To measure that the urban population increases vertiginosamente, the cities have to prepare for the climatic change
In a moment in which more than 50% of the population already lives in urban zones, the cities have to face the potentially catastrophic consequences of the climatic change, like the hurricane Sandy in New York or the typhoon Haiyan in Philippines. In a new report,
Intantánea Of the Market of San Miguel in Madrid.
“The cities can learn the ones of the others on how be resistant in front of the meteorological events extremes caused by the climatic change”declared Julie Hirigoyen, director of the Department of Sustainability of JLL for the United Kingdom. “This involves to adapt to the future each appearance of the city: warn the floods caused by the increase of the level of the sea and replantearse the infrastructures, the electrical networks, the supply of foods, the sanitary ware assistance, the telecommunications, the transport, the water and the waste management, among others appearances”.
The report, titled Global Sustainability Perspective ('Perspectives on the world-wide sustainability'), offers real examples of initiatives of resistance and adaptation of materials of construction in buildings of New York and other cities stood out to scale world-wide, that centre in four thematic main: the importance of the urban resistance to measure that the population increases, the protection against floods, creation of sustainable neighbourhoods, and the exchange of ideas between cities.
The resistance has to increase in function of the increase of the population
In the majority of the cases, the consequences of the catastrophic events can contain if the cities increase the resistance of his systems and infrastructures. The political managers can use the definition of 'resistant city' of the Rockefeller Foundation like leaf of route of face to prepare to the cities for the future. For the foundation, a resistant city has capacity of answer and plans of contingency for the systems of key infrastructures; flexibility to adapt and evolve to the rhythm of the climatic change; limitation of the risks with the end to contain the consequences of a failure in the components of the system of infrastructures and capacity for a fast recovery after a meteorological perturbation. The cities can mitigate the risks of the natural disasters tackling these appearances in matter of resistance.
Warn the floods is to protect to the population
The debates on the adaptation of the urban surroundings can not shelve the devastadores effects of the floods. A recent report of Nature Climate Change predicts that the half world-wide cost in urban floods will rise to 60.000 million dollars in 2050 if the cities invest in strategies of adaptation, and to 1 trillion of dollars if they do not do it.
Other ways in which the cities are tackling the prevention of floods: Bombay increased the depth and width of his more important rivers, built new stations of pumping for transvasar the pluvial waters to the sea and installed measurers of discharge upstream to be able to detect the floods of early form. The Low Countries —that depend from always of dams, preys, esclusas and barriers of containment of storms— have 'donado' to the nature the liable zones to floods, whereas Venecia is building a system of mobile maritime barriers to close the entrances of water when there is high tide. Kuala Lumpur Is investing more than 600 million dollars in the construction of a tunnel to drive the water during the grown, lakes of retention of floods and a system of drainage of big volume.
The sustainability of the neighbourhoods is fundamental for the resistance of the cities
The microcomunidades, like the neighbourhoods and districts, can mark the difference, especially in the manufacturing and answer in front of the events caused by the climatic change. A new initiative of North American cities, the '2030 District', is helping to the cities to develop urban centres geographically clear-cut and to mark objective to level of district to save power and water and reduce the pertinent broadcasts of the vehicles. The initiative '2030 Districts' is the first regional and national measure to community level to create solid associations, coalitions and collaborations of environingingmental type to reach ambitious and quantifiable aims to scale local.
Seattle, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Cleveland are some of the cities that participate by the moment; it expects that other nueve cities join prompt to the initiative. Associations between cities: the put in common of ideas on sustainability helps to the cities to prepare .
Some cities are sharing knowledges to improve his resistance. For example, the group of Climatic leadership, also known like C40, gathers to the leaders of the distinct cities to share best practices in what sustainable measures to face the climatic change, like the establishment of days without circulation of vehicles and the publication of classifications on the energetic efficiency of the buildings. Better Buildings Partnership (BBP) Is another initiative that boosts the collaboration between owners, arrendatarios, political leaders and partners of the sector to improve the sustainable performance of the buildings. Sídney, London and Toronto are the cities that participate in this initiative for now, and all benefit of the put in common of quantifiable measures directed to attain a better resistance and sustainability.
