Sustainable City Project

We have been studying sustainable cities and land use. In your groups, you will look deeply at
these ideas and incorporate them into a city design.

Use these questions to help you research how to begin this project. These must be answered in
complete sentences and attached to your finished project.

1. What is smart growth? List tools cities can use to promote smart growth in terms of limits
and regulations, zoning, planning, protecting land from development, taxes, tax breaks,
and revitalizing and planning cities and towns.
Smart growth is a concentration of growth in urban areas to avoid sprawl and destruction of
natural ecosystems outside the area specified. Useful tools cities can use are limits or regulations
on building permits, mixed zoning of residential and business centers, transportation routes
mixing with ecological land use analysis and environmental impacts, preservation of ecosystems
and open spaces, and tax breaks to encourage clean up of abandoned urban spaces.
2. Describe the major resource and environmental problems of urban areas relating to (a)
sustainability, (b) resource use, (c) biodiversity preservation, (d) land use, (e) tree
cover, (f) food production, (g) microclimate (urban heat islands), (h) water supply and
flooding, (i) pollution and human health, (j) noise, (k) excessive light, and (k) poverty
and social problems.
A. Suburban sprawl, pollution, energy use are all environmental problems of urban areas which
are most noticeable in urban developments. Urban cities lead to high production of trash and
pollution, high usage of electricity to maintain the infrastructure of city and suburban sprawl for
families living outside the city but working within.
B. People in urban areas consume 75% more resources while making up a smaller percentage of
land area about 2%.
C. Decrease biodiversity due to disturbance of natural lands.
D. Much resource of the land is taken by the city, lands are often used up by factories or
residential centers to house the citizens of the city.
E. Trees are destroyed in place of roads and buildings or concrete plazas.
F. Low food production in cities.
G. Noticeable microclimate due to the high influence a city holds over the environment and area.
H. Large amounts of flooding often due to geography and high possibility of cities to be built on
easy to develop plains.
I. Pollution is high because of large amount of residents in compact high density spaces.
J. High amounts of noise due to many machinery, large density of workers or residents, and high
traffic and cars.
K. High light pollution blocking out sky, affects aquatic ecosystems if built close to coastline,
decrease water quality.
K-2. Poverty becomes higher.
3. What are the environmental benefits of urbanization?
Urbanization increases awareness of environmental problems, increases recycling, expenditures on
environment, preserves biodiversity and reduces stress on wild life due to less sprawl in small high
density cities compared to suburbs.
4. What is urban sprawl? List the major harmful effects of urban sprawl in terms of land and
biodiversity, human health and aesthetics, water, energy, air, climate, and economic effects.
Urban sprawl is growth of low density development on edges of cities that may become suburbs or
towns and seek to expand wider. Effects are large croplands, contamination of water, runoff
contamination, erosion, increased energy use and resource use, less focus on downtown and
business sectors, more flooding, weight gain.
5. What is sustainability?
Sustainability is an ability to maintain without much loss. A sustainable society meets the needs of
the present without sacrificing ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Using the San Francisco model, how can cities address the following necessary aspects?

- Air Quality: By regulating automobiles and access to mass transit, reduce dependence on
gasoline fueled personal vehicles, regulate industrial activities, reduce nitrogen oxide from
: air pollution. Address emission of VOCs, MVOCs, particulates and indoor air quality.
- Biodiversity: Provide food and shelter for migratory and resident birds, regulate non native
plants, reduce fragmentation of native environments, regulate domestic animals, reduce
industrial pollution or air pollution.
- Energy Use: Improve efficiency of energy use, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, increase
energy bills, ensure basic energy services, promote local employment, promote local politics
and control of energy policy, emphasize small scale energy sources.
- Climate Change: Emphasize energy efficiency, reduce use of gasolines and fossil fuels.
- Food/Agriculture- where does their food come from? is there agriculture close to town?
How do citizens obtain their food?: Emphasize economically and environmentally
efficient decisions in purchasing foods for schools, grocers, shelters, jails. Use locally
grown foods, instead of long distance shipping or foods with high use of chemicals.
Make city policies to benefit those who use locally grown foods. Increase access to
nutritious foods better systems of commercial food distribution, better transportation
for grocery stores, farmer markets, and better utilization of federal food programs.
- Waste- how do they dispose of their solid waste? Hazardous waste?: Increase clean up of
abandoned urban spaces and factories. Reduce and regulate usage of chemicals in the city.
Seek restoration of factories and industrial facilities which have been abandoned or
contaminated. Emphasize population investment on efficient use of resources, regulate
disposal of hazardous waste, educate common citizens on disposal of waste.
- Economy- what is their economy based on? Parks/Open Space: Predominant use of
renewable energy, resource efficiency, minimal use of chemicals and toxic materials, full
cost pricing. Change from linear to circular flow of resources, from transformation of
manufacturing and pollution by landfills in linear flow, to continual use by recycling of
manufactured goods and use of other reuse or production processes to reduce waste in
circular flow. Focus on sustainable economy and industrial ecology. Parks and open spaces
provide habitats and corridors for birds.
- Transportation: Sustainable transport system, reduce use of gasoline and pollution, noise,
and traffic congestion.
- Public Information/Education- how do citizens obtain important information (TV,
newspaper, emails, etc.), what kind of governing bodies are in power (county
commissioners, mayor, etc.): Accurate information through media from libraries
in books or articles, homes with internet and tv, community centers, work, public
spaces for congregation. Governing bodies from mayors and commissioners to
communicate with citizens and broad public in order to keep information
accessible to residents by representatives of local government.
- Human Health- where does their drinking water come from?: Achieving public health shift
strongly to prevention by maintaining or improving remediation services by government
needed for a transition to a healthful city. Drinking water to come from safe government
EPA regulated surface or groundwater to drink.