Urbanization, while on one end results in habitat loss and the expansion of many city’s ecological footprints, is also a way in which to transition into a more “sustainable” urban area. This leads me to one of my first questions regarding urban planning and urbanization: what is sustainability?? Everyone wants it, everyone seems to know what it is, and yet it is an extremely vague and undefined (in it’s applied vs. theoretical framework).
Because sustainability is so conceptual in its definition, I also find it difficult to compare countries or regions with a few large, centralized cities, and areas with a number of smaller, decentralized cities. At first glance, smaller cities with well-planned transportation and communication networks appear more productive in their application of sustainable development plans, but centralized cities similarly have resources in which decentralized ones do not. How then, does one determine which urban planning directions each region takes is better equipped to follow the new and improved “sustainable” path?
The environmentalist call for sustainability and ecologically friendly urban development has called to question another seemingly well-defined structure; traditional governance, including at international level. My inquiry into centralization vs. decentralization is connected to the levels in which urban governance is decided/implemented/discussed. Essentially, all three of these overarching themes are connected in the urban planning arena. The level and type of city/urban governance is dependent on the size/centralization of a city and visa versa. Similarly, the role of the governance depends on [sustainability] goals, which call also be influenced by the ways in which said governance interacts with its surrounding urban population.