planted city

Resilient Cities: Rethinking the Urban Landscape

From The New America Foundation:

The ability to bounce back, to absorb shocks, to persevere, to retain functionality over time, to endure, to adapt, to succeed, to survive, to sustain… so many verbs are conjured up by the term “resilience.” Whether we’re talking about our bodies, our minds, our communities, our institutions or our natural environment, the R-word provides a conceptual framework for designing a better tomorrow. Please join us for a wide-ranging inquiry on what it means to be resilient and what a resilient future could look like.

The discussion features:

Kaid Benfield – @Kaid_at_NRDC
Director of Sustainable Communities, Natural Resources Defense Council

Justin Hollander – @justinhollander
Professor, Tufts University
Author, Sunburnt Cities: The Great Recession, Depopulation, and Urban Planning in the American Sunbelt

Sander van der Leeuw – @ASUGreen
Dean, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
Co-Chair, Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative, Arizona State University

Moderator
Andrés Martinez – @NewAmerica
Vice President and Editorial Director, New America Foundation

(Image credit: Common Current)

Building Urban Resilience: ‘Saga City - Our Communities Facing Climate Change’

From Saga City via Vimeo:

Urban planning has great effects on collective choices that contribute to climate change. By defining the shape of a community, urban planning determines part of its energy consumption, and thus, the quantity of greenhouse gases released by dwellers. Nevertheless, it remains largely out of the general debate on this issue. SAGA CITY invites you to learn more about these stakes through to story of the city of Colvert.

More here.

(Photo credit: Vivre en Ville via Saga City)

From CleanTechnica:

Here’s a pretty cool urban farming solution—a Plantagon greenhouse for urban farming. Construction on the first one broke ground in Sweden last week. This unique vertical-farming greenhouse will also be “[part of] an international Centre of Excellence for Urban Agriculture, a demo-plant for Swedish clean-tech and a climate-smart way to use excess heating and CO2 from industries,” a news release on the groundbreaking states. Aside from offering an innovative vertical farming solution, “Plantagon plans to develop integrated solutions for energy, excess heat, waste, CO2 and water” in cooperation with several partners.

Check out the rest of the article here. You can also check out a video about the vertical farm on YouTube.

(Image credit:  Plantagon via CleanTechnica)

From The National Post:

Following recent high-profile cycling deaths in Ontario, results of a poll suggest four in five Canadians think until more cyclists respect the rules of the road, they won’t be able to gain the respect of motorists.

“What Canadians are saying is that there needs to be more understanding between motorists and cyclists,” Ipsos Reid associate vice-president Sean Simpson said.

Simpson pointed to Europe as an example of co-operation because bicycles are more common and both parties are accustomed to each other on the road.

The poll’s results also indicated Canadians are vastly in favour of more bike lanes.

Findings of the poll, conducted by Ipsos Reid exclusively for Postmedia News and Global News, show four in five (or 81 per cent) of those surveyed think Canada’s cities don’t have enough lanes devoted to cyclists, while nearly three in four (73 per cent) feel cyclists are right for demanding more respect from drivers.

Simpson said ordinarily, when a large number of people support an issue, more of them will say they somewhat agree, instead of strongly agree. In the case of bike lanes, the situation is reversed, with 43 per cent strongly supporting additional bike lanes, and 38 per cent of respondents saying they somewhat support the proposal.

More than half of all university graduates surveyed said they strongly supported bike lanes, with another 34 per cent said they somewhat supported them. The results show that younger people are more likely to support bike-lane expansion, but only by a margin of five per cent.

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Photo credit: Globe & Mail; infographic credit: Globe & Mail)

These strategies come from a chapter written by leading urban sustainability expert Warren Karlenzig for the Post Carbon Institute’s excellent ‘Post Carbon Reader’. You can check out his blog and work here.

(Photo credit: Seed Magazine via Urbanism.org)

From e360:

A panel formed to study solutions to increased flooding in Singapore has urged the government to require green roofs on new and retrofitted buildings. The 12-member panel, which was created after torrential rains caused flash flooding across eastern and central Singapore last year, said improved weather modeling and infrastructure improvements are needed to handle a surge in stormwater runoff caused by urbanization in Singapore. In the meantime, however, the panel urged simpler steps to reduce and delay flooding, including better storage tanks, porous pavements, and rain gardens. Such rooftop gardens, which are often added to reduce heat or for aesthetic reasons, can also absorb six to 34 liters of water per square meter and limit the spread of water flow, local contractors said. 

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Photo credit: Buildipedia)

Here’s shot accessing the 10th Ave Bikeway and one of Vancouver’s prettiest blocks, earlier this Fall. The heritage house lined route runs parallel to Broadway, one of the city’s main East-West corridors, and restricts car speed and access to a limited number of side streets along the route. The result is a safer commuting route for cyclists and fewer car-bike conflicts on Broadway. Click here to see how the route fits into the city’s overall bike network. 

P.S. You can check out more of my photos here. 

This quote is drawn from the article, ‘Year’s wild weather wrecked costly havoc’, in the Globe & Mail. 

(Photo credit: Environment Canada)

Resilient Communities: ‘Surfing the Waves of Change’

From Cultivate Ireland via YouTube:

‘Surfing the Waves of Change’ is an animation exploring the idea of community resilience using the metaphor of a surfer to explain how communities can make themselves more resilient in these changing times. 

You can read more about the video over at Transition Voice. 

Peter Calthorpe on ‘Resilient Cities: Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change’

From the California Academy of Sciences, via Fora TV:

This event is the second part of a two-part discussion featuring Bay Area architect and planner Peter Calthorpe, author of Sustainable Communities and Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change, discusses the aspects of a livable city.

Click here for part 1 featuring Timothy Beatley, author of Biophilic Cities and Resilient Cities. For more from Calthorpe check out his interview with Grist where he explains ‘Why urbanism is the cheapest, smartest way to fight climate change’.