Infrastructure

Great City: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Unveil Plans For China's First Self-Sufficient, Carless City

Thu, 2012-10-25 23:19 — Maeryn Obley

Design mock-up of the self-sufficient carless city.

Image: Design mock-up of the self-sufficient carless city.

submitted by Samuel Bendett

inhabitat.com - October 25th, 2012 - Beth Buczynski

Many may perceive China as a crowded, polluted country, but that legacy is changing. Chicago-based Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture just unveiled its master plan for Chengdu Tianfu District Great City, a self-sustaining satellite city that offers a solution to the problems of overburdened infrastructure and high pollution levels that assail many of China’s major urban centers.

The project envisions a city that avoids the high energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with suburban sprawl. According to the architects, Great City will be developed by Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co., Ltd. over the next eight years. When completed, it will be home to about 30,000 families totaling 80,000 people.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Sustainable Development

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Read more about Great City: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Unveil Plans For China's First Self-Sufficient, Carless City
Log in or register to post comments

MSN's The Cities Issue

Sat, 2012-08-25 11:57 — Maeryn Obley

cities issue logo

Image: The Cities Issue logo.

foreignpolicy.com

Our special issue dedicated to the cities of the future has its eye squarely toward China, because the cities of the future are increasingly going to be speaking Mandarin -- even more than you realize. It's no longer news that China has embarked on the largest mass urbanization in history, a monumental migration from country to city that will leave China with nearly a billion urbanites by 2025 and an astonishing 221 cities with populations over 1 million. But this isn't just about size: It's about global heft.

(VIEW ISSUE ONLINE)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Sustainable Development

Technology

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Other

Read more about MSN's The Cities Issue
Log in or register to post comments

India Power Outage Spotlights Energy Planning Failure

Tue, 2012-07-31 18:15 — Maeryn Obley

New Delhi train passengers sit stranded in a darkened train idled by the massive power outage that swept across India on Tuesday.

Image: New Delhi train passengers sit stranded in a darkened train idled by the massive power outage that swept across India on Tuesday.

Marianne Lavelle, Jeff Smith and Rebecca Byerly - July 31st, 2012 - news.nationalgeographic.com

In one of the world's worst power blackouts ever, more than 600 million people across India lost electricity Tuesday, the second massive grid failure in as many days, raising questions whether the government's failure to modernize and bolster its energy delivery system had finally left the nation at the breaking point.

Rail service was halted, streets were clogged at intersections with darkened traffic lights, and people sweltered without air conditioning in temperatures above 90°F (32°C), as authorities worked to restore power and pinpoint the cause of the problem. The outage that began Monday lasted 15 hours, and only shortly after service was restored, at 1 p.m. Tuesday, a far larger system collapse swept across the nation's northern and eastern grids.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Read more about India Power Outage Spotlights Energy Planning Failure
Log in or register to post comments

Most Power Restored After India Hit by Second, Even Larger Outage

Tue, 2012-07-31 17:48 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Heavy traffic backs up at a toll gate along a highway on the outskirts of New Delhi as power outages leave half of India without power Tuesday, July 31.

cnn.com - by Harmeet Shah Singh - July 31, 2012

New Delhi (CNN) -- India suffered its second huge, crippling power failure in two days Tuesday, depriving as much as half of the vast country, up to 600 million people, of electricity and disrupting transport networks for several hours.

The first power grid collapse, on Monday, was the country's worst blackout in a decade. It affected seven states in northern India that are home to more than 350 million people.

But Tuesday's failure was even larger, hitting eastern and northeastern areas as well. Both blackouts cut power in the Indian capital, New Delhi, and left people sweltering in high heat and humidity.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Read more about Most Power Restored After India Hit by Second, Even Larger Outage
Log in or register to post comments

Pictures: 10 Green-Tech City Solutions for Beating the Heat

Tue, 2012-07-31 17:00 — Maeryn Obley

Singapore Supertrees Photograph by Wong Maye-E, AP

Image: Singapore supertrees. Photograph by Wong Maye-E, AP

Tasha Eichenseher - July 26th, 2012 - news.nationalgeographic.com

A series of images and short articles by the National Geographic showcase green technology in cities across the world used to mitigate the 'heat island effect'.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Read more about Pictures: 10 Green-Tech City Solutions for Beating the Heat
Log in or register to post comments

Resilience Alliance

Sat, 2012-01-28 13:29 — mdmcdonald

There are many definitions of resilience from simple deterministic views of resilience anchored in Newtonian mechanics to far more dynamic views of resilience from a systems perspective, including insights from quantum mechanics and the sciences of complexity. One baseline perspective of resilience sees it in terms of the viability of socio-ecological systems as the foundation for sustainability. For those that are ready to look beyond resilience as the ability to return to the "normal state" before a disaster, take a look at:

http://www.resalliance.org/

Country / Region Tags:

Global

US - West

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Problem

Read more about Resilience Alliance
Log in or register to post comments

Mesh Cities

Sat, 2012-01-28 12:54 — mdmcdonald

What does it take to become a smart city? Why are mesh cities important to sustainability?

For more information:

<http://www.meshcities.com/>

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Sustainable Development

Technology

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Problem

Guardian: Maps and Lists of Occupy Everywhere Sites

Mon, 2011-10-24 07:42 — mdmcdonald

The below Guardian article provides a map and lists of where Occupy Everywhere protests are emerging. They are primarily, but not exclusively in the U.S. and Europe, in countries where the economy is in significant decline and inequities are significant. In most of these places, the youth fear that their future will be worse than their parents, due to the greed of a global elite insensitive to the destruction they have caused economically and environmentally.

The list includes 951 cities in 82 countries.

To see the story and full list, go to:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/oct/17/occupy-protests-world-list-map

Country / Region Tags:

Global

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Problem

Read more about Guardian: Maps and Lists of Occupy Everywhere Sites
Log in or register to post comments

IT and Information Sharing Environments for Community Health Resilience

Thu, 2011-09-29 09:44 — mdmcdonald

Information Technology (IT) and Information Sharing Environments (ISEs) are crucial to the evolution of community health resilience. Most people working to improve community health resilience do not understand the nuances of Information Sharing Environments, and how the rapid shifts in IT, mobile devices, social media, cloud computing, peer to peer parallel processing, smart grids, and the linking of millions of people, mobile devices, computers, and sensors are creating a societal mind, which is transforming community health resilience and the health and human security of Americans.

If you have thoughts on these topics, please comment within this collaboratory thread.

Meeting / Event Tags:

Roundtable

Conference

Country / Region Tags:

Global

United States

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Problem

Read more about IT and Information Sharing Environments for Community Health Resilience
Log in or register to post comments

When Capitalism Converges With Resilience

Tue, 2011-08-30 12:08 — mdmcdonald

It is hard to argue against that fact that the U.S. and even "Communist" China, for that matter, have great influence in global markets and on health and human security -- for their own people as well as human populations world-wide. The power of capital within global, regional, national, and local markets has been transforming the world since the growth of the industrial revolution, which has only accelerated since the broad introduction of global communication and computing in the 20th century. That said, there has been growing criticism of the destructive nature of market fundamentalism and laissez faire economics in the face of a growing awareness of ecosystem carrying capacities, and the problems inherent in growth economies in decline. So what happens when capitalists become aware of the destructive nature of growth economies, where populations are exceeding the carrying capacities of ecosystems and mass consumption economies begin to collapse?

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags: