Green Energy and Technology Justin Bishop Editor Building Sustainable Cities of the Future Green Energy and Technology More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8059 Justin Bishop Editor Building Sustainable Cities of the Future 123 Editor Justin Bishop University of Cambridge Cambridge UK ISSN 1865-3529 ISSN 1865-3537 (electronic) Green Energy and Technology ISBN 978-3-319-54456-4 ISBN 978-3-319-54458-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54458-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017945687 © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Contents Introduction................................................. 1 Justin Bishop Energy for Cities: Supply, Demand and Infrastructure Investment .... 5 Colin J. Axon and Simon H. Roberts Future-Proofed Design of Low-Energy Housing Developments: Case Studies from the UK and Sweden........................... 29 Maria Christina Georgiadou On the Move—or Moving On? Reimagining the Future of Travel ..... 57 Malek Al-Chalabi Water: An Essential Resource and a Critical Hazard ............... 75 Richard A. Fenner Health and Well-being in Urban Environments .................... 99 Anja Mizdrak and Adam John Ritchie A Place for Food Within Sustainable Urban Masterplanning ......... 117 Bee Farrell Infrastructure, Equity and Urban Planning: A Just Process for the Allocation of Benefits and Burdens ........................ 141 Daniel Durrant Sustainable Places: Delivering Adaptive Communities ............... 163 Laura Mazzeo, Nick James, Gary Young and Bee Farrell v Contributors Malek Al-Chalabi Transport Studies Unit, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Colin J. Axon Institute of Energy Futures, Brunel University, London, UK Justin Bishop Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK Daniel Durrant Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, Bloomsbury, UK Bee Farrell Farrells, London, UK; Anciens Foodways, London, UK; Anciens Foodways, Poitiers, France Richard A. Fenner Department of Engineering, Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK Maria Christina Georgiadou Department of Property and Construction, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, University of Westminster, London, UK Nick James Farrells, London, UK Laura Mazzeo Farrells, London, UK Anja Mizdrak Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand Adam John Ritchie The Jenner Institute and The Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Simon H. Roberts Arup, London, UK Gary Young Farrells, London, UK vii Introduction Justin Bishop In 2007, the proportion of the global population living in the urban environment was over 50%. Urbanisation has been underway in high-income1 countries for several decades. In 1950, 57% of the population of these countries lived in cities. By 2014, more than 80% of the population in each of Northern America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe were living in the urban environment. Not only are cities where most people live, they are also responsible for 80% of global gross domestic product, two-thirds of energy use and 70% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (IEA 2016). It is projected that all population growth through to 2050 will occur in the urban environment (UN 2015). Therefore, this is the context in which most future human activity will occur and the associated challenges will be overcome. The cities of the future are the cities of today in most cases. Therefore, there is a need to place existing cities on a more sustainable evolution path. Cities vary in size, land area, population, climate, topography and global importance. At one end of the scale, megacities of at least 10 million inhabitants are major regional eco- nomic and financial hubs. At the other end, the largest class of city, by number and proportion of global population now and through to 2030, is the urban area of fewer than 300,000 inhabitants (UN 2015). Achieving sustainable cities requires some appreciation of what sustainability is and how it can be incorporated into our cities’ development. Rockström et al. (2009) proposed a ‘planetary boundaries’ framework which outlines the safe operating space for human activity to exist within. This concept necessarily gives 1Countries with gross national income per capita of at least $12,615 are classified as high-income. See http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wesp/wesp_current/2014wesp_country_ classification.pdf for further classifications and lists of countries. J. Bishop (&) Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 1 J. Bishop (ed.), Building Sustainable Cities of the Future, Green Energy and Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54458-8_1 2 J. Bishop precedence to the environment by allowing Holocene-like conditions to persist (Steffen et al. 2015). When this concept was developed, human activities were exceeding the safe boundaries for climate change (350 parts per million greenhouse gases (GHG) by volume (ppmv) and 1 W/m2 radiative forcing), rate of biodiversity loss (10 species per million annually), and interference with the nitrogen cycle (million tonnes removed from the atmosphere annually). Climate change and biosphere integrity, which incorporates genetic diversity and biodiversity loss, are core planetary boundaries, through which the others operate (Steffen et al. 2015). The monthly average GHG concentration exceeded 400 parts per million by volume (ppmv) in September 2016 for the first time—this concen- tration continues to rise and scientists expect we have now tipped into a new age of human–climate interaction (Kahn 2016). Overall, 2016 marked the hottest year on record, continuing a streak of annual mean temperature increases globally (NOAA 2017). Biodiversity loss has direct impact on the existence of ecosystems. Good ecosystem functioning is required to provide the products and services that all species depend upon for their existence. The earth has an annual productive capacity, known as net primary productivity (NPP), which is the total amount of carbon dioxide CO2 fixed by autotrophs minus that used by plants in respiration. Humans appropriate 25% of total NPP through land-use changes, agriculture and settlements (Haberl et al. 2014). Consequently, more than 75% of the ice-free land area has been altered significantly by human actions (Ellis and Ramankutty 2008). The aim of this book has been to investigate how lessons and best, or ‘next’ practice can be transferred across cities and how bespoke the sustainable city must be. The contributing authors’ mandates have been to identify the problem and challenges, identify which cities are making progress or not towards solutions and comment on the applicability of these solutions further afield. The chapters address a subset of the challenges facing modern cities, focusing on both the physical environment—such as transport, energy and sanitation—and how cities can meet the human needs of food, health and equity in infrastructure planning. The authors’ findings show how incorporating ‘best’ and ‘next’ practice in one sector results in secondary benefits elsewhere and is further evidence of the integrated nature of achieving sustainability in cities. References Ellis EC, Ramankutty N (2008) Putting people in the map: anthropogenic biomes of the world. Front Ecol Environ. doi:10.1890/070062 Haberl H, Erb KH, Krausmann F (2014) Human appropriation of net primary production: patterns, trends, and planetary boundaries. Annu Rev Environ Resour 39(1):363–391. doi:10.1146/ annurev-environ-121912-094620 IEA (2016) Energy technology perspectives 2016—towards sustainable urban energy systems. Technical report, International Energy Agency. https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/ publication/EnergyTechnologyPerspectives2016_ExecutiveSummary_EnglishVersion.pdf Introduction 3 Kahn B (2016) The world passes 400 PPM threshold. Permanently. http://www.climatecentral.org/ news/world-passes-400-ppm-threshold-permanently-20738