Sustainable Cities
Image: Scientific American
According to your book sustainable means “able to meet the current demand for a resource without depleting the future supply.” How do you think the concept of sustainability could be applied to urban areas?
To be a sustainable city, the region must be able to meet the demand for a resource (in this case that is a place for people to live and work), without depleting the future supply. In this situation, constructing cities is not going to deplete the needed resource, however, it can (and may) erase a different resource; nature. While the loss of nature would be devastating, it is preventable. If cities were to grow upward, rather than outward, the lad around them would still be able to provide for people. As population grows, cities grow. As cities grow, the amount of land able to be used to “fund” the cities is decreased. To make a sustainable city, People could:
A) Put large gardens on top of every building and reap a good crop.
B) Build cities underground (not very cost efficient).
C) Build elevated cities (as in the picture).
D) Build multi-story farms (with green house lights for the layers not on the
top) so that if/when the cities do sprawl, we will still be able to have
resources.
Of all of the methods, the most efficient and effective way to make sustainable cities is to build them upward, instead of outward.