Sustainable Cities Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sustainable Cities - Research Paper Example This accounts for about 3.5 billion people (Braun 5). The number is likely to increase to over 60% by the year 2030 due to increased migration of people from rural to urban centers. Nonetheless, many cities face a huge challenge in trying to maintain themselves in a manner that allows for the creation of jobs for the increasing city population and maintaining it prosperity. Such attempts mainly result in straining land and available resource, resulting in challenges such as congestion, shortage of housing, declining infrastructure, development of slums, and luck of other basic amenities, such as clean water, and sanitation (Steffen 11). Other challenges facing most cities include poverty, pollution, and poor sewerage system. In order to overcome these challenges, cities are increasingly adopting the concept of sustainable city or eco-city. The concept of eco-city first came up in 1987 when Richard Register first coined the concept (Braun 5). Since then, many city planners and managem ent have been using the concept to come up with cities that consider the environmental impacts brought about by the rising population. The concept eco-cities also aim to ensure that the city dwellers understand the need to conserve the environment by minimizing inputs of energy, food, water, pollution, and waste output. Shmelev and Shmeleva noted that Richard Register was the first person to formulate the concept of sustainable cities and has since then been adopted by many city designers (16). The concept of sustainable city has mainly been evident in Germany, where most cities have taken the initiative to ensure sustainability. For example, Freiburg City in Germany acts as a good example of a shinning sustainability. This was made possible through the implementation of the sustainable city initiative in Vauban district. The initiative has resulted in the development of eco housing structures, socially conscious neighborhoods and car-free streets. Currently, energy-saving buildings are the culture in Freiburg. In fact, according to the German law, all houses built must waste more than 75KWh/M2 a year (Purvis 9). To achieve the energy efficiency, houses built in the city of Freiburg have solar panels used as the main source of energy. This has helped reduce the amount of greenhouse emissions in the city and its surrounding. A similar eco-city initiative has been created in Rieselfeld district of Freiburg City. Like in Vauban district, the sustainable city initiative by ensuring that all houses are fitted with alternative sources of energy (Purvis 9). The district is also committed to improving the sewerage disposal, drainage system, as well as reducing the level of pollution. Like, Germany’s city of Freiburg, many other cities in the world are also in the process of implementing initiatives aimed at ensuring that the cities become as sustainable as Freiburg City. The aim of this discourse is to examine the cities in the world that are moving towards bec oming an eco-city just as Germany’s Freiburg City. To begin with, climate change is one of the major environmental problems facing the world today. Scientists have noted that the world temperatures have been increasing at an alarming rate over the past few decades. At the same time, the sea levels have also continued to rise. Scientists attribute these climatic changes the global warming effect,