1. Sustainable Cities:  
Coupling Cycles of Energy, Water, & Land-use to Reinvent the Urban Landscape
Kimberly A. Gray
Professor
Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Energy, Cities, and the Control of Complex Systems Workshop
47th Session of International Seminars on Planetary Emergencies
14 May 2014

2. Global Conditions Urban face of planet
- Since 2008 > ½ world’s population urban; 70% by 2050
- Creating a precarious condition where 3.5 billion people occupy only about 2% of the earth’s land area
Post-industrial countries urbanized relatively slowly and have been 80% urban for decades; in contrast, many developing countries undergoing massive demographic shifts – in terms of scale and time

3. • Urban Development as Opportunity
- Cities may be our “greatest invention”…
• 70% of global GDP
• 70% of global energy
• 75% of global resources
• lowest energy, GHG / capita
- But the typical city in U.S and elsewhere in world is woefully inefficient in the way it
• transports its citizens
• supplies information
• manages its water supply
• produces food and energy
• treats its wastes
- We must reinvent old & new cities by devising strategies for sustainable urban design, which is based on the ecological principles of material & energy cycling and on policies & incentives that make business sense.
- Cities are hotbed of adaptation, resilient actions

4. • Human Footprint on Earth System:
• Human Footprint on Earth System: - Beyond the Boundary; Limits to Growth? - Metrics
Rockstrom J. et al. (2009) A safe operating space for humanity, Nature, 461:

5. Key vulnerabilities may be associated with many climate & ecologically sensitive systems:
• Food supply
• Infrastructure
• Health
• Water resources
• Coastal systems
• Ecosystems
• Global biogeochemical cycles
• Ice sheets
• Modes of ocean & atmospheric circulation
S. Schneider (2009) Science as a Contact Sport (National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.)

6. Overarching Question What makes a city truly sustainable?
How do we design a truly sustainable city?

7. Yet. . .
• Over last 50 years we have seen many examples of green or eco-design
BedZed (London, England)
Dockside Green (Victoria, B.C.)
Frieburg, Germany
Hammarby Sjöstad (Stockholm, Sweden)
Curitiba, Brazil
Copenhagen, Denmark
Singapore
Masdar (Abu Dhabi, UAE)
• Why, then, do we continue to question the feasibility of eco-developments & don’t we observe projects scaling up?

8. Why? • Economic viability – incompatibility
with principles of sustainability
• Scale – neighborhood vs. city vs. region
• Metrics - not single parameter
• Is sustainability still possible?
- Lack of definition – can mean almost anything
- Less bad
- Not an end state; dynamic, process (flows & networks)
- Human systems (institutions, behavior, acceptance, etc.); not technology constrained.

9. City Today HEAT Energy CO2 Used Water Water Biomass Waste Food
Solid Waste
Materials
Diffuse
Large Inputs & Outputs
of Energy & Materials
Linear Flows
Value Added:
Economic output
Wealth
Quality of Life

10. Diminished Inputs & Outputs
Future
Reduced HEAT
C - Neutral
Energy
Hinterland
Zero Net Waste Water
Water
City
Biomass
Water
Food
Materials
Energy
Zero Net Biomass Waste
Food
Zero Net Waste
Materials
Increased Value Added:
Economic output
Wealth
Quality of Life
Diminished Inputs & Outputs
of Energy & Materials
Coupled & Cyclic Flows

11. Four stories
Living Cities: Transforming APEC Cities into Models of Sustainability by 2030
Transforming Chicago’s Water Cycle to Closed Loop System
Biorefinery – coupling energy-water-land-use systems
Human Engineering vs. Nature’s Engineering

12. APEC 2011- We were asked to research:
Environmental Goods and Services
Eco-Cities
LEED and other green certifications
“conduct study on the best practices using environmental goods and services in new construction and development. . .particular interest in eco-city design & in LEED. . .”

13. Demographic Shifts
Developing world --Unprecedented demographic shifts (both rates & scale) are occurring.
- It is estimated that an urban area supporting a million people will be developed every 5 days for the next 40 years, effectively doubling the urban face of the planet at about 10 times the rate of previous eras.
Post-industrial world is changing, too.
- Some cities shrinking; others growing, but both slower rates & smaller scale

14. Living Cities: Sustainable Urban Design in the 21st Century

15. Living City
Inner workings based on ecological principles of material & energy recycling
Locally tailored
Distributed vs. centralized systems
Resilient & adaptive
All major functions linked****
Coordinated through networks of smart connections that monitor, manage, integrate & inform – central nervous system
Teaming with business opportunities
A sentient place, the city will not just gather information but change and react to feedback.
Leo Hollis, The Future of the City, April 11, 2013.