Geo-Engineering Cities Using White Roofs and Pavements

The long-term effect of increasing the albedo of urban areas (11 page pdf, Hashem Akbari, H Damon Matthews, Donny Seto, Environmental Research Letters, Apr. 12, 2012) Also discussed here: Resurfacing Urban Areas to Offset 150 Billion Tons of CO2 (ScienceDaily, Apr. 13, 2012) Today, we review a look at changing the albedo of urban areas [...]

A Syndemic Approach to Healthy Sustainable Cities

Built Environment and Public Health: A Syndemic Perspective (17 page pdf, Michael McGeehin, 4th annual summit of the Research Triangle Environmental Health Collaborative, “Incorporating Public and Environmental Health into Sustainable Solutions”, Nov. 8, 2010) The focus of today’s review is on a recent urban summit linking the built environment to health and a presentation that [...]

Freeways: divide and pollute cities today – greenspace tomorrow?

Are freeways doomed? -Several cities are tearing down highways, creating bold new public spaces — and building a future without cars (Dream City, Nov. 30, 2011) A number of cities in the USA have seen the light and replaced expensive, ineffective, polluting freeways that divide communities with parks and tourist vistas that unite them. The [...]

Do the Suburbs Have a Future?

The Death of the Fringe Suburb (Christopher B. Leinberger, New York Times, Nov. 25, 2011) Today we look at the future of traditional North American cities with sprawling suburbs and large malls that can only be reached by car. Population trends toward an older society, the rise of carbon fuel costs and the desire for [...]

Evaporative Cooling

Evaporative Cooling – Overview (Consumer Energy Center – California Energy Commission) This technology , based on known scientific principles, cuts the need for electrical power used for air conditioning by 90% and has already been demonstrated (and won a national energy award) for the large amount of cooling needed for a large computing data centre [...]

What is the Optimum Population for a City?

Are 20th Century Models Relevant to 21st Century Urbanization? ( Phil McDermott , New Geography, Sep. 23, 2011) Today’s review article examines the trend toward urbanism world-wide and, in particular, the growth or large mega cities over 5m population. Smaller cities of around 1 m seem to be multiplying faster and offer advantages from an [...]

Health Care Availability and Air Pollution Impacts

Air pollution and general practitioner access and utilization: A population based study in Sarnia, ‘Chemical Valley’, Ontario. (32 page pdf, Tor H Oiamo, Isaac N Luginaah, Dominic O Atari, and Kevin M Gorey, Environmental Health, Aug.9, 2011) Today, we review some research into how (or if) access to medical attention affects the impact of air [...]

Can Simulation Modelling Steer Us toward Sustainability?

Virtual Sustainability (16 page pdf, Sims Bainbridge, W. Sustainability 2010, 2, 3195-3210, Sep. 30,2010) Models simulating  the ways that people interact with the natural world and themselves have long been used to create scenarios that allow environmental and economic policies to be tested. The World 2 model was developed Jay W. Forrester in 1970, using [...]

How Can Transportation Technology and Practices Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

Technologies for Climate Change Mitigation: Transport Sector (250 page pdf, United Nations Environment Programme Risø Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development, March 2011) The focus today is on a comprehensive guide to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in transportation- either through improved technologies or in reducing travel with carbon consuming vehicles by such options as [...]

Greenest Cities in the U.S. and Canada

US and Canada Green City Index – Assessing the environmental performance of 27 major US and Canadian cities (71 page pdf, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Siemens, July 2011) Today’s review article comes from the Economist which assessed over two dozen cities in the US and Canada in terms of performance under [...]

Spillover Parking and Minimum Municipal Offstreet Parking Requirements

Who’s afraid of the spillover bogey? (Reinventing Parking, Jul.4, 2011) Today’s focus is on the perceived problem of spillover parking which could be treated as an opportunity rather than a curse – if parking rates were raised like traffic, according to demand. To see Key Quotes and Links to key reports about this post, click [...]

Podcars in England

Personal rapid transit (Wikipedia) Today’s story comes from Milton Keynes a small town of around 200,000 in southeast England which recently commissioned a report on the feasibility of monorail podcars or a personal rapid transit system, as part of a transportation strategy for the next 20 years. This comes following the introduction of operational systems [...]

Building Resilience in Cities Adapting to Climate Change

Financing the Resilient City- A demand driven approach to development, disaster risk reduction, and climate adaptation (48 page pdf, Jeb Brugmann, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, June 3, 2011) A pollution-free city facing change must adapt. Today’s focus is on a report from Resilient Cities: World Congress on cities and adaptation to climate change [...]

Replacing Nuclear Power with Solar Energy for Household Use

Nine Leading Companies and Fujisawa City to Collaborate on Sustainable Smart Town ProjectNine Leading Companies and Fujisawa City to Collaborate on Sustainable Smart Town Project (Panasonic News, May 26, 2011) Today, we look at a sustainable town being built in 2014 at Fujisawa, just west of Tokyo, that will maximize the use of photo-voltaic solar [...]

e-Roads for e-Vehicles

Electric Roads May Be In Our Future (eMercedes Benz, May 4, 2011)   Today’s review article describes a new application of an idea developed over 100 years ago which would power vehicles as they are driven on highways. This would lighten the significant load vehicles must carry with energy stored in batteries, which in turn [...]

Zero Energy Houses and The Cube Project

The Cube Project   The focus of today’s review is a Zero Energy House conceived in the UK, suitable for one person (but can be scaled up for larger homes or buildings). In addition to generating zero waste and energy self-sufficient, it can produce  £1000 per year by feeding unused electricity from solar panels back [...]

Public Health and the Built Environment in Ontario

Public Health and Land Use Planning: How Ten Public Health Units are Working to Create Healthy and Sustainable Communities (232 page pdf, Kim Perrotta, Clean Air Partnership, April 2011) Today’s focus is on a report that reviews of factors in the built environment and in land use planning affecting health, including a summary of the [...]

Neural Network Modelling and Residential Building Energy Consumption

Analysis of a Residential Building Energy Consumption Demand Model (13 page pdf, Wei Yu, Baizhan Li, Yarong Lei and Meng Liu, Energies 2011, 4(3), 475-487, Mar. 10, 2011)   One of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions world-wide is the fuel used to heat (or cool) residences. Today’s review article uses advanced neural network [...]

Low and Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB)

Sustainable Buildings: An Ever Evolving Target (22 page pdf, Yvan Dutil, Daniel Rousse and Guillermo Quesada, Sustainability, Feb. 16, 2011) The review article today speaks to the need to reduce the energy needs of buildings globally by as much as a factor of 10, in order to reduce CO2 emissions 50% by 2050 (80% in [...]

Urban Physics

A Physicist Solves the City (New York Times Sunday Magazine, Dec. 19, 2010) Today’s review article goes right to the heart of what makes a city sustainable pollution free and healthy. It describes the work of a physicist who turns his attention to describing urban characteristics with the same approach used in physics. As a [...]

Noise as a Sustainable Energy Source for Buildings

Urban Transducer Skyscraper gets powered by noise (EcoFriend, July 19, 2010) Also discussed here: The Urban Transducer Skyscraper Produces Energy from Noise Pollution (Evolo, Apr. 14, 201) Today’s review article describes a building that works in the opposite direction to most in the urban core by capturing energy from noise, instead of using energy for [...]

Planning Mobility for Cities in the Future

Megacities on the move (65 page pdf, Forum for the Future, Dec. 2, 2010) Also discussed here: Report calls for radical redesign of cities to cope with population growth (Guardian, Dec. 2, 2010) And here: Time to start work on the urban mobility systems of 2040 (Forum for the Future, Dec. 2, 2010) And here: [...]

Role of Cities in Post-Kyoto Climate Change Financing

  Cities in a Post-2012 Climate Policy Framework (96 page pdf, ICLEI Global Reports, 2010) Also discussed here: ICLEI report on ‘Cities in a Post-2012 Climate Policy Framework’ (UCT Centre of Criminology, May 10, 2010) And here: World Mayors Council on Climate Change The report reviewed today examines the role of cities in combating climate [...]

Future Urban Energy Use – One Scenario for the USA

A Sustainable Energy Scenario for the United States: Year 2050 (31 page pdf, Sustainability 2010, 2(12), 3650-3680, Nov. 26, 2010) Today’s review article looks at what scenario might emerge over the next 40 years as a result of action taken to make the US sustainable from an energy and climate change perspective  and what this [...]

Powering Small Smart Devices with Light and Motion

Image via CrunchBase University of Bolton scientists create smart material to generate energy from the elements (ASM International, Nov. 3, 2010) Also discussed here: Scientists Create Photovoltaic-Piezoelectric Fiber To Power Gadgets With Light & Motion (The Green Optimistic, Nov. 2, 2010) And here: Photovoltaic-Piezoelectric Fiber Could Power Your Laptop (Solar Novus, Nov. 1, 2010) And [...]

Reporting Climate Change – Carbon Footprints for Cities

Carbon Disclosure Project – The Case for City Disclosure(24 page pdf, Accenture, Carbon Disclosure Project, Nov. 2010) Also discussed here: CDP Pushes Cities to Disclose Their Climate Impact (Triple Pundit, Nov. 2, 2010) Cities are now the home for more than 50% of the world’s population (predicted to rise to 60 percent by 2030, and [...]

The Changing Meaning of Sustainability

Image via Wikipedia What is Sustainability? (13 page pdf, Sustainability 2010, 2(11), 3436-3448, Nov.1, 2010) The authors of the article under review today tackled a large challenge in examining what “sustainable development” meant when introduced in 1987 by the Brundtland Commission and what it has become in being applied with such concepts as Triple Bottom [...]

Who has the Greatest Health Impacts from Particulate Matter?

Image via Wikipedia Particulate Matter Induced Health Effects: Who’s Susceptible? (43 page pdf, Environmental Health Perspectives, 20 Oct 2010) Key Quotes: “To identify populations potentially at greatest risk for particulate matter (PM)- related health effects by evaluating epidemiologic studies that examined various characteristics that may influence susceptibility” “definition for the term ‘susceptible population’ as it [...]

Going Carbon Neutral in Canadian Cities

Getting to Carbon Neutral: A Guide for Canadian Municipalities (176 page pdf, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Sustainable Infrastructure Group, University of Toronto, May 5, 2010) Also discussed here: Carbon Competitive Cities (Toronto and Region Conservation) And here: Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change TRCA Action Plan for The Living City (30 page pdf, Toronto [...]

Living Planet City

Living Planet City How Green Energy can work for your City – from World Wildlife Federation

Heating Urban Areas with Geothermal Energy

Image via Wikipedia The geothermal potential of urban heat islands (7 page pdf, Environmental Research Letters, Volume 5, Number 4, Oct. 12, 2010) Geothermal energy sources have long been seen as a way of heating (and cooling) buildings, one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions when carbon fuels are used. The urban heat [...]

Masdar City Update

Image via Wikipedia In Arabian Desert, a Sustainable City Rises (New York Times, Sept. 25, 2010) The most read post on this blog has been Masdar City – zero carbon, zero waste which described the Masdar City concept. Today’s review article reports on progress made since then with new approaches to the design of buildings, [...]

Cool Roofs

Image via Wikipedia White roofs promoted to save energy (Clarion Ledger, Sept. 17, 2010) Also discussed here: Cool Roof Rating Council Today’s key article describes the “cool roof” plan to reduce the energy (and emissions) used for air conditioning by reflecting sunlight, using light coloured roof surfaces. This simple method reduces as much emissions in [...]

Urban Infrastructures- how long will they last?

Sustainability of Urban Infrastructures (15 page pdf, Sustainability 2010, 2, 2950-2964, Sep. 14, 2010) Also discussed here: Best Practice in Sustainable Urban Infrastructure (Transport and Urban Development, European Cooperation in Science and Technology program) And here: WORKING GROUP 2, COST Action C8 (Working Group 2 has responsibility for selecting a series of 50 or so [...]

Building a Sustainable City

Image via Wikipedia Out of the Rubble and Towards a Sustainable Future: The “Greening” of Greensburg, Kansas (18 page pdf, Sustainability 2010, 2, 2302-2319, July 14, 2010) Three key words describe the successful rebuilding of Greensburg that was almost entirely leveled by a tornado three years ago: innovation, opportunity and energy efficiency. The lessons learned [...]

Free Parking and Downtown Pollution

The New Colonist blog examines the need and consequences of municipal zoning laws calling for the provision of parking space for residences and businesses in this post “Fifty Years of Stupid Parking Tricks….” and refers to an earlier book review  Pave paradise? No, ditch the parking lot (written by Donald C. Shoup)from the New Urban [...]

Intelligent Traffic Lights and Idling

In a typical North American city,  car commuters spend  about 45 minutes on the road each day.  Roughly 15 minutes of that is spent idling – at stop lights or while waiting for someone (e.g. picking up children at school) and waiting at drive thrus. All idlng (except in electric or hybrid cars)  results in [...]

APHEIS

The Apheis project: Air Pollution and Health—A European Information System (14 page pdf, Air Qual Atmos Health, 2009) Key Quotes: “Apheis project.. has tracked the effects of air pollution on health in 26 European cities and continues to do so as the new Aphekom project.” “roughly 40,000 people were dying every year from the effects of [...]

Life Cycle Climate Impact of Paved Roads

Global warming potential of pavements (Environ. Res. Lett. 4 (July-September 2009) Key Quotes: “The pavement life cycle consists of five phases: materials, construction, use, maintenance, and end of life..eight different components: materials extraction and production, transportation, onsite equipment, traffic delay, carbonation, lighting, albedo, and rolling resistance.” “Traffic has an obvious direct effect on the impact [...]

European Green City Index

A report on the greenness of 30 European cities European Green City Index (55 pages pdf) has been made available by its sponsor, Siemens, at the COP 15 climate change discussions. The host city, Copenhagen, coincidentally had the best overall rating, although challenged in several categories by Oslo (first in CO2 emissions and energy) , [...]

Responding to the climate challenge- sources monitoring?

Perspective-Keeping a closer eye on fossil fuel CO2 (2 page pdf, Environmental Research Letters, 2009) Key Quotes: “current estimates of emissions now exceed all but the most extreme emission scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change“ “advance the need for multiple adaptation strategies to decision making about, for example, infrastructure, urban planning and [...]

The Vulnerability and Resilience of Cities

What if Can Do, Can’t? The Vulnerabilty and Resilience of Cities ( 37 slides with sound, 60 min slideshow) The co-father of the ecological footprint, Dr Bill Rees,  gives the keynote speech at the “Gaining Ground- Resilient Cities” Conference at Vancouver on Oct20,  2009  discussing climate change, peak oil and the vulnerability of cities despite [...]

Canada’s Best Run Cities

Canada’s best and worst run cities (Macleans July 2009) This annual survey rates 31 cities under such criteria as governance, finance, taxation,safety, transit, fire and police services, environmental health, and recreation. Overall, Burnaby and Surrey, BC and Saskatoon SK emerge as leaders and Fredericton NB, Kingston ON and Charlottetown PEI as laggards. An interactive table [...]

Health benefits of increased cycling infrastructure

Infrastructure, Programs and Policies to Increase Bycycling: An International Review (54 page pdf) Precis: “Most studies of individual interventions found positive, though variable, effects on bicycling.   Case studies show large increases in bicycling results when interventions are implemented as a coordinated package of mutually reinforcing measures.” – has extensive (18 pages) list of references – [...]

The Health Cost of Our Techo-industrial Age

The Health Cost of Our Techo-industrial Age “Our techno-industrial development has provided greater productivity, choice and higher living standards. However, despite scientific and technological advancements we still fail to understand the full health and environmental impact of our actions.”