerability of these systems over time to sea level rise, where the x axis relates to relative sea level rise and the y to the proposed interventions. Change is initiated when and only when it’s necessary. llll
Anderson, S 1978, ‘People in the Physical Environment: The Urban Ecology of Streets,’ On Streets, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.,
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Not only are all of the systems less vulnerable because they have latitude or a back up system, their resistance is strengthened by the presence of a feedback mechanism (the adaptive manager). In this way the suburb is able to achieve a new, homeostatic state. The final defence, the sea-wall, is demolished once the other system’s capacity for response has been established. The demolished wall and houses are buried as a way of trapping sand to stimulate dune regeneration. Remnant carports and chimneys become elements in a new type of recreational landscape and the remnant houses are gradually subsumed beneath the dunes. Scenario Planning: Salt, Disturbing Suburbia and Over and Out Students Matt Pepper, Yanos Fill-Dryden and Simon Stantiall developed and tested sea level rise scenarios for their chosen sites that suggested new ways of thinking about the future. They created utopian visions for a new community based on the sustainable use of its local resources (as in the case of the Salt community), converted the ‘threat’ of sea-level rise from a local authority issue, to a household issue, into neighbourhood issue and in doing so raised the insular community of Seatoun out of its torpor (in the case of Disturbing Suburbia) and assessed the positive implications of building a massive retaining wall in Wellington harbour to hold the sea back (in Over and Out). CONCLUSION The 2007 design studio process has been extremely fruitful, suggesting ways how design can encourage us to be proactive rather than reactive to change. Some of the most interesting avenues for research include the following; 1. The sea level rise scenario facilitated the teaching of climate change and landscape and urban design in four dimensions. The extent of impacts and the implications of design moves need to be mapped in both space and time. For example, relative levels need to be thoroughly understood because even small changes in sea level rise have spatial implications; walls can be constructed to protect infrastructure at the water’s edge but the invert levels of pipes threaded in an interconnected maze through the city are more difficult to fix. 2. In contrast with natural ecologies, in an urban environment systems tend to be isolated; responsibility for the teaching, planning, design and management of infrastructural systems are typically kept separate. The scenario based studio reintegrates these systems. It encourages students to see the city as a set of interconnected systems, to understand the implications of their design strategies on the whole city and to propose solutions that produce multiple benefits. 3. The scenario based studio, with its rapid testing of multiple scenarios, collaborative processes, integrated outcomes and powerful 2D and 3D visualisation can be an important tool assisting governments and communities to respond proactively to the challenges of climate change. The most effective outcomes are those based on the establishment of a close working partnership between academia and relevant stakeholders. Design studio is perhaps undervalued as a tool for innovation, but the model described in this paper has all the necessary ingredients to generate new ways to think about climate change. Part scientific, part speculative, part creative, and fully hypothetical, it stimulates ideas by encouraging integrative thinking, and has the capacity to generate and test a wide variety of multi facetted economic, social and environmental scenarios thus ensuring that not only students but also local governments and communities are well equipped to understand the and respond to the complexities associated with climate change in the urban environment.
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TOPIC 7: Best Practice Case Studies RESILIENT URBAN DESIGN MODELS Abstract This paper translates ecosystem frameworks in science - watersheds, patch dynamics, and the Human Ecosystem Framework- to resilient models for urban design. In a context of global urbanization and rapid climate change, these new frameworks and models challenge conventional thinking about, urban design and sustainability. These urban design models are multi-scalar and temporal as well as material and digital. Given that ecosystem change now happens in a lifetime; monitoring, feedback loops and calibration are critical components. Resilient models therefore offer the ability to not only recognize and absorb change but also to apply knowledge toward effective engagement with ecosystem complexity in the future. Introduction To situate design within expanded disciplinary and geographic fields means broadening its analytical framework to consider the interrelations between these flows of natural processes, society and media at multiple scales of localities and networks. This paper uses the ecological frameworks of watersheds, patch dynamics, and the Human Ecosystem Framework through which ecology and design can intersect to create resilient models for urban design. Based on the idea that the essential quality of urban life is the production of difference, these frameworks give meaning to inhabiting our complex forest of symbols on an urbanized planet. In her essay, “City life and Difference” Iris Marion Young (1990) argued that the ideal of community tends to value and enforce homogeneity and that appeals to community are often anti-urban. Young proposes to construct a model of city life as an alternative to both the ideal of community and the individualism it criticizes as asocial. City life is a form of social relations defined by the being together of strangers. City life is the milieu in which psychological, social and natural differentiation actively produces knew forms of creative imagination and spatial relations, beginning with the rich experience of the city. City life as the production of difference is therefore key. Resilience and Psyche- Reflective and Responsive approaches to Ecology and Urban Design According to Walker and Salt, (2006) the first step toward Resilience Thinking is considering a systems perspective of how the world works; We are all part of linked systems of human and nature (also described as socio-ecological systems); These systems are complex adaptive systems; Resilience is the key to the sustainability in 362
these systems. The second step is to develop and understanding of the two central themes that underpin resilience thinking: The first theme is thresholds for example; socio-ecological systems can exist in more than one kind of stable state. If a system changes too much it crosses a threshold and begins behaving in a different way, with feedback between its component parts and a different structure. It is said to have undergone a ‘regime shift.’ The second theme is adaptive cycles: How socio-ecological systems change over time - system dynamics. Socioecological systems are always changing. A useful way to think about this is to conceive of the system moving through four phases; rapid growth, conservation, release, and reorganization – usually but not always in that sequence. This is known as the adaptive cycle and these cycles operate over many different scales of time and space. In a similar mode of rethinking method and this time using the word ecology as a metaphor, Guattari offers ‘Three Ecologies’ for resilient thinking: environment, social relations and the human psyche. It is estimated that the world population doubled in the 40 years between 1959 and 1999 from 3 billion in to 6 billion and is projected to grow from to 9 billion by 2042. The UN Information Service () reports that the world’s urban population is estimated at 3 billion and is expected to rise to 5 billion by 2030. For the first time in human history, half of the world’s population now lives in cities. By 2030 the urban population will double to six million climbing to 61% of the world’s population. Clearly we are testing the resilience of the Earth to support urban life. While older industrialized economies – and more recently China and the Middle East - rely on the logistics of the oil economy, our cities are currently reflecting in their reliance on fossil fuels, mechanical systems and top-down planning and thinking. At the same time participatory democracy is often stalled in debate. In contrast, South Asia, Latin America, and Africa have a much lower use of energy and resources per capita. If they don’t copy the older industrialized economies urban models they may be far more “developed” and better prepared for demands of the 21st century. Early landscape planning models such as Geddes, Garden Cities() , McHargs suitability gradient () and Foremans tetradedron of types () leant heavily on a faith in top-down planning. Even emergent–based models such as Alexanders () have been translated to smart-codes that need to be strictly enforced by planning. In recent residencies in Delhi, Mumbia, Beijing and Shanghai with the New School’s India China Institute, it is clear - to quote Vikram Seth, () – that neither India with its “halting, hypocritical and hopeless democracy” and China with its “huge governmental octopus whose one tentacle doesn’t know what the other seven are doing” are currently equipped to address the challenges of this rapid growth. Shifting from questions of environmental resilience toward social resiliency and psychological resilience, how can social relations respond in this enormous ecosystem regime shift that is accompanying what Ulrich Beck (1992) calls the 363
“second modernity”. The first modernity was marked by industrialization, which created “goods’ without regard to the “bads” that resulted. Resilient models for urban design engages in radically new scales of thinking and modes of collaboration in order to creatively face the “bads” of the second modernity because of its unique ability to engage the human imagination towards ecosystem change. Current collective ideas of Nature offer responsive modes that either privilege humans needs or view Nature as energy accounting. No single mode is correct or incorrect, rather the complexity of perceptions needs to be appreciated and new perceptions allowed to emerge. Humans’ Nature also described as conservation, where nature is managed by the state for human life is now being updated with bio-mimicry and biophillia. In these modes humans learn from natural processes for technological knowledge (a new-industrial revolution) or believe in an infinitely forgiving nature that can offer measurable restorative healthcare services. Another force in this family of ideas is love. The critique of permanent capitalist expansion is located in the law of thermodynamics that in turn gives a view of the need for limits. In this mode boundaries and shared measures are important for example, conservation zones, carbon footprints, ecological modernization and sustainable development. Bateson argues that a sociological phenomenon based on conscious purpose of human adaptation has arisen in the last 100 years which perhaps threatens to isolate conscious purpose from many corrective processes which might come out of less conscious parts of the mind. These ‘self-maximizing entities’ encourage a type of dehumanizing in order to maximize their interests. Matter, according to Bergson, is made up of ‘modifications, perturbations, changes of tension or of energy and nothing else. For resilient urban design models, this matter-flux is a new type of perception of Nature that aims to facilitate less conscious corrective processes that are multiple, immersed, sensory, and durational. The global shift in urban economies from centers of industrial production towards multi-scaled networks of symbolic processing has created new forms of capital accumulation, migration patterns and communication technologies. (Castells, ) Dramatic and rapid physical changes covering vast urban regions have outpaced biological and social evolutionary time frames. We have consciously tried, but cannot keep up with the ecosystem changes that have been unleashed. The earth’s biosphere, human societies and minds are complex adaptive systems, yet psycho-socio-natural processes lag behind the accelerating spatial reconfigurations, revealing stress points, crises and vulnerabilities in human health and well being. The late 20th century bureaucratic city, with its top-down management systems legislated by master planning, land use and zoning can no longer efficiently operate within this vast new dispersed network of housing, work, leisure, agricultural and goods production, distribution and consumption. Baltimore Ecosystem Study
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In 2002, following a surprisingly large and diverse reception to this on-line model, I received a call from Morgan Grove, a social ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service. It seems they were modeling the patch dynamic behavior of urban ecosystems which closely paralleled the way I was modeling skyscrapers. I was invited to participate in the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, a Long Term Ecological Research Project funded by the National Science Foundation. The Baltimore Ecosystem Study includes about fifty scientists from various disciplines working collaboratively to understand how urban ecosystems work. Patch dynamics is the overarching concept linking all the research and design work in the BES. The BES uses three frameworks are used to test the patch dynamic theory in the interrelations between social behavior, hydrology and plant ecology: the human ecosystem and the small watershed frameworks and the HERCULES land cover classification system. 1. The human ecosystem framework analyzes the human social system in relation to critical resources at multiple scales. Social scientists at the BES use lifestyle clusters to analyze consumer patterns of behavior. Prizm is a geodemographic system which analyzes neighborhood lifestyle segmentations. It is based on the simple theory that people choose to live in neighborhoods that offer affordable advantages and compatible lifestyles. These neighborhoods can be grouped into clusters that exhibit similar demographic and behavioral characteristics. Geodemographics are relatively stable and reliable because the characteristics that define a neighborhood change slowly. However, adaptability and change is a fundamental characteristic of neighborhood self organization and self perpetuation. Prizm, like HEF looks at the interrelations of tangible things such as property regimes, housing stock, transportation networks, commercial infrastructure, schools and land values combined with perceived forces and assets such as economic opportunities, race and ethnicity, local politics, language, culture, and ambiance. Changes that most often cause people to move include leaving the nest, graduating from college, getting married, having children, getting promoted, emptying the nest, and retiring. Through the human ecosystem framework we are beginning to understand the relation between individual mobility and neighborhoods changes such as new construction, regional economic adjustments, transition to empty nests or to new families, rezoning, and rising land values. (Claritas, ) Humans The Human Ecosystem Framework provides a way to work with the diverse life styles and aspirations of various stakeholders to provide bottom up and emergent design strategies. By maximizing hands on socio-natural creativity rather than delegated or formulated models we allow for unexpected healthy ecosystems to emerge. The goal is for neighborhoods that afford healthy lifestyles with plentiful resources.
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2. The small watershed framework uses water chemistry monitoring to analyze how changes in behavior, construction or land cover in small upstream catchments effect downstream environments. This methodology was invented and continues to operate in the Hubbard Brook experimental forest. Here ecosystem science moved from the bounded framework of island ecologies, to monitoring forest and water chemistry interaction in small stream catchments in the Granite State. Fifty years of data combined with recent discoveries reveals that what is learned in the small branches of the watershed can be scaled up to the entire Hubbord Brook basin itself. This knowledge is fundamental to the structuring of the BES work around Baltimore’s open stream watersheds. (Likens and Bormann, 1995) Watersheds Environmental regulations require buffer zones between developments and waterfronts. This approach, while well intentioned, has produced thin band-aid esplanades with massive developments abruptly behind. Zigzag and point cloud approaches mixes built, natural and social systems in order to promote stewardship of entire watershed catchments rather than just waterfronts
3. HERCULES - High Resolution Classification for Urban Landscapers and Environmental Systems - is a novel land cover classification system that puts patch theory into operation. (Cadenasso, 2007) The HERCULES system consists of five types of land cover and classifies neighborhoods according to different combinations of coarse and fine grain vegetation, bare soil, pavement or buildings. When arrayed, the recombinations of land cover types produces thousands of possible patches. Every city has a patch signature based on the presence of a certain number of patch types in a particular configuration. Patches High resolution aerial infrared imagery can be used to define land cover patches based on the percent of mixtures of five different kinds of surface: building, pavement, bare soil, fine and coarse vegetation. Designers and plant ecologist in the Baltimore Ecosystem Study classified an entire regional watershed in Baltimore, Maryland. This system is used, as the basis for understanding the distinctive qualities of individual neighborhoods, and the entire watershed. Together these three frameworks allow us to examine how altered everyday practices, actions and rituals ingrained in material existence create new forms of civic imagination and social capital, which consequently trigger environmental change. Our three frameworks serve as both tools for scientific research and inspiration for open ended designs developed for various indeterminate perceptual sensibilities within dynamic patterns of change. Creative Uncertainty 366
Our goal requires inventing a method of creative uncertainty which involve new processes, ways of thinking, working and building that are collaborative, improvisational, experimental and self-reflective. (Genosko, 2003) We search for resilient forms and processes - working through dispersed agents that encompass heterogeneity, spontaneity, vitality, and equity. Plant ecologists Steward Pickett and Mary Cadenasso have challenged us with the deceptively straightforward question: How can urban designs themselves become working models of ecosystems? (McGrath, et. al. 2008) For us Pickett and Cadenasso’s vision challenges prevailing limits of both avant-garde and conservation/restoration? approaches to design and suggests the creation of a new field between design and ecology. Old paradigms and models from both design and ecology remain inadequate in analytically describing or achieving sensibility within the vast, complex and interconnected ecosystems which constitutes the contemporary city. Nature and Cities can no longer be seen as separate systems, and therefore, the mutual interrelations and feed-back loops between bio-physical, socio-ecological and built environment processes are the subjects and objects of our work and research. Pickett and Cadenasso urge us to explicitly incorporate the patch dynamic framework as a constraint and driver of urban design, making designs themselves experimental models “…as vehicles to test the assumptions and processes of patch dynamics in the arena of built spaces.” Urban Design modeling is therefore conceived as a collaborative activity in this new field between design and ecology, taking place in three arenas: 1. simulations in computers, 2. testing and monitoring of urban ecosystems 3. and as experimental participatory design proposals in diverse social contexts. Patch dynamic theory proposes a design practice based on the premise that we must reach beyond the limits our training professionals. We aim to put into operation the designer as system modeler and change initiator through renewing haptic sensibility in daily life. Incremental, micro design changes can trigger the regeneration of the global environment through feed back loops between local actors and the physical environment. These loops produce difference through circuits of repetition, therefore an urban ecosystem design perspective draws equally from both design and ecology in order to link human existence, social behavior, and cultural meaning with larger ecosystem patterns and processes. Patch dynamics provides a framework to understand cites as intelligent patterns of change and flows at an array of interrelated scales. Designed urban patches produce heterogeneity, modularity, adjustability, flexibility and resilience that begin with the human ability to interpret, reconstruct and symbolically communicate patterns in a complex world. Contemporary designers have been very successful symbolic processors, adept at grabbing public attention and engaging the individual human psyche, while green design approaches are laudable in their social values and goals, but it is in designed urban patch dynamics that cultural circuits of architectural perception can be directed 367
towards creating feedback loops by intelligently linking urban ecosystems in broad, distributive, open, creative and inclusive ways. Monroe Megalopolitan Patch The U.S. East Coast Megalopolis is inhabited by 30,000,000 people inhabiting a huge hardwood forest structured by watersheds. Monroe Center is located in Hoboken, in the heart of the New Jersey Urban Complex - a large, densely populated conurbation stretching along and under the long ridge of the Palisades across the Hudson River from Manhattan. The Gwynns Falls Watershed, q 65 square mile sub watershed which meets the Patapsco River and Chesapeake Bay near downtown Baltimore, Maryland, is the home of 250,000 people and 24 distinct commercial centers. The inhabited hardwood forest of the American East Coast Megalopolis connects the Hoboken, New Jersey Urban Complex and the Baltimore, Gwynns Falls Watershed. Gwynns Falls, the study area for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, stretches from dense enclaves surrounded by highways and farms to partially vacated urban neighborhoods. A vast strip parallels the Gwynns Falls Stream Valley crossing the old city boundary, the ring road, and new exurban spurs. The New Jersey Urban Complex follows a narrow ridgeline parallel to Manhattan draining into the New Jersey Meadowlands and the Hackensack River to the west and the Hudson River Estuary to the east. These two kinds of urban landscape transects – ridge and valley – are repeated countless along the Atlantic seaboard, and their design and management are dictating how the one hundred million inhabitants of the Megalopolis manage the new challenges of the 21st century. Monroe Center for the Arts is a mixed-use, market-driven real estate development project in Hoboken, New Jersey. It offers an urban design model for neighborhood change that actively cultivates ecosystem stewards through design with water and a measure of success called creative uncertainty. Water, which is not currently a positive presence in the neighborhood, is repositioned as an attractor. The meaning of this new water is intentionally immediate, multiple, ephemeral and ambiguous. Creative uncertainty as introduced by Guattari (1.) is a mode of activism that aims to engage ‘how interrelations between living systems, social structures and psychical processes are conceived.’ This is not a goal towards fixity and control but rather, toward the production of difference and heterogeneity. What is fore grounded at Monroe Center for the Arts therefore is not the conservation of environment, but rather the conservation of the view that environment is a living and changing system continually influenced by living and changing ideas. This is our commons and we wish for it to be continuously produced and recreated. A five acre development, Monroe Center for the Arts currently hosts 70 artists and 50 businesses. Starting in 2008 the population density and level of use will increase by the addition of three new buildings, a public space with two fountains, and roof 368
gardens. To communicate the design intent of Monroe Center, this text introduces the project as fully built, although it is still currently in construction. The structure of this essay mimics the pathway of rainwater through the project; by describing water-human networkings in everyday scenarios starting from far above the ground, to on the ground surface, and finally into the ground’s subsurface. In addition the legal, financial and environmental mechanisms of this project are shared to make legible the way in which this hydrology design process was started by the developers 14 years ago, has been taken up by the landscape architect, and will be handed over to the new residents. The intent of this essay structure is to communicate our belief that new natural resources can be produced by humans. The traditional understanding of a natural resource is therefore being expanded to include human and societal mechanisms for caretaking. Design: TILLING Water in the west edge of Hoboken is the substance that lingers in the street after a storm. Close observation reveals that this water is sometimes a rainwater pond and other times a brackish spring. This is because the composition of the water depends on the confluence of a local rain event and the Atlantic Ocean-Hudson River high tide. In these co-incidental events water forms a discontinuous surface, temporarily marking the ancient wetland river edge. It is an enigmatic urban actor and it is the inspiration for a flexible and adaptive public space network at Monroe Center for the Arts. The existing and new neighborhood artists, residents and users act in multiple ways to generate and share knowledge about their watershed. In a crisis scenario, excess water is considered a liability, such as a harmful flood. Conversely, in the context of this new development, excess water offers an opportunity for the opening of previously closed higher surfaces for recreation, relaxation and exchange. People here appropriate their various public surfaces in innovative and playful ways. Starting from the highest elevation, the new residents in the condominium towers are the high-rise caretakers of the watershed. They protect the headwaters of the condominium tower catchment with their balcony rainwater filtration gardens and management of patio surfaces with non-toxic cleaning products. This water is stored in a basement tank and is used to irrigate the roof garden. In addition balcony gardens provide extended habitats for birds and bugs migrating across the street from the Palisades cliff. Given their broad horizon, the high-rise tenants also serve as benefic surveyors, monitoring the neighborhood roof garden terrain. The Palisades cliff, an ancient geologic fault marks the boundary between Hoboken and Jersey City. Extending from Jersey City to far upstream on the Hudson River, the Palisades is a linear forest inhabited by plants, animals and people. Due to its topography, it is difficult to navigate, however a carefully constructed trail has begun which will eventually offer an urban hike to Bear Mountain, 50 miles to the north. Physically traversing this slope provides a performed measure of the river and its watershed. The trailhead is located at 369
Monroe Center and is being created by an overlapping network of stewardship organizations. The next watershed caretakers are the rooftop garden users. Encouraged to appropriate the roof as their own yard, they continuously invent practices and adapt their lifestyle on top of its thin absorptive section and in its gentle microclimate. Paved, grassy, sand and gravel surfaces afford typical programs such as reading, walking or play, however as an extension of the Monroe Center for the Arts the same surface can function as a yoga studio, art class, ballroom, gallery or whatever the creative users imagine. Two mobile barbeque carts and a cabana provide a cooking and washing surface for a roof top brunch, wedding or even a mini-restaurant. Accessed from the fifth floor via a public elevator and the fourth floor via the resident corridors, the roof garden has three distinct levels. The fourth floor terraces are like outdoor rooms, one with grass and the second with sand and toy boxes for play. Ramps and a stair allow access to the four and a half floor wet garden and the fifth floor dry garden. Like an elongated zigzag the circulation system is designed for both evening neighborhood strolls as well as a place to be still. The roof garden functions to mitigate ground-level flooding as well as to offer a higher ground refuge during surge events. Located over a parking garage and residential apartments it is on average one foot thick with multiple waterproofing membranes. An extensive green roof system acts as a sponge absorbing water and releasing it slowly. Hot water, created via a heat exchange with the warmer temperature in the earth is released into a fountain. This geothermal fountain also functions as an informal bathing pool. Adjacent are two hot tubs and a shower nook. Hot and cool water are therefore used to entice extended fall and spring season use, and a mobile fire pit is available for year round use. The street level stewards are the commuters, shoppers, tenants, restaurant patrons, retail owners and workers. The rhythm of joining the breakfast crowd, lunchtime crowd, dinner crowd or the after-hours crowd affords essential, long term, everyday, distracted watershed observation. Two plaza fountains hold and circulate stored rainwater. Like large clocks they evaporate slowly, measuring the moisture changes through subtle shifts in the splash of a mini-waterfall and the bubbles in a pool. The plaza consists of two levels, an upper and a lower and the boundary between them is the ancient Hoboken Island shoreline. Like an amphitheater, the upper level is designed to offer a place to observe people and natural processes on the lower level. When the tide comes in, the water becomes the performer filling the lower plaza. In another scenario, stored rainwater used for irrigation, allows the plaza vegetation to sustain periods of drought. The Monroe Center for the Arts, therefore, manages heat and water stress that would otherwise negatively affect vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, and natural resources, such as street trees and gardens.
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Below the plaza level, under the built-up and sealed surfaces and into the groundwater, there is another natural process occurring and being followed by the residents. Monitoring wells on top of the clay layer at 20 feet below grade and at bedrock (around 100 feet below grade) are regularly checked for the presence and absence of water and contaminants. Given the industrial legacy of the area, there is a slowly migrating flow of contaminants across property boundaries. On a regular basis environmental consultants sample the wells and report their findings to the residents and public agencies. This aquatic uncertainty is therefore made transparent and allows for precaution and feedback. An example of ecosystem feedback has already occurred. During the construction of one of the residential towers, elevated levels of trichloroethylene (TCE) were detected in the sub-surface water; TCE, a degreaser component, is unhealthy for human contact. After multiple attempts to neutralize the TCE and its derivative products, a cut-off wall was built below one of the buildings. Most of the water that was perched on top of the impervious clay layer within the cut-off wall was pumped out. Development: METHOD The Monroe Center for the Arts site was formerly the Levelor Blinds factory. With its two mill buildings and the surrounding four acres of land, it was blighted and slated by the local municipality for eventual demolition and construction of luxury housing. The owners of the site, with the support of the existing artist community in the buildings, proposed a mixed-use development that would be anchored by artists and the arts. This entailed preserving the arts community and constructing affordable work/ live spaces for artists as well as taking the arts out into a public plaza and roof garden. Environmental remediation was primarily funded through a combination of the Brownfield Reimbursement Program (BRP) and the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust Financing Program (EIT). The BRP (a State of New Jersey program) permits the reimbursement of 75% of the sales taxes generated on the site for 75% of the remediation costs. The EIT is largely funded by the EPA’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which provides “seed money” for the state agency. New Jersey has used these funds to provide low-interest loans for twenty years. Until recently, the EIT funds were primarily used for municipal utility projects; since 2004 the program has been expanded to include Brownfields and non-municipal water-cleansing projects. In order to compensate for the development of the affordable units and the public space, the owners requested and received Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT). Under the PILOT, the property tax burden (consisting of municipal, county and school taxes) is reduced by eliminating the school tax and substantially reducing the county tax. Overall this new development generated substantially higher tax revenues for the city in absolute numbers. The public space and the rooftop gardens in turn created the opportunity for the fountains, the design of which would cleanse the water and therefore qualified for funding under the EIT. 371
The fountains and the arts, both in the public plaza and roof gardens and within the buildings are attractive to the retailers and the market-rate home buyers and renters. The retailers started generating the sales taxes for reimbursement under the BRP. The market-rate housing generated the property taxes for the PILOT, which can be used for an upfront bond issuance for infrastructure as well as payment of the EIT loan. Thanks to municipal, state and federal funding programs, support of the local neighborhood, and nesting of the various funding programs and programming of the overall development, local artists, market rate home owners and renters, over 2,000 residents of a nearby public housing complex and visitors enjoy water and its myriad manifestations. This project is designed with an understanding of health that is informed by contemporary ecosystem science where urban ecosystems are viewed in a nonequilibrium paradigm (2). That is, they are resilient, complex, socio-natural, adaptive systems rather than one self regulating system. In contrast to a conservation strategy of protecting remnant or restoring degraded water or plant systems this is a mode of working that is more projective toward yet-to-be imagined futures and inclusive of social and economic forces. We ask of our work, can healthy urban ecosystems be designed with monitoring, knowledge and feedback, as well as continuous planning, invention, adaptation and wonder? The role of design is therefore shared and does not lie in the hands of one professional at one point in time. However we do believe that a compelling urban design made at one moment in time can function as a long-term ecosystem management tool by actors in everyday life. Water is a material that triggers creative uncertainty and therefore it offers the critical ecosystem process of multiplicity. By this we mean: ‘not the H20 produced by burning gases nor the liquid that is metered and distributed by the authorities. The water we seek is the fluid that drenches the inner and outer spaces of the imagination. More tangible than space, it is hheven more elusive for two reasons: first, because this water has a nearly unlimited ability to carry metaphors and second, because water, even more subtly than space, always possesses two sides... water remains a chaos until a creative story interprets its seeming equivocation as being the quivering ambiguity of life. Most myths of creation have as one of their main tasks the conjuring of water. This conjuring always seems to be a division.’(3)/ Ecologists, Steward Pickett and Mary Cadenasso write about the role of meaning, model and metaphor to communicate science concepts to ‘the public, to specialists in other disciplines, and even to schools of ecology beyond those which generally use it.’ (4) At Monroe Center, our notion of the commons references this three part thinking: the meaning we seek is to design public spaces that keep open the ‘window’ of creative uncertainty for the users; circuits and feedback loops of everyday life offer an urban design model for adaptive ecosystem management; and finally water is the material that brings forth competing and collective metaphors toward building communication, trust and co-operation.
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In the future it is planned that this multi-dimensional model of development will be translated to other sites. While every landscape has water, this does not necessarily mean that it should always be the organizing element. Other attractors could include for example, nitrogen or carbon. While not as charismatic as water, the role of design in these landscapes would need to work harder, requiring more fantastic and spontaneous scenarios of our possible urban lives. In addition, new ways of making such as the integration of science models into design models and therefore seeing designs as working models of a small part of an urban ecological system offer ways to approach important but previously complex ecosystem processes in spatially based and meaningful ways.
Global exchange: inhabiting the forest of symbols We are all familiar with the estimates that the world population doubled in the 40 years 1959 and 1999 from 3 billion in to 6 billion. The world population is projected to grow from to 9 billion by 2042. The UN Information Service reports that the world’s urban population is estimated at 3 billion and is expected to rise to 5 billion by 2030. This year, for the first time in human history, half of the world’s population now lives in cities. The proportion of the world population that is urban is expected to rise to 61 per cent by 2030 and the world’s urban population will double to six million in 38 years. Population growth will be particularly rapid in the urban areas of industrializing regions, averaging 2.3 per cent per year during 2000-2030. Clearly we are testing the capacity of the Earth to support human life. The intent of the patch framework is to approach an understanding of the relations and trends accompanying the global shift in urban economies from centers of industrial production towards multi-scaled networks of symbolic processing. New forms of capital accumulation, migration patterns and communication technologies have unleashed rapid physical changes throughout vast urban regions outpacing biological and social evolutionary time frames. The earth’s biosphere and human societies are complex adaptive systems, yet both natural and social processes lag behind the accelerating spatial reconfigurations, revealing stress points, crises and vulnerabilities in human health and well being. The bureaucratic welfare city, with its top-down management systems legislated by master planning, land use and zoning can no longer efficiently operate within this vast new dispersed networked environment for housing, work, leisure and consumption. New architectural and urban design models and practices as well as emergent design and management systems must be developed to address these and other pressing issues such as climate change. Burch, While older industrialized economies – and more recently China and the Middle East - rely on the logistics and technologies of the oil economy, these urban templates are currently backward and unsustainable in their reliance on fossil fuels, mechanical systems and linear thinking. South Asia, Latin America, and Africa have a much lower use of energy and resources per capita, and are therefore, 373
are far more “developed” and prepared for the 21st century’s requirements for sustainable planning and design. Almost all the growth of the world’s population between 2000 and 2030 is expected to be absorbed by the urban areas of these developing regions. How can we prevent the cities of the south from copying current development models? The realities of the world’s resource constraints require design, planning and management which continually re-examine raw material availability, and minimum run or load requirements, as well as components of social organizational capacity critical for high performance. How can architects participate in this enormous paradigm shift and change of modalities that will accompany what Ulrich Beck calls the second modernity? I would argue that architects must engage in radically new scales of thinking and modes of collaboration. Bangkok: spectacular feedback Carved Gold-leaf wooden shutters frame scenes of paddy rice farming, grazing water buffalo and lotus gardens floating within an encrusted background of miniature diamond shaped mirrors. These reflective surfaces evoking a bucolic, water based life are framed within the raised colonnaded ambulatory of the ubosot housing Wat Pathumwanaram’s main Buddha image in the heart of Bangkok. When saffron-robed mendicants circle the temple, the glimmering surfaces mirror the sky, trees, lotus gardens and worshipers in a kaleidoscopic mosaic of shifting reflections. Recently, the mirrored shutters also reflected a new urban panorama beyond the temple precinct: cranes and scaffolding of two vast construction sites surround the temple just outside the new Siam Central Station, the main junction point between Bangkok Transit System’s first two mass transit Skytrain lines, converging just outside the monastery walls. The temple was constructed in the early 19th century by King Rama 4, as part of a royal enclave of villas along the canal Khlong San Saeb built by his predecessor. With the expansion of the Kingdom of Siam and growing commercial contacts with Europe, the Grand Palace at the center of Bangkok grew over crowded the Thai elite began to experiment with the architecture, landscapes, dress codes and decorum of colonial Europe, while simultaneously rediscovering rituals and pleasures from the rediscovered historical capitals of Sukhothai and Ayutthaya. Today, this kilometer long stretch of Rama 1 Road, parallel with the canal is the setting for new mass consumer desires marketed through a potpourri of historical and contemporary references. The monastery complex now shares this long bock with four major shopping mall/mixed-use commercial complexes comprising the Central Shopping District of Bangkok. Surprisingly, the recent profusion of reflective and transparent architectural skins and surfaces come to resemble, more and more, the aesthetic dematerialization - if not spiritual dimensions - of Wat Pathumwanaram’s glimmering illusionary shutters. Digital screen printing as well as new glass and LED technologies create new luminescent images and reflections back to city inhabitants wandering through the malls or gliding above the city on the elevated Skytrain. Thailand – 50% urban, 50% rural, provides a working analytical model of the disujunctive space of flows that constitute the cultural dimensions of globalization 374
mentioned in the introduction. Following the shock of the Thai economic crisis of 1997, thousand of people were out of work, many fortunes lost, bankruptcies were rampant, and hundreds of halted construction sites across Bangkok were stark reminders of the end of the “Asian Miracle Economy.” With the crisis came a period of widespread self evaluation, especially when the economic remedies instituted with assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank only worsened the crisis. King Bhumibol Adjulyadej introduced the concept of the “Sufficiency Economy” in the year following the collapsed, based on the Buddhist principle of the “middle path” a guiding principle for all people pursuing their livelihood. “Sufficiency means moderation, reasonableness, and the need for self-immunity for sufficient protection from impact arising from internal and external changes.” (Thai Embassy, 2007) Sufficiency economy is both a philosophy and a basis for policy making that operates in three arenas of application. For individuals and households application of the philosophy asks for reasonable behavior in investment and consumption. For the corporate sector, it recommends risk awareness as well as good corporate governance and responsibility, and for government economic policy makers it outlines the need for fiscal discipline, sustainable growth, fair competition and distribution, immunization against global risk and strengthening impoverished rural communities. “The effective application of the sufficiency economy requires a holistic perspective, encompassing the environmental, cultural, and social dimensions.” (Thai Embassy, 2007) Thaksin Shinawatra was elected Prime Minister in 2001, on a platform that rejected Thailand’s dependence on IMF loans and requirements. He headed a political party called “Thai love Thai.” “Thaksinomics” represents a distinct break the past and the demise of the neoliberal economy of “The Washington Consensus” and led to a growth rate for the Thai economy that increased from 1.9 percent in 2001 to 6.5 percent in 2003 The wider availablitily of credit and government stimulus produced for the first time in Thailand a mass consumer society completely at odds with the dictates of the Sufficiency Eocnomy. Thaksin was the first Thai Prime Minister to complete a full term, and was re-elected by an overwhelming mandate of the rural poor in 2005. It was during those years that the emergence of Bangkok’s Central Shopping District became a both symbol of Thansinomics and its basis in consumer spending, and the site of Thaksin’s ultimate political demise. Ironically, these largest and most exuberant of these new consumer palaces are located on Crown Property. Almost immediately after Thanksin’s reelection, his consolidation of power and signs of corruption brought the Bangkok middle class to front door of Parliament House the great square at the end of Ratchadammeon Road. After months of growing protests, the protesters gathered in Rama I Road, in the shadow of the Skytrain, and brought Bangkok’s CSD to a halt, forcing Thaksin to resign. Thaksin regained power as caretaker Prime Minister, but on September 19, 2006, a coup d’etat placed Surayud Chulanont as Premier with a mandate to institute the Sufficiency philosophy. Elections in December 2007 replaced the interim government with the People’s Power Party led by Samak Sundaravej based 375
on a platform which allied itself with Thaksin and the banned “Thai love Thai” political party. Bangkok’s CSD is not just a shopping district, but a symbol of all the conflicts inherent in the global city of disjunctive flows. Various disjunctive flows which pass through any urban context. These include the ecological fluxes of water, materials, nutrients and organisms, but also the mechanical flows which convey these materials as well as people, information and ideas through cites. The informational and media flows which constitute the semiotic flux of contemporary life is a continual sound and visual track which compliments the material and human flows. It is the intersections and interstices between these flows which constitute the object of our schizoanalytical modeling of design. Human perception and social organization occurs also at the intersection of these flows, and schizoanalytical modeling can begin to capture the relationship between human subjectivity and the mechanics of flows. Design captures the transformational capacity of redirecting these flows in relationship to human agency and social life. Attentive circuits Early in the morning, Wat Pathumwanaram remains a meditative retreat within the heart of Bangkok. The temple, originally built as a forest monastery outside the city, was established as a meditation training center. You can find area residents and workers sitting on the floor under the frescoes of past meditation experts. Glancing up, the attic frescoes depict the royal barges floating on all four walls. They remind viewers of the King’s annual procession to bring robes to temple monks during Buddhist Lent. The painted images seem to circle around the space, but the sound of the Skytrain can be heard through the temple walls. Outside, a monk crosses the eight lanes of Rama 1 Road in order to accept food offerings from area residents along the small nearby lanes leading to the canal. Ice is stored at night in a shop house cooling sleepers above. Crushed ice is delivered by samlor to fill soft drinks consumed at the many area fast food outlets. Urban ecosystem studies require long term, attentive research and observation. Concepts on the contemporary city based on globe trotting can only remain superficial impressions. More in-depth transnational and transdisciplinary urban research tools must be developed. Walter Benjamin has described architecture as experienced in a state of distraction. However, according to Bergson’s concepts of automatic and attentive recognition, when we consciously reflect on an object, we summon up a remembered image and superimpose it on the perceived object. Bergson carefully analyzed the connection between recognition and attention. To recognize an object is to revive a past memory of it and note its resemblance and presupposes a reflection, an external projection of an actively created image onto an object. Attentive vs. automatic recognition do not differ qualitatively, in both we summon up a memory image and project it onto the object. In attentive recognition, the object and each memory-image we summon up together form a circuit. As we pay closer attention to the object, we summon up memory-images from broader and more distant past contexts. Deeper, reflective attention 376
represents a higher expansion of memory and deeper layers of reality. (Bergson, ) A design understanding of circuits of recognition, attention, reflection and memory is evident in the great monastery architecture and planning of Siamese cities. No greater evidence of architecture built to create distraction exists in contemporary themed commercial space. Bangkok seems poised in between these two conditions of distracted and attentive reflection. The question Bangkok poses is how can designers make contemporary sensate environments in a world that is more and more mobile, fast-paced and mediated? Contemporary architecture provides a wide array of attention grabbing forms as well as new materials and technologies. The question ecosystem science poses for contemporary designers, is how can this newly attentive urban citizen be directed to larger systems and process to create new urban models based in new urban experience. The opportunity to connect these worlds, these ecologies is ever present. In the heart of Bangkok it is the water gardens of Wat Pathumwanaram and Khlong San Saeb beside and behind giant shopping malls which deploy water and media as themes and signs. Urban designs as models of patch dynamics, while benefiting from global thinking, are first enacted locally. Bottom-up and distributed decision making integrates economic and ecological models of complex adaptive and emergent systems using local designs as nodes in feedback loops. Rather than depending on normative urban design models’ systems of control and regulation at two scales, feedback can influence the total environment at multiple scales. It is the subtle interplay of processes along continuum of scales that is important. Watersheds, from small sub-catchments to regional, river and estuary systems, serve as one continuum type scaling device. Human ecosystem feedback is another continuum type scale from daily life to long term intergenerational cycles. The research presented tonight imagines how designers might begin to incorporate patch dynamic theory in order to radically redirect practice into a new field between ecology and design. The call to make urban designs models of patch dynamics resonates both institutionally and publicly: it demands new ways of teaching and thinking in the university, as well as challenges urban society to create new resilient city models as scientific and cultural eco-aesthetic experiments. We believe, that while our sprawling fragmentary urban systems may reflect our democratic society, consumerist values, and desires for individuality, freedom and mobility, we need to search for tools to re-imagine cities as the symbolic order of human existence (Perez-Gomez, 1986).Resilient cities will not be achieved through greater technical or scientific knowledge alone; designs are needed to put the meaning of ecological theory into cultural practice. Contemporary architecture has successfully taken the human psyche as one of its primary sites of interest. Making urban designs models of patch dynamics is part of a fuller urban eco-aesthetic approach. Conclusion Urban designs as models of patch dynamics, while benefiting from global thinking, are first enacted locally. Bottom-up decision making integrates economic and 377
ecological models of complex adaptive and emergent systems using local designs as nodes in feedback loops. Feedback can influence the total environment at multiple scales, but the subtle interplay between ecological and evolutionary events represents the integration of processes along a continuum of scales rather than a dialogue between two sharply distinguished ones. Watersheds, from small sub-catchments to regional river and estuary systems, serve as a precise scaling device. Human ecosystem feedback emerges within multiple time scales from daily life to long term intergenerational cycles. Urban ecosystem logic is situated within the rings of phase space at the intersection of economic, ecological and human patch dynamics. An urban design perspective located within that fourdimensional space is a powerful tool empowering local actors and agents rather than depending on normative urban design model’s systems of control and regulation. The research presented imagines how architects might begin to incorporate patch dynamic theory in order to radically redirect architecture and urban design practice in a new field between ecology and design. The call to make urban designs models of patch dynamics resonates both institutionally and publicly: it demands new ways of teaching and thinking in the university, as well as challenges urban society to create new resilient city models as scientific and cultural eco-aesthetic experiments. While our sprawling fragmentary urban systems may reflect our democratic society, consumerist values, and desires for individuality, freedom and mobility, we need to search for tools to re-imagine cities as the symbolic order of human existence (Perez-Gomez, 1986). Resilient cities will not be achieved through greater technical or scientific knowledge alone; urban designs are needed to put the meaning of ecological theory into cultural practice. Contemporary architecture has successfully taken the human psyche as one of its primary sites of interest. Making urban designs models of patch dynamics is part of fuller urban eco-aesthetic approach. It fosters new forms of being in the world, by extending ecology and architecture to embrace a renewal of social life and the environment in addition to the individual psyche. The projects presented here share an interest and optimism in the innate human ability to adjust to complex change, given the right access to education and information.
Cinemerics – simultopia - urban design not planning or even landscape planning perception preferences: or vectors? (liquid/crystalline/anaerobic) McGrath (hanks) Siam – Cosmology + Watershed
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holly whyte Three ecologies within a framework of Sensate human perception Social experience Material existence Three ecologies as design models Environmental Social Psychic Ecological frameworks Watershed Human ecosystem Patch dynamics Simultopia also dreams of inventing new paradigms for city production (urban design?), ones which neither transcend nor simulate place but inhabit space as different layers of reality. Furthermore simultopia embraces a philosophy of the new and the now, understanding a world of changing perceptions and experience, rather than symbolically fixed representations and signs of place. For Bergson, time and memory are not inside us, but it is the interiority that we are in, in which we move, live, and change. The actual and the virtual, physical and mental, present and past, are inseparable ongoing coexistences. Resilience notes (Walker and Salt) Ecological modernization notes: Cradle to cradle Hybrid cars Political modernization by including the environmental movement Critics argue that ecological modernization will fail to conserve the environment and does nothing to alter the impulses within the capitalist economic mode of production that inevitably lead to environmental degradation (Foster, 2002)
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The mixed-use urban blockA fundamental brick for an economic and sustainable urban development Stadtbaurat Michael Stojan City of Garbsen, Germany The inner city block with its typical variety of functions, as developed over thousands of years continuously until the beginning of the 20th century, is the basic element of cities worldwide. Either in the typical irregular form of the European town or in the monotonic grid of many planned citiesthe single blocks have always been divided in small sections and mixed used for retail, services, gastronomy, commerce and habitation for all social levels. And they shaped varied sequences of street and square spaces, which invited the public to remain and communicate. The explosion of inhabitants during the industrialisation in the 19th century discredited this over hundreds of years well proven system. City expansions were planned exclusively in monotonous chess grids without urban space or green space qualities. The originally green interior yards became speculatively densified. The notorious backyards emerged. After the housing shortage died down responsible planners started to reestablish humane housing conditions at the beginning of the 20th century. At that time reform efforts of famous planners like Tessenow, Stübben, Unwin, Saarinen, Sitte, Henrici, Fischer or Schumacher decided in favour of the traditional block as basic for their concepts. From 1900 until the 30s numerous of the best quarters were built which nowadays still belong to the best addresses of the cities. The reform of the block was the most important topic of the international urban planning exhibition in Berlin 1910. The modernists threw out the baby with the bath and used the discredit of the Berlin speculation blocks to spread their message of the new town for the new mankind: “Tuez la rue corridor” was Le Corbusier`s battle cry and the flowing, green and car friendly city landscape became the most important objective of town planning. Multi storey solitaire slab, row or point became the basic elements of modern town planning until today. The annulment of the traditional perimeter blocks development lead to a multiplication of the energy demand. The fragmentation of the urban space by highways, the zoning of city functions, drafty public spaces without human scale and so on lead to a permanent necessity to use private transport. In addition the modern ideology leads to a loss of the hierarchy of public, semi-public and private spaces and so we lost social usability. There is no difference between (private) back and (public) front anymore. Urban space is just for traffic use. Looking back we are horrified, how this ideology disfigured our cities and villages. Psychologists speak of visual pollution. Since the middle of the seventies we lived to see a strong revival of the block as result of the massive critics about modern urbanism. With the international building exhibition Berlin 1988 the southern Friedrichstadt had a complete renaissance of the perimeter block structure. At that time the extreme adaptability and its qualities for inner city living it proved again successful. Surprisingly these ideas were oppressed by the regaining strength of the modern ideology at the beginning of the 90s.
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Facing climate change at the beginning of the 21st century how can we achieve the principals of the ecological and energy saving city? We simply have to install a best practice process! Which urban design proved successful in the last 150 years and which not? Following the results of my researches the only way to an ecological and sustainable urbanism is the consequent renaissance of the principals of the traditional city in all our new planning and urban renewal projects: The subdivided mixed-use block as basic brick for liveable urban townscape. Which reason led to this decision? 1. The prevention of “loss surface urbanism” as Prof. Moewes is calling it. Most of the energy gets lost through the external wall surface. That is why the major energy sin is less architectural, and more urban and social in nature: the extremely high proportion of external wall, and hence a poor area/volume ratio. These are the detached single-family houses, the enormous unused flat roofs of supermarkets and commercial estates and especially the far too many vacant lots and spaces between existing buildings. Each of these gaps wastes the heating requirement of a whole apartment per floor. All this was following the functionalistic ideology of the free standing building - of point and line. Le Corbusier even managed to give his buildings a 6th surface by up righting them. This enlarged the energy demand and created inhospitable and drafty entrance areas. Additionally the storeys missing above the enormous single-storey flat roofs we come across again in the landscape around the city. Even the zero energy passive single family house is not ecological, because it wastes landscape, increases fuel demand for driving to work, shopping or leisure. Scientific researches showed, that 64 single family houses need three times more energy than 64 flats of the same dimension in low rise high density developments and that the block has the lowest proportion of external walls. Furthermore the compactness causes the lowest cooling effects by wind, too. The first step must be to close these gaps to reduce massive energy demand. 2. Using the instrument of townscape repair in existing structures in connection with the consequent renaissance of the block structure also on brownfield developments, it is possible to create attractive urban square, green and street spaces we all like to live in. The typical mixed use within the block sides and levels together with attractive green spaces in the quiet yards is an additional effect for reducing the demand for car movements. 3. Within the block we have to create neighbourhoods that cater for various socio-economic groups by having a mix of housing tenure. This includes providing social and privately rented accommodation, shared ownership properties and houses for outright sale. Flat-sharing communities are more and more successful in Germany for the senior generation.
The main focus of future development will not be the green field planning, but the embellishment of the city. Demographic change and increasing fuel prices will lead to a movement back to the cities. The customer’s choice will be those cities that keep or develop their attractive urban atmosphere. 381
Today Richard Rogers is “demanding the renaissance of the city as conurbation. Energy demand is low where density is high. That’s why we need density; we need multi-storey buildings which enable human friendly living in the height.” (Dpa 22.8.2008) But is “Obelix” really the attractive future for our cities? Isn´t it our duty to prevent our children from these dead and desert areas of modern townplanning? I am convinced that urban planning according to the antetype of the classical block structure is fulfilling all preconditions for an energy saving sustainable quality of living in our cities: -
Compact block buildings with reduced external wall surface minimize energy demand Mixed-use of ground floor level or other block parts creates urbanity and avoids car use Arranging blocks to attractive urban spaces in terms of the classic European town makes places you like to live in The differentiation between public and private spaces gives back social usability
With the mixed-use block as fundamental brick for an urban development we can kill two birds with one stone: 1. Make our cities more liveable 2. Make a big contribution to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
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Title: Adaptive urban design Authors: Prof. Arch. Benno Albrecht, Arch. Mauro Frate Address: Prof. Arch. Benno Albrecht, Arch. Mauro Frate University IUAV, Venice, Italy, Faculty of Architecture. Cotonificio Veneziano, Dorsoduro 2196, I-30123 Venezia VE ITALY. www.iuav.it Tel: +3941 2571942 Mobil +393356828324 fax +39415246296 E-Mail:
[email protected] E-Mail
[email protected]. Affiliation details: Benno Albrecht is architect and professor of Architectural and Urban Design at Venice IUAV University, Faculty of Architecture. He is the Coordinator of the Graduate Degree of Architecture and Sustainability. He is member of the Professors Board of the PHD in Architectural Design at University IUAV, Venice. He is currently member of the Scientific Committee for the Global Award For Sustainable Architecture. Mauro Frate is architect and visiting professor at the Graduate Degree of Architecture and Sustainability, at Venice IUAV University, Faculty of Architecture. (Translation of text by Luca Siragusa)
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Adaptive urban design Abstract The author presents a description of the latest research works and plans developed at Venice IUAV University, Faculty of Architecture, Graduate Degree of Architecture and Sustainability. The operative verification, we propose, is to inquire – in the fields of advanced education, of research and practice – if the paradigm of sustainability and the attention to climatic changes exerts an adequate influence on the developments of urban structures design, of settlements and of building design. We propose a research programme involving a strategy of adaptive urban design. Our research finds examples of new strategies of design and adaptive metamorphosis of real towns before climatic changes.
Introduction The operative proposition that we propose is to inquire – in the field of education, in the field of research and in practice28 – if the paradigm of sustainability and the attention to climatic changes exert a suitable influence on the developments of urban structures design, of settlements and of building design. - We are sure that putting inside a context reading the climatic environmental data, the worries about climatic changes of the planet, and putting strategy of architectonic and urban design intervention into a more extensive outline, which is tied to saving resources and to controlling of natural, physical and human waste, allows to define a new reference system, that will be able to lead to different design solutions and different formal results. - We are sure that a sustainable urban drawing, with a knowledge of the use and of the transformation of physical resources, is a new boundary of design. Today it is possible to renew our baggage of knowledge and to adapt ourselves to the new emergencies and needs. - We are sure that it’s not possible to define an urban or architectonic design without a general theoretic framing, in the etymological sense of the term, and so look at and take part to events sincerely.
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Scientific research in architectural field aims to determine adaptive strategies for the solution of problems: a large range of physical, environmental and human problems. The civic-political discussion about contemporary architecture is a concise comparison between space models and development models that are to replace the current predominant models that produce physical, environmental and human transformations, consistent with the seriousness of territorial, climatic and social problems, that now come out dramatically. The tension and the importance of this comparison is tied to the entity of the economic and social concernings that are discussed by possible adoption of new techniques of territory transformation. We have in front of us a not loaded future by the sense of progress and a not linear future, but where it is possible to develop the capacity to stabilize the relationship between human being and nature, to think and to live in the cyclic steadiness of a dynamic well-balanced environment. Contemporary design thought must produce a suitable conceptual system to anticipate outline strategies of a future town in a urbanized world completely. Today in Europe it’s necessary a strategy of improvement and a strategy of metamorphosis of the existing. It’s a project into a discipline not for social reformers or for active politicians. It is a political project because it concerns the town29. Today every project of us puts in straight connection with the past and with the future. We know that the present town is worse than that of the past, and that every day we are outlining, as designers, the towns of tomorrow. The answer is not only to increase the efficiency of a single component, but to think about the current urban structure. Also a better building for performances – zero emission and consumption – without critical mass to change if it is in a not sustainable urban context, degraded and not connected. The towns that we are realizing, are negative and we are accustoming to idea that their future will be inexorable and negative too. New geography, determined by current climatic changes, and economy of scale and of localization will form a complex branched system determined by force lines for attraction of means, communications, men. A continuous grid of interconnections, that preludes a completely urbanized planet, takes on a shape. Today unusual and no understandable dimensions of world metropolitan town perhaps can become a starting-point to turn towards a new capacity of life. The world metropolitan town is perhaps inevitable, but her probable wrongness can be avoided. The sustainable urban drawing can play an important role to contribute to reduce emissions, to stabilize (mitigations of effects) climatic changes and to consider already up to now the inevitable consequences that these symptoms will cause in the future (adaptation to effects). Forecast of spatial localization of human activity is one of the necessary capacities – and to grow and to reinforce – that can allows an effective answer to climatic changes in act. It deals with a sustainable urban project that permits to reduce CO2 emissions or zero emissions and that has, as fundamental value, an high capacity of adaptation to transformations of the environmental context. So a sincere and proposals comparison of architectonic culture must take place not about exterior shapes, but about deep structures that determine the forms. A strategy of adaptive project - Adaptive urban design The adaptation capacity consists in settling a thing to another through a principle of convenience and through a parameter of proportion.
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Our operative proposal is the research of a strategy of adaptive urban design. The proposal of a adaptive strategy of urban project begins from some considerations: 1. current climatic conditions are in continuous variation and they will continue to change; 2. demographic and social conditions will continue to change. In Europe in particular they will alter as consequence of the pressure of migrations caused by climatic changes; 3. West societies have not a political force for vertical projects of great breath: not positive – from the top towards the bottom –. Because of this inherent condition and consequence of participant democracy new decisional and operative processes are necessary in the choice field of transformations of territory, from the bottom towards the top; 4. in Europe current occupied territory is superabundant and excessive considering our needs; 5. it’s necessary an optimization of extant city; 6. it’s necessary an urban politics able to reduce and to optimize the new climatic context that is produced by climatic changes in act. Because of this: a. it’s necessary to set out politics of new urban definition through a sustainable key that could apt to these changes and that exploits new possibilities and that is not a victim. b. It’s necessary to think again about current models of space organization that imply a waste of physical, environmental and human resources. c. It’s necessary to configure again the extant city in view of climatic changes in act. Process and ethical principles Every formal result comes from a process, as the art of XX century has taught us. It’s the process and not his result that it’s important and that determines coherence of steps to accomplish into a conceptual way30; way that always starts from a disputable point where “every thing floats in the mass of money with the same specific weight”. Today this point of starting has ethical collective value. Today matters in question are different for temporal and dimensional scale and for importance. They are not tied, as it was in the past and recent times, to behaviour between man and man, but to relation of interdependence between human being and nature. From ethic based on interpersonal relations and so short living, it’s necessary to pass, today in the époque of omnipotent technique, to a conception of acting that assumes an ethical collective value because of proportions of changes that are possible to induce to biosphere and that need to be set by new space and temporal extensions. In this global setting architecture is configured as the discipline depositary of the responsibility about care of physical world, his defence and of understanding results and causes of transformation phenomenons. Architecture assumes (or reassumes) an ethical value and it is responsible of different fiduciary relation between human actions and nature31. This responsibility is explained by a temporal beginning of long duration. In this sense care has a value today that must be assumed for “future generations” as a basic theme for politics of sustainability. The task of architecture, considered in the sense expressed by William Morris, “Architecture means the moulding and altering to human needs of the very face of the earth itself….”32- includes the nature in the global sense. The place of decisions – urban environment The great challenges of the human future are developing in urban environment.
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Our task is to glimpse new futures that can be travelled over and that will be sustainable. The physical, climatic, energetic and social improvement of the cities and of their environment is an urgent theme not only as cultural and ethical point of view, but above all because it’s tied to physical survival of our species. The possibility, that we have in front of us, is attempting to lead this relentless urban growth towards direction of a sustainable urban development. The 2007 is a key moment and crucial in the story of human presence on this planet33. From this year forward more than half of world population will live in urban agglomerate. Urban revolution, begun 5000 yeas ago, has had a conclusion. The design of urban space is essential to give course to politics that are aimed at sustainable development. Territory is the bearing frame where to put every political-civic strategy. In a world where the city has become global, its plan becomes fundamental for the future of humanity itself. It is an acquisition of involuntary value – not for merit, but for demerit – but it’s necessary to have the conscience of responsibility that lie heavily on administrators, technicians, designers who must prepare now strategies of project that are able to realize a multilateral approach. Between all the project choices, about sustainability of possible transformations to put in act, first of all is to pay attention to climatic changes, caused by chemic reactions that human being has produced and poured again in the atmosphere and that risk to put in a deep discussion the planetary ecosystem, we know it today. The sustainability of built up area is sized by life process, his metabolism, use of energy, recovery of wastes and social cohesion. Perhaps therefore it’s necessary we compare ourselves with a strategy of growth and transformation – adaptive metamorphosis – of built-up area. The mechanisms, that start processes and rules of evolution of the same process, become so of prime importance. These rules are “organic” to sustainable transformation of extant structures and they does not stress on formal final result that a growth process involves. It’s a question of urban plan not obsessed by form, but that searches for dynamic balances between man and environment where formal and technical result is a mean and not the end34. Today we realize that our towns are no longer suitable to compare themselves with current climaticenvironmental. It deals with determination of adaptation strategies, of primer of urban transformations and of possible rules that these transformations can assume according to modifications that environment will suffer because of social, physical and environmental symptoms, caused by changes in act and by politics of attenuation and adaptation to these changes, in an environmental context in modification or not to modify. Process and evolution The form in a biological process comes evolution and adaptation and it’s in continuous change in order to answer imposed needs of surrounding environment. Physical form which we realize, is that of today, in this moment, but yesterday it was already different and so tomorrow it will be. It’s a process tied not only to single individual, but of evolution together – a species does not evolves herself independently from the others with which it shares the same ecological community, but in a enlarged ambit – and in our case between man, his manufactures and environment (between biotic and abiotic factors). A form, a body, an organic individual is not sustainable since it exists and it is not overwhelmed by environment it lives in. "Organisms are surviving because they are adapted, and they are adapted because they are surviving" (A. Burnett-T.Eisner).
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Overwhelming can be determined by “collapse” of own environment, caused by increase, exponential, of pressure that is exercised on this. Metamorphosis In Ovidio’s poem – Metamorphosis35 – penetration of Gods, men and nature does not involve an univocal hierarchic order, but a system of interrelations where every level can influence the others, in different and mutable measure too. It’s evident that presumed unit and relationship of every thing that exists in the world: nature, things and alive being. This world is tied by a common and intricate destiny, dark relations, non evident relations, reciprocal transmutations and transformations. Today we have realized that outline pointed out by Ovidio, is extremely true: a common destiny ties men and their life to nature, confined as they are in a little planet from limited resources. Sustainability is the capacity of control of metamorphosis of physical and biological agents that are transformed and transfigured into materials and objects for the use of Men, into a general unitary outline – the earth –. Sustainability in field of urban design is the capacity to start and regulate a process of adaptive metamorphosis of extant city to drive towards a new sustainable city that is able to have an high degree of resilience to climatic changes and that exploits these changes into an energetic key. Biological evolution One of the properties of living organisms is to have a genetic program that has the possibility to modify in the time and in the space: this property is at the basis of biological evolution. Genetic modifications are expressed into three different levels: an adaptive level, a micro evolutionary level and a macro evolutionary level. The first, defined as adaptive evolution or converged, involves the adaptation to the environment as consequence of natural selection. The second involves the specialization and the formation of new species, the third is a level of macro changes – extinctions or origin of principal taxa, phyla and animals36. The adaptation process can also require very long time, but his manifestations are very sophisticated and are reflected in animal architecture37, are “natural” forms taken always as an example in the story of design: the aerodynamic form of birds, hydrodynamics of fishes, climatic adaptation made with consistent dimensions and adequate furs for the climate, mimesis as maximal expressions of congruence between alive being and environment. Adaptation regards also demographic strategies of increase or diminution of fertility. The modality of adaptation passes through several experiments and attempts until structuring a complete and effective adaptive strategy. Adaptive metamorphosis An adaptive strategy cannot have immutable rules, but these must modify in the course of the time and of observation of results to implement the pertinence of result or the necessary time for reaching a satisfactory result. We introduce a scale concept – of ratio between different largeness – between different variables in order to reach a result and the choice of adequate scale – Of resolution as in the use of definition of pixels into a screen. A visual angle from which aim to the possible adaptation is that of sustainability of territory’s transformations and adequacy of result is measured by this point of view. Certainly it is one of the various possibilities that can be pursued – the renouncing of totality of points of view is peculiar of
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contemporary science – but it has value in that it’s adequate – true, that it has validity – as regards that point of view38. A work method is configured for successive approximations, without a grid of certainty on which to confide, but that it pursues partial truth with bravery and determination. This method recognizes and outdistance from the heritage of praxis of Modern Movements (at obviously plural). Strategies of adaptive metamorphosis, similes and differences as regards tradition of Modern Today the more progressive experiences of urban design – sustainable urban design – take load of these experiences – and of structural and conceptual heritage of modern movement – and set themselves as the advanced point of scientific research in architecture.
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The evidence setting of similes introduces the will to recognize a tradition and continuity of a thought that presuppose the possibility for architecture to adopt a work method conceived to aim the difference between an objective approach, dictated by scientific method, and a subjective approach that is characteristic of artistic work. The differences sign a separation from unaware positions of global repercussions which every design movement involves. The differences concern new space relations dictated by sustainability and they are explicit in the research of a right measure to give to contemporary city where every project is a prefiguration of a possible future, but it is not configured as an utopia or as a forecast system of new events, but a critical technique of the present that show futures that can be travelled over. New possibilities given to sustainable urban design – adaptive – consist in giving Form and Performances to the city of dispersion. New design standards and new rules Today the conceptual presuppositions of Modern Movements, that saw in the research of New Design Standards, are still operative. The definition of new standard has been at the basis of researches between two wars where attention of the house leaned historically on two point of view: welfare and comfort. 1. welfare establishes minimum requirements 2. comfort regards the relation between body and environment Today it’s necessary to add a parameter of global sustainability. Today this process is translated in formulation of new rules. The norm has to do with architecture – norm is the square to measure right angles – and with rules of construction; the norm is necessary to regulate – the rule – living together in the narrow spaces of the city where opposite properties and interests whether public or private gather. The norm is an evident and deliberated reduction of complexity, but the norm is loaded by the tensions of a society and tries to translate them in a shared system of behaviours aimed to new results (aesthetic, hygienic, about saving of resources, of living together). The process of implement of norms is part of a scientific research that wants to establish parameters of comparison among the different experiences of transformation of territory. It’s not increasing the norms, but determining new “sustainable rules” of shared cohabitation.
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The spread need of sustainability in urban ambit is leading some administrations to have urbanistic innovative instruments, lines guide, addresses and building regulations that are particular sensitiveness to environmental context. It’s necessary to exceed logic of standard as quality guaranty and to address of interventions of new building or those of restructure, through politics of incentive, towards a “energetic and sustainable environmentally” design. It’s necessary to be able to control formal (morphogenetic) effects of normative choices being connected with tradition of historical Italian town and it’s necessary to interpret these themes to hypothesize, through solutions that are able to join effectiveness of instrumentation and social sharing, normative simplicity and economical sustainability. Our research can be exemplified by six projects: - design of new regulations and line guide that have a morphogenetic character (form-based codes) so as to implement a strategy of Urbanism from the bottom (lines guide of building regulations of province of Brescia); - predisposition of new instruments of control and of design – energetic sun chart; - design about control of morphogenetic transformation of city tied to use of energetic passive devices – sun glass house; - research about optimization of solar shields and their formal configuration; - definition about energetic optimization of interventions of architectonic infill in urban consolidated context. Landscape scale – the role of empty spaces in mechanisms of adaptive metamorphosis Another conceptual presupposition that is still operative and can be travelled over, is the research of design methods on Great landscape Scale. In Modern Movement it is tried to explore the potentiality let from the interrupted history of late eighteenth-century town where new design techniques tied to the great dimension, begun to be explored. Also for us it’s necessary to intend the town as an equipped park with inside all the functions of urban life, the park-town. Town and country realize and create only a system of space relations. It’s a revisitation of the system of interconnected Green Grid thought by Olmested, Claudie Nicolas Forestier, Saarineen. The landscape garden become a design of a possible and sustainable city and today for this reason we underline the stress on the necessity of a global Naturalization of extant city. A design of empty spaces in the city of dispersion assumes a renewed strategic role for realization of a Green City where green architecture becomes an usual operative strategy. Spaces that are not built yet, must constitute the loom of connection of the different built parts and they must be thought and designed for this aim. It’s necessary to consider ground as a resource to be used in a more efficient possible way, through the use of discharged lands and of not built properties that are inside the urban area, so as to avoid a wild urban expansion; it’s necessary to prefer always to intervene sooner on brown-fields than on virgin grounds (greenfield). The green lands assume an important role for activation of processes of ecologic-environmental balance inside and outside of the cities; the empty in the town is a precious, rare and not saleable property. It’s necessary guarantee the presence of an adequate “green structure” to optimize ecological quality of urban lands, the microclimate and the pollution of air, safeguarding the bio-differences. It’s necessary the drawing of green infrastructures, considering the open space as an instrument of urban integration. Our research is exemplified by five projects: - Green belt and ecological corridor supported from systems of new rural-urban building; 391
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New inhabited parks with high density of building, dense vertical towns; New parks with great hypogeous public equipment; Environmental redrawing of industrial contexts with mechanisms of deindustrialization; Geographic scale projects of urban drawing adapting to climatic changes and to raising of sea level.
Urban metamorphosis – the role of constructed spaces in mechanisms of adaptive metamorphosis Today the difference between conservation and innovation is filtered by the conceptual figure that mediates the two hypothesis: the urban metamorphosis. Today the end of metamorphosis – that we feel not only as aesthetic necessity, but also as an ethical need – is increasing the grade of sustainability of the extant city. In the processes of adaptive metamorphosis of the extant city, in its sustainable transformation, public property of grounds is no longer imperative, because the projects of modification of great importance or directed vertically by public operator, are not practicable. This simplification involves the definition of new techniques of primer – of departure, of reaction to transformation, of urban metamorphosis – of urban transformations that now are delegated to a direct relation between public and private. The public supplies normative, technical instruments to give the start to the metamorphosis and it’s in the desirability and in the convenience of the operation, that allows private people to increase and to follow the strategies of transformation. Today the public private boundary must be intended as a space of mediation of interests and not of contraposition of these. The negation of rue-corridor is not today important, on the contrary it means to reinterpret complex cases, characteristic of historical town, where public and private spaces, the presence together of noble and popular houses, the multiplicity of centres determined multifarious solutions and mediations of relation between public and private spaces. It’s necessary to define new standards of density which to address urban extant structures. The built density and the intensity of the use become strategies of intervention in already realized building. It’s necessary politics of densification of after war town and of redistribution of density and of installed intensity. Favourableness towards the densification and the redistribution of urban density, apart from encouraging an intensity of activities, permits also that public services, as for instance the transport, can be more efficient and maintain a high quality of environment in the same time. Our research is exemplified by seven projects: - Urban infill and densification of town after the war; - Green Belt and densification of countries with little dimensions; - Determination of maximal building volumetries in a process of densification that considers solar passive contribution; - Densification in historical context;
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- System of underground intervention through the use of local resources; - City as a O2 factory; - Schemes of sustainable redesign of urban sprawl. Conclusion Our research identifies examples of new strategies of design and operative strategies of adaptive metamorphosis of the extant city in relation to climatic changes. Today sustainability in architecture can be the line of resistance of critic and climatic regionalism in front of globalization of urban images. Sustainability is the line of resistance towards the homologation of results. The place assumes a scientific value and determines the form and the technique of design. I have to remember you Sir Winston Churchill ‘s speech at the Joint Session of Congress, in Washington, on December 26th 1941, asking the intervention of the USA in the IIWW: “We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the tools and we will finish the job”. Prof. Arch. Benno Albrecht Arch. Mauro Frate IUAV University - Venezia, Italia, 28 12 2007
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THE DRAMATIC INCREASE OF CAR TRAFFIC IN AND AROUND ROMANIAN CITIES AFTER 1990 THE CASE OF TIMIŞOARA Prof. arch. Smaranda Maria Bica, Ph.D. Ass. Prof. arch. Liliana Lucia Roşiu, Ph.D. Smaranda Maria Bica Universitatea “Politehnica” din Timişoara, Facultatea de Arhitectură Str. Traian Lalescu 2A, 300223 Timişoara, Romania
[email protected] Liliana Lucia Roşiu Universitatea “Politehnica” din Timişoara, Facultatea de Arhitectură Str. Traian Lalescu 2A, 300223 Timişoara, Romania
[email protected] Abstract Romania is today one of the countries with the fastest growing number of cars in Europe and, with a growth of 30 % per year, the country with the biggest increase in construction activities. Both these fields are big carbon dioxide producers. On the other hand one can speak about the lack of a coherent policy, both in the field of urban development and land use and in the field of public transport in and around the cities. Around the main cities of Romania, important surfaces of land originally destined to agriculture where divided in plots and sold for the construction of new family houses. This kind of development revive the problems of the “villes dortoirs” of the ‘60-ties and ‘70-ties. The paper presents a critical overview of the situation of the new districts around the city of Timisoara, but also of the relation to the villages around the city and to the public transport system in the city itself. Introduction Romania, with its 22,000,000 inhabitants, is one of the latest EU members, and, as a matter of fact, one of the least developed. Although with a weak and not yet sufficiently well established economy, the Romanian gross production is very dynamic. Since the entrance in the EU in 2007, the economic growth reached 5,7%, and it rose to 7.5% per year in the first four months of 2008 (Ziarul Financiar, May 13th 2008). One of the most dynamic fields is the building sector. “In December 2007, Romania had the highest annual growth pace for construction works (30.9 pct) in the European Union (UE27), far above the second ranked Poland (12.6 pct) and third ranked Sweden (10.9 pct), reveals Eurostat (…). Statistical data from Romania released by the National Statistic Institute (INS) reveals that the
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amount of construction works increased 33.6 pct in 2007 (…) and residential buildings (went up) 29.3 pct.” (Financial Times, February 2008). The building sector is polluting itself but if, as it happens in Romania, the tendency of cities and towns is towards an extensive territorial sprawl, the transport problems and traffic growth resulting as a consequence of this phenomenon are at least equally damaging for the environment and causing increased CO2 emissions, especially as the number of cars in Romania grew in 2007, compared to 2006, by 27% (Romanian state television, April 2008). To balance the increased CO2 emission, the urban green surfaces should also increase. On the contrary one can assist in Romanian cities to a gradual decay and a continuous aggression of the urban parks in the last two decades. The chosen study subject is the city of Timişoara. Timişoara had a dynamic economy for some years now and, being placed on flat land, offers conditions for sprawl. With about 350 000 inhabitants it is a city of second rate dimension in Romania (Bucharest, with about 2,400,000 inhabitants vastly surpasses all other Romanian cities). Placed in the western part of the country, it is the main city of an economically well developed county and one of the most dynamic centres of the DKMT Euro region (Fig. 1) (called after the names of local rivers, Danube, Kriş, Mureş and Tisa) including the south-eastern part of Hungary, the northern part of Serbia and the south-western part of Romania. With one of the lowest unemployment rates in EU ( in April the unemployment reached 0.8% for the city and 1.3% for the county, Adevărul, May 5th 2008), the citizens of the region are naturally tempted to build houses and buy cars for themselves. Habitat tendencies in Romania after 1990 - the case of Timişoara The very restrictive kind of lodgings the communist regime permitted, combined after 1980 with massive expropriations and the demolition of many districts with family houses in order to offer land for the new apartments block houses, triggered an opposition and a prejudiced point of view against the collective habitat. The struggle to obtain a plot on which to build a family house came up against the lack of urban areas intended for this aim. In this climate, some enterprising pioneers acquired some of the rare agricultural land surfaces having been regained by former owners and, after a painful and tiresome struggle to obtain the changing of destination, divided the surface in house plots to be sold. Each of these isolated developments was designed independently of the surroundings, with its own access from the main road and its interior narrow streets (4.50 m width, without sidewalks). The area was often surrounded by agricultural land and lacked utilities (water supply, sewage, garbage gathering etc.) and social facilities (shops, medical aid, schools and kindergarten, green areas etc.). The inhabitants of the new developments worked in town and relayed exclusively on the facilities the town offered. Between 2000 and 2007 the described sequence of actions multiplies, triggered by several factors: • more and more of the before the war land owners are put into land possession • the benefit for those acquiring this land and dividing it in plots reach incredible levels (even exceeding 1,000%) • the families financial means did increase consistently, so that more of them can consider building the desired family house. The sprawl of the newly inhabited areas on free land is a chaotic patchwork (Fig. 2), being designed for one single purpose: maximum profit for the seller (Fig. 3). The characteristic features of the new developments are (Fig. 4): • access to the area is completely dependent of the existing main roads • a surface having been divided in plots and with several houses already build is surrounded by bare land or by cultivated fields • no general plan exists for a zone • each divided surface has its own pattern, depending on its form, its access possibilities and on the situation at the moment the plotting was made • no links between the interior streets of two neighbouring developments are foreseen. 395
After 2007, after the admission of Romania in the European Community, the new developments should comply with European rules (“The Action Program from Lille”, The Rotterdam Urban Acquits”, “The Bristol Agreement”, “The Leipzig Charter” etc.), all these stressing on the quality of life, the sustainable development, the environment protection, the participation to the decisional process etc. For the new districts, the rules are very clear concerning surfaces destined to the different urban functions: • 17% for roads of minimum 12 m width • 5-7% for green areas • 5-7% for social activities etc. But in fact these European rules come after most of the area in the immediate vicinity of the city has already been occupied by the new system of plots. And even for these newly divided in plots zones, the surfaces intended for green areas and for social facilities remain as intentions on the project, being rarely, if ever effectively realised. The new developments are dependent of the respective rural administrations. The village town halls have no means and no interest in solving the problems of the inhabitants of the new areas, and these do not participate to the rural community life. They generally leave in the morning and come back by night. Children go to kindergarten and school in the city. Adults work, purchase the needed supplies and participate to the cultural life of the city. All are depending on the communication means with the urban centre. The magnitude of the phenomenon is given by the number of new plots appearing. But not all the new plots are to be built in the near future. Some of them were purchased as investment, the price of the land increasing steadily. Other are waiting for the owner to have sufficient money to built. Anyway, no centralised data concerning the number of plots around Timişoara exist. At the county administration’s urbanism department, the higher body intended to supervise the development of villages and towns, only general plans, without the detailed plotting, have to be approved. Every local administration has data about their own areas, and thus inevitably incomplete. This paper is focusing on the developments appearing at the north of Timişoara, between the city and the village Dumbrăviţa. It is one of the first new districts appearing around Timişoara. The village itself, with a grid of orthogonal streets, is situated at a distance of about 1,1 km from Timişoara (measured on the road from the limits of the city to the limit of the village; the distance from the city centre to centre of the village is not relevant for the purpose of this study). The road to the neighbouring town of Lipova is passing through the village centre. According to arch. Alin Hancheş, the former chief architect of Dumbrăviţa, the number of plots divided on the agricultural land administrated by the village reached 9,500 - 10,000, and the number of houses build on these plots is about 3,500 - 3,800. In order to be able to divide in plots agricultural land, the county administration accepted the surface of the village itself to spread over the field, but two third of the zones divided in plots exceed even these extended limits. Lack of transport facilities Dumbrăviţa is not related to the railroad system. The only public transport possibility is by bus. In week days the schedule offers an average of one bus pro hour, between 5.00 and 23.00. The lapses between buses vary, and departure hours are difficult to remember (5.00, 5.50, 6.30, 7.10, 7.50, 9.15 etc.). Saturday the interval between bus departure hours exceeds 120 minutes, and the last bus is about 20.00 hours. Sunday the schedule is even poorer, with 4 bus rides, at intervals of 2 to 5 hours. Furthermore, the terminal bus stop at the northern limit of the city centre, in an area were few public transport lines are passing, being scarcely linked to the urban net. Even if the transport by bus is quite cheap (less than 1 Euro), because of the inconvenience, most of the inhabitants of the new districts prefer to travel by car, on a road with only two lanes (one for each direction). Most families have at least two cars, one for each mature member, in order to maintain the independence of movement. The number of vehicles on the two lane road between Timişoara and Dumbrăviţa is of 17,430 automobiles and 4,848 trucks in the time interval from 7.00 AM to 9.00 PM (a total of 22,278 vehicles), with a flow of about 10% during rush hours. Before Dumbrăviţa, on the same 396
road, the traffic is less than a third, with 5,112 cars and 1,976 trucks, meaning a total of 7,088 vehicles. (these figures are issued from the studies of the Veltona SRL office of Timişoara, Road Traffic Engineers). This traffic passes through the village centre and enters Timişoara on a road bordered by block houses with apartments. Studies concerning the level of CO2 emissions are rare and punctual. On the roads linking Timişoara to the neighbouring villages there are no bicycle tracks. To go by bicycle is dangerous even in the city. On the road, alongside with trucks, it is practically impossible. The new plots bordering at a small distance the road, left little place for broadening the road, and no place for a proper, pollution protected bicycle track. The green areas of Timişoara Timişoara is known as “the city of parks” (although the 16 sm. of green surface per inhabitant is under both the Romanian and European standards). Where does that name then come from? Timişoara was completely reshaped as urban structure after the Austrian conquest of 1716. Green areas had no place in the project for the Baroque city, an important strategic fortress and advanced garrison of the Empire. After the de-fortification and demolition of the powerful Vauban fortification, the free land obtained around the city was difficult to use for construction because of the soil low resistance (the fortification foundations remaind under ground and the the water ditch was simply filled with sand). Later urban plans foresaw parks at the south of the city centre. A line of linked public gardens along the Bega canal have been designed and realised in the 19th and 20th centuries. This green belt became an important factor in the way the city is perceived (Fig. 5). These gardens are conspicuous due to their continuity and to their central position. Without these green areas along the stream, the river itself would loose its importance and become less present in the urban context. In opposition to the 18th and 19th centuries conceptions, during which water was seen as a necessary element for industry and transport and as canal recipient, towns turning their most hideous face towards streams and shores, Timişoara became since the 19th century the beneficiary of a recreation green area along the river. But today’s city is confronted with a difficult situation: • the traditional central green areas are subjected to neglect (Fig. 6) and different aggressions: brutal cuttings (Fig. 7), lack of interest of the authorities permitting the green areas to be degraded (Fig. 8) and, most damaging of all, the tendency to use this very valuable central land for building (Fig. 9, 10 and 11) • new green areas to mach the urban growth are scarce and often lacking character and interest • the new developments appearing after 1990 and described formerly lack green areas, and the land surfaces designed for this purpose are not planned and planted • the bad use of land resulting from the predilection to build big isolated houses on comparatively small plots leads to diminished garden surfaces • the new developments isolate the city from free land without green fingers, preventing the central parks of Timisoara to become viable ecosystems. As a conclusion no project for an ecological answer to the urban growth and to the increasing pollution due to the increasing number of cars and to the traffic growth is coherently put into place. The possible response The first problem is the lack of collaboration. Every administration is focused on its local interests and does not aim for more general targets. The lack of a body to have as object the harmonisation of the interests and development intentions in the area is most damaging. Although the town hall of Timişoara has initiated a plan of development of the so called metropolitan zone (Fig. 12), for the moment it remains at the level of project and intentions, without a more detailed plan of action. And this is in part because of the lack of a structure not dependent of local interests and co-ordinating the whole process. A formal Consultative Council of the Metropolitan Zone of Timişoara, in which 19 villages and the city are represented, has no authority and thus is redundant. A new body of 397
professional should issue the plans for a more harmonious development, and these should be backed by the authorities. Alternative transport means should be encouraged. The RATT (the municipal transport company of Timişoara) is not aloud to pass over the limits of the city. The bus services are unattractive and difficult to use. Considering the small distance between the city and the villages, as seen concerning Dumbrăviţa, any public transport could be put in place. A tramway or local train would be less polluting than cars and would not increase the traffic in inhabited areas. Co-ordination is again the best alternative. Instead, a project has been lounged to broaden the existing road on the same location as the existing one (through the village centre and through a densely inhabited district of the city). Because of the small distances and because of the flat plain in which Timişoara lies, transport by bicycle should be encouraged. A bicycle path is most welcome. The green area (5% of every zone) are scattered and not planted. Green fingers should be designed. For that purpose, the land owners should associate, in order to initiate more general plans.
References Bica, S., 2004, Despre specificul oraşului Timişoara (About the character of the city of Timişoara), Zilele Academice Timişene, Ed. Mirton, Timişoara Bica, S., 2004, Restaurarea grădinilor şi parcurilor Timişoarei; necesităţi versus posibilităţi (The restauration of the parks of Timişoara; necessities versus possibilities), Zilele Academice Timişene, Ed. Mirton, Timişoara Bica, S., Radoslav, R., 2007, The chaotic development of new districts appearing around Romanian cities after 1990 - The case of Timişoara, International Conference “ Housing and work places”, Universita degli Studi di Salerno Opriş, M., 1987, Timişoara, Mică monografie urbanistică (Timişoara. A small urban monogrphie), Ed. Tehnică, Bucureşti
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THE ROLE OF LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY APPLIED TO URBAN REALMS IN CLIMATE CHANGES MITIGATION Roberto Bio Architect and Urban Designer Via Gioia 11 10040 Rivalta di Torino Italy
[email protected] +39-0119046356 +39-3382817175
Abstract: This paper analyzes the necessity of a new environmental view for designing cities, which can have a positive impact on climate changes, maintaining the social vitality typical of a city. Assuming today climate troubles as global, Urban Design must look at the larger territory in which cities are laid out; as such the contribute of Landscape Ecology results unequivocal. Landscape Ecological principles cannot be applied in an urban realm a priori. A specific level of integration is required and the determination of the benefits and opportunities that can rise must become the goal of the designer.
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect” Aldo Leopold (1949)
INTRODUCTION As supported by a large scientific consensus and a growing body of literature, evidences of climate alterations are today visible all over the world at different scales. As clearly pointed out by the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize and former U.S. Vice-president Al Gore (Gore, 1992 and 2006), often larger phenomena generate chain-effects reflecting on an unprepared, often dreadfully planned, built environment. Supports of a list that could run for pages are phenomena such as: the increase of flooding events due to stronger storms - derived by the oceans’ heating - and to blind methodologies of planning; and the lost of natural habitats as a result of changes in local ecosystems, attributable to the increasing temperatures, to the relocation of precipitation and to the never-ending urbanization. As a matter of fact we are creating less healthy cities exploiting large amount of primary resources, unable to deal with the quantity of wastes they produce and whose life is totally dependable on the consumption of cheap energy. Occurrences as the Urban Heat Island, the plummet of air quality, soil erosion and the reduction of reliable fresh water supplies are only part of the by-product of the late 20th Ce. planning theories and of the western lifestyle, which would cause dramatic consequences whether applied to a global scale. Today the challenge, for every professional dealing with urban transformations, stand, not only in the recognition of such concerns, but by in large, in a search for active solutions able to improve the quality of the urban environment. As identified by several scholars the presence of nature and, by extension, landscape design are critical for the quality of an urban environment. Landscape is not merely an addition, but should become the basis to create places. It is not only parks, trees, and flowers, but, as shown by Charles Eliot in the 1902 plan for the Metropolitan Boston (Spirn 1985), by the studies of Warren Manning (Zube 1986, Miller 1999) and later by McHarg (1976), a more complex reality regulates by its own, ecological variables, which has to be considered as a central part of any development activity. Landscape is therefore, a fundamental element of the design process, even the point of departure when qualitative, ecological features are involved. To create a balanced coexistence between city and nature has been the matter of studies since classical times. Greeks saw the natural environments as the sphere of activity of the gods (Glacken 1967, Hughes 1967, Worster 1977), consequently human activities affecting the environment involved their interest and reaction. Temples are a clear example. They had specific location and orientation, which were dictated by topography and by the visual and spatial relationships with the surroundings, which transformed them from architectural objects into dynamic realms interacting with the landscape (Bacon 1976). Vitruvius took a further step, identifying how cities should have been built close to water on dry, healthy sites, following an orientation and a shape that allowed to avoid and to control the wind.
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The primary role of the urban areas is (or should be) to provide the main locations for human settlement. They are places where people live, work and interact, living entities, characterized by fixed scenarios (buildings and infrastructures) and by constantly moving flows of people, information and vehicles. Urban Design considers the city as a living system, as a whole of different interrelating tissues. It deals with its bio-physical form, but simultaneously, it faces all that political, economic and sociological issues relating to city’s alteration (Lynch 1981, Barnett 1982, Lang 1994, Feoli 2002). Those concerns, often, transform urban design problems in something else to decipher with some economically-convenient-politically-correct solution that frequently disregards the center of any urban design consideration: the human being. As a result: “Everywhere new weekend ‘villas’ are rising, a good many of them, as the locals say, ‘architects designed’. In fact ‘architecture’ is everywhere. But as yet there is no promise of an attractive community to come. Indeed each year brings along with its rash of daring and individual houses, an increasing sense of bleak ugliness. There are no new villages being built, only agglomeration of unrelated object of every shape and design, pockmaking a once lovely land. [...]We make very few successful places, only thing. [...] We and our environment are losing a great battle against ourselves.” Robertson (1982) “[...] over the past fifty years we have reduced a complex and diverse landscape into an asphalt network stitched together from coast to coast out of a dozen or so crude design “templates”, […] standardized solutions that require enormous expenditures of energy and resources to implement” Van Der Ryn (1996)
When referred to cities environment, the notion of sustainability becomes fairly vague, due to the dimension of the subject. Sustainability is a matter of an object performance. When the debate shifts to the urban environment it is clear how the entire concept becomes the result of the performances of all the systems within the metropolitan area. As such a quantitative analysis would be impossible to develop due to the quantity of issues and to the complexity of their cycles and systems. Solutions have to be sought at larger scale, considering cities as part of a larger environment ruled by own regulations, and exceeding the idea of the landscape surrounding urban developments as places for further future development or to escape from urban life. “Yet Urban Landscape Design continues to operate on the premise that ecological processes are either non-existent in cities, or have little relevance to design process and form. [...] It is necessary to rediscover, through the insight that ecology provides, the nature of the familiar places we live in [...] an environmental view of the city is an essential component of urban design that has long been ignored” Hough (1984)
The following discussion asserts that multiple benefits both for human beings and their environment may be developed by a better integration of the city within its regional environment. In order to deal with modern climate changes and to create beneficial effects for human being life an integration city-region is a necessity; consequently deeper relationships have to be developed between urban developments and environmental characters of the region. The term ‘urban ecology’, as intended in this essay, merges two specific disciplines as Landscape Ecology and Urban Design. In order to define possible solutions to the actual climatic crisis, the following paragraphs are intended to provide for an introductory description of the complexities of both disciplines and for illustrate the necessity of their association. 1.1. LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY The science that studies natural phenomena is Ecology (from the Greek oikos, meaning “house” or “place to live”), the study of the relation of organisms, or group of them, to their environment (Odum 1956, Worster 1977). The part of the ecology that studies macro-ecology is Landscape Ecology (Forman and Gordon 1986, Likens 1992). It analyzes how a structure of diverse ecosystems – a relatively homogeneous area of organisms interacting with their environment (Forman and Gordon 1986) – is created and evolves, focusing on the dynamics and parameters that characterize them, such as the distribution of their elements, their flows - of plants and animals (biomass), mineral nutrient, water – and their change along time. As Dramstad (1996): “It explicitly integrates nature and humans. Its principles work in any landscape, form urban to pastureland and desert to tundra”
The term landscape refers to a spatially repeatable cluster of ecosystems having repeatable, recognizable interactions, similar geomorphology and similar set of disturbance regimes throughout their area. Every landscape is identifiable by a structure (size, shapes, number and configuration of ecosystem), by functions (interactions among ecosystems) and by their changes over time (Forman and Gordon 1986, Dramstad 1996).
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Ecosystems transform energy through their living organisms. Each living organism occupies a specific place in the transformation structure. According to thermodynamic principles the more complex is the (eco) system the less amount of energy is lost during every transformation the better the energetic rendering. Therefore the more (bio) diverse is the ecosystem the better works (McHarg 1969). Assuming that the natural order of the ecosystem is the one that provides the better performances, it is easily recognizable how every modification to its structure alters this equilibrium, producing a new, and temporary un-balanced, status characterized by significant energetic losses. The ecosystem will adapt to this change, but the natural process of adaptation will take long time (Odum 1975). According to Landscape Ecology the basic landscape structure is composed of three elements: Patches, Corridors and an overall Matrix. a) Patches, nonlinear surface difference in appearing from its surroundings, are distinguished in relation to their formative mechanisms and are characterizable in term of size, shape, location, number and typology. Although rigid boundaries do not exist, every patch can be further divided in two different sections, with significantly different features: the edge - the outer portion - and the core. Clear differences between edge and inner areas of a patch are readable in terms of typology of vegetation and populations. The edges house higher populations and generally more opportunistic species, while the inner areas are characterized by more sensitive ones (Dramstad 1996). Vegetation ensures, through photosynthesis, the basic production of organic substances provides oxygen and regulates water’s and carbon’s cycles. Through carbon dioxide assumption vegetation controls the greenhouse effect. It is essential for soil protection, because it diminishes soil erosion, and it’s the first ring of the trophic chain and a habitat for animals. Therefore is the indispensable component in maintaining the global richness of species and ecological processes (biodiversity) (Forman and Gordon 1986). Vegetation varies through natural or anthropic gradients. The urban exploitation of the territory interferes with the natural distribution of the patches, giving them a scattered, mosaic structures and creating sharp, qualitative and quantitative changes in vegetation (Battisti 2001). Patches’ fragmentation, along with the large number of existing species, asks for an ecosystem approach and a landscape/regional view, when the goal of the planning is the preservation of biodiversity. In order to save local habitats, Franklin (1993) indicates the development of an appropriate system of habitat preserves with greatly expanded attention to conditions in the landscape matrix. b) Corridors are narrow strips of land which differ from their surroundings. They provide connection to different landscape elements on the territory and could differ in origin, dimension, width, typology (roads, hedgerows, streams) and whether they tend to form a net with other corridors. They could act as barrier or as a filter to species movement and are generally characterized by edge species (Forman and Gordon 1986, Dramstad 1996). Particular importance has to be attributed to riparian corridors, which represent the most diverse, dynamic, complex and sensitive biophysical habitats on the terrestrial portion of the Earth. According to Naiman, Decamps and Pollock (1993) the reasons of this richness are: 1. the intensity and frequency of floods 2. variations in soils and topography 3. climatic variations as streams flow from high to low altitudes 4. the disturbances regime imposes on the corridor by the upland environment 5. the migration of plants. These variables show a non-equilibrium system, characterized by multiple habitats and consequently extremely diverse. The richness in diversity helps the riparian corridor managing dissolved substances and improving water quality through plant stems and roots, litter and clay. Riparian corridors are constituted by the river’s bed, the banks and the upland territories defined by the flooding areas. To allow a better circulation of species and a better response to flooding, parts of the upland areas, whose width is related to the category of the stream, should be maintained free from building and face the least amount of anthropic disturbances possible (McHarg 1969, Forman and Gordon 1986, L.Leopold 1997). Riparian corridors are, probably, the most important type of corridor. As shown by multiple
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researches, they have an important role in the reduction of the environmental fragmentation, through what is known as an ecological network. Simultaneously another network of corridors, manmade (road and railroad), tends to be completely connected creating barriers within patches, which cause species isolation and specific processes of evolution in the population of the disturbance patch (Dramstad 1996, Glennon 2002). c) The matrix is the most extensive and most connected landscape element type that includes other typologies of landscape elements. It is a very large, fragmented area, which plays the leading role in organizing the functions that distinguish a landscape. It is characterized by the shape of its boundaries and by the simultaneous presence of multiple patches and corridors, which define its own porosity and mesh size (Forman and Gordon 1986, Dramstad 1996). An understanding of ecological principles becomes necessary, to minimize harms attributable to poor planning and city design. Professional designers, usually, interact with ecosystems. History shows how this interaction has been made, mainly, abruptly, without any consideration of ecological processes. To minimize the impacts of environmental changes professionals must work synergistically with the landscape, understanding from its settings the more suitable solution. Hough (1990) suggests “[...] the development of a design philosophy that recognizes diversity and the differences between places is central to the maintenance and enhancement of social and environmental health”
Therefore, fundamental patterns able to drive the design process can be defined, identifying the bio-physical principles which regulate the region and shape it.
1.2. URBAN DESIGN “[...] problems in the larger landscape have their roots in cities and solutions must, therefore, also be sought here” Hough (1984) “[...] Today the term ‘urban design’ is used to describe almost any design that takes place in any city setting […]” Lang (1984)
Although the term Urban Design was introduced in 1956 at a Conference at Harvard University39, city’s realm has been matter of study since classical times, as proven by the studies about Greek and Roman theories and development. The Greek’s Polis, for instance, was more than a physical entity; it transcended this status to reach a more compound condition, where people became an integral part of the city, of its economical, intellectual and political life (Vitruvius 1914tr, Kitto 1956, Glacken 1967, Bacon 1976, Benevolo 1976, Morris 1984). The evolution of the society and the technological discoveries along the centuries, however, have slowly deviated these concepts towards an understanding of the city regulates mostly by economical principles, where the emphasis is put mainly on the infrastructural patterns and land uses, rather then on that social contract necessary to create a vibrant city (Hough 1984, 1990, Spirn 1984, Rykwert 1988, Nassauer 1994, Scandurra 1995, Van der Ryn 1996, Geddes 1997). The design professions followed the line. Professional responsibilities are identified by Madanipour (1996), and Solomon (1989), who criticizes both designers – “[…] it is hard to find anyone who would like to live in the town they are building” – and the modern society’s quests for private comfort and automobile, epitomes of a society able to enjoy the economic improvements of an urban complexity but not its disadvantages. “[...] the New World provided the first actual large-scale opportunity to realize the ancient dream of achieving genuine harmony between humankind and nature […] in ‘a middle landscape’, a via media neither urban, nor wild that combines the best feature of each […]” Marx (1991).
Marx’s words are helpful to delineate the modern quest for an urban life closer to a natural environment typical of most western societies us a useful interpretation of the American landscape, basis of today’s climate threats. Studies of several authors Lynch’s (1961 a, b, and 1981), Barnett’s (1982) Lang (1994) show the elements used with which Urban Design shapes the city’s landscape. They also illustrates the necessity of a discipline able to mediate among the others operating in the city ground. As a consequence Urban Design appears as a field of studies expanding its boundaries among the designing disciplines, with the purpose to coordinate all that flows involved in the urban environment The physical representation of connection is the infrastructural system. It is defined mainly by a network of connected paths. Their development along with the mass production and distribution of the private automobile (and the following sensation of ease of movement) and the aspiration to realize an urban life close to the nature, gave a further push to the horizontal spreading of the built environment40 and to the deterioration of a large part of the western landscape. Moreover, the trends followed by the Western society since the 1950s of an economic expansion based on extensive goods production, sustained by population growth and granted by cheap fossil fuel has generated considerably increases in carbon dioxide production and the consequent issues of global warming (Gore 1992, 2006). A significant objective for contemporary City Designer has to be the research for alternative patterns of development able to merge
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the needs of population and the environmental constraints. As advocates by this essay opportunities can be identified by. Today, human being survival is increasingly becoming a matter of coexistence with the environment. A deeper knowledge and respect of the ecological laws regulating the larger environment will illustrate a series of opportunities to facilitate the achievement of a balance between the man and his environment, consequently reducing global warming’s threats.
2. CASE STUDIES This section, through the critical analysis of significant case studies, aims to investigate whether new strategies able to merge both disciplines are implemented and what degree of integration is required in order to create cities closer to the meaning of sustainability. Considering the variety of global warming threats and the complexities of the urban environment, the case studies selected, regard mainly with waterfronts. As previously clarified, although human alterations severely took part in the past, waterfronts still maintain a deep ecological role, representing, also, the most significant territorial feature, where biophysical phenomena are still having a role in the city-landscape shaping. 2.1 ARIZONA’S CHALLENGES Since prehistoric times (Philips, Comus 1999) Arizona’s history has been signed by constant examples of interaction with scarcity of water. Although today almost all Arizona’s rivers are dry (Image 01), the State, Countries and Cities are trying to deal with them, in order to minimize flood hazards and to create more civic spaces. 2.1.1. TUCSON Although known as ‘desert city’, Tucson lays in a basin significantly rich of water, which has guaranteed its biophysical birth and constant development. The main watercourses within Tucson are the Santa Cruz and Rillito rivers. Extensive groundwater pumping has strongly affected Tucson’s watercourses environment, lowering the level of the watertable (Gelt 1999) and converting once lush, riparian corridors into dry, sandy rivers, irremediably altering an extremely sensitive ecosystem. Human alterations of Tucson’s watercourses became significant since the arrival of the railroad in 1880 (Sheridan 1995 and Logan 2002) but until the 40s a general balance between withdrawals and recharge remained. Increases in consumption, due to new increases in the population, definitely inverted the situation. The disappearance of the water was followed by the use of parts of the river bed as landfills, first, and as sand and gravel mining, later (Logan 2002). These processes, along with the channelization of the banks to prevent from floods and the loss of vegetation on the river banks, lead to a process of disconnection between the city and its waterfronts. Identifying the rivers system as a potential asset, since the last decades of the 20th century, the City of Tucson and the Pima County have undertaken several efforts to revitalize and restore the numerous watersheds within the Tucson Basin41 and are implementing programs to encourage the population in save-water attempts. Recognizing the ecological importance of the connectivity between riparian corridors, over 23 miles of parks have been established along parts of the Santa Cruz River, Rillito Creek and Tucson Diversion Channel, allowing desert vegetation re-growth in the uplands (Image 02). Currently the city is undertaking plans to increment the park system linking it to the Juan Bautista the Anza National Trail that runs to San Francisco. Several plans have been promoted during the years to transform the urban part of the sandy riverbeds in paradigms of what the river were. Although appreciable, they have not been implemented due to the large quantities of water, and financing, required to nourish a riparian vegetation that do not belong to these type of river anymore. The role of a dry riparian corridor in an urban environment is extensively related to the city. How a city approaches to its river determines the quality of the riparian environment. Currently, Tucson’s connections with its corridors can be seen as a movement away, rather than towards the rivers. Tucson development patterns show how the city considers them as a backside rather than a vibrant riverfront. New design strategies to improve the riparian corridors along the city of Tucson are necessary42. They should start by recognizing the critical role of ecology in providing the quality of the urban environment. The residual ecology of Tucson’s rivers continued its natural processes, through the meandering within the channels creating areas where scattered vegetation exist (sandbars). However, the creation of river parks cannot be by itself a catalyst for changing the role of the riparian corridor in the urban fabric. Clusters of complementary activities should be placed on the uplands in order to intensify the relationships between the city and the river, creating an active, civic riverfront. 403
Thus, the keystone to improving the quality of both the urban and natural ecosystem has to be found in what role the river plays in the civic life. Consequently, the interface of the river-urban edge should become the place where the urban and riparian ecosystems weave together into a new space neither completely urban nor completely riparian. A buffer zone that creates an integrated boundary, reinforcing the ecological role of the river corridor and the civic value of the riverfront (Bio 2007).
2.1.2.
SALT RIVER’S PROJECTS: RIO SALADO’S BEYOND THE BANKS PLAN, Phoenix, AZ TEMPE TOWN LAKE, Tempe, AZ
The Salt River interventions in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area show two approaches in dealing with a dry river, both aiming to link ecological results with recreational and development goals. The Salt River dried out in the early 20th century due to the construction of a series of upstream dams, becoming a site for extensive sand and gravel mining. In the 60s the College of Architecture at Arizona State University developed studies that proposed to restore life on the riverbed, bringing water back through a flood control channel on its bottom. The studies ended in the 1985 Masterplan that was not implemented. Since 1996 the future of the river within the Phoenix Metro Area has been split. Tempe implemented what is known as “the Town Lake”, while Phoenix developed “the Rio Salado Beyond the Banks” plan. Tempe Town Lake (Image 03) is a 220 acre, 2 miles long artificial lake, with an average width of 1,000 feet, an average depth of 12.5 feet and a capacity of about 1,000 gallons of water. Along its north-south borders lie 2 parks, a parkway, a center for arts, a marina and several real estate buildings. On the east-west sides 8 bladders contain the water, which comes from the CAP43 and groundwater pumping. The lake/river-bed is made of sand, resting on a clay layer; a discharge control system below the clay layer, recovers water that percolates, recharging it into the lake. “[…] a seepage recovery system recovers almost 100 percent of the water that seeps into the ground. Water is recaptured by 10 wells around the eastern portion of the lake and pumped back into the lake […]” http://www.tempe.gov/lake/askqst.htm
Tempe Town Lake’s purposes are mainly recreational and economical, even if along the side of the lake the Corps of Engineers is trying to re-insert native vegetation. Five miles west, the City of Phoenix has established the Rio Salado Beyond the Banks project. A 5.8 mile long plan, between Interstate Highway 10 and 19th Avenue that, according to the Planning Department, tries to restore the dry Salt River to his natural state, provides for flood control benefits, habitat restoration and opportunities for development (Image 04). It aspires to bring enough water into the river to restore native grasslands, trees and wildlife, preserving the river’s flow capacity and providing trails for hiking, biking and horse-riding. The City of Phoenix crosses the river via a bridge with two Gateways Parks at the base of which two pools act as a run-off collector and urban wetlands (Image 08). Water reaches a very porous riverbed as a permanent small stream, through a low flow channel. Then it is brought through pipes to mid-level terraces where the majority of the efforts to re-establish native vegetation are concentrated. Along the terraces and the over banks, bike and pedestrian paths were developed. Rio Salado Plan aims to face floods replicating, to the extent possible, the natural systems that protect desert riparian areas during flood events. Tempe Town Lake is mostly an economical investment, whose plan among its multiplicity of objectives has also ecological aspirations. It has been able to favour the rapid development of the water-front land and the buildings on the surrounding areas. To suit cultural goals a program for leisure recreation and cultural buildings was built, but the existing lack of recreational facilities limits their use. Ecological targets led only to the re-introduction of native species on the east-west borders of the lake on two hypothetical ecological corridors. But what the lake really does, is, to break the continuity of the larger riparian corridor and create a lotic environment in what is supposed to be a lentic one, modifying soil, vegetation and wildlife characteristics. Moreover, in a land where the water is extremely scarce, it dissipates constantly water by evaporation and establishes a series of hard pavement surfaces that increases the heat island and limit water percolation44. Rio Salado Beyond the Banks seeks for a slower development of the surrounding areas, basing on the principle that the re-vegetation of the river and its banks could provide in the short period flood-protection and recreation, and in the longer one real-estate and economic development. It tries to give back to the River its ecological corridor role, creating a continuous path that shall be extended east to the Gila River and west to Tempe. Water is utilized mostly to maintain vegetation45. Losses for ground percolation are accepted and seen as part of the larger process of aquifer 404
recharge. Although uses of the River are promoted through a system of trails on overbanks and terraces, the Phoenix Park Department imposes a strict regulation of the activities, in order to preserve vegetation species and protect wildlife; other limitations to the pedestrian utilization are in the deficiency of an adequate amount of facilities. “[…] it was recognized that re-creation of the Salt River corridor in its previous form was not possible nor completely desirable. Many changes have occurred and current condition would not support complete replication. The objective became the creation of a synthetic – natural - landscape that accommodates the functions of a natural river regime and uses the elasticity of a balanced ecosystem to accommodate human activity” Charles Cook (1991 b.)
Cook’s words underline how, in the process of river restoration, the re-creation of the previous, natural state of the River is impracticable. Hence, a solution should be found in a landscape able to merge ecological, recreational and socio-economical aspects. In the Salt River’s projects prevention of flood has been seen as an opportunity to grant restoration of the river ecology and to facilitate development along its banks. While Tempe Lake aims to almost instantaneous revenues, while Rio Salado Plan sets its agenda to a longer period in order to reach a more gradual and ecologically balanced vision. 2.2. GUADALUPE RIVER PARK MASTERPLAN – San José, Ca The Guadalupe River Park Masterplan aimed to promote the ecology of the river and extend the city and the urban life to and across the river. Over time large floods have caused great damage to property along the river and since the 1950s industrial outflow drained wastes into it. The Guadalupe River Park Masterplan intended first to grant protection from 100-yr flood events and restore about 5 miles of riparian habitat within the city, providing a comfortable environment for man and animal species, and then to connect the river to the city and the city to the region through a network of pedestrian trails. From north to south the plan is split in 4 parts (Image 06): 1. Between Highway 880 and Coleman Street, wide terraces with gentle, vegetated slopes, an upstream flood-gate and a secondary channel try to accommodate high flows, maintaining the natural movement of sediments (Image 07); 2. Between Coleman street and Santa Clara street, a 17x64ft bypass system diverts water from the main channel during flood events, allowing the vegetative cover along the river to remain intact; on the east bank improvements consist of a retaining wall with graphical representation of the river and concrete stairs planted with vegetation (Image 08); 3. Between Santa Clara and Highway 280, the focus is on streambed improvements. In order to maintain a) the passage for fish on low water level and b) cool water temperatures through small weirs and a low-flow channel; 4. South of Highway 280, concrete stairs and retaining crib walls act as bank reinforcement, providing flood protection, and create another bypass, to, mostly, agricultural fields. The Masterplan demonstrates a clever integration between civic interests and ecological goals along the Guadalupe River. To prevent floods and reduce erosion the main technique followed, is to divert water from the river main channel through a series of concrete underground bypasses. Water then flows back to the river just passed downtown. Erosion is also controlled with a concrete low-flow channel and 35 small concrete weirs, which create drops in grade of about 1 foot. The weirs trap coarse sediment and create small pools able to provide instream fish habitat and to favour the oxygenation of the water. Additionally, the construction of the low-flow channel and the bypass system led to the interception of groundwater, which, after been cleared by a local treatment plant, was recharged to the river. The control of floods allows opportunities to increase public access and the utilization of the river through recreational facilities and pedestrian trails on both banks (image 15). In order to increase the cultural experience of the Guadalupe, design guidelines favor the dialogue between the river and the city, extending the river in the urban fabric through features such as open spaces oriented to the river (courtyards, arcades, overlooks, terraces), wide pedestrian vegetated terraces, and the use of landscaping as integrant part of the buildings. The landscaping of the uplands allows the interception of urban run-off water, which could affect the biological condition of the River. Furthermore it creates upland vegetated banks that offer suitable habitat for fish, wildlife and riparian plant species. Using the bypasses and the upstream dams, the plan aims to maintain a continuous flow of water with a depth of at least 1.2 ft even in dry season. The permanent run of the water nourishes plant on the bottom of the river and on the banks; along with the restoration of 21 acre of vegetation on the uplands, it provides shade and reduction of the heat-island effect maintaining low temperature and oxygenating the water.
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The Guadalupe River Park Masterplan illustrates a plan able to restore a riparian corridor within an urban context. Although its primary goal, it seeks solutions that are able to increase the ecological performances of the ecosystem, establishing upland buffer areas that simultaneously allow different urban experiences and mitigate the local temperature, while stressing the River’s relevance in the urban fabric. SAN ANTONIO RIVER IMPROVEMENT PLAN The San Antonio River Improvement Plan (SARIP) shows how an ecological design can be achieved within the city borders, creating an asset capable to generate market revenue while improving the environment. The San Antonio River dried up early in the 20th century due to groundwater pumping. Since 1911 to maintain its flow, the city has pumped water from the Edward Aquifer into the river (Glennon 2002). Six large floods between 1913 and 1921 led then to the engineering of the river through a flat concrete riverbed and soil-cemented banks. In the 90s the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) started to search for different treated water sources to discharge into the river and today water comes mostly from four wastewater plants.46 The main goal of the SARIP is to transform a sterile and unappealing flood control channel into the River people have used for centuries (Hammatt 2002). It calls for the re-establishment of the natural flows of the river, the replacement of the concrete channel with cobblestone (to increase the aquatic fauna) and the introduction of more native vegetation on the banks and the uplands. It is a 13 mile project that seeks to improve flood control capabilities through ecological techniques and enhance opportunities for development. It is composed of three parts: 1. The Central Reach corresponds mainly to the River Walk and the Alamo, where a dam to control the water floods within the RW is planned. 2. North of the River Walk, the river runs for 4 miles to the Museum Reach (Image 09) where the plan is to re-establish the natural flow of the River through the substitution of the concrete walls with crib walls or with natural slopes wherever possible. Further control of the water level is provided by another flood-gate. 3. South of the River Walk (Image 10), in the Historic Mission, the River flows through rural and agricultural lands for about 9 miles connecting the adjacent historical Spanish missions. A secondary channel, a dam and less steep, vegetated banks accommodate flow, while small weirs provide for grade control and small falls where water can drop, aerating and diminishing the erosion on the bottom of the river. To create ecosystem restoration, re-introduction of native vegetation47 on the riparian corridor is gradual in time. “Rivers are natural flood-control components, but that is not their only role, a river should also be a natural system with habitats, and a place for people to use and enjoy. They should enhance the quality of life and community rather than being purely functional” Nancy Fleming, ASLA
To provide integration with the urban area 9.7 miles of bike paths, shading pavilions, pedestrian bridges, benches, picnic tables and drinking fountains are planned. Real estate along the river is allowed, but it must follow strict design guidelines. The reclamation of the San Antonio River to a more natural condition and to provide flood control through a more naturalistic system, are the main intents of the SARIP. Let the River goes is the basic principle which forms the design. Allowing the River to cover its floodplains, re-establishing its natural meandering, rather than enclosing it in a concrete channel (Image 11) assumes significant importance from an ecological perspective. An increase of the edge abruptness would lead to an increase of animal and plant species movement, and of the general number of species. Thus, a dynamic balance typical of riparian ecosystems is therefore the objective. Additionally, larger edges can guarantee better protection both for the River, diminishing run-off and acting as filter from urban disturbances, and for the uplands, reducing the hazard of flooding. The cultural dimension of the project is provided by the importance that the River has already reached in the San Antonio civic life. The attempt to connect the significant, historical landmarks of the southern reach with the cultural ones of the northern reach, passing through the commercial heart of the city, wants to create a continuous, ecocultural experience. To maintain the connection with San Antonio’s urban fabric, continuous linkages are provided by strict ordinances that regulate the type of activities along the river and include a series of scenic open spaces (view towers and multiple terraces), and buildings48 and multiple pedestrian paths with clear connections to the street level. Technology applied to the River follows the principle of the less the better substituting the extensive use of concrete with more appropriate materials such as cobblestone and boulder. In order to maintain an adequate microclimate, type and quantity of vegetation, solar access and paved surfaces are regulated by the San Antonio River Authority. Although water comes from treatment plants, water quality parameters show an adequate quality. SARIP utilizes the San Antonio River with a dual approach: 1) recognizing the ecological importance of the River, as a historical route, seeks for a more natural design composition; 2) simultaneously, the River is identified as a cultural corridor that can connect significant landmarks on the territory. 406
2.4. TURIA RIVER, Valencia, Spain “The history of Valencia has always been linked to its dual condition of fluvial and maritime city. With this site we would like to reveal and stress the importance that the Turia River has had in the urban and cultural development of the city. A river that has conformed, more than any other circumstance, the real essence of the city. And a river bed currently transformed into a town cultural park, which still remains the central axis of Valencian life.” Rita Barberà Nolla - Mayor “El Ilit del Turia es nostre i el volem verd” “The Turia Riverbed is ours and we want it green” Slogan used by neighbors association in 1976
After a massive flood which devastated the city in 1957, the City Government through the Plan Sur decided, in order to protect the City from future floods, to divert the River from its arrival to the city. The diversion took place in the early 60s and left Valencia with an 8km dry corridor dissecting throughout the entire city perimeter. The destiny of the River became the major topic of the local debates and politics for several years. In 1966 the Plan of Urban Arrangement projected to transform it into a highway, but the protest of the Valencians, which envisioned the riverbed as a big garden, ended it. Finally in 1976 after the approval of the Public Construction Ministry, the King signed the free concession to the City Council of the land of the dry river, reserving for the State 1/10 of the total towards the mouth of the River. Since 1976 Valencia transforms the Turia old watercourse in a vibrant place able to become the catalyst of the real estate development on the banks and the backbone of the social life of the city. The Masterplan for the entire area was completed in 1982 by Ricardo Boil. The original plan changed progressively along the years, but the intention of re-design the riverbed into a pedestrian amenity remained intact. Today it is continuous open space corridor featuring a diversity of recreational activities and facilities. Along the riverbed there are gardens, playgrounds, sports fields and museums. A series of new bridges and landmarks has been built; the city is constantly interacting with its drywaterfront (Image 12,13). Although the protection of the city from floods is the goal that brought to the diversion of the Turia River, Valencia has been able to pick up the opportunity of providing spaces for the civic life that characterizes a vibrant city. The River re-direction provided the chance to replace the riparian axis around which the city has been developed since the X century, with a continuous pedestrian infrastructure. The extension of the area allow the creation of spaces for multiple activities, providing for a diversity of experiences that concur in making the Turia Riverbed a place for a larger number of users. Being already the Turia watercourse an important part of the city, the connection with the urban fabric has been facilitated, but the amount of new development created along the waterfront since 1970 shows how the [new] river has acted as spark for the growth of the city. The approach utilized is, quite radical and even if successful from an urban design point of view, it should pointed out how considerations about the ecology of the river have not been taken in consideration. The diversion that provides protection from floods could have sensibly altered the riparian ecosystem. In addition, the Turia river meet the Mediterranean Sea just pass the city limits, in what could have been considered as an important ecotone, so far probably disappeared. 2.5 OLYMPIC SCULPTURE PARK, Seattle, WA “SAM’s Olympic Sculpture Park will help to bolster our reputation nationally and internationally as a leader in urban environment stewardship and a pioneer of public art” Greg Nickels - Mayor
As R.Geddes (2002) the City of Seattle, along with Portland, OR and Vancouver, has pionereed in planning for environmental protection and the provision of “greenspace” as parts of the urban fabric. The relatively homogeneous population and the isolation, on the US north-western corner, have contributed to create a regional culture and set environmental priorities shared by the most; in addition, the diverse and attractive landscape has always seen as a fundamental asset for the economy of the region and for the well being of his inhabitants. The Olympic Sculpture Park (Weiss-Manfredi) has been an opportunity to merge visual arts, urban requalification and environmental protection. It is part of a larger scheme of interventions that since the 90s transformed Seattle waterfronts removing the Alaskan Highway and establishing strong linkages between the urban fabric and the Puget Sound. In 1999, the Seattle Art Museum purchased downtown Seattle’s largest and last undeveloped waterfront property from UNOCAL (Union Oil Company of California). The site, used for fuel transfer and distribution from 1900s to 1975, contained numerous oil storage tanks and an assortment of petroleum hydrocarbon products which 407
hardly contamined soil and groundwater. Between 1999 and 2005 a series of intervention allowed the cleaning of the site. In 2000 the Seattle Art Museum established a design competition to define a new civic open space [able to] promote outdoor sculpture as an important visual art form and contribute to Seattle’s already notable collection of public art. The winning proposal (Image 14), by the NY based firm Weiss-Manfredi, suggests a Z form, open space museum able to interact with the current infrastructure system exploiting the favorable topography and to improve micro-climate condition through environmental remediation. A series of sloping terraces houses local plant species, allowing a mitigation of the local micro-climate both from the sea breezes and from the higher city’s temperatures, along with positive effects on the soil quality and the sensation of insertion in a larger landscape. The Z-park extends then the park into the bay with plants and grasses intended to ameliorate water condition and create favorable habitat for fish. 2.6. CASE STUDIES SUMMARY Tucson investigation illustrates the necessity of innovative design strategies to deal with riparian corridor in an environment where climate changes are experienced prior. Uses of a riparian corridor must respect the ecological significance of the river in order to make the river a significant part of the urban fabric even when it is dry. The Salt River’s projects demonstrate how different approaches within the same metropolitan area, create contentious results. Tempe Town Lake wanted to create an urban point of attraction, while Rio Salado Plan to establish a green lung in an extremely built-oriented urbanity. Both of them reach some of their initial objectives, but both of them fail in mitigating adverse micro-climate conditions (Tempe) or in establishing a vibrant civic space (Phoenix). The Guadalupe River Park and the San Antonio River Improvement Plan, conscious of the importance of the river for their territory, both as ecological, economical and economic asset, represent successful efforts to insert the regional landscape within an urban realm. They clearly illustrate how, when wise design strategies are pursued, landscape ecological principles can be successfully applied to improve local climate condition within an urban environment, and consequently help in mitigate global warming menaces. The Turia River case study points out the importance that a riverfront can have from and for a civic environment. Even if it changed radically the natural river run, it has been able to create multiple open spaces enjoyed by Valencia’s population and possibly could have had a positive impact on reducing the principal causes of global warming (i.e. air conditioning and automobiles utilization). Furthermore it allows questioning the main assumption stated by this essay. Seattle Olympic Sculpture Park shows the possibility of design to merge art, environmental constraints and urban design considerations, and the necessity for environmental design to consider the contribute of multiple disciplines in order to achieve goals of sustainability. 3. CONCLUSION A five minute walk from the Olympic Park would bring a Seattle’s visitor to the Seattle Freeway Park. An extensive park that, running for miles, covers an intricate underground street system, mitigating through plant species automobiles’ fumes and noise. The Halprin’s park is just an example of the multiple fields of inquiry that further research could investigate to advocate the role of urban ecology in climate changes mitigation. Topics such as green roofs, the role of large waste and water treatment plants or the integration between new technologies and park system could provide for further matter of discussions. Climate changes have multiple effects and diverse causes. Although difficult to determine in terms of performances, the brief case study research purposed, clearly illustrates how wise design strategies can improve local climatic condition while creating active civic spaces. Efforts to make stronger the presence of landscape features within an urban environment could bring to multiple benefits, both in reducing fossil fuels consumption and in the creation of new ‘edge’ spaces, neither completely urban nor natural where different activities can be arranged. Design strategies to face today climate changes cannot be defined a priori. Cities are by their very nature under continuous cycles of transformations. Professionals, at whatever scale are working, have to identify the principal landscape settings – the Genius Loci- of the site, identify the main ecological principles in action and seek for solutions in according with them. Often economical and political interests would drive towards different solutions; a basic role of today’s designer will be to show the positive impacts that environmentally aware solutions can have in shaping better places.
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Assessing the Incorporation of Watershed Protective Techniques in New Urban Development Site Plans: What are the Implications for Mitigating Climate Change? Joseph A. MacDonald, Ph.D., AICP Program Development Senior Associate American Planning Association 1776 Massachusetts Avenue NW #400 Washington DC 20036
[email protected] Philip R. Berke, Ph.D. Professor Department of City & Regional Planning Campus Box #3140 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599
[email protected] ABSTRACT Polluted stormwater runoff degrades water resources in the United States. The primary contributor has been the increase in sprawling, low-density, automobile-oriented development that became widespread after World War II. Although low-density development continues today, the new urbanism, or neo-traditional development, offers a high-density, mixed-use, pedestrian- and transit-oriented design alternative. New urbanists have made broad claims that new urbanism will remedy the negative environmental impacts of conventional, low density development. While such claims are still being researched, there is some evidence that new urbanism may provide more opportunities within development sites for water resource protection. The design features of new urbanism that offer more opportunities for watershed protection (i.e. high densities, mixed uses, pedestrian-orientation, transit and open space) may also offer potential for reducing other negative environmental impacts of urban development, such as climate change. This study examines how new urban development site plans have incorporated techniques to protect water resources. Six case studies were conducted to explore how new urbanism may live up to claims that new urbanism is more protective of the environment than conventional low-density development. The key finding is that new urban development site plan successfully incorporates water resource protection techniques through new urban design principles. The best examples successfully compact development in less hydrologically-sensitive areas by reducing imperviousness; protected hydrologically-sensitive green spaces provide opportunities for natural stormwater runoff management. Compact development within strategic green space networks also has the potential to lower carbon dioxide emissions by simultaneously encouraging less driving to reduce emissions and providing more areas of natural vegetation to absorb emissions. By incorporating more techniques to protect water resources, new urban development sites may potentially mitigate global climate change.
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INTRODUCTION Water resources in the United States are suffering. According to the National Water Quality Assessment Report (USEPA, 2006), 47% of streams; 60% of lakes and 61% of bays and estuaries are impaired. Pollution is primarily from urban & agricultural stormwater runoff (non-point source pollution).mmmm Runoff is particularly widespread in areas dominated by impervious cover. Examples of impervious cover include rooftops, roadways, parking lots and compacted soils). Impervious cover is typically associated with the buildings and pavement of urban development. Urban development has been spreading rapidly across the United States since World War II. Between 1950 and 2000, urbanized land areannnn increased by 466%, while urbanized land population increased just 178% (U.S. Census Bureau, 1953; 2002). The difference is attributable to an increase in low-density urban development. Furthermore, during the same period, the central city population in the United States decreased from 33% to 30%, while the suburban population increased from 23% to 50% (Hobbs & Stoops, 2002). At the close of the 20th century, the United States was a nation of sprawling, lower-density suburbs (Otterstrom, 2003). New urban development offers considerable promise to slow the tide of low-density suburban development across the United States. Through higher densities, mixed land uses and pedestrian- & transit-orientation, new urbanism offers more compact developments with potentially less impervious cover and more open space. Reduced impervious cover and increased open space may potentially mitigate water resource degradation and other negative environmental impacts, such as climate change. How can new urbanism provide opportunities for water resource protection? What evidence exists to support claims that new urban developments actually provide these opportunities? In order to examine these questions, findings from case studies of new urban developments approved and built in the southeastern United States are analyzed. Drawing on this evidence, reasons are suggested why new urban developments have successfully provided opportunities for water resource protection. Actions are recommended for future development site plans to incorporate new urban site design techniques to mitigate urban development’s negative environmental impacts. NEW URBANISM THEORY AND EXPERIENCE New urbanism is arguably one of the most significant urban planning and design initiatives of the 20th century. In the twenty years since the first new urban development of Seaside, Florida, more than 500 new urban developments have been planned, approved and built in the United States and Canada (Steuteville, 2008). New urbanism has reinvigorated the discussion about development site design in terms of urban form, public spaces and place-making. The anticipated demand for tens of millions of new homes in the coming decades of the 21st century only heightens the mmmm
Nonpoint source pollution, unlike pollution from industrial and sewage treatment plants, comes from many diffuse sources. Nonpoint source pollution is caused by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground. As the runoff moves, it picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, finally depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters, and even our underground sources of drinking water (USEPA, 1994). nnnn
As defined for the first time in the 1950 Census, an urbanized area is an area that includes at least one city with 50,000 inhabitants or more and also the surrounding areas that meet the following criteria: 1) Incorporated places with 2,500 inhabitants or more; 2) Incorporated places with fewer than 2,500 inhabitants with a population density of at least 500 dwelling units per square mile (approximately 2,000 persons per square mile); 3) Unincorporated territory with at least 500 dwelling units per square mile; and 4) Territory devoted to commercial, industrial, transportation, recreation, and other purposes functionally related to the central city.
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importance of new urbanism and other forms of development site design for planners (Nelson, 2006). New urbanism is the fusion of two complementary but different development site design theories that arose in the late 1980s and early 1990s: Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), by Peter Calthorpe of California (1993) and Traditional Neighborhood Design (TND), by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk of Florida (1991). Both TOD and TND were responses to conventional low-density suburban development, the dominant form of development site design in the United States since World War II. While TODs focused more on land use arrangements, and TNDs focused more on architectural design of individual structures, both emphasize higher densities, mixed-land uses (residential, commercial, office, industrial, civic, and recreational) and alternative transportation to the private automobile (walking, bicycling, buses and trains). In 1993, Duany, Plater-Zyberk, Calthorpe, and other influential architects and urban designers convened to form the Congress for the New Urbanism (Katz, 1994). In 1996, the Congress for the New Urbanism produced its Charter – 27 principles that define new urbanism as a response to the problems of disinvestment in central cities, the spread of low-density suburban sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and open space and erosion of society’s built heritage (Kelbaugh, 1997; Congress for the New Urbanism, 2000; Duany et. al., 2000; Calthorpe & Fulton, 2001; Duany & Talen, 2002). The Charter principles advocate a return to traditional town planning and design through more carefully delineated open space, better mixing of uses in compact forms, and stronger transportation networks which improve livability at the metropolitan, neighborhood, and block levels. According to new urbanists, “these principles are not new; they are simply a return to the timeless goals of urbanism, in its best sense” (Calthorpe, 1993, p. 43). With the groundbreaking of new urban developments nearly two decades ago, the literature has begun to explore the alleged contrasts between new urbanism and conventional low-density suburban development. These studies have found that there appear to be differences in the impact of each design approach on a variety of issues, including consumer preference (Handy et. al, 2008; Levine & Frank, 2007); walkability (Saelens & Handy, 2008; Rodriguez et. al., 2006; Heath et. al., 2006; Southworth, 1997); psychological well-being (Brown & Cropper, 2001); and the environment ((USEPA, 2006; Brander et. al., 2004; Girling et. al., 2000; South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, 1995). Although research that evaluates the comparative impacts of new urbanism versus conventional low-density development is in the early stages, there is an emerging consensus about specific design features used to examine these impacts. Prior research suggests that three design features can be used as a common conceptual basis to assess the claims of new urban developments: density (high versus low); land use (mixed/integrated versus segregated) and transportation (pedestrian- & transit-orientation versus automobile-orientation) (Berke et. al., 2003; Southworth, 1997; Crane, 1996; Brown & Cropper, 2001). New urbanists claim that high-density, mixed-use and pedestrian-oriented development successfully mitigates environmental problems such as the impact of urban development on water resources (Calthorpe & Fulton, 2001; Duany et. al., 2000; Congress for New Urbanism, 2000; Morrish, 2001; Pollard, 2001). However, many questions have been raised about the validity of these claims due to the lack of empirical evidence to support them (Spirn, 2001; Berke, 2002; Pollard, 2001). Since most new urban developments have only been planned, approved and built since the 1990s, there is now tremendous opportunity for empirical research about how new urban developments incorporate environmental impact mitigation strategies. Water resource experts assert that a good way to mitigate the degradation of water resources by urban development is to incorporate watershed protection techniques into the individual development site plans by which neighborhoods, stores, offices and factories get built (Schueler, 1995; Brady, 1996; Center for Watershed Protection, 2000).Water resource protection techniques generally fall into one of three categories to mitigate stormwater runoff and non-point source pollution: 1) reduce impervious cover; 2) protect hydrologically-sensitive areas (e.g., steep slopes, 411
porous soils, forests, wetlands, stream buffers); and 3) provide natural stormwater runoff management (Schueler, 1995; Center for Watershed Protection, 2000).oooo The principles of new urban design suggest new urban developments may potentially mitigate the impacts of urban developments on water resources. New urban developments have the potential to reduce impervious cover because new urban development is compact. The compact nature of new urban development can reduce site imperviousness by 10 to 50 percent, depending on lot size and street network.pppp Compact new urban developments also have the potential to protect hydrologically-sensitive areas and provide opportunities for natural stormwater runoff management because larger portions of the development site may be protected as open space. Duany et. al. (2000) describe the new urban framework for open space: Preserves, greenways, parks, plazas, squares and promenades represent a regional to local hierarchy of open-space types that serve a variety of uses: nature conservation and continuity, active recreation, playgrounds for the youngest, strolling ground for the oldest and so on. It is only by providing this full range of specific open spaces that planning authorities can ensure citizens the quality of life that their codes were originally intended to provide (p.32). Several studies have employed models to simulate impacts of new urban and conventional low-density suburban developments on water resources (Brander et. al., 2004; South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, 1995; Girling et. al., 2000; Zheng & Baetz, 1999; Bosch et. al., 2003). While these studies offer some illustration of new urbanism’s potential to mitigate the impact of urban development on water resources, more empirical research on actual built new urban developments is necessary to understand how the site design characteristics of new urbanism create opportunities for watershed protective techniques. OVERVIEW OF WATERSHED PROTECTION IN SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES In order to investigate how new urban developments might incorporate watershed protective techniques through site design, case studies of approved new urban development sites were selected from a study area that encompasses five states in the southeastern United States: Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. These states reflect the range of environmental regulatory provisions governing land use and watershed protection found across the nation. State Environmental and Watershed Protective Planning Mandates While Maryland is widely recognized as a leading state based on enactment of statewide smart growth legislation in 1997 (Godschalk, 2000), it is even more significant that the portions of both Maryland and Virginia within the Chesapeake Bay watershed have stringent nutrient reduction strategies requiring local jurisdictions to protect sensitive areas. The strategies intended to improve watershed and bay water quality are essentially mandated under the Chesapeake Bay Agreements of 1987 (Maryland Department of the Environment, 1995; Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, 1996) and 2000 so that the Environmental Protection Agency will remove the Chesapeake Bay from “impaired waters” status. Periodic assessments reveal that while progress has been made, local jurisdictions continue to fall short of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements oooo
These site planning techniques reflect the state of practice defined by the Center for Watershed Protection, the Cooperative Centre for Catchment Hydrology (Australia), the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Water Resources Association, the nearly 40 agencies and associations that comprised a national site planning roundtable between 1997 and 1999 (Center for Watershed Protection, 2000)oooooooo and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (2004; 2005).
pppp
Schuler (1994) compared imperviousness of cluster developments with low-density sprawl developments. The study results have validity when considering new urban developments since new urban developments reflect the basic compact design features of cluster developments.
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(U.S. EPA, 2008). If EPA standards are not ultimately met, the federal government will enforce its own strategies over local authority. Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina do not contain widespread areas under such pressure from the Environmental Protection Agency to mandate improved water quality. North Carolina’s coastal planning mandate of 1974 requires sensitive area regulations and local plans (Berke & French, 1994). However, the mandate only covers coastal jurisdictions, none of which contain new urban development sites included in this study. Georgia passed its state growth management act in 1989, but environmental protection requirements in both Georgia and South Carolina are generally weak.qqqq Case Study Selection The case studies were designed to build on the quantitative analysis of findings from a survey of local planners for 50 approved new urban development site plans within the study area, reported in Berke et. al. (2003) and MacDonald (2005). The purpose of selecting six local case studies of new urban developments was to provide a richer and more detailed understanding of how their site design elements provided the opportunity for mitigating water resource impacts. Three primary sources of data were gathered to examine how well new urban development sites integrated watershed protection techniques: personal interviews, evidentiary documentation and field observations. Site visits occurred over three-day periods in 2001, with follow-up visits in 2003 and 2008. Table 1 lists the personnel interviewed and field visit dates for each case site. TABLE 1. Persons interviewed and the dates of field visit for each case site Birkdale Village
Case Sites and Dates of Field Visita Pleasant View King Farm Port Royal Riverside Gardens
10/25/2001
10/29/2001, 2/2/2003
10/31/2001, 12/20/2003
Engineer
x
x
x
Planner
x
x
x
Interviewees
Southern Village
11/7/2001 10/22/2001 6/11/2001 x
x
x
x
x
Developer
x
x
x
x
x
x
Site Landscape Designer
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Site Stormwater Designer
x
x
x
Architect
x
x
x
Political Leader (s)
x
Project Manager
x
County Stormwater Designer Permitting Officer Erosion Control Officer a Follow-up field visits to all sites were conducted in July 2008
x
x
x
x x x
Face-to-face interviews were conducted with professional personnel familiar with the design, development, approval, construction, and maintenance of the site in the context of water resource impacts. Key players included town engineers, town planners, stormwater consultants, engineering consultants, developers and site designers. The interviews were guided by a case study protocol, qqqq
The approved development site plans in the survey include projects located in inland areas of North Carolina, but none under the coastal planning mandate. All projects from Maryland and Virginia surveyed are in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and therefore under the auspices of the 2000 Chesapeake Bay Agreement.
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which contained questions focused on six critical issues: 1) the interviewee’s role; 2) site context; 3) points of contention; 4) points of opportunity; 5) positive design elements to retain; and 6) negative design elements to change. Second, evidentiary documentation was collected before, during, and after the field visit. The types of documents included maps of the project site design, stormwater input studies and management plans and key local government land use planning documents and ordinances. Third, visits to each development site were conducted. Guided by a checklist of features from the protocol, various water resource management features were assessed, including storm drains, swales and ditches, stormwater retention areas, streams, stream buffers, open space, landscaping, impervious surfaces, automobile and pedestrian circulation, and stormwater management practices. Digital photography, field notes and maps helped record observations. The multiple sources of data used for each case study facilitates the identification of patterns of new urban site design and water resource protection techniques. The logic of pattern matching is to compare an empirically-based pattern with a hypothesized, or predicted, pattern (Trochim, 1989; Campbell, 1969; 1975 in Yin, 2003). The empirical patterns identified in the case studies can be related, or matched, to the hypothesized pattern that new urban development site designs successfully incorporate watershed protection techniques. The predicted pattern is confirmed or rejected based on how well the predicted pattern matches the empirical pattern. Six sites were chosen for case study from an initial list of 54 new urban development site plans. The initial list was developed in early 2001 from new urban-oriented web sites, the New Urban News, published new urban case studies and interviews with local planners.rrrr Surveys were administered to the primary plan reviewers for each site plan; responses were received for 50 plans. The survey results were used to rank the plans in order of the number of reported watershed protective techniques. The plans were separated into six groups based on the number of techniques (Very High, High, Somewhat High, Somewhat Low, Low, and Very Low) and one development was chosen from each group for case study (see Figure 1).ssss rrrr
New urban development site plans smaller than 10 acres, without mixed-land uses or without final approval were not considered. ssss
Each case study represents a different level of incorporated watershed protective techniques. Furthermore, each selected case site was at least 50% built; topographic diversity (coast vs. piedmont vs. foothills) and metropolitan location diversity (central city vs. suburb vs. small town) were also considered.
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MARYLAND King Farm Rockville, MD
Pleasant View Gardens Baltimore, MD
VIRGINIA
Birkdale Village Huntersville, NC
NORTH CAROLINA Southern Village Chapel Hill, NC
Riverside Atlanta, GA
GEORGIA
SOUTH CAROLINA
Village at Port Royal Port Royal, SC
Source: Adapted from Facts on File, Inc. (1997); note that shading a byproduct of map – not significant
FIGURE 1. Case site locations Case Study Locales Table 2 illustrates the diversity of the jurisdictions that contain the new urban development sites selected for case study. Population ranges from 10,000 in Port Royal, South Carolina to more than a half-million in the cities of Atlanta and Baltimore. Baltimore has actually lost 13% of its population since 1990, while Huntersville, North Carolina has increased over 1300%. Rockville, in suburban Washington, DC, and Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina and nearby 415
Research Triangle Park, have median housing values double that of Port Royal and about triple that of Baltimore. TABLE 2. Case community characteristics Chapel Hill, Port Royal, Huntersville, Baltimore, North Carolina South Carolina North Carolina Maryland (Southern (Village at Port (Birkdale (Pleasant View Village) Royal) Village) Gardens)
Rockville, Maryland (King Farm)
Atlanta, Georgia (Riverside)
58,706
519,145
51,574
10,212
42,579
637,455
Population Growth (19902007)
31%
32%
33%
242%
1313%
-13%
Median Housing Value (1999)
$198,700
$130,600
$229,100
$91,200
$182,800
$69,100
Community Type
suburb
central city
small town
small town
suburb
central city
Topography
piedmont
foothills
piedmont
coastal plain
piedmont
coastal plain
Characteristic Variables Population (2007)
Table 3 details the characteristics of each new urban development case site. Net residential density ranges from moderate (7 units/acre) to high (22 units/acre); it makes sense that densest sites, Riverside and Pleasant View Gardens, are also in central city locations. The sites generally offer a broad land use mix, including commercial retail, office, residential, civic and recreational uses. An exception is Pleasant View Gardens, a HOPE VI public housing development where retail was originally planned but never materialized. Transit availability varies dramatically among the case sites. Riverside and Birkdale Village offer no on-site transit service. Southern Village, Port Royal and Pleasant View Gardens offer municipal bus service, but no rail. Only King Farm offers a complete menu of transit options: subway rail, commuter shuttles and municipal buses. Except for Pleasant View Gardens, the case study developments are expensive. Condominiums may cost $750,000 in King Farm and single-family homes can surpass $1.5 million in Southern Village. Riverside rentals may exceed $6300/month. Watershed Protective Techniques in the New Urban Development Case Sites For the case studies, watershed protective techniques were defined in terms of specific design elements actually observed in the approved new urban development sites. Three categories, or dimensions, of watershed protective techniques were assessed: techniques intended to reduce impervious surface cover, protect hydrologically sensitive areas and provide natural stormwater runoff management. The six case studies employed a range of very high to very low levels of watershed protective techniques in each category. Techniques for reducing impervious surface cover range from multi-story buildings and parking decks to pervious alleys. Efforts to protect hydrologically sensitive areas run from designating more than half the development site as a zone of nodisturbance to maximizing density in urban areas to absorb growth pressure from the suburbs. Natural stormwater management techniques include public education programs to teach residents to permit natural vegetation. Table 4 contains summary characteristics of each site’s techniques. TABLE 3. Case site characteristics 416
Characteristic Variables
Village at Port Royal2
Birkdale Village
Pleasant View Gardens
King Farm
Riverside
Southern Village
Size (acres)
435
85
312
50
52
18
Units
3200
527
1150
151
320
338
Net Density (residential) (units/acre)
13.5
17.5
7.5
6.7
17.3
22.6
Year Approved
1996
1999
1996
1995
2001
1998
Price/Rent
1
Retail Use
Office Use
Civic Use
Parks/Open Space
Public Transit
C: $357-750K; C: $177-275K; C: $138-589K; subsidized H: $579-915K; H: $480H: $145rental (28 units R: $900-$6300 R: $700-$2200 R: $1400$1550K; R: $1,300K; R: owner$3900 $1000-$2300 $700-$2000 occupied)
125,000 square town square feet
3,200,000 square feet
65,000 square feet
several new independent 300,000 square retailers in feet town
na3
several new day care 225,000 square 140,000 square office tenants 200,000 square facility, senior feet feet feet along main housing office street
new town hall, public square, senior center, community public square public square elementary police/fire public square center/ public school, church stations, post health center office, school playgrounds, bike path, town swim club, pocket parks parks, play neighborhood square playfield, with areas, town un-developable parks/ fountain/ pocket park/ playground beach, tidal floodplain protected protected river stream equipment creek marsh valleys buffer greenways rail, bus, shuttle
bus adjacent
bus within
bus within
bus adjacent
bus within
1
Retrieved July 17, 2008 from www.realtor.com (listing prices for (C)condominiums/townhouses; (H)singlefamily detached homes & (R)monthly payments for rental units) 2 Port Royal prices reflect all of "Old Village of Port Royal," or the area included in Victor Dover's Master Plan and not just The Village at Port Royal (focus of original case study) 3 Commercial retail originally planned, but July 2008 visit revealed none materialized
As reported by primary plan reviewers in the survey and observed through interviews, collected documents and field visits, the level of watershed protection techniques implemented in each case study varied considerably. King Farm offers a balance of high-density, mixed-use development served by bus and rail transit while protecting stream valleys in an undisturbed state. Riverside’s undisturbed open space covers more than half the site, yet lacks transit and pedestrian connections to adjacent neighborhoods. Southern Village provides open space but not very high 417
densities. Port Royal’s early projects lacked both density and open space but new developments are more intense to protect wetlands and marshes. Birkdale Village sacrificed open space for parking lots and Pleasant View Gardens lacks natural open space to protect. While each case site exhibits unique efforts to integrate watershed protective techniques through new urban development site design, some additional general statements can be made. First, successful watershed protective new urban developments “nest” high-density, mixed-use development areas within an open space network. This is the case in King Farm, Riverside and Southern Village; it is starting to manifest itself in Port Royal as well. A pre-development dedication of open space provides a framework for compact development clusters. Second, new urban developments that successfully integrate watershed protection techniques deliberately designate at least a portion of open space as no-disturb areas. This feature distinguishes moderately protective projects, such as Southern Village, from highly protective projects, such as King Farm. Both developments protect at least 25% land area, but King Farm goes an extra step by specifying the intended purpose of its open spaces. Its stream valleys are kept undisturbed with the specific intent to clean stormwater runoff and mitigate on-site and downstream impacts. Southern Village limits development near its streams, but its stream valleys are mowed and cleared for recreational use, landscaping and man-made ponds. Third, watershed protective new urban developments limit imperviousness due to parking. Birkdale Village offers an example not to follow. While the development itself contains a highdensity, mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly core enclosed by several acres of parking lots. In contrast, King Farm’s streets were privatized to provide parking without lots. Riverside accommodates parking in decks or on the street to protect green space. Port Royal uses pervious materials for alleys and some parking areas. The paper now turns to the individual case studies for the details of new urban development site design and integration of watershed protective techniques.
TABLE 4. Watershed protective techniques in new urban development case sites
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Categories of Watershed Protective Techniques # of Protect Hydrologically Sensitive Natural Stormwater Runoff Techniques Reduce Impervious Surfaces Areas Management 109 of 435 acres (25%) protected stream valleys kept undisturbed King Farm compact development (13.5 through "No Mow" program; (Very High) units/acre net density); reduced as open space; hydrologically sensitive stream valleys & runoff drains to natural vegetation off-street surface parking; wetlands kept undisturbed filters sediments and pollutants, extensive transit service; no slows stream flow and stabilizes paved walkways in protected stream banks stream valleys Riverside (High)
compact development (17.5 units/acre net density) with decked parking; lack of transit & connectivity to surrounding neighborhoods forces automobile dependence.
49 of 85 acres (58%) protected as open space; riparian corridor and springhead areas along Chattahoochee River kept undisturbed; additional open space traded for higher density
zone of non-disturbance offers bio-filtration; stormwater runoff flows through protected areas before reaching Chattahoochee River; open space allowed creation of wetlands and swales
Southern Village (Somewhat High)
somewhat compact development (7.5 units/acre net density); more suburban design and more pavement both on-site (streetfacing garages; surface parking lots) and off-site
104 of 312 acres (33%) reserved as open space, but only partial protection from disturbance. Many sensitive areas cleared for aesthetics and include paved walkways and parks
Open space areas provide some natural stormwater runoff management, but not in mowed or park areas; man-made ponds used for stormwater detention in mowed area along streams
Village at Port Royal (Somewhat Low)
early development not very compact (6.7 units/acre net density); recent development more than double net density (16.6 units/acre); also pervious alleys and parking areas.
No initial formal open space protection at first, but recent plan protects 266 of 317 acres (89%) as undisturbed tidal marsh; wetlands network also protected.
natural drainage through wetlands, swales and marshes; growing town has increasing revenue sources to direct water to natural drainage networks
Birkdale Village (Low)
compact development (17.3 units/acre net density); developer exceeded new urban parking standards with several additional acres of parking lots
none protected; there is a no-build future rain gardens or other portion of the site within the 100- natural drainage may be possible year floodplain of McDowell in parking lots through under new Creek; remainder of potential town ordinance but only open space paved for parking lots floodplain has been kept as open space.
Pleasant View Gardens (Very Low)
very compact development (22.6 units/acre net density); Very impervious but does not accommodate same density as earlier project (50% reduction); may spur suburban growth
no hydrologically sensitive areas to protect (site redeveloped many times); lost opportunity to protect outlying sensitive areas by absorbing higher-density development
Central city neighborhood heavily paved with compact soils; best opportunity for natural filtration and bio-treatment in suburbs if city absorbs high density growth
King Farm (Rockville, Maryland) King Farm is defined by high-density, mixed-used, transit-oriented development framed by protected stream valleys. Headwater stream valleys like those found in King Farm are very sensitive to urban development; intense development could seriously degrade water resources. However, a county-level environmental analysis identified stream valleys for protection, providing the opportunity for the developer to implement the King Farm Open Space Network Plan. The open space plan protected stream valleys, providing opportunities for King Farm to provide natural stormwater runoff by the “Growing, Not Mowing” re-vegetation program along stream banks and 419
limit imperviousness by shifting parking from lots to private streets. King Farm exemplifies new urban design through high density, mixed land uses and strong pedestrian orientation and transit access. Net residential densitytttt is 13.5 units/acre; King Farm includes 3200 units on 435 acres, including 109 acres of open space and 42 acres of exclusively non-residential development. An extensive street grid with sidewalks on both sides provides strong intra-connectivity (See Figure KF.1). Close proximity of King Farm to Shady Grove Station on Washington METRO’s Red Line and connecting shuttles provide strong inter-connectivity (See Figure KF.2). King Farm includes detached houses, townhouses, condos, and apartments, 3.2 million square feet of office space and 125,000 square feet of retail (supermarket, bank, restaurants, hair salons, dry cleaners, etc.). The success of King Farm was recognized by the Congress of New Urbanism, one of only 15 development plans (out of 208) that received an inaugural Charter Award (Czarnecki, 2001).
Source: Loiederman Soltesz Associates (1996) FIGURE KF.1 King Farm development master plan
tttt
Net residential density is defined as the number of dwelling units per acre in residential or mixed use, while gross residential density includes the land area plus infrastructure, open spaces, and exclusively non-residential land uses (Berke et al. 2006; and Calthorpe, 1993). According to Calthorpe (1993, p. 59), net densities are roughly 20% higher than gross densities, once streets and other infrastructure improvements are considered.
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Source: Adapted from aerial photograph on Mapquest (2003)
FIGURE KF.2 King Farm’s proximity to Shady Grove Station The framework for watershed protective techniques in King Farm was established by the 1990 Montgomery County Environmental Analysis for the Shady Grove Area, including King Farm, The groundwork for the 1990 plan was originally laid in 1977 to protect the site’s stream valleys, wetlands, and floodplains. The authors were very conscientious of the environmental characteristics of the area (shallow soils, steep slopes, wetlands, floodplains, and surface water bodies) and targeted those features for protection from development impacts (see Figure KF.3).
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Source: Adapted from Montgomery County (1990)
FIGURE KF.3 1990 Environmental analysis to identify sensitive areas for protection from urban development in Shady Grove area The developers of King Farm created an Open Space Network Plan in 1996 to implement the environmental protection framework established by Montgomery County. King Farm’s open space network includes hydrologically-sensitive areas, such as headwater stream valleys, along with parks for recreation and landscaping for aesthetic purposes. Approximately 25% of the King Farm site is included (see Table KF.1 and Figures KF.4 & KF.5). TABLE KF.1 Components of King Farm open space network
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Type of Open Space
Acres
Public Open Space (includes stream valleys and stormwater management)
47.7
Park (possible future middle school site)
28.0
Park (possible future elementary school site)
12.0
Landscape Buffer
5.1
Neighborhood Park
5.0
King Farm Boulevard Promenade
3.2
Community Center Green
3.1
Neighborhood Open Space
2.0
Private Recreational Center (includes community buildings)
1.8
Retail Center Green
0.5
Office Center Green TOTAL Source: Loiederman Soltesz Associates (1996)
0.5 108.9
Source: Loiederman Soltesz Associates (1996)
FIGURE KF.4 King Farm open space network
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Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008)
FIGURE KF.5 Protected headwater stream valley in King Farm The King Farm Open Space Network Plan supported the City of Rockville’s Natural Resource Inventory, including a Forest Stand Delineation to ensure King Farm met Rockville’s 20% forest cover requirement. Re-vegetation of the stream valleys, wetlands and floodplains was necessary. Residents initially resisted; they wanted sidewalks and landscaping. In response, the City of Rockville educated the public about the benefit of bio-filtration for water quality through a public awareness campaign called “Growing, Not Mowing (see Figure KF.6).” The city posted signs & educational placards throughout King Farm’s protected areas; residents and business owners now fully embrace their stream valleys and no-disturb areas (see Figure KF.7).
Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008) 424
FIGURE KF.6 Growing, not mowing
Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008) FIGURE KF.7 Educational placard at Watkins Pond in King Farm
King Farm’s Open Space Network Plan further supported by the unique approach of developer’s to the City of Rockville’s residential parking requirement. It was impossible to provide two off-street parking spaces per residential unit for a dense development like King Farm without sacrificing open space for parking lots. Therefore, the developers designated many streets as private so that street parking could satisfy parking needs without increasing impervious cover and impinging on protected areas in the Open Space Network (see Figure KF.8).
425
So urce: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008)
FIGURE KF.8 King Farm on-street parking Riverside (Atlanta, Georgia) Riverside is defined by high-density, mixed-use development somewhat isolated from the rest of Atlanta. A majority of the site is protected as undisturbed green space through the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Chattahoochee River Corridor Study and Metropolitan River Protection Act. However, the lack of transit and pedestrian connectivity to surrounding areas fosters greater car dependence and potentially more pavement elsewhere. Still, Riverside was awarded the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Inaugural 1999 Development of Excellence Award as a direct response to Atlanta’s infamous sprawl and federal sanctions against highway funding for metropolitan Atlanta due to poor air quality. The developed portion of the Riverside site is high-density, mixed-use and pedestrianoriented. Net residential density is 17.5 units/acre; Riverside has 527 residential units on 36 acres surrounded by 49 acres (58% of 85-acre site) of open space dedicated to protect the Chattahoochee River (see Figure R.1). Riverside resembles something of an island of development surrounded by green space; only an isthmus of entrance road provides access to the rest of Atlanta. There is one off-site bus stop, but no pedestrian access (see Figure R.2). Internally, half of Riverside is gated and accessible only to residents. The walkable town square offers mixed-use buildings of apartments, 225,000 square feet of office space and 25,000 square feet of retail space with decked parking behind buildings (See Figure R.3).
426
Source: Adapted from Planners and Engineers Collaborative (1996)
FIGURE R.1 Riverside: Zone of non-disturbance
Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008)
FIGURE R.2 View from bus stop toward Riverside (entrance not on right; not visible)
427
Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald and Michael Holmes (2001)
FIGURE R.3 Riverside town square The 1973 Metropolitan River Protection Act required extensive conservation on the Riverside site to protect the Chattahoochee River watershed. The Act implemented the Atlanta Regional Commission’s 1972 Chattahoochee Corridor Study, a land suitability analysis that rated land within a 1,000-foot riparian corridor according to its vulnerability to urban development impact. Due to high vulnerability, the first 500 feet from the riverbank were designated a non-disturbance zone, while the zone 500-1,000 feet from the riverbank was designated a conditional development zone. The land suitability analysis assigned vulnerability grades within the conditional development zone (Atlanta Regional Commission, 1972). Grades ranged from A (least vulnerable) to F (most vulnerable) (see Figure R.4). Based on grade, areas were capped with maximum percentage of site disturbance (A=90%; F=10%) and maximum percentage of site imperviousness (A=75%; F=2%). Developers who did not utilize maximum site disturbance and maximum imperviousness in more vulnerable areas could trade for more intense development in less vulnerable areas.uuuu Riverside does not represent new urban pedestrian orientation and transit access, but the development was embraced as a necessary shift away from conventional, low-density suburban sprawl. The 1972 Clean Air Act established National Ambient Air Quality Standards for a number of different pollutants, including ozone.vvvv Thirteen counties in metropolitan Atlanta were labeled “Serious Non-Attainment” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the mid-1990s and required to submit a State Implementation Plan (see Figure R.7). Unfortunately, the Georgia Environment Protection Division was unable to comply by deadline (a “conformity lapse”), so the uuuu
Though local jurisdictions initially had the power to override ARC authority, the Duluth Amendment to Georgia State Code in the 1980's curtailed the power of local jurisdictions in favor of greater power for the Atlanta Regional Commisison. Thus, the Atlanta Regional Commission review of a project is the key forum for development intensity negotiations.
vvvv
Ozone is a highly reactive compound formed when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds are emitted from automobile exhaust and other industrial and manufacturing operations, and then react with direct sunlight. Ozone pollution tends to be greatest during months when the weather is hot and sunny with little or no wind. These conditions are typical during the summer months in Atlanta.
428
Environmental Protection Agency applied federal highway funding sanctions against the 13 nonattainment counties for 1998-2000 (Shrouds, 2000). The sanctions catalyzed the region to embrace high density, mixed-use urban core developments like Riverside.wwww
Source: Adapted from Atlanta Regional Commission (1972)
FIGURE R.6 Riverside site vulnerability wwww
As a result of an infill building boom that continues unabated, the City of Atlanta’s population grew from 393,929 in 1990 to 519,145 in 2007, an increase of more than 125,000 residents or 32% (U.S. Census Bureau 1992; 2008). Fulton County, in which Atlanta is located, grew from 648,776 in 1990 to 992,137 in 2007, an increase of nearly 345,000 residents or 53% (U.S. Census Bureau 1992; 2008). Thus, metropolitan Atlanta has witnessed a resurgence of urban core population growth since the Environmental Protection Agency cut highway funding to the area. Although highway funding was restored shortly after 2000 and the 13 counties reached attainment status in 2005 for the one-hour ozone standard (USEPA, 2005), 20 metropolitan Atlanta counties remain non-attainment for both the 8-hour ozone standard and the fine particulate matter standard (PM-2.5) and two additional metropolitan Atlanta counties are in nonattainment for just the fine particular matter standard (retrieved July 26, 2008 from http://www.epa.gov/air/oaqps/greenbk/qncl3.html). There is concern that if a new policy plan is not developed to meet standards by 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency may again revoke highway funds (Grode, 2006).
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Source: Adapted from U.S. Census Bureau (1999)
FIGURE R.7 Thirteen non-attainment counties of Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area (AMSA) Southern Village (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) Southern Village is defined by relatively low densities, mixed land uses, bus transit service and a network of open space. Planners originally designated the Southern Village site to absorb future growth from surrounding areas to protect Jordan Lake. The 1992 small area plan for the southern portions of Chapel Hill, including the future Southern Village site, included a land suitability analysis identifying hydrologically sensitive areas. Town planners negotiated with developers and community leaders to “upzone” the Southern Village site to higher density and “downzone” surrounding parcels to lower density. However, nearly 1,000 residential units of anticipated growth were not transferred to Southern Village, potentially increasing development pressures elsewhere in the Jordan Lake watershed. Southern Village has lower, suburban density, strong mixed-land use and walkability with good bus transit service. Net residential density is 7.5 units/acre; Southern Village contains 1150 dwelling units on 312 acres, including 104 acres of open space and 24 acres of exclusively nonresidential use. Southern Village’s site plan facilitates walking and biking through an extensive street grid (see Figure SV.1), sidewalks and recreational paths. Porches reach out to tree-lined sidewalks and narrower streets slow traffic (Padgett, 1999). Chapel Hill Transit provides bus access. Lower-density residential districts cluster around a core of higher-density residential, retail, office and civic uses; a neighborhood grocery, a four-screen theater, an elementary school and a church are features (see Figure SV.2). Chapel Hill’s Small Area Plan: Southern Area significantly affected the impact of Southern Village on the Jordan Lake Watershed. In 1989, town planners and the town council wanted to corral spreading urban development in mainly rural southern areas. Rather than react to development proposals, town planners and political leaders collaborated with the public to assess the southern area’s suitability for conservation versus development. The Town Council adopted the 430
Small Area Plan: Southern Area in 1992 (see Figure SV.3). Town planners elected a site (future Southern Village) as a compact, mixed-use development to absorb anticipated future growth. The site would be “upzoned” to higher densities; surrounding parcels “downzoned” to lower densities (see Figure SV.4).
Source: Bryan Properties (1996)
FIGURE SV.1 Southern Village master plan
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Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008)
FIGURE SV.2 Mary Scroggs Elementary School
Source: Town of Chapel Hill (1992) FIGURE SV.3 Chapel Hill Small Area Plan: Southern Area
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Source: Adapted from Town of Chapel Hill (1992)
FIGURE SV.4 Overlay of up-zoning (Southern Village) and down-zoning However, Southern Village did not absorb all of the residential units “downzoned” out of surrounding areas. The Small Area Plan called for 2,760 residential units in the Southern Area (both Southern Village and surrounding parcels), compared with 3,748 residential units prior to the Small Area Plan. 988 potential units were now shifted outside the Southern Area. Strong population growth and development pressure in Chapel Hill may translate to those units being built in other parts of the Jordan Lake watershed, against the intended purpose of the Small Area Plan. The developers of Southern Village could have absorbed 988 additional residential units through efficient application of new urban design principles. Southern Village was approved for 1150 residential units on 184 residential acres. An additional 988 residential units would raise the net residential density from 7.5 to 14.5 units/acre. This density would be similar to King Farm in Rockville, Maryland. Developers could have avoided conventional suburban features like streetfront garages, storefront parking lots and mowed open space (see Figures SV.5-7).
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Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008)
FIGURE SV.5 Street-front garages in Southern Village
Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008)
FIGURE SV.6 Storefront parking lot in Southern Village
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Source: Photograph by Joseph A. MacDonald (2008)
FIGURE SV.7 Mowed open space in Southern Village
Old Village at Port Royal (Port Royal, South Carolina)xxxx Port Royal is defined by increasingly more dense, mixed-use developments in an emerging pedestrian-oriented community that remains sensitive to its environment. Port Royal officials seek to become a vibrant, compact community without compromising the ecological role played by local wetlands and tidal marshes. Town officials incorporated watershed protective techniques in three ways: 1) pervious alleys and off-street parking areas; 2) native wetland preservation; and 3) protected open spaces through the town’s most recent development project: The 2006 Port of Port Royal Planned Unit Development (PUD) & Regulating Plan. Port Royal is redeveloping according to new urban tenets of high density, mixed land use and pedestrian-orientation through its 1995 Master Plan and 1999 Traditional Town Overlay District. One of the first projects, Village at Port Royal, included 151 single-family homes on 3.7 acres (net density of 6.7 units/acre) (see Figure PR.1). The most recent development, the Port of Port Royal PUD calls for a net density of 16.6 units/acre; 480 residential units on 317 acres, including 266 acres of protected tidal marsh and 15 acres of public squares and commons). The Port plan also includes 90,000 square feet of commercial development. To encourage walkable, mixeduse development, the Town of Port Royal established public buildings with on-street parking and sidewalks along Paris Avenue, the town’s main street (see Figure PR.2).
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The original case study focused on a 151-unit, 3.7-acre development within the town’s traditional core know as the “Village at Port Royal.” However, the present discussion is broadened to include all of the area within the scope of the town’s new urban master plan, known as “Old Village of Port Royal,” which includes “Village at Port Royal.”
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Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008) FIGURE PR.1 Village at Port Royal homes (moderate density)
Source: Andrews Engineering Company (1995); Town of Port Royal (2001)
FIGURE PR.2 Port Royal civic buildingsyyyy yyyy
Since the civic buildings were photographed, the configuration of the intersection of Paris Avenue with Ribault Road has changed. To calm traffic and encourage more pedestrian and bicycle activity, the Town of Port Royal 436
Port Royal officials require pervious alleys and off-street parking areas to protect water quality (see Figure PR.3). The Director of Planning crafted a strategic plan to secure pervious alleys, narrow streets and connect sidewalks for reduced cost. The town gives eight feet of road right-of-way per lot to a property owner developing in the Traditional Town Overlay District. The owner reciprocates by paying for half the cost of the mandated sidewalk and shifting their structure eight feet toward street centerline. However, when the entire block is built, the rear eight feet of each lot is then yielded back to the town for a 16-foot alley of pervious crushed shell.
Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008) FIGURE PR.3 Pervious alley in Port Royal
The Town of Port Royal, with money saved from sidewalks & pervious pavement, will further mitigate development impact on water resources by protecting and reconnecting a system of cypress wetlands to receive stormwater runoff for bio-filtration (see Figure PR.4). “The project would use underground pipes to link isolated islands of wetlands, including cypress wetlands on Richmond Avenue, that were once part of a continuous system that flowed into the Beaufort River before the areas was developed, said town manager Van Willis” (Garrobo, 2008). The wetlands also serve as a rookery and home to indigenous flora & fauna (see Figure PR.5). successfully made the intersection of the East “branch” of Paris Avenue cross Ribault Road at a right angle. The town’s fire and police stations are actually near the new intersection (Route 802 symbol on the map).
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Source: Adapted from Dover, Kohl, & Partners (1995)
FIGURE PR.4 Port Royal wetlands system in master plan
Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008) FIGURE PR.5 Cypress wetland for stormwater bio-filtration & habitat
Port Royal also secured protection of its tidal marshes through the 2006 Port of Port Royal Planned Unit Development (PUD) & Regulating Plan, approved by the State Ports Authority (see Figure PR.6). 266 of 317 acres will be protected as undisturbed tidal marsh (see Figure PR.7) and 15 acres will be designated as civic open space, 89% of the total site.
438
Source: Wood+Partners, Inc. (2006)
FIGURE PR.8 Regulating Plan: Port of Port Royal Planned Unit Development
Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008) FIGURE PR.7 Tidal marsh protected under port redevelopment regulating plan
Birkdale Village (Huntersville, North Carolina) Birkdale Village is defined by a compact, mixed-use core surrounded by parking lots. An excess of surface parking, permitted by the Town of Huntersville Parking Ordinance, stifles Birkdale Village’s potential to incorporate watershed protective techniques. The ordinance created an opportunity for the developer to greatly exceed new urban parking standards and exaggerate 439
imperviousness rather than protect hydrologically sensitive areas. The ordinance did not require the developer to: 1) cap total parking spaces; 2) tuck parking spaces behind buildings; and 3) provide parking spaces in structures versus surface lots. However, natural stormwater runoff management for Birkdale Village parking lots may be possible under the town’s new Water Quality Ordinance & Design Manual. Birkdale Village is distinguished by a high density, mixed-use pedestrian-friendly core encircled by strip retail and parking lots. Net residential density is 17.3 units/acre; Birkdale Village includes 320 residential units on 52 acres. There are 450,000 square feet of office and retail use (see Figure BV.1). Birkdale Village has good pedestrian connectivity within the village core and to the adjacent Greens at Birkdale new urbanist neighborhood, but no on-site transit service (see Figures BV.2 & BV.3).
Source: Pappas Properties (2001)
FIGURE BV.1 Birkdale Village master plan
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Source: Adapted from Pappas Properties (2001) and Forest City Enterprises (2001) FIGURE BV.2 Birkdale communities
The developers justify the amount of parking at Birkdale Village by retailer demands, the central location of the site within Huntersville, its proximity to an interstate highway and the rapid growth of the entire area (Huntersville’s population increased from 3,000 in 1990 to nearly 43,000 by 2007; see Table 4). Developers also justify extra parking due to delay of commuter rail and connecting bus service in Huntersville until 2012.zzzz The developers were given the opportunity to supply plentiful parking by the Town of Huntersville’s Parking Ordinance. TABLE BV.1 Birkdale Village parking spaces Birkdale Village Parking Spaces a
Town of Huntersville Minimum Type Residential 480 Non-Residential 900 TOTAL 1,380 a Town of Huntersville (2001) b c
New Urban Maximumb 320 1,125 1,445
Number Builtc 600 1,504 2,104
Duany & Plater-Zyberk (2008) Shook Design Group (2001)
The developers provided parking for 320 residential units and 450,000 square feet of nonzzzz
Frequently Answered Questions about the 2030 Transit Corridor Plan, approved through Charlotte Area Transit System in 2006 (retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/CATS/Rapid+Transit+Planning/North+Corridor/North+Corridor+-+FAQ.htm). 441
residential use.aaaaa Table BV.1 shows the developer exceeded ordinance requirements by 120 residential spaces and 604 non-residential spaces; the developer exceeded new urban SmartCode 9.2 requirements by 280 residential spaces and 379 non-residential spaces. The new urban SmartCode 9.2 (Duany et. al., 2008) recommends one space per residential unit, two spaces per 1,000 square feet of office and three spaces per 1,000 square feet of retail for the urban mixed-use sectors of the transect (T5/T6). Thus, SmartCode 9.2 prescribes 320 residential spaces and 1,125 non-residential spaces for a development like Birkdale Village.bbbbb Birkdale Village parking differs sharply between the village core and the periphery. Village core blocks contain 785 spaces and no parking lots; peripheral blocks contain 1,319 spaces, nearly all in parking lots (see Figure BV.3). Excess parking in peripheral lots created excess imperviousness in Birkdale Village (see Figure BV.4). Developers could have followed SmartCode 9.2 guidelines and removed 659 spaces in parking lots (shift 280 spaces to the structures for nonresidential use and eliminate 379 spaces in parking lots altogether). 659 excess surface parking spaces, at 300-400 square feet of imperviousness per space,ccccc translate to 197,700 – 263,600 square feet (4.5-6.1) acres of excess imperviousness. Furthermore, developers could have structured the remaining surface parking (1,319-659=660 spaces) into two-level decks to save an additional 330 spaces (2.3-3.0 acres) of excess imperviousness. By the SmartCode 9.2, Birkdale Village would have 7-9 fewer impervious acres (13-18% site).ddddd
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The developers of Birkdale Village temporarily scaled back the project in the October 2001 master plan to include 450,000 square feet of commercial space (retail and office). This was 50,000 square feet less than the previous master plan which the Town planner referenced when he responded to the research team’s survey about the site parameters. The new information was learned upon a revisit to both the site and the Town of Huntersville to calculate the amount and distribution of parking in April 2002.
bbbbb
450,000 of mixed-use square footage would require 2.5 spaces per 1,000 square feet (assuming equal amounts of office and retail space).
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A typical parking stall is 9.5 feet wide and 19 feet long, or 180.5 square feet (Center for Watershed Protection, 1995). A typical parking space includes the stall but also the concrete overhang at the edge of the stall, a narrow sixinch curb, the parking aisle, or module that allows access to the stall, and the stall’s share of the common parking lot imperviousness (such as fire lanes, entrances, internal circulation, and other features). Thus, the average impervious area created by a parking space is about 300-400 square feet (Shoup, 2005; Litman, 2008).
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Developers argue legitimately that parking decks are much more expensive to build than surface parking lots – $12,000 per deck space versus $1,500 per surface lot space (Duany, Plater-Zyberk, & Speck, 2000, p. 207); other estimates of cost per parking space added beyond surface range from $22,500 to $61,000 (Shoup, 2005). However, developers could use some of the relinquished space to construct new buildings. Increased revenue from rent would have offset at least some of the cost for more parking decks and buildings would conceal new decks from the street.
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Source: Adapted from Shook Design Group (2001)
FIGURE BV.3 Birkdale Village parking plan
Source: Pappas Properties (2001)
FIGURE BV.4 Aerial photo of Birkdale Village parking lots around village core
The Town of Huntersville’s 2003 Water Quality Ordinance and 2007 Post-Construction Stormwater Ordinance may offer opportunity for creating some natural stormwater runoff management for Birkdale Village’s parking lots. The new regulations include a Water Quality Ordinance Design Manual that demonstrates best management practices for developers. Huntersville’s Northcross Shopping Center has already implemented the new guidelines through 443
rain gardens installed in its parking lots (see Figure BV.5).
Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008)
FIGURE BV.5 Northcross Shopping Center parking lot rain garden
Pleasant View Gardens (Baltimore, Maryland) Pleasant View Gardens is defined as an inner-city, HOPE VI redevelopment of public housing and community service centers. The primary objective of the HOPE VI Urban Revitalization Demonstration Program is to reduce the concentration of low-income residents in distressed neighborhoods. Pleasant View Gardens was developed as a lower-density replacement for the 18-acre Lafayette Courts; total residential units were dropped from 723 to 338 for a net residential density reduction from 48.2 units/acre to 22.6 units/acre. No commercial retail was included. Reducing development intensity in the core to deconcentrate poverty may contribute to out-migration of residents and add development pressure to sensitive suburban watersheds. Pleasant View Gardens is very dense by suburban standards but dramatically less dense than its predecessor, Lafayette Courts. Net residential density is 22.6 units/acre; Pleasant View Gardens includes 338 units of rental rowhouses, senior apartments and affordable owner-occupied units on 18 acres. There is strong pedestrian connectivity in the form of sidewalks, narrow streets, playgrounds and a public square (see Figure PVG.1). There are adjacent bus stops, but few commercial destinations for pedestrians within the neighborhood. There is an initiative by the City of Baltimore to redevelop Oldtown Mall north of the site (see Figure PVG.2), but current planning is only conceptual.eeeee eeeee
Personal correspondence with Laurie Feinberg, Division Chief, Comprehensive Planning, Baltimore City Department of Planning (7.30.2008).
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Source: A&R/Harkins Joint Venture V (2000)
FIGURE PVG.1 Pleasant View Gardens master plan
Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008)
FIGURE PVG.2 Oldtown Mall area of Baltimore 445
The community building and design principles promoted by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City through the HOPE VI Urban Revitalization Demonstration Program reduced Pleasant View Gardens’ capacity to absorb growth in the urban core. The program’s underlying premise is that public housing should reflect existing community housing types (O’Neill, 1996). HOPE VI replaced large, high-rise buildings with smaller buildings designed to fit the surrounding urban fabric (see Figure PVG.3). Although HOPE VI program funds should ultimately provide significantly more residential units than those demolished,fffff many site redevelopments such as Pleasant View Gardens shrank in terms of total units built.
Source: Photograph by Joseph MacDonald (2008)
FIGURE PVG.3 Pleasant View Gardens townhouses & commons Although HOPE VI did not target changes across the entire City of Baltimore, success of the program was hoped to have a positive citywide ripple effect (Naparstek et. al., 2000).ggggg However, preliminary research suggests the Pleasant View Gardens redevelopment has effected only minor positive changes and some unanticipated negative outcomes on proximal neighborhoods (Newman et. al., 2003).hhhhh A reduction of 385 residential units (53% of original) in Pleasant View Gardens has contributed to neighborhood population decline and potentially encouraged movement of displaced residents to other neighborhoods or suburbs. Table PVG.1 presents the 1980-2000 population counts for the Pleasant View Gardens census tract (neighborhood) and surrounding areas fffff 160,061 housing units will replace the 88,469 units that have been or will be demolished under the HOPE VI Revitalization grant program, plus additional units demolished under the HOPE VI Demolition-only grant program. This is a net gain of 71,592 housing units (June 20, 2007 testimony from Orlando Cabrera, Assistant Secretary for Public & Indian Housing, HUD to Congressional Subcommittee on Housing & Transportation; retrieved July 31, 2008 from http://www.hud.gov/offices/cir/test062007.cfm). ggggg HOPE VI incorporates the principles of community building that evolved from a report of the Cleveland Foundation Commission on Poverty (1990). Their report promoted approaches that were comprehensive, asset-driven, and guided by individual public housing authorities, residents, and their neighbors. hhhhh
Consensus exists that Pleasant View Gardens itself is doing well. However, negative impacts include displacement of Lafayette Courts residents into nearby Douglass Homes, loss of customers at Oldtown Mall and Charles Carroll of Carrollton Elementary School closing (declining enrollment). 446
(see Figure PVG.4). TABLE PVG.1 Population and population change of Pleasant View Gardens neighborhood, outer city, inner suburbs and outer suburbs of metropolitan Baltimore Population Population Change (%) Spatial Unit 1980 1990 2000 1980-2000 Neighborhood 4,349 3,828 2,611 -40.0 Outer City 782,426 732,186 648,543 -17.1 Inner Suburbs 655,615 692,134 754,292 15.1 Outer Suburbs 757,141 954,024 1,147,548 51.6 Source: U.S. Census Bureau (1982; 1992; 2002)
Source: Adapted from U.S. Census Bureau (1999)
FIGURE PVG.4 Map of Pleasant View Gardens neighborhood, outer city, inner suburbs and outer suburbs of Baltimore Table PVG.1 shows population has decreased most rapidly in the core of Baltimore and has increased most rapidly in outlying areas. Between 1990 and 2000, when redevelopment occurred, the population of the neighborhood decreased by 1,217 (-32%), nearly three times the rate of population decline in the surrounding city (-11%). Population loss in the Pleasant View Gardens neighborhood has important implications for the protection of hydrologically sensitive areas in the outer suburbs. The 18-acre redevelopment site for Pleasant View Gardens is very impervious with compacted, urban soils; it lacks the hydrological significance of pristine wetlands, woodlands and 447
riparian corridors on the fringe. Urban sites such as Pleasant View Gardens should absorb maximum development; there are other ways to deconcentrate poverty (i.e. infusing affordable units into higher density mixed-income, mixed use developments). How New Urban Site Design Create Opportunities for Watershed Protective Techniques Despite variations in implementation of new urban site design elements and watershed protective techniques, a common set of factors appears to explain how new urban site design elements create opportunities for watershed protective techniques: 1) proactively establishing a network of open space to frame a mix of land uses; increasing density in less vulnerable areas to decrease growth pressures in more vulnerable areas; and promoting walkable, transit-oriented development to reduce imperviousness from parking. First, new urban developments create opportunities for watershed protective techniques by incorporating a balanced mix of land uses within a framework of proactively planned open space. King Farm, the case site with the most watershed protective techniques, has its Open Space Network Plan. A countywide environmental analysis identified portions of the site most vulnerable to development. The plan was then created to protect hydrologically sensitive stream valleys from disturbance and the developers wove a tapestry of condominiums, homes, apartments, stores, offices and parks around them. Riverside is another good example. An analysis of site vulnerability to development impacts created the opportunity for developers to cluster residential, commercial and office space around a compact town square. The buildings were wrapped in a 49-acre nest of hydrologically sensitive open space that naturally filtered stormwater runoff before it reached the Chattahoochee River. Second, new urban developments create opportunities for watershed protective techniques through increased density to decrease growth pressures elsewhere. Southern Village falls short; at 7.5 units/acre it is not dense enough. Southern Village could have accommodated several hundred more residential units to reach a higher density like King Farm (13.5 units/acre) and avoided using its hydrologically sensitive areas for recreation and landscaping. Pleasant View Gardens also falls short. As a neighborhood in the urban core it should maximize its density to potential suburban growth. Instead, site redevelopment density was cut in half. Third, new urban developments create opportunities for watershed protection techniques through walkable, transit-oriented development to reduce parking imperviousness. King Farm developers accommodated parking needs on its streets to preserve stream valleys. On the other hand, Birkdale Village is characterized by conventional, suburban parking lots that consumed several acres of potential open space to protect hydrologically sensitive areas. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MITIGATING DEVELOPMENT IMPACTS ON WATER RESOURCES THROUGH NEW URBAN SITE DESIGN This paper has examined how new urban development site design creates opportunities for watershed protective techniques. In six case studies of new urban developments with varying degrees of watershed protective techniques, the new urban site design elements of high density, mixed land-use and pedestrian- and transit-orientation successfully reduce impervious cover, protect hydrologically-sensitive areas and provide open space for natural stormwater runoff management. The developments stumbled where new urban design elements were not fully implemented. Even though all six case studies were identified as new urban, there were examples of lower density development, suburban-style parking lots in front of retail stores, nonexistent transit service, poor connection to surrounding neighborhoods and lack of commercial businesses. Lapses in new urban site design led to excess pavement, nonexistent or compromised open space and lack of natural stormwater management. It is possible to increase opportunities for watershed protective techniques through a planning framework that promotes stronger adherence to new urban site design principles. Specifically, we recommend: an analysis for land suitability/vulnerability be conducted prior to development site design; adherence to new urban parking standards and the use of structures or 448
streets to accommodate parking; and integrating water resource protection with other environmental goals, such as climate change mitigation. Conduct an analysis for land suitability/vulnerability prior to development site design Hydrologically-sensitive open space was protected in our case studies where there was initially a broader land use suitability or environmental vulnerability analysis conducted by a municipal, county or regional planning agency. A land use suitability analysis identifies which areas of the region are most sensitive to disturbance. Information about sensitive lands creates the opportunity for both planners and the developer to establish a site design framed by a network of open space with high-density development concentrated in less vulnerable locations. The planning agency may even develop a cap-and-trade or density-bonus strategy, such as that employed by the Atlanta Regional Commission for Riverside, where developers are rewarded with the option of more intense development in less sensitive locations if they protect elsewhere. Adhere to new urban standards and use structures or streets for parking Surface parking lots should be eliminated, or at least minimized. The new urban SmartCode 9.2 offers parking prescriptions for compact-mixed use developments, although developments incorporate a broad mix of land uses with transit service to reduce the automobile dependence. Where parking is required, every effort should be made to accommodate parking in structures or on the street. Parking lots create acres of excess imperviousness that prevent the opportunity for hydrologically sensitive area protection and natural stormwater runoff management. Parking lots could also absorb potential growth from surrounding areas. Integrate water resource protection and climate change mitigation goals The benefits of new urban site design for water resource protection may also translate to other environmental impacts caused by urbanization, such as climate change. A planning framework that promotes multiple environmental goals through regional land suitability analysis and new urban site design may receive greater political and public support. Recent literature suggests compact development styles, such as new urbanism, may be an effective way to mitigate the impact of urban development on climate change in two ways. First, new urban developments with high densities, mixed land use and pedestrian and transit orientation offer opportunities for people to utilize alternative modes of transportation to driving (Frank et. al., 2007; Bartholomew, 2007; Cervero & Duncan, 2006). Current global warming trends, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007), are driven by greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2). Passenger vehicles are responsible for more than one-fifth of all United States CO2 emissions and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) doubled between 1980 and 2006 (Federal Highway Administration, 2007). Ewing et. al. (2008) advocate that climate stabilization may be achieved if Americans drive less. Second, watershed protective new urban development sites are girded by a framework of hydrologically-sensitive open space protected from development disturbance. The literature has recently advocated for more diligent protection of open space as part of sustainable urban development design (Farr, 2008; U.S. Green Building Council, 2007). Such open space networks, usually delineated through a regional land suitability analysis, are not only important for watershed protection, but also CO2 absorption and air pollution reduction. REFERENCES A&R/Harkins Joint Venture V. (2000). Lafayette Courts redevelopment plan. Baltimore, MD: Author. Andrews Engineering Company. (1995). Village at Port Royal vicinity map. Town of Port Royal, SC: Author. Atlanta Regional Commission. (1972). Chattahoochee corridor study. Atlanta, GA: Author.
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Czarnecki, J. (2001). CNU gives inaugural charter awards. Architectural Record, 189(6), 40. Dover, Kohl, & Partners. (1995). The master plan for Port Royal. Port Royal, SC: Author. Duany, A., & Plater-Zyberk, E. (1991). Towns and town-making principles. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Duany, A., Plater-Zyberk, E., & Speck, J. (2000). Suburban nation: The rise of sprawl and the decline of the American dream, New York: North Point Press. Duany, A. & Plater-Zyberk, E. (2008). SmartCode version 9.2. Miami, FL: Author. Duany, A., & Talen, E. (2002). Transect planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 68(3), 245-266. Ewing, R., Bartholomew, K., Winkelman, S., Walters, J., & Chen, D. (2008). Growing cooler: The evidence on urban development and climate change. Washington, DC: The Urban Land Institute. Facts on File, Inc. (1997). Outline maps on file reference atlas: Regional: U.S.-Southeast, 9.25. New York: Author. Farr, D. (2008). Sustainable urbanism: Urban design with nature. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Federal Highway Administration. (2007). “Vehicle registrations, fuel consumption and vehicle miles of travel as indices” in Highway statistics 2006, Washington, DC: United States Department of Transportation. (retrieved July 21, 2008 from http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohim/hs06/motor_vehicles.htm). Forest City Enterprises. (2001). Greens at Birkdale concept plan (retrieved November 10, 2001 from http://www.fceinc.com/gen1.asp?strImageDirectory=land&strImageName =hunt3a.jpg&strImageCaption=&submit.x=57&submit.y=68). Frank, L., Kavage, S., & Appleyard, B. (2007). The urban form and climate change gamble, Planning, 73(8), 18-23. Garrobo, A. (2008). Port Royal wants to restore wetland chain, The Beaufort Gazette (retrieved August 3, 2008 from the July 26, 2008 edition at www.beaufortgazette.com/local/vprint/story/503399.html). Girling, C., Kellett, R., Rochefort, J., & Roe, C. (2000). Green neighborhoods: planning and design guidelines for air, water, and urban forest quality. Eugene, OR: Center for Housing Innovation, University of Oregon. Grode, J. (2006). Atlanta won’t meet 2007 air quality deadline: Will miss 2010 deadline unless region quickly implements comprehensive solutions. Southern Environmental Law Center press release (retrieved July 26, 2008 from http://www.southernenvironment.org/newsroom/2006/08-01_atlanta_air.htm). Handy, S., Sallis, J., Weber, D., Maibach, E., & Hollander, M. (2008). Is support for traditionally 451
designed communities growing? Evidence from two national surveys, Journal of the American Planning Association, 74(2), 209-221. Heath, G., Brownson, R., Kruger, J., Miles, R., Powell, K., Ramsey, L., & the Task Force for Community Preventive Services. (2006). The effectiveness of urban design and land use and transport policies and practices to increase physical activity: A systematic review, Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 3(1), S55-76.
Hobbs, F. & Stoops, N. (2002). United States Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Reports, Series CENSR-4, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century, Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Climate change 2007: Synthesis report. Contribution of working groups I, II and III to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Geneva, Switzerland: Author. Katz, P. (1994). The new urbanism: Toward an architecture of community. New York: McGraw-Hill. Kelbaugh, D. (1997). Common place: Toward neighborhood and regional design. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. Levine, J. & Frank, L. (2007). Transportation and land-use preferences and residents’ neighborhood choices: The sufficiency of compact development in the Atlanta region, Transportation, 34(2), 255-274. Litman, T. (2008). Pavement busters guide: Why and how to reduce the amount of land paved for roads and parking facilities. Victoria, BC: Victoria Transport Policy Institute. Loiederman Soltesz Associates. (1996). King Farm open space network plan. Rockville, MD: Author. Loiederman Soltesz Associates. (1996). King Farm overall concept plan. Rockville, MD: Author. Loiederman Soltesz Associates. (1996). King Farm stormwater management plan. Rockville, MD: Author. MacDonald, J. (2005). Assessing the incorporation of watershed protection techniques in new urban versus conventional low-density development site plans. Doctoral dissertation in the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ann Arbor, MI: Proquest Information & Learning Company. Mapquest. (2003). Aerial photograph of northern Rockville, Maryland (retrieved November 3, 2003 from www.mapquest.com). Maryland-National Capitol Park and Planning Commission. (2003). Corridor cities transitway map (retrieved December 2, 2003 from www.mc-mncppc.org/gis/ large_maps/cc_transitway_corridor_ltr.pdf).
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Meck, S. (ed.). (2002). Growing smart legislative guidebook: Model statutes for planning and the management of change. Chicago, IL: American Planning Association. Montgomery County. (1990). Shady Grove study area master plan. Silver Spring, MD: Maryland-National Capitol Park and Planning Commission, Montgomery County Department of Park and Planning. Naparstek, A.J., Freis, S.R., Kingsley, G.T., Dooley, D., & Lewis, H.E. (2000). HOPE VI: Community building makes a difference. Prepared for United States Department of Housing and Urban Development: Office of Public and Indian Housing, Office of Public Housing Investments, and Office of Urban Revitalization. Unpublished manuscript. Nelson, A. (2006). Leadership in a new era, Journal of the American Planning Association, 72(4), 393-407. Newman, S.J. & Fall 2002 Introductory to Policy Analysis students, Johns Hopkins University. (2003). Neighborhood effects of HOPE VI: Evidence from Baltimore, Occasional Paper #28. Unpublished Manuscript. O’Neill, C. A. (1996). Lexington Terrace and Lafayette Courts: The making of inner-city neighborhoods. Urban Land, 55(9), 45-48. Otterstrom, S.M. (2003). Population concentration in United States city-systems from 1790 to 2000: Historical trends and current phases. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 94(4), 477-495. Padgett, T. (1999). Saving suburbia. Time, 154(7), 50-52. Pappas Properties. (2001). Birkdale concept plan and Birkdale Village architectural site plan (retrieved November 10, 2001 from http://www.birkdaleresidential.com/residential /map.asp). Pappas Properties. (2001). Aerial photograph of Birkdale Village construction progress (retrieved August 20, 2001 from www.birkdalevillage.net/Construction.htm). Planners and Engineers Collaborative. (1996). Master plan – site plan amendment, in Riverside Village – amended plan, sheet DB2. Atlanta, GA: Author. Rodriguez, D., Khattak, A., & Evenson, K. (2006). Can new urbanism encourage physical activity?: Comparing a new urbanist neighborhood with conventional suburbs, Journal of the American Planning Association, 72(1), 43-54. Saelens, B. & Handy, S. (2008). Built environment correlates of walking: A review, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 40(7 Suppl), S550-566. Schueler, T. (1995). Environmental land planning series: Site planning for urban stream Protection (Pub. #95708). Ellicott City, MD: Center for Watershed Protection. Shook Design Group. (2001). Birkdale Village parking count. Charlotte, NC: Author. Shoup, D. (2005). The high cost of free parking. Chicago, IL: Planners Press (American Planning Association). 453
Shrouds, J. (2000). Atlanta “conforms” to clean air requirements. Public Roads, 64(2) (retrieved July 26, 2008 from http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/septoct00/atlanta.htm). South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. (1995). Getting a rein on runoff: How sprawl and the traditional town compared, SCCCL Land Development Bulletin, 7, 16. Southworth, M. (1997). Walkable suburbs?: An evaluation of neotraditional communities on the urban edge. Journal of the American Planning Association, 63(1), 28-44. Steuteville, R. (2008). Directory of the new urbanism. Ithaca, NY: New Urban News Publications. Town of Chapel Hill. (1992). Small area plan: Southern area. Chapel Hill, NC: Author. Town of Huntersville. (2001). Zoning ordinance. Huntersville, NC: Author. Town of Port Royal. (2001). Points of interest (retrieved October 1, 2003 from www.portroyal.org). Trochim, W. (1989). Outcome pattern matching and program theory. Evaluation and Program Planning, 12, 355-366. United States Census Bureau. (1953). U.S. Census of Population: 1950: Vol. I. Number of Inhabitants: Part 1, United States Summary. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. United States Census Bureau. (1982). 1980 census of population, Volume 1: Characteristics of the population. PC80-1-A12, PC80-1-A22, PC80-1-A35, PC80-1-A42. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. United States Census Bureau. (1992). 1990 census of population: General population characteristics. CP-1-12, CP-1-22, CP-1-35, CP-1-42. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. United States Census Bureau. (1999). Metropolitan area maps by state: Georgia (retrieved September 1, 2002 from http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/mapage.html). United States Census Bureau. (1999). Metropolitan area maps by state: Maryland (retrieved December 15, 2003 from http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/mapage.html). United States Census Bureau. (2002). American FactFinder. “PHC-T-2: Ranking Tables for States: Population in 2000 and Population Change from 1990 to 2000;” “PHC-T-3: Ranking Tables for Metropolitan Areas: Population in 2000 and Population Change from 1990 to 2000;” “PHC-T-4: Ranking Tables for Counties: Population in 2000 and Population Change from 1990 to 2000;” “GCT-PH1: Population, Housing Units, Area, and Density: 2000.” (Retrieved September 1, 2002 through September 1, 2003 from Data Set: Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF-1) 100-Percent Data (http://www.census. gov/main/www/cen2000.html)). United States Census Bureau. (2008). Population Estimates Program. “SUB-EST2007-4: Cities 454
and Towns: All Places 2000-2007” and “SUB-EST2007-5: Cities and Towns: Minor Civil Divisions 2000-2007” (retrieved July 11, 2008 from http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/cities.html). United States Environmental Protection Agency. (1994). Polluted. EPA brochure #EPA-841F-94-005 (retrieved June 26, 2004 from http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/qa.html). United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2004). Protecting water resources with smart growth, EPA Report #231-R-04-002. Washington, DC: Author. United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2005). Using smart growth techniques as stormwater best management practices, EPA Report #231-B-05-002. Washington, DC: Author. United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2005). Redesignation of Atlanta severe 1-hour ozone nonattainment area to attainment for ozone. Federal Register, 70(114) (retrieved July 26, 2008 from http://www.epa.gov/air/oaqps/greenbk/7034660.html). United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2006). National Water Quality Assessment Database: National Summary of State Information (retrieved July 17, 2008 from http://iaspub.epa.gov/waters10/attains_nation_cy.control). United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2006). Protecting water resources with higherdensity development, EPA Report #231-R-06-001. Washington, DC: Author. United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2008). Chesapeake Bay health & restoration assessment, EPA Report #903-R-08-002. Annapolis, MD: Chesapeake Bay Program. United States Green Building Council. (2007). LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System: Pilot Version. Washington, DC: Author. Wood+Partners, Inc. (2006). Regulating plan: SCSPA Port of Port Royal Planned Unit Development. Hilton Head Island, SC: Author. Yin, R.K. (2003). Case study research: design and methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Zheng, P.Q., & Baetz, B. W. (1999). GIS-based analysis of development options from a hydrology perspective, Journal of Urban Planning and Development, 125(4), 164-180.
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TOPIC 8: Aesthetics, Biophilia and Evidence‐Based Design Thermal comfort and psychological adaptation as a guide for designing urban spaces Marialena Nikolopouloua and Koen Steemersb
Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES), b The Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies, University of Cambridge Abstract Investigating thermal comfort conditions in outdoor urban spaces, has thrown some light on the complexity of the issues involved, demonstrating that a quantitative approach is insufficient in describing comfort conditions outdoors. It revealed that although microclimatic parameters strongly influence thermal sensation, they cannot fully account for the wide variation between objective and subjective comfort evaluation, whereas, psychological adaptation seems to becoming increasingly important. This paper concentrates on the issue of psychological adaptation: naturalness, expectations, experience (short‐/long‐term), time of exposure, perceived control and environmental stimulation, and presents an attempt to try and evaluate the relative impact of each of these parameters. Understanding the interrelationship between the different parameters of psychological adaptation would be of interest in order to compare their relative significance, and to assess their design role, that is whether design considerations would influence these parameters, or vice versa, whether they could influence design decisions. An awareness of these issues would be valuable to architects, planners and urban designers, not by the way of limiting possible solutions, rather by enriching the design possibilities. a
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View from a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery Roger S. Ulrich, 1984 Records on recovery after cholecystectomy of patients in a suburban Pennsylvania hospital between 1972 and 1981 were examined to determine whether assignment to a room with a window view of a natural setting might have restorative influences. Twenty‐ three surgical patients assigned to rooms with windows looking out on a natural scene had shorter postoperative hospital stays, received fewer negative evaluative comments in nursesʹ notes, and took fewer potent analgesics than 23 matched patients in similar rooms with windows facing a brick wall. Urban Design Aesthetics: The Evaluative Qualities of Building Exteriors Jack L. Nasar Ohio State University in Columbus. Abstract Design reviewers make judgments based on their opinion of how physical features influence the evaluative quality of the building and its surroundings. What features evoke favorable evaluative responses? Although some people may view aesthetics as qualitative and idiosyncratic, researchers have continued in their search for general principles. This article reviews that research, with particular attention to building exteriors. The article defines and examines three kinds of aesthetic variables‐formal, symbolic, and schemas. It highlights the importance of enclosure, complexity, and order as formal variables, of style as a symbolic variable, and of atypicality in relation to schemas. It discusses the relationship of these variables to evaluative response. As different kinds of evaluative responses may be appropriate and desirable for different kinds of places, this article considers the dimensions of evaluative response. The analysis suggests that design review seeking pleasantness should encourage order, moderate complexity, and elements of ʺpopularʺ styles; design review seeking excitement should encourage high complexity, atypicality, and low order; and design review seeking calmness should encourage high order and naturalness. Acknowledging potential variability across contexts, this article offers aesthetic programming and evaluation as alternate ways to develop and refine guidelines for design review.
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Excerpt from Aesthetics, Well‐Being and Health: Abstracts on theoretical and empirical research within environmental aesthetics, by Birgit Cold. Formskrift, Oslo (1998). Courtesy the author. Selected findings summarized into six points (Very briefly, without reference to the studies individually) 1. The roots to aesthetic preferences originate from surviving in nature The roots to our aesthetic preferences originate in our common sensory perception developed during thousands of years of survival in natural environments. This close contact with natural elements necessary for our survival has apparently created ʺa preferandaʺ influencing our aesthetic preferences. These are further shaped by cultural norms in close contact with the social and built environment, and finally influenced by each personʹs knowledge structure and emotional experience. 2. Nature and natural elements have a positive impact on our well‐being and health Realizing that we are part of nature with early manʹs environmental experiences deep in our minds and bodies and even with modern man’s apparent distance from ʺsurvival in and by natureʺ, it appears to be difficult to disregard the significance of nature as “healer”. Nature and natural elements and even simulations and symbolic images of nature appear to have a positive impact on people’s well‐being and health. Built environments with natural elements such as trees and greenery are generally preferred and better remembered than pure built environments. An increasing number of human materials such as electricity poles, advertisements, displays and road constructions in the natural environment causes a proportionally decreasing evaluation of the overall quality. Daylight is one of the natural factors which appears to be crucial for our well‐being and health. Daylight in the interior, especially combined with a pleasant view of nature and aesthetically attractive environments which ʺlureʺ people to stay outdoors in the daylight, has a positive effect on our physiological health and psychological we1l‐being. Bearing the need for scientific evidence in mind, however, it is necessary to implement physiological and neuro‐physiological experiments, making conceptual links to psychological health and stress studies. This is a challenge for current research, even if we agree on the potential healing effects of nature and daylight. 3. Environmental coherence is essential for understanding the environment, and environmental complexity for the desire to explore and learn more about the environment Culture, evolution and individual knowledge and experience influence our aesthetic preferences on an unconscious and conscious level. Individually experienced environmental familiarity involving aesthetic perception, cultural meaning and emotional 458
interest appears to have a deep impact on our individual day‐to‐day functioning and hence our well‐being. However, it seems possible to also point out some general perceptual and cognitive factors which interact positively with certain environmental qualities. Understanding the environment and being able to ʺreadʺ it and to feel secure is supported by environmental coherence. This is perceived when things are ordered and ʺfit togetherʺ somehow. At the same time there is a human affinity towards experiencing environments of a certain richness which cause arousal and positive stimulation and towards exploring such environments. Curiosity and an explorative desire are stimulated by environmental complexity and a certain ʺmysteryʺ which promise exciting or new experiences ʺaround the next cornerʺ. In the early days of man, an exploring nomadic behaviour was absolutely necessary in order to survive. Today this exploring behaviour has become part of our cu1rural desire to learn more about the surroundings and the outside world. 4. Pleasant, exciting and calm environments make us feel well. People do not prefer one style of architecture, but feel attracted to qualities such as a high degree of coherence, low contrast, medium complexity and high order. The balance between familiarity and novelty may be described as enough novelty to satisfy the curiosity drive, but sufficient familiarity to prevent overload. Certain qualities in the built environment appear to be generally preferred independently of peopleʹs knowledge structure, emotional baggage, interests and the category of buildings and places. These qualities are found to be pleasantness, excitement and calmness. In other studies they are called coherence or harmony and balance, originality or authenticity, place adaptation or fittingness, and ʺcultivated simplicityʺ or good craftsmanship. When focussing more on single buildings and features, experts and laypeople have different aesthetic preferences. Experts favour complexity, asymmetric design, new and interesting forms and attributes known from modernism and ʺnew isms”. The public prefer simplicity, symmetry and popular attributes known from traditional architecture. Their environmental and professional roles are different and consequently experts should know more about public preferences and what they are based on, and the public more about environmental aesthetics, in order to communicate and cooperate in planning and designing the environment. The challenge is to understand the background of aesthetic preferences and human needs and within the available resource framework transform these into artistic and functional wholes. 5. There is a need for “real life” studies. The studies are often based on simulations concentrating on single environmental elements and peopleʹs aesthetic preferences. They do not help much in offering design criteria or a better understanding of the complex interaction of people and the environment. To build up comprehensive views on the subject, however, they appear to be
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necessary when placed side by side in a puzzle. Still there is a great need for real life studies to take into account the complexity of the people‐environment interaction. Each situation and place has to be investigated as ʺnewʺ or different, and thus no physical or architectural solution can automatically be repeated. Environmental decision makers need to unveil their own and the usersʹ environmental roles and assessments of places. The significance of these role structures and different assessments over time is also a strong reason for pursuing “real lifeʺ research, and is a criticism of simulated ʺno placeʺ or laboratory research within environmental psychology because this type of research excludes many of the elements which influence environmental evaluations. 6. Many unanswered questions on the effects of environmental aesthetics There are still many questions to ask and relatively few and novel answers to be found. Perhaps we should accept that it is not always possible to give clear and fresh answers, and that being aware of the unanswered questions may be more important than obtaining short‐lived or deterministic answers. The danger is rather if we believe that we have found the one and only answer to a complex question. Studying and discussing the influence of environmental aesthetics on our well‐being and health appears to be very interesting and important for people and for experts within the aesthetic, social and psychological fields. The desire to explore this subject and learn more appears to be growing both generally and within these particular fields. This demands, however, an interdisciplinary approach and willingness to ʺbridge the gapʺ between them.
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TOPIC 9: Social and Economic Factors Protect and Grow Ogunlande Davidson Dean, Post-Graduate Studies University of Sierra Leone CO-Chair, Working Group III Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change From “Our Planet, the Magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme” http://www.unep.org/pdf/ourplanet/op_english_17v2.pdf The world’s poorest people have benefited least from the economic activities which have caused greenhouse gases to build up in the atmosphere. Yet they will suffer the most from the consequences, due to their weak resilience to global shocks. Nowhere is this more true than in Africa. Scientific records indicate that Africa is warming at a rate of 0.5 degrees Celsius a century, and there has been significant decline in precipitation, especially since the mid 1970s. Climate models show, furthermore, that the northern part of the continent may become 5°C (and southern areas 7°C) warmer by the middle of this century and beyond, while its eastern and western regions may receive increased rainfall. More extreme and more intense droughts and floods are predicted to increase, along with a greater probability of persistent and intense El Niño — Southern Oscillation (ENSO) effects. The variable rainfall in the Sahel and the south of the continent will result in more persistent droughts than at present. Global warming Over 80 per cent of Africa’s people now depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. But it is predicted that by the 2080s major losses in cereal production will affect over 40 per cent of its countries. There will also be a significant impact on livestock and marine resources, as their wellbeing is strongly linked to rainfall. Vector-borne diseases such as malaria and cholera, which are closely related to climatic changes, are forecast to worsen. Climate change can also have a disastrous effect on what is an already economically deficient continent, especially by affecting coastal areas which — as in the west and east of Africa — make a profound contribution to their countries’ economies. However, Africa’s greatest problem lies more in its weak capacity to respond adequately to climate variability and extremes than in responding to global warming per se. This is compounded by its equally weak response and poor resilience to other global shocks. Africa is the most vulnerable continent to the problems caused by the build-up of greenhouse gases. But it has accounted for less than 3 per cent of it so far, and still contributes less than 4 per cent of the annual addition (3.6 per cent in 2002) Most countries – the Seychelles, South Africa and Libya are exceptions – contribute less than 0.5 tonnes per capita, as opposed to the EU’s 12 tonnes and the USA’s almost 20 tonnes. The continent has an enormous capacity to be a net carbon sink. Economic gains All countries need to take collective and individual action to tackle this problem, and Africa must contribute by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions per unit of economic output and developing to cope with the likely impacts. Unfortunately, most of Africa’s vulnerability to climate change is due 461
to its infrastructure deficiencies and high dependence on natural systems. This was clearly demonstrated, for example, in the 2000 Mozambique floods which affected 4.5 million people — causing 700 deaths and economic losses estimated at $500 million and cutting the GDP growth rate from 10 per cent to 2 per cent — and in the repeated Ethiopian droughts of 1968, 1994 and 2005. The continent’s food production increased 2.8 fold between 1961 and 2002, but with a minimal impact on hunger because population increased by similar amount. About 40 per cent of the harvest is lost either on and off the farm, and reducing this with known storage and delivery systems can lead to tremendous economic benefits and hunger reduction. Similarly improved water storage and delivery, with well-known technologies, can save up to 40 per cent of water resources: using saved water for irrigation and a more rational distribution system can lead to substantial economic gains and reduce vulnerability to climatic change. Improving public health systems — such as with more rationalized health delivery and distribution mechanisms — can similarly reduce vulnerability to vector-borne diseases. All this requires funds, and a greater role for governments in mapping future growth strategies. So a two-pronged approach is needed: intensifying the more common approaches towards climate change adaptation and mitigation while achieving an aggressive growth of wealth creating activities. Regional effort Existing activities to build up human and institutional capacities to tackle climate change constraints, though welcome, should be strengthened to maximize gains from such actions as national communication and training programmes. Countries and institutions should be encouraged to learn from each other, while instituting schemes to retain human resources. Climate change research and development continues, but mostly outside the continent: the relatively little in Africa is uncoordinated, reducing its impact. The international attention the Gleneagles agreement gave to this should be exploited, along with regional and national efforts in a co-ordinated framework. This could lead to promising environmentally-sound and climate-friendly technologies being developed and implemented, producing major economic gains. Using suitable research and development to integrate traditional knowledge with modern systems will be valuable; agriculture provides a rich base for this. Wealth creation African countries must be involved in major wealth creating activities, while coping with the demands from climate change mitigation and adaptation: growing poverty remains the greatest obstacle to Africa’s development. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs estimates that the number of people living on less than $1 per day rose from 288 million in 1980 to 516 million in 2001. Some positive economic growth has been recorded since 2000, but it needs to be strengthened. An even greater problem is the rising inequalities (in income, human capabilities, access to infrastructure, and decision-making) in several countries, as these can lead to civil conflicts and strife. Sierra Leone provides an example: just before the 1989 war the richest 20 per cent of its people accounted for more than 63 per cent of all spending: the bottom 40 per cent for just 3.1 per cent. Poverty and inequality can only exacerbate stresses from climate anomalies as the continent’s response will be severely weakened. Developing energy, industrializing agriculture and mining sustainably are three promising areas for wealth creation. Africa will be unable to cope with climate mitigation and adaptation demands without substantially increasing its use of its indigenous modern energy resources. It is the smallest consumer of modern energy services, though the ratio of its production of all fossil fuels to its reserves is above the world’s average, and it is richly endowed with renewable energy resources. 462
Similarly its vulnerability to climate change will only worsen, unless there is a significant increase in the use of fertilisers, irrigation and agricultural mechanization. Africa contains over 40 per cent of the world’s as yet unexploited mineral resources but, unfortunately, only first stage low-value mining activities are being carried out: the high-value processing stages remain outside the continent. Using more sustainable mining methods is crucial if it is adequately to respond to such global shocks as climate instability. Scientific uncertainties and economic risks can no longer be used to justify inaction in preventing further major man-made interference with the global climate system. Countries should fully exploit the current growing international attention to climate change and development in Africa — as in the Gleneagles agreement — despite declining aid to the continent. Africa’s capacity adequately to respond to the challenges of climate instability will be expanded by improving overall resilience, integrating climate change goals into sustainable development strategies, increasing the use of modern energy systems with reduced carbon intensity, and strengthening international initiatives. Developmental aspirations There are obstacles, however. Only five of the 210 Clean Development Mechanism projects registered as of June, 2006, were in Africa: most were India, China and Brazil. Special considerations are needed for African countries plagued with infrastructural deficiencies. Governments need to take a greater role in addressing this: the private sector involvement advocated by donor and international agencies can assist but only in an adequately regulated and competitive environment. Africa’s challenge is to develop a framework and policies that ensure that resources are used efficiently and equitably, to maintain economic and developmental aspirations, and to protect the weak in responding to changes in the climate n Professor Ogunlade R. Davidson is Dean, Post-Graduate Studies, at the University of Sierra Leone and Co- Chair of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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Climate Change and Land Use: The Social, Political and Economic Choices Before Us A Policy White Paper Introduction As of mid-2008 we can make two confident assertions about climate change. The first is that there is overwhelming scientific consensus that the phenomenon is occurring, and that urgent action is needed to avoid - or in some cases to adapt to – large-scale disruptions. The second is that climate change is certainly not the only challenge we must deal with if we are to ensure a prosperous and livable human environment. In that light it would seem unwise to regard climate change as an isolated crisis of the moment. It is more accurately described as one egregious example of a wider set of interrelated environmental and social challengesiiiii. Thus the more alarming aspects of climate change may serve as a timely wake-up call to mitigate less immediate but equally critical long-term issues that we have neglected in the past, because we have been unable, until now, to marshal the political will or technical skills to do so. The wider challenge before us is, undoubtedly, to greatly reduce our negative impact upon the natural systems upon which we ultimately depend; but more accurately, it is to improve the ratio of human benefit to environmental cost. That is surely the essence of sustainability: not merely to limit our impact, but to create healthy, livable communities that do not over-consume the resources on which their residents depend. This ratio of benefit to cost can be called settlement efficiency. A low settlement efficiency is the production of relatively little human benefit over time, in comparison to the cost in resources. By contrast, a high settlement efficiency produces such benefits at a higher rate, over a longer period of time. It is what we may describe in the popular parlance of the day as “sustainable prosperity.” An extremely high settlement efficiency is routinely observed in natural ecosystems, where species are often able to thrive for millions of years. The opposite condition is also occasionally seen in nature: a quick over-consumption of resources for immediate benefit, followed by a period of distress and deprivation, or worse. Numerous examples of this kind of condition can be seen in our own human history, in a number of past civilizations that offer us cautionary lessons today. What the science is showing us today, and what this paper will summarize, is that settlement efficiency is measurable, analyzable, and closely related to particular kinds of settlement patterns -and to the choices that produce them. In particular, it has a direct and significant effect upon carbon emissions, and the buildup of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The opportunity to increase settlement efficiency also presents an opportunity to reduce GHGs. While individual building efficiency is a major part of the equation - indeed, representing some onethird of all energy use - so is the larger arrangement of buildings, transportation and daily activities, accounting for another roughly one-third. (The remainder represents industrial and other activities.) A disordered, diffuse pattern that is heavily dependent on high-energy transport systems like automobiles – what is commonly called “sprawl” – is a highly inefficient pattern in comparison to iiiii
Among these we might include such well-recognized modern phenomena as pollution, resource depletion, habitat destruction, environmental illnesses (including “lifestyle” diseases related to obesity), social isolation, and psychological stress. There is a growing body of literature on the real and growing costs of these phenomena, and their unsustainable consequences; see the appendix for references. 464
others available, and its sustainability is therefore in considerable doubt. Its relative increase in contribution to greenhouse gases can be measured. We will summarize these findings here. Furthermore, the science is beginning to show us much more clearly that certain kinds of decisions – economic, political, legal – over time produce certain kinds of settlement patterns, with direct implications for carbon emissions and other negative impacts. We are beginning to understand how particular decisions lead to particular forms – sometimes unexpectedly so -- with implications for emissions and other factors. The policy implications are becoming equally clear: if we want to address carbon emissions, we will have to address these other issues of urban form and urban process as well. We can do so, it appears, through certain kinds of rules and codes, including a promising new set of alternative codes and mechanisms. We will discuss these new alternatives briefly here also. The Science: What We Know About Urban Form and Carbon Emissions A growing body of recent peer-reviewed studies shows compelling correlations between urban form and greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from vehicle travel. For example, a recent study by the Bay area Metropolitan Transportation Commission (2006) shows a dramatic disparity in CO2 vehicular emissions per household between high-density urban communities such as San Francisco, and surrounding low-density suburban areas – amounting to as much as a tripling of emissions per household on average. (See chart at left.) Other studies show similar dramatic ranges. In the quest to identify opportunities to significantly reduce greenhouse gases, this finding is certainly attention-getting. But it is not so simple to unpack the actual factors that account for the disparity. Among them density is one major factor, but also to be accounted for are income disparities, variations in household size, availability of public transit, diversity and proximity of uses, neighborhood walkability, and other factors. Nonetheless, evidence does point to the individual significance of a number of these particularly factors that can be varied by We can summarize the correlations as follows. (Detailed citations are given in the appendix.)
factors, design.
Density. There is a well-established close correlation between residential density and average daily automobile driving distance person or “Vehicle Miles Traveled”
per
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(abbreviated “VMT”. This in turn has a strong correlation with carbon emissions. There is a comparatively modest variation from other factors such as the fuel efficiency of vehicles. This makes sense intuitively, as more things packed more closely together would seem to require shorter trips between them. Location Efficiency. There is a less well understood, but still compelling, correlation between the distribution of daily needs, and average automobile driving per person. Roughly, a more evenly mixed pattern of employment, shopping and other needs correlates to lower VMT, and to lower emissions. This too makes intuitive sense: if the distribution of your job, shopping and other daily needs is well-mixed, you will not need to drive as far on average to access them, and in some cases you may be able to walk, bike or use more efficient public transportation. A number of new measures of location efficiency have been developed, and in some cases have been used as the basis for reduced-qualification mortgages, or so-called “Location-Efficient Mortgages” (since the buyers will save on their commuting cost on average, hereby qualifying for a larger monthly mortgage). Street Network. A “dendritic” street system, based upon a hierarchy of arterials, collectors and local streets, has been shown to require longer trips on average than a more interconnected street grid. This is because a trip between two random points generally only has one path within a hierarchy -- up and down the hierarchy -- whereas it will have a number of possible paths in the network. One of these is likely to be shorter, and may also be suited to walking, biking or other transit modes. Walkability. It would seem intuitively obvious that an environment that is hostile to walking, even where location efficiency is high, will see on average less walking, more driving, and an increase in carbon emissions. Yet many jurisdictions do not have a comprehensive policy to promote a walkable network, and any breaks or degradations in the network can result in a non-functioning system. The elements that promote a more walkable network are not well-documented in research, nor is the overall potential contribution to reduction of greenhouse gases, and more research here would be beneficial. But it is clear enough that such pedestrian networks benefit from neighborhood compactness, efficient layout of daily needs, pedestrian amenities, perception of safety, and a visually appealing streetscape. Healthy pedestrian networks are damaged by highspeed streets, hierarchical street systems (which are both longer on average and require navigating high-speed arterials), Bikability. Similar issues apply to bicycle networks. Dendritic systems that force bikers onto busy, high-speed arterials are not as beneficial as networks, where quieter and more efficient paths can be customized for each trip. Safe paths and appealing streetscapes promote biking, as do relatively high locational efficiencies. Once again, more research in this area would be beneficial, as its potential contribution to reduced emissions (particularly in favorable climates) has likely been underestimated.
The Economics: Limits and Corrections to the Rationality of Markets Active policy lobbyists within the US frequently advocate a radical laissez-faire approach to development policy, and related issues such as climate change. Markets, they argue, are far more efficient mechanisms than government regulations for allocating costs through pricing, and creating disincentives from the costs of environmental damage.
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Markets are indeed sophisticated self-organizing and allocating systems. But Nobel Prize-winning work in economics has also clearly demonstrated a sobering “bounded rationality” in market processes. In particular, future costs are often under-represented, or not represented at all, in current prices. This can result in disastrous consequences, of the sort that public and scientific institutions were designed precisely to avert. When scientific institutions identify likely future costs – as is happening, imperfectly but convincingly, in the science of climate change – the responsibility must fall on regulatory institutions to represent those costs, and to work with market mechanisms to allocate them most efficiently. This may represent an optimum combination of the efficiency of markets and the collective intelligence of scientific and other human institutions. For example, a cap-and-trade scheme creates a shared regulatory standard for overall emissions limits, and exploits a market process to allocate those limits efficiently, preserving incentives and economic opportunities. Similar mechanisms are already used in the development process, as for example with Tradable Development Rights (TDRs). A promising area of exploration is whether a similar cap-and-trade system could be established for developments, allowing the trading of VMT values, or other capped credits. Another market incentive mechanism is the use of certification systems which can become the basis of buyer incentives, such as the environmental standard LEED. (Leadership Excellence in Environmental Design). The new LEED-ND standard (“ND” refers to “Neighborhood Design”) has been created to rate the “green” design quality of neighborhoods, with a close correlation to settlement efficiency. Other similar certification systems are also in development. Lastly, we cannot afford to overlook more direct pricing mechanisms on high-emissions activities, and credits for low-emission activities. For example, parking at dense urban employment sites often carries a cost, creating an incentive to use public transit. Yet current Internal Revenue Service rules work against this incentive and tend to encourage employees to drive to work, by allowing a deduction for jobsite parking costs. Models and empirical studies have convincingly shown that the elimination of such a deduction, coupled with additional pricing mechanisms on automobile commuting (for example, through congestion pricing or tolls) can significantly reduce VMTs. Indeed, transportation modeling tends to show that dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are possible, up to 30%, through a strategic combination of land use changes and pricing strategies. For example, Robert A. Johnston at UC Davis has surveyed European modeling research literature, and combined these findings with his own modeling, to draw the following conclusions (Johnson, 2006): 1. Expanding road capacity increases auto travel and emissions, compared to doing nothing. New HOV lanes on radial freeways increase travel and emissions. They also increase sprawl. Congestion generally becomes worse, in spite of adding highway capacity. 2. Expanding transit only decreases emissions about 1%, compared to doing nothing. It decreases travel costs for lower-income households. It can increase sprawl somewhat, due to the outer rail stations. 3. Expanding transit only and supporting it with land use intensification around Light Rail stations decreases emissions about 5%. It decreases travel costs for lower income households. 4. Expanding transit only and supporting it with land use intensification around Light Rail stations and with urban growth boundaries decreases emissions about 10%. It 467
decreases travel costs and travel delays for all households. 5. Expanding transit only and supporting it with higher fuel taxes and with workplace parking charges (refunded in higher wages as cash-in-lieu-of-parking incentives) and shopping parking charges (refunded through lower costs for goods and services) lowers emissions about 10%. It greatly increases economic benefits to all travelers, due to better transit and faster freeways. This scenario reduces congestion significantly. 6. Expanding transit only and supporting it with land use intensification and urban limit lines and with fuel taxes and parking charges, as above, lowers emissions about 15-30%. This scenario maximizes economic welfare for the region and reduces congestion the most.
The Politics: Broader Issues of Livability, Community and Participation Beyond the market mechanisms, we face a civic question of how we will jointly manage our “commons” – not only our shared environmental resources, but also our shared public realm: our streets, walkways and public spaces. It is becoming much clearer that this public realm has important implications for public health, environmental impact, economic prosperity, and long-term sustainability. It is in the public realm that “settlement efficiency” expresses itself, in a wellorganized, well-connected urban system of streets, public spaces and buildings. The aim of greater settlement efficiency requires a well-functioning political process – one that cannot be derailed by scattered NIMBY opposition, or mired in bureaucratic stalemate. Yet that is the regrettable state of too much of the public process in modern planning. On the one hand, local and individual decision-makers are best able to judge local issues, and best able to determine their own local needs free of external obstructions. But on the other hand, an aggregation of local actions does not necessarily add up to a larger whole. Neither is it sufficient to impose a restrictive top-down scheme, or a one-size-fits-all solution. But all too often the public process is mired between these two poles: onerous top-down restrictions, and chaotic bottom-up congestion. What is needed is a new approach to the public process, integrating local information and knowledge of needs into a wider regional process. A number of promising approaches exist, including the community charrette and related processes. Such processes have been used successfully across the US, and in particular in the recovery of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. [Laura – you could amplify here?] The Law: Reforming the “Rules of the Game” – and the Rules for Making Rules Even the most laissez-faire economy operates within a strong legal framework. In the case of the US, and California in particular, that legal and regulatory framework is, by virtually all accounts, a particularly vast and complex one. Many of these mechanisms are the means by which political decisions are implemented, including the decisions made at successful community charrettes. Even the most Byzantine laws and regulations have evolved in response to very real conditions and needs, and for that reason their importance should not be dismissed.
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Yet over time such regulatory mechanisms can become overly complex and confusing. Various added provisions conflict with one another in unforeseen ways, and over time, emergent outcomes can produce unintended consequences. The IRS deduction for employee parking is a case in point: meant to encourage worker productivity and economic development, it has the unintended consequence of increasing driving and, it follows, greenhouse gas emissions. A particular challenge comes from the legal structures that govern planning, and in particular the zoning ordinances that regulate new and infill development. In many cases these ordinances originally reflected the belief that conflicts between uses could best be resolved through segregation – much as a mother might deal with fighting siblings by separating them. If cities experienced overcrowding, then new zoning would move residents to low-density, segregated subdivisions, connected by the new automobile. Of course the eventual system-wide consequences of this scheme, with its increasing sprawl and congestion, were not foreseen. Today we recognize that settlement efficiency requires not segregation, but a higher degree of integration, through careful design. Buildings can include a mix of uses, for example, so long as their partitions are designed to deal with issues of fire safety, noise, privacy and other issues. A new generation of mixed-use codes and regulations is coming on line, supplanting the older accretion of segregationist rules and ordinances. Similarly, new legal mechanisms are being developed to allow condominium and other more flexible forms of co-development. Legal structures are also allowing new kinds of tradable financial instruments and incentives, which we believe will prove very important in the effort to reduce greenhouse gases. Lastly, we believe that the reduction of greenhouse gases warrants legislation to effect large-scale pricing schemes, to transmit the future cost of settlement inefficiency to the present, and thereby to reward high-efficiency behavior. We stress that this is a market-based pricing mechanism, designed to have a net neutral effect on economic activity. It only requires a legal enabling ordinance, established through a public process. We believe that as such – and assuming it is designed to be flexible and adaptive -- this is an entirely proper public response to a threat to the commonwealth. Conclusion: A New “Operating System” for Growth In computer science, an “operating system” is a set of processes, codes and rules that allow specific programs to function efficiently. The design of the operating system governs what can happen within the system, and broadly defines its characteristics. The comparison has proven useful in a number of fields where similar rules operate to produce complex and often unintended consequences. The analogy is a particularly useful one in the world of urban growth. The laws, economic processes, political processes and others protocols, all function together in what amounts to an “operating system for growth”. The features of that operating system, more than the intentions of clever designers or policy makers, often define and limit the features of the development that results. Our old operating system – the one that specifies single-use zoning, wide streets, large setbacks, economic monocultures and economies of scale – has shown itself incapable of producing the necessary settlement efficiency required in today’s environment. In an age of climate change and related challenges, we can not bear this cost indefinitely. We need a new operating system.
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In that light, following are the policy elements we recommend: Policy Recommendation One: Reform the old zoning and traffic codes. Replace them with a new generation of form-based codes such as the SmartCode, and new standards of street design reflecting networked, pedestrian- and bike-friendly layouts. Policy Recommendation Two: Reform the participatory processes that involve the community in planning decisions. Require greater accountability on the part of citizen participants, to be involved throughout the process. Encourage true representative participation, and not mere self-selection of a vocal minority. Consider a number of useful processes such as the Community Design Charrette. Policy Recommendation Three: Overhaul the contradictory patchwork of State and Federal requirements, which often operate at cross purposes. (For example, we mentioned the IRS deduction for work parking costs.) Create a new, coherent criterion of GHG reduction, and require policy to adapt to that criterion. Policy Recommendation Four: Create new incentives to encourage brownfield, infill and preservation work, in areas of existing high settlement efficiency. Develop additional tax credits and public financing mechanisms. Develop public-private models where private-sector entities can assess market dynamics and develop successful responses. Coordinate with the participatory processes to ensure successful neighborhood participation. Policy Recommendation Five: Consider new economic mechanisms and pricing signals, integrated with the development and construction process. Consider an emissions credit trading scheme. Consider automobile travel pricing schemes tied to credits for offsetting activities. Develop strategies to maintain revenue neutrality and avoid regressive penalties.
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SOCIAL HOUSING IN LATIN AMERICA: A METHODOLOGY TO UTILIZE PROCESSES OF SELF-ORGANIZATION. Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy & Ernesto Philibert-Petit ESRG — Environmental Structure Research Group We offer here a set of evidence-based optimal practices for social housing, applicable in general situations. Varying examples are discussed in a Latin American context. Adaptive solutions work towards long-term sustainability and help to attach residents to their built environment. We draw upon new insights in complexity science, and in particular the work of Christopher Alexander on how to successfully evolve urban form. By applying the conceptual tools of “Pattern Languages” and “Generative Codes”, these principles support previous solutions derived by others, which were never taken forward in a viable form. New methodologies presented here offer a promising alternative to the failures of the standard social housing typologies favored by governments around the world, which have proven to be dehumanizing and ultimately unsustainable. SECTIONS 1-4: BACKGROUND AND CRITICISM. 1. Introduction. This Chapter outlines promising new solutions for the future of social housing. It has been prepared as a comprehensive report by one of the authors (NAS) for Brazil, and is generally applicable to all of Latin America. One of us (AMD) is designing social housing in Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean. Two of the authors (AMD & MWM) are directly involved with the reconstruction after the hurricane Katrina devastation in the Southern United States, which faces similar, though not identical, realities. Another author (EPP) has researched the pedestrian connectivity of the urban fabric, and is involved in providing government-assisted housing solutions on a massive scale in Mexico. The remaining author (DB) has long studied the influence of urban form on social wellbeing and community sustainability, a crucial factor in our discussion. The challenge of social housing is a major component of world urban growth, and we wish to present here a comprehensive methodology for radically improving its performance. Success will be measured in human terms: i.e., the physical and emotional wellbeing of the resident. We consider a project to be successful if it is maintained and loved by its residents, and also if the urban fabric joins in a healthy and interactive way to the rest of the city. On the other hand, we consider as unsuccessful (and hence unsustainable) a project that is hated by its residents for a number of different reasons, wastes resources in initial construction and upkeep, contributes to social degradation, isolates its residents from society, or decays physically in a short period of time. The essence of the approach presented here is to apply a sustainable PROCESS rather than a specific IMAGE to design and building. The way it was done in the recent past is to build according to a prepared image of what the buildings ought to look like, and how they should be arranged. By contrast, no image of our project exists at the beginning: it emerges from the process itself, and is clear only after everything is finished. We can move toward a more thorough and satisfying solution by drawing upon Christopher Alexander’s work — one of several pioneers who proposed that urban fabric should follow an organic paradigm — and can include theoretical and practical work that for various reasons is not widely applied. What we offer is supported by the evidence from many examples of traditional practice over centuries. Governments instead choose to impose schemes and typologies that ultimately generate hostility for the fabric of social housing from its occupants. We will analyze the reasons for this hostility in order 475
to prevent it in the future. The relatively simple solutions presented here are generic. Therefore, though geared to Latin America, they can be adopted by the rest of the world with only minor modifications. This study outlines ideas that are general enough to apply to countries where local conditions that produce housing might be very different. We can learn from innovative approaches to government-sponsored housing, developed by independent groups in many different settings and conditions. Out of many projects built over several decades, very few can be judged to be truly successful using our criteria of the residents’ physical and emotional wellbeing. Those few excellent solutions tend to be neglected because they fail to satisfy certain iconic properties (which we discuss in detail later in this Chapter). Perhaps surprisingly, we also draw upon successful typologies developed for sustainable upper-income communities. This Chapter combines two mutually complementary approaches (and will contrast these with existing methods). On the one hand, we will give some explicit practical rules for building social housing. Any group or agency wishing to get started immediately may implement these — with appropriate local modifications — on actual projects. On the other hand, we will present a general philosophical and scientific background for social housing and its cultural implications. The aim of this theoretical material is to “give permission” for common-sense arguments; to create the conditions that will safely allow and support what in effect comes naturally. People, acting as intelligent local agents, may then apply methods that evolved during millennia of successfully performing owner-built housing — as part of the production of healthy resident-built communities. This methodology recognizes and incorporates the self-organizing features of the most robust human settlements throughout history, by utilizing a “complexity-managing” approach, rather than a linear, “top-down” approach. We propose channeling the design talent and building energy of the people themselves, acting as local agents, within a system that we manage only to help generate and guide its evolving complexity. In such an approach, “bottom-up” processes are allowed to develop organically, though within constraints based upon prior experience. On the other hand, “top-down” interventions must be done experimentally and carefully (i.e., with feedback), allowing more interaction with smaller-scale “bottom-up” processes. Our proposal goes beyond housing that is literally owner-built in the sense that owners hammer nails and pour concrete. It is important that they experience the process of design and building as THEIR process. It’s all about establishing connection and engagement. The key point is a process that accommodates real engagement, that is agile enough to be responsive to adaptive processes, and that can engage without being driven by the social dynamics of inequality into unfortunate directions. Most important, the process can take advantages of both technology and expertise. We are proposing something far more than letting the poor fend for themselves — we wish to empower them with the latest tools and a highly sophisticated understanding of urban form. As many authors have described previously (e.g. Alexander et. al. (1977), Jacobs (1961), Turner (1976)), established planning practice has tended to follow an outmoded early industrial model. That model arose in the 1920s, and was widely adopted in the period following World War II. It was based upon a hierarchical “top-down” command-and-control paradigm, leading to predict-and-provide planning. Research amply demonstrates that this model does not sufficiently reflect the kind of scientific problem a city poses, because the model ignores the tremendous physical and social complexity of successful urban fabric. Incredibly, it does not even address human interactions with the built environment. The resulting failures and unintended consequences are well 476
documented. As science develops more fine-grained and more accurate research tools for the analytical study of such self-organizing phenomena (which include cities), it is necessary now to propose a radical new urbanism. We wish to empower people with the authority of a new methodology, grounded in recent urban research. The problem isn’t just the lack of physical complexity. The key to urban place making is really the relationship between the complexity of spatial form and the complexity of social process. If it were just a matter of physical complexity, one might imagine that a top-down process could be created to simulate that complexity — say, a computer algorithm. The crucial point is that this physical complexity embodies and expresses social life. It is, in certain respects, social relations by other means (e.g., artifacts and built spaces). To some extent, the answer begins by re-conceiving the built environment itself as social process, not just as product or container. This becomes important later when we talk about maintenance, since the processual character of this kind of ownership merely begins when residents move in. This Chapter is very complex and deals with many issues, so we need to map out its exposition. The first four sections provide background and criticize current practices. Section 2 introduces the competition between owner-built settlements and government-built social housing. Section 3 reviews the standard practices and typologies of top-down social housing programs, and recommends replacing them (or at least complementing them) with a bottom-up procedure. Section 4 pinpoints how a “geometry of control” ruins even the best-intentioned schemes by making them inhuman. The next six sections offer specific tools for design. Section 5 turns to mechanisms for establishing emotional connections with the built environment. Biophilia, or the need to connect directly to plant life, is a crucial component. We also discuss sacred spaces and their role towards establishing community. Section 6 reviews the work of Christopher Alexander, especially his recent work on generative codes. Section 7 argues against the fixed master plan approach, suggesting instead an iterative back-and-forth planning process. Section 8 reviews Alexandrine patterns and outlines their transition to generative codes. Section 9 gives, in the broadest possible terms, our methodology for planning a settlement. We suggest getting building permission for a process rather than for a design on paper. Section 10 contains an explicit set of codes describing the armature of services in a social housing project. Section 11 introduces the complementary design tools by describing the generative codes needed for such a project. The next four sections continue with practical suggestions for making projects work. Section 12 suggests appointing a project manager to direct the application of generative codes. Section 13 argues for using appropriate materials: cheap but permanent; durable but flexible enough to shape; solid but friendly to sight and touch. We also discuss the proper use of industrial modules such as a plumbing box. Section 14 broaches the topic of funding a project, recommending the involvement of a non-governmental organization that focuses on the small scale. Section 15 is political, delving into how one can best cooperate with existing systems geared to producing social housing that follow very different, industrial typologies. Section 16 offers strategies for getting residents to maintain their settlements after they are built. The final four sections identify some of the problems. Section 17 faces the difficult problem of retrofitting the favela to make it an acceptable part of urban fabric. Sometimes it cannot be done. We discuss a reinforcement strategy for when it is feasible 477
to do so. Section 18 analyzes some failures to understand the life of a squatter, such as their economic need for proximity to the city. This makes new social housing built far outside the city unattractive. We also warn against grand schemes that can turn into economic disasters. Section 19 blames architects for imposing modernist forms on social housing. That geometry makes them hostile for residents. Section 20 blames the residents themselves for rejecting adaptive housing and urban typologies, wanting instead the sterile images of modernism. Section 21 reviews how conditions are different today from the past several decades, and offers optimism for a broad acceptance of adaptive housing. The Appendix contains an explicit generative sequence for social housing on a greenfield or open brownfield. 2. The Ecosystem Analogy. Here is a basic incompatibility: organic urban fabric is an extension of human biology, whereas planned construction is an artificial vision of the world imposed by the human mind on nature. The former is full of life but can be poor and unsanitary, whereas the latter is often clean and efficient but sterile. One of these two contrasting urban morphologies can win out over the other, or they could both reach some sort of equilibrium coexistence (as has occurred in most of Latin America). In the movement for “self-construction”, the government accepts that owners will build their own houses, and provides materials and training to help establish the networks of electricity, water, and sewerage. “Social housing” is usually understood as a project for housing the poor, built and financed by a government or non-governmental organization. Occupants could purchase their units, but a usual practice is to rent them at low subsidized rents, or even to provide them for free. In the latter instances, the residents live there by courtesy of (and are subject to varying degrees of control by) the owning entity. A “squatter settlement”, on the other hand, is a self-built development on land that is not owned by the residents, and which is frequently occupied without permission. Since squatter settlements are illegal, the government generally refuses to provide the means of legally purchasing individual plots of land. In most cases, it also refuses to connect those residences to the utility grid (electricity, water, and sewerage) of the rest of the city. As a result, living conditions there are the worst among peacetime settlements. Social housing and squatter settlements are regions where more than one billion of the world’s very poor live. We are going to discuss these two urban phenomena side-by-side, and offer to resolve the ideological and spatial competition between the two. As a basic starting point, housing for the poor represents the lowest level of the world’s urban ecosystem. Different forces within human society generate both types of urban system: either government-sponsored social housing, or squatter settlements. Christopher Alexander (2005), Hassan Fathy (1973), N. J. Habraken (1972), John F. C. Turner (1976), and others recognized this competition before us, and proposed an accommodation of the two systems. Turner helped to build several projects in Peru and Mexico, and advised others on implementing such ideas worldwide. The ecosystem analogy also explains and to a certain extent justifies the vigilance by which governments prevent squatter settlements from invading the rest of the city. If not restrained by law and direct intervention, squatters move into private and public land. We are describing a species competition for the same available space. Each species (urban typology) wants to displace all the others. Squatter settlements can take over the entire city if allowed to do so (for example, in Cairo, they have taken over the flat roofs of commercial buildings; in the USA people build temporary shelters in public parks and 478
under highway overpasses). The government, in turn, would like to clear all squatter settlements. Governments the world over assume that they must construct planned housing to replace owner-built housing. That is too expensive to be feasible. Like all truly organic systems, cities are better off without central control. Accommodating competing urban systems never became standard practice, however. Although the basic ideas about traditional settlements were in place, several key elements of understanding were previously missing. We are now offering expertise in housing as a DYNAMIC process (by combining pattern languages with generative codes: see later sections). Interventions are needed, starting from scratch in new housing projects. The same dynamic process can also be applied to already built environments, in seeking to adapt a large number of informal unplanned housing projects (favelas or others) by bringing them up to acceptable living conditions. Competition occurs among all economic strata (“species”) that either use urban land, or profit from it. In Latin American cities, urban land speculation leaves a large amount of undeveloped land with all the services already in place wasted. The poorest population then has to find plots on the outskirts, and pay steep prices for water and other services, without having the benefit of living close to their main source of income (the central city). This creates a severe problem for the government. Rather than characterizing the practice as “unfair” (which does not lead to any change), we point out its tremendous cumulative costs for the future. Throughout all the various schemes for social housing tried over the years, it is widely accepted (with only a few exceptions) that the unplanned owner-built favela is embarrassing to the government, and has to be bulldozed as soon as possible. Yet that assumption is wrong. Very few in a position of authority seem to consider the urban and economic advantages of existing shantytowns. The geometry of buildings, lots, and street patterns has for the most part developed (evolved) organically, and we will argue here that this self-organization affords a number of very desirable features. With all its grave faults, the favela offers an instructive spontaneous demonstration of economic, efficient, and rapid processes of housing people. The favelas’ disadvantages are not inherent in the urban system itself. Their organic geometry is perfectly sound, yet it is precisely that aspect which is vehemently rejected. It simply doesn’t fit into the stereotyped (and scientifically outmoded) image of what a progressive urban fabric ought to resemble — neat, smooth, rectangular, modular, and sterile. A favela’s organic geometry is linked with the illegal act of squatting, and with a pervasive lawlessness. The geometry itself represents “an enemy to progress” for an administration. We cannot build living urban fabric (or save existing portions) until we get past that prejudice. The favela has a self-healing mechanism absent from most top-down social housing schemes. Organic growth also repairs urban fabric in a natural process, something entirely absent from geometrically rigid housing projects. Ironically, the organic geometry of the favela is typically at odds with the imperatives of both the Left and the Right in a modern state, given its interest in responding to social issues in a manner that is appropriately controlled. Some of that interest in control has to do with a literal interest in the kind of rational administrative order that is tied to social control. Nevertheless, much of it may reflect either the state’s need to legitimate its interventions by demonstrating its rationality, or its need to maintain the bureaucratic rituals of accountability when distributing public resources, or its respect for the conventions of private property. It could also be a sincere reformist concern for elevating 479
the living standards of the poor in a way that is both efficient and procedurally fair, in a manner motivated by democratic principles. An ordered geometry gives the impression of control invested in the entity that builds. Whether this is intentional (to display the authority of the state) or subconscious (copying images from architecture books), governments and non-governmental organizations prefer to see such an expression of their own “rationality” through building. Departure from this set of typologies is felt to be a relaxation of authority; or it raises possible questions regarding the legitimacy of distributions of resources that aren’t subject to careful bureaucratic accounting procedures. Both of these are avoided because they tend to erode the authority of the state, particularly under regimes where the rights of private property are an important part of the legal and regulatory systems. Morphologically complex squatter settlements are usually outside the government’s control altogether. One way of asserting control is to move their residents to housing built by the government. In a sad and catastrophic confirmation of our ideas, various governments in Africa have periodically bulldozed owner-built dwellings, driving their residents to live out in the open. 3. Antipatterns of Social Housing. Let us summarize some of the current beliefs and typologies that drive social housing today, so that we can replace them with an entirely different framework. We will suggest using solutions that we feel work best as the more enlightened alternative. Much of our criticism focuses on top-down control. That approach leads to simplification in the planning process. However, one cannot design and build complex urban fabric using top-down tools. There is more to criticize in the specific images people have of modernity. That concerns both architects, who carry with them a false set of desirable images; and residents, who are invariably influenced by those same images through the media. 1. Existing public housing projects are conceptualized and built as cheap dormitories, and thus follow a military/industrial planning philosophy: build as many units as possible, as cheaply and efficiently as possible. We should abandon this mindset and build urban quarters instead. Building an urban quarter is a much more complex undertaking, and one that requires complex engagement beyond the small circles of policy-making and professional elites. 2. To erect a housing project most efficiently, the directing entity wants to have maximal control over the geometry and building process. This practical requirement means that user participation is excluded. 3. The very name “social housing” implies that only a dormitory is built, and not an urban quarter. Following World War II, monofunctional zoning became the established criterion by which governmental interventions were carried out. Those ideas were in place before the War, but post-war reconstruction and expansion gave the opportunity to apply them on a much larger scale. 4. The industrial building typology relegates plants and the natural environment to a purely decorative role, or eliminates them altogether. Nevertheless, human health is possible only if we connect to plants and nature in our immediate surroundings: the “Biophilia Hypothesis” (Kellert, 2005). 5. An urban quarter is comprised of complex social networks, and requires the appropriate urban morphology of a network. It is never monofunctional, and it is not 480
homogeneous. It cannot be built in a top-down fashion by central government. Individual villages (Pueblos in Latin America) have been evolving far longer than 500 years; they possess a rich inheritance of a mixture of many cultures that comes from the deep past, e.g. indigenous cultures such as Toltec, Mayan, Incan, Carib and incoming cultures such as Spanish, Portuguese, African, Islamic and so on. There are many lessons that we can learn from this evolution. 6. A conventional social housing project is seldom concerned about social accessibility to the urban network, since it is usually built in disconnected (many times rural) areas. All too often, the issue is understood only as a matter of “housing”, with measures of success typically in terms of quantities of “units” and immediate impact on individuals, rather than the quality (or sustainability) of the community life that results. 7. The typical location of social housing projects in rural areas has to do with a powerful economic reason: the land owners have managed to get a change of land use and have obtained for themselves an extraordinary surplus value. This is part of the sprawl-oriented development in our cities. Furthermore, the project itself, the government, and the users seldom benefit in any way from this surplus value. 8. A typical social housing project conceived as a disconnected “urban island” has an awful impact on the environment. It is disconnected from local and from global economic cycles. 9. The geometry of a conventional social housing project and the configuration of its constituent units give few or no ways to affect further development. They present a number of geometrical obstacles for its evolution over time. This impediment frustrates the inhabitants’ hopes, and suppresses their prospects for social and economic improvement. 10. Architects, government officials, and future residents all carry within their minds an “image of modernity”. This set of ingrained images generates a building typology that is hostile in actual use, and presents one of the greatest obstacles to adaptive social housing. Governments are still stuck in the mindset of social housing serving jobs in a particular place. The reality is different: healthy urban quarters connect into an urban conglomeration, and people work wherever they can find jobs. By contrast, unhealthy urban regions are isolated, disconnecting people from each other and from employment opportunities. Despite strong social and economic forces leading to isolation, our aim is not to codify this isolation in the buildings and urban form. To do that is to compound the problem. We should instead use the urban geometry to counteract social isolation. The above list of typologies and practices leads to unhealthy housing projects, creating unsustainable social conditions. To achieve a more adaptive approach, those typologies must be reversed, and the forces that lead us to repeat the same mistakes over and over again should be redirected. Some errors arise simply out of inertia: copying failed solutions because it has become a habit to do so, and not identifying viable alternatives. Those errors are very easy to resolve once the situation is better understood. There is another class of errors, however, which arise because the same forces lead to similar expressions in practical applications. Those conditions cannot be changed, and must instead be redirected. Failure to understand the difference between the two problems means that we will never be able to improve the current situation.
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One principle becomes clear: there is no point of designing “social housing” as such. We need to design and build complex, mixed-use urban fabric, and to make sure it fits into existing complex mixed-use urban fabric. Social housing, and housing in general, need to be part of a healthy (and socially inclusive) process of urbanism. The very notion of monofunctional housing is obsolete, discredited because it never worked to connect residents to their environment. All of the planning measures we reject — originally well intentioned — were adopted as a means to improve efficiency in facing a serious urban challenge. The underlying reasons for their failure have never been officially admitted, however. As a result, there has been a tendency for the debate to focus on problems with the design of social housing as buildings: as if it were merely a matter of coming up with a better design idea to be imposed with more or less the same apparatus of top-down control. Usually nowadays, an architect’s idea of a good design is impersonal and oppressive to the actual users. Some more recent public housing initiatives in the USA (such as the HOPE VI program) have made an effort to incorporate resident participation in the process, but relatively superficially and with very mixed success. Our key point is that the process of producing living places that incorporate social housing has to be changed at its root. It must accommodate more fundamental and meaningful engagement, grounding the generation of urban form in a process that adequately respects the organized complexity distinctive to the nature of cities. There is a need to mix social classes for a healthier social fabric. The mix can occur naturally through the process of upgrading. It is also important that people who have a choice remain in the neighborhood. The comprehensive approach to creating a village would seem to make sense in places like Latin America where whole settlements of previously rural people create shanty towns and squatter settlements on the periphery of big cities. In that context, there may be no option but to catalyze the generation of whole urban quarters built by the residents, with help by us. Generally, we would want to be cautious about building urban quarters specifically for the poor. Healthy urban fabric is not monofunctional, and neither does it strictly contain one income level. We are aware of the tremendous social difficulties of encouraging mixed-income housing, because of the perception that no one would ever want to live next to people even slightly poorer than they are. However, we can find encouraging examples of social mixture in historic towns and historic city centers all around Latin America (the Centro Histórico of Querétaro is a good example). The difference lies in the perception of community (which can overcome income differences) versus perceiving a house strictly as real estate. Mixed income communities are not only possible, but are more resilient. It is not just a question here of physically separated urban quarters on the urban periphery. How does one create a unique pattern-generating process for these urban quarters, without creating enclaves that stand out dramatically from the rest of the city? In other words, how does one plan for low-income buildings without creating “projects”, barrios, and ghettos? It seems to us that it is crucial that this rethinking of “social housing” has to be a rethinking of everybody’s housing — i.e., of urbanism — such that “social housing” is subsumed by a more general process of creating a city of healthy networks (Salingaros, 2005). Connecting to the global networks of the city: major streets, the public transportation system, political and social networks, etc., is of the greatest importance. Part of the mindset of government is that “social housing” has to follow a specific set of policies directed at a specific problem, and administered in and through specific sites. 482
We have super block projects (which are dehumanizing but easy to administer), or we have something like the Section 8 voucher system in the USA, which subsidizes rent for low-income residents. In the case of the latter, social housing becomes an abstract category — defined only in terms of the pathologies of individuals who need assistance, and addressed in the form of payments to property owners. In the latter case, the “site” is a category of individuals, severed from community connections. Typically, the poor already have complex social networks upon which they rely heavily for survival. At the same time, however, the relative isolation of these networks is a serious problem. Although often very densely connected in a “peer group society”, the poor tend to have limited connections outside those circles, and are isolated in their own villages. They are bound into small networks, but have no sense of themselves categorically as residents of a neighborhood. They also tend to distrust people from outside their networks. Essentially, they have no capacity to identify with or care about the neighborhood as a neighborhood. The problem from a network point of view becomes how to strengthen the pattern of weak ties in such a way that one can incorporate low-income populations into civic life. Moreover, this has to be done without disrupting the strong networks of mutual assistance on which those residents rely. The solution requires organizing these local networks into a network that works on a larger scale. 4. A Geometry of Control. The psychological process of control influences urban form and the shape of social housing to a remarkable extent. Control may be manifested in architectural geometry and also in urban layout. A rigid, mechanical geometry dictates the shape of individual buildings and urban spaces, while the geometry of their layout determines the relationship among separate buildings and the shape of the street network. There are many opportunities to express control in urban and architectural terms, and we find them all in government-built social housing. Examples of organic/bottom-up generated urban structures are found along a universal timeline starting with the first cities registered in the Neolithic period, through modern times. The mechanical/top-down fabricated urban structure is found in our timeline ever since patterns of colonization first appeared in history. Thus, we have models of this mechanical structure dating from the imperial periods of Greece, Rome, or China until today. In the 20th Century, an exacerbated mechanical structure was imposed on cities by the machine culture of modernist thoughts and values. This last period has been decisive in configuring the structure of present day cities, and is set to dominate those of coming years. In the near future, spatial fragmentation could become the ultimate consequence of the recent past. Alternatively, we may enter the period when the emerging paradigm of networks could be wisely used to connect our spatial structures and patterns again, working instead against fragmentation. There exists a clearly recognizable “geometry of power” (Alexander, 2005; Salingaros, 2006). It is most clearly expressed in military and Fascist architecture of the Second World War (and long before that), but has been adopted by governments and institutions of all political persuasions (from the most progressive, to the most repressive). Such buildings are shaped as oversized rectangular blocks and are placed in strictly repetitive rectangular grids. High-rise blocks give the impression of control of their occupants, who are forced into a military/industrial typology that is obviously the opposite of the free urban geometry of the favela. We have two contrasting geometries: housing units massed into one or more blocks, versus having them spread out irregularly. The psychological impression of control follows the possibility of ACTUAL control, as the entrance to a 483
high-rise housing block can be easily sealed off by the police, something that is impossible in a rambling cluster of individual houses. Government officials and developers share these views about control, and this in turn tends to eliminate any other approach. The local government would prefer to have better access to the site through regularly shaped blocks. Administrators are fooled by the notion that simplistic geometric shapes are the only typology we can use to create efficient new dwellings. An administration can build many smaller units rather than high-rise blocks, but rigidly fixed to a military/industrial grid on the ground. Individual housing units are exact copies of a single prototype. Control here is exercised by not allowing individual variations. One modular house is repeated to cover the entire region, with careful attention paid to strict rectangular alignment. Complexity and variation are perceived as losing overall control — not only of building typology, but also of the way decisions are made — and are thus avoided. Several factors provide powerful motivations for standardization and relatively rigid regulations: administrative efficiency, accountability, maintenance of standards on which the success of the administration will be assessed, and the requirements of both transparency and procedural fairness. The efficiency of modular production, falsely tied to economic progress, is used as an excuse for the military/industrial geometry. Building variability is perceived as a threat, and is countered by arguments about excessive production costs. Those arguments support the belief that central planning is an economic and social necessity. Yet, such arguments have been shown again and again to be invalid. It is once more the industrial, mechanical paradigm of linear production (and linear thinking) that does not allow developers of social housing to consider variability, heterogeneity, and complexity as essential features in their projects. In a manner similar to the application of new technology to factory production, a justification is often presented in terms of cost and efficiency, but the underlying logic is a logic of control. In the context of the modern state, it is often more crucial to maintain standards, transparency, and accountability than to reduce cost in absolute terms. As a result, it has become all too common for the structures of bureaucratic administration (with the best of intentions, and regardless of ideological leanings of Left or Right) to impose standards that disrupt the very thing they hope to accomplish. Adaptability to individual needs requires design freedom so that every unit could be different, with its shape and position decided in large part by its future residents. It is indeed possible to do that. Nevertheless, both sides of the political spectrum strongly oppose design freedom. The Right considers poor people not to deserve such attention, and that a custom-made house is the exclusive privilege of the wealthy class. The Left, on the other hand, stands firmly behind its belief of fundamental equality, which it misinterprets as forbidding houses in a social development from being in any way different from each other. Institutions such as banks, construction companies, and land surveyors get frightened by the prospect of having to deal with individual variations. Control is exerted in other, more subtle ways as a result of standardization. A cheaply produced building module available in the marketplace, if it is large enough, replaces other, better alternatives. Modular components restrict design freedom, because they influence the final product resulting from their assembly (Alexander, 2005; Salingaros, 2006). Governments that sponsor social housing do like to promote industrial modules and components, and to discourage construction that is shaped individually. Nevertheless, 484
local production could be achieved more cheaply, and solves part of the unemployment problem. An industrial geometry embodied in architectural and urban typologies is eventually reflected in the built environment. The natural environment becomes one more casualty of the geometry of control. Nature and life are visually “messy”. Topographical features such as rocks, hills, and streams; as well as trees and plant life, pose challenges to a flat, rectangular geometry, and are thus usually eliminated. Local governments put in effort to eradicate organic elements from the “ideal” sterile environment. Sometimes (but not always), this act of aggression against nature is mollified after the fact by planting a few non-native trees in strict geometrical alignment and making up a phony rock landscape as a visual sculpture. Existing native plant species are regarded as unwelcome, and only an artificial-looking lawn is acceptable (because it is sleek and does not grow unevenly like other plants). In low-income housing, even that is considered an unaffordable luxury, so in the end, the project acquires an unnatural, lifeless character, totally lacking in connections to plant growth. SECTIONS 5-11: SPECIFIC TOOLS FOR DESIGN THAT HELPS ESTABLISH INTELLECTUAL OWNERSHIP. 5. Biophilia, Connectivity, and Spirituality. The notion of “biophilic architecture” establishes that human health and wellbeing strongly depend on the geometry of the environment, as expressed in particular configurations, surfaces, materials, details, light, and accessibility to plants and other forms of life (Kellert, 2005). All of these factors contribute to the success of any building, and to social housing in particular. Evidence-based design is based on knowing how a human being is affected by his/her environment. The appropriate geometry that promotes human wellbeing is unsurprisingly the opposite of the geometry of power described in the preceding section. A living geometry is loose, complex, and highly interconnective. It is the geometry of the owner-built favela, and also the natural geometry of a river, a tree, or a lung. Without any imposed constraints, human beings will build according to this natural geometry (Alexander, 2005; Salingaros, 2006). Note that many self-built projects do not entirely follow this generative geometry, because the government defines a rectangular grid of plots before giving the land over to individual builders. Thus, it already imposes an industrial grid that is impossible to change. We will discuss later how this restrictive practice can be avoided. Geometry and surface qualities either help or hinder an emotional connection with the human beings who use them. We should balance the study of structure with the study of form and pattern. In the study of structure, we measure and weigh things. Patterns of interaction cannot be measured or weighed, however: they must be mapped, and they have to do more with quality. To understand a pattern we must map a configuration of relationships. We believe in the concept of the city as an organism, not only in the sense that it tries to develop an organic structure, but also because of the complex relationship this structure establishes with the organizational patterns of its users. Here is a list of some key concepts that we need to work with: 1. People become psychologically sick and hostile in an environment devoid of nature. Biophilia is innate in our genes. Urban quarters need to blend with and not replace natural habitats. 485
2. We connect to plants through their geometrical structure, thus some geometries are more connective to the human spirit than others. We feel comfortable with a built environment that incorporates complex natural geometry showing an ordered hierarchy of subdivisions. 3. Residents should love their homes and neighborhoods. That means that the form of the immediate built environment must be spiritual and not industrial. 4. Industrial materials and typologies generate hatred for the built environment. We grow hostile to surfaces and forms that do not nourish us spiritually, because we feel their rejection of our humanity. If not hatred, they often generate a kind of indifference that might actually be worse for human communities. The use of these materials and typologies has commonly been presented as dictated by the nature of building technology and the economic realities of the day. The result is that people often take for granted the unavoidable alien character of a built environment that delivers quantity without meaningful qualities. 5. The sacred character of traditional villages and urban quarters cannot be dismissed as outmoded nonsense (as is done nowadays). This is the only quality that connects a village on the large scale to people, hence indirectly to each other. We need to build it into the urban quarter. It is not easy to identify the sacred structure of any settlement, let alone plan for it in a new one. We need to look at the patterns of human activity in traditional settlements, and ask which activity nodes are valued above all others. Usually, it is where local residents come together to interact. Those nodes (if they are present at all) could be interior, but very often they are elements of urban space (Gehl, 1996). People can connect to plants and to other people at the same time in properly designed (configured) urban spaces. Those places are then responsible for the societal cohesion of the neighborhood. Something is “sacred” if we attribute to it a value above and beyond its material structure. A good rule is to ask if we are willing to fight to protect it from damage or destruction. Do many persons, some necessarily strangers, feel the same way about this? Do we consider a place to have meaning for the community as a whole so that a group of people will actually come together to protect this particular object or site? In ancient societies, an old tree, a large rock, prominent high ground, a particular stream or spring could be considered sacred (in the deepest religious sense), and thus protected from damage. Those societies built towns around sacred spaces, and endowed parts of what they built with a sacred meaning. Today, that quality is unfortunately dismissed as anachronistic. For example, the oldest social nodes are a water source (community tap or well), place of worship (Church or Temple), gathering place (cafe/bar for men), children’s playground, etc. In the case of a Church, we do have a genuinely sacred structure, and it is most often built in the original geographic center of a settlement. It serves the cohesive function of community: “ecclesia” is the gathering together of common worshippers, which is just as much a cohesive social act as it is a purely religious act. It is no coincidence that the non-religious gathering place, the coffeehouse, is often situated in front of the Church in a traditional village. The coffeehouse substitutes as an alternative gathering place for those who do not subscribe to the sacred meaning of the local religion. 486
Another node of the sacred structure is the central plaza or open square, which, in temperate climates, accommodates social life in the evenings. The Latin tradition of the evening walk around the central square establishes a value for the plaza in the social cohesion of the community. What we refer to as “sacred structure” in this Chapter refers to ALL of these cohesive functions. We see cohesion as a natural device, and interpret its various manifestations as simply differing degrees of connectivity on overlapping channels. A central square is a place for social cohesion, whereas a church connects its worshippers to the highest level, which is their creator. Non-religious societies in some cases successfully substituted secular “sacred spaces” to hold their societies together. For example, communist countries built the “House of the People” or “Workers Club”, which took the role of a gathering place for at least part of the community. In upper-income suburbs (for example, in gated communities) the same forces apply, but are unresolved because of total automobile dependence. There is no sacred space, no common meeting point and place of social interaction. Contrary to the intent of developers who build them, a clubhouse and community swimming pool in high-income suburban clusters do not serve this function. The urban geometry never establishes a common social value among the residents, hence leads to a serious lack of socialization. The sacred place that we are describing is absent from contemporary urban construction (Duany et. al., 2000). We see superficial copies created without any understanding of their deep cultural meaning. Consequently, a dramatic decline in the sense of community leads to a dramatic increase in social alienation. Certainly both the Right and the Left have never recognized the need for spirituality in the fabric of social housing. Nevertheless, a sense of the sacred is inherent in all traditional housing (in some places more, in some places less) independently of their origin. By contrast, military/industrial dormitories are not only rejected by their inhabitants, but are hated because no one can connect with their form and image. A human being cannot truly belong to those buildings, nor can the image of such a building belong emotionally to a human being, and thus people turn to hating them and eventually destroying them. Buildings of this type, built in the 1960s with the very best of intentions, abound around the world. They do not catalyze an emotional attachment to the large scale. Schemes to have “shopping streets” and kindergartens (as a substitute for sacred space) on the fifth floor of high-rise block housing proved ridiculous. Hard concrete plazas tend to be disconnecting and hostile, generating a feeling of anger instead of connectivity. Christopher Alexander and his collaborators built social housing in Mexicali, Mexico (Alexander et. al., 1985). A prototype house cluster was built around a builder’s yard that served the construction needs of the neighborhood. That could have served as the sacred space. Whereas the houses themselves were a tremendous success (and survive with their original owners years afterwards), the builder’s yard was not. The government failed to maintain it, yet did not give it over to another community or private use. It was abandoned, and its connections to the individual houses sealed off by the owners. The government never helped it to become a gathering place. No effort was made to endow a sacred value to the builder’s yard. The category of “the sacred” is being defined broadly enough to encompass the normative order of civic spaces, and it is important to include the full spectrum of social relations from the private, to the communal (parochial), to the public (civic). Traditional villages rise to the level of the communal, but NOT to the level of civic culture. 487
Gathering places are important, not simply because they encourage communal cohesion (which tends to be based on homogeneity), but because the range of different types of gathering places allows for a range of different kinds of social relations. Relations in public have as much to do with defining social distance as with cohesion. Often, the cohesion associated with urbanism is mediated only by the sharing of a common sense of place. Places are, in a sense, an embodiment of what we call “social capital”. They ARE social relationships, not just containers or facilitators of social relationships. There may be a problem with emphasizing the sacred in this discussion. In the third world even more than in places like the USA, the constituencies for social housing are often caught up in some form or another of democratization movement. Particularly in the global cities of the world, we don’t wish to make it sound as if we are promoting a return to the condition of a kind of tribalism (which is the way traditional villages can seem). Places do require materialization of the “sacred”, but not in the common usage of the word. Gathering places are important, but their structure (and their relationship to the social structure) is more complex than just acting as the containers or opportunities for people to bond. We need to look at the patterns of interaction in traditional cities as well as tribal villages and settlements that are homogeneous by class. Those patterns of interaction are structurally varied and are not simply about communal cohesion. In conclusion, a settlement must, above all else, establish a sacred structure by some means, so as to connect emotionally with its residents. Sacred structure also helps people to connect to a higher order. This higher order encompasses three functional features: (a) it is used as a cohesive means to form community; (b) it is constructed upon the cooperation of the discourses of a group of people and is not the unilateral decision of an individual; and (c) it is loaded with a powerful meaning for the community. If most or all residents connect with the physical sacred structure, then they connect indirectly with each other. This simple principle establishes a sense of community, which survives the difficult conditions of life. It keeps forces oriented towards maintaining the physical structure of the community, instead of turning them against the physical structure in those cases when it is not valued. 6. Utilizing the Work of Christopher Alexander. Many times during his long career as architect and urbanist, Christopher Alexander was asked to plan and construct social housing. In every case, and often in opposition to the brief provided by the government agency that hired him, he insisted on user participation. He clearly saw that this was the only way to produce built forms that are “loved” by their occupants (Alexander, 2005; Alexander et. al., 1985). Each of his projects began with the essential framework of involving future users in planning their living space, and shaping the configuration of streets and common areas. In some cases, this led to the support being withdrawn by the sponsoring government, which surmised that such a scheme would severely weaken its control over the geometry of the project. We believe that Alexander was entirely right in insisting on participation as a basic principle. He correctly predicted that housing built by someone not involved in the world and daily realities of the resident would lack certain essential qualities. As a result, its inhabitants could never love the place. Even if the houses were all built following exactly the same modular typology, participation in the planning or building process guarantees that the eventual users have a personal stake in the final product. Most people could not care less about a design’s formal virtues: they just want something they can truly consider their own.
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Alexander’s most recent work (Alexander, 2005) establishes a temporal ordering for any construction if it is to be adaptive to human needs. That is, it matters enormously what is designed and built before, and what comes after in the sequence of design/construction. This practice was followed since ancient times in the Near East and was codified in Byzantine and Islamic urbanism, which influenced all regions affected by these civilizations (Hakim, 2003). Its scientific foundation as part of the general processes by which a complex system is evolved is a new contribution, and has been theoretically shown to be crucial to the success of any project. It is now possible to outline the correct order in which components of a housing development can be built to ensure sustainability. For example, Alexander reveals the steps in designing healthy urban fabric. These of course depend very much on scale. Since one priority is how a settlement connects to the rest of the city, an area of up to 1 km2 will usually be tangent to one of the main streets, whereas areas larger than that will probably need a major street that goes through them. 1. Major circulation routes are determined as part of the integrative core of the city and the adjacent urban area. 2. Major public spaces are identified to tie in with topography, natural features, and major lines of movement. 3. Secondary street alignments are laid out making 60-150 meter intersections with major streets and spaces. 4. Pedestrian space is defined by the building fronts, and is accessed by, but physically protected from vehicles. 5. Buildings are situated so their front walls define the urban space as coherently as possible — no setbacks, and few gaps. 6. Roads arise as the consequence of linearizing and connecting segments of welldefined urban space. If the living form of the place is to be respected, roads CANNOT be built first, especially if their perceived functional requirements are then allowed to dictate the form, scale, and quality of urban spaces. Failure to follow this sequence inevitably leads to dead urban fabric. The correct application of this sequence can only come about after convincing the authorities to implement a different construction practice than is usual nowadays. Nevertheless, there are overwhelming theoretical reasons for insisting on this sequence. The steps were followed in countless traditional settlements, forming towns and urban quarters before the era of industrialization. When the main mode of transport is still pedestrian and lowspeed traffic (animals, carts, only a few jitney buses and pick-up trucks, etc.) it is easy to give priority to space and buildings. Once the automobile takes over, however, it begins to dictate a new priority, which reverses the above sequence. The planner then sacrifices traditional urban fabric to fast transversal movement, and this ultimately leads to a dysfunctional and unsustainable design. Alexander has applied these principles in several projects of social housing, including Santa Rosa de Cabal, Colombia (Alexander, 2005: Book 3, pages 398-408) and Guasare New Town, Venezuela (planned but not built) (Alexander, 2005: Book 3, pages 340348). Another successful recent example is Poundbury, England, by Léon Krier (1998). 489
Interestingly, the latter is an upper-income development, in which a significant fraction (over 20%) of subsidized residents are included; those are financed by the Guinness Trust, a non-governmental organization. We are going to extract working rules from those examples, and present them in this Chapter. 7. Iterative Design and the Emergence of Form. A new community cannot simply be inserted into cleared land (it could, but then it is not adaptive, and does not form a community). We envision step-wise growth rather than building everything all at once. The design must be allowed to evolve, and cannot be decided at the beginning. A master plan — in the sense of deciding exactly where future construction is to be placed, and exactly what form it will take — is too restrictive and thus highly incomplete. Social housing that follows this mindset by being planned on paper, and then constructed according to plan fails to form a living environment. Following Alexander, we advocate a process in which every future step is influenced by what exists at that point. Careful consideration of the topographic features, the existing vegetation, the entry points, etc. should indicate a loose morphology for the entire settlement at the beginning of the planning process. After getting a very rough idea of the placement of buildings and main access road, then individual lots can be envisioned along the roads, which are themselves still not completely specified. Nothing is yet built, and major decisions take place by using wooden stakes and other markers in the ground. In order to guarantee morphological coherence, what is built is influenced by its environment. This interaction is experimentally determined and cannot be worked out on paper or anticipated, due to the complexity of all the mechanisms involved. In a partially built development, the next house or street segment to be built has to adapt its geometry to what was built previously. Any decisions made at the beginning of the project must be regarded as recommendations, and not as rigid dictates (unlike those in a master plan). As the project develops in time, decisions made at the beginning for unbuilt areas will now seem incorrect, no longer relevant, so we need the possibility of changing the design continuously as more building takes place. This is exactly what occurred in historical communities built over a time span of centuries. This adaptive procedure (adapting to human sensibilities about the emerging forms and spaces) generated extremely coherent complex geometries in traditional villages and towns, and that coherence cannot mathematically be achieved all at once. An iterative process goes back and forth between steps, improving each one in turn. That’s what we are describing in adaptive planning and design: first form the conceptual idea on the ground, then introduce the position and size of future built elements without yet building them, then go back to refine the urban spaces, and so on. It is only in this way that the interaction of all the components with each other, and with their surroundings, can effectively take place. Once components begin to be built, then they become part of the surroundings, and in turn influence all future built elements. Healthy urban fabric is an extremely complex system, and it cannot be designed and built in a strictly top-down fashion. Some components could be accomplished top down, by someone who understands the required complexity. The ordering has to be emergent from the process, and not simply an imagined outcome imposed by regulatory fiat. There has to be adaptive capacity that is distributed and pervasive in a process that is inclusive. Cities and neighborhoods are “things that people do together”, where a community exercises its territoriality in a positive manner. Any top-down intervention has to be oriented to facilitating that collaboration, not dictating its terms or forcing it into an 490
overly rationalized container. 8. Examples of Patterns and Generative Codes. Patterns summarize discovered design solutions that make people most comfortable in experiencing and using built form. Their relative merit is that they were decided on a firm (in many cases scientifically valid) basis, rather than being just another opinion. The use of patterns and pattern languages is described in the readily available literature (Alexander et. al., 1977). We now describe some patterns for those who may not have seen them before. Mainstream urbanism has neglected the tremendous potential offered by pattern-based design, chiefly for ideological reasons. Pattern-based design liberates the individual but restrains some of the most profitable (though inhuman) aspects of the building industry. In building dense urban fabric, one pattern imposes a four-storey height limit for residences (Pattern 21: FOUR-STORY LIMIT). Above that height, a resident feels disconnected from the ground, and from any societal functions, which always take place on the ground. This pattern immediately invalidates high-rise apartment blocks, which are simply a failed social experiment on a vast scale, driven by iconic symbolism. Another pattern requires access to trees (Pattern 171: TREE PLACES). Trees are necessary for a human environment, and their planting has to be carefully thought out to cooperate with nearby buildings and define a coherent urban space (Gehl, 1996; Salingaros, 2005). Alternatively, existing large trees must be saved, and buildings introduced in the same careful and flexible manner (and not according to some arbitrary grid), so that the buildings and trees cooperate to create an urban space. The trees combine with the path geometry and external walls to define a usable urban space, whose dimensions and path structure invite use. The point we are making (summarized in this particular pattern) is to use trees and buildings together to define a sacred place. This is far removed philosophically from planting trees simply as visual “decoration”, which simply reinforces the geometry of power. There is a pragmatic reason for this. Unless a tree is protected by forming part of a sacred place, it will soon be cut down and used as building material, or as fuel for heating and cooking. This idea follows the same principle of protecting cows necessary for plowing by making them sacred animals. Then, the cows are not eaten during a famine, so they can be used for agriculture the following season. In practice, one chooses several different patterns from Alexander’s “A Pattern Language” (Alexander et. al., 1977), and begins to design the settlement. As work progresses, one has to go back and work with more patterns as different design needs arise. Another set of patterns helps to guide the street layout. Alexander originally used patterns in 1969 to design social housing in Peru (Alexander, 2005: Book 2, page 352). The way that different patterns have to combine together is outlined in (Salingaros, 2005: Chapters 8 & 9). Some architects characterized patterns as an incomplete method, because they could not successfully combine them. Nevertheless, patterns are only one component of a system of design, and their combination has to follow other principles not contained in the patterns themselves. Work by Alexander and others (including the authors) continues to develop the applicability of pattern languages in architecture. Particular insights are being gained from the dramatic success of pattern languages in computer software design. A far more serious factor that has worked against the adoption of patterns for design is that architecture and urbanism have, for several decades, rested on a philosophical basis 491
of qualitative relativism. This claims that all judgments in architecture are matters of opinion and taste, and architecture is therefore little more than an act of personal expression. Such relativism is in marked contrast to the insights of science, where discovered facts about the structure of reality are found to underlie matters of apparently individual opinion. Architects and urbanists inculcated in the relativist tradition disregard observable structural effects and evolved solutions. They consider patterns as just another opinion, and one that can be safely ignored (especially as patterns directly contradict the military/industrial typology). But patterns are observable clusters of recurrent configurations of response to recurrent design problems, which constitute a discoverable form of “collective intelligence” in human life and civilization. Note that this collective intelligence has to do with the way we operate in the context of the relationship between built form and our values, aspirations, social practices, etc. In the age of professional specialization, the built environment has been increasingly subjected to a proliferating array of experts who each bring their discipline to particular kinds of problems. This is often at the expense of the ability to see (much less address) the overall challenge of creating living, beautiful, or sustainable places. The notion of a collective intelligence embodied in patterns should not be understood as a claim to have discovered a final truth, but rather as recognition of the importance of a living process. It re-establishes the cultural capacity to engage in place making as a collaborative social process. Success is not measured in abstract terms, but rather by the local experience of continuous improvement in the quality and sustainability of human settlements. The use of patterns in design provides a necessary foundation for a collaborative method that is adaptive and particular to a place (i.e., the constraints of the moment), yet is also capable of responding to human aspirations for something better. Even when patterns are used for design, the designer must make sure that the project is worked out and built in the correct sequence. This new approach to planning is based on the realization that the emergence of an adaptive form has to follow a specific sequence of steps. Adaptive design requires a “generative process”. A living design is never imposed: it is generated by a sequence in which each step depends upon all the previous steps. The patterns themselves tell you nothing about the proper sequence, however. For this, one has to go to Alexander’s most recent work (Alexander, 2005). Others support the need for a generative process. Besim Hakim reached this conclusion through the overwhelming evidence available from his research on traditional towns (Hakim, 2003). 9. Construction Strategy. Both pattern languages and generative processes and codes (either explicit or implicit) have been around for millennia. Pattern languages were codified into practical form thirty years ago. Codes have been used in traditional architecture, and fixed (non-generative) codes widely implemented by one of the authors (Duany & Plater-Zyberk, 2005). Fixed codes are form-based and tell you exactly how to structure the geometry of an urban environment. Generative codes are more recent, and have the additional capability of evolving the form with the project. They tell you the sequence of steps but leave the form of the end product unspecified. They also distinguish between an adaptive and a nonadaptive set of codes (i.e. those that either generate, or prevent living urban fabric). Even though a particular project will require careful adjustment to local conditions, these two methods acting together will serve for most cases. We can begin their immediate application using published material, with on-site experience leading to further refinements in the process. In very broad terms, here is how one can follow our suggestions:
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1. Use pattern languages to plan the transportation network long before any building takes place. This is essential for generating village and neighborhood centers. Rigid grids favored by central government do not create the necessary nodal connectivity of the urban quarter. 2. Use pattern languages (and develop new ones appropriate to the locality) to construct a urban quarter for a complex society consisting of children, adults, seniors; and including housing, stores, retail, schools, informal spaces, transportation hubs, etc. 3. Existing simplistic (and consequently antihuman) monofunctional zoning must be rescinded by central government. Without that step, all planning schemes preclude urban life from the beginning, regardless of what they might look like. 4. Encourage construction systems (controlled from the top down) to work with local future residents (working from the bottom up) so as to generate low-cost, higher-quality dwellings. 5. Use pattern languages to rehabilitate existing low-income owner-occupied houses, and to convert current rental units to owner-occupied. This requires an infusion of money, but it also generates construction work. 6. Use pattern languages and the notion of the city as a network to orient interventions globally. Larger-scale and longer-term processes will insure that in addition to building housing, projects are conceived and implemented to complete a sustainable neighborhood, well connected in a larger urban setting. The process starts with identifying the right land. A major problem is that much informal housing is pushed to marginal and problematic land, on which it can be impossible to upgrade. It is necessary that the architect/planner in charge of the project be knowledgeable in pattern languages and their application. Since most architect/planners today are not, we recommend that, at least for the next several years, governments rely on someone familiar with this material to oversee construction projects. A number of professionals are available with this knowledge, though not enough to satisfy the demand. Hopefully, enough young architects can be trained in the following decades to direct new projects. One important point concerns building permissions. Because of the organic variability of different components of the project, it is prohibitive in both resources and time to prepare final drawings and get each one of them approved. Planning permission is nowadays usually given for an explicit documented plan specifying every detail of the design, instead of a general process that can produce similar but individual designs. Alexander solved this problem by getting government permission for a specific building process (a set of building operations, within clearly-defined parameters) that generates similar but distinct results. All products of that process were thus automatically approved without further need for individual permissions (Alexander et. al., 1985). It is important to get approval from the authorities for the PROCESS rather than for a set of final drawings. If this is not possible, then it is best to get approval for a generally suitable structure that can then be modified under this process. 10. Layout Strategy I: Armature of Services. Following is a rule-based layout strategy that one of us (AMD) has observed working in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It offers a template that planners can work with: 493
a simple but effective armature on which a sanitary and humane settlement may selforganize. What follows are guidelines for the MINIMUM income favela. There are more rules for the next step up in income, including the accommodation of cars. But anything less than this set of rules tends not to work, so they form a core upon which other rules are added. 1. The government must plat lots and grant ownership with paper and recorded deeds. These can begin with “notional” lots that can be defined later through a “generative” process, and surveyed and recorded afterward. 2. Lots should be within blocks defined by a network of street reservations. Each block must have a pedestrian alley reservation at the rear of all the lots. Lots may vary in size and shape but should not be less that 6 m wide and 20 m deep. 3. The government must grade the land within the block so that it drains to the street. The streets must in turn be graded to drain away from the inhabited area. 4. The government must build concrete sidewalks on both sides of the street reservation (but not necessarily pave the streets). The channel formed between the sidewalks will contain the draining rainwater. The streets also provide firebreaks. 5. At a minimum of one place on the alley, there must be a tall pole with electrical supply from which the residents can connect themselves and freely use the electricity. Do the same with a couple of clean water spigots. There should be one large latrine (with gender separation) per block. One can start taxing collectively for these services once construction is well under way. 6. The lots, as they are built out, should retain a clear passage from alley to street. This encourages rooms with windows and also allows the lot and the block to drain to the street. 7. The residents will construct their buildings themselves, at their own rate; but they must build at the edge of the sidewalk first. The rear comes later. One can require that the frontage wall be concrete block. Their roofs must not drain to a neighboring lot. 8. Corner lots are reserved for shops. All lots can be live/work units. 9. Non-criminal commercial initiatives and private transit operations must not be prohibited (even better to actively encourage them). 10. The various government and resident responsibilities listed above are established by a simple contract: “The government will do this … the resident will do this …” 11. It is possible to ask the residents to pay for the lots, after construction is done, a small quantity at a time. In addition, there are many social control issues that we are not going to deal with here, but which need to be empirically observed. This is only a physical code, and thus only part of the whole solution that will make the project livable. The establishment of legal boundaries is a government function. But it should not be assumed that we propose to do this first, as a top-down act. Laying out the plots involves preliminary owner 494
participation. The really remarkable thing about the morphology of owner-planned places is the power of their self-organization, which is the process that Alexander’s generative codes are trying to exploit. 11. Layout Strategy II: Generative Code. Alexander (2005: Book 3) has applied more advanced “generative codes” to projects, and we summarize here part of his procedure. This is a more incremental version of the “armature of services” layout methodology described previously. Alexander observed the self-organizing processes that have created many informal settlements throughout human history, and sought to develop rule-based “generative codes” to exploit these processes. Their natural geometry is so strong that in looking at an aerial view of Querétaro, Mexico, for example (where one of us conducts research), the urban morphology of the informal settlements looks very much like widely admired villages of Provence in France or Tuscany in Italy. They all have subtleties of adaptation to terrain, view, differentiation of commercial functions, and other autopoietic (self-organizing) features. The challenge is not to build on a tabula rasa (i.e., by first wiping everything clean) a structure based on a template in advance, but to get plumbing and other humane elements into these already-complex and sophisticated “medieval cities”. We want the organic complexity and adaptive character of “bottom-up” activity, with some of the standards and conditions of social equity that have typically relied on “top-down’ interventions. There is a way to lay these out sequentially, iteratively, according to a simple series of rules, as the generative codes propose to do. After that is accomplished, then the result is surveyed and the boundaries are recorded for legal purposes. A generative layout, including streets, establishes the plots according to topography, existing natural features, and the psychological perception of optimal flow as determined by walking the ground. Then the platting process follows — not the reverse. That would be the Alexandrian approach to “medieval cities with plumbing”. Although it could all occur in advance, as part of a “generative code” process by the community, it just has to be stepwise. Layout should not be template-based or designed to look nice from an airplane. To get the emergent complexity of a living neighborhood, it has to be iterative, and determined on-site. You have to really be sure the organic unfolding can happen, which is not easy in a rigidly codified world. We have the challenge of conjuring good processes out of circumstances that present many constraints and obstacles. This of course reflects the medieval pattern of laying out streets and lots. It also follows Léon Krier’s dictum that the buildings and social spaces come first, then the streets (Krier, 1998). In medieval cities, the process was highly regulated. A grid-based city can also be well ordered: our point is to use the most adaptive grid for the location, which grows from the terrain. The practical implementation of even a radical generative process is not as difficult as one might think. One gets around the legal problems posed by conventional subdivision law by creating rough “plug” lots that are then laid out in detail according to the generative process; then the plat is made final with a series of lot-line adjustments and right-of-way dedications. There is usually some way to override the conventional processes to achieve this kind of thing, but the government must be supportive and not block the process because it departs from established practice. Getting into more detail about the layout, the main street has to be laid out approximately based on the topography and connection to the outside. Next, decide on 495
the urban spaces, envisioned as pedestrian nodes of activity connected by streets. Next, side streets that feed the main street are decided — even though streets are still only indicated using stakes in the ground. Next, define the house positions (not yet the lot; just the building) using stakes in the ground, so that the front wall reinforces the urban spaces. Each family now decides the total plan of its house so as to enclose a patio and garden in the back. This process is constrained by adjoining streets, alleys, neighbors, and is meant to make the eventual patio and garden spaces as coherent as possible — semi-open spaces that feel comfortable to be in and work in, and not just leftover space. This finally fixes the lot, which is then recorded. Plans are drawn from stakes in the ground. As lot lines begin to be decided, then the streets can begin to form more definitely in plan (but not yet built). Streets are meant to connect and feed segments of urban space, which themselves are defined by house fronts. (Note that this is the opposite of positioning the houses to follow an existing street). Flexibility in the street design will be retained until houses are actually built. Clearly, you are not going to see many straight streets running across all the development (to the shock of government bureaucrats), because they have not been dawn on the plan at the beginning. Nor do streets need to have a uniform width: they open up to urban spaces. Streets evolve as the whole development evolves. Now begin construction. First build the sidewalks, then the houses, and pave the streets last — if at all. A more detailed layout sequence in included in the Appendix. SECTIONS 12-16: PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR MAKING PROJECTS WORK. 12. The Role of the Architect/Coordinator. Our experience with construction projects leads us to propose an administrative rule. That is to make a single individual responsible for achieving the “humanity” of an individual project. The government or non-governmental agency funding the project will appoint this person, who will oversee the design and construction, and will coordinate user participation. We suggest that this task not be delegated to an existing employee of the government bureaucracy, or to an employee of a construction company, for the simple reason that such persons don’t have the necessary expertise in the design process we are advocating. Ideally, it should be a person who has a professional understanding of these issues, and who has an independent professional sense of responsibility to oversee their proper implementation. This architect/project manager will be responsible for making the difference between creating a military/industrial appearance, versus a human, living feeling in the final project as built. Again, this is not a matter of aesthetics (which would be immediately dismissed by the funding agency as irrelevant to poor people) but of basic survival. A project perceived by its inhabitants as hostile will eventually be destroyed by them, and in the meantime destroys their own sense of self. As much as we believe in collaboration, it has been shown that people in need of social housing don’t always have the organizational capacity to work together to get the project done. Their input is absolutely necessary in the planning stages, but here we are talking about someone on the “outside” who will be responsible to the residents, and who will carry the responsibility of insuring their wellbeing when pressured to cut costs and streamline the construction process. A crucial part of the role of the project manager has to be defined in terms of multilayered facilitation of the process. The project manager will often need not only to encourage engagement, but also to teach it to people who are not used to it, and who may 496
lack the habits and skills of effective participatory action. Participants may come to the process with a deep distrust of any method that relies on the efforts of others. Part of the challenge in a new settlement, therefore, will be to create an orderly, reliable, and effective collaborative process that can engage a population — but such people may well be traumatized as the result of prior dislocations and social upheavals. One cannot assume that a pre-existing community will have already established the necessary norms and commitments required for such engagement. The project manager’s role will inevitably involve a certain amount of what is commonly called “community building”, organizing, and leadership training. When the project is complete, the architect/project manager should get a fee for his/her job, adjusted to the degree that it is well done. Resident feedback rather than declarations by architectural critics should be used as a basis for judging this success. It is not unlikely that a project will prove to be sustainable and successful for decades to come, but will be condemned by narrow-minded ideologues as looking “old-fashioned”, or as resembling a favela too closely for political comfort. Many people in power have fixed visual notions of what a “clean, industrial, modern” city ought to look like — based on outmoded and irrelevant scientific concepts — and refer back to those utopian images when judging a living environment. We are in fact advocating a bottom-up social approach with a strictly top-down intermediate administrative level. Unless a clear responsibility and autonomous administrative system is laid down, what we wish to see accomplished will never get done. The impersonal government bureaucracy will never take the trouble to make a place human and livable; it can more easily just follow uncreative rules of modularity and mechanical combination. The construction group is not responsible: it wants to finish its job in the minimum time and make the least number of adjustments. The residents are not politically powerful to guarantee a livable environment. Within the realities of construction, a project requires an advocate with the power to coordinate all of these forces. 13. The Need for Adaptable Materials. A major though neglected factor behind the choice of materials is their emotional attractiveness to the user. Wealthy people pay a lot for “friendly” materials so that their surroundings give back emotional nourishment. Self-built housing follows the same unconscious principles, using inexpensive and discarded materials in imaginative ways to create an emotionally satisfying environment (arrogantly dismissed as merely “primitive” artistic expression). Contrast this with the hostile surfaces regularly chosen for social housing in an effort to make those structures more durable. Such “hard” materials and surfaces give the impression of dominance and rejection. It is possible to create durable yet friendly surfaces, even though planners have not thought it worthwhile to take the trouble to do that for social housing. To complicate things further, the issue of desired building materials runs straight into hidden prejudices and images of self-esteem, often culturally specific and perhaps even locally particular. Controlling agencies in some cases ban what they consider to be “low status” building materials, such as Adobe (whose surface is both “friendly” and easily shaped, unlike concrete). But in many cases, it is the owner/builders themselves who shun those adaptable materials in regions where they are used in traditional construction. Hassan Fathy simply could not get poor people to accept living in traditional mud houses (Fathy, 1973). This is a major problem worldwide. It’s the image — representing the despised past instead of the promised utopian future. 497
The ultimate solution to this problem must be cultural. Citizens must rediscover pride in their own heritage and building traditions, and the great value and pleasure they afford. At the same time, the myth of a utopian technological approach must be exposed for what it is — a marketing image meant for the gullible public — while the real benefits of modernity are shown to be entirely compatible with traditional practices (e.g. plumbing, electricity, appliances, etc). In this way, we can regenerate the “collective intelligence” embodied in cultural traditions, and infuse it with the best new adaptations. As the author Jorge Luis Borges put it: “between the traditional and the new, or between order and adventure, there is no real opposition; and what we call tradition today is a knitwork of centuries of adventure”. When a government builds social housing, it wants to solve two problems at once: to house people who lack the means to house themselves, and to use up industrial materials so as to stimulate the economy. There is a very good reason for the latter, as the government is plugged into the largest manufacturers of industrial building materials. It is in the interest of the economy to consume these materials in sponsored projects. Nevertheless, that may not be the best solution for the housing. There are two reasons for this: one having to do with economics, and the other with emotional connection. An owner-built favela uses cheap, disposable materials such as wood, cardboard, corrugated metal sheets, rocks, plastic, left-over concrete blocks, etc. While there is an obvious deficiency with the impermanence of such materials (which turns catastrophic during storms or flooding), their tremendous advantage is their adaptability. Owner-builders have an enormous freedom of determining the shape and details of their dwellings. They utilize that design freedom to adapt the built structure to human sensibilities. That is not possible when a government builds house modules out of a much more durable material such as reinforced concrete. People must be able to make changes as a matter of principle. Here we have the opposition between permanence/rigidity and impermanence/freedom, which influences the form of buildings. Social housing should be made of permanent materials, whereas cheap, fragile buildings are a disservice to people. Favelas built out of sticks and cardboard are unacceptable models to follow. Nevertheless, we wish to preserve as much as possible the DESIGN FREEDOM inherent in using more impermanent materials. That is essential to guarantee the design adjustments that will generate a living geometry. In the best self-built houses, every scrap of material is utilized in a very precise manner so as to create living urban fabric — a sophisticated process that compares with the greatest architectural achievements anywhere. The only solution we see to this conflict is for the government to provide appropriate materials (permanent, but also easy to arrange, cut, and shape) that the users can then employ in constructing or modifying their own homes. We always come back to the competition between permanence and adaptability. Adaptive changes to form are akin to repair and self-healing in an organism, but are often misinterpreted as a degradation of the project. In fact, the geometry is trying to heal itself (through human action) after the imposition of unnatural, alien forms. This is a natural organic evolution, and should not be discouraged simply because it contradicts an architect’s “pure” vision of how people SHOULD live. We most emphatically condemn as inhuman the present practice of forbidding any modifications to social housing by their residents. Tied in to our suggestions for ownership, we uphold the fundamental right for an owner/resident to modify his/her dwelling to any extent without impinging on the 498
rights of neighbors or the public space. While the original intent of legislation forbidding changes to one’s dwelling was sound, it never achieved its goal. Its aim was to legally prevent the destruction of buildings that the government had invested money in. This has never worked, however. Buildings that are hated by their residents (because of their hostile geometry and surfaces) have been systematically vandalized and destroyed, and no legislation has been able to prevent this. The ever-escalating use of hard materials only led to fortress-like housing units, but their residents hate them even more and eventually destroy them. Oppressive surfaces and spaces damage one’s sense of wellbeing, thus provoking a hostile reaction. The solution lies in a different direction altogether: make housing units that are loved by their residents, who will then maintain them instead of destroying them. In his project in Mexicali, Mexico, Alexander introduced an innovative method of creating bricks on site using a hand-operated press and local earth (Alexander et. al., 1985). He emphasized this as a crucial aspect of the project, even though concrete blocks were readily available. One reason was to establish a local supply for all future residents. Concrete blocks are not expensive, but they still set up a financial threshold. Another reason is that they also narrow the design possibilities. Standard concrete blocks lead to standard structural configurations, ruling out some of the adaptive shapes and processes that Alexander wished to introduce. There are opportunities for the building industry to participate through government directed efforts in these new social housing projects, by providing industrialized elements that can be included with versatility in many cases. One of the authors (EPP) has developed a model for self-construction using cheap and ubiquitously available materials such as rammed earth for the perimeters, together with the introduction of low-cost industrialized sanitary modules that include water storage, toilet, sink and shower along with a filter for gray-water treatment for recycling. The proposed modules may also have structural uses, and include solar cells for electricity and solar panels for water heating and even cooking. These industrialized modules can be massively produced, lowering costs and providing technology, while at the same time allowing the necessary flexibility and freedom of design and evolution of the units. One of us (AMD) has investigated this concept more recently for a project in Kingston, Jamaica. This “wet appliance” cost-effectively delivers the sanitary and mechanical cores, the most expensive elements of a home, while combining the ability of homeowners to build their own well-adapted dwelling. We should mention a case where such industrial modules were reduced in complexity so that the building could be initially more adaptive to social needs. Alexander in 1980 worked on building social housing in India, and considered using a prefabricated concrete box containing plumbing for bath, toilet, and kitchen (Alexander, 2005: Book 2, page 320). This solution followed successful earlier projects by Balkrishna V. Doshi. It soon became clear, however, that building a solid plinth (a platform representing a traditional pattern) for each house was actually more important in the building sequence (because it was a priority for the residents) than having the plumbing box. So Alexander decided to spend the limited available money on the terrace, leaving a groove for future plumbing additions. Residents were able to use communal water and toilets until they could build their own facilities. The platform was more vital to the family’s life than the plumbing box. 14. Funding Strategy Concentrates on the Small Scale. 499
Social housing construction cannot be financed entirely by the residents, thus a government or non-governmental entity has to step in and shoulder the costs. In itself, this simple dependence raises issues that affect the shape of the construction. Involving future residents in building their own houses will reduce the initial monetary outlay. The more money invested by an external agency in social housing, however, the more control it will wish to exert over the final product. This natural consequence inevitably leads to the subconscious adoption of a geometry of control, as was outlined in a previous section. We can offer a few alternatives: 1. Funding sources now determine social housing morphology. Central government, wanting to build in the most efficient manner, reverts to a highly prescriptive approach, and is willing to sacrifice complexity of form. That attitude cannot generate an urban quarter. We need to develop a flexible, performance-based standard for morphology. We also need to identify alternative sources of funding to break the prescriptive monopoly, and thereby to break out of this antipattern. 2. Raise funds from various sources in order to ensure that homes are affordable to neighborhood residents. A private-public partnership is the most effective way of using the market economy to generate an urban quarter, instead of a monolithic monster favored by government bureaucracy. 3. Involvement with non-governmental organizations will keep a suspicious central government from sabotaging the use of pattern languages in building an urban quarter, or in converting an existing dysfunctional project into an urban quarter. We are sadly aware of numerous projects of social housing that do not serve the poor, but are simply investment opportunities for the builder or landowner to siphon money from the government. If the government subsidizes rents, then the opportunity does exist for speculative building that will recover initial construction investments (with interest) from rents alone. In such cases, the physical condition of the residents is of little importance. Moreover, the maintenance and future condition of the built fabric is not a part of the profit equation, since there is no expectation of recovering investment from the building structures themselves. It is usually expected that the buildings will decay, thus encouraging non-permanent construction from the very beginning. Clearly, subsidized rents can work against humane social housing, contradicting the intention of the original legislation. Often, feasible, sustainable, and affordable solutions are rejected for reasons of excessive greed. Good affordable housing has the disadvantage that profit margins are always low (unless the market is manipulated to create an artificial scarcity). If the government or the developers fail to see opportunities to get rich in the process, they may decide to withdraw support from a project, even if they have pledged their support initially. You need a profit to encourage participation, but that has to be balanced with the payback from solving a serious societal problem. Involvement with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) requires that housing authorities build not only public-private partnerships for redevelopment, but also elaborate networks of local partners. All of these benefit from the allocated money. However, one of the weaknesses here is that, while agencies have been good at getting the local social service providers and city agencies to cooperate, they have not been so good at engaging the support of the tenants. Most social service providers are still operating according to the old model of service provision, rather than the newer emerging models of “community based” solutions to a wide variety of problems. The old social 500
service model engages people in networks based on their particular pathologies (and there is a whole service industry that depends on what people lack). The new model engages people based on their gifts and what they bring to the network (and not what they “need”). This new model, based on the idea of asset-based community development, has had wide application in public health, and more generally in community organizing. We also face a problem with funding sources that wish to minimize the administrative burden by concentrating on the large scale. It is far easier to give out money in one large sum than to track the same amount divided and distributed out to many different borrowers. Reducing the number of transactions takes precedence over other systems based upon supply and demand. Nevertheless, it is crucial to have exactly this microfunding flexibility for the people to be able to build their own houses. Repair of an existing neighborhood requires a vast number of small interventions. Promising work has been done in developing effective management systems to permit such micro-loans (e.g. the Grameen Bank). Again, this is actually a more sophisticated and more advanced financial model, as it is more highly differentiated. Earlier in this Chapter, we mentioned the obstacle posed by ingrained geometrical images of control. Those are also tied to a deep prejudice against the small scale. A government project takes a certain overhead to administer, which is independent of the size of the project. Naturally, bureaucrats wish to minimize the total number of projects, which leads them to approve a few very large projects. For example, faced with building a new urban quarter, they wish to build it as large as possible, and all at the same time, so as to economize on the bureaucratic overhead. That approach contradicts our suggestions of building an urban quarter one small piece at a time, and iterating back and forth between the design steps. 15. Working Within the Existing System. The planning and building system as it exists today creates and perpetuates a dependence that is difficult — and in most cases, impossible — to break. By raising building standards beyond the point that can be reasonably satisfied by self-builders, it shifts the whole housing industry from being local and small-scale, to being large-scale. Building-code standards have evolved in response to real and serious threats to health and safety. Like many such technological systems, however, their unintended consequences are not trivial, and can be disastrous. This is happening today in the rebuilding of the American Gulf region after Hurricane Katrina. The system in place works to benefit both government bureaucrats and larger contractors, who are often tied by mutual support. But what is seen as a benefit to a commercial/government system can spell disaster for another, major segment of society. One of us (AMD) has argued for a reconstruction of the Katrina devastation, using a strategy that allows the same social processes to flourish as before (Duany, 2007). That strategy faces daunting challenges because of the building, financing, and regulatory system now in place. Many of the houses destroyed in the hurricane, particularly those in lower-income neighborhoods, were self-built and did not meet current code or financing standards. The urban fabric was the product of a relaxed process of self-building over generations, with the advantage that it was not based on debt. This was a society of debt-free homeowners, whose lives could be structured around activities of their choice (Duany, 2007). Those houses were outside the system, because their non-conforming construction made them impossible to mortgage. The system now requires a contract of debt, since the new building standards cannot be met without commercial intervention. In most cases, this 501
means that the government has to step in and build social housing, solving a problem that it itself has created (Duany, 2007). The cycle of unintended consequences goes on. To quote from Duany (2007): “The hurdle of drawings, permitting, contractors, inspections — the professionalism of it all — eliminates self-building. Somehow there must be a process whereupon people can build simple, functional houses for themselves, either by themselves or by barter with professionals. There must be free house designs that can be built in small stages and that do not require an architect, complicated permits, or inspections; there must be common-sense technical standards. Without this there will be the pall of debt for everyone. And debt in the Caribbean doesn’t mean just owing money — it is the elimination of the culture that arises from leisure.” While this may be “leisure” by today’s middle-class standards, it represents a hard life for a thriving and vibrant cultural fabric that is simply neglected by (even though it is a direct part of) the conventional economy. Inhabitants of the modern middle-class the world over take a debt-driven system for granted: much of their working life is spent just to pay off the house mortgage. In fact, the system works to preclude other options for putting a roof over one’s head. The middle class attains liberation from the financial system only after retirement, when the 30-year mortgage has been finally paid off. Self-built housing erected by cash and barter is an escape from this system, and is viewed by the government and big contractors as a threat to their hegemony. It’s a structural problem, not one of malevolent intent. Debt is key, but is just one variable of an interlocking system. It is not easy to implement such innovations, because most countries and regions already have a well-established system that produces rigidly inhuman social housing (but which it believes, on the contrary, to be an enlightened and progressive solution). Many times in our projects, the first thing that we had to do is to begin studying the existing housing delivery systems so that we can override them. Those systems are created by interlocked bureaucracies, specialists, financial institutions, political entities, etc. You can build on the physical tangibles, but not on the systems. There is much that must be bypassed first — and they will resist their own dismissal. We (the team of urbanists) cannot get directly involved in these strategies, which are the responsibility of the client and supporting organizations. The local entities have to solve procedural problems and forge alliances that will sustain the project, with us acting as a catalyst for change. One small section, or various independent units within the government could be promoting our project, while facing opposition from the rest of the bureaucracy. Most of the time, the problems with innovative social housing solutions are not technical, social, or even financial: they are almost always political. You can try to force changes in design approach, and some good might come of it, but that only gets you so far. A project tends to become a power struggle, taking time and effort away from building. Alternatively, we can try to cooperate with the system, bringing stakeholders and facilitators together in unexpected ways. But this requires that we recognize working with an existing system as a different kind of problem — not linear, but multi-variable, and “cultural”. It is necessary to be more embedded into the local operating system (a strong existing culture) in order to solve those problems, to have any chance of seeing where the levers are (so we can pull them to affect changes), and to see how decisions are made at various levels. In most cases, a successful strategy will combine aspects of “working within the 502
system” and reforming the system from the outside. In making an assessment, the first crucial step is to lay out the critical limitations we find in an existing system of production. Then we should work to negotiate a “workaround” that addresses those limitations from the beginning, before attempting to dismantle the existing system entirely. It may indeed be necessary to radically transform the existing system, but that is a separate problem from the design and building of urban fabric, and we don’t want to spend all our energies on fighting the system. On the other hand, if workarounds are not possible, there may be little alternative but to press for systemic reform. Alexander (2005: Volume 2, page 536) shares his own experience with this struggle. In generating projects over a thirty-year period, he realized that a major shortcoming was that their implementation demanded too much. “In our early experiments, we often went to almost unbelievable lengths to get some new process to be implemented, and to get it to work. But the amount of effort we had to make to get it to work — the very source of our success — was also the weakness of what we achieved. In too many cases, the magnitude of special effort that had to be made to shore up a new process was massive — too great, to be easily or reasonably copied.” Alexander in each case succeeded by replacing an existing system combining procedure, process, attitude, and working rules with an entirely different system. But the effort required to change the entire system, even in cases where it succeeded, was not easily repeatable. He concludes that here, like in a scientific experiment, it is the REPEATABILITY that is important, not the unique occurrence. If the process is not easily repeatable, then ultimately it is not as useful. Therefore, if a production method has too many components that are totally different from the previously working system, then it is not easily accommodated within the old method. It cannot be copied widely in regions where the old methodology still applies. A genetic analogy, proposed by Alexander, suggests ways of achieving success in the long term. A process presented as a complete, complex system (like the genetic code for a whole organism), requires that its implementation must be either all or none. In that case, the existing system of implementation must change so as to allow the project to be built. If, on the other hand, our process is presented (and understood) as a collection of semi-independent pieces, each of which can be implemented rather easily, then there is a greater chance that one of more of those pieces will catch on. Small groups of practitioners, moreover, could apply each piece of the process, without requiring the support of the system. It is Alexander’s hope that easily copied pieces of the methodology will spread independently, and that eventually this diffusion process will lead to an entire new “operating system” over time. 16. Maintenance Strategy Concentrates on the User. Unless provisions are made at the beginning for the continued maintenance of the built environment, it will turn dysfunctional. Favelas and social housing projects can have very serious problems, but some are clearly less successful in a social sense than others, and their physical deterioration is seen to increase with time. This idea is in keeping with the organic conception of the urban fabric. All living entities require continual upkeep and repair: it is part of being alive. Here we may distinguish the two main components of life itself as separated into genetic and metabolic mechanisms. Genetic processes build the organism in the first place, whereas metabolic processes keep it running and also repair it continuously. The same processes, or their close analogues, apply to the urban fabric as an organic 503
entity. Once built, it has to incorporate within itself the mechanisms for its maintenance. Maintenance does not come from a top-down process. We are disappointed at the widespread neglect of the forces responsible for the temporal evolution of urban fabric, and what is required to maintain it in healthy order. Many people somehow have an unrealistic, static conception of urban form. The organic model leads to several recommendations: 1. Encourage and support tenants to maintain their dwellings, by ensuring an emotional connection from the very beginning. The traditional subsidized rental solution has been disastrous. It is unlikely for a tenant to value a faceless material structure owned by someone else. It is possible, however, to establish a sense of collective ownership and responsibility. In a rental situation, it is all the more important to create conditions for effective and meaningful collective control and self-management. Literal ownership isn’t always necessary. A stakeholder, in the usual sense, can also be somebody with a sense of ownership in the process. 2. Make it possible to own an affordable home, even if it is the most primitive type of dwelling. Encourage government financial underwriting, seen as a sound future investment that prevents social housing from being destroyed by its tenants. 3. Establish a strict legislated code of responsibility for the residents. The key to the success of such a code is that the residents must have a sense of ownership of the code. It is crucial that they participate in its formulation, and be part of its enforcement. Owners can be held accountable for maintaining their environment, whereas this is more difficult to achieve with renters. Since supply can never meet demand, owners can be made to care for their dwellings. 4. An observed rule of urbanism is that the level of provided services is proportional to the level of regulations and restrictions. Favelas get no services, and also have no regulations. At the other extreme, high-income gated communities get many services, but are also highly regulated. The ability of tenants to maintain their dwellings cannot be achieved by requiring them to put in work time organized by a central authority (with the ability to evict them for noncompliance). “Maintenance” has to be connected to “governance.” In the redevelopment of Columbia Point, Boston, the development company signed an agreement that split the management responsibilities with the residents — 50/50 control. The traditional problem with public housing has been that people would maintain the inside of their dwellings, but there was no collective capacity to take responsibility for the outside. The “defensible space” solution was to privatize or do away with public areas as much as possible — a step expressed in the project’s geometry. That, however, led to increasing isolation and a fundamental change towards an introverted society. The better solution is simply a pattern of well-defined distinctions between public and private realms, PLUS a collective capacity to take responsibility for the public space. Some of that capacity has to do with design that facilitates “eyes on the street” (front porches, windows, etc.) but the eyes on the street only matter if they are backed up by conditions of trust, reciprocity, and collective efficacy. People often forget that Jane Jacobs’ neighborhood worked not only because people could watch the street, but also because people had a sense of obligation as members of a certain kind of community (Jacobs, 1961). She described a characteristic of social environments that is now talked about in terms of “social capital”. This is how one creates an effective “code of 504
responsibility”. If you try to impose it (as the housing authorities often do), then you get widespread noncompliance in the face of which no enforcement mechanism (no matter how intrusive) will work. Ownership of homes does seem to be a good thing to encourage, from all the evidence. However, it is not true that renters can’t be held accountable for maintaining their environment. Owners can be held accountable in so far as they have equity in their house, which means that they are motivated by concern for the exchange value embodied in their property. Renters can also have a stake in a place, but only if the social relationships involved are not reduced to the cold cash nexus — that is, a certain amount of square footage for a certain monthly fee. It is possible (and often happens) that renters can build up their “investment” in the use value of a place, depending on the extent to which they benefit from the specific networks of social relations that define the neighborhood. (Notice that Jane Jacobs’ neighborhood wasn’t a neighborhood of owners.) It is also important to include a mix of rental and home ownership opportunities. Not everybody wants to encumber themselves with the responsibilities of home ownership, and not everybody can afford to maintain a house. One of the things accomplished in “social housing” should be that the everyday costs of housing are socialized, and not just the purchase price. Think about the way the co-housing movement has done the same thing. Some of the ideas from the co-housing movement might be incorporated in helping to insure maintenance. (For those unfamiliar with this term, co-housing refers to a cluster of houses around shared common land, which usually includes a shared building for meetings and common meals — see Pattern 37: HOUSE CLUSTER in Alexander et. al. (1977). In our experience, the pattern works best when middle-class residents are strongly linked by common religious belief, as in Israeli Kibbutzim or some Christian sects. On the other hand, having poverty in common is not by itself a sufficient unifying factor!) SECTIONS 17-21: SOME OF THE PROBLEMS FACING US. 17. Retrofitting and Sanitizing the Favela: Problems and Solutions. Although this Chapter analyzes the process of constructing NEW social settlements, our approach could be adjusted to retrofit the favela. In ecological terms, we embrace and learn from our competition (the “species” in the lowest ecological stratum of urbanism) instead of trying to exterminate it. Governments wish that favelas would simply disappear (refusing even to draw them on city maps), and their residents spontaneously move to the countryside, but powerful global economic forces ensure that this is not going to happen. We, as urbanists concerned with housing the poor, must accept favelas as a social and urban phenomenon, and try to make the best of an existing situation. It is not always possible or even desirable to accept an existing favela and make it into a better place to live. First, it is often the case that squatter settlements have grown on polluted or toxic ground, on unstable soil, on steep slopes, or in a flood area. Periodically, their inhabitants are killed by natural disasters, and there is little that can be done to retrofit a settlement on dangerous ground in order to make it safer. Second, squatter settlements invade natural preserves that are necessary for regenerating oxygen needed for the entire city. These are the “lungs” of an urban population, and they must be preserved from encroachment and destruction. Third, squatter settlements produce pollution and human waste that damages the rest of the city. This problem cannot be ignored. Even if the government does not wish to legitimize a particular favela, helping it 505
to treat its waste benefits the whole city. Let us assume for the moment that social problems (which are particularly rampant in a favela) can be tackled independently of problems arising from urban and architectural form. One can easily go into an existing settlement and try to repair it, with the help of its current residents. John F. C. Turner (1976) did exactly that, setting a precedent for several successful interventions in Latin America, especially in Colombia. The only obstacle — and it is a profound one — is the philosophical conviction that the favela’s geometry is out of place in a modern society. Under that mind set, any “repair” turns into annihilation and replacement. We need to truly understand the process of repair and self-healing of urban fabric, uninfluenced by current preconceptions. Disagreeing with conventional planning beliefs, we accept the geometry of the favela, and point out its main deficiencies: a lack of services, sanitation, and natural features. In most cases the urban fabric is perfectly adapted to the topography and natural features of the landscape (simply because the owner-builders didn’t have access to bulldozers and dynamite). What is usually lacking, however, is space for trees and green. The sad truth is that most trees are cut down and used as building materials. Vegetation competes with people for space. The poverty of the favela often includes poverty in plant life: it is a luxury here because of the extreme living conditions. Even so, many residents will try to maintain a little garden if that’s at all possible. Our method is highly flexible, and its principles remain valid even if the situation changes. A series of steps, taken a few at a time (and therefore very economical) can repair the favela’s complex urban fabric. More than anything, we advocate a process of REINFORCEMENT, adopting much of the evolved geometry where it appears to work, and intervening to replace pathological structures. Plumbing and sanitary facilities are essential. Sidewalks are most important, and are sorely needed in a favela, which is primarily a pedestrian realm. Having real sidewalks raises the favela to a more permanent, “higher-class” urban typology. The existing building fronts determine exactly where the sidewalks should be built. Streets in a favela are usually of poor quality, if they are even paved, so electricity, sewerage, and water networks could be introduced under the streets. After many buildings are reinforced, one might finally pave the street. Taking some straightforward sanitary measures can minimize filth and disease. One does not have to bulldoze a favela to get a healthier neighborhood. Doing that will certainly not raise the income level of its residents, nor improve their social condition. Putting the same people into concrete bunker apartments may look good in a photo, but actually cuts their societal connections, ultimately making their situation worse. We know that when poor people are forcibly moved from a human-scaled neighborhood into high-rise blocks, their social cohesion worsens catastrophically. On the other hand, many social problems are simply not solvable by urban morphology alone. A favela is usually built of flimsy, impermanent materials. The government can help its residents to gradually rebuild their houses using more permanent materials. We don’t imply here replacing the typology of their house, but replacing say, the unstable roof or the walls (taking this opportunity to insert plumbing and electricity). A house made of cardboard and corrugated tin can be reconstructed in a very similar form using bricks, concrete blocks, and more solid panels provided cheaply by the government. Sometimes, the residents are only waiting until they get a legal deed to the land they live on; then they rebuild their homes using more permanent materials and financed by their accumulated savings. Otherwise, they are reluctant to invest anything more than the barest minimum 506
in the structure. Some readers will object to our accepting the overcrowding that is usual in a slum, and may even be outraged that we suggest maintaining this high density. Here we need to study high-density upper-income settlements in the same society, to decide how much density can be easily tolerated. It’s not the high density by itself that is objectionable; it is the difficult living conditions that result from such density. It turns out that portions of high-density urban fabric can be maintained when it is made more sanitary. Unfortunately, such suggestions have been planning anathema up until now. In some places, accepting the favela and legalizing its plots has come under sharp criticism from social activists who see this as a facile solution for a government to take. The accusation is that by simply legitimizing an unhealthy slum, the government abnegates its responsibility of building more permanent social housing. In our opinion, the magnitude of the social housing problem is so vast as to be near insoluble. The simple economics put a comprehensive solution out of reach. Our approach proceeds with one step at a time, retrofitting those portions of favelas that can be made healthy, while at the same time building new housing following an organic paradigm. If these steps succeed, then they can be repeated indefinitely, progressing towards a long-term amelioration. Banks, governments, and building companies are captivated by economies of scale, and are less sensitive to economies of place and of differentiation needed to repair a neighborhood. Wielding a blunt and relatively primitive economic instrument, they would prefer to wipe out the neighborhood and build it all over again. It is much less trouble, and less costly in crude monetary terms, to do this. But of course, the unsustainability of this lopsided economic model (and its terrible cost to society) is becoming painfully evident. Governments are reluctant to bother with small-scale urban interventions, but instead sponsor only large-scale ones since it saves them accounting costs (Salingaros, 2005: Chapter 3). And yet, living urban fabric has to be maintained by an enormous number of small-scale interventions, which is an essential part of the process of organic repair. Institutions such as banks (with an exception noted earlier, micro-financing by the Grameen Bank) are generally unwilling to bother with small loans meant for small-scale building in poor neighborhoods. All banks, however, operate also on a small scale administering small accounts and loans. They possess the technical ability to service small loans, doing it routinely with credit cards, car loans, and personal lines of credit. Technology has evolved in the direction of differentiation and customization, aided in part by revolutions in software technology. Those innovations have yet to be applied in the realm of social housing, which still tends to follow the inflexible old institutional formats. On a more positive note, many groups have discovered small-scale solutions of tremendous value. For example, in recent years concepts such as micro-financing, micro energy generation, mother centers, technology centers, urban farming, composting toilets, and other ideas have been successfully implemented. These small-scale processes can eventually make a hugely positive difference to both favelas and social housing. They are all in keeping with our insistence on the small scale as a mechanism for self-help in such communities, and also in establishing a sense of community in a dysfunctional population (Habitatjam, 2006). These small-scale solutions, representing resource independence, offer a healthy alternative to the forces trying to impose central control. 18. Uncomfortable Realities: Soaring Land Prices, Grand Schemes, and National 507
Destabilization. We would like to foresee some of the problems that could arise in an imperfect system (such as the real estate environment), in order to handle the hard realities of the market. The decision on whether to destroy, help to reinforce, or just ignore a favela is up to the government. We are faced with uncomfortable decisions, which affect the lives of many people already in a desperate situation. There is no simple solution, and no universal method can be applied in all cases. The best we can suggest is a cautious approach, without ideological prejudice, that will benefit the entire population as a whole. So often, anonymous but meaningful settlements have been destroyed in the name of “rational” design, which is nothing more than a tool to preserve the status quo. Squatters require proximity to the city, which is why they move there in the first place. Proximity is essential for them, more so than for the more mobile middle class. Presenting poor people with well-built residences far away from town is not an automatic gift. Transferring the poor to government-built social housing outside the city may plunge them even deeper into destitution, as they then have to spend a greater portion of their earnings for transportation. Our own recommendation of establishing ownership contributes to undo the envisioned solutions, since well-built housing is often re-sold to middle-class residents, while the poor return to squatter settlements (either to their original one, or they build a new one). They prefer to use the profit from selling their new government-sponsored dwelling. In the rental economy, a system of sub-renting substitutes middle-class residents for the very poor. As soon as a piece of real estate is legally registered, the transferable land title becomes a tradable commodity, and enters the free market (which could be an illegal submarket). Even if a plot is located in the middle of a slum, or in a not-so-desirable social housing project, its price could soar. Opportunities for gain can drive the consolidation of these land parcels into a few hands, not those of the original residents. This has in fact happened in many countries around the world, leading to a corrupt after-market in slum real estate. Ironically, adding infrastructure to a favela raises its value, which can drive its original settlers out. In anticipation of such a process, speculation can run wild on unbuilt land. A pervasive system linking corrupt officials with criminal organizations finds ways of profiteering from both slums and social housing. Despite the apparently insoluble socio-legal nature of this problem, we believe that our method actually helps in the long term. Firstly, establishing a tighter ownership of the urban fabric (in both social and emotional terms) reduces the opportunities for exploitation by trading it away. Secondly, much of the exploitation centers on offering services that the government refuses to provide to slum dwellers — it is simply supplying to demand, although at exorbitant prices. A very different concern comes with our recommendation for engaging NonGovernmental Organizations. While they may be a better choice than an inflexible government bureaucracy, we face a potential problem with grave consequences. The largest NGOs often promote technological “development” in the form of very large projects such as electrification, infrastructure, and building. They see the picture in large-scale terms, and would like to see major construction contracts awarded to foreign companies that have the necessary proven experience in undertaking complex projects of this type. The problem is that many countries cannot afford large-scale interventions. Despite this reality, a government often gets seduced into entering such a contract, which it ultimately cannot repay. A developing country is counting upon its natural resources to pay the bill for rapid modernization. Nevertheless, economic fluctuations 508
and unexpected events are usually enough to trip the fragile stability of such a deal. The result is that the country gets plunged into debt. By becoming a debtor nation, the nation can only be stabilized by help from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Economic restructuring via Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) imposes harsh economic conditions that worsen the lives of the poorer sectors of society. Not only does the country lose part of its sovereignty, but also from that point on, it is in no position to help its poor in any way. The lesson to be learned from this — a lesson that many nations have unfortunately failed to learn — is the need to work on the small scale. A vast and costly new project is feasible for the wealthy nations, but very risky for the developing nations. (Large-scale projects are most always based on unsustainable processes that waste vast amounts of energy and resources). Social housing should grow from the bottom up, applying local solutions to small-scale projects. If those solutions work, they can be repeated indefinitely. There are many independent NGOs who can help, and foreign experts who offer knowledge and expertise for free. It is better to rely as much as possible on local financial capital, know-how, and resources. A long-term solution, based on the adaptive evolution of housing patterns and construction, is more sustainable than a technological quick fix. 19. Architects Contribute to Make Existing Projects Alienating. A number of projects built in Latin America have solved the myriad problems of how to deal with government bureaucracy, having come to terms with practical factors and with the existing political structure. Groups have involved private construction companies with non-governmental organizations and local government to construct and finance social housing. Nevertheless, there is still a distance between techniques for implementation, and how the final product actually feels. As noted before, the scientific evidence suggests this is not a matter of “mere personal taste”, but rather there are broad areas of consensus in human assessments, rooted in universal processes of perception and human biology. These areas of consensus can be established through “consensus methodologies”, of the sort that we use routinely in our collaborative design processes. On this point we are less enthusiastic about what has been achieved so far in Latin America. Despite all the best intentions and an enormous amount of work invested, we see many projects having a qualitative character that is, in a widely shared assessment, impersonal and industrial. Of course, they don’t all have the “deadly” feeling of totalitarian high-rise housing blocks, but the ambience of the built environment ranges from dreary to neutral. In our judgment, the form and layout fail to connect emotionally to the users. It’s interesting to search for the reasons why these solutions were not carried through all the adaptive design steps. Our explanation is as follows: those projects are directed by architects, who still carry their intellectual baggage of industrial design typologies and relativity of personal tastes, even as they try to help people in a personal way. The architect’s language is influenced by his/her design ideology and is not universal. Very few architects have escaped from the modernist aesthetic that formed a pivotal part of their training (a tradition in architecture schools now going on for several decades). It is extremely difficult to rid oneself of those ingrained architectural images — to break out of the fundamentalist typologies of cubes, horizontal windows, modular blocks, etc., and the logic of abstracted functionalism that often serves as the ideological justification for self-aggrandizing aesthetic posturing (Alexander, 2005; Salingaros, 2006). Especially in Latin America, modernist architectural typologies are adopted as part of the national architectural style, popularly though erroneously linked to progressive political beliefs. 509
Making some of our criticisms explicit helps readers know what we are talking about. We find modest human-scaled buildings (which is good), but they are arranged on a strict rectangular grid that has no other purpose than to express the “clarity of the conception”. The plan looks perfectly regular from the air (being planned for such unperceivable symmetry), and expresses modularity instead of variation. The mathematically precise arrangement is arbitrary as far as human circulation and perception of space are concerned, hence it does not contribute to urban coherence. On the scale of individual buildings, we see the usual obsessively flat walls without surface articulation; strict rectangularity; flat roofs; doors and windows without frames; slit windows; houses raised on pilotis; useless building setbacks; no curves in places where they would reinforce the tectonic structure but curved walls put in for aesthetic effect; fractured or oversized urban space; etc. These are the identifying characteristics of the 1920s’ modernist typology. An underlying assumption behind imposing this formal vocabulary on people’s homes is that an ordinary person without training is incapable of shaping form and space, and only an architect (acting as the “expert”) is capable of doing so. It all goes back to the arrogance openly expressed by modernist architects, who showed their contempt for organic urban fabric. Contrary to the habits of much of modernist design and planning, physical and psychological needs have to be understood not in terms of abstracted quantities, but in terms of a capacity for local, adaptive responses to needs and desires. Living individuals experience them as part of particular living communities. The alternative process proposed here can be applied generally to arrive at non-standardized and living design solutions — living because they are connected, locally rooted, and inhabited with the spirit as well as the body. It is very easy to recognize the difference between organic and industrial morphologies, based on their perceived complexity. Here are three criteria that anyone can use: (a) Is the geometry on all scales, from the size of the entire project down to the size of 2 mm details, complex (unique, varied), or simplistic (empty, repetitive)? (b) Are there generally regular transitions from larger to smaller scales, with no abrupt gaps? Or, if there are abrupt transitions, are they terminated with even more complex geometries at the next scale? (c) If the geometry is visually complex, does the form grow out of and adapt to human physical and psychological needs, or is it an arbitrary imposed “high design” complexity? These three criteria distinguish living urban fabric from dead industrial forms (the third criterion is more difficult to apply without some experience). Paradoxically, the segment of society (i.e., progressive intellectuals and activists promoting social causes) most interested in helping poor people is also that which, for political and ideological reasons, naively assumes that the solutions must conform to the technological “image of modernity”. They cannot think outside the seductive images of the 20th century military/industrial paradigm. They sincerely believe the promises of liberation made by modernist ideologues, but fail to see that such forms and geometries are basically inhuman. By contrast, those privileged individuals who can afford to create a warm, responsive living environment (and know how to implement it) do so mainly for themselves, remaining in general unconcerned with the plight of the poor. 20. People’s Unreal Image of a Desirable Home. There is another point that we have yet to discuss, and which can sabotage the best intentions of humane social housing. That is the image a potential resident has of “the most wonderful home in the world”. People carry within themselves images of desirability, often the opposite of what they truly require. Advertising works by 510
convincing people to consume what they don’t need; to spend their money on frivolous or noxious things instead of healthy food, medicine, and education. In the same way, our culture propagates artificial images of “beautiful” houses in the minds of the urban poor and even the most isolated rural farmers. When an individual migrates to a town, he/she will work to achieve the housing that corresponds to the image in his/her dreams. It is certainly the case that this image will clash with adaptive housing typologies. As architects and urbanists, we are constantly competing in a universe of images and ideas that are validated by iconic properties rather than any contribution to adaptive living environments (Alexander, 2005; Salingaros, 2006). Human perception of built space is governed by unstated values and subtleties. It is a frustrating battle, because people are distracted from consideration of what is good or healthy. Wonderfully adaptive vernacular architecture is identified with a heritage from which poor people are trying to escape. They are fleeing their past with its misery. People originally from the countryside shun traditional rural building typologies: they are abandoning symbols of the countryside with all its restrictions and fleeing to the “liberating” city. A new house in that style would trigger a deep disappointment. Providing humane housing therefore conflicts with maintaining the “image of modernity”. A peasant who moves from the countryside into a favela, or someone born there will not wish to see it repaired: he/she desperately wants to move out as soon as possible to a middle-class apartment. The favela doesn’t represent the widely accepted “image of modernity”, but instead carries a social stigma. Escaping poverty, in the mind of the favela’s resident, means escaping from the favela’s geometry. That idea is reinforced by the drastic transformation in geometry that one sees in houses for the middle class. Middle class residences tend to be either dreary modernist apartment complexes, or isolated pseudo-traditional houses with a lawn and fence. Those insipid images of modernity dominate the thinking of poor people, who ingest them from television programs and other marketing outlets. A new project of social housing that is successful in our terms will inevitably resemble traditional local urban and architectural typologies, simply because those have evolved to be the most adaptive to human needs. That resemblance, however, condemns its image as not progressive. Many residents expect to see their new houses built in the “image of modernity”, as defined by the homes of the rich and famous the world over. Houses and offices in a high-tech modernist style are constantly shown on films and television together with their rich residents. The poor aspire to this dream. On the other hand, wealthy aristocrats living and working in colonial mansions are no longer embraced as models to emulate, because of their association with the pre-modernist past and a conservative political order. That is a pity, because 19th Century building typologies often contain much of a country’s architectural heritage, and offer adaptive solutions that have nothing to do with any social or political class. (People forget that the technocratic style now represents global economic dominance by a powerful elite). As noted previously, we believe the problem is inescapably cultural in nature. It seems to us that the crux of the issue is valuation — how the community values its options, and then makes decisions accordingly. Or, more properly, it is a question of whether a truly intelligent (i.e. self-correcting and learning) system of collective decision making is in place. So our task is not just to offer choices, but also to offer a framework (or choice of frameworks) in which to make those choices over time. If residents choose “wealth” as defined in reduced simple terms by monetary markets, 511
then they will logically conclude that the optimal course is to scrape the site flat and put up a single high-rise building with a Big-Box-Mart next door. If they have a longer-term definition of “value” — which includes more subtle but no less vital notions of “quality of life” — then they have a basis for assessing and modifying their built environment in a way that is more complex, more inter-related, and more “organic”. This of course is what a traditional culture is and does, by definition. That simple notion of “wealth” in reduced monetary market terms cannot distinguish between the subtle processes of life. For this reason, it cannot combine the “top-down” resources like bringing “wet appliances” (concrete boxes containing a bathroom and a kitchen counter with sink), or trucks full of building materials appearing at the edge of the site, with “bottom-up” resources like people working on their own houses, small-scale local economies, or following adaptable generative codes. Combining top-down and bottom-up methods is the crux of the problem, which will require a complex integrative approach, rather than a linear application of resources and single-variable solutions. It is a complex, multi-variable problem of self-organization and of organized complexity, and requires a different set of tools from those people are used to working with. How then do we take seriously people’s aspirations, without necessarily enabling what may be a manipulated desire of theirs, one that encourages the trading away of irreplaceable long-term value for perishable short-term gain? As we have seen, in a modern economic context, traditional cultures are unfortunately very vulnerable to this kind of bad-deal tradeoff. As professional advisers we have a duty to take their aspirations seriously, but also to take seriously their long-term needs, even if they are not really considering them. We should not act in their place — that would be arrogant — but instead have a kind of conversation with them, where we as professionals point out the options before them in a more complete and more connected kind of way. What is obvious to us isn’t necessarily considered positively by the broader population. Such a thing would make sense, and avoids the dangers, if it came out of a collaborative process that was very much in the hands of the locals. It needs to be their vernacular tradition. Otherwise, there is a real danger of such an effort coming across as presumptuous and condescending. There is a very delicate balance in there between respect for the local culture that is very much a culture of poverty — the everyday urbanism, in a sense — and a recognition of the aspirations even within that culture (and in the individuals) for something they imagine to be better. Often people need to learn to appreciate what they already have (i.e., the capacities, the wealth, and beauty of their particular cultural adaptations to circumstances). This is all the more urgent since we have a global culture that is mostly dedicated to giving people a hunger for goods they don’t have. For example, we are well aware of the tendencies for low-income communities to be big backers of Big-Box-Marts. If we try to expose all the serious problems created by Big-Box-Marts as a result of the building form and the business model, people may well accuse us of racism: “So why don’t you want us to have what the rest of you already have?”. It’s a very delicate thing when one is working with people in poverty — how does one both give respect where respect is due, and yet recognize where things could be better without being insulting? It requires a process that will engage the creative energy and the self-reliance of the local culture. 21. Is a Changed World Ready to Accept Humane Social Housing? 512
Projects all over the world were built following the organic paradigm, using owner participation. We observe a cyclic phenomenon: both governments and nongovernmental organizations support parts of what we (and others before us) propose, then it falls out of favor and is replaced with inhuman modernist typologies, then it sometimes makes a comeback as elected officials and agency directors change. This temporal fluctuation reflects the model of species competition, where one competing species displaces another (but does not drive it to extinction). When conditions change, that species makes a modest comeback. The organic urban paradigm has always been only marginally accepted by the powers-that-be, even though it represents the vast majority of currently built urban fabric. In the ecological analogy, unplanned owner-built housing is actually the dominant species, whereas in the minds of most people (in blatant contradiction of fact), it is assumed to be the minority species. The world’s urban population explosion has occurred in the poorest strata of society, one minor part housed by top-down mechanisms of social housing, while the other major part had to emerge as favelas (irregular settlements). It is this imbalance — between overwhelming forces generating the world’s irregular urban morphology, and ineffective attempts to impose order — that we wish to correct with this Chapter. We depend upon three hopeful strategies: (a) Readers will see that some of the old prejudices against owner-built housing are outdated, and are economically and socially wasteful. (b) People will recognize the roots of this conflict as ideological, and not as exclusively legal. (c) We finally have very powerful tools for efficient design and repair, which were not available in the past. The New Urbanism movement (spearheaded by one of the authors (AMD)) has helped to awaken the world to the value of traditional urbanism, and to the need of preserving existing portions of living urban fabric. Our approach tries to channel the natural human need for a nourishing and sustainable living environment, which has been the case during several millennia of human existence. Several extremely successful New Urbanist developments have been built in a traditional character, showing that it can be done today. Planning is no longer biased towards the modernist vision. There exists a new awareness, at least in the most economically developed countries. Whereas in the 1960s healthy middle-class neighborhoods were destroyed with impunity (an act euphemistically labeled “urban renewal” (Jacobs, 1961)), such urban aggression is less likely to succeed today. Still, that does not prevent die-hard modernists from trying to publicly discredit the New Urbanism by labeling it as fit only for the very rich. The present Chapter is one of many proofs (if any were needed) that the same techniques apply to house the poor of the world. People have always had an INSTINCTIVE knowledge of how to build, but all that was casually dismissed by modernist typologies falsely claiming an exclusively rational “scientific” validity. With the recent entry of trained scientists into architecture and urbanism, that misunderstanding has finally been dispelled, and we can separate genuine method from image-driven dogma. Our courageous predecessors who built living urban fabric were all stymied by an architectural establishment convinced of the absolute correctness of the early 20th Century industrial design paradigm. Again and again, projects and ideas were marginalized, and had to be re-invented elsewhere and at another time. We believe that our age is finally ready to accept living urban fabric as part of life itself, and that this idea can assume its proper central place in our consciousness. 22. Conclusion. Twentieth-century practices in constructing social housing may have been well 513
intentioned, but are ultimately misguided. They do not help to connect the residents to their environment. So much urban fabric all over the world could have been made healthy and sustaining for the same cost, but instead exerts a deadening effect on its residents, and ultimately becomes unsustainable. Unfortunately, government planners were determined to impose an ill-conceived social experiment as part of a utopian program of industrialization. We outline here, on the other hand, practical and sensitive solutions that can be applied immediately to any context, with only minor modifications to fit the local conditions. The authors make these recommendations based upon considerable experience in practical projects. We will be the first to urge making compromises and needed adaptations in implementing our methodology to any particular project, in the spirit of incremental adaptation. It is far better to compromise and get something built, rather than to insist on following every component of our suggested process but have the project rejected. In this way, we can effect a steady transition to a more robust, more lifesupporting, and more sustainable kind of housing for the future. APPENDIX: Generative Code for Social Housing on a Greenfield or Open Brownfield. The body of this Chapter really outlines a method of methods, which can be used to format an infinite number of different approaches. All the approaches arising from our recommendations share a common adaptivity to human sensibilities. In this essential quality, however, they differ markedly from other methods currently in use. Evidently, a planner has to make up a new method that best suits local conditions and exigencies. For readers who wish to implement our method with the least delay, we outline here a procedure that can produce housing on vacant land. A slightly different approach is needed to work on a site that has existing buildings, and yet another to reconfigure an existing settlement. Please remember that this represents only ONE of an infinite number of related methods satisfying our criteria, and should not be adopted as a universal set of rules. We assume that a team of planners will work with some or all of potential future residents in all steps of the layout. This is crucial to get a “reading” of the necessary human factors that must be addressed. Actual building is divided into two components: those that are the funding agency’s responsibility, and those that are to be done by the owner/resident. A rough division of labor is for the government to undertake all construction on public space, whereas the owner/resident builds his/her own house; but these responsibilities can overlap either way according to the specific situation. Even if the owners/residents are going to do all the building work on their house, the planning team is prepared to support them and guide them through the process. References below are to individual patterns in A Pattern Language (Alexander et. al., 1977). It is extremely important to make an initial statement that we have here a different type of approach to social housing, and planning in general. The novelty of this approach is evident in three of our procedures. First, we begin with laying out the ground and street network with active user participation, not as a pre-conceived plan drawn somewhere else. The second unusual element is to allow (in fact, actively encourage) the users to ornament the sidewalk in front of their house, before the house is even built. The third unusual element is to build the urban space before any of the houses have been completed. The urban space is going to define the character of the settlement as a whole — its spatial quality and identity on the large scale — more than any other built object. It 514
is going to play a major role in whether the residents feel they own the place emotionally. We recommend the following steps, where we have emphasized the unusual aspects of our method, while leaving more obvious construction details up to the local team: 1. Walk the land to diagnose its condition, strengths, weaknesses, exceptional opportunities, areas needing repair, etc. Identify any candidates for a sacred space: e.g., high ground, prominent rocks, large trees, etc. These are going to be protected and later incorporated into urban space. 2. In many cases, the settlement will have an existing boundary that determines street connections. Where this is not so (i.e. in the countryside) the neighborhood’s outline must be fixed, as it will have an impact on the overall street pattern (Pattern 15: NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARY of Alexander et. al. (1977)). 3. Walk the land to determine the main street and the main cross street from the natural pedestrian flow according to the topography and features. These are going to represent the Roman Cardo and Decumanus, but will be neither necessarily straight, nor orthogonal to each other. Mark them with poles in the ground carrying red flags. Allow room for street plus sidewalks on both sides. 4. Walk the land once more to visualize where the urban spaces ought to lie (decided by the spots that feel the best to stand in; somehow focusing all the region’s positive signals). These are going to be bulges in the main streets near the center, and ought to contain any sacred spaces, if possible. Apply the principle of tangential flow around an urban space (i.e., the street goes alongside an urban space, not through its middle). Urban spaces can be as long as necessary, but not much wider than 20 m (Pattern 61: SMALL PUBLIC SQUARES). Mark the boundaries of the urban spaces with red flags. 5. Decide on the footprint of houses to partially surround and reinforce the urban spaces. Front walls, with no setback, are going to define the urban space boundaries. 6. Now some major layout decisions must be taken. One possible typology is to use building blocks of two houses deep, not necessarily straight, each with dimension roughly 40-60 m wide and 110-150 m long. Building blocks begin at the edge of the urban space and main streets. The direction of each building block is determined by the flow of the land. Their boundaries will define the secondary roads, which are marked with red flags. Secondary streets form T-junctions (Pattern 50: T JUNCTIONS) at the intersections, and do not cross a main street. Secondary streets are narrower than the main streets. 7. At the same time, questions of water drainage are settled, because street direction has to accommodate water flow. Decide where runoff water will drain to outside the settlement so as to avoid flooding. Note if any street has to be graded. 8. Shaping the land begins only now, with the government grading the building ground so that it slopes towards the street on each side for drainage. The streets must be graded where necessary to facilitate wastewater flow as decided beforehand. 9. Participating future residents can lay out their house dimensions, using blue flags. Houses have to come up to the sidewalk, and occupy the full frontage. Other than this, there is complete freedom in the house plan. If a courtyard is included, define it by using the house volume to partially surround it (Pattern 115: COURTYARDS WHICH LIVE). Individual variation is essential to guarantee southern exposure; otherwise the courtyard 515
will not be used after it’s built (Pattern 105: SOUTH FACING OUTDOORS). First, define the buildings around the main urban spaces and at the main entrances. 10. Once a sufficient number of house outlines have been marked, complete the lot boundaries by using yellow flags. Each plot should be not less than 20 m deep and 6 m wide. Plots are separated by an alley at the back and by a footpath on each side. Plots are recorded and deeds awarded. The remarkable thing is that this is the first time the settlement is drawn on paper (up until now, we have been working only with flags in the ground). 11. The government puts in any infrastructure it is going to provide: electrical utility poles in the alleys, either a water system or a regular distribution of public water spigots, sewerage pipes or a few common gender-separated latrines, etc. 12. The first act of actual building is putting down a concrete sidewalk along the position of all marked house fronts. The government does this along all deeded plots, but not in parts of the settlement that have not yet been planned. It is convenient to complete one housing block at a time. The sidewalk itself should be very wide, and raised from the street (1.5 m wide sidewalks are useless for forming a neighborhood; see Pattern 55: RAISED WALK). 13. The residents prepare designs using colored bits of scrap material not thicker than 1 cm (pebbles, tile fragments, etc.), and push them into the wet concrete as soon as the sidewalk is poured and smoothed. Anything can be used as long as it doesn’t compromise the structural integrity of the concrete. Expansion joints are incorporated as part of the design. This act personalizes one’s own bit of sidewalk, and establishes the priority of human expression over industrial forms. 14. House building can begin, carried out by the residents themselves, with the front façade going up first at the edge of the sidewalk. In this way, the urban spaces, rather than the houses themselves, are the first spatial elements to be physically constructed (Pattern 106: POSITIVE OUTDOOR SPACE). 15. The entrance (or entrances) to the settlement should be clearly defined by more prominent buildings so they are obvious points of transition (Pattern 53: MAIN GATEWAYS). 16. The government can solidify the urban space by building a large kiosk there — a roofed open room (Pattern 69: PUBLIC OUTDOOR ROOM). Make sure it has steps that are comfortable to sit on (Pattern 125: STAIR SEATS). This element can catalyze the use of the urban space, and enhances sacred elements such as a large tree. 17. Owners complete their individual houses, at their own pace. They have complete freedom in the floor plan within their original markings. If it is appropriate to the culture, build a low sitting wall or ledge integral with the front wall next to the entrance (Pattern 160: BUILDING EDGE and Pattern 242: FRONT DOOR BENCH). This, in turn, might influence the roof overhang. 18. The description of the building sequence depends on local materials availability, delivery systems, and the most economical alternatives. Decisions such as whether to pour a floor slab at the same time as the concrete sidewalk; if there is plumbing available that needs to go under the slab; whether to fill upright hollow drain pipes with concrete to 516
make a house’s corner columns; what material to use for the load-bearing walls; whether to drop in a prefabricated toilet module; the shape of the roof and how it is to be built, are all best taken by the local consultants. 19. The consultants can advise the owner/builders on how to form the house entrance and windows. A main entrance should have drastically thickened edges to represent the transition from outside to inside (Pattern 225: FRAMES AS THICKENED EDGES). Encourage people to build a transition space, however modest (Pattern 112: ENTRANCE TRANSITION). This emphasizes entry as a process, the opposite of a front door designed as an image of a minimal discontinuity in the flat wall. 20. The same principle also applies to windows: help the owner/builders to create windows with deep reveals and a very thick frame (Pattern 223: DEEP REVEALS). 21. Perhaps the single most important rule to creating rooms in a building is that they must have natural light from two sides (Pattern 159: LIGHT ON TWO SIDES OF EVERY ROOM). 22. As the house fronts near completion, the government offers a monetary prize for the most artistic ornamentation, preferably using traditional motifs chosen entirely by the owners, and supplies paints and materials for that purpose (Pattern 249: ORNAMENT). Ornamentation should be more detailed, and more intense, at eye level and at those places where a user can touch the building. The above proposal may appear interesting, perhaps extraordinary to conventional planners. Some will doubtlessly criticize it, even though it is supported by the most important document of Latin American planning: the “Laws of the Indies”. (Las Leyes de Indias explicitly direct that a settlement be planned around its central urban space, which has to be established first). We believe our suggestions to be applicable and we ought to try and implement them to any degree possible. It is not necessary for the builders to have access to the full description of each pattern mentioned here; a simple outline and diagram are sufficient. We list the patterns only for reference purposes. The goal of ornamentation is NOT to add something “pretty” so as to distract from the otherwise difficult living conditions. In fact, it serves to connect the residents in a deeper sense to their environment, by giving them intellectual ownership of the physical structure. For this reason, it is absolutely necessary that the residents themselves generate all the ornament and create it with their own hands. REFERENCES Alexander, Christopher (1965) “A City is Not a Tree”, Architectural Forum, Vol. 122 No. 1, pages 58-61 and No. 2, pages 58-62. Reprinted in: John Thackara, Editor (1988) Design After Modernism (Thames and Hudson, London), pages 67-84. Available online from Alexander, Christopher (2005) The Nature of Order: Books One to Four (The Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, California). Alexander, Christopher, Howard Davis, Julio Martinez & Donald Corner (1985) The Production of Houses (Oxford University Press, New York). Alexander, Christopher, S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein, M. Jacobson, I. Fiksdahl-King & S. Angel (1977) A Pattern Language (Oxford University Press, New York). Blake, Peter (1974) Form Follows Fiasco: Why Modern Architecture Hasn’t Worked (Little, Brown & Company, Boston). Charles, Prince of Wales (1989) A Vision of Britain: A Personal View of Architecture 517
(Doubleday, New York). Crawford, Joel H. (2000) Carfree Cities (International Books, Utrecht, Holland). Darton, Eric (2000) Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York’s World Trade Center (Basic Books, New York). Darton, Eric (2001) “The Janus Face of Architectural Terrorism: Minoru Yamasaki, Mohammad Atta and their World Trade Center”, Open Democracy , 8 November 2001, approximately 4 pages. Andrés Duany (2007) “How do we save the Crescent City? Recreate the unique building culture that spawned it”, Metropolis, February 14, . Duany, Andrés, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk & Jeff Speck (2000) Suburban Nation (North Point Press, New York). Duany, Andrés & Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (2005) Smart Code (, Miami, Florida). ECTP — The European Council of Town Planners (2003) The New Charter of Athens 2003 (Alinea Editrice, Firenze). Available online from . Fathy, Hassan (1973) Architecture for the Poor (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois). Gehl, Jan (1996) Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space (Arkitektens Forlag, Copenhagen). Habitatjam (2006) World Urban Forum Website . Habraken, N. J. (1972) Supports: an Alternative to Mass Housing (Urban International Press, London & Mumbai). 128 Hakim, Besim (2003) “Byzantine and Islamic Codes from the Mediterranean”, in: CNU Council Report III/IV, Style and Urbanism: New Urban Codes and Design Guidelines (The Town Paper, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 2003), pages 42-43 & 63. Shorter version available online from . Johnson, J. H., Jr. & J. D. Kasarda (2003) “9/11 Reassessments of Urban Location Costs and Risks”, Real Estate Issues, Summer 2003, pages 28-35. Kellert, Stephen R. (2005) Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection (Island Press, Washington, DC). Krier, Léon (1984) Houses, Palaces, Cities, Demetri Porphyrios, Editor (Academy Publications, London). Krier, Léon (1998) Architecture: Choice or Fate (Andreas Papadakis, Windsor, England). Mehaffy, Michael W. & Nikos A. Salingaros (2001) “Geometrical Fundamentalism”, Plan Net Online Architectural Resources. Reprinted with revisions as Chapter 9 of A Theory of Architecture (Umbau-Verlag, Solingen, Germany, 2006). Oliva i Casas, Josep (2001) La Confusió de l’Urbanisme: Ciutat Pública Versus Ciutat Domèstica (Catalan version published by: Pòrtic ECSA, Barcelona). Spanish version, La Confusión del Urbanismo: Ciudad Pública Versus Ciudad Doméstica (Cie Ediciones Editoriales Dossat, Madrid, 2005). English version, Confusion in Urban Design: The Public City Versus the Domestic City (Techne Press, Amsterdam, 2007). Papayanis, Nicholas (2004) Planning Paris Before Haussmann (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland). Podobnik, Bruce (2002) “The Social and Environmental Effects of New Urbanism: Evidence from Orenco Station” . Roaf, Sue (2005) Adapting Buildings and Cities for Climate Change (Architectural Press, Oxford). Rudofsky, Bernard (1969) Streets for People (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York). Salingaros, Nikos A. (1998) “Theory of the Urban Web”, Journal of Urban Design 3, 518
pages 53-71. Reprinted as Chapter 1 of Principles of Urban Structure (Techne Press, Amsterdam, 2005). Salingaros, Nikos A. (2005) Principles of Urban Structure (Techne Press, Amsterdam, Holland). Salingaros, Nikos A. (2006) A Theory of Architecture (Umbau-Verlag, Solingen, Germany). Sucher, David (2003) City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village (City Comforts Inc., Seattle, Washington). Turner, John F. C. (1976) Housing by People (Marion Boyars, London).
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DO NOT INCLUDE THIS PAGE OR BEYOND! 1
leading those promoting materials resource efficiency, for instance to try and find ways of expressing the benefits in carbon terms
Although Prof. Watson, the chief scientific adviser to the UK Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DeFRA) now recommends we should prepare to adapt to a 4 degree rise, heralding dangerous climate change, given the unlikelihood of mitigation efforts achieving the level of reductions needed to avoid this (Randerson, August 7th 2008). 2
3 Brent for instance, published its last LA21 Action Plan and subsequently decided to re-orientate its efforts internally to corporate issues, although a small fund for local community group projects was maintained. 4 The Nottingham declaration is a voluntary pledge to address climate change issues. It represents a high-level, commitment that a council can make to its own community. It was first launched in October 2000 in Nottingham with 200 leaders, chief executives and senior managers of UK local government: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/housingbuildings/localauthorities/NottinghamDeclaration/who-has-signed/
The ICE Demolition Protocol is a robust materials resource efficiency methodology for demolition and construction developed for the UK Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) by EnviroCentre & London Remade 5
6 An example was the 2003 report; ‘Building Sustainably: How to Plan & Construct New housing for the 21st Century’, by the Sustainable Housing Forum, led by the TCPA (Town & Country Planning Association)/WWF and 9 other organisations including Brent Council. It reviewed relevant sustainability issues, Borough Council and other initiatives and identified the gaps in Government policy. It also advocated a range of national, regional and local policy measures such as changes to the Building Regulations and a new Planning Policy Statement on Climate Change amongst other measures – many of which have now been taken on board by Government.
The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) has been tasked with advising the Government on whether this 60% target should be increased to 80% 7
8
Local Development Frameworks (LDFs) are replacing the former, Unitary development Plans (UDPs)
9
Further examples include the Energy White Paper, draft Sustainable Construction Strategy and Site Waste Management Plan Regulations 2008
10 It represents 100% CO2 reduction in relation to the 2006 Building Regulations, which only covers (heating, hot water, lighting and ventilation) not all energy use 11
represents a 25% CO2 reduction beyond the maximum emission rate allowed by the 2006 Building Regulations
12Professor 13
Mayhew’s demographic study 2007 for Brent Council
UK Office of National Statistics, 2006
14
Due to the slower than expected progress on hydrogen fuel cells, they are once again beginning to launch electric cars. Currently, the only model available in the UK is the ‘G-Whiz’ a franchise of the Indian RIVA electric which filled the gap left by the major manufacturers. 15
defined as 10 or more dwellings, or 1,000 square metres or more, of commercial or other floorspace)
amended extract from Brent’s Annual Monitoring Report (AMR 2000-2004), built-environment chapter –from information provided by Chris Barrons & Lawrence Underwood 16
17
Ibid.
18
Ibid.
19
‘Building For Life’ standard recently produced is intended to assess housing design (but again treats sustainability as an afterthought).
Ibid. It was decided to merge an initially proposed Landscape Design Guidance document with the existing urban design Guidance to better integrate these issues. This is still in production.
20
21 EcoHomes and BREEAM are the nationally recognised, sustainability assessment methodologies for homes and non-residential schemes produced by the Building Research Establishment (BRE)
22
amended extract from Brent’s Annual Monitoring Report (AMR 2006-7), Planning Obligations chapter –from information provided by Zayd Al-
Jawad. Such a renewables template has since been developed in draft form, by Creative Energy Networks (a non-profit organisation) and has been piloted by about 4-6 Boroughs, the resources needed to refine and launch it (with no funding).
23
24
With the assistance of Laura Jenkinson, planning policy officer, London Borough of Brent
Paper given at 4th vision for London lecture, 19th Nov. 1996 –cited in London Planning Advisory Committee (LPAC) & London Arts Board (1997) ‘Values Added: How Emerging Values Could Influence the Development of London’ study by Ben Jupp & George Lawson of Demos.
25
25
520
28
The faculty of architecture of University IUAV of Venice is the only one that has introduced into the teaching order a
Graduate Degree in Architecture for Sustainability that involves about 35 teachers and 200 students every year. At the moment there are many research works and operative conventions with organizations and Italian and foreign Institution. 29
politikè, it is that concerns about town.
30
Filiberto Menna, la linea analitica dell’arte moderna, ed. Giulio Einaudi, Torino, 2001.
31
Critics to positions of Hans Jonas are in the introduction about “responsibility principle” by Pier Paolo Portinaro, p.
XXII. 32
William Morris, The prospects of architecture in Civilisation, conferenza al London Institution, Finsbury Circus, London, 10 Marzo 1880 33 Freely draw from UN-HABITAT’s State of the World’s Cities Report 2006/7 - SOWC/06/07/B/Urb1. 34
Michael Neuman, The Compact City Fallacy, Journal of Planning Education and Research 25:11-26.
35
Publio Ovidio Nasone, Metamorfosi, con una introduzione di Italo Calvino, ed. Giulio Einaudi, Torino, 1994.
36
http://www.veterinaria.uniba.it/biologia/dispense/adatt.html
37
D'Arcy W. Thompson, Crescita e forma, ed. Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 1992.
38
Fortunato Tito Arecchi, “Complessità, cognizione e corporeità”, in Studium n. 3-4, 2000, pp. 619-640.
39
According to Barnett (1982), the first academic curriculum in the United States was the University of Pennsylvania’s Civic Design Program in 1957
40
Between 1950 and 1970 in the United States, the population of the central cities grew by ten million, that of suburbs by eighty-five million (Marx 1991)
41
Significant projects are: the creation of a natural preserve along a 12 mile reach of the Cienega Creek; the re-establishment of native vegetation on the Pantano River (Pantano Jungle); the restoration of a higher water table along the Rillito Creek; the development of wetlands and a riparian habitat in the Ajo flood control basin; the restoration of native vegetation through effluent water upstream the Santa Cruz River; the creation of a 124acre riparian habitat in proximity of the Avra Valley re-charge plants; the construction of flood control basins upstream on the Arroyo Chico; the restoration of a 600-ft wide riparian woodland along the Rincon Creek and the attempt to recharge the aquifer with raw CAP water in the Canada Del Oro.
42
The College of Architecture of The University of Arizona, Tucson, is promoting theses, research and studios that provide for suggestions of changes
43
CAP – The Central Arizona Project is the mean through which gallons of water are brought from the Colorado River to the City of Tucson and Phoenix
44
In the Phoenix area water evaporates at about 6.2 acre-feet (2 million gallons) per year for each acre of surface area. Considering the area of the Lake (220 acre) it means 1.2 million of gallons per day lost just for evaporation (City of Phoenix Water Department website).
45
According to the Phoenix Water Department 6 million of gallons of water per day are necessary to support vegetation
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According to Glennon with 140,000 acre-feet per year of water coming from effluent S.Antonio is one of the largest reusers of water in the United States. Additionally the 2005 Water Resource Plan indicates that the city of S.Antonio is currently looking to several projects to diminish the charge on the Edwards Aquifer. Among them particularly interesting are the ALCOA project in which the city purchases water from lignite deposits, and the Lower Guadalupe Water Supply project that would divert water from the Guadalupe River to San Antonio. After use, the water would be released in the San Antonio River flowing back into the Guadalupe and the Gulf of Mexico. The plan aims to plant 24,000 native trees, 56 acres of native grasses, 350 acres of riparian habitat, 113 acres if aquatic habitat
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Buildings must respect strict guidelines regarding heights, dimensions, forms, entrances and materials. When facing the River directly, they should provide for middle-spaces such as arcades, courtyards or canopies structures that allows vegetation to connect the River and the City
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