Student: Roan Shea
Graduation date: May 2018
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2015
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Summary
More than half of the world’s population live in cities, and as development and population increase, this percentage is expected to rise. Modern cities are not isolated entities, but globally connected and interwoven elements of societies (Roche, 2014). The increasing impacts on and from actors outside of urban areas make for extremely complex city dynamics. Similar ideas of interconnectivity are discussed in Lewis Mumford’s The City in History, Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects (1961). Mumford studies the fundamental attributes and functions of early cities, and how these ideas persist into the future. Looking at these ideas from a contemporary viewpoint of global connectivity prompts the question of what are the purposes and functions of a city? Beyond economic and political power, cities have deep social significance as cultural centers that fluidly share space and resources. Thinking solely about the logistical needs of cities disregards the human aspects of safety, quality of life, and expression which are critical to city life. These fundamental elements give insight into what is necessary to sustain cities (Hall,1988).
The maintenance and development of cities require huge amounts of energy, which takes space and resources. The production of this energy must be on a large enough scale, produced in a small enough space, and for a small enough cost that it is maximally efficient (Bryce, 2010). However this raises issues of cleanliness, risk, and carbon dioxide emissions. The most efficient and economically appealing energy sources at face value are coal and oil which are associated with high CO2 emissions and health risks in their procurement and combustion. These health risks are of concern to the safety and quality of cities, and CO2 emissions are of global concern in relation to climate change. This issue is falling more and more upon cities to mitigate, and asks significant questions about policy and energy production (Bulkeley, 2010). When it comes to discussing carbon emissions, renewable energy sources such as the three most commonly used forms: solar, hydroelectric, and wind power, are a necessary part of the debate. Renewable energy presents an opportunity for relatively clean energy sources that have negligible CO2 emissions and do not rely on dwindling fossil fuels. Talking about these forms of energy in relation to city use brings up several questions. For instance, which forms of energy production are well suited to be used in cities? As Sarralde says in, Solar Energy and Urban Morphology, a city’s ability to produce renewable energy within its own boundaries is a standard being used more and more to assess its energy performance. However, should this always be the goal for cities? Connectivity is a characteristic of urban areas, so does a city that exclusively produces it’s own renewable energy effectively isolate itself from outside economies? In the IIASA’s 2012 Global Energy Assessment, the restrictions of renewable energy sources are discussed. A primary limitation is the cost. Compared to fossil fuel combustion renewable energy sources are not cost effective (at least in the short term), so they are not implemented most of the time. So, how can planners, organizations, and individuals strike a balance between establishing energy security and ensuring resource sustainability? The choice to use renewable energy sources for the most part lays with individual people and institutions, who will generally work with methods that lead to their own economic prosperity. Should governments therefore work towards policy that incentivizes use of or stimulates the market for renewable energy? (Menanteau, 2002) Additionally, in specific relation to cities, space is an issue. Hydroelectric power requires large areas for reservoirs and dams, and wind turbines take up too much space to easily implement in a city. How can planners make for efficient energy production by influencing land use in cities? Solar panels do not necessarily have the same spatial limitations, but instead represent another limitation of many renewable energy sources which is the reliance on uncontrollable weather patterns. For instance, solar panels would inefficient in cities such as Portland, Oregon, where there is little prolonged sun exposure in winter months.
The questions and complexities within energy usage and urban development apply to cities across the world. Cities can be categorized in many different ways, but a lense that interests me in particular is the age/stage of development of a city.
One example of city with interesting implications in urban planning is an old city such as Manchester, England. New needs for enlarged scale and alternate locations for sectors clash with the established long-standing institutions. Finding ways to work around or work with existing limitations of infrastructure is an interesting and difficult proposition. Seeing how this could then affect a city’s energy production and capacity for renewable energy sources adds another layer of complexity (Dembski, 2015). In many old settled cities like Manchester, government planning can be more influential than in a city which is quickly growing because over time there are more “green” policies put in place concerning energy usage. Individual businesses may not have as much free reign over their modes of energy production.
In opposition, new cities also pose interesting questions in urban planning. Although an extreme case, Cheggong, China is a brand new city with over 100,000 empty apartments. It is one of many cities in China that has been constructed in anticipation of large numbers of people moving from rural areas (Banerji, 2012). This city is an example of strong government influence of urban planning, and asks questions of how cities rise into being and succeed. What actors are important in development besides government? In what situations does the planning of cities succeed? When does it fail? How can we plan new cities based on projections to have accurate and sustainable developments and energy usage? These questions relate to not just preemptively constructed cities, but cities in general. All planning that can be done by urban planners is based on projections of some kind and must take into consideration these questions.
A third type of city that interests me in the context of urban planning is a quickly growing city like Lagos, Nigeria. The infrastructure and energy required to accommodate the population go up. With these rising energy requirements, focus on the aspects of the city’s sustainability beyond the economic and social will not be as heavily stressed. This leads to individual businesses making energy decisions that will allow them to develop quickly, even if it is detrimental in other areas. These cities can also feel pressure from outside developed nations such as the US who push for renewable energy implementation in developing areas. Finding ways to make positive global impacts while maintaining local energy security and quality of life can be a very difficult task (UNHabitat, 2004).
REFERENCES
Bryce, Robert. 2010. “The Real Problem with Renewables.” Forbes.
Bulkeley, Harriet. 2010. “Cities and the Governing of Climate Change.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 35 (1): 229–53. doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-072809-101747.
Banerji, Robin. 2012. “Chinese Ghost Towns and Phantom Malls.” BBC News.
Campbell, Scott. 1996. “Green Cities, Growing Cities, Just Cities?: Urban Planning and the Contradictions of Sustainable Development.”Journal of the American Planning Association 62 (3): 296–312. doi:10.1080/01944369608975696.
Davidson, Kathryn M., Jon Kellett, Lou Wilson, and Stephen Pullen. 2012. “Assessing Urban Sustainability from a Social Democratic Perspective: A Thematic Approach.” Local Environment 17 (1): 57–73. doi:10.1080/13549839.2011.631990.
Dembski, Sebastian. 2015. “Structure and Imagination of Changing Cities: Manchester, Liverpool and the Spatial in-Between.”Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) 52 (9): 1647–64. doi:10.1177/0042098014539021.
GEA, 2012: Global Energy Assessment – Toward a Sustainable Future, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria.
Hall, Peter. 1988. Cities of tomorrow. Blackwell Publishers.
Kaza, Nikhil, and Marie Patane Curtis. 2014. “The Land Use Energy Connection.”Journal of Planning Literature 29 (4): 355–69. doi:10.1177/0885412214542049.
Menanteau, Philippe. 2002. “Prices versus quantities: choosing policies for promoting the development of renewable energy.”Institut d’Economie et de Politique de l’Energie, France.
Mumford, Lewis, and George Copeland. 1961. The city in history: Its origins, its transformations, and its prospects. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Roche, María Yetano, Stefan Lechtenböhmer, Manfred Fischedick, Marie-Christine Gröne, Chun Xia, and Carmen Dienst. 2014. “Concepts and Methodologies for Measuring the Sustainability of Cities.”Annual Review of Environment and Resources39 (1): 519–47. doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-012913-101223.
Sarralde, Juan José, David James Quinn, Daniel Wiesmann, and Koen Steemers. 2015. “Solar Energy and Urban Morphology: Scenarios for Increasing the Renewable Energy Potential of Neighbourhoods in London.” Renewable Energy: An International Journal 73 (January): 10–17. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2014.06.028.
UNHabitat. 2004. “Sustainable Urban Energy Planning.” UNON Publishing Services Section.
Questions
- Descriptive: What are the functions of a city? What are some of the strategies used in urban planning to promote energy sustainability? What are the economic, social, and ecological impacts of different types of energy production? Who are the actors that influence urban development?
- Explanatory: Why are some renewable energy sources more feasible for use in cities than others? Why could the planning of cities to a certain extent be out of the control of urban planners?
- Evaluative: When is it desirable to implement renewable energy production on a wide scale? Why is it important to consider renewable energy sources in city planning? Why or why is it not desirable for a city to produce all of its own energy? When is planning of a city successful?
- Instrumental: How can we plan or influence development of our cities to promote efficient energy production and use? How can we ensure energy security in a sustainable manner?
Concentration courses
- USP 311U (Portland State University: Introduction to Urban Planning, 4 credits) Spring 2017- This course would give me an increased understanding of theories and practices in urban planning, as well as the outside legal, social, economic and political forces that influence planners.
- ENVS 350 (Environmental Theory, 4 credits) Spring 2016- This course would give me an in depth look at environmental theories and assumptions about the nature of the environment, which would tie in with my focus on sustainability and its true meaning.
- ECON 292 (Microeconomic Theory, 4 credits) Spring 2017- In this course I would gain an understanding of markets and consumption, which would help me to understand the economics behind renewable energy, and cities in general.
- ECON 332 (Urban Economics, 4 credits) Fall 2018- This would give me a more in depth look at the economics of cities and economic motivations of their inhabitants.
Arts and humanities courses
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- TH281: (Theater and Society I, 4 credits)- This course would give me insight into many different cultures and how their theater reflects greater movements and attitudes within their societies. The concentration of theater in urban centers gives a unique perspective on the culture of cities. This could help me identify motivations and functions (both economic and social) within cities as well as their relationship to art and how it can bring about change. The potential impact of art in urban planning is a concept that intrigues me.