2.3.2 The Aalborg Commitments
The chronicle of Aalborg Commitments starts from the Aalborg Charter of European Sustainable Cities and Towns towards Sustainability which was signed in 1994 at Aalborg, Denmark (ICLEI, 1994). The Charter is the first European Conference discuss about sustainable urban development. The Charter inspired by the Rio Earth Summit’s Local Agenda 21 in its (Local Agenda 21) urban agenda. The charter had shifted the attention of EU countries to focus on sustainable urban development (ICLEI, 1996).
Ten years later in the year 2004, the Aalborg Commitments were established with 620 local municipalities signed the commitments (ICLEI, 2004). According to International Council for Local Environment (2004), this Aalborg
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Ten themes highlighted in Aalborg Commitments (Figure 1), involved engaging municipalities and citizens in the vision for sustainability city. This shared long-term vision can be seen through the first commitment of the Aalborg Commitments (ICLEI, 2004). Commitments two refer to implementation of effective management cycle by collaboration with European Sustainable Cities & Towns Campaign as an agency to evaluate the progress of the city who had signed the Aalborg Commitment towards sustainable city. The third, fourth and tenth commitments are focused on protecting environment (renewable resource, air, water, agriculture, forest) and reducing global problem (ICLEI, 2004). While, commitment five includes the agreement on having strategic role for urban planning and design which include balancing social needs (job, house, good facilities) with environment (ICLEI, 2004). Commitment six committed on having better mobility to reduce impact of gas emitted from transport on the environment and public health (ICLEI, 2004). Commitment seven hints at bringing into account the citizens health by promoting city health development planning (ICLEI, 2004). While, the eighth commitments focus on having sustainable local economy by actively promote sustainable local tourism and encourage local market. Finally, commitment nine secures the good quality of community in terms of safety, security and comfortable life (ICLEI, 2004).
FIGURE : TEN
Urban sustainability is the idea that an urban area can be organised without excessive reliance on the surrounding countryside and be able to power itself with renewable sources of energy. The aim of this is to create the smallest possible environmental footprint and to produce the lowest quantity of pollution possible, to efficiently use land, compost used materials, recycle it or convert waste-to-energy, and to make the urban area overall contribution to climate change minimal. Therefore allowing the next generations and future generations to have the required resources without compromising them. However sustainably needs to focus also on other issues such as crime and economic factors.
The three pillars are environmental, social and economically sustainability. However in this report, environmental sustainability will be brought to light, the two other pillars will be trivial. In order for environmental sustainability to be defined, general sustainability must be defined. Sustainability is the ability to continue a defined behaviour indefinitely (Thwink.org, 2015). For the environment, there are three aspects which must be sustained for, renewable resources, non-renewable resources and pollution. Therefore, environmental sustainability is the degree of pollution emission, renewable resource production and non-renewable resource consumption that can be continued indefinitely for future use. CAROBN
The Eco-City Charter serves as a document to guide City leaders and residents towards a more sustainable, holistic, and healthy environment (City of Alexandria, 2010). Ecologically, the charter ensures that all parts of the natural and built environments work together as a single ecological system; economically, it ensures a healthy economy that supports and sustains people and the environment in which they live over the long-term; and socially; it ensures that a community meets residents’ basic needs and has the resiliency to prevent and/or address problems in the future (City of Alexandria, 2010).
Bigio, G and Dahiya, B, (2004) “Urban Environment and Infrastructure towards Livable Cities.” The World Bank, USA.
Busenitz, Irvin A., “Introduction to the Biblical Covenants; the Noahic Covenant and the Priestly Covenant.” The Master's Seminary Journal, 10, no. 2 (Fall 1999): p 173-189. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed April 5, 2017).
Within the unprecedented challenges posed by the explosive growth of urban population, the lack of water supply and sanitation is one of the most urgent and harmful issues. The relationship between water supply and cities’ welfare is very important, as cities require a huge supply of fresh water, and in turn, the way in which the city makes use of water has an impact on the availability of fresh water. It is impossible to consider a city as being ‘sustainable’, if it cannot ensure safe access to drinking water and suitable sanitation to its habitants. (Naciones Unidas, 2010)
Environmental issues have been a part of living on earth since the beginning of time. The only issue with this however, is that resolutions have only just recently been put in place. Environmental concerns have only been discussed since the last half of the twentieth century. While some small steps were taken here and there, The European Union was the first to deliberate environmental policy in an attentive and compulsory nature. The European Union has some of the highest environmental standards to date. These standards have been evolving since the Paris Summit meeting of the European Community that took place in October 1972. The Paris Summit of 1972 was the first to introduce environmental policy on such a vast scale. One outcome of the summit was a declaration on environmental and consumer policy which gave the Environmental Commission the authority to establish the First Environmental Action Programme (EAP) to implement environmental policy. An EAP is essentially a strategic policy document which reflects the fundamental elements of contemporary environmental thinking and problem perceptions, as well as strategic policy orientation. (http://wwweeborg/publication/chapter-3pdf) It is based on a proposal from the Commission, but is now subject to a full legislative procedure leading to agreement between
Network City 2005 emphasizes on the importance of the efficiency of land use and infrastructure (compact and interconnected city), protection of the environment and heritage, efficiency of energy resource usage, and increasing community cohesiveness. While the State Sustainability Strategy provide a framework on plan making in order to in line with the vision, goals and strategy to achieve sustainability. The other document which is liveable neighborhoods ed. 3 provides guidance in developing regions that emphasizing on the convenience and safety for pedestrians by creating an interconnected environment, maximizing land use, designing more compact residential areas, providing public services and public transport, as well as increasing the community’s sense of place. While The Perry Lake Redevelopment Act 2005 provides specific requirements that must be included in the plan before it is approved by the Minister of
The mayors “Greener London” reports on the environment for all London councils and is contributed to by multiple agencies such as defra, councils, and transport for London and Thames water. This report is a key factor in how the council decided its sustainability initiatives and a number of external partnerships and agencies influence the council’s operational outlook. As stated the council actively seek ISO accredited partners to assist with delivery of these services where it is more cost effective to do so.
While the plan appears to be thorough and complete, this very characteristic may also prove to be a weakness. As sustainable technologies and even planning methodologies improve, a plan as cohesive as the current Portland Plan may leave little breathing room to accommodate the integration of future improvements without large investments and comprehensive re-planning. In addition, plans as comprehensive as this one is tend to leave less room for the creative expression, which adds diversity and charm to the cities neighborhoods. In terms of raw efficiency, the choice to make this plan a joint effort between the city government and the citizens themselves, though a noble cause, can cause each step to take much longer, and even the delay of the project in its entirety due to the volatility of entire populations. One final risk of the plan, is the risk associated with time. As any program needs money to continue on, people must continue to vote for the Portland Plan’s various programs over the years in order for them to maintain funding, so that they may continue bringing about the sustainable Portland as exists within the plan. The plan is to take place over 25-years, over the course of which any number of variables may change. The issue is things may change over the course of those 25-years, that could cause people to lose support for the plans various programs. Likewise, over
A sustainable city is when harmony is reached between the environment, economy and society. Environmentally, sustainable cities are ecologically friendly by using alternative sources of energy such as solar or wind power. Economically, governments should share a similar decision-making process with institutions and with the public by having a common belief in what should be done by improving sustainability. Sorensen, Marcotullio, and Grant (2004), find that a good decision making process consists of planning and control at the municipal and national political levels which would allow local level functions to become reinforced. Socially, sustainable cities are classless, meaning that there are no social divisions which serve as limits; leading to a more equal society. One of the many ideas would be using mixed housing to remove the class divisions between people. Also, city streets would be walkable, with businesses and services located at close proximity to promote a healthier lifestyle and serve as an alternative to using cars for transportation. The writers differ in their analysis when examining the approaches to improving sustainability in cities. This section will analyze four important ideas on how cities can become more sustainable.
Urban planning in Australia has a significant role to play in ensuring the future sustainability of Australian cities.
Sustainability, a common vocab being used in design industry nowadays. It is mean to design something with a well consideration of improve environment, people and economic, which has become the fundamental aspect when comes to initiate the design thinking. According to Oxford Institute for sustainable development, the tools to measure and construct sustainable urban development are prejudicial focus on environmental and economic aspects. Most of the time, ecological and economical sustainability are well concerned but Social sustainable, which merely shown or mentioned on any press or architect’s forum. This essay will talk about the social sustainability in design, by defining the social sustainability in design, the key elements of the
Social sustainability is one of the four pillars of sustainability. It is the least clearly defined as it changes with time, the economy, the environment and political situations. With so many factors that affect it, it is as important as the other three pillars (environmental, economic and political) and should therefore be given the same treatment and attention. This essay will define sustainability, define social sustainability, discuss one key principle about social sustainability and relate social sustainability to planning.
Urbanization, which is becoming a buzzword during the last few decades, is enlarging at a booming speed. It is predicted that 93 percents urban growth will occur to the year 2020, in the developing world (Elliot J.A, 1999). Generally speaking, more than half of the people around the world have been moved to cities, which led to a series of “matters” connected with people’s life that changed in a dramatical way. In this period, sustainable development, another buzzword during the past few years, came into people’s view and gradually became the mainstream of society development. Its definition is to make the development continue in a long term, which means allowing appropriate economic growth and industrialization without