Stewardship of the Biosphere in the Urban Era Michail Fragkias Boise State University
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IMPROVING the INDOOR ENVIRONMENT for HEALTH, WELL-BEING and PRODUCTIVITY Ronald a Wood Bsc. Phd. Department of Environmental
IMPROVING THE INDOOR ENVIRONMENT FOR HEALTH, WELL-BEING AND PRODUCTIVITY Ronald A Wood BSc. PhD. Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology, Sydney, Westbourne Street, Gore Hill, NSW 2065, Australia e-mail: [email protected] Wednesday 30th April 2003 13:55 to 14:20 IMPROVING THE INDOOR ENVIRONMENT FOR HEALTH, WELL-BEING AND PRODUCTIVITY Ronald A Wood BSc. PhD. Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology, Sydney, Westbourne Street, Gore Hill, NSW 2065, Australia e-mail: [email protected] Presented at Greening Cities: a new urban ecology. 30th April. Australian Technology Park, Sydney Abstract This paper selectively reviews scientific research on the positive effects on building occupant’s health, well-being and productivity that result from the presence of indoor plants in the workplace. Case studies show improvement in indoor air quality, (with a reduction in the levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), improved productivity by up to 12%, and reduced absenteeism and staff turnover cost. Indoor air pollution is a health hazard, which causes diseases, lost work days and reduced quality of life. Unhealthy indoor air has been estimated to cost the Australian community $12 billion dollars a year, and is a generally unrecognized significant environmental issue. Introduction The term ‘building ecology’ has been used to describe a comprehensive systems approach to understanding interactions between building environments and their occupants (Levin, 1981) People react to indoor environments in markedly different ways. Complex modern building environments produce reactions of a psychological (perceptual) and physiological (biological) nature. The reasons why one environment is better than another are complex; besides the physical environment there are all the psychosocial factors that pertain to it, especially in the workplace (Wood and Burchett 1995). -
Advancing Urban Ecology Toward a Science of Cities
BioScience Advance Access published February 24, 2016 Overview Articles Advancing Urban Ecology toward a Science of Cities TIMON MCPHEARSON, STEWARD T. A. PICKETT, NANCY B. GRIMM, JARI NIEMELÄ, MARINA ALBERTI, THOMAS ELMQVIST, CHRISTIANE WEBER, DAGMAR HAASE, JÜRGEN BREUSTE, AND SALMAN QURESHI Urban ecology is a field encompassing multiple disciplines and practical applications and has grown rapidly. However, the field is heterogeneous as a global inquiry with multiple theoretical and conceptual frameworks, variable research approaches, and a lack of coordination among multiple schools of thought and research foci. Here, we present an international consensus on how urban ecology can advance along multiple research directions. There is potential for the field to mature as a holistic, integrated science of urban systems. Such an integrated science Downloaded from could better inform decisionmakers who need increased understanding of complex relationships among social, ecological, economic, and built infrastructure systems. To advance the field requires conceptual synthesis, knowledge and data sharing, cross-city comparative research, new intellectual networks, and engagement with additional disciplines. We consider challenges and opportunities for understanding dynamics of urban systems. We suggest pathways for advancing urban ecology research to support the goals of improving urban sustainability and resilience, conserving urban biodiversity, and promoting human well-being on an urbanizing planet. http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/ Keywords: urban ecology, conceptual frameworks, comparative research, urban systems, complexity espite significant challenges, cities are at the capacity of a system to absorb stress, to continue to develop, D forefront of sustainability practice, serving as the and to change without a loss of essential structure, function, focal points of actions promoting sustainability pathways identity, and feedback (Folke 2008). -
Water in the Sustainable City
WORKING PAPER 26 Water in the sustainable city Cities worldwide are facing growing challenges in storm water management. This working paper compiles experiences from Copenhagen, Dordrecht, Hamburg, London, New York and Seattle, based on interviews and a conference held in Gothenburg, Sweden in November 2014. Process of change: Successful implementation of good water management practices in six cities By Brita Forssberg, Per-Arne Malmqvist and Helene Sörelius Background 2 Background The conference 3 Urbanization is a continuous and growing process all City Blueprints 4 over the world, as it is in Sweden. At the same time, we Dordrecht, The Netherlands 5 are threatened by climate change, which will affect us all wherever we live. The degradation of the environment is Hamburg, Germany 7 counteracted by many means, but new threats continue London, UK – The Thames Tideway Tunnel 10 to emerge. Nine out of ten catastrophes globally are London, UK – Sustainable Urban Storm Water connected with water – too much water or too little. In the face of what might seem to be a dark future, Drainage Solutions, SuDS 11 many cities have taken steps to plan for a brighter future. Copenhagen, Denmark 12 Some cities focus on climate change, some on environ- New York, USA 15 mental threats, and others take a holistic approach and plan for a better, healthier, and economically vibrant city Seattle, USA 17 under all circumstances. Conclusions and lessons learned 20 The same is also true for many Swedish cities. In doing so, they are constantly looking for good examples abro- Copyright © 2016, Stockholm International Water ad. -
An Overview of Urban Environmental Burdens at Three Scales: Intra-Urban, Urban-Regional, and Global
International Review for Environmental Strategies Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 335 – 356, 2005 © 2005 by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies. All rights reserved Special Feature on the Environmentally Sustainable City An Overview of Urban Environmental Burdens at Three Scales: Intra-urban, Urban-Regional, and Global Gordon McGranahana This article focuses on the importance of scale to understanding urban environmental burdens and sustainability. It examines urban environmental burdens at three different scales: (1) within urban areas, where the central concern is how the quality of urban environments affects the lives of the people who live in them; (2) within urban regions, where relations between urban development and the state of adjoining ecosystems, resources , and waste sinks comes into focus; and (3) globally, where the emphasis is on the impact of urban production and consumption on global processes and distant resources. The spatial dimensions to urban environmental burdens are shown to be important ecologically, economically, and even politically. By focusing on a particular scale, it is easy to construct misleading accounts of the qualities of urban settlements that generate the environmental burdens. It is easy, for example, to present either urban poverty or affluence as the most serious threat to the environment, depending on whether the focus is on local or global environmental burdens. The article concludes with a comment on the implications for urban environmental agendas. Keywords: Urban, Environment, Sustainable, Cities, Ecological footprint. There is a long history of environmentalists presenting urban settlements in purely negative terms. This article follows a more recent tradition that recognizes that urban settlements are unsustainable in and of themselves, but also that they may provide the key to moving towards a more environmentally sustainable world (Rees and Wackernagel 1996; Satterthwaite 1997). -
Sustainable Urban Design Paradigm: Twenty Five Simple Things to Do to Make an Urban Neighborhood Sustainable
© 2002 WIT Press, Ashurst Lodge, Southampton, SO40 7AA, UK. All rights reserved. Web: www.witpress.com Email [email protected] Paper from: The Sustainable City II, CA Brebbia, JF Martin-Duque & LC Wadhwa (Editors). ISBN 1-85312-917-8 Sustainable urban design paradigm: twenty five simple things to do to make an urban neighborhood sustainable B. A. Kazimee School of Architecture and Construction Management, Washington State University, USA. Abstract Sustainable design celebrates and creates the ability of communities and wider urban systems to minimize their impact on the environment, in an effort to create places that endure, Central to this paradigm is an ecological approach that take into consideration not only the nature but human element as well, locally and globally. The paper presents twenty five design strategies and explores processes that point to a rediscovery of the art and science of designing sustainable neighborhoods. It seeks to synthesize these principles into an agenda for the design of towns and cities with the intention of reversing many of the ills and destructive tendencies of past practices. These strategies serve as indicators to sustainable developmen~ they are used to define inherent qualities, carrying capacities and required ecological footprints to illustrate the place of exemplary communities. Furthermore, they are established to allow designers to model, measure and program sustainable standards as well as monitor the regenerative process of cities. The guidelines are organized under five primary variables for achieving sustainability: human ecology, energy conservation, land and resource conservation (food and fiber,) air and water quality. These variables are presented as highly interactive cycles and are based upon the theory and principles/processes of place making, affordability and sustainability. -
Sustainable Cities Hubs of Innovation, Low Carbon Industrialization and Climate Action
Sustainable Cities Hubs of Innovation, Low Carbon Industrialization and Climate Action INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT SUSTAINABLE CITIES SUSTAINABLE CITIES: PLATFORMS FOR LOW CARBON INDUSTRIALIZATION AND TURNING TODAY’S CITIES INTO LIVABLE ECONOMIC POWERHOUSES 2 Cover picture: © fotolia SUSTAINABLE CITIES Sustainable Cities Hubs of Innovation, Low Carbon → Industrialization and Climate Action Background Sustainable and inclusive industrialization of cities provides opportunities for developing A sustainable synergies, such as decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, while at the city serves the same time creating employment and fostering clean energy innovation. Cities benefit from the best interest role of industries in local economic development through job creation and income generation. of industry In industry also lie critical solutions towards limiting the carbon intensity of growth, considering the impacts of its activities as an energy consumer (and in some cases energy producer), major freight transport user, promoter of efficiency and clean energy technologies and solutions, preserver of green cover and implementer of sustainability initiatives. A sustainable city serves the best interests of industry as it benefits from the efficient and peaceful functioning of its host cities. UNIDO’s comparative advantage: 1 2 3 4 Clean energy Economic Low-carbon Climate innovation empowerment industrialization action As the world continues to urbanize rapidly, the importance of shaping sustainable cities has begun to receive widespread recognition. This is particularly true in developing countries where urban growth is relatively high and the existing systems and infrastructure are not sufficient. Estimates show that more than half of the global population currently live in cities, and is expected to reach two-thirds by 2050. -
Integrated Approaches to Long-Term Studies of Urban Ecological Systems
Articles IntegratedIntegrated ApproachesApproaches toto Long-TermLong-Term Studies Studies ofof UrbanUrban EcologicalEcological SystemsSystems NANCY B. GRIMM, J. MORGAN GROVE, STEWARD T. A. PICKETT, AND CHARLES L. REDMAN n 1935, Arthur Tansley wrote: I URBAN ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS PRESENT We cannot confine ourselves to the so-called “natural” entities and ignore the processes and expressions of vegetation now so MULTIPLE CHALLENGES TO ECOLOGISTS— abundantly provided by man. Such a course is not scientifically PERVASIVE HUMAN IMPACT AND EXTREME sound, because scientific analysis must penetrate beneath the HETEROGENEITY OF CITIES, AND THE forms of the “natural” entities, and it is not practically useful because ecology must be applied to conditions brought about by NEED TO INTEGRATE SOCIAL AND human activity. The “natural” entities and the anthropogenic ECOLOGICAL APPROACHES, CONCEPTS, derivates alike must be analyzed in terms of the most appropriate concepts we can find. (Tansley 1935, p. 304) AND THEORY This quote captures the spirit of the new urban emphasis The conceptual basis for studying urban in the US Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) net- ecological systems work. We know now that Earth abounds with both subtle and pronounced evidence of the influence of people on Why has the study of urban ecological systems attracted so natural ecosystems (Russell 1993, Turner and Meyer much recent interest? The rationale for the study of 1993). Arguably, cities are the most human dominated of human-dominated systems is three-pronged. First, all ecosystems. Recent calls for studies on “human-domi- humans dominate Earth’s ecosystems (Groffman and nated ecosystems” (Vitousek et al. 1997) finally have been Likens 1994, Botsford et al. -
A Framework for Integrating Agriculture in Urban Sustainability in Australia
Review A Framework for Integrating Agriculture in Urban Sustainability in Australia 1, , 2, 1, Arif H. Sarker * y, Janet F. Bornman y and Dora Marinova y 1 School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, Kent Street, Bentley, Perth 6102, Australia; [email protected] 2 Food Futures Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch 6150, Australia; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +61-432-145-724 These authors contributed equally to this work. y Received: 3 March 2019; Accepted: 29 April 2019; Published: 3 May 2019 Abstract: Rapid urbanisation all over the world poses a serious question about urban sustainability in relation to food. Urban agriculture can contribute to feeding city dwellers as well as improving metropolitan environments by providing more green space. Australia is recognised as one of the most urbanised countries in the world, and achieving urban sustainability should be high on the policy and planning agenda. A strong consensus exists among policymakers and academics that urban agriculture could be a tenable way of enhancing urban sustainability, and therefore, it should be a vital part of planning processes and urban design as administered by local and state governments. However, in recent decades, planning has overlooked and failed to realise this opportunity. The most significant constraints to urban agriculture are its regulatory and legal frameworks, including access to suitable land. Without direct public policy support and institutional recognition, it would be difficult to make urban agriculture an integral part of the development and planning goals of Australian cities. Developing and implementing clear planning policies, laws and programs that support urban agriculture can assist in decreasing competing land demands. -
Fundamental Questions for Understanding the Ecology of Urban Green Spaces for Biodiversity Conservation
Overview Articles Biodiversity in the City: Fundamental Questions for Understanding the Ecology of Urban Green Spaces for Biodiversity Conservation CHRISTOPHER A. LEPCZYK, MYLA F. J. ARONSON, KARL L. EVANS, MARK A. GODDARD, SUSANNAH B. LERMAN, AND J. SCOTT MACIVOR As urban areas expand, understanding how ecological processes function in cities has become increasingly important for conserving biodiversity. Urban green spaces are critical habitats to support biodiversity, but we still have a limited understanding of their ecology and how they function to conserve biodiversity at local and landscape scales across multiple taxa. Given this limited view, we discuss five key questions that need to be addressed to advance the ecology of urban green spaces for biodiversity conservation and restoration. Specifically, we discuss the need for research to understand how green space size, connectedness, and type influence the community, population, and life-history dynamics of multiple taxa in cities. A research framework based in landscape and metapopulation ecology will allow for a greater understanding of the ecological function of green spaces and thus allow for planning and management of green spaces to conserve biodiversity and aid in restoration activities. Keywords: fragmentation, green city, green roof, landscape ecology, urban planning rban areas house the majority of the world’s value to society. Urban green spaces comprise a range of U population, and there has been a surge in interest in habitat types that cross a continuum from intact remnant researching urban ecosystems. For many, urban areas are patches of native vegetation, brownfields, gardens, and sometimes viewed as concrete jungles, with depauperate yards, to essentially terraformed patches of vegetation that fauna and flora dominated by nonnatives and homogenous may or may not be representative of native community asso- taxa across regions. -
In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology
In the Nature of Cities In the Nature of Cities engages with the long overdue task of re-inserting questions of nature and ecology into the urban debate. This path-breaking collection charts the terrain of urban political ecology, and untangles the economic, political, social and ecological processes that form contemporary urban landscapes. Written by key political ecology scholars, the essays in this book attest that the re- entry of the ecological agenda into urban theory is vital, both in terms of understanding contemporary urbanization processes, and of engaging in a meaningful environmental politics. The question of whose nature is, or becomes, urbanized, and the uneven power relations through which this socio-metabolic transformation takes place, are the central themes debated in this book. Foregrounding the socio-ecological activism that contests the dominant forms of urbanizing nature, the contributors endeavour to open up a research agenda and a political platform that sets pointers for democratizing the politics through which nature becomes urbanized and contemporary cities are produced as both enabling and disempowering dwelling spaces for humans and non-humans alike. Nik Heynen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Maria Kaika is Lecturer in Urban Geography at the University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment, and Fellow of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. Erik Swyngedouw is Professor at the University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment, and Fellow of St. Peter’s College, Oxford. Questioning Cities Edited by Gary Bridge, University of Bristol, UK and Sophie Watson, The Open University, UK The Questioning Cities series brings together an unusual mix of urban scholars under the title. -
Land Use: a Powerful
DRAFT of September 23 2013 Land Use: A Powerful Determinant of Sustainable & Healthy Communities AUTHORS: *Llael Cox, †Verle Hansen, †James Andrews, ‡John Thomas, *Ingrid Heilke, *Nick Flanders, †Claudia Walters †Scott A. Jacobs, †Yongping Yuan, †Anthony Zimmer, †James Weaver, †Rebecca Daniels, †Tanya Moore, **Tina Yuen, †Devon C. Payne-Sturges, †Melissa W. McCullough, †Brenda Rashleigh, †Marilyn TenBrink, and †Barbara T. Walton AUTHOR AFFILIATIONS: *Oak Ridge Institute for Science andAUTHOR Education AFFILIATIONS: Research *OakLaboratory; Ridge Institute †Office offor Research Science and Development,Education Research US Environmental Laboratory; †Office Protection of Research Agency; and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency; ‡Office of Sustainable Communities, US Environmental Protection‡Office of Sustainable Agency; **Association Communities, of SchoolsUS Environmental of Public HealthProtection Fellow Agency; **Association of Schools of Public Health Fellow i SHC Land Use Planning SHC 4.1.2 Final Report September 2013 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We gratefully acknowledge Kathryn Saterson, Bob McKane, Jane Gallagher, Joseph Fiksel, Gary Foley, Sally Darney, Melissa Kramer, Betsy Smith, Andrew Geller, Bill Russo, Susan Forbes, Laura Jackson, Iris Goodman, Michael Slimak, Alisha Goldstein, Laura Bachle, Jeff Yang, and Gregg Furie for helpful contributions. PROJECT COORDINATOR’S NOTE I want to recognize the quality of effort extended by the authors. Ordinarily, one might despair of the prospects of success when 19 individuals from 9 separate organizational units are asked to address a diffuse body of knowledge such as “Land Use.” In this report, the reader will find the remarkable result of an extraordinary effort by a dedicated interdisciplinary group of EPA scientists who distilled useful principles and guidance from a vast and scattered literature. -
Sustainable Cities in Theory and Practice a Comparative Study of Curitiba and Portland
Fakulteten för samhälls- och livsvetenskaper Marie Lundqvist Sustainable Cities in Theory and Practice A Comparative Study of Curitiba and Portland Miljövetenskap C-uppsats Datum/Termin: 2007-06-08 Handledare: Eva Svensson Examinator: Eva Svensson Löpnummer: 2007: 06 Karlstads universitet 651 88 Karlstad Tfn 054-700 10 00 Fax 054-700 14 60 [email protected] www.kau.se Abstract The sustainable city is a relatively recent concept which has gained increasing attention the last decades both through the international community and through grass root movements. This study aims to explore how the sustainable city can be translated from theory to practice, using the United Nations universal guide lines for sustainable human settlements as a theoretic background to a comparative case study of Curitiba, Brazil and Portland, USA. The grass root movement of the eco-city concept is also explored as it is a broader approach to sustainable urban planning then the UN HABITAT guide lines. The study focuses on the integration of land-use and transportation systems as a way to improve the efficiency of cities. A well planned and integrated land-use and transportation system can limit land-use development while reducing green house gas emissions. The study show that the key for improving urban planning is through long term political engagement. There is no city which has successfully implemented strategies for sustainable development. A common problem is the conflicting interest of growth that undermines the potential of integrating sufficient strategies. Often governments fail to address the dynamics of the concept of sustainability which must be viewed as a constant process.