Main electricity source in 2060?

vrijdag 4 maart 2011

Saving the environment by planning

Not many people will think of urban planning / infrastructure planning when they think of 'going green'. However, the places where people live, work and do their things, decide for a large part how much energy someone produces. This is mainly through transportation but also through living in a energy-efficient building.

I will give Hong Kong as an example.
This and other Asian cities like Tokyo and Singapore are a good example of efficient planning. A society where no one needs to use a car, or at least car use is limited to a small proportion of transportation, needs extremely dense cities. In HK, people travel by metro or by foot, saving millions of tons of CO2. Also living in flats instead of freestanding houses is very efficient regarding heating and transport.

Especially the US but also Europe can learn from this. Not that we suddenly all need to live in a small apartment in a crowded city, standing in the metro like sardines in a can, but urban planning should focus on building more dense, especially near hubs of transport like train stations. This is called Transport Oriented Development in planning science. So less 'urban sprawl' (suburban areas with widespread free standing houses, open areas) and more dense and mixed used development.
This cycle must be broken and it can only be broken by intervention of the government:

18 opmerkingen:

  1. I cant agree with you more. In Copenhagen for instance, the city wasnt palnned all too brightly, which today results in roads everywhere, allthough the city IS trying to limit the Co2 outlet

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  2. Yeah, i used to live in Singapore, even though a lot of people would find it ugly i just loved what had been done there in terms of urbanism

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  3. Good post mate. I live in Dublin and I seriously doubt there is another city on this planet as badly planned. Dublin city center at rush hour is a nightmare

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  4. i totaly agree, great to read.. thx m8 =)

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  5. I'm free of it. Don't have car if you ask what i think about pic :) Good post.

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  6. you made a point there

    also +1 follower

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  7. This is a really good idea, thanks for the info!

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  8. Definitely a good read, there need to be more blogs as such. I will follow.

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  9. I like the approach to your blog, good design, good message, and definitely a popular topic in today's age.

    http://much2doabout0.blogspot.com/

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  10. Good article on a good blog.

    Keep it up :D

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  11. Well, I'd prefer to live in an apartment. However, I'm not that comfortable in dense spaces with a lots of people around me... How am I going to solve this?

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  12. Wow i love the picture i hope i got to Hong Kong for a vacation one day

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  13. i wasnt really good informed about renewable energies, so i follow.. nice post btw

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  14. Yeah, I really agree with what you're saying

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