Tag Archives: urbanization

Module 5: Limits of Urbanization?

Posted on by
1

1. The case study I chose was on the Indian state of Gujarat from the source, World Business Council for Sustainable Development. (Link http://www.wbcsd.org/uiigujaratreport.aspx) This region is considered one of the most industrialized regions in India, as they will soon have more people living in cities than in villages for the first time ever in history (meaning that sustainable urban development plans must be quite flexible to accommodate the needs of cities). The Urban Infrastructure Initiative brought together seven companies from various sectors to collaborate with public officials on addressing key challenges faced by cities in Gujarat. The three goals were to come up with solutions regarding urban planning, energy efficiency and wastewater management. With the second highest per capital electrical consumption in India, Gujarat must design urban development plans that not only address present needs but also future expansions without compromising infrastructure capabilities. Also, the inadequate water/wastewater infrastructure can lead to many detrimental affects on the public and local landscape. Overall, the UII was beneficial in that it helped “officials understand how business could contribute to sustainability goals by identifying practical solutions.”

2.As there are no fully sustainable “eco cities” present, my second case study will focus on a much smaller scale. This site is an eco-village in India called Serene Eco-village that I found from a source entitled Global Ecovillage Network (http://ecovillage.org/en/serene-mission-survive). With more than a hundred eco-villages located internationally, I chose a site in India because it shows what sustainable development can look like, albeit on a smaller scale. Established in 2009, the village was developed with the purpose of integrating sustainable designs and technologies to support a vibrant communal atmosphere. Needs such as energy, food, waste management and shelter are all addressed through the multiple systems incorporated in building plans. Organic multi-tier farming, roof water harvesting with filtration tanks, bio-gas plants and other such features ensure that the community is making as little of an impact on the environment as possible to create an efficient “end user” way of living (meaning nothing is wasted if it can be reused for another purpose). Lastly, this way of living reminds humans to enjoy all the creative elements of nature.
3. I will use the city of Oceanside California as my third case. Though Oceanside is mostly developed, it wasn’t always so as the city previously used to be an unattractive rough area but now is quite a “touristy” area. The city had to enforce revised waste regulations, as trash was easy to find in the harbor and beach along with reducing crime rates in the city to promote safe and better living standards. Similar to the prior two cases, Oceanside faces the same three obstacles when expanding development. The order of priority however, shifts to urban development, water management (waste management isn’t a problem) with energy efficiency being last as the city/citizens do an excellent job of renovating energy consumption components.
There is a strong incentive to develop real estate in California so in Oceanside many neighborhoods and commercial spaces are being created on previously empty land. This overdevelopment has already been proven to be beyond the carrying capacity of nearby regions but with smarter management, designs and collective actions; this may at least negate our actions somewhat.

Module 1: Getting To Know You – Ben Ceci

Posted on by
3

Hi everybody! My name is Ben Ceci and I am a 3rd year Landscape Architecture student, minoring in horticulture, at University Park. I was born and raised in Greenwich, CT and hope to use my education to add an architectural branch to my dad’s landscaping / site development business. As a designer of the outdoors, I think that it’s very important to learn about the land, how it functions, and how I can design in the best possible way to preserve the land. With the landscape architecture department focusing on sustainability, it would also be beneficial to learn about how humans are directly affecting the environment and how I can design in a more sustainable way. Although I’m from CT, my whole family consists of die hard Steelers fans and whenever the Steelers have a home game in the playoffs, we rent a bus and 30 – 40 of us buckle up and spend the weekend in Pittsburgh. I love to travel as well so learning about the geography in different areas interests me as well.

A big issue in the world today is the increase in population and how to deal with it. Everyday more and more people are born and more and more farmland is being developed. This is a recipe for failure because eventually there will not be enough resources to feed all of these people. Once the agricultural soils are developed, they are basically destroyed and no longer ideal for farming. This has a lot to do with scale because the population is increasing both locally and worldwide while the farmland is decreasing locally and worldwide as well. It is our generation’s responsibility to plan out development and design sustainably in order to allow the future generations to live in the same way that we do now, if not better.