Thursday, July 21, 2016

G. Urban environments - The sustainable city

The sustainable system

The city as a system

Picture
Source: http://geographylaunchpad.weebly.com/the-city-as-a-system.html



Case studies for sustainable cities

Curitiba

Hamburg




Case studies for the urban ecological footprint


For the link below, read chapter 3:

Sustainable strategies

Sustainable strategy to manage housing in Newington (Sydney, Australia)

 
Source: https://blog.sydneyolympicpark.com.au/2015/02/23/a-construction-update/
http://dictionaryofsydney.org/place/newington

For the 2000 Olympic Games, Sydney built one of the biggest athlete villages ever constructed at the time.

In 1997, the Sydney Olympic Park Authority signed a $590 million contract with the Mirvac Lend Lease Village Consortium comprising of Mirvac, Lend Lease, Civil & Civic, ANZ and Westpac. The village was part of $3 billion of construction and capital works for the games.

The contract was to plan, design, finance and construct the Olympic village, which would provide housing for 15,300 competitors and team officials as well as accommodation for 7,500 competitors and officials for the Paralympic Games.

The consortium would also carry out the reinstatement work on the Olympic village after the Paralympics; market and sell the reconfigured Olympic village properties; and share the net proceeds between the consortium and government.

As well as the multiple sporting venues, other projects included the Olympic Park railway station and rail loop, development at the former Lidcombe Hospital site for 6,000 media representatives and a 318-room Ibis/Novotel hotel.

The athlete village was built in Newington, two kilometres east of the Homebush Bay sporting complex. The sporting complex is now the suburb called Sydney Olympic Park.

The consortium built nearly 900 townhouses and 700 apartments over 90 hectares, as well as nearly 300 modular homes.

Environmental sustainability was heavily pushed by the Olympic committee, and every home came with solar panels and water recycling facilities, features that still exist. When it was built, the suburb was the largest solar-powered suburb in the world.

Waste water is treated and redirected to the neighbouring wetland which was restored as part of the project.

After the Paralympic Games Newington was sold into private ownership and its transformation into a residential suburb began.

More houses were built and according to the 2011 census, there are now 2,074 dwellings housing 5,320 people. The census found 6% of the homes are currently unoccupied. There are 940 houses and 815 units in the suburb. Three- and two-bedroom homes dominate the mix.  Despite a strong push by the Olympic organisers to discourage car ownership in the area, just 3% of homes are without a car while 55% of homes have two or more cars.

Source: http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/finding/residential-investment/17667-newington-olympic-story.html

Newington contains about 2000houses accommodating 5000 people in an area of 90 hectares that was a brownfield site. A key aspect of the design philosophy was to use new technologies to minimize the urban ecological footprint. For example, all buildings include solar panels that are estimate to prevent the production of about 13000 tones of carbon dioxide per year, which is the equivalent of removing 261 cars from Sydney's roads.

Tha water cycle of the area is managed in such a way that storm water is diverted and used to create natural wildlife habitats. Newington also has a dual water system that separates drinkable water (for use in kitchens) from non-drinkable water (for use in flushing toilets). 

The layout of Newington was planned as three park-centered precincts, ensuring that no home is more than five minutes walk from parkslands. A dense network of bicycle tracks and pedestrian pathways links to the residential areas with the parklands.

Transport in Newington has also been designed with sustainable development in mind. Bus services run throughout the suburb and connect to rail and ferry services. Unfortunately, the residents have not really become used to utilizing the public transport provided, and like most Sydney residents, prefer to use private motor vehicle. Perhaps this is because the private company that planned Newington allotted an average of two parking places for many of the houses.    
Waste disposal in Newington also shows evidence of sustainability. Residents sort the waste into recyclable and non-recyclable rubish, which is collected from separetly coloured large bins using highly automated trucks that compress the rubish as it is collected. Waste that is designated for landfill is compressed by 90%for hard waste and 60% for soft waste.
Source: Codrington, Stephen B. Planet Geography. Adelaide: Solid Star Press, 2002. Print.


Source: http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/finding/residential-investment/17667-newington-olympic-story.html

Sustainable strategy to manage pollution in Graz, Austria

Source: http://www.enviro-pro.eu/de/okoprofit/

The Ecoprofit program (Ökoprofit) in the Austrian city of Graz is ibntended to educate local business and help them identify ways in which they can improve their production process to reduce waste and resource consumption, and thus increase profitability. It is run jointly by the city's Environment Department and the Graz University of Technology. As an incentive to participate in the program, companies that complete the program are awarded the Ecoprofit logo, which can then be used for promotional purposes for marketing an an 'ecological market leader'.

Source: Codrington, Stephen B. Planet Geography. Adelaide: Solid Star Press, 2002. Print.

Okoprofit 2000 report

Sustainable strategies to manage pollution in Graz

Sustainable strategy to manage rapid city growth in Sydney, Australia

Source: https://sourceable.net/sydney-the-city-of-your-and-my-dreams/

Metropolitan Sydney has a population of about four milion people an an area of aproximately 4000 square kilometers. Much of its growth has occurred since the end of the World War II, during which period urban sprawl has occurred as new suburbs were built based upon transport by private motor vehicles.

In december 2005, the New South Wales state government released a strategic plan to co-ordinate the future growth of Sydney called City of Cities: A Plan for Sydney's Future. The plan covers the period to the year 203, during which time and growth of 1.1 million people is anticipated. The plan has five aims:

  1. Enhance Sydney's livability, by ensuring a diverse choice of housing for an ageing and changing population, close to services, while protecting the character of the suburbs and communities. 
  2. Strengthen Sydney's long-term economic prosperity by increasing the city's competitiveness in globalised markets, and sharing and sharing the benefits accross all parts of the city.
  3. Ensuring fairness by providing fair access to jobs, services and lifestyle opportinities by aligning services close to where people live, and by providing access to high quality transport. 
  4. Protect Sydney's environment and reduce the city's use of natural resources and production of waste.
  5. Improve the quality of planning and decision making, giving the community greater confidence in governing institutions. 

Source: Codrington, Stephen B. Planet Geography. Adelaide: Solid Star Press, 2002. Print.






No comments:

Post a Comment