Post on 25-May-2015
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Sustainable communities & infrastructure
David Singleton
Chairman, Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia
Non executive director, independent advisor and built environment specialist
November 2013
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Sustainable communities & infrastructure
Seven rules for sustainable communities:
1. Provide broad transit coverage: buses, LRT, metro
2. Provide an interconnected street system
3. Aim for 5 minute walk densities
4. Locate employment and housing in close proximity
5. Provide a diversity of housing types
6. Create linked system of open space
7. Invest in ‘greener’, cheaper, smarter infrastructure
[Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities, Patrick Condon, Island Press, 2010]
…and we must design for resilience
1 Provide broad transit coverage: buses, LRT, metro
Easy access to transitVarious transit types yield low carbon emissions per passenger mile
Sustainable communities & infrastructure
Click icon to insert image
2 Provide an interconnected street system
Sustainable communities & infrastructure
Ensures shortest possible trips, by all modesCompatible with walking, cycling, transit and carsStreets can be designed as green streets
Green streets
3 Aim for 5 minute walk densities
Five minute walking distance is a key feature of the streetcar city.
In the streetcar city the five minute walk merges into continuously accessible corridors.
Sustainable communities & infrastructure
Walking is most likely when there are destinations within 5 minutesAccess to transit, schools and local shops within 5 minutes walk distance is key
Five minute walking distance
4 Locate employment and housing in close proximity
The Streetcar city concept allows for many jobs close to corridors.
Sustainable communities & infrastructure
Aim for shorter commuting distances to employment, particularly second jobs; most job locations are no longer ‘dirty’Locate employment along transit corridorsAim to maintain retail/commercial strips
Locate jobs close to homes
5 Provide a diversity of housing types
For slower transit to make sense affordable housing must be more evenly distributed in regions.
Sustainable communities & infrastructure
Heterogeneity, not homogeneityDiversity of housing types can assist urban densificationMyth of the 4 person household?
Diversity of housing types
6 Create linked system of open space
For access to nature
To bound and protect neighborhoods
Sustainable communities & infrastructure
Healthy waterways and catchment areas are fundamentally necessaryWill also provide sustainable drainage solutions and pleasing ‘cityscape’
Patricia St. Michel, City of Vancouver Planning Department, 2012
Linked open space
7 Invest in ‘greener’, cheaper, smarter infrastructureWe spend too much on infrastructure.
Every dollar’s worth of pavement produces a dollars' worth of environmental damage.
Work with natural systems not against them.
Sustainable communities & infrastructure
Up to 45% of public open space in urban areas given over to streets……… This increases urban run-off and likelihood of flooding and creates‘harsh’ urban environmentsMunicipal standards for roads and utilities lead to costly infrastructure and can destroy watershed function Green streets can be a solution
-development
Smart infrastructure Greener Cheaper Smarter Infrastructure
Pre-development hydrology; 55% infiltration and zero run-off
Post conventional development; only 35% infiltration and 35% run-off
Lighter Greener Cheaper Smarter Infrastructure
‘Smarter’ adaptive developmentOnly 10% impervious surface,55% infiltration and only 10% run-off
Smart infrastructure Greener Cheaper Smarter Infrastructure
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Resistance or resilience?
Historically we have designed for resistance – as engineers, we have applied factors of safety to past events to produce resistant designs
We cannot be sure that an investment in resistance will fulfil its purpose; in fact, there is a chance that an investment in resistance may make matters worse
People are asking whether we should design for resistance or resilience ?
We are recognising that we can no longer design to resist the full impacts of climate change or natural disaster. Rather, we must design a system that is resilient
Design for Resilience
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change defines resilience as “...the ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances while retaining the same basic structure and ways of functioning, the capacity for self-organisation, and the capacity to adapt to stress and change”
IPCC, 2007
By identifying and understanding our urban systems [and any systemic] weaknesses
By knowing the likely risks to those systems By retrofitting the system[s] for resilience By planning emergency response procedures, including
warnings and evacuation, shelter and safety plans By educating the community By regularly rehearsing emergency responses, including
evacuation drills and access to shelter
Design for Resilience
Design for Resilience
Cities should adopt a systemic approach to resilience that allows them to fail 'gently', rather than catastrophically.
A solution based around ‘gentle’ failure is considered a success when the city is able to function after disaster by using alternative resources and systems and through theinitiatives of the local community.
David Singleton, ‘Consulting Matters’, Autumn 2012
Design for Resilience
http://www.climatechange.gov.au/climate-change/adapting-climate-change/climate-adaptation-outlook?HTML
Toolkit for Resilient Cities: Arup – Siemens
http://www.siemens.com/press/en/feature/2013/corporate/2013-04-ny.php
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Sustainable communities & infrastructure
David Singleton
Chairman, Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia
Global Planning Leader, Arup
david.singleton@arup.com
dsingleton@isca.org.au
T: @davidjsingleton