Ecocities Now: Building the Bridge to Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Cities [1st ed.] 9783030583989, 9783030583996

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Jennie Moore · Sahar Attia · Adel Abdel-Kader · Aparajithan Narasimhan Editors

Ecocities Now Building the Bridge to Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Cities

Ecocities Now

Jennie Moore · Sahar Attia · Adel Abdel-Kader · Aparajithan Narasimhan Editors

Ecocities Now Building the Bridge to Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Cities

Editors Jennie Moore British Columbia Institute of Technology Burnaby, BC, Canada

Sahar Attia Cairo University Cairo, Egypt

Adel Abdel-Kader Trend Green Knowledge Toronto, ON, Canada

Aparajithan Narasimhan AN Design, Habitat Studio Chennai, India

ISBN 978-3-030-58398-9 ISBN 978-3-030-58399-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58399-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To everyone involved in transforming cities to ecocities that are socially just and ecologically sustainable.

Preface

Ecocity, regardless of its many interpretations, has been an evolving and trending concept since publication of the book “Ecocity Berkeley” by Richard Register in 1987. The concept’s roots lie in the urban ecology movement of the 1970s. In essence, it is a vision of ecologically healthy cities. The concept remains inspiring despite it being challenging to see a fully functioning, ecologically healthy city. Many international conferences, symposiums, forums, workshops, courses, and seminars have been held on ecocities, helping find a way forward for the movement. In 1990, the First International Ecocity Conference was convened in Berkeley, California. A subsequent conference was held two years later in Australia, then Africa two years after that, and then China. Thus, the Ecocity World Summit conference series was born. Today, it is the longest-running conference for sustainable cities, addressing ecological city design, development, operations, and governance. Since its inception, 13 Ecocity World Summits have been held in different countries of every continent except Antarctica. The Summit moves around the world, engaging large and small cites alike. The 13th edition of the Ecocity World Summit was convened in 2019 in Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada. The Summit series is organized and authorized under the auspices of Ecocity Builders, a California-based, not-for-profit that also owns the Ecocity Standards and works internationally. The Summits are typically held in partnership with a host city and local academic institution along with collaborators from the community and host country. The Summit brings together innovators and pioneers, designers and planners, policymakers and administrators, city-building professionals, business people, community leaders, teachers, and students. It provides an intersection for people from a diversity of backgrounds and ethnicities to advance a social justice agenda oriented to being in ecologically healthy communities. It provides a platform for knowledge sharing by indigenous peoples, minorities, historic preservationists, futurists, and youth to engage fully in the issues that shape their lives. It provides an opportunity for journalists, writers, and cultural creatives to inspire and be inspired. A tradition of the Ecocity World Summit is to publish a proceeding to ensure that the knowledge generated by the Summit can reach a wider audience. For the 2019 Summit, the Ecocity Committees (the Steering Committee, the Advisory Group, and the Program Committee) agreed to publish a book comprising the top-ten papers vii

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presented, in addition to an online proceeding. The Summit call for submissions included this opportunity and over 50 submissions were peer-reviewed for inclusion in the book. The abstracts and the papers were peer-reviewed by the Editorial Board and selected experts. The papers were assessed and ranked. The top-ten papers were selected in a balanced way to cover the overarching Summit theme: Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Cities and the three sub-themes: climate action, circular economy, and informal solutions for sustainable development. The Ecocity World Summit partnered with Springer, an internationally renowned publisher, to publish the book. Most of the authors are academics working in the field directly with communities and at the edge of the newest science and innovation, contributing state-ofthe-art solutions to meet the needs and solve the issues faced by ecocities. The editorial board is a mix of highly qualified and renowned professionals bringing expertise from academia, international organizations, public and private sectors spanning architecture, urban planning, environmental protection, and community development. The book showcases inspiring examples of know-how to transform communities, scaling from neighborhoods to metropolises into ecologically healthy, socially fair, and equitable cities. It also offers new paradigms and solutions in design and layout, as well as in technologies and lifestyles. Considering the COVID 19 pandemic, the book allows the reader to grasp the current state of affairs in addressing ecocities, which in turn can inform the adjustments that need to be made in the post-COVID 19 era. Burnaby, Canada Cairo, Egypt Toronto, Canada Chennai, India

Jennie Moore Sahar Attia Adel Abdel-Kader Aparajithan Narasimhan

Acknowledgments

This book arose from the desire to publish information about the state of practice in ecocity development around the world as presented at the Ecocity World Summit 2019 held in Vancouver, Canada. The editors would like to thank all the participants and contributing authors as well as the British Columbia Institute of Technology and City of Vancouver who were the Summit’s co-hosts. They would also like to thank Ecocity Builders, the international, not-for-profit organization who is the keeper of the Summit series, owner of the Ecocity Standards, and who works with communities around the world to implement the work of transforming cities into ecocities. Particular apprecitiation goes to Kirstin Miller, Executive Director of Ecocity Builders for unwaivering committment and effort in these endeavours. Special thanks also goes to Andrea Dusanj and Christine Pinkham from the British Columbia Institute of Technology for assistance with the manuscript. Thanks also goes to the Vancouver Convention Centre for allowing use of the cover photo exemplifying elements of an ecocity in a snapshot of Vancouver. Finally, we thank Springer and their editorial team for assistance in bringing the book from concept to publication.

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Contents

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Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennie Moore

Part I 2

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Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Cities

Supporting Informal Areas Resilience: Reinforcing Hidden Green Potentials for a Better Quality of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heba Allah Essam E. Khalil and Sherin Gammaz Developing a Decentralized and Integrated Water Management System for Neighborhood Communities Within Indonesia’s Informal Urban Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Armin Fuchs, Nico N. M. J. D. Tillie, and Mo Smit

Part II

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Climate Action

Re-thinking the Territory of Concepción, Chile: A Resilient and Strategic Planning for a Vulnerable Urban Coastal System . . . . Catalina Rey Hernández and Nico Tillie

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Willingness to Use Non-motorized Transport is Under-Estimated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Zacharias

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Informal Solutions Towards Personal Net Zero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joey Dabell and Mark Dabell

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Part III Circular Economy 7

Making Cement from Demolished Concrete: A Potential Circular Economy Through Geopolymer Chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 D. J. Lake

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A Hybrid Model for Sustainable Urban Metabolism in Metropolitan Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Carson Xu, Son Nguyen, John Whangbo, and Michal Aibin

Part IV Informal Solutions for Sustainable Development 9

Capacity Building of Rural Communities in Post-Earthquake Reconstruction in Nepal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Bishnu Pandey, Ranjan Dhungel, Surya Narayan Shrestha, and Sushil Gyewali

10 Seeing the Forest Through the Trees: Assessing Urban Forest Values Using a Combination of LiDAR, Timber Species Identifier, i-Tree Eco and GPS Ground Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Julia Alards-Tomalin, Laurie Stott, Jace Standish, Mike Parlow, and D’Laine Robertson-Hooper 11 Restoration of an Urban Creek Water Quality Using Sand and Biochar Filtration Galleries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Samira Jalizi, Ken Ashley, and Colleen C. V. Chan 12 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Jennie Moore, Sahar Attia, Adel Abdel-Kader, and Aparajithan Narasimhan Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Chapter 1

Introduction Jennie Moore

Cities are the largest structure humans build.1 They are home to over half the global population and cover 3% of Earth’s land surface (Huang et al. 2010; Grimm et al. 2008). Cities offer a compact, efficient habitat for humans; however, they have not yet achieved their potential for livability in harmony with Earth’s ecosystems. In ecological terms, cities are dissipative structures, meaning their internal order is created by dissipating the order of ecosystems from whence they draw energy and material resources (Rees 2012). The impacts of cities, therefore, stretch well beyond their borders. The built environment accounts for 40% of global materials demand (Rees 1999). Cities, directly and indirectly, account for 70% of total global energy demand and associated greenhouse gas emissions (Grimm et al. 2008; Seto and Satterthwaite 2010). A third of the world’s land area and over half the ocean is used for food production (IPBES 2019). With 75% of terrestrial land and 66% of ocean areas significantly altered or impacted by human activity (IPBES 2019), the question of how to secure a sustainable future that enables global ecosystems and humanity to thrive becomes paramount. An “ecocity” is an ecologically healthy city. According to the two founding pioneers of the global ecocity movement, Richard Register and Paul Downton, ecocity is informed by and evolves through the study of ecology that seeks to understand the processes “of engagement by living creatures with their environment and with each other” (Downton 2007). Its purpose is to support a healthy relationship between humanity and the global ecosystem of which it is part (Register 2006). 1 Richard Register, pioneer of the ecocity movement and co-creator of the Ecocity World Summit conference series, is credited with this observation which he often makes at the beginning of presentations and conversations.

J. Moore (B) British Columbia Institute of Technology, 3700 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby, BC V5G 3H2, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. Moore et al. (eds.), Ecocities Now, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58399-6_1

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Born out of the urban ecology movement in the 1970s, and spearheaded through the Ecocity Berkeley initiative (Register 1987), the ecocity movement finds its roots in bioregionalism. Bioregionalism is concerned with intentional living within the ecological carrying capacity of one’s home place, typically defined by a watershed with coherent landscape features supporting established flora and fauna (Berg 1978; Aberley 1994; Carr 2004; Newman and Jennings 2008). Collaboration among community institutions and stakeholders is key to ensuring urban system stability, giving rise to resilience. The ecocity movement is a manifestation of social ecology, concerned with how human social relations “affect the relation of society as a whole with nature” (Roseland 1997). This includes social justice, healthy communities, appropriate technology, community economic development, and indigenous world views, to name a few (Roseland 1997). Contemporary and complementary approaches include permaculture (Mollison 1988; Mollison and Holmgren 1990), biomimicry (Benyus 1997), and one planet living (Desai and Riddlestone 2002), or more specifically, one Earth living since only Earth meets the requirements to sustain life as we know it (Moore 2012). Antecedent examples can be found in Ebenezer Howard’s (c. 1898) vision for Garden Cities that integrate nature with social cooperation (Haughton and Hunter 1994; Register 2006; Moore 2013). Cities in Evolution described by Patrick Geddes (c. 1915) advocates a whole-systems approach for reintegrating country-urban linkages that fostered the concepts of human ecology and orientation to the bioregion (Aberley 1994; Haughton and Hunter 1994; Moore 2013). And, Lewis Mumford’s (c. 1930–60) articulation of an ideal city maps to contemporary literature about sustainable cities as “an organic community, designed on a human scale, oriented towards human needs, fueled by a life-enhancing economy, surrounded by undeveloped lands, and with streets filled with people instead of automobiles” (Wheeler 2004; Moore 2013). The quest to evolve ecocities is three-fold: (i) reduce overall demand for energy and materials within a city through social innovation coupled with intelligent design, (ii) improve access to resources by all who need it, and (iii) re-generate natural habitat to secure local and global ecosystem integrity. This book represents the state of practice in ecocity development utilizing case studies from Africa, Asia, North and South America. It documents the best papers submitted for presentation at the Ecocity World Summit, held October 7–11, 2019 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The material spans a diversity of geographic regions, physical scales, income levels, social and natural science approaches, and development topics. It revolves around a core theme of building socially just and ecologically sustainable cities and then drills into three sub-themes addressing: climate action, circular economy, and informal solutions for sustainable development. These themes enable exploration of how a combination of ecosystem-based and socially-led development approaches are responding to global challenges while simultaneously positioning cities for improved outcomes. The first part of the book comprises two chapters that address the role of building robust social and environmental communities simultaneously. Due to rapid urbanization, most of the world’s cities, especially in developing countries, encountered social and ecological injustice over past decades. This is most notable in informal

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settlements. Both chapters provide examples of social and technical performance and solutions for improving health of people while improving ecosystems in urban areas. The second part of the book explores climate action, comprising three chapters that provide guidance at the city and individual scale. Examples include an ecosystems-based approach to improving the resilience of a coastal community, rethinking inherent planning biases about people’s preferences for cycling over driving, and opportunities to move toward “personal net-zero” carbon dioxide emissions by moving away from grid electricity, fossil fuels, and waste. Ironically, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated climate action. In a bid to slow the spread of the virus that causes the disease, many large urban areas around the world have experienced lockdowns, including closing non-essential business services and encouraging people to work from home, avoid unnecessary travel, and other related measures. The goal is to physically distance while staying socially connected. These strategies have achieved reductions in fossil fuel demand, noticeable improvements in air quality, and other environmental benefits as by-products. However, these outcomes may be short-lived in the face of desires by many to return to business as usual. The challenge, from a climate perspective, is that business as usual was unsustainable and contributed significantly to the climate emergency. The challenge for sustainability is resisting the temptation to bounce-back and instead harness the changes to propel a bounce-forward to a sustainable way of doing business building on new lessons that help people meet their needs at a fraction of the energy inputs. The third part of the book comprises two chapters addressing iterations of circular economy in material science and community development. Both chapters indicate the technological, ideological, and practical gaps that need to be bridged in order to achieve a complete circular economy. The fourth part of the book comprises three chapters on informal solutions for sustainable development that explore innovative ways of restoring natural and human-built environments despite limited government funding and administrative capacity. Vancouver, the host city for the 2019 Ecocity World Summit, exemplifies many attributes of an emerging ecocity (Register 2006; Moore 2013). With a compact, mixed use, urban core, it achieves walking, cycling, and transit as the dominant modes of travel. Surrounded by ocean and coastal mountains, and adjacent to the forests and beaches of Stanley Park, Vancouverites enjoy the benefits of livable density with nature at the doorstep. Since the 1950s, Vancouver has pursued a planning trajectory that co-locates people with jobs and access to services. In 1990, the City was the first in North America to develop a Climate Action Plan. Following its “Greening our Cities” conference of 1994, civil society leaders from social and ecological pursuits formed Vancouver’s first “EcoCity Network” with the aim of cooperating to effectively advance voluntary and municipal action (Moore 1997). By the early 2000s, Vancouverites started to actively pursue green buildings, renewable energy, and eco-industrial networking. Given its history of intentional and sustained

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leadership, in 2010 Ecocity Builders chose to germinate the development of the Ecocity Standards in Vancouver. Led by an international cohort of experts, with the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) eventually serving as lead academic partner, Vancouver city staff along with urban professionals and citizens from surrounding municipalities have contributed insights to its ongoing evolution. Since 2011, the Ecocity Standards have been present at Ecocity World Summits where ecocity scholars are invited to contribute research and findings regarding their application and test new ideas for their adaptation. The Ecocity Standards are owned by Ecocity Builders and provide a diagnostic tool to help cities assess their progress on the path to becoming ecocities. The Standards are also proving useful to communities in developing locally relevant pathways to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. There are 18 standards grouped into four pillars that constitute a framework that people can use to quickly pinpoint opportunities and challenges within their communities. The Ecocity Standards evolved from a whole-systems perspective starting with Earth’s ecosphere. This is the web of life comprising plants and animals (including humans) interacting with air, water, soil, and solar energy inputs that together regenerate life in all its forms. Earth’s ability to maintain homeostasis within essential life-giving services, whether it be a stable atmosphere or hydrological cycle, photosynthesis, or pollination, is referred to as Gaia, taken from the Greek goddess of Earth (Lovelock 2000). The Ecocity Standards use a framework that helps communities understand where they are situated on a path from unhealthy, to green, to ecocity, to Gaia that represents the ultimate symbiosis with Earth’s life systems. Earth’s ability to maintain the holistic integrity of global ecosystems is the foundation for the Ecocity Standards that is represented by the pillar of “Ecological Imperatives.” Ecological Imperatives include standards of “ecological integrity,” “healthy biodiversity,” and living within “Earth’s carrying capacity.” Humanity arose out of Earth’s ecosystems and is fully dependent upon them. A healthy culture is one that is well adapted to life on Earth and helps people understand their relationship to the natural world in which they live. Even people who live in cities are part of the global ecosystem, and understanding this relationship is essential to the ongoing evolution of humanity, as well as the evolution of cities. Global society’s understanding of their inherent dependence on ecosystems and each other comprises the “Socio-Cultural Features” pillar of the Ecocity Standards and includes, in addition to “healthy culture,” conditions for participatory decisionmaking through “governance and community capacity,” “healthy and equitable economy,” “access to lifelong education,” “quality of life and wellbeing.” The essential building blocks of life flow from geophysical elements of Earth coupled with solar energy. The next pillar addresses the “Bio-Geophysical Conditions” needed to support health of people and the flora and fawn that make up our ecosystems. It addresses “clean air” and stable atmosphere, “clean and safe water,” “healthy soil,” “responsible resources and materials,” “clean and renewable energy,” and “healthy and accessible food.”

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With an understanding of the ecological imperatives required for global ecosystem stability, the socio-cultural features needed for a society well suited to living equitably within planetary boundaries, and the bio-geophysical conditions needed for health, the final pillar in the Ecocity Standards culminates in how society chooses to build its home, its cities, and communities. It is addressed through “Urban Design.” This includes land use considerations for “access by proximity” to create compact, walkable spaces that provide “access to safe and affordable housing” in “green buildings” with “environmentally friendly transport.” Structured around the aforementioned Ecocity World Summit 2019 themes and informed by the Ecocity Standards, Ecocities Now is presented in four parts that align with the Summit’s overarching theme of (i) building socially just and ecologically sustainable cities, supported by sub-themes of (ii) climate action, (iii) circular economy, and (iv) informal solutions for sustainable development. Chapters comprising each part in the book will be introduced by a brief precis that orients the reader to the relevant Ecocity Standards that are being addressed and other important contextual considerations that open the potential application of the chapters to an international audience. Arguments presented in the selected papers provide an orientation to the importance of engaging people, where they live, in ecocity transformations as well as emerging opportunities for affordable and accessible technologies that help cities build capacity for implementation of ecocity initiatives. Many of the chapters in this book deal with cities in developed countries and demonstrate that an ecocity framework is adaptable to the world’s entire spectrum of communities. In affluent societies, the Ecocity Standards can be calibrated to evaluate and address problems associated with excess consumption, waste, resource exploitation, income inequality, and the surrender of the public realm to private automobiles. For example, the Ecocity Standards offer guidance for transforming sprawling, auto-dependent metropolises into networks of compact neighborhoods where homes, work, school, shopping, greenspace, and most other everyday destinations are close enough to be reached on foot, by bicycle, or using public transportation. This concept, called “access by proximity,” creates a solid foundation for achieving affordable housing, energy conservation, clean air, climate action, and other goals. In order to balance the built environment with nature, the Ecocity Standards also emphasizes restoring natural areas for improved biodiversity and preserving farmland to secure local sources of healthful foods that reduce dependence on unreliable and wasteful supply chains. The Ecocity Standards promote the provision, re-use and recycling, of materials with an ultimate goal of creating circular economies that mimic natural cycles. The Ecocity Standards facilitate an understanding of socioeconomic conditions like a prosperous, equitable economy, good government, and healthy culture. The Ecocity Standards provides a framework that has the flexibility to allow exploration of these issues which often vary from place to place but are, nevertheless, essential to quality of life and well-being. The Ecocity Standards also motivate cities in developed countries to make deliberate progress toward becoming true ecocities, meaning places that consume no more than their fair share of the planet’s carrying capacity. By pursuing the strategy found in the Ecocity Standards,

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cities in developed as well as developing countries discover that they can learn a lot from each other in a bid to live socially just lives in ecologically sustainable cities that operate within planetary boundaries.

References Aberley, Doug. 1994. Futures by design: The practice of ecological planning. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers. Benyus, Janine. 1997. Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature. New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc. Berg, Peter (ed.). 1978. Reinhabiting a separate country: A bioregional anthology of Northern California. San Francisco, CA: Planet Drum Foundation. Carr, Mike. 2004. Bioregionalism and civil society: Democratic challenges to corporate globalism. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Desai, Pooran, and Sue Riddlestone. 2002. Bioregional solutions for living on one planet. Schumarher Briefings. Devon UK: Green Books. Downton, Paul. 2007. Ecopolis: Concepts, initiatives and the purpose of cities. In Steering sustainability in an urbanizing world: policy, practice and performance, ed. Anitra Nelson. Burlington VT: Ashgate. Grimm, Nancy, Stanley Faeth, Nancy Golubiewski, Charles Redman, Wu Jianguo, Xuemei Bai, and John Briggs. 2008. Global change and the ecology of cities. Science 319: 756–760. Haughton, Graham, and Colin Hunter. 1994. Sustainable cities. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd. Huang, Shu-Li, Chai-Tsung Yeh, and Li-Fang Chang. 2010. The transition to an urbanizing world and the demand for natural resources. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2: 136– 143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2010.07.003. IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). 2019. Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, ed. S. Díaz, J. Settele, E.S. Brondízio, H.T. Ngo, M. Guèze, J. Agard, A. Arneth, P. Balvanera, K.A. Brauman, S.H.M. Butchart, K.M.A. Chan, L.A. Garibaldi, K. Ichii, J. Liu, S.M. Subramanian, G.F. Midgley, P. Miloslavich, Z. Molnár, D. Obura, A. Pfaff, S. Polasky, A. Purvis, J. Razzaque, B. Reyers, R. Roy Chowdhury, Y.J. Shin, I. J. Visseren-Hamakers, K.J. Willis, and C.N. Zayas. Bonn Germancy: IPBES secretariat, 56. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3553579. Lovelock, James. 2000. Gaia: A new look at life on earth (First published in 1979). Oxford UK: Oxford University Press. Mollison, Bill. 1988. Permaculture: A designers’ manual. Tyalgum, Australia: Tagari. Mollison, Bill, and David Holmgren. 1990. Permaculture one: A perennial agricultural system of human settlements, 5th Revised edn, June 1 1990. Tyalgum, Australia: Tagari. Moore, Jennie. 1997. Inertia and resistance on the path to healthy communities, Chapter 13. In Eco-city dimensions: Healthy communities, healthy planet, ed. Mark Roseland. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers. Moore, Jennie. 2012. One-Planet living (text box). In Toward sustainable communities: Solutions for citizens and their governments, ed. Mark Roseland. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers. Moore, Jennie. 2013. Getting serious about sustainability: Exploring the potential for one-planet living in Vancouver. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of doctor of philosophy in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia. Vancouver: University of British Columbia. Newman, Peter, and Isabella Jennings. 2008. Cities as sustainable ecosystems: Principles and practice. Washington DC: Island Press.

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Rees, W.E. 1999. The built environment and the ecosphere: A global Perspective. Building Research and Information 26: 206–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/096132199369336. Rees, W.E. 2012. Cities as dissipative structures: global change and the vulnerability of urban civilization. In Sustainability Science: The emerging paradigm and the urban environment, eds. Michael P. Weinstein and R. Eugene Turner, 247–273. New York: Springer. Register, Richard. 1987. Ecocity Berkeley: Building cities for a healthy future. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. Register, Richard. 2006. Ecocities: Rebuilding cities in balance with nature. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers. Roseland, Mark. 1997. Dimensions of the Future: An eco-city overview. In Eco-city dimensions: Healthy communities, healthy planet, ed. Mark Roseland, 1–12. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers. Seto, Karen, and David Satterthwaite. 2010. Interactions between urbanization and global environmental change. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2: 127–128. Wheeler, Stephen. 2004. Planning for sustainability: Creating livable, equitable, and ecological communities. London: Routledge.

Part I

Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Cities

Social justice and ecological sustainability are two overlapping, connected concepts that target livable, healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities. The link between social justice and ecological sustainability as revealed in the Ecocity Standards interprets the importance of exploiting all hidden resources and characteristics that can play an important role in enhancing the quality of life in urban communities. Agyeman and Evans (2003) state that there are five areas of common concern to environmental justice; they include land use planning, solid waste, toxic chemical use, transportation, and energy. Due to rapid urbanization, most of the world’s cities especially in developing countries, encountered social and ecological injustice over past decades. The most affected communities by this injustice are informal areas. Despite multiple research and investigation aimed at tackling ecosystem services issues in informal areas, these under-privileged areas have gone a long way since they started to develop in the last century, from being totally marginalized and unrecognized by governments, to achieving a presence and full recognition in all urban and environmental platforms (Attia et al. 2016). The first part of this book comprises two chapters that address the role of building a robust social, urban, and environmental community. Both chapters provide examples of social and technical performance and solutions to improving health of people while improving ecosystems. The first chapter investigates informal areas in Egypt, and highlights their hidden green characteristics through analyzing their compliance with sustainable urbanism theories, their green performance according to green rating systems focusing on energy performance and what quality of life they provide to their dwellers. Four case studies from Cairo are investigated to apply the concepts discussed, exploring what quality of life these areas provide to their dwellers according to the criteria defined by a number of indices that measure quality of life as well as prosperity. The second chapter discusses the potential of communal structures, within informal settlements, regarding the design and implementation of decentralized water management systems. Kampung Tamansari, an informally grown area in Bandung, Indonesia, is used as an example. It shows how to find synergies between the water

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system and the needs of an area that can lay very much beyond that discipline. The equal importance of functioning components and the consideration of the stakeholders’ interests and needs is fundamental. The authors think that the results could be useful in informal settlements with similar characteristics as Kampung Tamansari. Both chapters demonstrate that ecosystem services in informal areas such as energy security, water quality, and safe sewage systems, which are still contested, need more research and innovative ideas to capture effectively the social needs. To achieve social justice and ecological sustainability, it is essential to ensure a safe and impactful ecosystem, and to promote sustainable, inclusive, and equitable communities.

References Agyeman, Julian, and Tom Evans. 2003. Toward just sustainability in urban communities: Building equity rights with sustainable solutions. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 590: 35–53. Attia, Sahar, Shabka, Shahdan, Shafik, Zeinab and Ibrahim, Asmaa. 2016. Dynamics and resilience of informal areas: International perspectives.

Chapter 2

Supporting Informal Areas Resilience: Reinforcing Hidden Green Potentials for a Better Quality of Life Heba Allah Essam E. Khalil and Sherin Gammaz

Abstract Urban areas are both contributors to climate change and victims of it. Major urbanization activities take place in the Global South, where informalization is synonymous to urbanization. Aspiring to be equitable, cities should balance the needs of their various inhabitants, securing the prosperity of both affluent and vulnerable groups. For many years, slums and informal areas have been seen as geographies of blight and despair. However, these areas efficiently provide needs, amenities, and affordability to vast groups who, otherwise, were not addressed by their governments. This paper studies informal areas and highlights their hidden green characteristics through analyzing their compliance with the principles of sustainable urbanism. Furthermore, the paper investigates the green performance of such areas according to rating systems focusing on energy performance. Additionally, the paper explores what quality of life these areas provide according to criteria defined by a number of indices that also measure prosperity. Four informal districts in the Greater Cairo Region are investigated as case studies to validate results and provide practical insights. The paper then deduces several strategies that can assist informal areas to be more resilient in the face of climate change with its associated increased heat stress and improve quality of life. Keywords Informal areas · Quality of life · Energy efficiency · Sustainable urbanism · Cairo

H. A. E. E. Khalil (B) · S. Gammaz Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt e-mail: [email protected] S. Gammaz e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. Moore et al. (eds.), Ecocities Now, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58399-6_2

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2.1 Introduction Many reports have discussed the phenomenon that the majority of humankind have been living in urban areas, with the year 2007 as the marked threshold (GlobeScan and MRC Mclean Hazel 2007). These studies estimate that by mid-twenty-first century this number will exceed 70%. This phenomenon is mostly expanding in the developing world, which hosts more than 70% of the current world’s population led by Asia and then African cities (UN-HABITAT 2012). However, recent studies report the urbanization rate is highest in Africa although it has the lowest urbanization ratio (Clos 2015). Cities have expanded, for the past half century, into the land around them at an escalating rate with expanding highways and transportation systems to serve this growth, at the expense of valuable farmland in many instances (UN-HABITAT 2012). In recent years, this process of urbanization has been proven, almost beyond doubt, to be one of the main reasons for climate change. This is mainly attributed to the high CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions of the built environment, reaching 70% of global emissions, and the high ecological footprint of city dwellers (IPCC WGI AR5 2013; UN-HABITAT 2016). Certainly, cities are suffering, to different extents, from the consequences of climate change whether from unprecedented heat waves, cold weather, storms, and so on. Thus, the issue of investigating the mutual relationship between cities and climate change becomes more vital. Moreover, it is vital to note that this urbanization phenomenon has been associated with slum formation (UN-HABITAT 2016). The numbers are continuously on the rise where the total number of slum dwellers in developing countries was estimated to be 862.569 million comprising 32.7% of total urban dwellers in the same area in 2012 (UN-HABITAT 2012). These numbers have reached 880 million with 29.4% of urban dwellers in 2014 (UN-HABITAT 2016). Although the percentages are decreasing, the total number is increasing, thus posing a real challenge to cities. In the quest for equitable and sustainable urban development, cities should balance the needs of their dwellers with impacts on their well-being socially, economically, and environmentally. An equitable city would also balance the needs of its various inhabitants, securing the prosperity of both affluent and vulnerable groups. For many years, slums and informal areas have been seen as geographies of blight and despair. However, these areas efficiently provide needs, amenities, and affordability to vast groups who, otherwise, were not addressed by their governments. In this pursuit, it is vital to investigate the status quo of informal areas in cities of the developing world regarding both the quality of life they provide, their strengths, and any negative impacts. This paper investigates informal areas and highlights their hidden green characteristics through analyzing their compliance with sustainable urbanism theories, their green performance according to green rating systems focusing on energy performance, and the quality of life they provide. Four case studies from Cairo are investigated to apply the concepts discussed.

2 Supporting Informal Areas Resilience: Reinforcing … Fig. 2.1 Sustainable Urbanism Principles, adopted from (Farr 2008) and (Khalil 2010)

13

Compactness

•Walkability ● Resource effeciency •Connecvity •Increased density •Compact building design

Completeness

•Mixed-use •Mixed housing •Sense of Place

Connectedness

•Integrang transportaon and land use •Green transportaon •Variety of transportaon choices

Quality of life

•Preserving open and natural areas •Respect for ecology and a more balanced regional development

2.2 Sustainable Urbanism Theories and Principles For the past few decades, there has been a growing movement toward sustainable urbanism in both theory and formal practice away from preceding trends and practices of the Functional City. Many urbanists have compiled sets of principles that guide sustainable urban development; for example, “New Urbanism” (Hasic 2000), “Transit-oriented Development” (Boarnet and Crane 2001), “Smart Growth” (Stoel 1999), “Decentralized Concentration” (Breheny 1996; Høyer and Holden 2003; Holden 2004), and “Sustainable Urbanism” (Farr 2008). These principles and theories have dominated urban debates and guided many cities’ efforts to improve livability. Moreover, these principles have been the base for many indices to assess the performance of urban settlements toward their sustainability as exemplified by the Green City Index and Your Better Life initiatives among many others. Figure 2.1 summarizes the extracted principles for sustainable urbanism based on the above literature and summarized in Khalil (2010). As energy is the primary driver for sustainability, it would be logical to assess the ecological performance of informal areas focusing on energy. In that sense, the paper utilizes the indicators of the Green City Index that are related to energy efficiency and policies for green energy (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2009, 2010, 2011a, b, c). The paper adopts the indicators extracted by Khalil (2012b)1 as a base to analyze the performance of the informal area under study as shown in the next part. These are, namely: electricity consumption, access to electricity, clean and efficient energy policies, climate change action plan, eco buildings policy, green spaces per capita, population density, land use policy, population living in informal settlements, waste recycling and re-use policy, length of mass transport network, urban mass transport policy, and congestion reduction policy. Although there could be additional indicators related to energy efficiency, availability of data falls short in many countries (Khalil 2012b). For better relevance to informal areas in 1 Khalil

(2012b) provides an extensive survey of sustainability indicators.

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Egypt, the extracted indicators represent those used in the Green City Index reports of either all continents or specifically Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Furthermore, these indicators could be classified into two categories: first, indicators related to energy required for achieving good quality of life (in the short term) and second, indicators related to energy policies required for sustaining this quality of life over the long term within an energy-efficient approach as shown in Table 2.1. The main aim for this categorizing is to differentiate between two things. First, the energy consumption needed to provide a good quality of life within an energy-efficient strategy. Second, the energy consumption that can sustain this quality of life within a resource-constrained environment. Hence indicators of the first group affect shortterm pursuit of good quality of life such as energy consumption, access to electricity, green spaces per capita, population density, length of mass transport network, and congestion reduction policy. Indicators of the second group have direct relevance to sustaining a good quality of life while reducing the associated negative impacts of energy consumption such as clean and efficient energy policies, climate change action plan, eco buildings policy, land use policy, waste recycling and re-use policy, and urban mass transport policy.

2.3 Measuring Prosperity and Quality of Life: Assessing Current Conditions Increasing prosperity of both individuals and settlements is considered the ultimate aim of development and, hence planning. Various approaches and theories have been devised in this quest; however, how to measure progress remains an unresolvable issue. For decades, different countries worldwide have relied on GDP as an indicator of prosperity, which proved to be inadequate to quantify material well-being despite attempts to adjust it through GINI coefficient or purchasing power parity (PPP) (The Economist Intelligence Unit EIU 2007). The need to address this issue in a more constructive and comprehensive way has opened the way to various quality of life indices that tried to capture the objective and subjective facets of well-being and prosperity (Costanza et al. 2008; UN-HABITAT 2012). Examples of widely used indices in recent years include quality of living by Mercer consultants (Mercer 2011), quality of life index by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU 2007), and YOUR BETTER LIFE INDEX by The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD 2011). The many indices currently employed by various organizations reflect the variegated aspects of quality of life and how they are differently considered by various stakeholders. Housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety, and work– life balance comprise the core focus of these indices, with minimal attention to the sustainability of such quality of life (Khalil 2012c). Additionally, there are some

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Table 2.1 Energy efficiency indicators extracted from the Green City Index categorized as achieving good quality of life and sustaining it. Source Modified from (Khalil and Khalil 2015) Category

Energy efficiency indicators Achieving good quality of life

Energy and CO2 Energy consumption: Total final energy consumption, in gigajoules per head

Sustaining good quality of life Same

Electricity consumption per unit of Same GDP: Total final energy consumption, in megajoules per unit of real GDP Access to electricity: Percentage of households with access to electricity

Clean and efficient energy policies: An assessment of the extensiveness of policies promoting the use of clean and efficient energy Climate change action plan: Measure of a city’s strategy to combat its contribution to climate change

Buildings

Energy consumption in buildings (not Eco buildings policy: Measure of a within the Green City Index for city’s efforts to minimize the Africa) environmental impact of buildings

Land use

Green spaces per capita: Sum of all public parks, recreation areas, greenways, waterways, and other protected areas accessible to the public, in m2 per inhabitant

Land use policy: Measure of a city’s efforts to minimize the environmental and ecological impact of urban development

Population density: Population density, in persons per km2

Same but it has a two-sided effect

Population living in informal settlements: Percentage of the population living in informal settlements Waste

Waste collection is not necessarily concerned with energy consumption

Waste recycling and re-use policy: Measure of a city’s efforts to reduce, recycle, and re-use waste

Transport

Length of mass transport network: total length of all train, tram, subway, bus and other mass transport routes within the city’s boundaries, measured in terms of the area of the city (in km/km2 )

Urban mass transport policy: Measure of a city’s efforts to create a viable mass transport system as an alternative to private vehicles

Congestion reduction policy: Measure of a city’s efforts to reduce congestion

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H. A. E. E. Khalil and S. Gammaz

indices that focus on the environmental performance of the city (and its neighborhoods) or its sustainability in general, namely CASBEE for Urban Development, CASBEE for Cities, and LEED for Neighborhood Development. In addition, there are some more locally tailored indices, such as megacity sustainability indicators in Brazil (Leite and Tello 2011), The Sustainability Cities Index in the UK (Forum for The Future; General Electric GE 2010), and The Freiburg Charter for Sustainable Urbanism (The Academy of Urbanism 2010). A widely used index on the city level is the Green City Index that acknowledges the performance regarding CO2 emissions, energy, buildings, transport, waste and land use, water, air quality, and environmental governance through 30 indicators (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2009). Furthermore, new indices were developed to bridge the gap between providing a good quality of life and having the resources to sustain it in a responsive way. The UN-Habitat developed the City Prosperity Index (CPI) and used it in its 2012 cities report. It devised five categories: productivity, infrastructure development, quality of life, equity and social inclusion, and environmental sustainability in addition to the urban local power functions in the form of government institutions, laws, and urban planning (UN-HABITAT 2012). It is important to note that the quality of life category in this index comprises only a part of the quality of life as seen by the previously mentioned indices. In that sense, CPI would be equal to any other Quality of Life (QOL) index with imbedded sustainability assessment. In the quest to develop a comprehensive index that is free of bias from the industrial sector and that would interpret the voice of people in assessment, the International Ecocity Framework and Standards was developed (Ecocity Builders 2011). Comprised of 18 conditions, organized in four categories, for healthy cities that are in balance with the ecosystem, the index is under continuous development and piloting. The assessment bundles are: first, urban design concerned with access by proximity to services, access to safe and affordable housing, green buildings, and environmentally friendly transport ation. Second, bio-geophysical conditions including clean air, healthy soil, clean and safe water, responsible resources/materials, clean and renewable energy, healthy and accessible food. Third, socio-cultural features include eco-friendly culture, community capacity and governance, healthy and equitable economy, lifelong education, and well-being or quality of life. Fourth, ecological imperatives include healthy biodiversity, living within earth’s carrying capacity, and ecological linkages (Moore et al. 2017). The interesting aspect of this index is that it deploys qualitative questionnaires to identify subjective assessments to the city or districts sustainability performance. In USA, STAR Community Rating System has been developed during the period 2008–2012 as a leading framework and certification program for cities and counties to measure their progress across social, economic, and environmental performance areas. As outlined in its version 2.0 released in October 2016, it is organized by goals, objectives, and evaluation measures tackling the performance in seven categories: built environment, climate and energy, economy and jobs, education, arts and community, equity and empowerment, health and safety, natural systems, and an eighth category of innovation and process. Measuring the objectives is done either through attainment of community level outcomes and/or

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completion of local actions required to achieve the outcomes (STAR Communities 2016). It is interesting to note that these assessment indices rarely tackle informal areas as they are usually viewed as negative aspects of the city as is the case in the Green City Index. The City Prosperity Index also mentions informal employment as part of city productivity. Other indices are mainly developed in the Global North where such phenomenon is rare or absent and hence fall short of addressing informalization. Contrastingly, with informalization as the dominant form of urban growth in the Global South, there are minimal attempts to measure quality of life in informal areas based on similar indices or adopted versions of them. In Cairo, as an example of a growing mega city in the developing sphere, it is estimated that informal areas comprise more than 60% of its urban area. Thus, it is crucial to assess the actual performance of these areas and plan accordingly. This even attains more significance after the global adoption of the New Urban Agenda in 2016 and the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, where goal no. 11 “Making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” will shape the development policies and practices for the coming years until 2030 (United Nations 2015).

2.4 Informal Areas Informal areas are a manifestation of people’s needs and how they respond to their own requirements when governments fail or refrain from responding. Simply formulated, informalization is “a process which is unregulated by the institutions of society in a legal and social environment in which similar activities are regulated” (Oldham et al. 1994, p. 10). For Roy (2005), informality can be seen as a pattern for urbanization within an array of patterns instead of as opposed to formal sector, providing a promising resource instead of a catastrophe (Roy 2005). In that sense, she has a different approach than the two opposing perspectives regarding informal areas as either deteriorating, decaying, and uncontrolled (Hall and Pfeiffer 2000) or a heroic adventure and a creative reaction to government inefficiency (De Soto 2000). Yet, it is important not to over romanticize the attributes of informal areas as they carry their own inherent complications. In Egypt, informal areas have gone through many efforts to define them, as they are different from what the UN-Habitat classifies as slums. In 2007, General Organization of Physical Planning (GOPP) defined them as “all what is self-built, whether single or multistory buildings or shacks, in the absence of law and urban regulations enforcement. They are areas built on land not allocated for construction as specified in the city urban plan. Despite the fact that buildings’ conditions may be good, they might be unsafe environmentally and socially, and or lacking basic infrastructure and services” (GOPP and UNDP 2007). However, the current working definition of informal areas uses different terms, either unplanned areas as specified by the Unified Building Law no. 119 or unsafe areas as defined by the Informal Settlement Development Facility ISDF (ISDF 2011; Khalil 2012a).

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Worldwide, informal areas are of two main categories: squatting or illegal subdivisions, different in origin, process, and characteristics. Squatter areas are dominantly unplanned, chaotic, and located on the margins of the city. Illegal/informal subdivisions have legal land ownership but illegally subdivided with a lack of public services, infrastructure, and public spaces in many instances (Imperato and Ruster 2003). In Egypt, the general classification of informal areas includes the informal areas built on agricultural land, which can be considered illegal subdivisions with legal ownership, and areas built on desert land that are mainly chaotic and unplanned. These two types comprise the main patterns of informal areas; however, there are also shacks and environmentally unsafe areas both in the city core and on the fringes (Khalil 2010). In both cases, these areas are developed and built without any technical expertise of an architect or a planner. They are the direct manifestation of grassroots development that comprise a parallel universe to formal, theory-based planning taking place in adjacent locations.

Sector

Table 2.2 Different indicators measuring QOL, adopted from Mercer 2011, The Economist Intelligence Unit EIU 2007, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD 2011, UN-HABITAT 2012 and their relevance to assessing QOL in informal areas Mercer

EIU

OECD

Political & Gov.

Political & Political stability Social Envi- & security: civil ronment: law unrest enforcement

Relevant indicators within informal areas

laws, regulations Informal areas usually and institutions, ur- depend on informality ban planning, where laws are not enforced

Ease of entry Political free& exit dom: civil liberties

This is on the national level and not exclusive to informality

Internal stability

Since areas are informally governed through existing social networks, civil society strength is important

Level of corrup- Governance: Civil society, trade tion voter turnout, associations, special consultation agencies on rule making

Economic Material wellbeEnvironment: ing: GDP/ perCurrency, son regulations, banking services

Economic

City Prosperity Index

Income: wealth & disposable income/ household

Consumer Job security: un- Jobs: emGoods: daily employment rate ployment rate consumption, availability

Productivity: city -Local economic faproduct represents cilities the total output of -Mixed uses goods and services (value added) produced by a city’s population during a specific year Capital investment, -Total employment/ formal/informal unemployment employment, inflation, trade, savings, -Average household income

(continued)

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Sector

Table 2.2 (continued) Mercer

EIU

OECD

Socio- Cultural

Social Serv.

Infrastructure & Housing

of goods

City Prosperity Index export/import and household income/ consumption.

Relevant indicators within informal areas

Infrastructure: water, sanitation, roads, transportation & ICT

-Water and sanitation network

Public Services and Transport: water, electricity, telephones

Infrastructure: Water, saniwater, energy, tation within telecommunica- housing tion, road, public transportation

Housing: units, appliances, maintenance

Quality of hous- Housing: Housing ing units with basic services, rooms/person

-Housing choices

Medical & Health Considerations: Hospital, supplies

Health: life expectancy

health sub-index.

Health facilities

Schools & Education

Education: pub- Education: lic & private ed- reading ucation skills, attainment

Education,

-Education facilities (illiteracy rate)

SocioCultural Environment: personal freedom, media & censorship

Social freedom & censorship

Public space: inPublic space/ca crease community cohesion, identity & guarantee safety

Recreation: restaurants, cultural & sports facilities

Cultural & sports facilities

---Crime

Health: life expectancy

-Road network/ walkability -Transportation choices -Quality of built environment

Quality of public & private health care

Family life: divorce rate

Community: quality of support network

Work-life balance: time for personal care & leisure

- Class capacity

Recreational facilities

Community life: Life Satisfacmembership in tion civil society Petty & violent crime, threat of terror

Safety: homicide rate, assault rate

Crime rates

(continued)

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H. A. E. E. Khalil and S. Gammaz

Environment

Sector

Table 2.2 (continued) Mercer

EIU

OECD

City Prosperity Index

Natural Envi- Climate and ge- Environment: Environmental Susronment: ography air pollution tainability: climate, natuprotection of urban ral disasters environment and natural assets, energy efficiency, minimize pressure on surrounding land and natural resources, minimize environmental losses.

-Protection of remaining agro-land -Energy efficiency -Recycling and waste management -Air Pollution

Main indicators: air quality (PM10), CO2 emissions and indoor pollution Gender equality: Employment Equity: reduces male to female of women poverty and the inearnings with children cidence of slums, rights of minority and vulnerable groups, gender equality, civic participation

Equity

Relevant indicators within informal areas

Main indicators: inequality of income/consumption, (Gini coefficient) and inequality of access to services and infrastructure.

As most residents are low to lower middle income, hence there is minimal inequality within informal areas themselves. More relevant indicators are: -Poverty rate -Gender Equality (if available) -Civic participation

As argued by Khalil (2010), informal areas in Egypt can be said to have green aspects that resemble some of the principles highlighted in sustainable urbanism and its related theories. She discussed their compactness, although it could be over compact in many cases, defined edges with distinct urban pattern, increased walkability and energy efficiency, domination of mixed uses and mixed housing driven by actual needs, completeness with many daily needs satisfied for a diverse group of residents, and high participation in decision-making as they were mainly self-built by the community through the informal sector. However, they lack other aspects such as connectivity, green transportation, open and green spaces. It is also vital to note that in some instances over-crowdedness becomes a problem exceeding the UN-Habitat threshold of two persons/room. In addition, they may lack an overall vision of development as they are developed incrementally with no pre-planning. Thus, there is a need for a more comprehensive approach that recognizes the positive green aspects

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of people’s way of development but in a better environmentally responsive approach. Accordingly, it is useful to assess informal areas in relation to the various eco-rating indices. At the same time, QOL in informal areas should be assessed so as not to over romanticize their conditions or achievements. According to the previous discussed QOL indices, it is apparent that a myriad of data is required to accurately fulfill the various related indicators. However, there are two important aspects to be considered in this quest. First, much of the required data is available, at the most, on the city level if not only on the national level as data availability and intensity is limited within countries of the Global South. Hence, many indicators will end up representing the city and not the informal area under study. Second and most importantly, more than often, official data ignores informal areas and sectors rendering the available data unrepresentative of this major element in the urban context. Consequently, if the official data at the city level is used, conditions of the informal area under study will be skewed. Accordingly, it is vital to use/collect data at the area level. Additionally, looking at the indicators and in relation to QOL in informal areas, the paper will focus in each sector on three attributes, namely availability, affordability, and quality. Table 2.2 shows the indicators used by different QOL indices and extracts relevant indicators to be used to assess QOL in informal areas.

2.5 Case Studies The ratio of informal areas in Cairo is estimated at more than 60% of the built area with more areas added daily. This poses a number of questions as how to improve quality of life within these areas focusing on improving environmental conditions and strengthening their resilience to the effects of climate change. The selected case studies cover a variety of informalities within the Greater Cairo Region. All four cases were previously agricultural land, illegally subdivided and built by individuals and local contractors as a response to the escalating demand for affordable housing. They are recognized by the GOPP and ISDF as unplanned areas and not unsafe areas (slums). Two areas are located on the western side of the Greater Cairo Region (GCR) within Giza governorate: Markaz Alabhath and Masaken Geziret Aldahab. The other two areas are located on the northern side of GCR within Qalyoubia governorate: Ezbet Allam, Alkhosous city and Manshiet Abdelmonem Reyad, Shubra Alkhaima city, as shown in Fig. 2.2. As part of the city core, Markaz Alabhath, Giza governorate has 132,000 inhabitants with a total area of 67.2 ha, while Masaken Geziret Aldahab, Giza governorate has 117,000 inhabitants with a total area of 65.5 ha. Markaz Alabhath is a part of Al-Warrak district which has a total population of approximately 1 million, and this informal area originally extends back to the 1960s. Masaken Geziret Aldahab is strategically located on Bahr El Aazham Street, overlooking the River Nile. It was originally agricultural land and was still classified as rural until the 1950s then turned to an informal area since the first wave of informal construction in 1950–1977.

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Manshiet Abdelmonem Reyad, Shubra Alkhaima Markaz Alabhath, Alwarrak

Masaken Aldahab

Ezbet Allam, khosous city

Al-

Geziret

Fig. 2.2 Greater Cairo Region with the four case study areas. Source Courtesy of Google Earth

Ezbet Allam, Al-Khosous (108,000 inhabitants, 48.6 ha) and Manshiet Abdelmonem Reyad, Shubra Alkhaima (250,000 inhabitants, 186.1 ha), Qalyoubia governorate, represent informal areas that used to be on the city fringe but have grown to be part of the central urban zone. They are more recent additions to the informality that surrounds Greater Cairo Region. These areas are studied to conclude how prosperous and energy efficient they are. Hence, a number of strategies to support their resilience can be deduced. The case study investigation is done through several steps. First, each area is analyzed according to the sustainable urbanism principles discussed and highlighted in Fig. 2.1. Second, the indicators of energy efficiency extracted in Table 2.1 are measured in each area according to available information. Third, QOL in each area is assessed quantitatively and qualitatively upon availability of data according to the proposed indicators highlighted in Table 2.2. This analysis is based on the available data collected from the strategic plan documents for the cities where the areas are located, census data 2017 (CAPMAS 2017), as well as available field survey data collected in 2018/2019. According to these assessments, the paper addresses the following raised questions and proposes relevant recommendations.

Sustainable Urbanism Principle

Compactness

Very high densities with up to 1900 persons/ha

Buildings are mainly Buildings are mainly compact with compact with average average height of 6 height of 5 floors floors

Increase density

Compact building design

Streets are interconnected; however, they advocate pedestrians to vehicles as they are narrow. Road network is not effectively operating

Pedestrian-friendly streets with community-built services within walking distances

Ezbet Allam, Al-Khosous

Buildings are very compact with average height of 10 floors

High densities with up Very high density of to 1600 persons/ha 1840 persons/ha

Low connectivity with surrounding areas, especially the Nile frontage, while internal streets are interconnected which facilitates pedestrian movement. Very narrow street network not effectively operating for vehicles

Streets are interconnected; however, they advocate pedestrians to vehicles as they are narrow. Road network is not effectively operating

Connectivity

Pedestrian-friendly streets with community-built services within walking distances

Pedestrian-friendly streets with community-built services within walking distances

Masaken Geziret Aldahab

Walkability

Markaz Alabhath, Warrak

Table 2.3 The adopted sustainable urbanism principles in the four case study areas. Source Authors’ analysis

(continued)

Buildings are very compact with average height of 6–7 floors

Very high density of 1485 persons/ha

Streets are interconnected; however, they advocate pedestrians to vehicles as they are narrow. Road network is not effectively operating

Pedestrian-friendly streets with community-built services within walking distances

Abdlemonem Reyad, Shubra Alkhaima

2 Supporting Informal Areas Resilience: Reinforcing … 23

Table 2.3 (continued)

Completeness

Uses are mixed

Housing is community-built and needs-driven. Different sizes are available, and, in some areas, there is a variety of standards A sense of harmony since diversity and community-driven development pattern adds to the area’s sense of place, as opposed to the identical blocks in publicly developed projects

Mixed-uses

Mixed housing

Sense of place

Markaz Alabhath, Warrak

A sense of harmony since diversity and community-driven development pattern adds to the area’s sense of place

Housing is community-built and needs-driven. Different sizes are available, and, in some areas, there is a variety of standards

Mixed uses are widespread in the area especially commercial uses with residential

Masaken Geziret Aldahab

A sense of harmony since diversity and community-driven development pattern adds to the area’s sense of place, as opposed to the identical blocks in publicly developed projects

Housing is community-built and needs-driven. Different sizes are available, and, in some areas, there is a variety of standards

Uses are mixed especially commercial and crafts with residential

Ezbet Allam, Al-Khosous

(continued)

A sense of harmony since diversity and community-driven development pattern adds to the area’s sense of place, as opposed to the identical blocks in publicly developed projects

Housing is community-built and needs-driven. Different sizes are available, and, in some areas, there is a variety of standards

Uses are mixed especially commercial, crafts and industrial with residential

Abdlemonem Reyad, Shubra Alkhaima

24 H. A. E. E. Khalil and S. Gammaz

Table 2.3 (continued)

QOL

Connectedness

Microbuses and autorickshaw (three-wheeler)

Variety of transport choices

Agro-pockets are diminishing

Not present

Green transport

Preserving open & natural areas

Privately owned and operated microbuses and autorickshaws with an underground metro under construction

Integrating transportation & land use

Markaz Alabhath, Warrak

No open spaces

Microbuses, autorickshaw (three-wheeler) and underground metro

Not present

Privately owned and operated microbuses and autorickshaws connected to the adjacent ring road and nearby underground metro station

Masaken Geziret Aldahab

Microbuses, autorickshaw (three-wheeler), pickups and underground metro

Not present

Privately owned and operated microbuses and autorickshaws connected to the adjacent ring road and nearby underground metro station

Abdlemonem Reyad, Shubra Alkhaima

Agro-pockets are Very few diminishing, no open agro-pockets are left spaces on the boundaries of the area. Open spaces are scarce

Microbuses and autorickshaw (three-wheeler)

Not present

Privately owned and operated microbuses and autorickshaws connected to the city ring road

Ezbet Allam, Al-Khosous

2 Supporting Informal Areas Resilience: Reinforcing … 25

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2.5.1 What Hidden Green Characteristics Do Informal Areas Have and What Is Their Energy Performance? Are They Efficient? Table 2.3 shows the application of sustainable urbanism principles within the four areas. For the four areas, it is apparent that they share some positive principles as walkability, increased density, compact building design, mixed uses, and mixed housing. Densities are high but surpass the benefits of increased densities to the limit of inducing negative effects apparent in the lack of green or open spaces. Additionally, the use of informal microbuses and autorickshaws satisfies the local needs of mobility availability and affordability; however, the quality of the service and associated emissions raise local concerns. Table 2.4 displays the performance of the four cases with respect to the energy efficiency-related indicators derived from the Green City Index shown in Table 2.1. Additionally, for each energy efficiency-related indicator, the relationship to sustainable urbanism principles is investigated, differentiating between the presence of the energy efficiency indicator, the sustainable urbanism principle, and their correlation. Interestingly, the compact building design in such areas contributes to minimizing heat loads and hence requires less energy. Although it is apparent that informal areas are more efficient than other areas, they may be contributing to climate change by their continuous encroachment on agricultural land, thereby reducing carbon sequestration potential while simultaneously generating their own emissions. It is vital to note that these areas are efficient in re-using their products; however, garbage separation and recycling is done by the garbage collectors and not the inhabitants. Other studies have shown the low monetary value of the generated waste due to continued re-using and the virtual absence of any metals, glass, or recyclable plastics in the disposed waste (Khalil and Alahwal 2017).

2.5.2 What Is the Quality of Life in Informal Areas? Table 2.5 shows how the four case study areas perform according to the criteria of prosperity derived in Table 2.2. Evidently, quality of life in the study area is largely inadequate as was found in a similar study (Attia and Khalil 2015). This is driven by poor performance in a number of indicators. First, inadequacy in terms of quantity and quality of educational and health facilities; second, incompatibility of the street network to traffic flow due to the inherited geometry of its agricultural origin; third, the increased pollution with the dependence on low-quality microbuses, pickup trucks, and autorickshaws as principal modes of transportation. As discussed before, these four areas and similar informal areas lack green or open spaces that would host civic activities. Alternatively, these activities take place in streets, which constitute the only available public space in the area. Concerning energy use, the investigated areas consume less energy due to their compact design if compared to

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Table 2.4 Energy efficiency performance and related sustainable urbanism principles* for the four study areas. Source Authors’ analysis

Value

Indicator

City

CompleteConnectedness QOL ness

Walkability Connectivity Increase density Compact building d i Mixed-uses Mixed housing Sense of place Integrating transportation &landuse Green transportation Variety of transportation choices Preserving open & naturalareas

Compactness

Eco buildings polClimate change action plan icy

Clean & efficient energy policies Electricity consumption

Markaz Alabhath

Numbers for district inhabitants are not available however, while the world avMasaken erage electricity consumption for 2016 is 2,840.12 kWh/ca or 10,224.45 Ezbet Allam megajoules/ca out of which 772.56 kWh/ca (2016) 2,781.23 megajoules/ ca Abdelmonem Re- are for residential. In Egypt the average electricity consumption for 2016 was yad 1,695.46 kWh/ca, 6103.65 megajoules/ca out of which 782.7 kWh/ca (2016) 2,817.74 megajoules/ ca was for residential. (IEA 2016) Markaz Alabhath Masaken

No renewable energy or liquefied gas

- -

No renewable energy while availability of liquefied gas

- -

Ezbet Allam No renewable energy or liquefied gas

- -

AbdelNo renewable energy while availability monem Reof liquefied gas yad

- -

Markaz Alabhath

Although there is a climate change strategy for the city, no action is taken, also no action is taken to stop encroachment on surrounding agro land

-

-

Masaken

There is a climate change strategy for the city and a small project for climate change adaptation

-

-

Ezbet Allam No concern to climate change

-

-

AbdelNo concern to climate change or remonem Re- sponsiveness to district encroachment yad on agro land

-

-

Markaz Alabhath

Although there is an Egyptian building energy code, but it is not enforced even in formally planned areas. Within the area there is no official concern with eco-buildings or improving environmental performance except for addi(continued)

28

H. A. E. E. Khalil and S. Gammaz

Table 2.4 (continued)

Value

Indicator

City

CompleteConnectedness QOL ness

Walkability Connectivity Increase density Compact building d i Mixed-uses Mixed housing Sense of place Integrating transportation &landuse Green transportation Variety of transportation choices Preserving open & naturalareas

Compactness

tions done by residents. However, the compactness of the area provides better microclimate especially in narrow streets and hence reduces energy demand within the buildings. Masaken

Although there is an Egyptian building energy code, but it is not enforced even in formally planned areas. Within the area there is no official concern with eco-buildings or improving environmental performance except for additions done by residents, and very few projects related to climate adaptation supported by international organizations. However, the compactness of the area provides better microclimate especially in narrow streets and hence reduces energy demand within the buildings.

Green spaces per capita

Ezbet Allam Although there is an Egyptian building energy code, but it is not enforced even Abdelmonem Re- in formally planned areas. Within the area there is no official concern with yad eco-buildings or improving environmental performance except for additions done by residents. However, the compactness of the area provides better microclimate especially in narrow streets and hence reduces energy demand within the buildings. Markaz Alabhath

Almost no green spaces within the area and only 0.05 m2/ca of open spaces

-

-

Masaken

Almost no green spaces within the area and only 0.07 m2/ca of open spaces

-

-

Ezbet Allam Almost no green spaces within the area and only 0.1 m2/ca of open spaces

-

-

AbdelNo green spaces within the area and monem Reonly 0.01 m2/ca of open spaces yad

-

-

-

(continued)

2 Supporting Informal Areas Resilience: Reinforcing …

29

Table 2.4 (continued)

Value

Markaz Alabhath

1965 person/ ha

Masaken

1787 person / ha

Population density

Indicator

City

CompleteConnectedness QOL ness

Walkability Connectivity Increase density Compact building d i Mixed-uses Mixed housing Sense of place Integrating transportation &landuse Green transportation Variety of transportation choices Preserving open & naturalareas

Compactness

Ezbet Allam 2222 persons/ha Abdelmonem Re- 1343 persons/ha yad

Land use policy

Markaz Alabhath The district is informally built advocating walkability, mixed use and mixed Ezbet Allam housing. Transportation is integrated with land use. Abdelmonem Reyad Masaken

Markaz Alabhath

Masaken Length of mass Waste recycling and re-use policy transport

-

Although generated waste is minimal 0.5kg/ca, where inhabitants have a high reusing rate, but the residual waste is of lower value and hence doesn’t attract waste pickers to recycle resulting in accumulation especially given the high concentration of people. The municipality is currently considering a more efficient system.

-

Rate of wastes 0.5 kg/ca, the residual waste is of lower value and hence doesn’t attract waste pickers to recycle resulting in accumulation especially given the high concentration of people in the area.

-

Ezbet Allam Although the generated waste is minimal (0.6kg/ca), where inhabitants have Abdelmonem Re- a high reusing rate, but the residual waste is of lower value and hence yad doesn’t attract waste pickers to recycle resulting in accumulation especially given the high concentration of people. The municipality is currently considering a more efficient system. Markaz Alabhath Masaken

No available data on district level, with only public buses and extensive network of informal private microbuses.

-

-

(continued)

30

H. A. E. E. Khalil and S. Gammaz

Table 2.4 (continued)

Value

Congestion reduction polUrban mass transport policy icy

Indicator

City

CompleteConnectedness QOL ness

Walkability Connectivity Increase density Compact building d i Mixed-uses Mixed housing Sense of place Integrating transportation &landuse Green transportation Variety of transportation choices Preserving open & naturalareas

Compactness

Ezbet Allam

-

Abdelmonem Reyad

-

Markaz Alabhath

A new underground metro line is planned to link the district to the rest of Cairo

Masaken

The area is adjacent to one underground metro station, and one public regional bus station. Currently there is a local development plan to improve integration of formal and informal transportation choices at the area boundaries.

Ezbet Allam Currently there is a plan to improve integration of formal and informal transportation choices AbdelThe area is adjacent to 2 underground monem Re- metro stations and a bus station. Curyad rently there is a plan to improve integration of formal and informal transportation choices Markaz Alabhath

The strategic plan and a local development plan aim to improve connectivity in the area and decrease congestion

Masaken Ezbet Allam A local development plan aims to improve mobility, connectivity and reduce Abdelmonem Re- congestion yad

*For each energy efficiency indicator, related sustainable (SU) urbanism principles are marked as follows: - Dark cell if SU principle is related and present, - Dash if SU principle is related but not present, - Dark cell with a dash if SU principle is related and present but the indicator is missing

35 NGO are located in and around the area, 10 of which are active NGOs with only 3 located inside the area

Ezbet Allam, Khosous

– 46% of – 14,400 – 18,100 establishments establishments are establishments, housing 51,000 workers; retail and crafts. 50% retail and 38% in retail; and 22% in 42% of workers in crafts. 55,500 industries and crafts – 55.9% retail and crafts workers, 33% in – 46.37% commercial/residential, retail and crafts residential, – 48.43% residential 12.5% residential, 2.2% 15.45% mixed 11.03% mixed commercial uses with uses with residential, 2.68% residential, 2.21% health services educational services, 2 official governmental wholesale markets adjacent to the area

Local economic facilities Mixed uses

Five active NGOs are located in and around the area. Strong social ties due to extended families

Masaken Geziret Aldahab

Economic

Markaz Alabhath, Warrak Eight active NGOs are located in and around the area. Strong social ties due to extended families

Relevant indicators within informal areas

Political & Gov. Since areas are informally governed through existing social networks, civil society strength is important

Sector

Table 2.5 Study areas’ QOL performance according to the derived indicators. Source Author’s analysis

(continued)

– 24,000 establishments housing 84,800 workers; 38% in retail; and 37% in industries and crafts – 34.34% commercial/residential, 20.99% residential, 8.52% industrial

47 NGO are located in and around the area, 9 of which are active

Abdlemonem Reyad, Shubra Alkhaima

2 Supporting Informal Areas Resilience: Reinforcing … 31

Markaz Alabhath, Warrak

– 100% coverage but quality is deteriorating – Road network is moderate – Narrow streets advocating walkability – Integrated informal transportation modes (microbuses, autorickshaws)

Total Unemployment rate employment/unemployment 10%, 3000 Average household income LE/month, most sources of income are unstable and depend on daily or weekly wages

Relevant indicators within informal areas

Infrastructure & Water and sanitation Housing network Road network/walkability Transportation choices

Sector

Table 2.5 (continued)

– 100% coverage but quality is deteriorating – Road network is moderate – Narrow streets advocating walkability – Integrated informal transportation modes (microbuses, autorickshaws)

Unemployment rate 13%, 4500 LE/month, most sources of income are unstable and depend on daily or weekly wages

Masaken Geziret Aldahab

– 100% coverage but quality is deteriorating – Road network is moderate – Narrow streets advocating walkability – Integrated informal transportation modes (microbuses, autorickshaws)

Unemployment 4.95%, income data not available

Ezbet Allam, Khosous

(continued)

– 95% coverage but quality is deteriorating – Road network is deteriorated – Narrow streets advocating walkability – Integrated informal transportation modes (microbuses, autorickshaws)

Unemployment 11.8%, income data not available

Abdlemonem Reyad, Shubra Alkhaima

32 H. A. E. E. Khalil and S. Gammaz

Social Serv.

Sector

Markaz Alabhath, Warrak

3 hospitals and 4 medical centers

– 23.3% illiteracy – Average class capacity is 47 students/class

Health facilities

Education facilities (illiteracy rate) Class capacity

Housing choices – Mixed housing Quality of built environment choices available and serving local affordability – 7% of buildings are very good – 86% are of medium quality

Relevant indicators within informal areas

Table 2.5 (continued) Abdlemonem Reyad, Shubra Alkhaima

3 small hospitals and 2 medical centers but there is a need for 2 more medical centers

(continued)

– 23.3% illiteracy – Average class capacity is 51 students while it reached 81 students in one school

1 small hospital and 2 medical centers but there is a need for 18 more medical centers and 2 hospitals

– Mixed housing choices – Mixed housing choices available and serving local available and serving local affordability affordability – 13.3% of buildings are – 21.19% of buildings are very good very good – 86.4% are of medium – 77.76% are of medium quality quality

Ezbet Allam, Khosous

– 21% illiteracy – 26% illiteracy – Average class – Average class capacity is capacity is 43.5 43.6 students while it students/class reached 60 students (max while it reached 57 allowed is 40) students

One general public hospital near the area and one medical center inside the area, in addition to number of private clinics mixed with residential building. There is a need for more medical centers

– Mixed housing choices available and serving local affordability – 2% of buildings are very good – 88% are of medium quality

Masaken Geziret Aldahab

2 Supporting Informal Areas Resilience: Reinforcing … 33

Environment

Drugs are a main issue

Crime rates – No remaining agro-land – Refer to Table 2.4 – Low generated waste 0.5 kg/person but recycling rate is only 20% – No available data for air pollution

None

Cultural facilities

– Protection of remaining agro-land – Energy efficiency – Recycling and waste management – Air pollution

0.05 m2 /ca

0.1 m2 /ca

Recreational facilities

0.08 m2 /ca

only 0.1 m2 /ca of open spaces

Ezbet Allam, Khosous

– No remaining agro-land – Refer to Table 2.4 – Low generated waste 0.5 kg/person but recycling rate is only 21% – No available data for air pollution

– No remaining agro-land – Refer to Table 2.4 – Low generated waste 0.6 kg/person but recycling rate is only 20% – No available info for air pollution

Drugs and kidnaping Drugs are a main issue are main issues

Only one public None library not currently functioning but under improvement.

0.07 m2 /ca of open spaces

0.3 m2 /ca of open spaces

Public space/ca

Socio- Cultural

Masaken Geziret Aldahab

Markaz Alabhath, Warrak

Relevant indicators within informal areas

Sector

Table 2.5 (continued)

– The current city boundary prohibits building on surrounding agro-land – Refer to Table 2.4 – Low generated waste 0.62 kg/person but recycling rate is only 20% – No available info for air pollution but industrial area suffers from pollution (continued)

Drugs are a main issue

None

None

only 0.01 m2 /ca of open spaces

Abdlemonem Reyad, Shubra Alkhaima

34 H. A. E. E. Khalil and S. Gammaz

Ezbet Allam, Khosous

Abdlemonem Reyad, Shubra Alkhaima

As most residents are low to – Most residents are – Most residents are – Most residents are lower – Most residents are lower lower middle income, hence low income and low income and middle income middle income. – No available information – No available information there is minimal inequality lower middle lower middle on gender equality on gender equality within informal areas income income – Local social networks help – Local social networks help – No available – No available themselves build/govern the area but build/govern the area but information on information on More relevant indicators are: very minimal participation very minimal participation gender equality, gender equality, – Poverty rate in municipal decision in municipal decision but there is but there is – Gender equality making making significant significant – Civic participation percentage of percentage of woman woman being being family family breadwinners breadwinners – Local social – Local social networks help networks help build/govern the build/govern the area but very area but very minimal minimal participation in participation in municipal decision municipal decision making making

Masaken Geziret Aldahab

Equity

Markaz Alabhath, Warrak

Relevant indicators within informal areas

Sector

Table 2.5 (continued)

2 Supporting Informal Areas Resilience: Reinforcing … 35

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H. A. E. E. Khalil and S. Gammaz

similar low-middle income of lower density districts. However, compactness and lack of green spaces increase the magnitude of urban heat island phenomenon accentuated by the extensive use of low albedo materials as bricks, concrete, and asphalt (Khalil et al. 2018). This in turn, increases heat stress, reducing thermal comfort in outdoor spaces and a subsequent increase in the demand for cooling.

2.6 Discussion and Recommendations to Improve Environmental Performance and QOL of Informal Urbanism From the previous analysis and discussion, it is evident that informal areas have many sustainability aspects. The case studies revealed that the four areas have some green characteristics as proximity of daily services, mixed uses, mixed housing, walkability, and integrated transportation choices with the associated energy efficiency benefits of lower energy use and lower waste generation. The overall urban socio-economic context provides a sense of place to each area, where the residents have strong social networks and ties to their areas. It is vital to note that the high density in the four areas, narrow streets, and the building compact design contribute positively to a reduced energy demand, rendering the areas more energy efficient than other similar lower income neighborhoods. Contrastingly, these areas lack green spaces, efficient connectivity especially with surroundings, and environmentally friendly transport ation choices. This is further accentuated by the absence of future policies/plans to address green transportation or climate change adaptation or mitigation. It is worth noting that there are plans to improve mobility choices as well as decrease congestion as part of local development plans that are currently being developed under the supervision of the participatory infrastructure program (PIP), Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨ur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Development Cooperation) GIZ. The assessment of QOL within the areas revealed the multiplicity of required services and interventions to improve local conditions. Although the four areas provide mixed uses and mixed housing choices as well as employment opportunities that add to their appeal to local residents’ needs and affordability, however, the four areas shared lack of adequate services, green spaces, and proper transportation network among other aspects that compromise the quality of life for residents. Thus, it is apparent that much can be done to improve the performance of informal areas, their responsiveness to local needs, resilience to climate change (related work was done by (Hesse and Mattey 2017)), and their quality of life. A major challenge for the development of these areas is to find vacant land to build the needed services within the required proximity. Any available plots are, in most cases, privately owned which requires an intervention from the municipality to acquire the land and compensate the owner. Previously, this has challenged many development plans; however, the political will could address this issue. However, the main issue is to develop these areas, building on their strengths and assets rather than only seeing them as geographies of blight

2 Supporting Informal Areas Resilience: Reinforcing …

37

and either removing them or continuing a laissez faire attitude. In this pursuit, a number of related recommendations could be proposed. 1. A comprehensive study of the built environment is needed to identify specific acupuncture interventions that would work toward improving the current quality of life with minimal costs, displacement, and time. 2. Raising awareness about climate change plans for both municipalities and residents. 3. Enhancing cyclability that already exists by providing awareness campaigns that highlight its benefits and its trendiness worldwide. Better accessibility for bicycles can be promoted to add to the initiative. 4. Developing a comprehensive transportation network building on existing informal transportation network and integrating it with fast transit systems to decrease energy consumption and congestions. 5. Speeding up the implementation of the designated underground metro line to link the areas to the rest of Cairo. 6. Developing tailored programs to explore the use of solar energy in such contexts, especially since Cairo is in the middle of the desert, in many applications, such as water heaters or street lighting. This could be done through a government initiative to subsidize the initial cost, especially in the current power shortage that Egypt suffers from. 7. Promoting and preserving existing agricultural pockets and if possible, converting them into gardens and parks. Some community gardens can be promoted too. In addition, promoting roof planting to adverse the urban heat island effect. Planting streets can also contribute to improving comfort in outdoor spaces, providing shade, and absorbing CO2 . The use of ecological landscape is necessary by choosing suitable plants that are responsive to the arid climate, limited availability of water for irrigation, and require less maintenance.

2.7 Conclusions Climate change is crawling to dominate urban debates of the twenty-first century. It is widely discussed in the domain of developed countries. Moreover, when it is rarely discussed in developing countries, the debates focus on the adaptation and mitigation necessary for risk zones. However, debates concerning improving the performance of cities in these countries have received minimum attention until now. The challenge that lies in these cities is that they are mostly informal, thus requiring different approaches and solutions. This paper has highlighted the conditions in informal areas in Cairo regarding their sustainability characteristics and the quality of life and prosperity they provide for their dwellers. The investigated cases have shown adequate compliance with many of the sustainable urbanism attributes, especially those related to the urban structure; a commonly neglected asset when addressing upgrading informal areas. The paper has highlighted the current environmental challenges as well. As such, upgrading projects as well as new developments

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within low-middle income neighborhoods should learn from local development practices that have been shaped by affordability, build on the identified green aspects and address deficiencies that reduce the quality of life. Additionally, guidelines for resource-efficient urbanism could adopt some of the identified green attributes. For each informal area, there is still much to be studied to identify possible tailored solutions and how to implement them in a financially viable method to ensure their continuity and mutual benefit to their dwellers and the entire city dwellers at the same time. This is essential to increase the resilience of the most vulnerable groups to climate change and its effects on urban climates, an essential constituent of the New Urban Agenda. Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the data support of Prof. Sahar Attia, the consultant preparing Local Area Development Plans to the four case studies and commissioned by the participatory infrastructure program (PIP), GIZ.

References Attia, Sahar, and Heba Allah Essam E. Khalil. 2015. Urban metabolism and Quality of life in informal areas. In Proceedings REAL CORP 2015: Plan together—Right Now—Overall, ed. M. Schrenk, V.V. Popovich, P. Zeile, P. Elisei, C. Beyer, 661–674, Ghent, Belgium. http://www.cor p.at. Boarnet, M.G., and R. Crane. 2001. Travel by design: The influence of urban form on travel. New York: Oxford University Press. Breheny, M. 1996. Centrists, decentrists and compromisers: Views on the future of urban form. In the compact city: A sustainable urban form?, by E. Burton, M. Jenks, K. Williams, 13–35. London: E&FN Spon. CAPMAS Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. 2017. Egypt Census 2018. CAPMAS. Costanza, Robert, Brendan Fisher, Saleem Ali, Caroline Beer, Lynne Bond, Roelof Boumans, Nicholas L. Danigelis, et al. 2008. An integrative approach to quality of life measurement, research and policy. In: S.A.P.I.EN.S, 17–21. Clos, Joan. 2015. African urban momentum is an opportunity for sustainable growth. Daily Nation, 23 Dec 2015. http://allafrica.com/stories/201512230677.html. Accessed Nov 22, 2016. De Soto, H. 2000. The mystery of capital: why capitalism triumphs in the west and fails everywhere else. Basic Books. Ecocity Builders. 2011. The ecocity framework. http://www.ecocitystandards.org/. Farr, Douglas. 2008. Sustainable urbanism: Urban design with nature. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Forum for The Future; General Electric GE. 2010. The Sustainability Cities Index 2010. London: Forum for The Future and GE. GlobeScan and MRC Mclean Hazel. 2007. Megacity challenges: A stakeholder perspective. Munich: Siemens AG. GOPP General Organization of Physical Planning, and United Nations Development Program UNDP. 2007. Improving living condition within informal settlements through adopting participatory planning: General framework for upgrading and controling informal areas. Cairo: GOPP & UNDP. Hall, Peter, and Ulrich Pfeiffer. 2000. Urban future 21: A global agenda for 21st century cities. Routledge.

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Hasic, T. 2000. A sustainable urban matrix: Achieving sustainable urban form in residential buildings. In Acieving sustainable urban form, ed. by E. Burton, M. Jenks, K. Williams, 329–336. London: E&FN Spon. Hesse, C., and K. Mattey. 2017. Improving environmental performance of outdoor spaces in Cairo imbaba, climate check for compact neighbourhoods. Cairo: International Academy Berlin & Cairo University. Holden, E. 2004. Ecological footprints and sustainable urban form. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 19 (1): 91–109. Høyer, K.G., and E. Holden. 2003. Household consumption and ecological footprints in Norway: Does urban form matter? Journal of Consumer Policy 26: 327–349. IEA. 2016. IEA Energy Atlas. http://energyatlas.iea.org/#!/tellmap/-1002896040/4. Imperato, I., and J. Ruster. 2003. Slum upgrading and participation: Lessons from Latin America. Washington D.C.: The World Bank. ISDF, Informal Areas Development Facility. 2011. National map for unsafe areas. Cairo: Ministry of Local Development. IPCC WGI AR5. 2013. Working group i contribution to the IPCC fifth assessment report: Climate change 2013: The physical science basis, summary for policymakers. IPCC,UN. Khalil, Heba Essam E. 2010. New urbanism, smart growth and informal areas: A quest for sustainability. In Sustainable Architecture & Urban Development, 137–156. Amman: CSAAR. Khalil, Heba Essam E. 2012a. Towards a unified definition of informal areas in the Arab region. In Quality of life: A vision towards better future, 2nd international conference, architecture department, Faculty Of Engineering, MTI University, 152–166. Cairo: Architecture Department, Faculty Of Engineering, MTI University. Khalil, Heba Essam E. 2012b. Sustainable urbanism: Theories and green rating systems. In 10th annual international energy conversion engineering conference, 48th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE joint propulsion conference & exhibit. Atlanta, Georgia. Khalil, Heba Essam E. 2012c. Enhancing quality of life through strategic urban planning of cities. Sustainble Cities and Society (Elsevier) 5: 77–86. Khalil, H., and A. Alahwal. 2017. Re-understanding cairo through urban metabolism: Formal vs informal districts resource flow performance. In Ecocity World Summit 2017. Melbourne, Australia. Khalil, H., and E.E. Khalil. 2015. Energy efficiency in the urban environment. Boca Raton, London, New York: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis. Khalil, H., A. Ibrahim, N. Elgendy, and N. Makhlouf. 2018. Could/Should improving the environmental performance in informal areas of fast growing cities be a priority? case study Cairo. Urban Climate 24: 63–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2018.01.007. Leite, Carlos, and Rafel Tello. 2011. Megacity sustainability Indicators. 20 9. www.stuchileite. com.Accessed Apr 2012. Mercer. 2011. Mercer 2011 quality of living survey highlights—Defining ‘Quality of Living’. Mercer. 29 Nov. http://www.mercer.com/articles/quality-of-living-definition-1436405. Accessed Jan 25, 2012. Moore, Jennie, Kirstin Miller, Richard Register, and Sarah Campbell. 2017. International ecocity framework and standards (brochure). Oakland, CA: Ecocity Builders. Oldham, Linda, Frederic Shorter, and Belgin Tekce. 1994. A place to live: Families and child health in a Cairo neighborhood. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD. 2011. Better life initiative executive summary. In OECD Better Life Initiative. 23 May. http://oecdbetterlifeindex.org/. Accessed Jan 20, 2012. Roy, A. 2005. Urban informality: Toward an epistemology of planning. Journal of The American Planning Association 71 (2). STAR Communities. 2016. STAR community rating system version 2.0. Washington DC: STAR Communities. Stoel, T.B.J.R. 1999. Reining In urban sprawl. Environment 41 (4): 6–11.

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The Academy of Urbanism. 2010. The Frieburg charter of sustainable urbanism: Learning from place. London: The Academy of Urbanism. The Economist Intelligence Unit EIU. 2007. The economist intelligence unit’s quality-of-life index, the world in 2OO5. The Economist. 5 Sept. http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUA LITY_OF_LIFE.pdf. Accessed Jan 20, 2012. UN-HABITAT. 2012. State of the world’s cities 2012–2013: Prosperity of cities. Nairobi: United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). UN-HABITAT. 2016. Urbanization and development: Emerging futures, world cities report 2016. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Human Settlements Programme UN-Habitat. Unit, The Economist Intelligence. 2009. European green city index: Assessing the environmental impact of Europe’s major cities. Munich: Siemens AG. Unit, The Economist Intelligence. 2010. Latin American green city index: Assessing the environmental performance of latin America’s major cities. Munich: Siemens AG. Unit, The Economist Intelligence. 2011a. African green city index: Assessing the environmental performance of Africa’s major cities. Munich: siemens AG. Unit, The Economist Intelligence. 2011b. Asian green city index: Assessing the environmental performance of Asia’s major cities. Munich: Siemens AG. Unit, The Economist Intelligence. 2011c. US and Canada green city index: Assessing the environmental performance of 27 major US and Canadian cities. Munich: Siemens AG. United Nations. 2015. Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development, A/RES/70/1 United Nations. http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1& Lang=E. (accessed Jan 2017).

Chapter 3

Developing a Decentralized and Integrated Water Management System for Neighborhood Communities Within Indonesia’s Informal Urban Settlements Armin Fuchs, Nico N. M. J. D. Tillie, and Mo Smit Abstract Decentralized water management systems can be a viable solution to the sanitation problems of informal urban areas. To be successful, they have to be tailored to the specific context of an area by using its social and cultural potentials instead of thinking in solely technical system measures. This is shown for the example of Kampung Tamansari, an informal settlement located at a riverbank in Bandung. An analysis of the existing water sources reveals that the current handling of water has a destructive impact on human health and environment. Field research in Tamansari suggests that the neighborhood communities, their leaders, and religious institutions are promising catalysts for the implementation of a new system. A high level of self-organization, social cohesion, democratic mechanisms, and educational infrastructure are to be mentioned. Based on those findings, an integrated water system for one neighborhood is proposed. The implementation, management, and water-related education are realized through the use of the identified community potentials. Technical components such as septic tanks, constructed wetlands, and water storages are designed to facilitate public spaces. Benefits for involved stakeholders ensure the system’s stability and increase the chances for a gradual expansion along the many rivers of Bandung and the countries metropoles.

A. Fuchs (B) · M. Smit Architectural Engineering, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 134, 2628 BL Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] M. Smit e-mail: [email protected] N. N. M. J. D. Tillie Landscape Architecture, Department of Urbanism, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 134, 2628 BL Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. Moore et al. (eds.), Ecocities Now, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58399-6_3

41

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3.1 Introduction The rapid expansion of cities in the Global South comes along with massive challenges in the sanitation sector. The government’s failure to provide enough affordable living space results in the uncontrolled growth of informal settlements where the lack of clean drinking water and adequate sanitation is omnipresent. This is a clear contradiction to the UN Resolution A/Res/64/292, defining them both as human rights (United Nations General Assembly 2010a, b). Thirty-two percent of the world’s population lives in informal settlements by now, and the total number is still increasing (UN-Habitat 2012, 2). Indonesian cities have a social housing demand of almost a million per year (Badan Pusat Statistics 2010 boulware, 8), creating a huge backlog that doesn’t seem solvable at the moment. The disproportion of urban growth versus planned infrastructure and buildings shows us that the informal building sector is not a transitional phenomenon but a reality that has to be dealt with. One of the main problems in the informal urban areas is the lack of water infrastructure for both drinking supply and sewage. However, centralized water supply and sanitation models as they are apparent in almost all westernized countries have strong limitations for several reasons. First, they have to be implemented before the settlement and hence are not applicable to already squatted areas. Second, huge investments have to be done to implement and maintain the system, which is why they are often not realized or don’t work well. Third, most of the centralized supply systems rely on clean water sources from outside the city. Many of them have already exceeded their limits, and accessing further sources is either impossible or very expensive. The unfeasibility of central systems has put decentralized alternatives more into the public’s focus. Relying on local water sources such as rain, storm, and re-used water are seen as opportunities to overcome the scarcity. Besides, health issues due to fecal water contamination create an urgent demand for solutions that can be implemented fast and without big investments. In contrast to central systems, decentralized solutions cannot be based on textbooks only. They are highly complex systems that do not only include technological aspects but have to be tailored to the specific social, economic, and cultural characteristics of a place. In this paper, this is done by looking at Kampung (informally grown area) Tamansari, an informal settlement that is located at the river bench of Cikapundung river in the center of Bandung, Indonesia. Tamansari’s riverbed is a slum area with insufficient access to clean water and no working sewage system. The density is already the highest in Bandung and a continuous influx of people is expected. The choice of the site is based on the relatively good availability of data as well as the Kampung’s typical character that makes it representative for many other cases in Bandung and comparable metropoles. An in-depth analysis of local water sources, stakeholders, community institutions, and international case studies works as a solid basis to deal with the question of how to develop a decentralized and integrated water management system (DIWMS) for neighborhood communities within Indonesia’s informal urban settlements.

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3.2 Methodology Section 3.3.1 consists of a qualitative and quantitative analysis of Tamansari’s existing water sources and how they are used by residents. The analysis provides a sufficient body of knowledge to further investigate the topic and come up with suitable solutions. Supporting data comes from different health-related studies on water quality and a one-month field research, including interviews with locals, officials and professionals, observation, and photographic documentation. Section 3.3.2 is an analysis of Tamansari’s social structure. The focus lies on the potential of stakeholders and community institutions to contribute to the successful implementation of a DIWMS. Field research and interviews with locals have been the main sources to reveal the potential, while demographic data from former surveys helps to sharpen the area’s profile. Section 3.3.3 is a conclusive proposal for a decentralized and integrated water management system in the subdistrict Rukun Warga (RW) 20, Tamansari. Findings from Sects. 3.3.1–3.3.2 are applied to a specific site, and technical and spatial components of the system are defined exemplarily. The system’s flows are presented qualitatively and quantitatively. Special attention is paid to the implementation strategy and the stakeholder’s interests.

3.3 Results The analysis shows that the handling of water and sewage in Tamansari is unsustainable, uneconomic, and unhealthy. These circumstances can be explained by the unforeseen squatting of the area that made it impossible to build adequate water and sewage infrastructure in advance. Tamansari’s informal settlements developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s during political upheavals that followed the Indonesian independence. People in Tamansari spend around 3.3% of their income on water, which equals 61.000 Rp/month and is slightly above the maximum expenses that is recommended by the UNDP, the WHO, and UNICEF (United Nations 2010a, b).

3.3.1 Water Sources Only some of the water sources bear the potential to be used in a decentralized, integral water system (see Fig. 3.1 and Table 3.1). Bottled water should be replaced due to its high price, health risks, and unsustainable footprint. Wells, springs, and boreholes should not be used because they are mostly contaminated, already overexploited, and increase the risk of land erosion and even landslides (Housing Department Bandung 2018). PDAM tap water could stay a source for raw water, but it should not be relied on. There are no health risks, but the unreliable distribution and water quality make

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Fig. 3.1 Water flows in Kampung Tamansari; graphic depiction of how the aesthetic perception of water differs from the actual contamination (own image)

it a second-choice source. Rainwater has a good quality and therefore the potential to become the main source for potable water. Sewage water must be treated before entering the river to prevent further pollution and health issues. The treated water can be used for purposes that do not require drinking water quality. River water as a result of its misuse as a sewage canal cannot be considered as a supply source. With a long-term change of bad habits, less pollution, and less affection of the groundwater, people could develop a better relation to it and use its potential for leisure, public space, and economy.

3.3.2 Stakeholders and Community Institutions Tamansari’s organization, through community institutions, is strict but often not formal. Only subdistrict divisions and higher levels have an official boundary and chair. The communities take the initiative when the government is unable or unwilling to give support (see Table 3.2). Activities on a neighborhood level are often based

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Table 3.1 Potential of Tamansari’s available water sources for a decentralized integrated water management system (DIWMS), based on data from Irda Sari et al. (2018, 3–4) Water source

Uses

Users Aesthetic Contamination availability [%] perception

Potential for a DIWMS

Branded bottled water

Potable water

38.2

++

No

Very expensive

Too expensive unsustainable

Refill bottled water

Potable water

28.6

++

Yes

Relatively expensive

Health risk unsustainable

PDAM* tap Non potable 51.7 water and potable water (boiled)

–

No

Unreliable

Includable

wells

Non-potable 23.9 and potable water (boiled)

–

Yes

Available

Health risk

Borehole

Non-potable 13.8 and potable water (boiled)

+

No

Decreasingly Environmental available risk

Unprotected Non-potable spring and potable water (boiled)

3.5

/

Yes

Uncommon

Health risk unavailable

Sewage

Treatment in septic tanks

3.5

–

Yes

Overflow

Yes

River

Open sewage fish breeding

91.5

–

Yes

Available

Yes

Rainwater

/

/

++

No

Available

Yes

*Regional drinking water company

on voluntary work and include the management and funding of educational facilities such as childcare and primary schools, a solidary tax for waste management, elderly care and funerals, cultural activities such as dancing, sports, cleaning the streets, and the river as well as funding of public facilities and beautification of the environment (Rahmat 2018). The social cohesion of neighborhoods differs and has a visible effect on the environment and living comfort of the residents. So does the engagement and personal interest of Rukun Tetangga (RT) neighborhood and/or RW leaders.1 Since they are locals as well, they have a clear view of the needs of their people. Both wish for more public spaces and greenery, parking lots, educational opportunities 1 For

example, one RW leader’s fascination in botany resulted in a lot of vertical greenery and medical plants. Another one’s interest in painting led to many colorful murals and collaborations with artists.

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Table 3.2 Communal institutions, stakeholders, and their needs Community institution

Description

Stakeholder’s interests and needs

Kelurahan Tamansari – Official Subdistrict – Head: Lurah – 20 RWs

– Lurah = Civil servant appointed by the government

No data

Rukun Warga (RW) – Division subdistrict – Head: Ketua RW – Av. 7.5 RTs = 1250 people

– Ketua RW/RT is democratically elected – Resident of public trust – Head of weekly to monthly hearings – Low trust in governmental initiatives – Voluntary work for the neighborhood is very common

– – – – – –

Household – Head: husband – Av. 4.1 members

– Long-time residents (10 years +) – Very low - low income – Strong social cohesion within their neighborhood – Low trust in governmental initiatives

– To stay in the neighborhood – Clean, affordable and reliable drinking water – More public space – More green space – More educational opportunities for children – Save places for their children to play

Mosque – Head: Imam – Av. 1 mosque/neighborhood

– Financed, maintained, and owned by the community – 1 to 2 floors including prayer room and multipurpose room – Used for religious and educational activities, childcare, and workshops – Imam is chosen by community

– More space for prayers especially during Friday prayers and Ramadan – Reliable water connection to assure Wud.u¯ (ritual cleansing) ritual can always be performed

Rukun Tetangga (RT) – Neighborhood – Head: Ketua TW – Av. 51 households = 210 people

Solving the sewage problem Improving water supply More public space More green space s More parking for motorbikes Replacement of old/malfunctioning water infrastructure such as drainage channels

for the children, and safe places to play. None of the interviewed wanted to move away, many families have been living in Tamansari for generations, and the social cohesion is very strong. In Tamansari there are 22 mosques serving the homogenously Muslim population, making them the omnipresent and most significant built community institution that is as well financed, maintained, and owned by the community. Apart from praying and due to limited public space, they are used for childcare, child education, religious workshops, women’s meetings, and Quran reciting. Imams are persons of public trust and religious knowledge that are chosen by the neighborhood community. There were complaints about insufficient space for Ramadan and Friday prayers and water scarcity that pushes mosques into the role of water distributors.

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3.3.3 Proposal for a Decentralized Cluster System in Tamansari Three neighborhood communities of RW 20 are chosen for a possible pilot project, being representative in their population density, income, and well-organized neighborhood communities. This means that approximately 500 people/135 households are served by the system. Very little space within the building blocks makes a clustered system favorable, which means that a bigger number of households is served at a central but close spot. Additional advantages over single household systems are that clustered facilities usually work more efficiently, are potentially cheaper, and allow better control and maintenance of the technical components.

3.3.3.1

Technical and Spatial Components

Technology is chosen to be as simple as possible; special attention is paid to reuse and adaption of the existing resources. Rainwater, graywater, and blackwater are collected separately with a gravity-based pipe system. Avoiding pumps reduces maintenance costs and failures. Only blackwater has to be pretreated in septic tanks before it joins the graywater upgrading through subsurface vertical flow constructed wetlands (SVFCWs). The water is then safe for non-potable uses and stored in a tower. Rainwater is upgraded through filtering and UV disinfection. Due to seasonal fluctuations in rainfall, a bigger underground storage is necessary to assure the supply over the whole year (see Fig. 3.2, Table 3.3, and Appendices “Household Usage and Water Sources–Calculation: Water Storage” for more detail). The current linear water system is replaced by a circular approach, where the water leaves the cycle as clean as it enters (Fig. 3.3). The separated water streams have different uses according to their level of purity.

3.3.3.2

Implementation Method and Benefits for Stakeholders

Successful implementation relies on the clever use of existing communal potential and that the stakeholder’s wishes, interests, and fears are taken into account. It isn’t necessary that they are related to sanitation because economic opportunities and win–win situations are specially created in between different fields. In the end, all involved parties should be benefitting. The well-organized neighborhood communities of Tamansari should be the basis for the clustering of the DIWMS. The organization and decision-making about needs, wishes, participation, investment, fees, profits, and benefits (Fig. 3.4) can be expected to be much easier, and social friction is kept to a minimum. The RW and RW leaders are the key figures in their role of connectors between experts, residents, and executors. The monthly assemblies can be used to communicate the technical possibilities and find common ground. Their positive attitude

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Fig. 3.2 Overview flows and spatial components of the system (own image)

toward a more sustainable lifestyle and their understanding of the local problems make them ideal supervisors. They can coordinate the construction process and recruit local builders (Tukangs) and volunteers. Their personal benefits are that the success of the project will add to their reputation of a visionary leader. Solving some of their citizens biggest problems will bring additional satisfaction and finally, their role as the coordinator can be a lucrative job. The role of reaching and educating people can best be done by Imams. The DIWMS’s success depends on the people’s willingness for participation and sustainable behavior, even though the cluster system prevents the wrong usage on a household level, they must be willing to connect to the piping system and to handle different water sources appropriately. The weekly Friday prayer will be far more efficient than any governmental attempt of education. A good example of this is the case study in Dijkot, Pakistan (Faruqui et al. 2001, 61–67), where education through Friday prayers and religious schools reduced water scarcity by around 50%.2 Women, as the most important target group, can be addressed separately. Mosques can be useful 2 This

case study was done in 1991 in Dijkot, a small town in Pakistan by a local NGO. The town suffered from water scarcity, and the only fresh water source was a central basin. The study analyzes the water consumption habits and how to influence them positively through existing community institutions such as mosques and religious schools. The aim is the reduction of water wastage, illegal pumping, and a more just distribution of water. The approach was chosen after all governmental initiatives for water conservation had failed. Instead of adding technical or spatial components, a new purpose is added to the existing religious infrastructure. The program went on for 10 months but a second surveil after 2 months already revealed a 50% reduction of water scarcity (Faruqui et al. 2001, 61–67).

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Table 3.3 Technical components of the decentralized water management system (DIWMS) Sizing (for p = 500)

Component

Description

Rainwater collection

– Roof collection, 2.2 m2 /p = 1100 m2 – Re-use of existing preferably corrugated (incl. 18% loss gravity-based drainage steel roofs for system = lower initial costs compensation) – Using existing roofs as hygienic reasons collector lowers the initial (Boulware 2011, 90) – Distribution to storage costs – No pump needed = less with closed pipe maintenance costs system – Integration of residents

Gray and blackwater collection

– Household collection in separate pipes – Distribution to SVFCVs and septic tanks

extendible

– Re-use of existing gravity-based drainage system – Separating waste streams makes re-use of graywater possible

Septic tanks

– Pretreatment of blackwater – Should be emptied every 3 years

2 × 49 m3

– Known technology that can be improved by SVFCWs – Fecal sludge has a high nutritional value that can be monetized, e.g., by producing a substitute for fish powder (Diener et al. 2010, 11)

Syphon

– Even water distribution to constructed wetlands

12 m3

– Replaces pumps = less maintenance and costs

490 m2

– Produces cheap, available, low turbidity & safe water for non-potable uses – Combinable with public park, save public spaces and other leisure functions – Ornamental plants work as filters and can be sold (Sandoval-Heraz et al. 2018) – Surplus water can be sold down the river

Subsurface – Wetlands that filter vertical flow greywater and constructed pretreated blackwater wetlands efficiently – Using space next to (SVFCVs) the river benches that will be cleared as part of the eco city plan of Bandung (PSUD 2018) Potable water seasonal Storage

– Buffer storage for 420 m3 potable water during dry season – Preferably placed underground with modular cisterns – Rationing or extended collector surfaces and storage necessary to ensure supply over the whole year

Advantages/Synergetic Value

– Potable water autonomy over the whole year – Dig out earth usable for flood protection

(continued)

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Table 3.3 (continued) Component

Description

Sizing (for p = 500)

Advantages/Synergetic Value

Non-potable – Preferably a water 51–68 m3 water tower to ensure supply storage in case of power failure, to buffer peak times of demand, create enough water pressure for household connections

– Non-potable water autonomy over the whole year – Public attractor, emergency storage in case of fire

UV light disinfection

– Water disinfection 1 tube/year with a UV crystal tube – Should be replaced every year when running 24/7 (Boulware 2011, 141)

– Cheaper than chlorine treatment – Less complicated than ozone treatment

Distribution pipes

– Optional house Extendible connection from water tower

– Optional, time-saving

Fig. 3.3 Combined circular water flows (own image)

to spread the idea after completion because Imams reach at least one RW and are well connected. The clustered system includes a central supply point. With their central position, frequent visitors, and the need for clean ablution water storage, mosques would be an ideal access point for potable water. Water can be taken back home from the daily prayers without any extra effort and a water tower could be integrated into the Minaret, which is often built but has no functional use. If constructed

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Fig. 3.4 Stakeholder’s benefits and interdependent relationships (own image)

wetlands, gardens, and ponds are part of the complex, no vandalism or littering is to be expected. Besides, the funding for mosques could give access to new types of sponsors. Religious institutions would benefit too because of their growing importance as a clean water supplier, the easy access to clean water which is prescribed by Islam and potential investors from non-religious backgrounds. Local builders are called Tukangs and are responsible for most of the construction works within the Kampung. Very few have had real education and a DIWMS is certainly new to them. However, they are cheap labor and used to learning by doing. With the right guidance, costs can be saved and the sustainable principles can be applied elsewhere in the area, even without the instructions of experts. Apart from their wage, the builders are given the opportunity of a new and profitable working field. Residents are the main beneficiaries. They have to be convinced to support the new supply system and to act more sustainably. Due to the fact that voluntary work within the neighborhood community is quite common, free labor can help to keep the costs low while the involvement will strengthen the acceptance of the system at the same time. Cases of diarrhea and, therefore, child mortality would decrease, which is why the absence of safe and reliable water sources is already a sufficient reason for some rapid action. The residents will also financially profit because they save the costs for bottled drinking water. The DIWMS is a public facility that only has to

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Fig. 3.5 Exemplary design with mosque/educational rooms/childcare [1], tower/minaret/attractor [2], and water supply center/machine room [3] (own image)

water

cover the costs for observation and maintenance. Rainwater is free and the sewage facilities even provide business opportunities for the re-use of sludge and selling of flowers and surplus of clean water. Finally, the omnipresent need for public and green space can be satisfied. Recreational spaces and safe areas for children could upgrade the area. A case study (Laugesen 2010, 114–151) on Phi Phi island, Thailand, has demonstrated how successful the combination of constructed wetlands and public parks can be.3

3.3.3.3

Exemplary Design

The exemplary design shown in Figs. 3.5 and 3.6 combines the Kampung mosque and supply center of the DIWM in one building ensemble. That way, all the discussed key aspects are brought together for a successful implementation and to create synergies. The mosque is used for education, the minaret as a water tower; besides, there is a water supply and administration center where people can pick up water after their prayers. Green and public spaces combined with the wetlands spread along the water.

3 The

growing island community of Koh Phi Phi had a malfunctioning public sewage system and a working privately owned system before the 2004 Tsunami destroyed most of the existing infrastructure. Danish funding provided the opportunity to build a new wastewater system that would serve the whole community for the first time. Besides, the system should be cheap to operate and maintain, without bad smelling and aesthetically pleasing because of the tourists in the area. All stakeholders agreed to cooperate and come up with a communal system with the help of international and local specialists. The heard of the cluster water management system are constructed wetlands that are placed within the settlement and function as a public park (Laugesen 2010, 114–151).

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Fig. 3.6 Diagrammatic section showing the buildings and how the DIWM is integrated into buildings and environment (own image)

Terraces with water features use the dispensable water and are located right between the buildings. They are meant to reconnect people to the river.

3.4 Discussion The authors think that the results could be useful on two levels: in informal settlements with similar characteristics as Kampung Tamansari (Fig. 3.7) and as a general approach on how to deal with decentral water systems in squatted areas. Comparable areas can be found all over Bandung. Being the least desirable places to settle, river benches are often squatted by the poor. This holds the chance to apply the same principles elsewhere. The system’s bottom-up approach allows the Kampung neighborhoods to take action themselves, a capacity they have proven on many other fields already. Those two aspects could lead to a gradual extension of the DIWM system, not only along Cikapundung River but many other places in Bandung and other Javanese metropoles. The proposed system should be seen as a prototype that can be copied and adapted to related areas along the many rivers of Bandung. Examples such as the Aqua Carioca project in Rio de Janeiro (Ooze Architects 2017) show that such an approach could have a positive effect on both, living quality on the smallest household scale and water improvement of a whole region.4

4 Rio

de Janeiro suffers from fresh water scarcity, competing with São Paolo for the same limited sources. Besides, only 30% of the households has a domestic sewage treatment which is why the 263 small rivers of the city are used as a sewage system. This causes serious health issues and heavy pollution of the environment, especially the Guanabara bay. The municipal water company has not been able to solve these problems with a centralized system. The case study has its focus on one of the typical squatted housing areas which releases all their sewage into the river Carioca. An integral water system on household level that releases only clean water into the river is proposed by the architecture and urbanism office Ooze. A pilot project with educational purpose has been built. The concept includes the possible extension to neighborhood, district, and even city scale (Ooze Architects 2017).

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Fig. 3.7 Approximation of Bandung’s potential areas for a DIWMS (own image, satellite image background: Google Earth)

When planning for informal areas with different characteristics than Tamansari, the analytical approach of this paper could still be a valuable instrument: it exemplarily shows how to find synergies between the water system and the needs of an area that can lay very much beyond that discipline. The equal importance of functioning components and the consideration of the stakeholder’s interests and needs are fundamental. This is why the system proposal is based on two branches of research (Sects. 3.3.1 and 3.3.2), where both require different methods. By this, potentials from different fields can be exploited and synergies appear between them (Sect. 3.3.3).

3.5 Conclusion This paper discussed the potential of communal structures within informal settlements regarding the design and implementation of decentralized water management systems. Kampung Tamansari, an informally grown area in Bandung, Indonesia, was used as an example. Existing water sources and uses, as well as community institutions and stakeholders were analyzed separately, with different methodological approaches and equal priority.

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The analysis of available water sources and uses revealed that only rainwater had the potential to be upgraded to drinking water, while sewage water should be treated properly to counter its negative effects on human health and the environment. The existence of strong neighborhood bonds with a high level of self-governance and the important communal role of little mosques were the most promising communal institutions to build on. The authors are convinced that founding the design on both technical and sociocultural needs will increase the probability of success. All stakeholders must profit and depend on each other to assure system stability. Therefore, the proposed clustered water management system responds to both the demand for water and nonwater-related needs such as the creation of public and green spaces through the design of constructed wetlands. At the same time, implementation, management, funding, and education of the system are based on the existing communal structures of neighborhoods and religious infrastructure. Finally, the bottom-up approach allows a gradual extension in similar areas in Bandung. The approach of analyzing the informal context from different points of view could be generally applicable. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the students of the urbanism department of ITB (Institut Teknologi Bandung) for their essential support during the field research. Furthermore, thanks go to the authors of the case studies for the inspiring examples. Finally, appreciation goes to Paddy Tomesen from the architectural engineering department at TU Delft for his contribution in building technology.

Appendix Household Usage and Water Sources

Source

Use

Amount [L/Person/Day]

Purified rainwater

Drinking

2

Purified rainwater

Cooking

3

3.3

Purified rainwater

Praying

1.1

1.3

Purified rainwater

Basic hygiene

5

5.6

Constructed wetland

Shower

45

50.1

Constructed wetland

Dishes

6

6.7

Constructed wetland

Clothes

5.7

6.3

Constructed wetland

Household

0.8

0.9

Re-used grey water

Toilet

21.2

23.6

Total

89.8

Amount (%) 2.2

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Calculation: Rainwater Catchment Area Description

Result

Need [l/pers/day]

11.1

Total need [l/pers/year]

4048.3

Precipit. [mm/year]

2164

Area/Person [m2 ]

2.2

Total Area

[m2 ]

1103.7

Loss compensation [%]

18

Savings from bottled water [Rp/Pers/Month}

61500

Average income [%]

3.3

Calculation: Rainwater Storage

Month

Precipitation [mm]

Collected [m3 ]

Efficiency factor

Consumed [m3 ]

End of month inventory [m3 ]

November

272

300.2

0.85

168.7

86.5

December

291

321.2

0.85

168.7

190.8

January

243

268.2

0.85

168.7

250.1

February

217

239.5

0.85

168.7

285.0

March

257

283.7

0.85

168.7

357.4

April

246

271.5

0.85

168.7

419.5

May

166

183.2

0.85

168.7

406.5

June

77

85.0

0.85

168.7

310.1

July

70

77.3

0.85

168.7

207.0

August

68

75.1

0.85

168.7

102.1

September

83

91.6

0.85

168.7

11.3

October

174

192.1

0.85

168.7

5.9

Total

2164

2196.4

Max. Storage Inventory [m3 ] = Storage Size

419.5

1855.7

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Calculation: Volume Septic Tank Based on “Low Cost Urban Sanitation” (Mara 1996, 74) Term

Description

Formula

Result

Blackwater [l/person/day]

38.7

Blackwater total [m3 /day]

19.35

Zone 1: scum storage

0.4 * Vsl

12

Vn

Zone 2: sedimentation

10−3 P

2.944148

Vd

Zone 3: sludge digestion

0.5 * 10−3 P * td

3.798542

Vsl

Zone 4: digested sludge storage

r*P*n

30

th

Hydraulic retention time [years]

1.5–0.3 log(Pq)

0.304305

P

Population [n]

250

q

Wastewater flow [l/day]

38.7

td

Anaerobic digestion time

T

Bandung av. temperature

r

Rate of sludge digestion [m3 /person/year]

n

Desludging interval [years]

3

V

Septic tank volume [m3 ]

48.74269

VSC

* q * tn

1853 * T−1.25

30.38834 26.8

0.04

Calculation: Constructed Wetlands Area Based on “Constructed Wetlands Manual” (UN-Habitat 2008, 18) Term

Description

Formula

Bodc

Bod concentration before treatment [mg/l]

250

Bodc

Bod contribution [mg/pers/day]

40

Qd

Daily flow rate [m3 /day]

p*q

Ci

Influent BOD5 concentration[mg/l]

408.2

Ce

Effluent BOD5 concentration[mg/l]

30

KBOD Rate constant [m/d] Kt

Kt * d * n K20

Result

34.2956

0.2

(1.06)(T−20)

20 °C (d−1 )

K20

Rate constant at 20 °C

d

Depth of water column [m]

n

Porosity of substrate [percentage expressed as fraction] 0.3 Substrate depth [cm]

70

P

Population

500 (continued)

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A. Fuchs et al.

(continued) Term

Description

q

Flow rate [l/person/day]

Formula

Result 68.6

Ah

Surface area of bed [m2 ]

(Qd(Ci-Ce))/KBOD 490

Ap

Surface area [m2 ]/person

Ah /p

0.98

Calculation: Water Storage

m3

Description CW output total [m3 ] Max daily need Safety factor Water storage

[m3 ]

34.3 28.75 1.5 51.4434

References Badan Pusat Statistics. 2010. Pertumbuhan Dan Persebaran Penduduk Indonesia: Hasil Sensus Penduduk 2010 (Indonesia’s Population Growth and Distribution: 2010 Population Census Result). Province Java Barat: Badan Pusat Statistics. Boulware. 2011. Alternative Water Sources and Wastewater Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. Diener, Nguyen, and Morel Koottatep. 2010. A New Perspective for Sludge Management. Sandec News 11: 8. Faruqui et al. 2001. Water management in Islam. Tokyo:United Nations University Press. Housing Department Bandung. 2018. Interview by Armin Fuchs et al. Personal interview about the housing situation in Tamansari. Bandung, Oct 15 2018. Irda Sari, Sunjaya, Watanabe Shimizu-Furusawa, and Raksanagara. 2018. Water Sources Quality in Urban Slum Settlement along the Contaminated River Basin in Indonesia: Application of Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2018. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/3806537. Laugesen, Fryd. 2010. Sustainable Wastewater Management in Developing Countries: New Paradigms and Case Studies from the Field. Reston VA: American Society of Civil Engineers. Mara. 1996. Low-Cost Urban Sanitation. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Ooze Architects and Urbanists. 2017. http://www.aguacarioca.org, Accessed 16 Jan 2019. PSUD Center for Urban Design Studies. 2018 .Interview by Armin Fuchs et al. Personal interview about the future of urban planning in Bandung. Oct 18, 2018. Rahmat, RT Leader. 2018. Interview by Armin Fuchs et al. Personal Interview about Neighborhood Community, Sanitation, Needs of the Residents, Future Visions. Oct 17, 2018.

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Sandoval-Heraz, Alvarado-Lassman, Méndez-Contreras Marín-Muñiz, and Zamora-Castro. 2018. Effects of the Use of Ornamental Plants and Different Substrates in the Removal of Wastewater Pollutants through Microcosms of Constructed Wetlands. Sustainability 10. https://doi.org/10. 3390/su10051594. UN-Habitat. 2008. Constructed Wetlands Manual. UN-HABITAT Water for Asian Cities Programme Nepal, Kathmandu. UN-Habitat. 2012. Making Slums History: A Global Challenge for 2020. https://unhabitat.org/mak ing-slums-history-a-global-challenge-for-2020-international-conference-rabat-morocco-26-29november-2012. Accessed 18 Dec 2018. United Nations. 2010a. Fact Sheet No. 35, The Right to Water. Geneva: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). United Nations. 2010b. The Human Right to Water and Sanitation. https://www.un.org/waterforlife decade/human_right_to_water.shtml. Accessed 19 Dec 2018.

Part II

Climate Action

Climate change is a global environmental issue that has been of concern to human beings since at least the 1980s. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, accumulate in the atmosphere and prevent heat from radiating into space, causing a greenhouse effect. Although a natural phenomenon, the mass combustion of fossil fuels in recent centuries has dramatically increased the impact of the greenhouse effect that is now reaching unprecedented levels. As a result of global warming, we see more frequent heatwaves, rising sea levels, frequent and intensified extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and storms, in addition to increases in the spread of tropical diseases. These impact cities’ infrastructure, livelihoods, services, and health. Cities are the major contributor to global carbon dioxide emissions (75%), mainly from transport and buildings. But cities could be part of the solution. Following Ecocity Standards, cities transition to ecocities with good planning policies, using renewable energy and non-motorized transport, green buildings, efficient infrastructure, and green spaces offer an opportunity to reduce or even eliminate harmful emissions. To address climate change, several international conventions and agreements have been introduced by the United Nations since 1992; the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change produced the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015. It was hoped that the Paris Agreement would address the failures of the previous agreements. Unfortunately, most countries are not meeting their commitments thus far, and inadequate action on climate change persists. This part of the book provides three examples of climate actions that give guidance for future actions to curb climate change in urban areas. Chapter 4 gives an example for resilient and strategic planning for a vulnerable urban coastal system, the Chilean city of Concepción. It aims to re-envision the city, understanding it as a living system where change creates growth and renewal. Four steps can be used to build a resilient spatial framework that can provide stability and safety against natural disasters when a city is stressed by urban expansion. Those steps are: (1) value the natural system as the base infrastructure for the city, (2) use of voids as a network to create space for risk management, (3) complete the network using a green and blue infrastructure to provide a resilient backbone for the city, and

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(4) re-formulate the city as a provider of nature. The approach can be applied in other cities with similar challenges. Chapter 5 focuses on the use of non-motorized transport to reduce carbon emissions and avoid costly transportation infrastructure. It presents several empirical studies from China, showing the potential for non-motorized systems, riding a bicycle or walking. The study indicates that in developing countries, non-motorized modes of transport are assumed to be supportive of mass transport but are rarely seen as standalone systems. The study shows that planning policies, or the absence of specific disincentives, promotes non-motorized travel. There is a great opportunity to generalize the use of non-motorized systems across urban areas, even those of megacities. Chapter 6 provides an example of informal solutions toward personal net zero. It addresses the disconnect between concern about climate disruption and other environmental issues on the one hand and unwillingness to act. Three main actions are explored to achieve personal net zero: (i) zero use of grid electricity (by using solar systems to meet daily household needs excluding transportation), (ii) zero use of fossil fuels, and (iii) zero waste directed to landfills. These actions translate at the personal level to using solar energy, using electrified transportation, and using recycling and composting systems. Implementing these actions takes into account key barriers: identifying structural, financial, and societal barriers. The “personal net zero” concept is scalable and transferable to other areas.

Chapter 4

Re-thinking the Territory of Concepción, Chile: A Resilient and Strategic Planning for a Vulnerable Urban Coastal System Catalina Rey Hernández and Nico Tillie

Abstract This research aims to re-envision the city, understanding it as a living system where change creates growth and renewal, and where uncertainty is our new normal. Concepción is a Chilean coastal urban area that has grown into the wetland landscape of two river mouths. The territory is increasingly at risk due to urban pressures of the expanding city and natural disasters inherent in the territory. To face these challenges city and landscape need to interact through multifunctional structures and need a new awareness of the importance of the presently disrupted landscape. The research resulted in a void adaptive network based on design principles: 1. Value the natural system as the base infrastructure for the city. 2. Use of voids as network to create space for risk management. 3. Complete the network using a green and blue infrastructure to provide a resilient backbone for the city. 4. Re-formulate the city as a provider of nature. Applying these steps leads to a resilient spatial framework for Concepción that can provide stability and safety against natural disasters. The designed backbone was consequently tested in a few natural disaster scenarios and adapted where necessary. This approach can be applied in other cities with similar challenges. Keywords Resilience · Adaptation · Appropriation · Flexibility · Wetlands · Natural disasters · Biodiversity · Ecological integrity

C. Rey Hernández (B) · N. Tillie Faculty of Architecture & the Built Environment, Landscape Architecture, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] N. Tillie e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. Moore et al. (eds.), Ecocities Now, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58399-6_4

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4.1 Introduction 4.1.1 Context Chile, as a territory, is exposed to multiple dynamic forces such as the flow of the sea with a coastal line of 6.435 km, and at the same time, the coastal line is defined by the meeting of two tectonic plates in constant movement: The South American plate, which at its western edge converges and generates subduction zones with the Nazca plate. Thus, these geomorphological aspects of the territory determine a series of natural disasters that affect the cities in different ways and degrees throughout the country. In the middle of this vast territory there is the city of Concepción (Fig. 4.1), which has been especially affected during the last two decades due to several fires and flooding events, earthquakes, and its consequent tsunamis. The metropolitan area of Concepción is a coastal urban area that has increasingly grown in the flood plain of two river mouths and upon an ecologically important wetland landscape: the urban settlement has subjugated the landscape to the needs of human society (Fig. 4.2). Although the city is built on wet grounds, city and water never meet; there is a dissociation where one is superimposed on the other, generating a vulnerable urban coastal system. This coastal system is increasingly at risk due to the urban pressure of the expansion of the city, degrading the ecosystem and the natural infrastructure, exposing the coastal city and its inhabitants to more continuous and serious natural risks. In the last decade, Concepción was hit by three major natural events that affected the city in different degrees: a flood by rain and overflow of rivers and channels in

Fig. 4.1 Location of the city of Concepción (own elaboration)

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Fig. 4.2 Metropolitan area of Concepción (own elaboration based on data from National Service of Geology and Mining of Chile (Falcón et al. 2010a, b)

2006, the 8.8 MW earthquake of 2010 and its subsequent tsunami with waves of 10 m high, and finally the forest fires of 2017 that resulted in 596,000 ha of burned surface (forest and native species). When these kinds of events happen, Concepción—as all Chilean cities—recovers itself by erasing what has been destroyed or damaged and it starts building again, forgetting its own natural and urban systems. In that sense, after these natural disasters, not only humans lose their urban environment, but due to the need for recovery, the landscape, along with its potential qualities, also loses its place in the entire system. These natural areas are the most affected and destroyed after the reconstruction process. In this context, the paradigm of natural disasters needs to be shifted toward the idea that these are not disasters, but the natural flow of the landscape system. Therefore, in an environment where natural hazards occur periodically with major effects for human settlements, the continuous change and uncertainty is now our new normality.

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4.1.2 Problem Definition In our living environment, there is an existing and increasing tension between the fixed and the dynamic, creating a dichotomy in many aspects of our lives. One of the biggest of these dichotomies in the urbanized areas is the continuous struggle between cities and nature. Human settlements look for stability and safety; however, there is an underlying aspect that is not related to a static quality: the landscape and nature itself. In that sense, the landscape has its dynamics and path of flow that affects and influences our constructed environments. As was mentioned before, Concepción is a territory with a strong story of several natural disasters through time, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, fluvial flooding,

Fig. 4.3 Diagram of natural disasters that have affected Concepción since 1570 (destructive earthquakes in yellow and extreme flooding in blue) (own elaboration)

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droughts, and fires (Fig. 4.3). Those risks have created some challenges that the city is facing today related to the urbanization in river deltas and wetlands. Even though river deltas and wetlands (predominant landscape entities in Concepción) are the natural areas most affected after these kinds of events, these are also the zones where urbanization is projected for the city to grow. However, these territories are the areas with major flooding hazards and, consequently the riskiest areas for urbanization. In that sense, the city “forgets” these events and it expands its grounds toward these wetlands and floodplains, putting in danger not only human lives but also the ecological stability of the landscape (Smith and Romero 2009a, b). In the light of this dichotomy of natural disasters and urban expansion, a new perception and vision about natural disaster make sense if we start to understand that in these territories of natural hazards, the continuous change and uncertainty is now our new normality which we need to adapt to instead of fighting it. Given the uncertainty inherent to the territory of Concepción (and the whole world), it is likely necessary to change the way we design and manage interventions in our living systems. Therefore, what is needed are more flexible, adaptive approaches to manage urbanization and design within the systems that sustain us. Because of that, there is the need to propose a strategic urban and landscape plan (merging both the dynamic and the static) to create a city more resilient and adaptive to the natural dynamics and the uncertainty of the future. In order to address a more adaptive and resilient city, the main objective of this research is to create a spatial framework and landscape architectonical design for the city of Concepción that will be able to deal with uncertainty related to natural disasters.

4.2 Theory and Methods The research methodology is conducted by three scopes or lenses: theoretical framework, research by design, and landscape resilient backbone. The first lens corresponds to systems of inquiry and it is based in a literature study on theoretical investigations of landscape architecture and urban planning with the goal of a deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges of natural disasters, uncertainty, resilience, and adaptability to apply those principles in a practical design for the challenges and opportunities of the city of Concepción. The intention of this literature review lies in comprehending how different theories come together to understand the uncertainty condition of the territory and what they suggest toward creating a more resilient and adaptive city. In that way, the revision of these theories offers conceptual tools to understand the challenges and identify potentials to address the objectives defined. Additionally, the literature review gives the tools to analyze the territory under a suitability approach (McHarg 1995), which resulted in the first guidelines for the metropolitan design plan.

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The second lens—research by design—responds to the research strategy and it is based on the exploration of different (im)possible utopias for the territory of tomorrow. These simulations of future visibility create interpretative research giving an intentional meaning to the possible scenarios. In combination with the theoretical background, research by design allows investigating possibilities on design and through design as a systematic exploration that reflects on itself in order to create and re-create new scenarios and design opportunities. Finally, the landscape resilience backbone is the research tactic and method lens as a way to understand the landscape as a process and in context. This understanding allows us to apply a meaningful design (resilient and adaptive) to develop a strategic plan based on the proposed adaptive void framework in combination with a green and blue infrastructure. The use of these methods aims to create a resilient backbone for the city with a series of principles and practices to conclude with the design of a possible future scenario through scales (from the metropolitan masterplan to human experience).

4.3 Results Once the territory has been understood, it is possible to re-define the narrative around uncertainty and vulnerability to incorporate natural infrastructure as a backbone plan and to generate new solutions to build up the city landscape duality, merging both in a whole living system. Therefore, the main result of the present research is the elaboration of strategic planning through natural and urban unplanned spaces: an adaptive void network (Fig. 4.4).

Fig. 4.4 Schematic graphical representation of the adaptive void network (own elaboration)

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This strategic network comes directly from the literary study, bringing together the main results of landscape and urban planning theories that explore design possibilities for more resilient and adaptive cities. The first step to build the base plan design is to comprehend the concept of resilience in theory and praxis. The concept of resilience can be defined as a “Mechanism to manage risk and vulnerability and the capacity to absorb shocks, uncertainty and change through renewal—organization—adaptation” (Laboy and Fannon 2016). In that sense, resilience is about the capacity of a system to preserve and restore the physical environment’s normal function in the face of shocks and disturbances of limited duration. However, according to Mannakkara (2014), repair and restoration to the preshock state re-create identical vulnerabilities. Therefore, the design needs to focus on building a general resilience to the unpredictable (instead of focusing on specified resilience), in order to focus on mitigation, resistance and risk management of specific places for predictable events (Wu 2013). To understand the adaptive capacity of a system, we need to be aware that we are involved in complex and dynamic living systems. To recognize cities as ecosystems (complex, dynamic, interconnected environments) means that the urban system is constantly changing and becoming increasingly vulnerable. Consequentially, the dynamic systems are in a constant cycle of adaptation, with resilience levels varying depending on which phase of the change cycle the system is located within (Laboy and Fannon 2016). The adaptive model of practice not only adapts to change but anticipates, accepts, and celebrates it. It recognizes the reflexive influence of our intentions toward the built environment as literally constructing a new normal, which implies an expectation of a new period of stability. In praxis, an adaptive design is a process/approach where selected urban plans and projects explore innovative practices and methods, informed by landscape ecology knowledge and research design, open to design innovations and creativity, and monitored and analyzed to learn from the experiment—with the goal of gaining knowledge to apply to future projects (Ahern 2011). On the other hand, the proposed adaptive void network uses as base strategy, the concept of unplanned spaces or voids proposed by Roggema (2018), which states that reducing uncertainty is not a solution in the context of an ever-changing spatial pattern. That’s why urban and landscape designs should be able to change in shape but not in content, being responsive to uncertain circumstances. Then the system will be able to develop resilience and flexibility to deal with uncertainty instead of trying to reduce it. Therefore, the adaptive void network puts together the mentioned concepts and theories with the aim of proposing a spatial framework for vulnerable cities (with Concepción as a starting point and case study) to help to deal with uncertainty related to natural disasters (Fig. 4.5). In order to achieve the mentioned goal, the proposed approach is based on autonomous, emerging patterns and self-organization instead of controlled, preprogramed and hierarchical, centralized processes. In that sense, this framework

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Fig. 4.5 Cross-reference map: potential voids and adaptive void network (own elaboration based on data from National Service of Geology and Mining of Chile (Falcón et al. 2010a, b)

proposes to develop spatial optionality and redundancy within the urban and natural territory through the act of mapping the areas of potentiality and the challenges in terms of resources and land uses. This design, through the voids framework, allows us to identify and plan for (in)visible voids in the urban settlement to implement a bottom up-building of the city, giving opportunities and potential for spatial adjustments. It also allows present realities to be transformed and to create and imagine future potential. In that way, the city can be seen as the provider of nature, in the sense that through this method, the backbone of the urban fabric will be larger green spaces and connecting green grids, where spatiality is building along with nature and including redundant unplanned space. Designing with voids is a central step in allowing the city and its elements to become healthier for nature and humans in addition to adaptability to the different futures that may come.

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Given the conceptualization of the spatial framework, it is possible to define strategies and measures for the landscape planning of the territory: – Value the natural system (mainly wetlands and water bodies) as the base infrastructure for the future city. – Use of voids (unplanned natural and urban spaces) as an emergent, autonomous, and self-organized network to create redundancy and multifunctional spaces for risk management. – Complete the void network using a green and blue infrastructure to provide a resilient backbone for the city. – Re-formulate the resilient backbone as a provider of nature: larger green spaces, landscape connectivity, and protection of the ecological value of the existing nature.

4.4 Discussion 4.4.1 Adaptive Void Network: Strategic Planning Through Natural and Urban Unplanned Spaces Because of its history of natural disasters—especially due to the last earthquake and following tsunami—the metropolitan area of Concepción has multiple empty spaces where there used to be buildings, which—because of economic reasons—remain as voids within the urban fabric. On the other hand, there are also wetland areas without any function, waiting to be urbanized and (for now) remaining as natural voids. Instead of seeing these leftover spaces as a problematic situation, the adaptive void framework proposes to work with them, not for building what there was before or to continuing the urban process, but to create “unplanned spaces” defined as areas that remain free of specific functions but can be occupied in a sudden event (Roggema 2013). Therefore, these empty spaces act as highly dynamic zones that allow change during an extreme scenario when the area will absorb the shock of the hazards or will be used temporarily in a different way. However, once voids are mapped and identified, it is clear that the adaptive void framework needs to be adjusted and complemented to address resilience because at this stage the voids are not connected, and it is necessary to overlap them with a potential resilient structure. Together, the adaptive void framework and the resilient backbone structure work as a whole system that incorporates a green and blue infrastructure that connects them with themselves and the urban and natural fabric (Fig. 4.6). This combination will not only create a more resilient and adaptive city in extreme scenarios but also provide livability and healthier open spaces for the inhabitants when the city is in a stable phase.

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Fig. 4.6 Proposed metropolitan masterplan for Concepción: green and blue infrastructure with linear linkages (own elaboration based on data from National Service of Geology and Mining of Chile (Falcón et al. 2010a, b)

After the spatial analysis of the city and its underlying system, it is possible to identify two main types of empty spaces, as potential voids inside the territory: wetlands areas (natural void potentials) and abandoned spaces (urban void potentials). The first one consists of natural wetlands that remain unbuilt in the territory. These ecological areas can absorb the energy released during a sudden event and slowly discharge it back to nature (Figs. 4.7 and 4.8). As MacHarg (1995) mentioned in his suitability approach, marshes and floodplains have as primary roles the storage

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Fig. 4.7 Green and blue infrastructure through scales: new functions for wetlands areas during stability times (own elaboration)

of flood and water reservoirs as well as wildlife habitat, and urbanization should be restricted in those territories due to their vital role in the ecosystem (Fig. 4.9). In that sense, with a network of natural voids, combined with a water management strategy, the existing wetlands can work as recreational and research areas, and natural reserves during “normal” periods, while during a big fluvial or tidal flooding they can act as reservoirs to contain, absorb, and release the excess of water. At the same time, the multiple urban empty spaces of Concepción will be used as unplanned spaces to keep them as areas without specific function but as dynamic spaces to be occupied in case of emergency. Therefore, what is now the remains of old constructions can be used normally as urban open spaces to host transitory functions as markets or festivals, while during a time of change can be used as shelters or collection points (Figs. 4.10 and 4.11).

4.4.2 Resilient Backbone for the City As it was mentioned before, after the analysis of possible extreme scenarios for the metropolitan area of Concepción, in addition to the proposed adaptive void network,

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Fig. 4.8 Green and blue infrastructure through scales: new functions for wetlands areas during emergency times (flood scenario) (own elaboration)

Fig. 4.9 Green and blue infrastructure through scales: representative section of the wetland zone resilient infrastructure (own elaboration)

the first reflections reveal that there is a missing link between the voids and the urban and nature network. Hence, with a green and blue infrastructure that uses and connects the identified voids, it is possible to develop a resilient backbone as a strategic plan and meaningful design for the city, re-thinking the functions and lands uses of the territory (Fig. 4.7).

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Fig. 4.10 New functions for abandoned spaces during stability times (own elaboration)

Fig. 4.11 New functions for abandoned spaces during emergency times (shelter) (own elaboration)

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The new resilient backbone for the city works mainly with the power of the flow of water in the territory of Concepción, where the metropolitan river and wetlands system was analyzed to understand the different elements of it and its potential as a resilient element in the whole structure. Therefore, the research explores how wetlands, marshlands, rivers, and water bodies, in combination with green elements such as forest and hills, can create a natural infrastructure that uses and connects different scales. This green and blue infrastructure provides a series of principles and methods to adapt the human settlement for extreme scenarios and at the same time, it gives livability to the city, re-formulating the urban fabric as a provider of nature. Thus, the strategy not only works during times of risk and hazards but also in stable phases of the territory giving the inhabitants larger green spaces, landscape connectivity, and protection of the ecological value of the existing landscape. That is why the proposal looks to discuss infrastructure as landscape and landscape as infrastructure from large to small interventions that interrelate as part of the current development of the territory of Concepción.

4.4.3 Scope and Relevance The present research aims to put focus on the importance of landscape in our cities and daily life and how it can be not only for pleasure but also as resilient protection against constant natural disasters that hit the country. As described above, the proposed green and blue infrastructure generates a resilient and adaptive backbone to the city, providing a safer and healthier structure for the metropolitan system. Thus, the design contributes to the developing of human life in the vulnerable coastal system of Concepción, generating a safe network in case of extreme scenarios that work in a resilient way to adapt itself and the city to the new conditions. In addition to the resilient aspect, the proposal also generates a complete infrastructure that connects the urban fabric with the landscape that underlies the city, creating leisure and recreational network for the inhabitants of Concepción. In that way, the new infrastructure gives conditions of livability when the territory faces stability periods. Concerning the environment, the proposed green and blue network provides space for nature within the urban fabric, enhancing biodiversity and giving value to the natural system (mainly wetlands and water bodies) as the base infrastructure for the future city. Finally, regarding future recommendations, one of the most relevant aspects of the presented research is the possibility of extrapolating the principles and methods used in the territory of Concepción, in order to apply them in other locations with similar conditions and issues. In that sense, the most relevant result of the proposed adaptive void network is the general planning and design principles mentioned at the end of the results section. In combination with a suitability approach of the territory

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and incorporating a participatory design (social scope), these four principles could be applied in other cities with similar vulnerabilities.

4.5 Conclusion The continuous struggle between cities and nature has led human settlements to look for stability and safety, trying to control the dynamics and flow of the underlying landscape. This situation creates a dissociation between both systems where one is superimposed on the other, generating a vulnerable urban-landscape system. The present research aims to re-envision the perception of the city, understanding it as a living system where change creates growth and renewal, and where uncertainty is our new normal. Given the uncertainty inherent to the territory of Concepción, the course of the research looks for a shift in the way we design and manage interventions in our living systems. Adaptation, appropriation and flexibility are the essential elements of a successful system. In that way, the vision of this project is to create awareness about the idea that cities and landscapes as a whole system can develop the ability to respond to changing environmental conditions making persistence possible. Based on a three-scope methodology (theoretical framework—research by design—landscape resilient backbone) the main results of the research come together in a proposed adaptive void network that explores four design principles: 1. Value the natural system as the base infrastructure for the future city. 2. Use of voids (unplanned spaces) as an emergent, autonomous, and self-organized network to create redundancy and multifunctional spaces for risk management. 3. Complete the void network using a green and blue infrastructure to provide a resilient backbone for the city. 4. Reformulate the city as a provider of nature: larger green spaces, landscape connectivity, and protection of the ecological values of the existing nature. Following these general guidelines resulted in a resilient and strategic plan for the city of Concepción that provides adaptability in different natural disaster scenarios, allowing readjustment when necessary. Finally, the approach allows the extrapolation of the mentioned principles to apply them in other cities with similar challenges.

References Ahern, J. 2011. From fail-safe to safe-to-fail: Sustainability and resilience in the new urban world. Landscape and Urban Planning 100 (4): 341–343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011. 02.021. Falcón, M.F.; P. Ramírez, M. Marín. 2010a. Evaluación preliminar de peligros geológicos: Área de Concepción-Talcahuano-Hualpén-Chiguayante, Región del Biobío. Mapa 12-3: Peligro de inundación por desborde de cauces y anegamiento. In Geología para la reconstrucción y la gestión

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del riesgo, 1. Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería, Informe Registrado IR-10-43: 12 p., 21 mapas diferentes escalas. Santiago. Falcón, M.F., P. Ramírez, M. Marín, M. Arenas. 2010b. Evaluación preliminar de peligros geológicos: Área de Concepción-Talcahuano-Hualpén-Chiguayante, Región del Biobío. Mapa 12-4: Peligro de inundación por tsunami. In Geología para la reconstrucción y la gestión del riesgo, 1. Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería, Informe Registrado IR-10-43: 12 p., 21 mapas diferentes escalas. Santiago. Laboy, M., and D. Fannon. 2016. Resilience Theory and Praxis: A Critical Framework for Architecture. Enquiry: A Journal for Architectural Research 13(1). https://doi.org/10.17831/enq:arcc. v13i2.405. Mannakkara, S. and S. Wilkinson. 2014, Re-conceptualising “Building Back Better” to improve post-disaster recovery. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 7(3): 327– 341. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-10-2013-0054. McHarg, I.L. 1995. Design with nature. New York: John Wiley. Roggema, R. 2013. Swarm Planning for Climate Change: An Alternative Pathway for Resilience. Swarm Planning Springer Theses: 221–251. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7152-9_9. Roggema, R. 2018. Design with voids: How inverted urbanism can increase urban resilience. Architectural Science Review 61 (5): 349–357. https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2018.1502153. Smith, P., and H. Romero. 2009. Efectos del crecimiento urbano del Área Metropolitana de Concepción sobre los humedales de Rocuant-Andalién, Los Batros y Lenga. Revista De Geografía Norte Grande 43. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-34022009000200005. Wu, J. 2013. Landscaoe sustainability science: ecosystem services and human well-being in changing landscapes. Landscape Ecology 28: 999. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-013-9894-9.

Chapter 5

Willingness to Use Non-motorized Transport is Under-Estimated John Zacharias

Abstract Rampant motorization in the developing world is being addressed through mass rapid transport. Non-motorized modes—principally walking and cycling—are assumed to be supportive but rarely seen as standalone systems. Assumptions about the willingness to walk or ride a bicycle are usually based on highly motorized environments. Consequently, planning misses an opportunity to re-introduce nonmotorized systems with greater reach than imagined. We present empirical studies from Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, and Shenzhen, China, showing the potential for non-motorized systems. Bicyclists in Shanghai consider riding to be more comfortable than the bus and execute trips spanning urban districts. Bicycle commuting in Beijing remains close to the mean distance for all commuters living in central Beijing, but varies considerably by district, with environment as the main contributor, ahead of socio-economic factors. Typical walking distance is greater in some dedicated walking environments such as those in Tianjin. Modal shift to non-motorized modes is observed in areas with specific demand management policies, as in Shenzhen. In each case, planning policies, or the absence of disincentives, promoted non-motorized travel. These empirical studies suggest that non-motorized systems could be generalized across urban areas, even megacities, with co-benefits to public health and reduced investment burdens for transport infrastructure.

5.1 Introduction Broad assumptions about the willingness to walk or bicycle form the basis of much operational planning in transport and local urban development. Variation by a factor of 3 in walking distance in the downtowns of North American cities was highlighted in the early, seminal work of Pushkarev and Zupan (1975). At least within one city center with quite limited geographic extent, it is possible to statistically identify acceptable distance as a change in the slope of the distance frequency distribution J. Zacharias (B) Peking University, Beijing, PR China e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. Moore et al. (eds.), Ecocities Now, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58399-6_5

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(Seneviratne and Fraser 1985). In spite of these and a handful of case studies, there is relatively little work on factors impinging on walking distance. Policies to promote walking and transport by non-motorized vehicles have been the focus of attention in hundreds of cities across the developed world and emergently, in the developing world. However, the basis for understanding when a non-motorized choice is made, for what purpose, at what distance, and in what environmental conditions remains little understood. In this paper, we refer largely to empirical studies in China as a guide to better understand the potential scope of non-motorized transport (NMT) in the larger transport picture. There are two reasons for focusing on China: 1—China has recent experience of an NMT-dominated transport system; 2—The sustained growth in NMT is a widely adopted sustainability goal of cities in China. Policies for managing transport in Chinese cities have provided a set of disincentives to the use of bicycles in particular, which radically reduced the possibilities offered by non-motorized transport. The NMT component of Beijing commuting trips dropped from 65 to 11.5% from 1986 to 2016 (BTRC 2017). Car ownership rate rose throughout this period, such that about one-third of households has a privately owned car today. The motorization rate itself and the nature of many daily trips explains only partially the much more radical rate of decline in NMT. Because of heavyhanded policies to promote motorization, and their consequent domination of the sensory and locomotive environment, it would be difficult to measure willingness to travel longer distance empirically. If disincentives are the major explanatory factors in reduced NMT use, as multiple papers including those of this author suggest, then we need to examine an environment that does not have these physical disincentives but does have well-developed alternate modes (Yang and Zacharias 2015; Zacharias and Sheng 2019). Before the urban road restructuring that accelerated after the year 2000, the road structure was largely intact from the socialist era and privately owned cars were rare. Public transport was highly developed and relatively affordable. That environment and those empirical studies provide evidence for the potential of NMT in the contemporary city (Campbell 2012; Zacharias and Bliek 2008; Zhao 2014; Zhang et al. 2014).

5.2 Methods This paper draws on the data collected in a series of studies of non-motorized transport in China that had a variety of other research purposes. The specific question in the present research is evidence for walking and cycling distance and under a variety of environmental and weather conditions, in the presence of transport alternatives. We review the data from tracking studies and questionnaire surveys, detailing individual and aggregate travel behavior in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Tianjin. The impact of specific travel demand management policies is examined using the traffic volumes by mode outcomes. The data from these relatively unconstrained situations are compared with planning standards, to gauge how much we may be under-estimating the potential coverage of the urban territory by non-motorized modes.

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5.2.1 Case 1: Trips in a Traffic Environment Dominated by NMT—Shanghai In Zacharias (2005), it was seen that almost as many non-motorized trips (n = 1013) were made as motorized (n = 1196). In the context of the transport system at that time, car options including the taxi were largely unavailable, but the bus was ubiquitous, frequent, cheap, and reliable. Motorized trips account for a high proportion of the total distance covered by all trips (81.4%) but walking and bicycle trips are generally for distances covered by the majority of public bus trips. Walking and bicycling trip distances also overlap (Fig. 5.1). The mean walk (1609 m) across all purposes and districts is already considerable, but less than half mean bicycling distance (3438 m), making the bicycle shed some 4.6 times the size of the walking shed. Overall, we can detect that distance is not a salient factor in choice, with the bus becoming competitive only at more than 1.5 km. The biggest factor in the distances traveled by NMT across Shanghai districts is the district itself, some 21% of variance. Since the physical design characteristics of these four districts vary so remarkably, it is all but certain that this is the reason for the difference in behavior outcomes. The district with by far the highest NMT rate also has the shortest walking distance. What explains this seeming anomaly is that there is a much higher frequency of walks in this district. Also, the land use structure of the district facilitates servicing at close range to homes. In contrast, the

Fig. 5.1 Frequency of trips by distance range and mode—pedestrian, bicycle, and bus

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new layouts of Pudong make for very much larger city blocks with complex internal structures and a simple road layout. It has half the proportion of trips using NMT as Luwan District, 0.35 versus 0.70. Even more startling, when taking into account the total distances covered in the respective sets of data for the two districts, the average Luwan person is executing four times the distance in NMT as the Pudong person (331.0 vs. 79.4 m). At the time of survey, households with cars were 6%, but income, employment category, and household size all had non-significant relationship with the NMT choice. Clearly, the environment plays a major role in this outcome. For example, the length of the street network per unit area in Luwan is about double that of Pudong. We also explored modal switch from walking to bicycling. Given that a trip using a single-speed city bicycle on a smooth, flat surface requires about one-third the energy needed to walk an equivalent travel distance, and might also take one-third to one-quarter the time, it might be supposed that consideration of these utilities would lead to a shift from walking to cycling at quite short distances. This is hardly the case in Shanghai. For example, 77% of the trips are on foot for distances up to 600 m. The bicycle number does not vary a great deal by distance and only overtakes the walking mode as most prevalent choice at 1400 m. The bicycle take-up rate fluctuates out of synchrony with the frequency distribution for pedestrians, suggesting that the bicycle is a consequence of itinerary and the associated local environment more than distance per se. Given the time and energy implications of this predominant choice to walk, even in the bicycle-friendly environment of Shanghai around 2000, it is also clear that energy-saving at the least does not enter into the decision-making for mode switch to wheeled transport. Similarly, although with much smaller numbers at these travel distances, bus use does not follow the pedestrian distribution, nor does it demonstrate any take-up from other modes until well beyond 2000 m. For example, the total number of bus trips is 0.15 of the number of pedestrian trips. That these proportions vary significantly by district makes clear the important impact of the local environment on basic choices in transport, as well as its controllability. Bus trips are 0.41 of all trips in Pudong and just 0.20 in Luwan, with the two districts having roughly equivalent amounts of public transport provision in the form of bus and metro lines. Controlling for a range of social and economic factors, the differences between districts remain prominent in the analysis, pointing to the remarkably different urban environments of these districts, and how the planning has been anything but neutral with regard to transport outcomes. Why is there this high performance of NMT in the context of plentiful, public alternatives? Recall that Shanghai invested very heavily in the bus system in the 1990s, upgrading buses with comfortable seats and air-conditioning, and increasing the fleet dramatically. From 1991 to 1998, the number of buses in circulation increased by 45% and the number of lines by 47% (SCTRI 2001). The increase in ridership was very modest on its traditional base of 15% of all trips of more than 0.5 km and has continued to remain stable—that is, with a declining share of all travel. To explore this question of how individuals are making the choice to use the bicycle, for example, rather than motorized alternatives, we conducted another study of bicyclists who had just completed a bicycle trip to certain locations in Shanghai

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(Zacharias 2002). In that study, alighting cyclists were clear about time saved while riding a bicycle over the alternatives for this 4 km, on average, trip. These claims were validated by field measurement. Clearly, the time expended on travel was of paramount consideration in the trip. It was also seen that travel by bicycle could occur on many alternate channels and with itineraries that could not be executed by bus. Users noted the flexibility that the bicycle offered, and they found it much more comfortable than either the bus or walking (Fig. 5.2). They consistently considered the bicycle to be a faster mode for their typical trips than the bus, with the metro only slightly faster than the bicycle for their trips. In the absence of attractive alternatives, the bicycle serves as the most attractive mode in the street conditions still prevailing that had dedicated facility for them. For the distances of 4 or 5 km typically being observed here, energy expenditure is not an issue and does not come up in the surveys as a dampening factor on choice. In other words, without any particular incentive, although aided by a supportive environment, NMT rates can be several times that of

100% fast slow walking bus bicycle metro cheap expensive walking bus bicycle metro comfortable uncomfortable walking bus bicycle metro flexible inflexible walking bus bicycle metro Fig. 5.2 Evaluations of travel modes by bicyclists in Shanghai

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areas with quite different physical characteristics and similar populations. That is, the natural level of engagement with NMT, all else being equal, is high. Moreover, the natural condition is one of higher NMT rates because of the relative preponderance of short trips that are best served by NMT. We have seen how individuals respond to the environment in terms of their mode choice and how that mode interacts with the distance traversed. Now we consider the impacts of maintaining the historic street pattern in a relatively large centrally located area on the evolution of traffic generated by the development.

5.2.2 Case 2: Traffic Demand Management and Walking Rate—Shenzhen Huaqiangbei, part of the former Shangbu industrial complex, had a short industrial life in the early 1980s but began massively converting to urban uses in the 1990s, following market-driven principles within a framework set out by the municipality (Zacharias and Bliek 2008). At the time of our 2013 study, it had among the highest commercial rental values in the city. Because it converted from industrial use, it has a dense network of narrow roads, relatively high built form density and no underground space. In the entire 1.5 km2 area, there were about 800 car parking spaces, with nearly 300,000 workers and a high concentration of restaurants and services. At the same time, it has enjoyed the highest level of metro service in the city, with four closely spaced lines passing through. It also hosts many bus lines that access a large proportion of Shenzhen. The northern and southern boundaries, Hongli Road and Shennan Avenue, respectively, are major east–west traffic corridors (Fig. 5.3). The area has thrived as the most vibrant and people-filled area of the whole of Shenzhen, including the CBDs. Huaqiangbei station on Line 1 of the metro has remained the busiest in the system, even as several more lines and dozens of stations have opened. Huaqiangbei continued to build up and attract more and more people over the period of our study. From 2007 to 2013, the number of pedestrians increased 66% (from 113,877 to 188,784), motor vehicle entries to the area declined marginally, while non-motorized vehicles, mostly bicycles increased 38% (Zacharias and Ma 2015). In 2013, 91% of those arriving at Huaqiangbei daily came by public transport, metro and bus. Some of them availed taxi services, mostly on the perimeter roads. Internally, there is no practical option but to walk between locations because the street system is dominated by NMT and difficult to navigate in a car. Relatively broad walking surfaces are available as a consequence of the original narrow road infrastructure and with most of the rest of the land in private leases. The bicycles are operated by service workers who live in nearby urban villages and use the bicycle to commute, and by delivery services within the area, mostly for food. Other goods move by four-wheeled trolleys and often in the streets, in order to avoid curbs and

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Fig. 5.3 Pedestrian flows and generation flows (from metro and bus)

steep ramps. These conditions make Huaqiangbei the busiest non-motorized district in the city. The area continued to grow under these severe conditions of unintentional traffic demand management. It might even be argued that the growth occurred in part because of the restrictions on access for motorized vehicles, but proof for this effect would require a much bigger study across the whole city. In the meantime, we know that greater numbers of Shenzhen individuals are coming here, mostly by public transport, and in full knowledge that there are no real alternatives to walking within the district. Given the increasing number and diversity of places to visit, shopping and recreation in Shenzhen, as well as the increasing ease in getting there via an everexpanding metro system, this growth in Huaqiangbei is all the more meaningful. The utility of motorized access appears to have no significance in the decisions of ordinary people to visit and make extensive walking trips. A high level of public transport provision is not made for short NMT trips. For example, tracked trips from the stations on the Longgang line inside Huaqiangbei show that 75% of trips were within 500 m. Stations on the four lines in the area are 350–500 m apart. These walk distances imply that a substantial proportion of

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those using metro in this area are walking greater distance than that between stations. Some of this distance might be to avoid the effort to make a line change and instead walk straight to the line used for most of the trip. Some might be inducements from the local walking environment. Overall, in the metro stations in China, the density of public transport provision does not predict walking distance. In the study of the walking trips generated at 14 metro stations in three cities in China—Tianjin, Beijing, and Shenzhen (Zacharias and Zhao 2017), we could also examine the differences between stations. Overall, the mean walking distance from station to destination is 417 m with a relatively high standard deviation (117 m) for the means at all stations. Nevertheless, this real walking distance is 84% of the theoretical walking distance as used by transport planners in China. Some stations, especially those in central Beijing, have walking distances that significantly exceed the planned distance. As in the Shanghai cases, it becomes clear that a supportive urban environment is crucial in promoting what is tantamount to the default position of visitors and users, namely their willingness to visit on foot.

5.2.3 Case 3: Travel by Private and Shared Bicycles in Beijing At the peak of the bicycle rise in the transport system c. 1986, when it accounted for 62.7% of commuting trips in Beijing (BTRC 2017) the main option for travel was the public bus. Predictably, bicycling distances were long and getting longer through the 1980s, as the labor market liberalized. The bus system saw falling patronage as households set their sights on acquiring one or more bicycles. Metro development did not deliver new lines until the 2000–2010 decade. In 2019, Beijing has the most extensive metro system in the world and by some measures, the largest passenger volume. What role does the bicycle play in this contemporary context of multiple, good, motorized choices? In our intercept study of several hundred commuting cyclists in three districts in Beijing (Yang and Zacharias 2015), we found significant willingness to bicycle to work within typical parameters. For example, we know that the average commute across all Beijing was 8.7 km in 2010, but the communities within the 4th Ring Road of Beijing have a commute of 6.7 km. In our study, 81.4% of bicyclists travel less than 5 km. There is then a gap between the possible commute by NMT and the reality. Since both travel distance and the modal share vary among communities, we can surmise that the local environment is important. Baiwanzhuang has 23% commuting by bicycle when the citywide bicycle share is 13.5% (Fig. 5.4). Of particular note is that 45% of the intercepted bicycle commuters also had access to a car. Not surprisingly, then, there is no significant relation between education level and income on one side and the decision to commute by bicycle on the other. These commuting cyclists were also quite clear about the conditions they favored—dedicated bicycle pathways, safe crossings of motor traffic, bicycle network continuity,

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Fig. 5.4 Bicycle commuting in two districts in central Beijing

among others. The implication is that there is an unsatisfied demand for cycling services in these communities that should be attacked primarily through reform of the environment. That unsatisfied demand showed up in a questionnaire concerning how travel choices are made for various travel distances along multimodal corridors (Zacharias and Li 2016). Along with pricing, the provision of a dedicated bicycle pathway with shared bicycles offered significant shift not only away from the bus primarily but also from the metro. This prediction came true with the introduction of the shared bicycle a year and a half later in 2016, when the bicycle numbers increased sharply. No separated bicycle pathway was provided; however, nor any separate signaling at intersections, so numbers did not reach their potential according to the expressed desires of urban travelers (Campbell 2012). These studies suggest that with environmental enhancement alone the bicycle share of commutes could be doubled in Beijing to around 30% of all commuting trips within the contiguous area up to the 5th Ring Road. This prediction is based on the finding that there is pent-up demand for cycling services, but they are conditional on certain operations and the larger environment.

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5.2.4 Case 4: The Long Walks in the Pedestrianized Zone of Central Tianjin In planning a large non-motorized zone or pedestrian zone, the question of appropriate size of the zone will always arise. Some suggest that pedestrian zones have an upper limit in size, driven by acceptable walking distance, such that peripheral areas or those sufficiently far from the major pedestrian generators will have low patronage and subsequent commercial and social problems. In Tianjin, the focus was on the difficulties to the transport network posed by a continuous and extensive pedestrian zone. But it remains unclear what those size limits are, if they exist, and whether acceptable walking distance can be assumed for a commercial and leisure zone. The Tianjin data may help shed some light on these issues in such a context. The first major pedestrian environment in Tianjin was opened in 1999, on Binjiang Dao, followed by the pedestrianization of Heping Lu the following year (Fig. 5.5). The pedestrian zone saw increasing numbers of pedestrians in the subsequent years, with much new investment in shopping facilities adjacent to the pedestrian space. Visitors to the pedestrian environment (n = 2000) provided details of their visit (Zacharias 2007). All the visitors were intercepted at 10 shopping facilities of different types but that included Walmart and Parkson Department Store, for example, and asked about the previously visited locations. These provide a measure of the shopping linkages on the street. The conjectural return is included in the estimated distance. Walk distance, at least to those second malls or street locations, varies greatly across the population as expected. On the other hand, the distances covered by these visitors are substantial by any standard. 55% of the trips are over 1200 m. Some reported trips are very long, with 4% executing at least 2.4 km of walking trip. The mean distance covered in these two visits within the pedestrian zone, and not including access or egress, is 1322 m. Given the points of access and the likelihood of visits after the intercept survey, these reported distances are much less than the real figures. In the very large pedestrian zone, the walking distances we traditionally associate with public transport access or access to local services do not apply. We are experiencing much longer walking distances and the coverage of much larger areas than previously thought practical. In the case of Tianjin, there is a motorized commuter cart that can transport individuals from one end to the other but carries few of the individuals visiting the streets.

5.3 Discussion While planners have emphasized the dampening effect of barriers on non-motorized trips, especially walking, there has been less emphasis on the “pull” factors of the environment. In the presence of multiple transport modes, it is of interest that the walk

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can average 1.5 km in the case of downtown Montréal (Zacharias 1993), diminishing to 0.9 km when air temperature dropped to between −10° and −20 °C. In the real-world examples here of urban environments, a degree of modal choice already existed and there were minimal physical obstacles to non-motorized transport. These are precisely the conditions we would like to have today. If these cases represent the real potential non-motorized component of travel, then the total take-up of mobility demands by NMT could be expected to be much higher, in part because of the greater distances covered. So much of conventional planning practice is based on preconceptions about human behavior in local environments that has a very weak empirical base. Mostly planners rely on conventions or built-up examples studied cursorily. We do not yet know what dampens walking distance, but we do know that walking distance varies enormously across environments, and that these variations cannot be explained by ascribed norms.

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References BTRC. Beijing Transportation Research Center. 2017. Beijing transport annual report. Beijing: BTRC. Campbell, A.A. 2012. Factors influencing the choice of shared bicycles and electric bicycles in Beijing: A stated preference approach (master’s thesis). Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee. Pushkarev, Boris, and Jeff Zupan. 1975. Urban space for pedestrians. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Seneviratne, Prianka, and Philip Fraser. 1985. Issues related to planning for pedestrian needs in Central Business Districts. Transportation Research Record 1141: 7–14. SCTRI. Shanghai Comprehensive Traffic Research Institute. 2001. Transportation changes in Shanghai 1995 to 1998. Shanghai: SCTRI (in Chinese). Yang, Ming, and John Zacharias. 2015. Potential for revival of the bicycle in Beijing. Journal of Sustainable Transportation 10: 517–527. Zacharias, John. 1993. Reconsidering the impacts of enclosed shopping centres: A study of pedestrian behaviour around and within a festival market in Montreal. Landscape and Urban Planning 26: 149–160. Zacharias, John. 2002. Bicycle in Shanghai: Movement patterns, cyclist attitudes and the impact of traffic separation. Transport Reviews 22: 309–322. Zacharias, John. 2005. Non-motorized transportation in four Shanghai districts. International Planning Studies 10: 323–340. Zacharias, John. 2007. The non-motorized core of Tianjin. International Journal of Sustainable Transportation 1: 231–248. Zacharias, John, and Desmond Bliek. 2008. Planning and the market in the transformation of Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen. Journal of Urban Design 13: 347–362. Zacharias, John, and Ben Ma. 2015. Industrial zone development policy related to real estate and transport outcomes in Shenzhen, China. Land Use Policy 47: 382–393. Zacharias, John, and Xuwen Li. 2016. Shifting from metro to sustainable surface modes for short distance travel. Transportation Research Record 2541: 38–45. https://doi.org/10.3141/2541-05. Zacharias, John and Qi Zhao. 2017. Local environmental factors in metro patronage. Journal of Public Transport 10: 91–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12469-017-0174-y Zacharias, John and Qiang Sheng. 2019. Why cycling in 2007 was faster than being driven in 2017 in Tianjin. Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering 7: 1–12. https://doi.org/10.17265/ 2328-2142/2019.01.001 Zhao, Pengjun. 2014. The impact of the built environment on bicycle commuting: Evidence from Beijing. Urban Studies 51: 1019–1037. Zhang, H., S. Shaheen, and X. Chen. 2014. Bicycle evolution in China: From the 1900s to the present. International Journal of Sustainable Transportation 8: 317–335.

Chapter 6

Informal Solutions Towards Personal Net Zero Joey Dabell and Mark Dabell

Abstract We present a high-level analysis of what it would take for a typical individual in Canada to achieve “Personal Net Zero,” defined by three objectives: zero use of grid electricity, zero use of fossil fuels, and zero waste to landfills. We identify mature technology solutions in solar energy, electrified transportation, recycling, and composting as well as structural, financial, and societal barriers. To define the feasibility of replacing grid power, we compare the capabilities of solar photovoltaic to average electricity consumption. For fossil fuels we explore the use of electric vehicles for transportation and the use of ground-source heat pump technology for heating and cooling. We investigate three categories of waste: compostable, recyclables, and other materials. We examine recycling programs and identify gaps in perceived versus actual outcomes. We propose actions to eliminate use of problematic materials and supply chain changes. Solar power can replace grid electricity and fossil fuel consumption can be generally eliminated for local and regional transportation, heating and cooling. Elimination of fossil fuels for international travel is problematic, but net-zero can be approached through offsets. Challenges to eliminating waste remain, principally in the structured recycling systems where what is assumed to be recyclable actually ends up in landfills.

6.1 Introduction and Background While attending a conference at Simon Fraser University (SFU) on the latest findings from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in November of 2018, the authors were struck by a question to the presenter from an audience member who observed that a majority of Canadians are concerned about the climate while at the J. Dabell (B) British Columbia Institute of Technology, 3700 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby, British Columbia V5G 32, Canada e-mail: [email protected] M. Dabell Independent Consultant, 3018 Point Grey Road, Vancouver, British Columbia V6K 1B1, Canada © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. Moore et al. (eds.), Ecocities Now, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58399-6_6

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same time they are frustrated by the perception there is no clear path to action. His question was, “What can I, as an individual, do?” The presenter, a climate policy expert, had no meaningful answer. The David Suzuki Foundation surveyed Canadian public opinion about climate change (David Suzuki Foundation 2014). Some indicative statistics include: • 63% of respondents believe that climate change is caused by human interaction while only 10% remain skeptics; • 84% answered that they are either somewhat concerned, definitely concerned, or extremely concerned about climate change; • they are most worried for future generations (78%) followed by loss of wildlife (72%); • and 57% believe Canada is doing about the same or worse than other countries in addressing the issue. A 2019 CBC News poll found similar results (Grenier 2019). A majority (63%) responded “our survival depends on addressing climate change” or classed it as a “top priority.” The poll also found that 65% agreed with the statement “Canada is not doing enough” and that 75% would be willing to make changes in their daily lives. These statistics tend to support the sentiment behind the question posed at SFU in November. Since then the “What can I do” question stands out at many climate and sustainability-related events and talks the authors have attended. Clearly people need ways to make an impact as individuals, but how to achieve that is less clear. This paper presents the authors’ attempt to answer the question by investigating what a motivated and responsible individual could do to reduce their own footprint. Motivation reflects intent and willingness. What lifestyle changes an individual is willing to make, and at what cost, is an indicator of their motivation. The term motivated is purposely subjective. The authors choose to assign strong or very strong motivation to our representative individual, meaning a willingness to take on significant change. Responsibility, on the other hand, is about the correctness of actions taken. We assume our individual is diligent so that their actions are done in accordance with best practices. We introduce the concept of Personal Net Zero defined as follows: • zero use of grid electricity, • zero use of fossil fuels, • zero waste being directed to landfills or to incinerators. For each of these objectives, we examine the issues from the perspective of our motivated individual in a typical household in Canada. This effort is concerned with the personal and direct consumption of grid electricity, fossil fuels, and the generation of waste. It does not attempt to address the indirect consumption of grid electricity or fossil fuels that may be embedded in products that are consumed, nor does it attempt to solve all of society’s issues with respect to waste that may arise from what others are doing.

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Everyday there are little things we do that impact the environment we all share. Every single item in our landfills is the result of decisions that some individual has made. Every consumption choice we make impacts some aspect of our supporting ecosystems. Groups like the David Suzuki Foundation (David Suzuki Foundation 2017) and the National Resources Defense Council (Denchak 2017) list among the top personal actions that people should be doing: sharing our stories and using our voices; conserving and using renewable energy; greening our transit and travel; and consuming and wasting less. The last three of these are fully consistent with the author’s definition of personal net zero. The first is the primary objective of this paper.

6.2 Methodology Based on the definition and qualifications provided in Sect. 1, the research question can be summarized as, “How close can a motivated, responsible individual get towards achieving Personal Net Zero?”. This paper intends to try to identify what our motivated individual can achieve towards our three personal net zero objectives. We begin by examining consumption patterns of grid electricity and fossil fuels as a way to establish what needs to be eliminated. Through a high-level analysis, we define status-quo electrical energy consumption and the potential for reducing this consumption through well-established conservation schemes. We then examine the capabilities of current solar photovoltaics (PV) and solar thermal technology to replace that demand. We look at the prospects for replacing fossil fuel-powered internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with current technology electric vehicles (EV). We look at availability and choice for EVs and the status of requisite infrastructure. As with grid electricity, we define a reduced heating energy demand by looking at current average consumption and applying energy efficiency measures. To replace the reduced energy demand, we consider current ground source heat pump (GSHP) technology. This analysis is not intended to offer engineered solutions, rather to explore readily available alternate technology and qualitatively assess the requirements for its adoption. To assess the viability of achieving zero waste, we look at the efficacy of structured recycling and composting programs, to identify problematic outcomes. For each of the potential solutions, we estimate costs and expected life-style adjustments, discuss reasonableness, and qualitatively assess achievability for each of the three objectives.

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6.3 Results and Analysis 6.3.1 Zero Grid Electricity The estimated annual average household electricity use in Canada is about 11,000 kWh, or 30 kWh per day (ShrinkthatFootprint 2019). It should be noted that North Americans are over-consumers. Many European countries have consumption of about one-third of these numbers or about 10 kWh per day. Reducing consumption is possible through energy-savings strategies such as: • • • • •

providing domestic hot water through other than electrical means, replacing all lighting with LED, adopting high-energy appliances and electronics, eliminating phantom loads, and using occupancy sensors.

We estimate that electricity demand could be reduced by 60% utilizing these strategies. The Canadian baseline demand would then become 12 kWh/day. This is a significant improvement, but we can do better. The authors own experience is relevant, taking the perspective of two motivated individuals living in a 60 m2 apartment, with average electricity consumption of 3.8 kWh/day. This is without full adoption of LED lighting, with an older model refrigerator, with less than efficient electronics, and also without an electric stove or without washer and dryer. We adjust the consumption as follows: • • • • •

add an induction cook-top electric stove, add ENERGYSTAR® washer and dryer, switch to an ENERGYSTAR® refrigerator, fully adopt LED lighting, upgrade to high-efficiency electronics.

With these adjustments, our consumption would increase from 3.8 to about 5.2 kWh/day without sacrificing comfort. There is no reason why this energy consumption should increase were the individual living in a small detached house instead of the apartment. Keeping with the notion of strongly motivated individuals, we have achieved 5.2 kWh as a readily achievable new baseline electricity demand. We look at recent generation data for three separate solar PV systems in BC: in Burnaby (BCIT 2019), in Kimberly (SunMine Solar 2017), and in Nelson (Nelson 2019). Each shows the same seasonal variation in generation, and each is capable of generating about 1.1 kWh/day for each kW of array capacity, during a minimum week in December or January. To provide generation to meet the 5.2 kWh consumption needs of our ideal twoperson household for the minimum week would require a solar PV system of roughly 5 kW capacity. Current solar panel technology is rated at about 360 W for each 1 m by 1.6 m panel. We would, therefore, require 14 PV panels, an array of about 3 m by 7 m. This PV capacity will need to be adjusted to accommodate electricity requirements

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for powering the space heating system, as discussed in the following subsection. A discussion of EV charging from the home PV system is provided in Sect. 6.4.2. Sizing the solar array to meet the daily consumption requirement for the minimum week of the year results in a significant over-capacity for the maximum months, typically May, June, and July. For these months, the generation capability could be six times that of the minimum period of the year. Based on our analysis, utilizing PV technology can balance the demand for electricity for our motivated individuals.

6.3.2 Zero Fossil Fuels Almost all car makers have developed or have plans to develop full plug-in EVs. Currently in Canada, there are over 20 models to choose from (Plug ‘N Drive 2019). Many are what would be classed as city-only vehicles with limited range; however, the selection is large enough to also meet the regional travel needs. Public (currently grid-tied) charging infrastructure is increasingly well developed. A simple look at achievable driving distances from Vancouver, using the ABetterRoutePlanner app for a Nissan Leaf with a 64 kWh battery, shows the following theoretical destination capability: • as far as Calgary, AB using Highway 1 (970 km and 1330 m maximum elevation), • as far as Medicine Hat, AB using Highway 3 (1300 km and 1360 m maximum elevation), and • as far as Little Fort, BC using Highway 5 (445 km and 1245 m maximum elevation). An EV would meet the personal driving needs of our motivated individual. The other major consumer of fossil fuels is for space heating. The average heating energy consumption for Canadian households is difficult to estimate. For our analysis, we use an annual value of 18,000 kWh, estimated by taking published numbers for total energy consumption (Statistics Canada 2011) and subtracting the average electrical consumption. Passive house standards, which relate to air tightness, envelope insulation, and heat exchange ventilation can allow for significant reductions, to as much as 90% of heating energy requirement (Passipedia 2019). For the purposes of our analysis, we assume a retrofit to passive house standards for air tightness and with heat exchange ventilation, which we estimate to be able to achieve a 50% reduction in heating energy requirement or 9,000 kWh. Heat recovery from wastewater is estimated to reduce energy domestic hot water by 40%. This amounts to about 1600 kWh annually (DOE 2005). Heat recovery from battery charging, at 10% of daily electricity consumption based on round trip efficiency, amounts to about 200 kWh annually (Research Interfaces 2018).

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Our electrical energy consumption excludes energy for hot water heating. For domestic hot water, we consider a passive solar thermal system. As discussed in the previous subsection, sizing the solar array to meet the energy demand for the minimum period of the year results in excess generation for other periods amounting to about 6000 kWh annually. To make use of this energy for heating would require seasonal timeframe energy storage. A good example can be found in Drake Landing, Alberta (Mesquita 2017). Here, thermal energy generated in the summer months is stored in ground soils and used to heat homes in the winter. A reasonable estimate is that half of the excess solar energy can be utilized in this manner. Considering this together with the heat recovery values results in a net heating energy requirement of 4200 kWh. To provide this energy using a ground source heat pump with a coefficient of performance of 3 would require an additional 1400 kWh from the solar PV system. This would require an additional solar PV capacity of about 3.5 kW. The resulting energy system would include: • 8.5 kW solar PV array, • a passive solar thermal system for domestic hot water and supplementary space heating, • heat recovery from wastewater and battery charging, • a ground source heat pump, • the capability of generating heat energy during summer months to inject into the ground in way of the heat pump ground loops. An integrated system, as described above, would provide the space heating requirements without the use of fossil fuels.

6.3.3 Zero Waste A small student-focused research effort (Bushmin 2019) traced the paths of a representative selection of items from a typical household disposal stream to determine whether they had positive or negative outcomes. Of eight items that were part of the provincial recycling program, six were recycled into other useful products. One item was determined to have an existing recycling process, but due to a lack of sufficient end markets, it is currently being landfilled in significant quantities. The remaining item was found to be part of the pilot study for which a recycling process had yet to be defined. Of the items that were recycled, one was clearly processed in Canada, and three others were clearly processed offshore. The specific end-points of the remaining items were unidentified, but indications point to processing outside of Canada. In the same study, nine of the investigated items were not part of the recycling program. All were ultimately traced to landfills or incinerators. Two of the items could be recycled as part of third-party for-fee programs, and all but two were found

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to be made of recyclable materials but did not meet the program requirements because of size or product category restrictions. Reasonable alternatives were identified for all of the non-program items. Many of the outcomes identified in the above study can be said to result from the characteristics of the structured recycling program in BC. This program is a form of extended producer responsibility (EPR) with stewardship programs to manage the collection, sorting, and recycling of items. There are restrictions in place based on which industries are contributing stewardship fees, such as the distinction between packaging versus products. For example, a plastic cup in which you purchase a drink in a coffee shop is accepted in the program, whereas an identical cup purchased at a store for use at your picnic is not. In general, the organics collection and composting program is working well to keep those materials from the landfill. There are challenges here as well. There is significant material that is still landfilled even though it could be composted. There are other items such as biodegradable cups and plastic bags that end up contaminating the compost stream and may result in redirection to the landfill. Biodegradable or compostable plastic is a particularly interesting case. Clearly, the users of these products feel that they are being more environmentally conscious by not using regular plastic cups or bags. It was found that the biodegradability of these plastics is highly dependent on the conditions where they are deposited and that none of the composting facilities nor the landfill provide the appropriate conditions. These items were determined to be just plainly not a good idea. Alternatives exist that have much better outcomes.

6.4 Discussion 6.4.1 Costs It is estimated that the cost to provide the integrated system of PV and space heating would range between $45,000 and $100,000. Is this reasonable? If it is viewed from the perspective of a traditional pay-back model, the answer would likely to be “No.” As a homeowner, there is no expectation that your new stainless-steel appliance or granite countertops pay you back within a designated timeframe, or at all. These choices are aesthetic in nature and are a function in a particular desired lifestyle. Applying the same rationale to personal net zero features of your home requires a comparison of these costs to such measures as house value, household net worth, and discretionary spending. The average Canadian household price in 2018 was $495,000 (Living In Canada 2019). The average Canadian household net worth in 2017 was $450,000 (Financial Samurai 2019). So, at the low end of the cost range, we are talking about 10% of house value or net worth. Is this reasonable? We contend that for our highly motivated household, this is reasonable. The average Canadian annual income in

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2018 was $71,000 (ARCGIS 2018), with the discretionary portion being 22% or $15,000. At the low end of the cost range, this requires three years of discretionary income to meet the personal net zero objectives, reasonable for a phased approach to implementation.

6.4.2 Lifestyle Choices The estimation of the solar array necessary to replace the consumption for our motivated household is easily achievable for a detached home but would require some lifestyle changes to doing laundry, using the oven, or charging your EV on sunnier days. For example, a typical 30 km commute for an EV requires about 5 kWh of energy. Without increasing the size of the home PV system this effectively places a limit on driving. Such restrictions would only apply during the minimum weeks of the year. The sizing of our solar array assumes only nominal at home EV charging for city driving needs. To meet the strict zero grid electricity criteria would limit out-of-city driving to public charging stations that are solar powered. While it may be some time before these are available, the Energy OASIS microgrid at BCIT demonstrates that it is feasible. This facility has a 250 kW PV array that services six Level-2 and 2 DC fast chargers. Using OASIS research data for a typical day in May 2018, the system provides up to about 30 charging sessions per day, has utilization of about 6 hours for each charger, and consumes about 25% of the solar PV generation capacity. The analysis of space heating results in an integrated system that utilizes excess electricity generation over summer months, together with waste heat to inject heat to the ground to reduce the demand on a ground source heat pump. This scenario is for an average household in Canada, which may have a lengthy heating season. For the same household, newly built to passive house standards in a moderate climate like Vancouver, it is likely that heating needs could be achieved without the necessity of a complex heat pump (e.g., through solar thermal heating systems). The analysis has adopted the perspective of strict requirements to eliminate grid electricity. The solar PV required to meet the demand for the minimum generation period of the year results in an array that has significant over capacity for the remainder of the year. The excess generation could leverage seasonal energy storage or be shared with neighboring households. Alternatively, stepping away from the strict zero-grid-electricity requirement could be adopted as an interim measure before fully committing to a zero-use strategy.

6.4.3 Waste Data indicate that Canada consistently gets a poor grade on waste management issues relative to other jurisdictions around the world (Conference Board of Canada 2013).

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As early as 1991, the Government of British Columbia set targets to reduce municipal solid waste by 50% per capita (BC Ministry of Environment 1991). A recent report indicates that 84% of plastic waste is still being directed to landfills and a further 4% sent to incinerators (Petigny 2019). The final disposition of items that are part of a recycling program depends very much on the availability of markets. Many of the offshore end markets are inherently unstable. This issue has become more poignant recently with several overseas countries either banning the import of waste and recycling or returning waste back to Canada (Common 2019). Sources at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) have estimated an 18% increase in the costs of waste removal as an indirect result of these bans. Identifying a particular item as recyclable can tend to legitimize its use. This tendency has been used by industry as a marketing strategy. The Keep America Beautiful campaign and Crying Indian messaging in the 1950s and 1960s were instituted by the industry as a way to give the use of their products an environmental spin (Wilkins 2018). Plastics manufacturing industries are accepting of recycling campaigns but are quick to oppose when bans of products are proposed, an example being the plastic bag ban implemented by the City of Victoria BC and then overturned with the help of industry (Little 2019). The recycling program in BC, set up as a form of extended producer responsibility (EPR), does little to encourage a reduction in the use of materials, nor to promote product improvements in design-for-repair and recycling. This is largely due to the severing of the physical responsibility of recycling from manufacturers. Manufacturers are effectively paying for someone else to deal with products at end-of-life. Plastics degrade through the recycling process eventually resulting in less recyclable products which are eventually just landfilled. Some plastic materials are more readily recyclable and are used to make new products of the same type as the original (Bloch 2009). Polyethylene (classes 1, 2, and 4) are in this category and therefore more suitable for a circular-economy model. We are at a critical point where recycling infrastructure needs to be modernized. Better alternatives for plastic need to be designed and engineered with recyclability in mind. Individuals need to seek alternatives to, or avoid using plastic products entirely.

6.5 Conclusions A personal net zero framework was evaluated as a means for motivated individuals to engage with issues around climate disruption. Zero use of grid electricity can be achieved by adopting moderate energy-saving strategies and meeting remaining energy demand with a solar PV array sized to a minimum-week generation. Domestic hot water needs can be met with a passive solar thermal system.

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Zero use of fossil fuels can be achieved through the use of EV to replace ICE vehicles and through the use of ground-source heat pump technology for space heating. An integrated system that uses solar PV generating electricity and providing heat for seasonal storage to augment space heating is suggested. Furthermore, the proposed replacements were assessed to be viable on an aesthetic-lifestyle basis and by evaluating costs with comparisons to house value, net worth and discretionary income. For the most part, investigations show that programs redirecting recyclables and organics from the waste stream are effective. However, as a result of the way recycling programs are set up not everything we assume to be recyclable is actually recycled. Problematic items persist that are not being recycled, that cannot easily be eliminated from use, nor for which reasonable alternatives have been identified. Acknowledgements This research was not funded by any external source. The authors would like to thank BCIT Student Researchers, Maria Bushmin, and Joey Kan who helped to develop and collate data for the research.

References ARCGIS. 2018. 2018 Canada Median Household Income. ARCGIS. https://www.arcgis.com/home/ item.html?id=6951da2ea34848758d21552792837a09. Accessed 19 Aug 2019. BCIT. 2019. BC Institute of Technology—Smart Microgrid Initiative—Data Historian. https://oasis. bcit.ca/data/historian. Accessed 25 July 2019. BC Ministry of Environment. 1991. A Strategic Analysis of Waste Plastics Reprocessing in British Columbia. BC Ministry of Environment. https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eirs/finishDownloadDocu ment.do?subdocumentId=6021. Accessed 13 August 2019. Bloch, Michael. 2009. Recycling plastics what the numbers mean. Green Living Tips. https://www. greenlivingtips.com/articles/recycling-by-the-numbers.html. Accessed 22 July 2019. Bushmin, Maria. 2019. Student-focused Citizen Research: What is the real story of recyclables?. Ecocity World Summit: Poster Presentation. Common, David. 2019. We are going to send this back: Malaysia returning unwanted Canadian plastic. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/we-are-going-to-send-this-back-Malaysiareturning-unwanted-Canadian-plastic-1.5152274. Accessed 20 July 2019. Conference Board of Canada. 2013. Conference Board of Canada. In Municipal Waste Generation—International Ranking. https://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/Details/Environment/munici pal-waste-generation.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1. Accessed 13 Aug 2019. DOE. 2005. Heat recovery from waste water using a gravity-film heat exchanger. US Department of Energy. DOE/EE-0247. David Suzuki Foundation. 2014. Focus Canada 2014 Canadian public opinion about climate change. David Suzuki Foundation—The Environics Institute. https://davidsuzuki.org/wp-content/ uploads/2017/09/focus-canada-2014-canadian-public-opinion-climate-change.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2019. David Suzuki Foundation. 2017. Top 10 things you can do about climate change. The David Suzuki Foundation. https://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/top-10-ways-can-stop-climate-cha nge/. Accessed 6 August 2019.

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Denchak, Melissa. 2017. How you can stop global warming. NRDC The National Resources Defense Council. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-you-can-stop-global-warming. Accessed 6 Aug 2019. Financial Samurai. 2019. The Average Canadian Household Net Worth is Huge!. Financial Samurai. https://www.financialsamurai.com/the-average-Canadian-household-net-worth-ishuge/. Accessed 19 Aug 2019. Grenier, Eric. 2019. Canadians are worried about climate change but don’t want to pay taxes to fight it: Poll. The CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/election-poll-climate-change-1. 5178514. Accessed 25 July 2019. Little, Simon. 2019. BC’s top court throws out Victoria’s plastic bag ban, says city needs provincial green light. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/5485570/victoria-plastic-bag-ban-bc/. Accessed 12 Aug 2019. LivingIn Canada. 2019. Canadian House Prices. LivingIn Canada. https://www.livingin-Canada. com/house-prices-Canada.html. Accessed 19 August 2019. Mesquita, Lucio et al. 2017. Drake Landing solar community: 10 years of operation. In IEA SHC international conference on solar heating and cooling for buildings and industry. Nelson. 2019. Nelson’s Community Solar Garden. City of Nelson. https://www.nelson.ca/223/com munity-solar-garden. Accessed 2 Aug 2019. Petigny, Jerome, et. al. 2019. Economic study of the canadian plastic industry, markets and waste. Environment and Climate Change Canada. En4–366/1–2019E-PDF. Plug ‘N Drive. 2019. Fully electric cars available for sale in Canada (2019 Model Year). plugndrive.ca/Electric-Cars-Available-for-Sale-in-Canada-July-2019.pdf. Accessed 17 Aug 2019. Passipedia. 2019. Passipedia-the passive house resource. https://passipedia.org. Accessed 12 Aug 2019. Research Interfaces. 2018. Lithium-ion batteries for large-scale grid energy storage. Research Interfaces. https://researchinterfaces.com/lithium-ion-batteries-energy-storage. Accessed 12 August 2019. Shrinkthatfootprint. 2019. Average Household Electricity Use Around the World. Shrinkthatfootprint. https://shrinkthatfootprint.com/average-household-electricity-consumption. Accessed 15 July 2019 Statistics Canada. 2011. Households and the Environment: Energy Use. Statistics Canada. Cat. No. 11–526-S. SunMine Solar. 2017. SunMine–Solar Power–Kimberly BC. https://www.sunmine.ca/. Accessed 2 Aug 2019. Wilkins, Matt. 2018. More recycling won’t solve plastic pollution. Scientific American. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/more-recycling-wont-solve-plastic-pol lution/. Accessed 18 Aug 2019.

Part III

Circular Economy

Most terrestrial-based natural resources are finite and non-perennial, meaning that aside from the renewable resources that can be re-grown such as plants, including trees, other resources, once used, do not naturally return to their original state within a timeframe that can be considered renewable. Examples include top soil, river sand, gravel, rocks or stone, metal ores, and fossil fuels. Apart from the fact that extraction processes, at the very least, are wasteful and energy-intensive in most widely used materials, disposing such resources at the end of their useful term in one form only exacerbates the issues of resource utilization, energy consumption, and waste generation. A circular economy is an economic system of closed loops in which raw materials, components, and products: (i) lose as little of their value as possible, (ii) renewable energy sources are used, and (iii) systems thinking is at the core (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015). Thought processes on a circular economy started in the 1970s and gained prominence in the 1990s (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015). It builds on concepts from industrial ecology that mimic ecological processes of production, decomposition, and recycling to inform conservation and re-use of resources in the manufacture of goods and services (Gallopoulos and Frosch 1989; Chertow 2008). First taken up as a national economic strategy in China (Chertow 2008), the circular economy approach has gained international appeal. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation which is a leading non-government organization advancing the transition to a circular economy globally, examples of its popularization can be found in such works as performance economy by Walter Stahel (2006, 2010), the design philosophy of waste outputs as food inputs captured in Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart (2002), and Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and Hunter Lovins (1999). As Amory Lovins points out in his theory of natural capitalism, there are fortunes to be made from processing waste as there are in creating it, so dirty capitalism has been superseded by new, sanitized, environmental technologies that simultaneously provide profits and a clean environment (Cuthbert 2003).

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Critics of circular economy argue that it is an adaptation of the neo-classical, economic growth paradigm that merely amplifies eco-efficiency but does not reconcile the ultimate challenge of pursuing infinite economic growth on a finite planet. Proponents argue that circular economy’s origins in industrial ecology reconcile these issues by recognizing ecological limits and working within them. Despite being a contested concept, the idea of circular economy continues to gain traction. It is characterized as an economy that is restorative and regenerative by design with an aim to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and values at all times. It is conceived as a positive development cycle that preserves and enhances natural capital, optimizes resource yields, and minimizes system risks by managing finite stocks and renewable flows (McArthur Foundation 2015). Circular economy also potentially reduces urban metabolic rates due to the reduced energy required for re-processing materials versus new extraction, reduction in waste generation and processing, and in reduced transportation of these reprocessed materials. The principles of the 3 Rs—reduce, re-use, recycle fits well with the aims of a circular economy. Adding a 4th R—rethink brings the systems approach into full view to challenge concepts at the heart of economic processes, including designed obsolescence and least cost to market, to align with Ecocity Standards for responsible use of materials and resources, clean and renewable energy, and equitable economy. The first chapter of this section looks at recycling concrete to make cement. It is based on geopolymer chemistry which converts recycled concrete into a glassy cementitious reagent. It discusses some preliminary performance results using this reagent as a supplementary cementitious material in Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) mixes, and as a primary reagent in geopolymer cement. The second chapter of this section looks at urban metabolism as a measure of assessing the impact on circular economies in Tianjin EcoCity in China and Dockside Green EcoCity in Canada, finding them ineffective due to lack of practicality and feasibility of their master plans, and proposes a hybrid model based on the successes and pitfalls of both these projects. Both chapters indicate the technological, ideological, and practical gaps that need to be bridged in order to achieve a complete circular economy.

References Chertow, Marian. 2008. Industrial Ecology in a Developing Context. In Sustainable Development and Environmental Management: experiences and case studies, eds. Corrado Clini, Ignazio Musu, Maria Lodovica Gullino, 335–349. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Cuthbert, Alexander R. 2003. Designing Cities: Critical readings in Urban Design. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing. Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 2015. Towards a Circular Economy: Business Rationale for an Accelerated Transition. Ellen McArthur Foundation. Online resource: https://www.ellenmaca

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rthurfoundation.org/publications/towards-a-circular-economy-business-rationale-for-an-accele rated-transition (Accessed May 27, 2020). Gallopoulos, Nicholas, Robert Frosch. 1989. Strategies for Manufacturing. Scientific American 261(3): 144–152. doi: 10.1038/scientificamerican0989-144. Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken. 2010. Natural Capitalism: The next industrial revolution. 10th Anniversary Edition. (First published in 1999). Washington DC: Earthscan. McDonough, William and Michael Braungart. 2002. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things. New York: Northpoint Press. Stahel, Walter. 2010. The Performance Economy. Second Edition. (First published in 2006.) New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Chapter 7

Making Cement from Demolished Concrete: A Potential Circular Economy Through Geopolymer Chemistry D. J. Lake

Abstract Concrete is the most used construction material, but it is generally considered impossible to truly recycle and it has high embodied CO2 content. To make concrete more sustainable, we must lower the CO2 emissions associated with cement (cement production currently emits at least 5% of anthropogenic CO2 ), and develop a way to truly recycle waste concrete back into cementitious material in support of a circular economy. In an attempt to recycle waste concrete for re-use as cement, a process was developed to convert concrete into a glassy cementitious reagent. This paper presents some preliminary performance results using this reagent as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in ordinary Portland cement (OPC) mixes, and as a primary reagent in geopolymer cement. Setting times, compressive strength, acid corrosion, and heat resistance were tested. In conclusion, waste concrete can be converted into a glassy cementitious reagent with lower anticipated CO2 impact than OPC; this can be used as a primary reagent in geopolymer cement and as SCM in blended OPC. More detailed work is needed to develop, evaluate, and standardize this promising technique before commercial application. Nonetheless, this proof-ofconcept is an important step toward low-CO2 cement and a circular economy for concrete.

7.1 Introduction Concrete is by far the most used construction material globally with about 20 billion tonnes manufactured each year (Mehta and Meryman 2009). Accordingly, we must ensure that material used in such great quantity has a sustainable life cycle and a small environmental impact. In this regard, modern concrete could be improved in D. J. Lake (B) Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada e-mail: [email protected] Terra CO2 Technologies Ltd, Vancouver, BC V6B 1L8, Canada © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. Moore et al. (eds.), Ecocities Now, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58399-6_7

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two important ways: reducing embodied CO2 emissions and increasing economic circularity. The embodied CO2 of typical concrete (~73 kg/tonne, Ackerman 2018) is almost entirely caused by Portland cement (on average 842 kg CO2 /tonne, CSI 2016) which is alone responsible for 5–10% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions (Boden et al. 2016; CSI 2016; Metz et al. 2007). Therefore, the CO2 impact of concrete can only be addressed by lowering cement CO2 emissions. The most promising approaches have been summarized recently (Scrivener et al. 2016b) and of these, probably the most widely applicable solutions include using alternative cements (e.g., geopolymerbased), and blended cements that incorporate significant proportions of low-impact supplementary cementitious material (SCM) (Lord 2017). The life cycle of concrete is another important consideration for sustainability. What should be done with concrete at the end of its service life? The USA produces about 317 Mt of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) per year, of which at least 155 Mt is concrete (CSI 2009). In the worst case, demolished concrete is landfilled or dumped at sea (Tomosawa et al. 2005; Yeheyis et al. 2013). Increasingly, C&DW is crushed and processed for use as road base or aggregate (CSI 2009). The highest use of demolished concrete to date is as aggregate in new geopolymer concrete (e.g., Ren and Zhang 2019) or OPC concrete (e.g., Xie et al. 2018). Turning concrete into aggregate is a positive step; however, it is still a form of downcycling (Tomosawa et al. 2005). True recycling of concrete (if possible) must re-activate cementitious properties from concrete and allow recasting of a new monolithic structure. The cement sustainability initiative considers that “cement cannot be recycled” because “the process is irreversible” (CSI 2009). Indeed, true recycling of concrete poses a very significant technical challenge. The difficulty of truly recycling concrete is due to its complex composite nature (Tomosawa and Noguchi 1996). Concrete is generally made by mixing Portland cement, coarse aggregate (e.g., gravel), fine aggregate (e.g., sand), water, and air to form a slurry that chemically cures into a solid form over a useful period of time (Scrivener et al. 2016a). The inconsistent (and often non-limestone) chemistry of aggregates makes it virtually impossible to reproduce a Portland cement from most modern waste concrete. Some authors have suggested controlling the bulk chemistry of concrete by using only limestone aggregate such that the concrete may be re-fired as Portland cement (Tomosawa and Noguchi 1996). This a progressive suggestion; however, it does not completely address the very significant problem of process CO2 emissions emitted by limestone-based cement production. To demonstrate the potential for true recycling (and upcycling) of local waste concrete for the first time, a structural concrete sample from Vancouver, BC in Western Canada was converted into a glassy cementitious reagent for use as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in conventional Portland cement concrete, and as a primary reagent in geopolymer cement. In this context, a solid “reagent” is a glassy agent that is reactive in alkaline milieu, providing Si, Al, and exchange of alkaline (earth) elements to solution in cement slurries.

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The chemical reactions that cause cementitious behavior are different in the cases of SCM (see Aïtcin and Mindess 2011 for an introduction) and geopolymer (see Davidovits 2017 for an introduction). To briefly summarize from the above sources, SCM chemistry relies on the reaction of excess calcium hydroxide produced by Portland cement hydration with (alumino) siliceous material to form calcium (aluminum) silicate hydrate phases (Aïtcin and Mindess 2011). Whereas geopolymer chemistry usually refers to a covalently-bonded aluminosilicate network of the type Si−O−Al−O−(Si−O)n . These fundamental differences in chemistry result in quite varied final material properties for Portland cement, Portland cement with SCM, or geopolymer cement. This paper describes the production of a glassy cementitious reagent from waste concrete, its proof-of-concept use as an SCM and geopolymer cement reagent, and subsequent testing of these materials for strength, setting time, and chemical durability.

7.2 Materials and Methods 7.2.1 Characterization Structural concrete core samples were used as feedstock material for this study. The concrete was originally poured at a Vancouver low-rise building in early 2019 and sampled about 4 months later. Mineralogy of the bulk concrete was determined from a 5 kg sample that was crushed, pulverized, homogenized, and reduced to the optimum grain-size range for quantitative X-ray analysis ( 50 mg/L CaCO3 )

≤3

WQG = 0.094 *hardness + 2

Marine and Estuarine Aquatic Life

≤2

3

Freshwater aquatic life- water 7.5 hardness ≤ 90 mg/L

33

Freshwater aquatic life- water WQG = 7.5 + 0.75 hardness > 90 mg/L (hardness−90)

WQG = 33 + 0.75 (hardness−90)

Marin life

55

10

Freshwater aquatic life (water – hardness ≤ 8 mg/L CaCO3 )

3

Freshwater aquatic life (water WQG ≤ 3.31 + e[1.273 ln hardness > 8 mg/L CaCO3 ) (hardness)−4.704]

WQG = e[1.273 ln (hardness)−1.460]

Marine and estuarine aquatic life

≤ 2 total lead (80% of values ≤ 2 total lead)

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Cu concentration (4–117 μg/L) and Zn concentration (14–450 μg/L) in the storm samples collected from the parking lots exceeded the permitted concentrations which may pose risk to the aquatic life, specifically salmon, in Guichon Creek (for ranges of concentrations refer to Table 11.2).

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11.4.2 Column Filtration Treatments Biochar has been indicated to perform as an efficient sorbent for a broad range of contaminants including heavy metals and organic chemicals due to its enormous surface area and special structure. In terms of heavy metal remediation, many reports provided data on the removal ability of different biochar up to 100% removal of various heavy metals from aqueous solution and soils (Beesley and Marmiroli 2011; Karami et al. 2011; Mendez et al. 2012, Jiang et al. 2012). Also, large number of studies indicated biochar’s significant ability in organic pollutants remediation (Zheng et al. 2010; Xu et al. 2011; Kong et al. 2011). The commercial biochar used in this study, showed a good heavy metals and PAH removal ability compared to sand, qualifying it as a potential substitute for sand or to be used in combination with sand in urban structural best management practices. Maximum percentage removal by biochar used in this study followed the order of NAP > Zn > Cu. The same results were observed by Park et al. (2015) when using chicken bone derived biochar and also by Xue et al. (2012) using peanut hull hydrochar to remove heavy metal. In the case of sand, maximum percentage removal was highest for Zn among the all tested pollutants, whereas that was lowest for NAP. The higher Zn adsorption compared to Cu is probably because of its high concentration in the synthetic storm water (Cu concertation of 50–800 μg/L compared to Zn concertation of 200–1800 μg/L). Regarding Cu and Zn removal, small biochar exhibited higher removal efficiency compared to medium biochar, potentially due to the larger surface area of the small biochar. Komkiene and Baltrenaite (2015) concluded that due to smaller porosity and smaller pore surface area of silver birch, it showed higher adsorption of Pb and Zn compared to Scots pine biochar. In terms of NAP removal, both small and medium biochar exceeded that of sand (82 vs. 18%). This result indicates that using sand alone in infiltration BMPs may not be sufficient in removing PAHs from stormwater runoff. Amending sand with biochar will achieve the optimal removal of a range of heavy metals as well as PAHs from the stormwater.

11.5 Conclusion The ability of a commercially available biochar to remove Zn, Cu, and NAP from a laboratory-made storm water was demonstrated through a series of column treatments. Biochar indicated high Cu and Zn removal similar to sand (M = 59% for Cu and M = 78% for Zn). However, biochar showed a significantly better NAP removal ability compared to sand (M = 82 vs. 18%), making it a more effective sorption media in infiltration BMPs compared to sand in removing a range of pollutants from water flow. Urban stormwater is a primary source of contamination to aquatic environment, posing a serious threat to the ecological integrity of receiving waters. Using innovative and environment friendly approaches for improving quality of water (i.e., reducing pollutant of concern concentrations including PAHs and heavy metal-like

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Cu) entering urban creeks could potentially improve juvenile salmonids survival and abundance, thereby assisting ongoing efforts to recover depressed stocks (McIntyre et al. 2012). Classic solutions of bigger pipes and pumps are not the answer for the stormwater problems and they are not able to even keep up with peak flows from climate change. However, small solutions including distributed infiltration, roof gardens, and all manner of green infrastructure are an efficient, sustainable, and cost-conscious approach to non-point pollution (Stephens and Dumont 2011). An effective green infrastructure is the essential component of the responsible rainwater management for the protection of streams and fishery resource before degradation takes place. Since biochar can be derived from diverse biomass residues such as wood by-products, manure, and agricultural residues, and it is economically sustainable, it can provide a potential alternative for many remediation applications, such as wastewater treatment and groundwater remediation. Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance on the projects: Kevin Soulsbury from Dept. Chemistry and Ray Daxon from Dept. Civil Engineering at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT).

References Beesley, Luke, and Marta Marmiroli. 2011. The immobilization and retention of soluble arsenic, cadmium and zinc by biochar. Environmental Pollution 159 (2): 474–480. Borchardt, Dietrich, and Frank Sperling. 1997. Urban stormwater discharges: Ecological effects on receiving waters and consequences for technical measures. Water Science and Technology 36: 173–178. Bowen, Lizabeth, Inge Werner, and Michael Johnson. 2006. Physiological and behavioral effects of zinc and temperature on coho salmon (Oncorhynchus Kisutch). Hydrobiologia 559 (1): 161–168. Brown, Jeffrey N., and Barrie M. Peake. 2006. Sources of heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban stormwater runoff. Science of the Total Environment 359 (1): 145–155. Erickson, Andrew J., Peter T. Weiss, and John S. Gulliver. 2013. Optimizing stormwater treatment practices: A handbook of assessment and maintenance. New York: Springer Science Business Media. Eriksson, E., A. Baun, L. Scholes, A. Ledin, S. Ahlman, M. Revitt, C. Noutsopoulos, and P.S. Mikkelsen. 2007. Selected stormwater priority pollutants: A European perspective. Science of the Total Environment 383 (1): 41–51. Goonetilleke, Ashantha, Thomas Evan, Ginn Simon, and Dale Gilbert. 2005. Understanding the role of land use in urban stormwater quality management. Journal of Environmental Management 74: 31–42. Heintzman Lucas, J., Todd A. Anderson, Deborah L. Carr, and Nancy E. Mclntyre. 2015. Local and landscape influences on PAH contamination in urban stormwater. Landscape and Urban Planning, Special Issue: Critical Approaches to Landscape Visualization 142: 29–37. Jiang, Tian-Yu, Jun Jiang, Ren K. Xu, and Zhuo Li. 2012. Adsorption of Pb (II) on variable charge soils amended with rice-straw derived biochar. Chemosphere 89:249–256. Karami, Nadia, Rafael Clemente, Eduardo Moreno-Jiménez, Nicholas W. Lepp, and Luke Beesley. 2011. Efficiency of green waste compost and biochar soil amendments for reducing lead and copper mobility and uptake to ryegrass. Journal of Hazardous Materials 191 (1–3): 41–48.

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Chapter 12

Conclusion Jennie Moore, Sahar Attia, Adel Abdel-Kader, and Aparajithan Narasimhan

Ecocities Now provides a snapshot of issues and initiatives around the world aiming to transform cities into ecocities. A hallmark of ecocities is that they are socially just and ecologically sustainable. Ecocities place strong emphasis on citizen participation in decision-making and generation of ecosystems-based solutions to solve local challenges. Arguments presented in the selected papers provide an orientation to the importance of engaging people, where they live, in ecocity transformations as well as emerging opportunities for affordable and accessible technologies that help cities build capacity for implementation of ecocity initiatives. Climate change is a defining challenge of our time and represents the start of a global ecological transition. Climate action spans multiple scales from the region to the city to the individual. Although the challenges are complex, the solutions can often be simple and straightforward. Examples of various approaches to addressing the climate challenge include applying circular economy solutions. A circular economy approach aims to help cities operate within planetary boundaries. Bending the urban metabolism from a once-through use of energy and commodities to multiple repurposing is key. This can happen at an individual, J. Moore (B) British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, Canada e-mail: [email protected] S. Attia Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt e-mail: [email protected] A. Abdel-Kader Trend Green Knowledge, Toronto, Canada e-mail: [email protected] A. Narasimhan AN Design, Habitat Studio, Chennai, India e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. Moore et al. (eds.), Ecocities Now, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58399-6_12

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plant scale through recovery of materials for re-use in process manufacturing or at a mass scale through integrated efforts, complemented by digital technology, that enables sharing of resources. Ecocities Now also brings to light the importance of informal sector solutions for sustainability. The informal sector is an often overlooked social and technical innovation space where voluntary effort expedites action and enables achievement of sustainability solutions. The chapters of this book reveal many facts about how cities and communities are becoming ecocities. The key points raised in the chapters across the four sections of the book demonstrate that: • Engaging people in participatory processes to solve for local challenges using an ecosystems-based approach can yield multiple benefits. • Informal communities, which are projected to contain one quarter of the urban population in 2050, could become models of sustainability if given the support they need without diminishing their planet-friendly characteristics. • Although informal areas can lack quality of life, and suffer from diverse problems, they have hidden resources that represent unexploited potentials that should be efficiently used to develop self-sustained resilient communities. • Informal areas require tailored solutions to solve infrastructure networks issues, and provide basic services, to achieve social justice and ecological sustainability, and reconnect people to a healthier life. • Cities are critical for climate action as they account for approximately 75% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, actions to address climate change need to start with cities through resilient-strategic planning, re-envisioning and understanding cities as living systems that create economic growth and manage it according to the realities of ecological limits. • Innovative and eco-solutions for city infrastructure, buildings, and transport systems are necessary to transform cities to be major players in mitigating climate change and to be resilient to its impacts. • Technology is improving our ability to recycle and re-use materials, previously treated as wastes, in ways that promote environmental health, ecosystem integrity, and other goals of the Ecocity Standards while also contributing to a circular economy. • Successful strategies addressing climate action and the creation of circular economies can occur at the level of individual households as well as at the regional, national and international levels. • Countries can recover from disasters in low-cost ways that build stronger, sustainable communities while mobilizing public involvement and respecting local cultures. • Developing countries are using strategies that developed countries may want to learn from. • Accessible, affordable technologies are playing a role in expediting the power of cities and citizens to solve their challenges.

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• The fundamental shift to cities becoming ecocities starts with a commitment to creating a safe space for everyone to live and flourish with nature, building resilience through regenerating the very ecosystems upon which all life depends. This book represents the ten best papers selected for publication from the Ecocity World Summit held in Vancouver in October 2019. Much has changed since then with the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Nevertheless, cities remain at the heart of efforts to create safe and habitable places for people to live while simultaneously achieving ecologically sustainable spaces for all life to thrive. Like all crises, the COVID-19 pandemic involves both hazard and opportunity. Proponents of wasteful consumption may argue that compact, resource-efficient cities are inherently less safe than the car-dependent, low-density sprawl that continues to spread across the farmland and natural areas needed to both mitigate and adapt to climate change while continuing to provision cities with clean and healthy water, nutritious food, and clean air we all need. Conversely, efforts to uphold physical distancing are giving many cities the courage to reclaim rights-of-way previously surrendered to private motor vehicles and convert them to public space for human activities like walking, cycling, recreation, and business. To ensure a positive outcome, public officials must be informed about ways to achieve a socially just and ecologically sustainable future. These concepts remain inherently linked and the preceding chapters include examples of accomplishments in both while illustrating the various components of the Ecocity Standards in action. The need for progress in transforming cities into ecocities is more urgent than ever. While the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, the underlying systemic issues of global unsustainability resulting in climate change, food insecurity, natural habitat depletion and biodiversity loss, to name a few, persist. It is important, therefore, to look at cities and communities from a holistic perspective, and to continue to revisit the Ecocity Standards, to evolve and adapt them in response to our ever-changing world. Rebuilding cities in balance with nature includes adapting the built environment for resilience as the multitude of challenges associated with living in the age of the Anthropocene unfold. We invite you, dear reader, to continue to engage in the movement to build socially just and ecologically sustainable cities and to work with and critically assess the Ecocity Standards. We thank you for your efforts to participate in and contribute your insights to future Ecocity World Summits and to advance the research and practice of developing locally relevant pathways to achieving the UN Sustainable Development goals in the various cities in which you live and work. Together we can transform our communities and cities into ecocities.

Index

A Access by proximity, 5, 16 Accessible food, 4 Adaptation, 4, 36, 37, 69, 77, 104, 135, 136 Affordability, 11, 12, 21, 26, 36, 38 Affordable housing, 5, 16, 21, 131 Africa, 2 Agricultural residues, 132, 162, 171 Anthropocene, 177 Appropriate technology, 2, 136 Appropriation, 77 Aquatic ecosystems, 132, 161 Aquatic life, 132, 169 Asia, 2, 12, 14 ASTM C1157, 112, 115 Atmosphere, 4, 61 Auto-dependent, 5

B Bandung, Indonesia, 41, 54 Beijing, 79 Barriers, 62, 88, 91 Bicycle, 5, 37, 62, 79–81, 84, 86 Biochar, 132, 161, 163, 170 Biodiversity, 4, 5, 16, 76, 131, 177 Bio-geophysical conditions, 5 Biomimicry, 2 Bioregion, 2 Bioregionalism, 2 Braungart, Michael, 103 British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), 4, 91, 98–100, 119, 147, 149, 150, 159, 161, 163, 171 Building codes, 135, 139 Build-it-yourself, 131

Burnaby, 161 By-products, 132

C Cairo, 9, 11, 17, 37 Canada, 119 Capacity building, 133, 135, 136, 141, 146 Carbon dioxide (CO2 ), 3, 12, 16, 37, 61, 107, 108, 115, 176 Carbon sequestration, 26, 131, 162 Carrying capacity, 2, 4, 5, 16 Centralized systems, 42 Chile, 63 China, vii, 62, 79, 80, 86, 103, 104, 119, 120 Circular economy, viii, 2, 5, 103, 116, 175 Citizen participation, 175 Clean air, 4, 5, 16, 177 Climate action, viii, 2, 3, 5, 61, 175, 176 Climate change, 11–13, 21, 36, 37, 61, 92, 131, 171, 175–177 Climate disruption, 62, 99 Closed loops, 103 Coastal system, 61, 63, 64, 76 Communal structures, 9, 54 Communities, vii, 2, 4, 9, 41, 42, 44, 47, 86, 119, 126, 131–133, 135, 136, 138, 140, 142, 146, 159, 175, 177 Community capacity, 4, 16, 133, 135, 137, 146 Community economic development, 2 Commuting, 86 Compactness, 20, 23, 36 Completeness, 20, 24 Complex systems, 42 Composting, 62, 91, 93, 97

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180 Concepción, 61, 63, 77 Connectedness, 25 Constituents of concern, 168 Construction, 48, 107, 131, 135, 138, 141, 146 Consumption, 5, 13, 37, 48, 91, 94, 103, 122, 123, 128, 177 Country-urban linkages, 2 COVID-19, 3 Cradle to Cradle, 103 Cultural heritage, 131 Cutting-edge technology, 131 Cycling, 3, 79, 81, 86, 177 D Decentralized systems, 41 Decomposition, 103 Density, 3, 13, 14, 26, 36, 42, 47, 84, 86, 150, 177 Developed countries, 5, 37, 131, 176 Developing countries, 2, 6, 9, 12, 37, 62, 176 Development, vii, viii, 2–4, 12, 14, 17, 18, 21, 36, 38, 76, 79, 84, 86, 104, 119, 127, 136, 150, 161, 162 Dissipative structures, 1 Dockside Green, 120 Downton, Paul, 1 Droughts, 61, 67 E Earth, 1, 2, 16 Eco Cell, 123 Ecocity, 1, 2, 119, 120, 126, 175 Ecocity Berkeley, vii, 2 Ecocity Builders, vii, 4 Ecocity model, 119 Ecocity movement, 1 EcoCity Network, 3 Ecocity Standards, 4, 5, 9, 16, 104, 131, 176, 177 Ecocity World Summit, vii, 1, 2, 5, 177 Eco District, 123 Eco-efficiency, 104 Ecological, vii, 1, 3, 9, 16, 37, 67, 71, 72, 76, 77, 123, 150, 157, 175, 176 Ecological footprint, 12 Ecological imperatives, 4, 16 Ecological injustice, 2, 9 Ecological integrity, 4, 131, 170 Ecological limits, 104, 176 Ecologically sustainable, viii, 2, 5, 175, 177 Ecological processes, 103

Index Economic growth, 104, 176 Economic system, 103 Ecosystem-based, 2 Ecosystems, 1, 4, 69, 93, 120, 131, 161, 175 Ecosystem services, 9, 149, 150, 159 Ecosystem stability, 5 Education, 52, 86 Egypt, 17 Electrified transportation, 62, 91 Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 103 Emissions, 61, 107, 108, 115, 122, 123, 176 Energy, 1–3, 5, 9, 11, 12, 82, 93, 94, 98, 99, 103, 115, 123 Energy consumption, 14, 37, 93–96, 103 Energy efficiency, 13, 15, 20, 22, 26, 27, 36, 93, 125 Environmental justice, 9 Environmentally friendly transport, 5, 16, 36 Environmental performance, 16, 36 Equitable city, 12 Equitable economy, 4, 5, 10, 16, 104 Equitable communities, 10 Extraction processes, 103 Extreme weather, 61 F Fair share, 5 Finite planet, 104 Finite stocks, 104 Flexibility, 5, 69, 77, 83, 126, 129 Floods, 61 Floodwater management systems, 132 Forests, 3, 131, 158, 159 Fossil fuels, 3, 61, 62, 91, 95, 100, 103, 126 G Gaia, 4 Garden Cities, 2 GDP, 14 Geopolymer chemistry, 104, 107, 109 GINI coefficient, 14 Global ecosystems, 1, 4 Global warming, 61 Goods and services, 103 Governance, vii, 4, 14, 55 Gravel, 103, 108, 163, 164 Green and blue infrastructure, 61, 63, 68, 71, 72, 74, 77 Green buildings, 3, 5, 16, 61 Green, Dockside, 104, 119, 120, 124 Greenhouse effect, 61 Greenhouse gas emissions, 1

Index Greenhouse gases, 61, 131 Green infrastructure, 132, 162, 171 Greening our Cities, 3 Green performance, 9, 11, 12 Green rating systems, 9, 12 Green space, 13, 20, 36, 46, 52, 55, 61, 70, 76

H Hawken, Paul, 103 Health, 3, 4, 9, 14, 16, 41, 42, 55, 61, 79, 131, 133, 134, 176 Healthy communities, 2 Healthy culture, 4 Healthy soil, 4, 16 Heavy metals, 161–163, 165, 167, 170 Holistic integrity, 4 Homeostasis, 4 Homeowners, 131, 137, 138, 140, 142, 146 Household, 92 Howard, Ebenezer, 2 Human behavior, 89 Human ecology, 2 Human scale, 2 Hybrid model, 104, 119, 120, 126, 127, 129 Hydrological cycle, 4

I Income, 86 Inclusiveness, 131 Indicators, 22, 119 Indigenous world views, 2 Indonesia, 9 Industrial ecology, 103 Infiltration, 132, 161, 163, 170 Informal area, 9, 11, 12, 17, 21, 26, 35, 54, 176 Informal building sector, 42 Informal communities, 176 Informal settlements, 3, 9, 13, 42, 53, 54 Informal solutions, 2, 3, 5, 91, 131 Infrastructure, 16, 17, 36, 41–43, 48, 55, 61, 63, 64, 68, 71, 74, 77, 79, 84, 93, 95, 99, 123, 125, 132, 171, 176 Inspections, 131, 141 Intelligent design, 2, 67–70 Intentional living, 2 i-Tree, 149, 151, 157–159

K Kampung Tamansari, 9, 41, 53, 54

181 Kyoto Protocol, 61 L Land use, 5, 9, 13, 15, 70, 74, 81, 120, 124, 161 Latin America, 14 LiDAR, 149, 151–153, 156, 158, 159 Lifelong education, 4 Lifestyles, 93, 98, 135 Livable density, 3 Lovins, Amory, 103 Lovins, Hunter, 103 Low-CO2 cement, 107 Low impact designs, 67, 70, 77, 99, 103, 104, 110, 113, 120, 123, 125, 126, 132, 161, 162, 164 M Manure, 132, 162, 171 Maple Ridge, 150 Masons, 131, 133, 136–138, 140–143, 146 Mass transport, 13, 62 Material resources, 1, 132, 175 McDonough, William, 103 Megacities, 62, 79 Methane, 61 Mitigation, 36, 37, 69, 131, 135, 136, 159 Modal share, 86 Modal shift, 79 Motorization, 79, 80 Multimodal corridors, 87 Mumford, Lewis, 2 N Naphthalene, 161, 162 Natural capitalism, 103 Natural disasters, 61, 64–67, 69, 71, 76 Natural system, 16, 61, 63, 71, 76, 77 Nature, 3, 5, 62, 63, 66, 70, 71, 74, 77, 123, 128, 162, 177 Neighborhoods, 45 Neo-classical, 104 Nepal, 131, 133, 134 Nitrous oxide, 61 Non-motorized transport, 61, 62, 79, 80, 89 North America, 2, 3, 79 O One Earth living, 2 One planet living, 2 Organic waste, 132

182 P Paradigm, viii, 65, 104 Paris Agreement, 61 Parking lot stormwater, 166, 168 Participatory decision-making, 4 Patrick Geddes, 2 Pedestrian zone, 88 Performance economy, 103 Permaculture, 2 Personal net zero, 62, 91, 99 Planetary boundaries, 5, 6, 175 Planning, 17, 79, 88, 119 Policy, 13, 27, 36, 61, 62, 79, 80 Pollutants, 132, 161, 162, 165, 170 Pollution, 26, 44, 53, 131, 171 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, 162 Portland cement, 104, 107, 108, 116 Prosperity, 9, 11, 12, 14, 26 Public space, 41 Public transport, 80, 85 Public transportation, 5 Q Quality of life, 4, 9, 11, 12, 14, 21, 26, 36, 176 R Rain gardens, 132, 161, 162 Rainwater management, 162, 171 Raw materials, 103 Rebuild, 119 Reconstruction, 65, 131, 133, 139, 141, 144 Recycling, 5, 13, 26, 62, 91, 93, 96, 99, 100, 103, 104, 108, 109, 115, 128, 131 Recycling concrete, 108 Regenerating, 177 Register, Richard, vii, 1 Religious institutions, 51 Renewable energy, 3, 4, 16, 61, 93, 103, 104, 123, 125 Renewable flows, 104 Renewable resources, 103 Re-processing materials, 104 Resilience, 2, 11, 21, 38, 67, 69, 71, 119, 177 Resiliency, 135 Resources, 1, 2, 9, 47, 70, 103, 120, 126, 131–133, 135, 141, 150, 159, 175 Resource utilization, 103 Responsible resources, 4 Restoring, 3, 5, 131, 132 Reuse, 5, 14, 47, 52, 103, 104, 107, 116, 125, 126, 128, 176

Index Rising sea levels, 61 River sand, 103, 164 Rocks, 103 Runoff, 131, 132, 161–163, 170

S Safe water, 4, 16, 49 Scarce resources, 131 Seismic activity, 131 Safe housing, 137 Shanghai, 79 Shenzhen, 79, 80 Social cohesion, 45 Social ecology, 2 Social inclusion, 16 Social innovation, 2 Social justice, 2, 9, 176 Socially-led, 2 Social needs, 10 Society, 119, 135 Socio-cultural, 55, 131, 133 Socio-cultural features, 4, 16 Solar energy, 4, 37, 62, 91, 96 Solid waste, 9, 99 South America, 2, 64 Stability, 2, 5, 41, 55, 61, 63, 66, 69, 77 Stahel, Walter, 103 Stanley Park, 3 Stone, 103, 134, 136, 137 Storms, 12, 61 Storm water, 132, 161, 167, 170 Stream restoration, 162 Structural best management practices, 162, 170 Sustainability, 3, 9, 10, 13, 14, 37, 80, 92, 108, 119, 123, 131, 176 Sustainable cities, 2, 6, 9 Sustainable communities, 9, 176 Sustainable development, 2, 4, 5, 17, 131, 133, 177 Sustainable development goals, 17 Sustainable future, 1, 177 Sustainable living, 119 Sustainable urbanism, 9, 11, 13, 20, 22, 23, 26, 27, 37 Sustainable urban metabolism, 119 Swales, 132, 161 Systems thinking, 103

T Technical innovation, 176

Index Technology, viii, 5, 103, 131, 135, 146, 175, 176 Threshold, 12, 20, 126 Tianjin, 79, 86, 88, 119, 120 Toxic chemical, 9 Top soil, 103 Training, 138 Trip distance, 81 Transit, 3, 13, 37, 93 Transportation, 9, 12, 20, 26, 36, 61, 62, 104 Tropical diseases, 61 U United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 61 UN Resolution A/Res/64/292, 42 Urban communities, 9, 159 Urban design, vii, viii, 2, 5, 13, 16, 26, 36, 41, 52, 54, 55, 67, 69, 70, 76, 77, 81, 120, 123, 124, 126, 128, 129 Urban ecology, vii, 2 Urban environment, 65, 82, 86, 89, 162 Urban forest, 150 Urban greenbelt, 157 Urbanization, 2, 9, 11, 12, 17, 67, 73, 161 Urban metabolic rates, 104 Urban metabolism, 119, 129, 175

183 Urban system, 2, 65, 69

V Vancouver, vii, 2, 95, 98, 108, 111, 126, 177 Victoria, 120 Voluntary effort, 176

W Walking, 3, 23, 62, 79–81, 84, 88, 177 Walking distance, 23, 79, 86, 88, 89 Waste, 3, 5, 14–16, 26, 36, 45, 91, 92, 98, 103, 104, 107, 108, 114, 119, 122, 123, 132, 176 Watershed, 2, 162 Water quality, 10, 43, 132, 161, 163, 168 Web of life, 4 Well-being, 5, 14, 126 Wetlands, 41, 47, 51, 55, 57, 67, 71, 72, 76, 131 Whole systems, 2 Wood by-products, 162

Z Zero waste, 62, 91–93, 96