BESC 201 10 16 2013 Lecture 20 Outline of Last Lecture I Sprawl Outline of Current Lecture II Urban Sustainability Current Lecture 10 16 2013 Urban Sustainability Urban centers have a mix of environmental effects Resource use and efficiency Urban areas rely on large expanses of land elsewhere for resources and ecosystem services and they also burn fossil fuels to import resources and goods A world without cities would likely require more transportation to provide people the same level of access to resources and goods Although a city has a large ecological footprint in total it may have a moderate or small footprint in per capita terms Land preservation If all 7 billion people were evenly spaced across the planet s land area no large blocks of land would be left uninhabited and we would have far less room for agriculture wilderness biodiversity or privacy Pollution Urban centers transfer the costs of their activities to other regions and mask the costs from their own residents Urban Heat Island Effect People buildings vehicles and factories generate heat and buildings and dark paved surfaces absorb daytime heat and then release it slowly at night warming the air and disrupting convective circulation patterns that would otherwise cool the city Innovation Cities have long been viewed as engines of technological and artistic inventiveness Urban ecology helps cities toward sustainability Cities that import all their resources and export all their wastes have a linear one way metabolism Urban Ecology strives to develop circular systems akin to those found in nature which recycle materials and use renewable sources of energy These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Urban sustainability advocates suggest that cities follow an ecosystem centered model by striving to o Maximize efficient use of resources o Recycle as much as possible o Develop environmentally friendly technologies o Account fully for external costs o Offer tax incentives to encourage sustainable practices o Use locally produced resources o Use organic waste and wastewater to fertilize soil o Encourage urban agriculture
View Full Document
Unlocking...