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Sustainable communities & infrastructure

David Singleton

Chairman, Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia

Non executive director, independent advisor and built environment specialist

November 2013

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Sustainable communities & infrastructure

Seven rules for sustainable communities:

1. Provide broad transit coverage: buses, LRT, metro

2. Provide an interconnected street system

3. Aim for 5 minute walk densities

4. Locate employment and housing in close proximity

5. Provide a diversity of housing types

6. Create linked system of open space

7. Invest in ‘greener’, cheaper, smarter infrastructure

[Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities, Patrick Condon, Island Press, 2010]

…and we must design for resilience

1 Provide broad transit coverage: buses, LRT, metro

Easy access to transitVarious transit types yield low carbon emissions per passenger mile

Sustainable communities & infrastructure

Click icon to insert image

2 Provide an interconnected street system

Sustainable communities & infrastructure

Ensures shortest possible trips, by all modesCompatible with walking, cycling, transit and carsStreets can be designed as green streets

Green streets

3 Aim for 5 minute walk densities

Five minute walking distance is a key feature of the streetcar city.

In the streetcar city the five minute walk merges into continuously accessible corridors.

Sustainable communities & infrastructure

Walking is most likely when there are destinations within 5 minutesAccess to transit, schools and local shops within 5 minutes walk distance is key

Five minute walking distance

4 Locate employment and housing in close proximity

The Streetcar city concept allows for many jobs close to corridors.

Sustainable communities & infrastructure

Aim for shorter commuting distances to employment, particularly second jobs; most job locations are no longer ‘dirty’Locate employment along transit corridorsAim to maintain retail/commercial strips

Locate jobs close to homes

5 Provide a diversity of housing types

For slower transit to make sense affordable housing must be more evenly distributed in regions.

Sustainable communities & infrastructure

Heterogeneity, not homogeneityDiversity of housing types can assist urban densificationMyth of the 4 person household?

Diversity of housing types

6 Create linked system of open space

For access to nature

To bound and protect neighborhoods

Sustainable communities & infrastructure

Healthy waterways and catchment areas are fundamentally necessaryWill also provide sustainable drainage solutions and pleasing ‘cityscape’

Patricia St. Michel, City of Vancouver Planning Department, 2012

Linked open space

7 Invest in ‘greener’, cheaper, smarter infrastructureWe spend too much on infrastructure.

Every dollar’s worth of pavement produces a dollars' worth of environmental damage.

Work with natural systems not against them.

Sustainable communities & infrastructure

Up to 45% of public open space in urban areas given over to streets……… This increases urban run-off and likelihood of flooding and creates‘harsh’ urban environmentsMunicipal standards for roads and utilities lead to costly infrastructure and can destroy watershed function Green streets can be a solution

-development

Smart infrastructure Greener Cheaper Smarter Infrastructure

Pre-development hydrology; 55% infiltration and zero run-off

Post conventional development; only 35% infiltration and 35% run-off

Lighter Greener Cheaper Smarter Infrastructure

‘Smarter’ adaptive developmentOnly 10% impervious surface,55% infiltration and only 10% run-off

Smart infrastructure Greener Cheaper Smarter Infrastructure

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Resistance or resilience?

Historically we have designed for resistance – as engineers, we have applied factors of safety to past events to produce resistant designs

We cannot be sure that an investment in resistance will fulfil its purpose; in fact, there is a chance that an investment in resistance may make matters worse

People are asking whether we should design for resistance or resilience ?

We are recognising that we can no longer design to resist the full impacts of climate change or natural disaster. Rather, we must design a system that is resilient

Design for Resilience

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change defines resilience as “...the ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances while retaining the same basic structure and ways of functioning, the capacity for self-organisation, and the capacity to adapt to stress and change”

IPCC, 2007

By identifying and understanding our urban systems [and any systemic] weaknesses

By knowing the likely risks to those systems By retrofitting the system[s] for resilience By planning emergency response procedures, including

warnings and evacuation, shelter and safety plans By educating the community By regularly rehearsing emergency responses, including

evacuation drills and access to shelter

Design for Resilience

Design for Resilience

Cities should adopt a systemic approach to resilience that allows them to fail 'gently', rather than catastrophically.

A solution based around ‘gentle’ failure is considered a success when the city is able to function after disaster by using alternative resources and systems and through theinitiatives of the local community.

David Singleton, ‘Consulting Matters’, Autumn 2012

Design for Resilience

http://www.climatechange.gov.au/climate-change/adapting-climate-change/climate-adaptation-outlook?HTML

Toolkit for Resilient Cities: Arup – Siemens

http://www.siemens.com/press/en/feature/2013/corporate/2013-04-ny.php

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Sustainable communities & infrastructure

David Singleton

Chairman, Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia

Global Planning Leader, Arup

david.singleton@arup.com

dsingleton@isca.org.au

T: @davidjsingleton