China's Green Race Against Urban Surge

The term ‘sustainable’ is heralded as commonly used eco-jargon that has renewed vigour since Beijing won the bid for the 2008 Olympics. In a nation struggling with air and water quality, it’s a young term, with many obstacles to overcome as it fully industrializes. Its popularity, however, has taken off, with sustainability embedded into many new town developments; simultaneous economic development, social progress and environmental protection are promoted in a unified way.

Dongtan, an example of such a sustainable new town, currently has a virtually pristine ecosystem, a factor driving healthy development. Plans have been released by ARUP to return land that is currently cultivated back to its original wetland state. This creates a ‘buffer zone’ between the population, which is expected to rocket, and nature. It will also confirm a zone of increased biodiversity with the large range of native and migratory faunal species currently habitating the region. A total of 181 species of flora and fauna were witnessed at this site alone between 1997 and 2001, this study promoting the area for RAMSAR status. Migratory species are also common with birds on the Asia-Pacific migration route passing through Dongtan on their way from their winter habitat in Australia to their nesting grounds in Siberia.
Overall, the popularity of sustainable design and living must be realised in its entirety. Protection of land and animal and plant species plays a key role in such developments.

Adams, J., 2008. China's Green Race Against Urban Surge.

Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/JB23Cb01.html

Dongtan's Waste Management

Climate change is a debated prospect in the global media. Approaches to combating changes on monumental scales are regularly discussed at both broad and specific conferences. A second conference, reporting on how waste is linked to climate change was held yesterday in London, the head of ARUP, the company behind the eco city of Dongtan, invited to speak. ACR+ and London Remade, two key companies governing waste management in Europe outlined the importance of reducing municipal waste and the positive effect this will have on the reduction in carbon dioxide emission. A European campaign to reduce municipal waste by 100Kg per person per year will reduce a personal emission by 160Kg per year. The future of waste management lies in waste prevention, remanufacture and improved legislation. However, it must be noted from accounts of this conference that recycling must be viewed as a step towards sustainable development rather than a solution. Remanufacture alone cannot solely reduce greenhouse emissions enough to meet current global targets.
Peter Head highlighted Dongtan’s control plan. The eco-city aims to use resource management to reduce the areas ecological footprint to 2.6 global hectares per person, compared to a current 5.5. global hectares per person witnessed in Shanghai.
In addition, The Asia Times has reported further plans, revealing that Dongtan City is expected to recover, recycle and reuse 90% of its generated waste.

Source: http://www.morethanwaste.com/Site/Default.aspx/03B85065EE1DA7F81C19

Systems, Cities and Sustainable Mobility

A conference: “Systems, cities and Sustainable Mobility” was held this week, summarising development proposals for the Pasadena region of Los Angeles, USA. Gary Lawrence, the Urban Strategies spokesman for ARUP introduced ideas for Dongtan into the discussion. Sustainability was an ongoing theme, the idea that it must be promoted as a political concept with technical challenges was predominant. The discussion continued to whether sustainability must be based on an educational model, focusing on changing behaviour and attitudes, or on a design model, centred on overcoming technical hitches and increasing the efficiency with which systems work. On relieving this debate, it must be noted that technology can only provide directions for change and that these must be coupled with conscious human choice.
Materialization of Dongtan as an eco-city is amidst flourishing new concepts. New examples of how the development will work have come to light today, within this conference. Dongtan is designed for a scenario in which sea level will rise by 3m, rice husks from local agricultural practices will be used to fuel a huge combined heat and power station and although cars are not excluded, we are continually reminded how they will become the least attractive transportation option.

Stewart, J., 2008. Art Centre Mobility Summit: A field report.

Source: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007837.html

Upending the Traditional Farm

An evolution in greenhouse technology is suggested today, accompanying the creation of ‘vertical farms’ aiming to bring farms to the city. Proponents believe that food could be produced within urban limits using a fraction of the resources of traditional methods, thereby removing strains from the countryside. Heat and lighting would be powered by geothermal, tidal, solar, or other renewable energy sources and nitrogen and other nutrients retrieved from animal waste and perhaps even the city sewage system.
The viability of such major green schemes is highly debated, being an extremely ambitious concept. Nevertheless urban farms are beginning to be accepted in plans for several cities, the biggest project being part of Dongtan Eco-city. A fundamental goal of Dongtan’s development is to grow enough food to replace lost productivity as farmland is urbanized in surrounding regions. Could this be manifested in ‘Urban Farming’ as the cost and harm caused by cheap transportation, water and need for space are limited?

Vogel, G., 2008. Upending the Traditional Farm. Science, 319, 752-753.

Source: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5864/752

Carbon-Free Living: China's Great Leap Forward

An article published in The Independent, a UK based newspaper, today discusses the changes that the Chinese nation is experiencing in relation to green living. ‘Grim apocalyptic nightmares’ are said to characterise previous environmental reports from China, especially developed areas where citizens who do not want to slow down economic growth to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions live.
Planners behind the development of Dongtan are not naive, they recognize the impact China has on the planet’s environment, and this project is simply a search for a new way forward. A sustainable way. A way in which renewable energy sources are utilized and a brand new coal power station isn’t being erected somewhere in the country every week.
This is possibly the single largest building project ever to be undertaken, building a city to house 500,000 in an ecologically positive way. Chinese are optimistic however, as are the media, and it is undoubted that China has recognized its contribution to global warming and understands the need for sustainable action. Plans to build a ‘holistic, systemic view of a city’ is underway just outside Shanghai and developers believe such sustainable city living is possible and truly within our grasp.
In the next decade 400million Chinese will move to urban areas and companies are targeted as Dongtan is encouraged as their choice of a place to live and work.
Life in Dongtan will be different. Self-sufficient buildings will exist, with local and organic produce consumed. All houses are guaranteed to be within seven minutes walk of public transport and conventional cars will be banned from the streets. These are a few, among many, of the green proposals to be out into action in Dongtan.
Peter Head, the director of ARUP, the company behind Dongtans’s development has commented on how the city may look like something from a science fiction movie, but he insists on trying and testing the underlying principles, eventually hoping to develop Dongtan as a blueprint for new developments and changes to existing cities.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/carbonfree-living-chinas-green-leap-forward-435208.html