urban cartography

The CDM and building sustainable cities

Now even George W. acknowledges that the world needs to “confront the serious challenge of global climate change”. The scientific consensus is that if present trends continue, the world is due for a 1.4 to 5.8ºC warming by 2100. The current international policy response is embodied in the Kyoto Protocol, which sets binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions. One part of the Protocol, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), allows for emissions trading between developed and developing countries. I’ve been thinking recently about how the CDM may serve as an unexpected new source of funds to finance more sustainable urban development, of which all urbanists should be aware.

In the context of global warming, it is important to realize how massive the coming global urbanization will be. By 2030 there will be 1.7 billion new urban residents in cities, the equivalent of building a city the size of Vancouver every week. The two largest sectors of global energy use, transport and power generation, serve primarily urban residents and industries, and account for almost 60% of total energy use. Therefore the form that this urban growth takes, and particularly its density, will clearly affect energy use and carbon emissions, as has been argued so frequently by compact city theorists.

Consider a city in the developing world with a high population density but little public transit. What public transit exists is mostly motorbike and minivan taxis, with inefficient old engines burning gasoline. Suppose this city, with the help of some significant investment from an Annex 1 (rich) country or investment firm, build a new electric mass transit system, out of light-rail or bus rapid transit. Suppose they finance the switch to a cleaner burning fleet of taxis. Suppose they make sure new settlements in the growing city are designed to be easily accessible to mass transit, reducing private automobile use. A clear reduction in CO2 emissions would have occurred, generating a Certified Emission Reduction. Sale of the CER would cover most or all of the initial foreign investment. Moreover, the city would be left with a more livable, sustainable place. There are two significant hurdles to be overcome if these kinds of scenarios are to occur. The first is the calculation of the baseline (the “additionality”): what would have happened to emissions without the project? A strict interpretation of the Kyoto Protocol says the project should not have happened without the external funding to qualify for the CDM. The second hurdle is financial viability. Several studies have suggested the minimum viable size for a CDM project is one that stores about 100,000 tons of CO2  per year (or other greenhouse gases with an equivalent global warming potential). Only very big projects within cities are likely to reach this threshold.

As a small-scale example of this, Dhakal (2003) shows that a modest promotion of electric vehicle use in Kathmandu, converting all three-wheeled passenger travel to electric motors and 20% of the bus-travel to trolley buses run on overhead electricity, would save 20,400 tons of CO2 annually. As a CDM project to perform this upgrade could claim credit for several years worth of decreases in emissions, the value of the project on the global carbon market might be in excess of US$500,000, which would cover a significant portion of the project.

I believe the CDM may prove to be a grand opportunity for sustainable urban development. Estimates of the potential global market of the CDM have varied widely depending on assumptions, from $3-21 billion per year. Urbanists need to press for a broadening of the interpretation of CDM under the Kyoto Protocol. If even a small part of the global market for CDM could be used to leverage projects in cities in the developing world, it would make a huge difference. In the process, we would also build more sustainable, livable cities. In essence, I believe the world has the technical know-how to build more sustainable cities, but poorer cities simply lack the capital to enact this change. The CDM could be one of the important tools to close this funding gap.

--Hamlet's Dreams

Mississippi Planning "Mega-Charrette"

In the news surrounding Post-Katrina devestation comes this hopeful and optimistic news via New Urban News. The governor of Mississippi is asking Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. to conduct a massive scale design process for the towns devestated by the hurricane. In essence, DPZ and a slew of other firms in the "new urbanism" vein will make standardized plans for the region available for any town that desires. It's basically like getting a free design consultant for each town damaged. That doesn't necessarily mean that every town is obligated to accept and use these services, but it's a great incentive.

Don't Drive-Through East Aurora

Residents and planners of East Aurora, NY, have been diligent about abstaining from big-box development. The importance of maintaining a "sense of place," as well as their dedication to preserve and reconstruct historic sites, has led their planning decisions. Shoot, they've even gone as far as nixing drive-through restaurants! In an article for The Buffalo News, Elizabeth Cheteny, a preservationist and planner, says that East Aurora can be a model for other communities. 

"All too often, developers want to impose faceless, nameless architecture anywhere," she said. "They hit a wall here. We don't want to be anywhere; we want to be East Aurora."

Is a Road Diet a Safe Diet?

Road diets are catching on in some communities. No, they are not another "low-carb" fad. A Road diet is the conversion of a four-lane roadway into a two-lane road that will accommodate other modes (such as biking and walking) and provide better accessibility to adjacent developments.

It comes as no surprise when some traffic engineers become hesitant with plans to restrict the flow of traffic since they are especially concerned with safety. And they should be!  No traffic engineer in their right mind would recommend a solution that would put lives at greater risk. However, it appears obvious that a road diet would help reduce vehicle vs. pedestrian and vehicle vs. bicycle conflicts. But what about vehicle to vehicle crashes?

While thumbing through a recent edition of ITE Journal I found a link to this article that presents the results of a study on the effects of road diets on crashes and injuries. The study looked at sites in cities such as San Francisco, Oakland and Seattle. Basically the study concluded that road diets for the selected sites resulted in a reduction of crashes by 6 percent or less although there was no difference in crash severity.

Now I'm not suggesting that every urban street to be thinned for the sake of providing multi-modal transportation. Even this study explained that road diets with average daily traffic (ADT) above 20,000 will result in a greater risk of increasing congestion to the point of diverting traffic to alternate routes.

Nevertheless this effort of studying the safety aspects of road diets has led to positive results, so that we may continue to cut out the trans fats.

GreenHomeNYC

For a healthy dallop of optimism, visit GreenHomeNYC. Their tagline, "We help NYC buildings go green," could not be more of an understatement. With monthly forums, annual events, resources for tenants and owners, and community outreach efforts, this organization is moving at quite a clip to help turn everyday buildings into green buildings.

Hillary Clinton Supports Smart Growth

A month ago, Hillary Rodham Clinton sent a letter to the American Planning Association that fanned the fire for Smart Growth planners everywhere. In it, Clinton offers up the SCORE act, which would help planning organizations revitalize, and apply Smart Growth principles to, aging "first suburbs." Here is the bottom line:

The keystone of the SCORE Act is a $250 million Reinvestment Fund that provides   grants to eligible communities for smart growth initiatives.

Legalize Neighborhoods (again)

The good folks at ChangeThis have a PDF "manifesto" from architect and urbanist David Greusel up for your perusal:

America has forgotten how to make cities. With traffic-planning and single-use zoning the beloved neighborhood has been made illegal in most U.S. cities ... Since about the end of World War II, the United States has remade itself from a nation of people into a nation of automobiles. Don?t believe me? Look around you. Unless you live in central Boston, New York, San Francisco or Chicago, chances are you spend most of your waking hours driving — not walking — around a city that didn't exist fifty years ago — a city made for cars. ... Is this where you live, or where you aspire to live? Some call it the American Dream. I call it a nightmare. This sprawling suburban, car-comfort lifestyle is not how we were meant to live.

Great Interview with Dolores Hayden

This is a great interview with Dolores Hayden about her new book A Field Guide to Sprawl. Her previous books (Power of Place, Redesigning the American Dream) really influenced my decision to get into planning. She has a lot of powerful insights about sprawl and the process of sprawl – historically, psychologically, aesthetically.

I looked at this new book a while ago and didn't think it was anything special. It's like a picture book for planners. Did any of you read it, like it?

Cookie-Cutter Infill

The City of Sacramento, California, attempts to speed up the infill development process with their model-house pilot program. The solution? Homogenation. The pilot program has a set of four pre-approved plans from which interested persons can choose.

The streamlined planning process is intended to make urban infill more attractive to developers who want to build and sell homes in the urban core and for the individual builder-owners trying to build themselves a starter home.

All four of the plans are for modestly sized homes (from 1,500 to 1,800 square feet) that retain the historic character of the neighborhoods where they would be built. Although small in comparison to most new homes, the infill models all come
with at least three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a garage.

And each of the plans adheres to the "new urbanism" design priniciples required by the City.

Read more in the  Sacramento News and Review. Anyone know where else a program like this has been instituted? Or perhaps variations on this theme?

Portland Planners Flee to ... Sacramento?

It makes perfect sense – where's the next (and nearest) hotspot for smart growth development?  It's not anywhere in Idaho and it's not anywhere in Nevada ... it's in sunny (that's the real reason) Sacramento, California. Yes, it seems that more architects, planners, and other devlopment-related professionals are commuting from Portland to Sacramento. Some are even relocating permanently.

Sucher's City Comforts

David Sucher's excellent City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village was revised and dramatically improved last year. Often described as the bible - or one of the bibles - of urban redevelopment, Sucher's book is my favorite all-around primer on urban design. It is especially useful for those of us who have tremendous interest in urban planning but little in the way of technical training; the revised edition introduces quite a bit more easy-to-digest information for those of us without backgrounds in the field. As the reviews on Amazon suggest, it is absolutely a must-have for policy makers who don't have a formal education in planning.

Urban Ecology

Urban Ecology was founded in 1975 by activists and architects "who believed that cities should serve both people and nature," and uses techniques from the land use planning discipline and grass-roots ecology movements to build "healthier cities" - cities that integrate planned space for plants and animals. Not just public parks, but all sorts of green space integrated into each community on the neighborhood level.