Coursera Week 1: Sustainable Urban Transformation

This week looked at what a sustainable city actually is.

• I watched a lecture by Kes McCormick, who talked about the processes behind sustainable urban transformation.
• There was also a talk by James Evans, a professor at Manchester University, who talked about how cities learn to be sustainable.
• Dr. Jennifer Lenhart talked about the importance and characteristics on urban climate governance.
• A video by The Economist on efficient energy use in cities
• A video by WWF on housing adaptation
• The Urban Green Part 1

The reading this week was on Sustainable Urban Transformation and the Green Urban Economy

Click here to access it

The key points from this week were:
Kes McCormick

• The 21st Century has been called the 'Urban Century' by UN-Habitat. This is because more people now live in cities that rural areas, and because of the strategic importance of cities in sustainable global development.
• Cities are not just a source of environmental problems, they also provide opportunities for huge environmental growth.
• There are 3 areas to discuss when talking about sustainable urban transformation:
1. Governance and planning
• In order for a transformation to be successful, it must consider the views of many different stake holders
• It also relies on the collaboration of many different areas of expertise to ensure its success.
2. Innovation and business
• New ideas and technology developed by private and public research are what ensures the new urban transformation is more sustainable than its predecessor.
3. Lifestyles and consumption
• A city can only be as sustainable as its citizens. In order to meet the demand of the population, lifestyles will likely have to be tweaked.
• UN-Habitat sums up the theory behind a sustainable city as
• "Harmony within cities hinges on not only prosperity and its benefits, but on 2 pillars that make harmony possible: equity and sustainability"

James Evans

• Sustainability involves ways to design cities that makes them good places to live, along with being efficient, dynamic places.
• The main issue cities are facing is decarbonisation
• They can do this through changing lifestyles (see Amsterdam case study), or by investing in more efficient transport.
• The planning of cities heavily influences the lifestyle of the population
• Low density cities were initially thought to be beneficial; however, they only result in a reliance on motorised transport such as cars.

Dr. Jennifer Lenhart

• Governance in a city has many levels which all feed into the city level governance.
• There are 4 methods of governance:
1. Self governing
2. Governing by enabling
3. Governing by provision
4. Governing by authority

There were a couple of case studies this week:

• Cycling in Amsterdam
• The addition of cycle lanes has reduced urban sprawl, improved air quality, and improved quality of life
• Domestic sustainability in Ecuador