Study Note - Creating an Eco-city from Scratch

There are several policy routes that have been explored that help existing cities move towards sustainability. These include regulating the use of private vehicles, promoting green technologies such as solar and wind power, incentivising businesses to plant green roofs, and growing food within city boundaries. There are now several projects across the world which aim to build eco-cities from scratch integrating all these policies, while regulating recycling and private travel in an attempt to create a carbon-neutral, waste-free environment.

Here, we will look at three separate examples with different overall goals with regards to sustainability.

Songdo – the instant city

The district of Songdo, South Korea, is designed to be a major business hub serving Japan, China and South Korea. Built on 1500 acres of land reclaimed from the sea, the aim is not to make the city entirely sustainable or carbon-neutral, but is designed to use 20% less water and 14% less energy than a city of comparable size. To encourage walking the city is being built in a way that residents should not have to walk for more than 12 minutes in order to reach shops, parks or public transportation. What makes this city different is that the developer aims to finish construction by 2015, making it the world’s first instant eco-city, while recycling 75% of the materials used in constructing the city.

Hammarby Sjöstad – sustainable redevelopment

Hammarby Sjöstad is a district in the south of the Swedish capital, Stockholm. The land was formerly used for industrial purposes, and the project was initiated because of a lack of housing. One goal of the 250-hectare site is to maximise recycling, and any materials that are not reused will be used to generate electricity in a combined heat and power plant. The objective is to halve the amount of energy and water used, while using renewable energy sources such as solar and hydroelectric power to provide the electricity that will be used.

Tianjin – the model eco-city

The Tianjin Eco-city project is a joint venture between the Chinese and Singaporean governments with the aim to provide a landmark, carbon-neutral, waste-free city to act as a model for future sustainable cities. The city, which is located 100 miles away from Beijing, is expected to be finished by 2020, and regulation will be the key to the project’s success. This regulation comes in the form of guidelines surrounding how people should live their lives in the city, which includes:

• Daily water consumption per person per day should not exceed 120 litres by 2013.
• Domestic waste generated per person should not exceed 0.8 kg and 60% of total waste should be recycled by 2013.
• 90% of all trips within the eco-city will be taken by walking, cycling, or public transit.
• Renewable energy, such as solar and geothermal, should produce 20% of energy utilized by 2020.
• A minimum of 50% of the eco-city’s water supply will come from sources such as desalination and recycled water by 2020.