November 2017 – Environmental Stewardship and Urban Infrastructure

November 22, 2017

The Seven Rules to Sustainability

Last year, I took ENDS 221, a course describes as an “Introduction to interactions between human and natural urban systems using local and international examples of successful sustainable community designs” focused on Vancouver. Essentially, this class was a whole 4 months focused on the material covered in Week 11 – Healthy Urban Infrastructure Design. The course followed along with his Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities. The rules and some of their basic attributes are as follows.

Figure 1. A comparison of the Vancouver Skyline (Condon, P. M., 2010. pg 13)

Rule 1: Restore the Streetcar City

The streetcar routes created the form of the city, with most of the original 1900s roads still in place. Main travel corridors with important services and housing nearby such as 4^th Ave and Granville St were originally streetcar arterials. Condon refers to the streetcar city as “ a meta rule for sustainable, low carbon community development” as it captures the at least 4 design rules discussed later on.

Rule 2: Design an Interconnected Street System

Streets following a grid systems make a city more sustainable than a “dendritic” or “tree like” layout (ie, cul-de-sacs, gated communities). Trips are shorter and more distributed with a grid system, as multiple routes are possible, reducing the amount of CO₂ emissions from large queues along main branches of a dendritic road. Theses trips are shorter for cars, but also create more enjoyable and more direct trips for pedestrians to access transit and services.

Rule 3: Locate Commercial Services, Frequent Transit and Schools within a 5 minute Walk

The closer the chores or tasks required for daily life are, the more likely resident will be to walk. Being able to walk to a neighbourhood corridor to grocery shop and the flower store creates a sense of place, or belonging in a community. Additionally, ensuring a short walk for children to get to school promotes green modes of transportation and likely means not crossing a major arterial.

Rule 4: Locate Good Jobs close to Affordable Homes

This rule aims to reduce the amount of Green House gas emitted due to commuting by encouraging walking and biking. It is also key to remember that most city jobs don’t have the same effect as industrials jobs, don’t need a lot of space and can fit into a city block, if you build up.

Rule 5: Provide a Diversity of Housing Types

Providing single-family homes, housing co-ops, apartments and laneway houses creates an economically diverse, GHG friendly community. A variety of housing types within a neighbourhood also keeps things interesting and increases density.

Rule 6: Create a Linked System of Natural Areas and Parks

This rule directly corresponds to the Healthy Natural Environments. Utilizing connected green spaces within an urban environment improves air quality and biodiversity and positively benefits the resident’s well being as well.

Rule 7: Invest in Lighter, Green, Cheaper, And Smarter Infrastructure

The final rule focuses on methods and features of a community that influence the environment. The implementation of green roofs, bioswales, and pervious surfaces all infiltrate storm water, while encouraging biodiversity, pleasant human experiences and reducing the heat island effect.

References:

Condon, P.M. (2010). Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies for the Post-Carbon World. Washington: Island Press.

November 13, 2017

“I spy with my little eye… a District Energy System”

To many, these stacks are just part of a public art installation situated east of the Cambie Street bridge but if you look a little closer, you will see they are part of the Southeast False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility. The five stacks, which resemble a hand reaching up, are actually exhaust flues for the False Creek Energy Centre and the LED lights making up the ‘fingernails’ change colour according to the amount of district energy being produced by the system.
So why pair a public art display with a Neighbourhood Energy Utility? To help bring attention to a first-of-its-kind Neighbourhood Energy system in North America that captures waste heat from raw sewage to provide centralized space heating and hot water to the surrounding buildings in the Olympic Village neighbourhood. At the time of its construction, only three similar systems had been implemented in the world, two in Oslo, Norway and one in Tokyo, Japan. By recycling waste thermal energy, the system is reducing 60% of the pollution associated with heating and hot water use that would otherwise be produced by the neighbourhood’s buildings. Attention to the energy centre is also sought from passer-by’s by the large windows incorporated into the building allowing people to see the system in action.

The importance of Neighbourhood Energy systems is evident when you take a look at the numbers for energy consumption in Vancouver. Buildings, including residential, commercial, institutional and industrial, account for three quarters of the energy consumed by the city, which contributes to significant negative effects on the city’s carbon footprint. This also means that taking steps to reduce the non-renewable energy reliance of space heating and hot water, the two largest contributors to energy consumption in buildings, can have real and significant positive effects on the impact of buildings on the environment. The Southeast False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility falls in line with the third priority laid out in Vancouver’s Renewable Energy Strategy 2015-2050: expand existing and develop new neighbourhood renewable energy systems. Following suit, development of Neighbourhood Energy systems in South Downtown, Northeast False Creek, and in River District have been pursued. The City has also identified several other districts suitable for Neighbourhood Energy, all of which are large, high density areas or corridors with high development potential. These districts include downtown, central Broadway and the Cambie corridor.

The benefits of Neighbourhood Energy are clear but new technology still requires extensive educating and consultation for it to be widely supported by neighbourhood stakeholders. However, with increased public awareness of where our energy comes from, such as promoting learning through the use of public art, the hope is that more and more people will begin to realize that renewable energy sources exist right in our own backyard, or in this case, right in our own sewer system!

References

Project Website

Renewable City Strategy 2015-2050

Neighbourhood Energy in Vancouver – Strategic Approach and Guidelines

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November 12, 2017

The Dutch View Rising Sea Level as Opportunity, Rather Than Threat

In the Netherlands, a country that largely lies below sea level, an innovative approach to urban storm water management is not just an achievement, but a necessity. The Dutch have a unique view of their situation and choose to “live with the water, rather than struggle to defeat it.” In fact, the special relationship with water develops at a young age for those who grow up in the country, as children are thrown into the pool fully clothed to earn a swimming certificate. The fact that flooding is a major threat to the country is approached head on with a combination of Dutch ingenuity and determination.

Low Impact Design

The Dutch hold the view that traditional flood barriers and storm water management practices are not adequate to address the rising tides brought on by climate change. Their solution is to let the water in, where possible, rather than continuing to build up and against it.

“The Dutch devise lakes, garages, parks and plazas that are a boon to daily life but also double as enormous reservoirs for when the seas and rivers spill over.”

Water Plaza Rotterdam: A community space where people and water coexist

LID mimics the natural water system for collection and drainage of storm water

A keen example of this low impact design for storm water is the Water Plaza in Rotterdam, a public space that has been designed as a community hub but also features sunken infrastructure and green, pervious areas to sustainably collect rain and storm water and provide drainage.

Making Room for the River

The Dutch are using concepts of integrative water management and low impact design to redesign cities and “make room for the river.” Instead of building flood defences higher, the Dutch are actually taking on the task of removing these barriers to provide room for swelling rivers. The benefit of this is two-fold: sustainable flood management combined with generation of urban living space.

The redesigned River Waal provides room for river swells and an island with riverside park

The room for the river concept re-generates the connection between local communities and the natural water ecosystem by developing urban river parks and recreation along the rivers. Banks of the River Waal have been constructed as large gradual slopes, both increasing the floodplain and providing space for water infiltration and communities to gather along the river.

Bringing the Dutch Model to Canada

The province of Alberta, like many other regions worldwide, are excited about what the Dutch are doing to prepare for flooding. In response to the terrible floods in 2014 in Calgary, Alberta, the province has closely collaborated with Dutch water authorities to implement Room for the River integrative water management practices right here at home in Canada!

References:

“How the Dutch Make ‘Room for the River’ by Redesigning Cities.” Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-dutch-make-room-for-the-river/

“The Dutch Have Solutions to Rising Seas. The World is Watching.” The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/15/world/europe/climate-change-rotterdam.html?_r=0

Ruimte voor de rivier website: https://www.ruimtevoorderivier.nl/english/

Alberta’s Room for the River Approach: https://albertawater.com/how-is-water-governed/what-is-room-for-the-river

Water Plaza Rotterdam: http://www.publicspace.org/en/works/h034-water-square

The Generation, Composition, and Management of Urban Solid Waste in Beijing

Beijing is the capital of China, and the largest city in northern China. In recent decades, Beijing has progressed rapidly in economic development and urbanization. However, municipal solid waste has become one of the significant environmental problems in the city. This article aims to provide an overview on Beijing’s urban solid waste management with regard to its generation, composition and management.

Generation and trend of municipal solid waste

According to the data published by Beijing Statistics Bureau, it is demonstrated that the amount of disposed solid waste in Beijing increased steadily over the past two decades, from 2,800 thousand tonnes in 1995 to 7,903 thousand tonnes in 2015. A multi-regression analysis shows that GDP is identified to be the strongest explanatory factor for the growth of the total solid waste amount in Beijing, indicating that the environment has been paying the price for the economic growth.

Composition of urban solid waste

From table 1, it is shown that solid waste composition has been found to be relatively stable. Food waste always comprises the highest proportion except in 1990, and its representation has an increasing trend. Plastic, paper and ash also occur in relatively high proportions.

Table 1 Composition (%) of urban solid waste from 1990 to 2003 in Beijing

Municipal solid waste management

There were 22 treatment establishments for solid wastes in Beijing in 2004, and the number has increased to 28 in 2016. Sanitary landfill is the main treatment approach of municipal solid waste, while composting and incineration only make up small proportions. Recent research results indicate that the treatment capacity of the treatment plants proves to be insufficient as the capacity can not satisfy the need of treatment. In addition, the traditional landfill practice produces a large amount of greenhouse gases, and some of the pungent gases are poisonous. In order to mitigate the health risk for the population near the landfill, a proper collection and venting system need to be created.

Discussion

The solid waste management in Beijing has been greatly improved during the past decade. However, problems remain in respect of domestic garbage reduction, resource utilization and industrialization. Future challenges for the local government include the implementation of an effective waste minimization program, systematic urban solid waste management;; and improvement in data availability in monitoring the characteristics of municipal solid waste.