Section
4: Sustainable Cities - the Challenge of the
21st Century
The
main part of Chapter 16 was written by Alan
AtKisson, adapted from project documents produced
by the Goa 2100 Team including Aromar Revi,
Rahul Mehrotra, Sanjay Prakash and GK Bhat.
Speaking of the project Alan AtKisson said 'Goa
2100 is truly a breakthrough project, with many
design features and analytical elements that
must be studied closely to be understood and
appreciated. I should note that I served on
the project's Board of Advisors, reviewed some
of their technical work, and assisted with the
writing and editing of their final presentation
to the Jury at the World Gas Convention. However,
my role in the project was very small, and I
performed these services voluntarily, as did
nearly all of the members of the design team
as well, who deserve to go far with this work.
Goa 2100 marks that rare coming together of
enormous professional competence and creativity
with the passion to make a positive difference,
the very definition of a labour of love.'
Alan
AtKisson, President and CEOof AtKisson Inc
Alan AtKisson is the author of the popular
1999
book Believing Cassandra: An Optimist
Looks
at a Pessimist's World.
In
the year 2000, the International Gas Union (IGU)
boldly decided to 'explore the future of cities
and urban communities in the next one hundred
years.' The IGU commissioned a multi-million
dollar international competition on Sustainable
Urban Systems Design (SUSD), with winners to
be decided at the World Gas Congress 2003, in
Tokyo.
Competitors
were instructed to:
-
develop a clear vision of sustainable cities;
-
provide process proposals for the transformation
of existing cities into sustainable cities
over a period of a century; and
-
recommend how energy systems (and gas) could
contribute to urban sustainability.
Ten
Finalists were chosen from among 60 national teams,
and the Finalist projects were awarded approximately
US$75,000 each to further develop their design
proposals and participate in international meetings
during the course of two years. A blue-ribbon
international jury of seven well-recognized experts
and sustainability leaders was assembled to guide
the process and review the proposals, culminating
with a presentation in Tokyo and the awarding
of prizes. Goa 2100's award, (one of three Special
Jury Awards, with the overall winner being Vancouver,
Canada), was earned on the basis of the extraordinary
creativity and intellectual rigour of the model.
The prize was earned despite the fact that the
Indian team had far fewer resources than other
teams. For example, the US entry had a budget
of US$5 million, raised from a variety of sources,
while the Indian team was limited to the original
US$75,000 grant from the competition organizers,
and the 'sweat equity' of the team members. The
team behind Goa 2100 and the RUrbanism design
framework was pulled together from some of India's
most innovative design and consulting firms, with
experience all over the country, and supported
by a network of volunteer international advisers.
The team chose the small state of Goa, a former
Portuguese colony on India's west coast, because
of its already good quality of life and relatively
high levels of human development. The city of
Panjim also reflects many of the common challenges
faced by India's growing cities, whilst also having
the resources, governance culture, and institutional
base that make sustainability transition a clear
possibility.
Leading
Programs
UN
Sustainable Cities Program
The
Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP) is a joint
UN-HABITAT/UNEP facility for building capacities
in urban environmental planning and management.
They write that, "The programme is founded on
broad-based cross-sectoral and stakeholder participatory
approaches. It contributes to promoting urban
environmental governance processes, as a basis
for achieving sustainable urban growth and development.
Currently, the SCP operates in 20 main demonstration
and 25 replicating cities around the world, including
cities in China, Chile, Egypt, Ghana, India, Kenya,
Korea, Malawi, Nigeria , the Philippines, Poland,
Russia, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Tunisia
and Zambia. Preparatory activities are underway
in Lesotho , South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam,
whilst countries such as Bahrein, Cameroon, Iran,
Kenya and Rwanda have shown interest."
View
Website
UN
Habitat: Best Practise in Sustainable Settlements
Database
This
UN Habitat database features solutions to everyday
social, economic and environmental problems in
a rapidly urbanising world. More than 1500 case
studies from 140 countries demonstrate proven
ways in which public, private and civil society
sectors are working together to improve governance,
eradicate poverty, provide housing, land and basic
services, protect the environment and support
economic development.
View
Website
2003
Sustainable Cities International Gas Union competition
Winner:
Canada , Vancouver
In
2003, Canada was awarded the grand prize in an
international competition for urban sustain-ability.
Canada 's entry citiesPLUS (or cities Planning
for Long-term Urban Sustainability) developed
a 100-year sustainability plan for Vancouver in
a project that involved 500 experts and participants
from 30 cities across Canada. This 2-year exercise
culminated in Team Canada being awarded the Grand
Prix at the international Sustainable Urban Systems
Design competition in Tokyo, June 2003. Since
the win, the citiesPLUS legacies continue to live
on through a number of activities and initiatives
coordinated by the original partners.
View
Website |Purchase
the CD
Submissions
of the finalists from 9 countries
View
Web site
Outline
of the competition
View
pdf
Australian
Federal Government Inquiry into sustainable cities
On
8 August, 2003, the Minister for Environment and
Heritage announced that a committee was to inquire
into the development of sustainable cities.
Discussion
paper (PDF
92KB) or (Word
176KB)
Schedule
of public hearings (and transcripts) | Inquiry
update
Further
Links
The
Planning Institute of Australia 's sustainable
cities submission
View
PDF
References
from the Book
1. Brain, P. (1999)
Beyond Meltdown: The Global Battle for Sustained
Growth, Scribe Publishing , Australia.
2. Ibid
3. Newsweek (2003)
4. O'Meara Sheehan,
M. (1999) Reinventing Cities for People and the
Planet, Worldwatch Paper 147, Worldwatch Institute,
Washington, DC, pp14-15; includes updates from
United Nations (2000) World Urbanization Prospects:
The 1999 Revision, UN, New York.
5. Newman, P. and
Kenworthy, J. (1999) Sustainability and Cities,
Island Press, Washington, DC.
6. Ibid
7. The principle source
is a detailed paper on methodology, from which
Alan AtKisson has drawn significant portions of
the text, but it has also relied on presentation
files, statements of design principles and spreadsheets,
together with long conversations. From these sources,
Alan has endeavoured to distil the most important
features of Goa 2100 for general readers, but
it is impossible to do this project justice in
a text this short. This part serves only as a
general introduction; the serious reader or engaged
professional is referred to the original documents,
and the members of the design team.
8. Alexander, C.,
Ishikawa, S. and Silverstein, M. (1977) A Pattern
Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, prepared
with Jacobson, M., Fiksdahl-King, I. and Angel,
S., Oxford University Press, Oxford.