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China Is Building A Huge Eco-City Where No One Will Need To Drive

Mon, 2012-11-12 16:58 — Maeryn Obley

Imagined car-free 'Great City'. © Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture.

Image: Imagined car-free 'Great City'. © Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture.

businessinsider.com - November 2nd, 2012 - Alex Davies

Outside Chengdu, in central China, a 78 million square foot site has been determined for an unconventional sort of construction project. It will be a city built from scratch, for 80,000 people, none of whom will need a car to get around.

The "Great City" is a plan for an ambitious urban center designed to limit its residents environmental impact by producing clean energy, reducing waste, and promoting public transportation over individual car use.

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Stop Talking About the Weather and Do Something: Three Ways to Finance Sustainable Cities

Sat, 2012-11-10 23:12 — Maeryn Obley

Submitted by Albert Gomez

hbswk.hbs.edu - November 6th, 2012

The wrath of Hurricane Sandy has illuminated a fundamental question: How do we ensure that our cities are resilient in the face of inevitable future disasters? A destroyed city is not a sustainable city. I'm making the case that it's time to stop complaining about climate change.

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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.

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http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4418022&goback=.gde_1528217_member_165228150

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Safe Cities Initiatives

Sun, 2012-09-23 21:55 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Mike Kraft

linkedin.com

Terrorism, man made incidents, natural disasters and the current global economic climate, have forced cities to implement Safe City technologies and strategies. Safe City key elements include Social Media Analytics/Monitoring, Critical Infrastructure Protection, and leveraging emerging homeland security technologies to gain greater situational awareness for law enforcement professionals. The purpose of this group is to discuss emerging trends and technologies in the Safe City arena and serve as a networking environment for Safe City professionals. Emerging technologies in this area are PSIM (Physical Security Information Management), Biometrics-Access Control, Social Media Analysis-Monitoring, Explosives and Narcotics Trace Detection and Tactical & Emergency Communications Systems.

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Moscow Agglomeration Competition Unveils Sustainable Master Plans for the City of the Future

Sun, 2012-09-16 00:26 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

inhabitat.com - by Lidija Grozdanic - September 12, 2012

Moscow authorities recently announced the results of the Moscow Agglomeration Competition for the Moscow metropolitan area. The 3-stage international competition called for master plan designs for the city that include the existing city development and the design of new city districts (Federal City, Innovation City, Logistics City and Science City). Entrants responded with ambitious urban planning proposals that include massive green belts, high-speed transportation systems and zero-waste, zero-emission buidlings - read on for a closer look!

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CITIES: A helping hand for the urban poor

Fri, 2012-09-07 14:50 — Maeryn Obley

Image: Involve communities specially in informal settlements (Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN)

irinnews.org - September 6th, 2012

With more than half the world now living in urban centres, city residents’ quality of life, vulnerability to natural hazards and diets are matters of growing importance, drawing significant attention at the World Urban Forum in Naples, Italy, this week.

Two major studies launched to coincide with the Forum explore these issues. Both focus on the role of local governments and community initiatives in shaping sustainable policies for poor urban dwellers: Growing Greener Cities in Africa, a report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); and the Making Cities Resilient Report 2012, produced by the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) for the UN Office for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).

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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.

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Ecocities Emerging

Fri, 2012-08-03 23:27 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Jerry Erbach

Ecocity Builders

Mission and Vision

Ecocity Builders reshapes cities for the long-term health of human and natural systems.

We develop and implement policy, design and educational tools and strategies to build thriving urban centers based on “access by proximity” and to reverse patterns of sprawl and excessive consumption.

Ecocity Builders and associates’ definition of “ecocity” is conditional upon a healthy relationship of the city’s parts and functions, similar to the relationship of organs in living complex organism. We are concerned with city design, planning, building, and operations in an integral way and in relation to the surrounding environment and natural resources of the region, utilizing organic, ecological and whole-systems lessons to actually reverse the negative impacts of climate change, species extinction and the destruction of the biosphere.

We believe the form of the city matters, that it is within our ability, and indeed crucial, to reshape and restructure cities to address global environmental challenges.

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How To Make Cities More Resilient - A Handbook For Local Government Leaders

Tue, 2012-05-22 18:17 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Kay Goss

unisdr.org - March 2012

A contribution to the global campaign 2010-2015 Making Cities Resilient – 'My City is Getting Ready!':

This handbook provides mayors, governors, councillors and other local government leaders with a generic framework for risk reduction and points to good practices and tools that are already being applied in different cities for that purpose. It discusses why building disaster resilience is beneficial; what kind of strategies and actions are required; and how to go about the task. It offers practical guidance to understand and take action on the "Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient" as set out in the global campaign "Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready!".

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