URBAN ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY

URBAN LAND MANAGEMENT

Girum Mamushet(MSc.)
CONTENTS

- Defining the term

- Urban development & the environment
- Notions of sustainability & Different approaches
DISCUSSION

What is sustainability?

What do you think is your role/ or how you contribute/ in

creating a sustainable world?

What are the different strategies you know in a building and

urban level to address issues of sustainability?
 URBAN ECOLOGY?

Ecology – study of relationship of living things & their

environment.
U. E, - Scientific study of the relation of living organisms
with each other and their surrounding in the context of an
urban environment(Wikipedia)

Human habitat
Climate
Land
Water
Vegetation
 URBAN ECOLOGY?
Methods of studying
 URBAN ECOLOGY

Why we need it?

Within the next 40 years 2/3 of world population will be
living in urban center.

Urban affect environment

Urban affect climate
What does it mean?
URBAN AFFECT THE ENVIRONMENT?

Modifying land surfaces and waterways

Introducing foreign species

Altering biogeochemical cycles

URBAN AFFECT THE CLIMATE?

Urban heat island/oasis effect

Greenhouse gases
Acid rain & pollution
ALL THIS IS B/C HUMAN BEING INTERVENE

How?.........cities ………urban environment

SO WHAT ???
Cities should be planned & constructed to minimize urban effects on
the environment…. ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABILITY CITIES

Why?

City in abstract form is superficial

SUSTAINABILITY/ENVIROMENTAL MOVEMENT
Sustainability?
When & who ….Patrick Geddes, Howard(Garden city
movement), Mumford(The rise and fall of megalopolis)
After 1960s

McHarg is one of the founding fathers of sustainable

development & his ecological thesis spans - landscape,
architecture & planning.

He argued that human development should be planned in a

manner that took full account of nature and natural
processes.
Sustainability?
Meeting the needs of the present with out compromising the
need of the future generation.

Skeptical environmentalist

According to Lomborg’s assessment, conditions on earth

are generally improving for human welfare: furthermore,
future prospects are not nearly as gloomy as environmental
scientists predict.
Discussion

Is the environment degrading?

What are the contributing Factors?

Please discuss this issues

Population, Food production, environmental problems,
energy & the city, biodiversity, climate change…
sustainable development

The Brundtland Report: ‘Sustainable development is

development that meets the needs of the present
generation without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs’ (World
Commission on Environment and Development, 1987).

Solving Global problems - needs policies and programs

THE IMPERATIVE
Sustainability

While there is a general consensus on the features of a

sustainable development agenda amongst many working
in the field of urban design, nevertheless there are
differences in emphasis

there are deferent type of developments in response to the

issue….
THE URBAN LAND MANAGEMENT

 Provision of sufficient land for housing

 Land for business, industry, economic development
 Rights of way for infrastructure and roads
 Separation of industrial uses from other uses
 Freedom from negative “externalities”
 Privacy at home / security in public places
 Equity – fairness in land distribution and use
 Open space, community gathering space, recreational space
 Ability to get from place to place easily (transportation)
 Beauty, attractiveness, pride in city
 Protection of environment and preservation for the future
WHO’S IN CHARGE OF LAND?
 Federal government, regional state or local
government
 Decisions by government officials (low or high

level)?
 Long-term residents, farmers, or traditional
holders of land rights / leases
 Private developers – people with $$?
 Current residents of structures on land?
 Other citizens?
WHO HAS INTERESTS IN LAND USE?
 Current residents, farmers, business operators,
informal vendors
 Citizens at large
 Government
 Developers
 Other economic development interests
 Environmental interests or groups
 Plants and animals
 “Neighbors” (local, regional and international)
affected by nature of land use
 Seminar for Monday Afternoon

Review the Urban development policy of Ethiopia

prepared by ministry of urban development housing
and construction in the context of sustainability and
land management to point out the main consideration
& strategies aimed to address the issues.

Evaluate also the implementation techniques, the ground

reality, & the results as well.

Note: your can also compare to the other countries

experience to argue on the policy strategies
 Format
Title

Main aim of the document(50 words)

Format of the paper/general overview of the contents(50 words)

Main issues discussed in the document concerning sustainability

and land management and also what are the pillar strategies
developed

What is your observation or reflection on the ground reality

concerning the issue ? What do you suggest as an improvement?
(100 words)