Standard Suburban Development vs. Ecologically Designed Alternatives: Full-Cost Accounting of Two Options CDAE class Mark, Bart, Thomas, Walt, Adam oct 2002

overall idea compare a standard subdivision development with an ecologically designed community. generally we want to do a “full-cost account” of both situations, including valuation of things like: –ecosystem services –development of social networks –throughput of energy, materials, wastes need definitions of exactly what these two things are.

overall... develop a template or model with which to analyze the alternatives to standard suburban development. Such a model could be useful for assessing policy options that reduce urban sprawl.

how much time? which costs to watch over time? this is where modeling would come in base considerations baseline: there were no buildings on that land before the start of the process. (I.e. it’s not industrial park land redevelopment, or urban infill development) take into account the initial costs of the development, as well as the accumulated costs over time take into account the flow of materials, energy, wastes into and out of the developments over time

step 1 Variables to keep the same between: –number of dwelling spaces. –“standard of living” offered (although we assume different people would have different reasons for choosing their place…) –proximity to urban center (??) –neither had devp of any sort before (I.e. not urban infill development or industrial park zoning change) scale considerations here! is it even valid to be able to control these variables at this point? Or is the “size” of the development the whole point that needs to be considered? although maybe this is precisely what we SHOULD be analyzing…?

create table Next, brainstorm on all the factors about which we could compare those two models. Create a flat table with these options. factor standard subdivision ecologically designed community infrastucture costs water usage social network development waste generation energy usage productivity (agric, small bus.) neighbourhood safety property value carbon sequestration groundwater recharge nutrient cycling

step 3: valuation Attempt to come up with comparative cash values for these factors. which of these factors will be feasible to research? can we actually find any way to value them? –(e.g. past studies, real estate records, other research, etc) are these reasonable factors in the eyes of our stakeholders?

choose the best 3-5 pick a small number of these factors e.g. the 3-5 factors that seem most amenable to research. factor standard subdivision ecologically designed community infrastucture costs water usage social network development waste generation energy usage productivity (agric, small bus.) neighbourhood safety property value carbon sequestration groundwater recharge nutrient cycling

step 4: create dynamic model create a model for each of the communities show the changes in value of these two communities over time. Is there a difference? Look at the throughputs could use as predictor for what will happen to other similar communities over time how will models change with scale?

create a model to account for energy and $$ flow Standard Subdivision (Scale of system?)

questions... is there a reasonable cutoff point when considering the construction of new communities? –number of dwellings, or –the area footprint, or –the base soil type, or –other … ? which variables have the most effect in deciding to build an ecologically designed vs a standard suburban community?

Ideally this would be extendable to a web-based, easy-to- use “calculator,” perhaps similar to the Ecological Footprint calculator, which could be used by others to predict outcomes of building decisions. step 5: create community tool

overall process... factors lit review choose best stakeholders class opin. gather data, create model, run model make web-able model