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
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

Comments

  1. Unknown31 October 2020 at 17:39

    Thank you for Giving us.key point from the course era

    ReplyDelete

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