Bogotá: Building A Sustainable City

Bogota: Building a Sustainable City - documentary by PBS e2 series. Narrated by Brad Pitt. During his tenure as mayor of Bogota, Colombia, Enrique Penalosa was both revered and scorned for his urban planning and transportation policies. His public works projects, which largely favored the pedestrian experience, were unlike anything previously built in Bogota. Penalosa describes the environmental and social importance of minimizing automobile culture.

Building a Green New House

In a short, funny, data-packed talk at TED U, Catherine Mohr walks through all the geeky decisions she made when building a green new house -- looking at real energy numbers, not hype. What choices matter most? Not the ones you think.



Catherine and Paul Mohr live in Silicon Valley with their daughter Natalie and cats Loki and Tia. In addition to building a green house, they both work on designing and building surgical robots at Intuitive Surgical.

Their 301 Monroe blog has entries about our house building process including:

• “Energy” for posts that are particularly concerned with energy calculations and energy savings
• “Sustainability” spans many subjects and includes many of the energy and water and strawbale posts, but also includes posts about sustainability of other materials

The Embodied energy calculations discussed in Catherine’s TED talk can be found on the Embodied Energy Blog post.

How food shapes our cities

Every day, in a city the size of London, 30 million meals are served. But where does all the food come from? In this new TED video Architect Carolyn Steel discusses the daily miracle of feeding a city, and shows how ancient food routes shaped the modern world.



Food is a shared necessity -- but also a shared way of thinking, argues Carolyn Steel. Looking at food networks offers an unusual and illuminating way to explore how cities evolved.

Peak Oil Preparation Wiki

The purpose of the Peak Oil Preparation wiki is to examine the ramifications of several possible post peak oil scenarios, as well collect and synthesize information relevant to peak oil preparation for both individuals and groups/organizations. Much of this information has been scattered in different places, including peak oil related email groups, websites and books. A wiki allows for massive collaboration and ease of adding new materials to keep the information updated.

The wiki was created very recently, so the outline is mostly an empty skeleton of topics. Please help and "give back to the web" by contributing. It will be a growing resource where you can archive relevant information you have collected. And, as more people contribute, it will become a more valuable resource over time.

Contents

• 1 What is "Peak Oil?" And why do I need to prepare for it?
  • 1.1 Possible post peak oil scenarios
    • 1.1.1 1. Scientific energy breakthrough / "technofix"
    • 1.1.2 2. Long oil production plateau and increasing reliance of renewable energy
    • 1.1.3 3. Gradual economic decline
    • 1.1.4 4. Fast economic crash
    • 1.1.5 5. Collapse of civilization
    • 1.1.6 Why predicting the future is very difficult
  • 1.2 Risk management strategies
• 2 How to contribute to this wiki
• 3 POSSIBLE CHANGES LIKELY AFTER PEAK OIL
  • 3.1 Transportation
    • 3.1.1 Less use of air transportation
    • 3.1.2 More use of trains
    • 3.1.3 More use of ships
  • 3.2 The economy
  • 3.3 Retreat from globalization -- re-localization
  • 3.4 Higher cost of food
  • 3.5 Resource conflicts and wars
  • 3.6 Changes in family relationships
  • 3.7 Recycling
  • 3.8 Changes in education
  • 3.9 Changes in employment and careers
• 4 PERSONAL PEAK OIL PREPARATION
  • 4.1 ADJUSTING AND ADAPTING TO THE "NEW NORMAL"
  • 4.2 COMMUNICATIONS
    • 4.2.1 Overview
    • 4.2.2 Phone, voice and text-messaging
    • 4.2.3 Internet
    • 4.2.4 CB Radio
    • 4.2.5 Short-wave Radio
  • 4.3 EDUCATION
    • 4.3.1 Overview
    • 4.3.2 Recommended self-sufficiency books
  • 4.4 ENERGY and ENERGY PRODUCTION
    • 4.4.1 Overview
    • 4.4.2 Electrical Generation
      • 4.4.2.1 Solar PV
      • 4.4.2.2 Gasoline generators
      • 4.4.2.3 Windmills
      • 4.4.2.4 Watermills
    • 4.4.3 Lighting
    • 4.4.4 Liquid Fuels
      • 4.4.4.1 Making biodiesel
  • 4.5 FINANCIAL
    • 4.5.1 Overview
    • 4.5.2 Employment
      • 4.5.2.1 Careers Post-Peak
      • 4.5.2.2 Banking
    • 4.5.3 Investing
  • 4.6 FOOD
    • 4.6.1 Overview
    • 4.6.2 Growing food / gardening
    • 4.6.3 Food preparation / cooking
    • 4.6.4 Food storage
      • 4.6.4.1 Food Dehydration
      • 4.6.4.2 Food Canning
  • 4.7 HEALTH and MEDICAL
    • 4.7.1 Overview
    • 4.7.2 Prescription drugs
    • 4.7.3 First Aid Supplies
  • 4.8 HOUSING
    • 4.8.1 Overview
    • 4.8.2 Making decisions about relocating
      • 4.8.2.1 Possible relocation areas
    • 4.8.3 Heating
    • 4.8.4 Cooling
    • 4.8.5 Fire fighting and prevention
    • 4.8.6 Home security
    • 4.8.7 Income from renting out rooms / Rental properties
    • 4.8.8 Family or group multiple-unit "compounds"
    • 4.8.9 Cohousing communities
    • 4.8.10 Eco-villages
    • 4.8.11 Emergency "Bugging Out" Preparations and Locations
  • 4.9 ISSUES RELATED TO SPECIFIC GROUPS
  • 4.10 POLITICAL and LEADERSHIP ISSUES
  • 4.11 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL and COMMUNITY ISSUES
  • 4.12 RECREATION
  • 4.13 SANITATION
    • 4.13.1 Overview
    • 4.13.2 Temporary emergency toilets
    • 4.13.3 Composting of human waste
    • 4.13.4 Showering
  • 4.14 SECURITY AND SELF DEFENSE
  • 4.15 STORAGE -- GENERAL ISSUES
  • 4.16 TRASH AND RUBBISH DISPOSAL
  • 4.17 TRANSPORTATION
    • 4.17.1 Overview
    • 4.17.2 Bicycles
    • 4.17.3 Autos
    • 4.17.4 Public transportation
    • 4.17.5 Trains
    • 4.17.6 Boats / ships
    • 4.17.7 Air transportation
  • 4.18 WATER
    • 4.18.1 Overview
    • 4.18.2 Water purification
    • 4.18.3 Water collection and storage
    • 4.18.4 Water wells
    • 4.18.5 Hot Water: Solar Heating / Gas Heaters / etc.
• 5 LOCAL / COMMUNITY / REGIONAL PEAK OIL PREPARATION
• 6 BUSINESSES AND ORGANIZATIONS - PEAK OIL PREPARATION
  • 6.1 Overview
  • 6.2 Individual Proprietors
  • 6.3 Small Business
  • 6.4 Medium / Large Businesses
  • 6.5 Schools
  • 6.6 Colleges / Universities
  • 6.7 Hospitals and Health Care Organizations
• 7 NATIONAL PEAK OIL PREPARATION
  • 7.1 Overview
  • 7.2 Tax incentives for renewable energy
  • 7.3 Carbon taxes
  • 7.4 Carbon trading
  • 7.5 Government investments in basic renewable energy research
• 8 INTERNATIONAL / WORLD PEAK OIL PREPARATION
  • 8.1 Overview
  • 8.2 The Oil Depletion Protocol

Rethinking Urban Planning - Resilient City

Today’s cities are fully dependent on fossil fuels. Their economies, food supplies, public and private transportation, heating and cooling systems, and the production of materials to build them, are all energy intensive and fossil fuel dependent. Cities need to prepare for peak oil and the energy crisis.


ResilientCity.org is a website focused on developing creative, practical, and implementable urban planning and building design strategies that address our century's most important challenge: namely, dealing with the significant problems that will be associated with global warming and peak oil in the context of continued and unsustainable global population growth.

ResilientCity.org has three goals:

• FIRST: To raise awareness about the combined challenges of Global Warming and Peak Oil in the context of continued and unsustainable global population growth - and the radical changes these will require to how we plan cities and design buildings.
• SECOND: To stimulate a critical shift in planning and design thinking, leading to the development and implementation of appropriately “resilient” urban planning and building design strategies.
• THIRD: In the service of the first two goals, to compile a freely available set of resilient planning and design resources — including web links, research references, and planning and design exemplars.

Resilient Urban Planning

Planning to effectively meet the conditions and realities of a Post Carbon, Climate Responsible world will require a shift in our current understanding of what constitutes good urban design and planning. Many of the practices that we now take for granted, such as planning cities around automobile transportation, or zoning for single uses, will no longer be appropriate or economically feasible. To address the changes in urban design and planning, we have assembled the following principles for urban design and planning in a post-carbon, climate responsive building environment.

The following Urban Design Principles are all predicated on the assumption that in the future fossil fuels will all be scarcer and more expensive, and that national and local governments will have begun to address global climate change with various types of carbon taxation or rationing strategies. As a result we will be living in a de-powering world were urban planning must reflect this reality.

• Neighbourhood Structure
• Neighbourhood Food Supply
• Neighbourhood Water Supply and Management
• Neighbourhood Electrical Power Supply and Management
• Neighbourhood District Heating
• Neighbourhood Waste Reprocessing

ResilientCity.org welcomes contributions from architects, urban planners, engineers, landscape architects and environmental scientists. The site is moderated by Toronto architect and urban designer, Craig Applegath. The site makes the case for urgency, and suggests pathways and strategies for collective action.

Sustainable Nanocity in India to Use Renewable Energy

The vision of NANOCITY in India is to develop a sustainable city with world class infrastructure and to create an ecosystem for innovation leading to economy, ecology and social cohesion.

Nanocity spans 11138 acres of flatland located just beyond the foothills of the Himalayas. It is less than 25 kms east of Chandigarh and just over 200 kms north of Delhi. Two seasonal rivers form the eastern and western borders of the city and two streams trickle within its boundaries. It is a public/private partnership between Sabeer Bhatia Group and the Haryana State Government promoted by Sabeer Bhatia.

Green City

NANOCITY has been designed to be a green city. It uses context as opportunity, promotes a lush and shaded climate-sensitive environment, encourages the expansion of local natural systems, and advances ecologically intelligent and sustainable design. Half of the land will thrive as a green open space. Grassy frontages, green belts, courtyards, walking trails and public parks will contribute to the all – natural vibrancy of the city. Tree lined boulevards will offer shaded, climate sensitive environments. The urban infrastructure will be ecologically intelligent and sustainable by outfitting the buildings with energy efficient systems and renewable energy sources.

Sustainable City

Global warming and climate change make the contemporary urban agenda a global one. Nanocity will preserve the naturally existing resources of the land. During monsoon, water will be harvested for retention and use throughout the year. The water reclaimed from the rivers and other natural sources will undergo intensive bioremediation to make it safe for consumption. The city will be outfitted with a dual distribution piped water system to separate drinking water from reclaimed greywater used for non-potable purposes. Living machine technology will provide Nanocity with the capacity to convert wastewater into odor-free drinking water. Half of the energy used in the city will come from renewable sources viz: wind, solar and photovoltaic technologies. Buildings will use climate responsive design techniques such as sun shading, cross ventilation and direct evaporative cooling. At least 70% of the city’s waste will be recycled or composted.

State of the art city transit

The pedestrian has priority in Nanocity. Tree-lined streets, green store fronts and narrow, shaded sidewalks will ensure a pleasant walking environment. To dissuade "car culture", a state of the art public transit system has been envisaged. on the move. Nanocity’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system will consists of a main loop connecting the entire city. There are secondary loops, neighbourhood loops with transferstops and regional transit centres to increase the efficiency of mass transport. Each residence will be within a five minute walking distance from every starting point in the city. If one has to journey by car, two wheelers & other automobiles, there are lanes that are specifically meant for them thereby making the journey safe and comfortable.