Urbanization in China

According to the UN Secretariat's Department of Economic and Social Affairs, by 2050, about 70% of the world's population will live in cities. As the city continues to expand, economic growth is expected to grow faster and faster. Urbanization is one of the most complex and urgent challenges that China will face in the next few decades. At present, Chinese has more than half of the population living in the city, according to the latest Urban Planning Report, this proportion is expected to increase in 2050 to 76%, nearly 300 million people in China in the next 35 years will move from countryside to city.

The urbanization process has brought many great challenges, such as the serious environmental pollution and inequality caused by the household registration system. As the population of cities increases, these challenges are becoming increasingly serious. In response to these challenges, China considers to carry out systemic governance reforms, while governments and the citizen increasingly use technology as a new solution to these city challenges. China has introduced multiple copies of government documents, collectively referred to as "Internet +" strategy "or wisdom of the city planning. However, the main concerns of many smart city projects remain at the infrastructure level, but I think the smart city strategy and planning need to address the challenges beyond infrastructure. The central government should begin encouraging bottom-up innovations in information and communication technologies. For example, more flexible ways to shorten commuting time so that the public can get more leisure time to participate in local community activities. What's more, it can make more space for the green area for planting and make the intelligent city more self-sufficient. 

 Problems in Hongkong’s Sustainable Community Development

Changes in the city of Hongkong is rapid over the past few decades, the attention that focuses on economic development leads to a lot of social contradictions, the public do not have the paths to participate in the current process in planning and implementation of city development, which eventually lead to social contradictions and conflicts.

The lack of bottom-up community participation leads to distrust between the government and citizens. Under the current system, people rarely have opportunity to participate in the development of the community, the ignoring of the old unique culture, lifestyle, block formation and communities is the main reason for speeding up community differentiation, especially larger the gap between the low-income people and the government. Poor and elderly households were neglected. The social development need to balance economic, environmental and social needs, sustainable communities can make healthy and happy life. See the advanced city for city development and renewal, emphasis are put in the public participation and improving the well-being of people in the community. As for the perfect city for city development and renewal, community development emphasises the public participation, and improves the well-being of the people in the community and making good use of community resources, while Hongkong is ignoring the problem of poverty in the community and the elderly.

Failed to implement the concept of environmental protection. In the process of reconstruction, there was no attention to environmental and cultural conservation. Although the government has set up cultural conservation policy, but occasional trees are still cut down, the old buildings are not saved.

Nevertheless, sustainable community development still brings opportunities. Since the government has decided in developing the city development and planning in the next ten years, why not putting forward a new way to promote community development, trying to communicate with people of diverse classes, finding a sustainable way to manage community development.

Green Infrastructure

Planning should take precedence over the development of green spaces. In many previous plans, it was treated as an unused land. Although the many countries published law of ecological resources protection as well as a series of rules, due to the lack of legal supports for planning, causing that the ecological protection is usually neglected in the process of economic development and city expansion.

I believe the core idea of green infrastructure planning is the comprehensive social, economic and ecological benefits. Try to analyse existing and future land which is available, and then find out the suitable land for the protection and other land which might be suitable for development, at the same time, maximize the promotion of development and utilization of land resource. Green land could makes contribution on the process of achieving social, economic and environmental sustainability.To conclude, to develop the economic, social functions and benefits of green assets, it is necessary to plan at first, then distribute the land, and last execute the plan. Only in this way can we protect the land resources and reduce the risk of the erosion of natural ecosystem by the urbanization process. It also provides a very effective solution for the protection and development of land.

Reference

Sandstrom， U. ， Angelstam， P. and Khakee . Urban comprehensive planning identifying barriers for the maintenance of functional habitat networks. Landscape and Urban Planning，2006， 75:43 -57.

Mark A. Benedict，Edward T. McMahon. Green Infrastructure: Smart Conservation for the 21st Century. Renewable Resources J o u r n a l ， 2 0 0 2 ，2 0 ( 3 ) : 1 2 - 1 7 .

Tyree Energy Technologies Building in UNSW

The brochure I found when I visited the Tyree building gave me a touch, and the inspiration was its energy saving and environmental protection.

                                                                                     Daylighting analysis

The use of natural lighting creates an emotional environment within the house, which is full of vitality. Natural lighting is the most economical and extremely pleasant light source for room lighting. Reasonable use of various windows can achieve good decorative effect. For example, the horizontal window makes people feel open and spacious, vertical window makes people like to watch the screen from the house, french window can not only increase the brightness of the room, but also indoor and outdoor seamless feeling. People are used to working and living in the natural light. Making full use of natural lighting can make work more efficient. The utility model can save artificial lighting in daytime and save electric energy.

Ventilation analysis

When the outdoor temperature is lower than 26 degrees and higher than 18 degrees, the introduction of outdoor fresh air for ventilation can replace the whole or part of the air-conditioning refrigeration. Natural ventilation can improve indoor air quality, and is conducive to physical and mental health.

The utility model can open an external window and introduce natural wind to cool down, and when the wind is cooled, the building enters the building.

Vertical Green Infrastructure

The utility model can be used to shade the external wall, effectively reduce the surface temperature of the exterior wall and reduce the convection heat transfer of the exterior wall in winter

The top floor of the platform can be designed to provide a resting place for Roof garden.

Use the local Roofing of the planting roof can effectively improve the thermal insulation performance of the roof, and the evaporation and cooling of the vegetation can also help to adjust the climate of the site. Vegetation can be used, such as less maintenance, pests and less ground cover plants, and collocation of small shrubs. Using of wooden overhead floors may reduce heat during the summer, and wind and snow can also be cut off during the winter.

Rainwater collection, earth covering and overhead floor can be provided with rainwater collection facilities. (Roof garden, for example)

Tyree reminds me of the practical application of sustainable development, while then central park can really be regarded as an amazing work of Art. As human has gone through the different stages of society, the idea of the relationship between natural environment and industrial product has changed, people has gradually realised the importance of ecological function in urban environment. This is a change in the traditional way of human behaviour, and seeks to achieve harmony between human society and nature through the use of renewable energy and the efficient and recycling use of natural resources. Central Park gives the dierect impression about the perfect relationship among society, commerce and environment.

Flooding and sponge city in China

Five years ago, when flooding in Beijing killed 79 people, the Chinese government was quick to blame the size of the storm, not the city’s failing drainage system. But the excuse didn’t persuade the public. News reports of fatal floods come as regularly to city dwellers as the annual monsoon season.No longer just a problem for farmers living on flood-prone plains, water has become the nemesis of China’s 680 million citizens, whose concrete landscape was not built adequately to withstand the forces of nature.

The number of Chinese cities affected by floods has more than doubled than a decade ago. The rate of flooding has become a national scandal. It’s time to invest in a new type of green infrastructure. In 2015, the government decided to make development of 16 model “sponge cities”—an ecologically friendly alternative to the gray urban expanses of modern China. These will require infrastructure retrofits of existing cities all over China. Hope it may be helpful. More rational urban design is not only for people to live in a beautiful environment, but more importantly, for residents to live in a healthy city and under a long-term protection.

Energy Efficiency in China

A report made by International Energy Association(2011) pointed out that global investment in energy field has gradually form into the market that could improve the efficiency of energy consumption systematic, the market is consisted by investors and services provided by individuals, enterprises government. Meanwhile, energy policy and energy prices are two important factors that influence the energy efficiency of the market, the government could influence the energy efficiency, navigate the innovation on the energy-saving technology and change the way of energy consumption through establishing energy policy and reviewing the energy price subsidies.

According to the research made by International Energy Association, the key factors driving China energy efficiency market is the governmental policies and investment. China is one of the countries that concerned about the issue of energy, and established a five-year-plan, which set a goal by the government in the investment on energy consumption. Like other countries, the lack of reliable business model that could improve the energy efficiency is the most serious challenge in the development of energy market. The investment on energy efficiency mainly rely on the income of government financial system that is still under the reform. Despite the government, the civil participation could promote the power in the future energy efficiency improvement..

Energy Efficiency in China

A report made by International Energy Association pointed out that global investment in energy field has gradually form into the market that could improve the efficiency of energy consumption systematic, the market is consisted by investors and services provided by individuals, enterprises government. Meanwhile, energy policy and energy prices are two important factors that influence the energy efficiency of the market, the government could influence the energy efficiency, navigate the innovation on the energy-saving technology and change the way of energy consumption through establishing energy policy and reviewing the energy price subsidies.

According to the research made by International Energy Association, the key factors driving China energy efficiency market is the governmental policies and investment. China is one of the countries that concerned about the issue of energy, and established a five-year-plan, which set a goal by the government in the investment on energy consumption. Like other countries, the lack of reliable business model that could improve the energy efficiency is the most serious challenge in the development of energy market. The investment on energy efficiency mainly rely on the income of government financial system that is still under the reform. Despite the government, the civil participation could promote the power in the future energy efficiency improvement.

Polycentric city development

The characteristics of modern metropolis decide that the governance model of metropolitan area must change from single centre to multi centres, try to maintain and promote the autonomous order as the main objective of metropolitan governance. The polycentric development of space must be accompanied by the polycentric governance so that the formation of multi centre space is possible. The polycentric model of space development in modern metropolis is based on the thinking logic of multi centre governance instead of traditional public administration.

This new theory is not a new concept. Howard's conception of "social city" is actually the earliest elaboration of the compact and polycentric expansion of metropolis space, and then Mumford's "regional city" is also the advocacy of the polycentric spatial development model. No matter Howard or Mumford, both of them did not forget the polycentric governance when they constructed the multi centres space. Howard's exposition of "social city" aims to build a "Urban Agglomeration" surrounded by a permanent green matrix (Town-cluster). "Social city" is the basic model of spatial polycentric and governance polycentric coordination. It can be regarded as a city model that can grow and can be expanded continually. 

Sustainable development evaluation of London

From the example of sustainability assessment in Britain in recent years, sustainability assessment is an independent evaluation process which is carried out simultaneously with urban planning. In the evaluation of city planning, people in various aspects of an independent assessment team assessed the planning results of the main stage, then made formation of sustainability assessment report to the city planning team to modify and adjust the contents of city planning the next stage.

Through the analysis and summary of the sustainable development strategy of British urban planning, we can get following ideas:

(1) From more than 10 years to implement the strategy of sustainable development in Britain, sustainable development could possibly breakthrough in the field of city planning.

(2) With the strategic and comprehensive strengthening of urban planning, the role of urban planning and its policies has become increasingly powerful in the implementation of the national strategy.

(3) The strategy of sustainable development will also bring opportunities to the development of urban planning itself. To develop specific city planning from the national planning policy, local city planning, sustainable development may bring new ideas, new perspective and new thinking. Combined with the practice of creative city planning, they may promote the development of city planning theory, and method of the new exploration and sustainable development strategies as well.

Reference: Great London Authority. Sustainability Appraisal of London Plan[Z]. 2004.

  

Sustainable development in building 

Sustainability is one of the most important challenges for architecture design on the national or international scale. Sustainable practices pay equal attention to ecological, economic and social aspects, so that people could pass on an intact environment and the same opportunities in life to future generations. This is an extremely important topic, especially for the building sector due to the materials and resources consumed here and the related impacts on the environment. This will become even more important for the building sector due to climate change and the growing shortage of resources. Buildings are complex systems that are design to fulfil their defined task. They also provide both living space and a work environment, and they affect their users’ well-being, health and satisfaction as well as the quality of social life.
The aim of sustainable building design should hence be to create a building that ensures maximum sustainability and also saves energy and resources. The extensive inclusion of sustainability aspects in the life cycle of a building, for instance during planning, construction, use and modernism, as well as demolition, should be proactively designed and influenced. The building’s structural and technical concept must generally take standards and legal requirements into account as well as the generally accepted state of the art. In particular, the use requirements that are normally specified by the customer must be fulfilled under defined boundary conditions. Furthermore, sustainability requirements, in other words ecological, economic and social qualities, must be defined in the process of designing buildings in order to make sure that buildings could carry out their tasks in relation to the environment and society.

Green buildings in Canada

Green buildings have been regarded as the efficient method and practical strategy for mitigating climate change, minimizing energy consumption and creating more liveable and environmentally friendly communities. Green buildings benefit the whole society in several aspects, they lead to the improvement in the architecture industry, including the delivery and produce of service, product and technology design and manufacturing, the use of material and resource.

Commercial factor play an important role in the raise of green buildings, building owners and institutional investors prefer more eco-friendly buildings that could provide better experience during living in the towers. Policy makers prefer to give more assistance for the construction of green buildings because they could provide outcome in economic, social and environmental aspects.

A study in 2014 showed that green building industry employed over 290,000 full-time worker directly in Canada, and generate approximately 23 billion dollar in GDP. It shows the huge market in the green building industry, which could not only benefit local economic, but also lead to a more environmentally friendly culture and lifestyle. The growth of green building industry indicates the popularization of eco-friendly lifestyle and could create more opportunities for people to live with nature, invest on natural environment and benefit from environment.

Opportunities and Challenges of Compact City

The growth of population and shortage of flat land has led to the common sense that compact city could be seen as the answer for sustainable future. Although the risks of negative outcome of compact city should be taken into the consideration, the potency of urban development should also be considered. A city with compact formation could provide the potential power supporting the economic growth. It could enhance the efficiency of public service, and gather the commercial events and bring more energy for the local social life.Urban sustainability could be divided into three aspect: environmental, social and economic. Environmentally sustainable development has been seen the most initial part of urban design. However, compact city policy could lead to the economic growth that is friendly to environment through creating the connection between economic events and environmental challenge. Urban designers could design an innovation hub that is aim to build an environmentally friendly commercial system. Not only environmental and economic urban design should be established, sustainable social life should also be accompanied with urban development, compact city should create a lively social life according to its high density population, and provide safe urban life for citizens. As for people who live in suburbs, compact city should create an equal opportunity for them to enjoy the liveable life, and provide convenient infrastructure since suburbs potentially have significant residential capacity.

Compact City in Hong Kong 

Urban design has a long history in China since the continuous civil history and culture, while many cities after the World War Ⅱ became inefficient due to the dispersed formation compared with European cities, citizens suffered from the longtime travelling from home to work, which eventually resulted in the high dependency on automobile. Like many other Asian cities, those Chinese cities spent a little investment in the equipment of infrastructure at the beginning of the city’s development and design, Thus compact city turned out to be the answer of inefficient city management.

Although the idea of compact city has been seen the one of the most basic principles in urban design in China after the Reform in 1980s, it is still under the discussion about whether compact could be seen as the answer for a future sustainable urban formation. Hong Kong could be seen one of the best examples of compact city not only due to it is one of the most densely cities around the world- averagely over six thousand people live in one kilometer square, but also the urban form itself services for the compact city. Many public housing projects such as New Town and Resettlement Project created small blocks that consisted of narrow streets and high towers, apartments in those buildings are small and equipped with public bathroom and kitchen. The compact city formation created its own unique culture, high density and chaos of immigration (both legal and illegal) resulted in the criminal paradise, which attracted the attention of film makers and novel writers around the world.

Strategies to Mitigate UHI

University of Sussex declared that urban heat island (UHI) will cost around ten percent of local Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to change the decline in living condition caused by the HUI, in addition, urban heat island threaten the economic growth since it causes more energy consumption on refrigeration, low efficiency of work and more serious air pollution. Although urban area only possesses 1% of the earth's surface, cities create more than 80% product of the whole world, and take 78% of global energy consumption, over half of people on earth live in cities. It is necessary to apply practical and useful strategies to mitigate urban heat island.
Green infrastructure mitigates the effect of HUI directly and provides multi-functional answer to urban design. The vegetation could absorb greenhouse gas that causes the global warming, the process of photosynthesis also releases vapors that could cool the urban air. Generally, green space is accompanied by soil that has better capacity of thermal content than concrete, ground material like soil could mitigate HUI by absorbing more thermal energy and having less temperature change.
Public transportation could also mitigate HUI because it could reduce the energy consumption on roads, and produce less greenhouse gas in the process of daily transportation. Meanwhile, it could also reduce the waste heat that is produced by vehicles.  Finally, underground systems could also cool the city. Wind is tunnelled underground and cooled by the earth, which could make the air in cities cooler.

Urban Heat Island Effect and Urban life

Under the background of global warming, a concept named urban heat island effect attracts more discussion. University of Sussex found that urban heat island could double the effect that is caused by other climate issues. Urban heat island leaves  a series of  negative influences on urban life. It mainly affects us in three parts: urban climate, health and energy consumption.

UHI raises the risk of the floodings in urban areas. Temperature in urban area becomes warmer than the surrounding area due to human activities, hot air will rise because of its low density and cold air will flow into the city, thunderstorms and additional showers could occur when they meet around cities, which result in more rainfall in urban areas than before, and leave an extra burden on city sewerage systems. Cities would suffer the disaster of floodings once sewerage could not satisfy the need of discharge.
UHI also affects human health on both physical and mental parts. Firstly, more frequency of hot days could leave negative influences on the human body especially heart and blooding. It could lead to heat stroke, heat exhaustion and some permanent damages to organ systems. On the other hand, UHI could result in more irritable and aggressive behaviors, studies show that violent crimes increase 0.05% when a temperature increase in 10 ℃.
Finally, UHI makes it more difficult to achieve a sustainable life in cities, especially in the aspect of energy consumption. Hot days drive to more use of air conditioner, and finally result in more energy consumption. In addition, UHI leaves more energy waste in the process of power transmission.

Green Infrastructure and Urban Environment

The World Bank forecast that the area covered by the planet’s urban realm, as measured in 2000, would double by the 2030s, with 90% of urban growth occurring in the developing world (Suzuki 2010). To avoid problems of resource depletion, pollution, poor human health, associated with past urbanism, new cities should consider the concept of Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services that are provided by comprehensive, interconnected green infrastructure.

Vegetative land cover modifies regional and neighbourhood microclimate.

Greenways have been shown to modify the urban heat island generally, and research in Singapore found that greenways had a cooling effect of 4˚C at a macro scale (Wong & Yu). A study indicates that urban area is 2˚C warmer than the surrounding rural areas (Henninger 2009); in recognition of this, the Kigali State of the Environment Report 2013 notes that even small urban green spaces can help tackle the heat island effect.

Greenways also play a significant role in an urban economic. For example, street trees, as a part of urban forest system, have positive influence on house rental rates or property value (Lavrene, Kimberly 2003); they also promote health improvement, and reduce the investment on medicine. As for the aspect of urban pollution, green walls could mitigate air pollution and refresh urban air.

The social Function of Green Infrastructure

Green infrastructure becomes one of the essential elements in the process of urban design, it provides a series of functions that makes a better future of city life, such as ecological reconstruction and resistance to climate change. However, green infrastructure also plays an important role in social function, vegetations could improve living conditions  through two main routes.
Firstly, green infrastructure provides spaces for citizens to recreate. As for enhancing the connection between green spaces and streets, infrastructure like parks and other kind of landscape often uses the combination of trees, grasses and water body that follows aesthetic principles, thus creates enough room to invite people to join in the green spaces, and communicate with others. Vegetations with the scientific arrangement under aesthetic principles could provide the space for releasing pressure, getting exercise and having fun. So that it is necessary to design a proper amount of green parks in cities.
Additionally, green infrastructures also provide functions like defining culture. Sustainable development tells the story that urban design without the idea of sustainability could not exist for a long period because it could not be accepted by natural environmental system, and green infrastructure design that follows the natural energy flow could not only achieve its original goal--ecological reconstruction, but also provide a social function like public education. People who join in green space and communicate with natural environment could easily find that the importance of protecting natural systems. Vegetations in green area could acknowledge citizens that what kind of plants could survive in their neighborhood, which could prevent ecological disasters like biological invasion.

Smart City and energy efficiency

 Since the world warⅡ，growing number of urban population and increasing frequency of economic activities has led to a high energy consumption urban life, which finally results in a significant amount of environment problems, such climate change, urban ecological decline. As an answer to those problems, urban designers implement some technological methods to mitigate the effect caused by environmental problems and redevelop the cities in a sustainable way.

 Smart city usually achieve the goal of efficient energy consumption in two ways: green transportation and energy-efficient building. Smart city improves the road condition and creates more road for green transportation to invite citizens to travel by feet or bicycling. Electrical cars are suggested to solve the energy problems on road. In China, government established many financial movement to encourage people to drive electrical cars on road，for example, people who buy a new electrical car could get a about 50% discount supported by local government. More power banks will be built on streets in order to meet the charging needs of electrical cars.

As for the energy-efficient buildings, the main purpose of sustainable buildings are to reduce the energy consumption and try to collect and reuse the waste heat in the buildings. Taking central park in Sydney as an example, green walls prevent the broadcast of waste and provide shadows during sunny days in summer. On the other hand, hot water is kept warm by the heat produced by the operating of machines like lift.

With limited resources and growing population around world, it is necessary to popularise the sustainable smart city. Without enough attention on the energy efficient society, our environment could be no longer be suitable for the next generation in the future.

Smart city ，IOT and Online Security

According from one of the most accepted definition established by IBM (2010), the term of ‘Smart City’ could be assumed as the technological innovation applied in order to sense, analyze and integrate the key information of core systems in running cities. As for meet the need for scientific management of urban system, the concept of ‘Internet of Things’ has been introduced into urban design in order to grasp information and solve challenges in urban systematically.

  At present, IOT has played an important role in the process of smart city practice. Firstly, it provides one of the most efficient way to collect information in big urban scale. For example, the application of red light camera and speed camera makes it possible for policemen to control the transport condition and react quickly. Secondly, IOT gives access to collect information that is difficult to measure and manage the energy consumption scientifically. Some buildings in Sydney now applied smart city strategies to manage the electricity consumption, thermal sensers are placed in the every corner of the building to collect the temperature information and control the air conditioners, heaters and even lights according the data collected by sensers.

  However, the application of IOT in smart city could leave some potential problems in the aspect of internet security. It could result in a domination role in the urban system once someone get control of internet. A game made by Ubi Soft Entertainment Software named Watching dog gives a brief view of what will happen once hacker control the urban system operation, the main hero could control the red light on street and even monitor other phone call, creating chaos to achieve his own wish. As a suggestion to future smart city, digital management should pay more attention on the online security. 

Different recycling pattern in China and Australia

Waste problem is one of the major challenges that human society could hardly get rid completely. Due to the repaid development of urbanism, the scale of cities become more and more big, crowds flow into cities everyday and produce more wastes during their daily activities. Household garbage accounts over 60% of the amount of wastes in total, so that most countries that are willing to improving the urban environment thorough recycling pay more attention on the aspect of household wastes.
The fact of recycling in China requires more scientific management at present. For example, the existing method to collect wastes relies heavily on the leading role of economic. The majority of wastes that could be recycled is collected by the people who have financial problem but not who might be interested in protecting the urban environment，because plastical stuffs, hardboard, metal cans and other recycling matericals could be slod in recycling center. However, the concept of recycling was introduced into China for many years, and garage bins that are sorted into different use are placed along the streets, but seldom citizens could be seen to follow the instruction on bins, and the same rate of citizens know the distination of sorted wastes.
China has a long way in the process of recycling practice. As of one the countires that carries out a complete recycling system, Australia has a lot for China to learn. Firstly, government should play a more important role in the popularism of recycling. More rules and legal provision should be established in the field of recycling, and more social campiaigns should be raised to anknowledge public of the importance of recycling. Public would be invited to join in the recycling movement since they know how the recycling system works. Secondly, parents and schools should educate the next generation about the meaning of recycing. A new generation with recycling knowledge could do more in the future.

Recycling & Inefficient Human life

 

   Wastes,defined as unwanted or unusable materials, are produced during every daily life in human society. If we could take away all these adjective words and think deeply to the real of these stuffs, we can see that the majority of these watses remind the same materials as what we use before. 

    As the traditional belief in the industry of architecture,  one thousand ton of structural watses could take possession of over 660 ㎡ land, and over three tons of watses will be prodeced during the process of 10 ㎡ construction. In China, the generation between new buildings and old buildings could leave around 1.5 billion to 2.4 billion tongs of rubbishes each year, and only 5% of those materials could be recycled by all ways. Most of these urban architectural wastes will finally be pile up into a mountain at surburbs. In 2016, a serious accident occurred in Guangdong China, a mountain of rubbishes with over 70 meters in hight fell down because of long period of rain,it burried over 90 people and attracted the public sight into wates recycling. 

     Compera with China,Australian governments paid highly attention to the recycling progrom. Social campiagns run by city councils encourage people to build a socitey that everyone could live in a recycled life and do somethings better to the future earth.