Contemporary Urban Environments Case Studies Flashcards
Curitiba (Key points and How it worked)
Key Points:
- Rapid development in 1970s began environmental issues
- Tackled: open space, transportation, water, education and housing to become more sustainable
How it worked:
- Jamie Lerner (city major) began his vision for the city, it was much smaller making changes on a city wide scale easier
- People of the city enjoy/make use of the strategies so widely support them
Curitiba (Sustainable Development)
- BRT bus system uses bi-articulate buses, capable of transporting up to 4000 people per day
- BRT has only one fare for any journey making it affordable for all and meaning people use it for more journeys (buses stop every 60 seconds at each stop)
- Green exchange – people in slum areas to recycle waste in exchange for fresh fruit and veg
- Waste sorted and recycled – reduced landfill
Cheonggyecheon River
- 1960 the river was covered by a road as Seoul went through economic growth
- 2002 due to poor air quality the government returned the river to open stream
- £200m was spent removing the 10 lane expressway covering Cheonggyecheon
- Road traffic has reduced by 2.3%
- Subway use has risen by 4.3%
- Reducing urban heat island by 0.3 degrees Celcius
- Still very concrete not necessarily benefitting wildlife
Mumbai (Key Points)
- Western India
- financial capital of India
- Population has doubled since 1991 to over 20million
- 40% of people live in slums
- Very unequal, slums to businessmen
- Dharavi slum produces 1bn usd a year
- Disease due to water and air pollution
- 2000mg per m^3 of particulate matter (safe amount is 150)
- On coast very susceptible to sea level rise
- Average monthly income is 3x rural villages
London (Key points)
- 8.8 million population (2.5x smaller than Mumbai)
- Smaller gap between wealthy and poor than Mumbai
- Home to 100 of top 500 Europe businesses
- 2015 report – for every £1 wealth owned by the poorest 10% of households, top 10% owned £172
London (PWMC)
- Historically of classical architecture and culture London has become increasingly postmodern
- New buildings especially sky scrapers in the city being built with a postmodern style (the shard, gherkin) show London’s recent move towards postmodernism
- Variety of cultures, arts and ethnicities – varied and postmodern feel more than its historical classical heart
- London can still not be said to be totally postmodern but certainly contains an increasing amount of postmodern architecture which looks to set to continue into the future
Mumbai vs London (Challenge of Water Pollution)
London:
- lots of car parks and driveways means rainwater and pollutants runoff easily.
- Aging sewage infrastructure causes leaks into rivers.
Mumbai:
- disease is rife due to untreated sewage and chemicals.
- People and animal waste in river.
- Scrap dealers dump sludge oil and fatbergs into river.
- All this in Mithi River.
Mumbai vs London (Solutions of Water Pollution)
London:
- highly regulated water disposal
- improving Victorian sewage system
- widespread use of SUDS in new developments
Mumbai:
- awareness of impacts of water pollution
- unemployed people hired to keep river clean
- public toilets
- proper rubbish collection system.
Mumbai vs London (Challenges of Air Pollution)
London:
- 900 people die every year to toxic air (50% from air pollution and 40% from diesel)
- deprived areas 2x more likely to die from lung disease than rich areas
Mumbai:
- cancer causing particulate matter increased alarmingly
-carbon monoxide levels very high from traffic exhausts.
Mumbai vs London (Solutions to Air Pollution)
London:
- Ultra Low Emission Zone brought in in April 2019 (higher charge on older/diesel vehicles)
- T-charge £10
- £300 million being spent to transform buses and create 12 Low Emission Bus Zones
Mumbai:
- launched national air quality index
- chimneys above certain height and have filters
- vegetation planted on flat roofs reduce UHI
Mumbai vs London (Challenges of Dereliction)
London:
- drop in industrial jobs left old factories derelict
- 250ha of brownfield sites not in line for development leading to higher crime rates and pollution
Mumbai:
- little opportunity to rebuild areas as derelict areas taken immediately by slums
- Infrastructure is poorly built due to quick construction to meet demand
- Lack of government funding for investment.
Mumbai vs London (Solutions to Dereliction)
London:
- cheaper to build on brownfield sites
- 24% in rise of proportion of new developments occurring on brownfield sites (e.g. Olympic Park 2012 and Westfield Shopping Centre 2011)
Mumbai:
- investing into better infrastructure
- training unemployed people how to build better houses
- more legislation to control building in slum areas.
