6' Urban environment trends and the sustainable city

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6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable
city
INCLUSIVE CITY Key issue Do residents have the
opportunities and capacities to share equitably
in the social benefits of city life?
PRODUCTIVE CITY Key issue Can the local economy
provide a majority of residents with means to
earn a reasonable living?
CITY POPULATION Key issue What will be the
future size, form and character of urban
populations, given the commitment that residents
have to lives in the city?
WELL-GOVERNED CITY Key issue Is the political
institutional context stable, open and dynamic
enough to accommodate all interests
SUSTAINABLE CITY Key issue How is the city
impacting on the envelope of natural resources
that sustains the settlement and makes it
livable?
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6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable
city

• Population changes, economic growth and social
  development all shape the built environment of
  the city
• In turn, size and shape of cities affects social
  development, economic prospects and population
  stability, because built environments impact on
  the envelope of natural resources that makes
  cities liveable. Cities may become so large,
  dense, polluted and spatially dysfunctional that
  they become unsustainable (diseconomies of scale
  exceed benefits of locating in cities)

• Key issues examined in report
• Inefficiencies of apartheid spatial planning Air
  and water quality, waste management,

• and long term land and water availability
• Environmental health and safety
• Urban mobility

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6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable
city

• Urban apartheid design resulted in many built
  environment inefficiencies
• This means that the apartheid city had a high
  impact on the envelope of natural resources

• On assumption of small populations, many SA
  cities under-designed slums are the inevitable
  result
• Designed to marginalise, so large numbers pushed
  far out into dormitory townships, and designed to
  impede movement as measure of poliitcal control
  high transport costs
• Areas deliberately underserviced

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6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable
city

• Post-apartheid developments have often
  excacerbated the apartheid city form

• New housing developments on the edges of cities
  because of subsidy structure and developer
  preferences

• Dedensification especially movement out of
  backyards. In 2001 there were still 544 667
  backyard hsh in 9 cities
• Office decentralisation, in part to escape
  perceived crime and grime from inner cities being
  occupied by new migrants and those moving out of
  backyards

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6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable
city

• Consequently, cities have a high and growing
  impact on natural resource envelope
• Valuable agriculatural land and water sources
  being strained by the spreading out of cities

• NSDP notes that at least four SACN will face
  major water deficits in the next 20 years
• Part of the problem is utilisation of
  transportation subsidies. If properly realocated
  R2 billion annually could be made available for
  better located land making for more compact
  cities

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6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable
city

• Some major challenges in adequately treating all
  wastewater and managing domestic and business
  waste

• In one city, illegal dumping per annum reached
  266 139 tons, almost three quarters of
  residential waste of 393 226 tons
• 22 of households in the nine cities had
  inadequate sanitation (VIP or less)

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6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable
city

• Air pollution, and the health effects thereof,
  are growing

• On average only 15 of the areas of the SACN are
  monitored for air pollution
• Measured tonnage of CO2 other gass emissions
  range from 1 061 085 tons in one Gauteng city to
  1 360 341 in another
• One city reported that DEAT guidelines for
  air-quality were exceeded 45 days during the year
  (an air-pollution event)

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6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable
city

• Increasing population densities and greater
  traffic volumes on sometimes poorly maintained
  roads means time costs of moving around cities
  are inreasing
• Exacerbated by poor availability and use of
  public transport

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6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable
city

• Many cities have begun to think and act
  proactively on the urban environment. They have
  new environmental protection by-laws,
  environmental protection strategies, transport
  plans, open space management systems
• Some have alreade taken next steps to do
  environmental footprint analyses. This
  determines area equivalent to inputs needed to
  sustain the city