SymbioCity
This is my first post and I decided to talk about an ambitious project called SymbioCity. I read about it a few months ago and it changed my mind in some aspects about the future citites. For this reason I want to explain to you what it's about.
First of all it's based in improving the city environment while the population in our cities is growing but always thinking about our footprint in the planet.
This challenges demands SMART ideas and solutions to avoid the worst consequencies of the global warming and keep the planet a good environment for the future generations.
Ideas for a sustainable urban development:
1) Energy:
- Rising demand for energy to industries can be offset by effective urban planning combined with improved building design, efficient equipment.
- Waste incineration is a potencial option for large combined heat and power systems.
- Fermentation of biodegradable septic sludge, wastewater sludge for small or medium-scale biogas production for heating, electricity or vehicle fuel.
2) Traffic and transport:
- Inlude bycicle paths, walking paths and bus lanes.
- Integrate renewable energy in public transports.
- Restrict access zones, speed limits and implement the use of biofuels.
- Intall intelligent transport services.
3) Architecture:
- Practical and functional designs with efficient equipment.
- Eco-friendly construction
- Healthy building materials
- Experience in designing prefabricated systems
- High construction standards
4) Water supply and sanitation:
- Grey and black water mixed with household biowaste can be used to make biogas and then for use as vehicle fuel or in heating and electricity generation.
- Bioresidue as an agricultural nutrient that can reduce the use of artificial fertilizer.
- For small-scale of energy production.
5) Information and communication:
- Smart logisitcs save on transport fuel, electricity and storage space.
- Digital communications reduce transport need.
- Intelligent monitoring helps users and buildings become energy efficient.
- Digital service delivery in sectors such health services, education and government.
6) Waste management:
- Minimizatig landfills or redeveloping old waste sites.
- Digestion of biodegradable waste for small-scale biogas production.
- Minimizating industrial waste through collaboration between business, environment managers and waste collectors.
- Prevent dumping of waste and septic sludge in stormwater and wastewater catchment areas.
- Recycling waste fractions such as metals, glass, paper and cardboard, plastics.
7) Landscape planning:
- Purifying areas of water, promoting their biodiversity and using them for recreation.
- Integration of green spaces and storm water management to create open ponds and ditches that regulate water levels.
- Restoring brownfield sites into green areas and parks for recreation.
- Using green areas to help schoolchildren understand ecology and the environment.
All of these aspects are clearly relevants to develop our cities respecting the environment and guarantee a good place to live in the future. At the moment a project based on these ideas is being developed in Kenya. Here is a link to see more information about it.
There are also other projects around the world based on these ideas but obviously we need many more people and companies involved to ensure sustainable cities in the future.
For my next post I will be talking about Hafencity in Hamburg, which I visited a couple of days ago. It is a project of urban regeneration which include the use of renewable energies and the improvement of public transport.
