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Importance of sustainable cities essay
Importance of sustainable cities essay
Urbanization and its impact on the environment
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Canberra - A city of biodiversity and sustainable living?
Biodiversity is the measure of the variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable. Biodiversity is not only measured in the variety of life in an area, but also the amount of each plant or animal. If two forest are home to four different types of trees, and one is mostly covered by one tree, then that forest is less biodiverse than the other forest where the trees are all evenly spread across the land. Sustainability is the endurance of biological systems and processes like wetlands and forests. These two things are both global systems. Global systems are processes that rely on interactions
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I think that Canberra could be viewed an effective model because it was designed so that a 7-8 year old child could walk around the city independently and safely, as well as this, the effectiveness of Canberra’s plan could be measured by the number of weekend visitors, the number of cultural events held in the city and the number of evening activities like restaurants and concerts. It could be seen as biodiverse because there is a wide range of wildlife living in Canberra; animals live in people’s backyards and they live in national parks. As well as this, Canberra is home to many different types of trees, from the native eucalyptus and gum trees, to the trees that were planted by the early European settlers. Canberra can be considered a very sustainable city because many Canberrans say that they love living in the city because of the clean, unpolluted air and water, the ease of travel, the extensive outdoor recreation system and the available employment and education system. In confirmation, Canberra has constantly been voted on the world’s most liveable cities over the past few years. However, if Canberra was to continue as one of the world’s most liveable cities and become a more vibrant city that is loved by its residents and the visitors that it attracts, there will need to be a greater focus on human scale development, transport choice; not just cars, public meeting places, connected pedestrian and cycle networks and greater housing choice; not only detached houses on individual blocks or apartments, but more townhouses, terrace houses, cohousing and supportive housing. Focusing on places for its residents, and ensuring that the overriding aim of putting people first in the design of any new place or developments, would support a more vibrant and active
Finally in 1991, the federal government initiated a ‘Better Cities Program’ which aimed to make Australian cities sustainable and more liveable. It encoura...
This paper argues that urban consolidation should not be the focal point for future development in Melbourne. I will present this augment from 4 different environmental and social perspectives, which include urban consolidation limits green space, lack consumer preference, restricts freedom and rebuts that sprawl development is not necessarily bad for traffic.
As a collective, the western hemisphere and early Europeans were reluctant to the idea that native, indigenous tribes and cultures of the Americas possessed any form of art. Primarily, this false anglo-saxon supremacist view stemmed from colonists believing the native americans were uncivilized due to their differences in cultures and practices. Not to mention, the European colonist would be absolved of guilt and accountability for murdering, raping, and exploiting the tribes, if they removed the thought of Native Americans carrying civilized human practices such as their unique religious, art, and familial traditions. Even though their art customs differed from europeans, the native americans should be accredited and recognized for their impact
When creating a working definition of a sustainable global environment there is a short definition and a long definition. The short of definition of a sustainable global environment is an environment in which all living things can co-exist together while having their essential needs to sustain life met. This definition, while ideal, is probably not realistic due to the fact that humans in many cases are not simply satisfied with living with only the essential needs that sustain life. That leads to the more realistic but complex definition of a sustainable global environment. This definition focuses on sustainability, stewardship, science, political policy and globalization. Sustainability focuses on not depleting needed resources. Stewardship is the moral framework in which our public and private actions are made. The science aspect of a sustainable global environment is the information that decisions, including mandated policy, are made on. The final aspect is globalization, which refers to the interconnectedness humans and the environment share with each other on a global level. Regardless of the definition that is used, the goal is the same, sustaining a high quality of life for all creatures while not exhausting the needed resources to do so.
Sustainability is when something can be used and not be depleted, destroyed, or damaged past recovery. As we work to live sustainably, we are in effect making use of our resources in a fashion that doesn't eliminate them, and doesn't harm their source. Our resources come from the environment around us and we need to make sure that it is not harmed as we use it. According to the EPA, sustainability stems from a single principle that "Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment” (Sustainability Information). Considering this, it's obvious why we need to make sure we live sustainably and do not damage the source of our resources, our environment.
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
Pollard (2001) writes about the despondency of the American public over loss of open spaces, pollution, and climate change due to land-use and transportation patterns in the paper, ‘Greening the American dream?’ The author believes that ‘new urbanism’ is the solution to these issues. New urbanism is a variety of related planning and design approaches that include traditional neighbourhood, as well as transit-oriented development (Pollard, 2001). New urbanists are critics of sprawl and promote mixed-use land development. Designs include more open spaces, walkable neighbourhoods and street networks with few cul-de-sacs. The primary goals of new urbanism are to save open spaces and wildlife habitat
Air Quality Air quality in Australia is decreasing. Below is the National Clean Air Agreement. It States that: National Clean Air Agreement On 15 December 2015 Australia’s Environment Ministers established the National Clean Air Agreement. The Agreement seeks to ensure that the community continues to enjoy clean air and address the impacts on human health and the environment.
Australia is smaller than the United States which is located between the Pacific and the Indian oceans. Australia has been divided into six states which are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. Each state have their own characteristic. There are sixteen regions which located at the New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory. The population in Australia are keep increasing year by year.
As previously implied, cities are currently the antithesis of even the barest sense of sustainability. To succinctly define the term “sustainability” would be to say that it represents living within one’s needs. When it comes to the city, with almost zero local sources of food or goods, one’s means is pushed and twisted to include resources originating far beyond the boundaries of the urban landscape. Those within cities paradoxically have both minimal and vast options when it comes to continuing their existence, yet this blurred reality is entirely reliant on the resources that a city can pull in with its constantly active economy.
Country Overview Australia, the sixth largest country in the world and a continent by itself, is located between the Indian Ocean and the Southern Pacific Ocean. On the map, the country is seen below the islands of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea; northwest of New Zealand. The climate in Australia varies by location, but commonly arid to semiarid. It is generally temperate in the east and south and tropical in the north. In terms of land size, the country spans over 7,682,300 square kilometers of land and has a population of 22,751,014 (United States.
Sustainability simply defined to me as balancing act between the development of sustainability is necessary for both planet Earth and humans to survive. This is reinforced in the World Commission on Environment and Development report (1987) that sustainable development must meet the needs of the present without compromising the well-being of future generations”. The Earth Charter Organization widened the idea of sustainability to respect for a culture of peace, universal human rights, nature, and economic justice (What is sustainability?, n.d.).
If there are more people, more, density, and a good mixture of uses, it will be a safer city... You cannot find a single city that does not wish to make the city center more vibrant or livelier.” This quote from Jan Gehl, the principal of Gehl Architects, illustrates the importance of having a sustainable city. The Central Park project has showcased to the world on how the landscape we design or occupy, can affect our daily activities and surrounding neighborhood. It sets an example of how design must be appreciated as a crucial factor in sustainability and emphasized on the fact the connection of people and nature should not be ignored. All in all, landscape architects are the ones to determine the physical characteristics of the public realm environment, to decide whether a city is attractive to people and whether people will choose to live in the city in the long
Climate change creates significant impacts in the Australian context, and communities are severely vulnerable to the impacts. Australia has warmed by 0.9 centigrade mostly since 1950s. Further, during the period climate related conditions have been changed; for instance, reduction of cooler season, increase frequency of hot days, changes in extreme weather events and rising of sea level. In this context, communities in the coastal areas, low-ling areas, marginalized lands and hazard prone area are in high vulnerability (Australian Government, 2015).
Do we all know what biodiversity means? Well I think some of us do not know what biodiversity is, but it is important for us to know is the meaning of biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety of life. Most of the people recognize biodiversity by species but biodiversity is more than just species. A species is a group of living organism that can interbreed for example white-tailed deer, blue whales, and bacteria that you cannot even see with your eyes. Species is only one part of biodiversity. Biodiversity can be studied on many levels and at the highest level you can look at all the different species in earth. Biodiversity occurs at multiple scales of ecological organization, from genes all the way up to the entire biosphere. The full range of species that lives in a particular area is included to biodiversity. Here in the Philippines, we are rich when it comes to biodiversity. As a paradise of biodiversity, our country the Philippines’s terrestrial ecosystems