16. Future of sustainable cities

1. For the first time in history the global population is more urban than rural.

2. But the term urban can mean different things to different people.

3. Municipalities of all sizes are and always have been dynamic centers of activity.

4. Cities offer jobs and prosperity, important social interaction and rich opportunities

for cultural expression, learning and education.

5. Change is seldom more apparent than in this ever evolving urban context but in an age

of pervasive global warming population growth and increasing resource constraints must

innovate more pro-actively than ever before.

6. Not only must energy production shift to low-carbon alternatives, we must also mitigate

systemic inefficiencies in the current urban infrastructure.

7. Urban designing communication technology can help us achieve these efficiency gains

and reduce our environmental footprint.

8. Cities are the largest contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

9. By measuring and tracking our energy consumption we can inform and influence consumer behaviour.

10. Next generation information technology can help us better manage vital water resources

by identifying losses and improving the quality of supply.

11. Embedded networks of tags and sensors can ensure that waste flow are optimized

and that material cycles are closed where possible.

12. Real-time data analysis can harness the effectiveness of our public transport systems,

improve traffic flows and reduce pollution.

13. Smart buildings save energy by self regulating indoor temperature and light.

14. They can increase productivity making better use of space by being responsive to the needs of each occupant.

15. A connected information-rich urban environment and businesses and it can benefit the city's

primary stakeholder, the citizen.

16. Equipped with accurate data-related intermobility/informability into our energy and material

consumption we can lighten our environmental impact as individuals in the home, in the workplace

and in our public spaces.

17. Information and communication technology can peel back the layers of the city we seldom see:

the bones, guts and nerve endings of a complex organism.

The docks and conduits under our feet, the pipes and cables behind our walls and the industrial

facility and plants beyond the city limits.

18. A network of sensors and receptors can ultimately permeate every layer of an increasingly

connected built-in environment making the invisible - visible.

19. Such heightened connectivity would enable new modes of communication and collaboration

revolutionizing the way we interact with each other and with the urban environment around us.

20. Advanced information and communication technology would also help us monitor our progress

as we move into a post-carbon era.

21. All three sectors have a key role to play helping deliver this transition: government,

business community and civil society.

22. And working together we can create a more connected and sustainable urban future.

17. Rapid Transit Systems Part 1. As populations increase and development occurs it is becoming more and more challenging for governments to ensure the movement of people and goods. The needs and considerations of global citizens are changing and governments are seeking to implement more sustainable transportation solutions and address problems of congestion, air pollution and oil dependence. In cities around the world urbanization and population transfer more gridlock* than ever. In cities where car culture has taken root are finding it more costly to accommodate more vehicles hitting the road every day. Traffic crawls and opportunity is lost. “The highways in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area is very congested, and the city center. It’s very hard to find a parking place in the Tel-Aviv center, so people look for alternatives”. The current bus system is an option but people generally prefer to sit in traffic in their own cars as opposed to the bus. Some planners are advocating a solution to this problem. “First is to give priority to the buses. Which means to take lanes that now belong to everybody and to bring it only to the buses”. “Traffic jams influence everybody including the buses. So most priorities gonna be given to public transport. You never know when you’re getting on the bus, you never know when you’re getting off the bus, so you cannot really plan your trip knowing that you won’t be late to wherever you’re going.. If you dedicate lanes to public transport you give them priority at certain junctions. You can actually control the time it takes from point A to B.” Dedicated lanes for public transportation takes sitting in traffic out of the equation. Passengers board and disembark the buses at stations separated from the roadway. In the meantime people are still primarily using their cars in Tel-Aviv and many other cities around the world. One of the major consequences of congestion are the resulting health impacts of tail-pipe emissions. “At least a thousand cases of death annually in the Tel-Aviv region alone that are due to air pollution”. Another serious problem that results from cars on the road is climate change impacts of CO2 emissions from the production, transportation and consumption of oil. “ Transportation sector is just increasing tremendously and is certainly to stop” Part 2. One solution from the emissions problem from transportation is being advanced in Masdar city, Abu Dabi. Masdar is a carbon-neutral car-free city where vehicles are prohibited from entering and circulating. To take their place planners are designing an innovative Personal Rapid Transit system. The idea is that you have automated cars so the public transportation with the character of the personal car that will take people from A to B with minimal walking distances from their houses or their offices to the station. As the city expands the PRT system and the technology associated with it really evolve and become even that much more reliable and sustainable and possibly expand, well, to other parts, other range as Masdar city. Masdar city is currently under construction and it’s laid for completion by 2020 In its first phase the PRT system will consist of 13 podcars (**). When finished there will be an estimated 3,000 automated pods to accommodate nearly 90,000 commuters. “(........) In future the intention will be that… it would be able to change you destination if you so desired on route”. Masdar’s being built with efficiency and sustainability in mind. To achieve the city’s carbon-neutral goal the PRT system is being powered by electricity from renewable solar technologies. Those lithium-ion batteries at the back of the vehicle…The battery allows us about 60 kilometers of range (?) including air-conditioning use which is equal to approximately 5 hours of driving and recharging is about 9 hours to 2 hours While the PRT system is ideal for use within cities and towns governments and companies are seeking other electric-powered alternatives to the conventional gasoline-fuelled vehicle. Transport and the need for fuels for transportation will grow. It’s a very mobile world. We know that fuels ,carbon fuels, are finite. This is not an issue to think about. In terms of ten years or twenty years (you think 30-40-50-60 years ahead). And at one point it makes full sense to electrify. Whether it will be faster or slower - that you can debate. But it makes full sense to use renewable sources. To capture solar, wind – whatever energy is around there and put them in a smart grip and make sure that … and fuel cars and make sure that people do not pollute. The introduction of electric vehicles is already being championed by many governments and companies around the world. Through the development of the battery-charging technologies and infrastructures needed to support the mass roll-out of EVs (***) You put it in the car and you receive an SMS to your mobile : “The car charging finished”. EVs rely on infrastructure that’s in virtually every home and every business in the developed world and even many, many homes and businesses in the developing world. So you can plug in a car with a minor modification all around the world. Alarming transportation-related problems such as congestion, air pollution and oil dependence are driving development of innovative technologies supported and implemented by governments and companies around the world. The way people move is undergoing a transition from a 20th century over-reliance on the gasoline-powered vehicles to a range of 21st century sustainable transportation solutions. __________ *The term gridlock is defined as "A state of severe road congestion arising when continuous queues of vehicles block an entire network of intersecting streets, bringing traffic in all directions to a complete standstill; a traffic jam of this kind." The term originates from a situation possible in a grid plan where intersections are blocked, preventing vehicles from either moving forwards through the intersection or backing up to an upstream intersection. The term gridlock is also widely used to describe high traffic congestion with minimal flow (a “traffic jam"), whether or not a blocked grid system is involved. By extension, the term has been applied to situations in other fields where flow is stalled by excess demand, or in which competing interests prevent progress. ** Pod Car networks will operate much like traditional rail and streetcar networks, on raised platforms above busy roads and highways (or underground) as a part of Personal rapid transit (PRT), a new public transportation system designed for swift travel in congested areas. Pod Cars will be convenient, affordable to operate and beneficial to the environment as they are powered by electricity. *** Electric vehicles