An ecologically sound city....What makes up one?

[theblackalchemist]

Hey all,

so we know all that's going around.
who doesn't.?
Global warming, Ozone depletion, Deforestation,

So if you get to make a city...no budget constraints..what will be in your mind?

Oh yeah..please be realistic
i mean no molecular disintegrators, etc


TBA

[freeztar]

An ecological city? A bit of an oxymoron, no?!

In seriousness, I'll attempt to answer this as the help and advice forum dictates, rather than the "make your own eco-city" topic that TBA seems to be suggesting. (if this is the case TBA, then let me know and the thread can be moved to 'Environmental Studies' or 'Architecture'.)

Aspects of an 'eco-city' might include the following:

• Alternative energy - solar panels on rooftops, wind generators in appropriate locations, and perhaps biofuel
  
• Sustainability - urban gardens with composting, local markets, community efforts
  
• Design - low-impact housing, intelligent water systems, community oriented, efficient transportation
  
• Nature - 50/50 proportion for urban landscapes vs. natural landscapes, wetland systems, parks (one big park actually), horticulture

[Buffy]

This isn't really a "question" with an "answer" but rather an open-ended discussion, so I'm moving it to Environmental Studies...

The main issue I think is that it is an "opinion" as to what set of policies constitute "ecologically sound." There are some folks in Berkeley who just got dragged out of some 90 year old trees who insisted that removing them--even though the hillside 200 years ago had but a handful of them among endless square miles of grassland--was some sort of offense against nature. For these folks the only solution is to tear down everything and get rid of all of the people.

I'd hope this discussion is a wee bit more rational!

I actually really like freezy's notion of "sustainability": it's all about a population unit making sure that their presence is "eco-positive". It's inconceivable to have "cities" that do not export and import--meaning that "self-sufficiency" is a practical impossibility--but that the net contribution of the people in the city to the health of the local ecology and that of the planet is positive.

I'd hope that that would be by doing something other than purchasing ooodles of carbon credits because the people in the city are rich!

My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income,
Buffy

[Eclipse Now]

This is a subject I have been passionately pushing for a while now. It could solve our dependence on oil, solve global warming, create more humane and beautiful neighbourhoods, decrease isolation and depression,

Check my page on "REZONING for New Urbanism" for a number of models and possibilities. There's the very tall and proud Ecocity which essentially converts your CBD into a densely populated and diverse function neighbourhood.

There's New Urbanism into which we can pack more people into vital neighbourhoods of creative street planning, where you walk to work past your favourite book shops and cafe's rather than pounding the steering wheel in traffic.

And there's the Rural Outpost. Imagine your city evolving over the next 60 years. Imagine suburbia gradually shrinking back into densely populated yet trendy & beautiful Eco-cities, and New Urbanism streets revolving around trams, trains, and trolley buses. What happens out in the sticks? Well, gradually all those vastly bloated suburban homes are recycled, the land rezoned and restored and converted into local agriculture. (Which it seems can occur in almost any climate given the "greening the desert" technologies I'm discussing in another thread.) Then out in what we currently call "exurbia" we have a few Rural townships... basically New Urbanism that has been "cut off" from the main flow of suburban sprawl that has been rezoned for sustainability.

If this sounds like madness, or even some kind of communist conspiracy, check out my page which answers the following questions. (Pan down to number 8)

# Objections:

1. That's so typical of Nazi Greenie Control Freaks telling us how to live!
2. It's just Lefty propaganda — suburbia is the American way
3. Fear of ugly Urban city scapes
4. What do we do with the vast suburban areas we've already built?

We can turn this...


into this...


Where would you rather live and raise your kids?

[Moontanman]

I'd like to see genetically engineered trees that grow into dwellings. such trees could consume the waste of the people who live in them and even provide fruit to eat.

[Eclipse Now]

The thing is, we already have all the technology we need. No doubt new tech will develop over the years, but right now if we just Rezoned our cities with an emphasis on Rail, Renewables, Redesigned Industry (industrial ecosystems or "Cradle to Cradle design") and a few other "Radical R's" then we'd have energy independence and security, solve global warming, pollution, waste management, social isolation and many other problems.

We can do this. We just don't want to... yet.