Sustainable Urban Development Flashcards
What is an individual’s ecological footprint? - Sustainability
An individual’s ecological footprint is the amount of land required to produce everything that an individual consumes, as well as account for their waste.
What factors affect ecological footprints in cities? (3) - Sustainability
Ecological footprints are affected by wealth (with consumption boosted in wealthier areas), the size of a city (with compact cities easier to travel around, causing reduced GHG emissions/bigger cities producing more waste) and the quality of transport (with more efficient transport decreasing car use).
What is the size of London’s population’s ecological footprint in relation to the area of London? How many times larger than the UK Average is a Londoner’s carbon footprint? - Sustainability
London’s ecological footprint is 120x the area of the city of London. A Londoner’s carbon footprint is 2 times bigger than the UK Average citizen’s carbon footprint.
What is sustainability? What are its four aspects? - Sustainability
Sustainability is where the needs of current generations are met without preventing future generations from meeting the needs of their own. Sustainability is made up of natural, physical, social and educational attributes.
What concerns natural and physical aspects of sustainability? - Sustainability
Natural - how the environment, resources and waste are managed
Physical - whether the buildings and infrastructure in a city can support its people
What concerns social and economic aspects of sustainability? - Sustainability
Social - how people live together and their quality of life
Economic - maintaining economic growth
What is liveability? What components combine to produce this? - Sustainability
Liveability is a measure of an area’s living conditions, depending on jobs, crime, space, education, healthcare, infrastructure, culture and environment. Refers to conditions with best and worst living conditions for residents.
What is a linear city cycle? What is a circular city cycle? - Sustainability
A linear city cycle sees uncontrolled inputs and outputs into a city (goods, people, production, waste), leading to exhaustion of resources and high pollution/waste levels.
A circular city cycle sees sees outputs recycled into inputs, reducing demand on resources and waste streams.
What opportunities face cities in terms of sustainability? (3) - Sustainability
Concentrated cities rather than dispersed cities are easier to provide services, utilities and transport for. More research is undertaken on and focussed on the importance of cities being sustainable. There is also greater involvement in sustainable initiatives.
What challenges face cities in terms of sustainability? - Sustainability
CHRONIC STRESSES (unemployment, inefficient transport, violence and food/water shortages), ACUTE SHOCKS (events threatening cities such as hazards, disease, terror attacks), BECOMING MORE SUSTAINABLE and difficulties surrounding this.
Why is sustainability increasingly difficult to achieve? - Sustainability
Sustainability is difficult to achieve due to the expense of sustainable investment, growth in need for services, a lack of willingness to change lifestyles and practices, a lack of appropriate infrastructure and a rapid/increasing urbanisation of developing cities.
What % of the global population live in cities? What % will live in cities by 2030? - Sustainability
50% of the global population currently live in cities, with this expected to rise to 60% by 2030.
How do reducing the number of cars and increasing amounts of green space respectively help achieve to achieve sustainability? - Sustainability
Reducing numbers of cars will reduce the volumes of particulate matter and vehicular emissions, meaning that pollution is reduced. Increasing amounts of green space reduces pollution through photosynthesis and increases biodiversity.
How do improving urban waste disposal and increasing renewable energy use respectively help to achieve sustainability? - Sustainability
Improving urban waste disposal will reduce ecological footprints and landfill use, while environmental impacts like GHG emission will be restricted. Increasing renewable energy use will reduce the need for the combustion of greenhouse gases, reducing atmospheric pollution and helping to regulate our climate.
How do reducing water use and increasing building efficiency respectively help to improve sustainability? - Sustainability
Reducing water use alleviates stresses on an increasingly sparse water supply, meaning any recycling of water (grey water) and other types can help this. Increased building efficiency will reduce need for heating provision, which will reduce burden on fossil fuels as an energy generation method.
