Urban Sustainability 4030-US

The main aims of this course are to:
• demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of key aspects of the concept of urban sustainability;
• demonstrate and discuss how cities can contribute to sustainable development.
Cities take up less than 3% of the earth’s land surface. But, since 2007, more than a half of the global population is living inside urban areas. By 2050, most of the people living in the world will be living in mega cities of over a few million people. Most of these cities will be in the so-called “third world”. Therefore, the way cities are designed and managed can be crucial to the global sustainability. Most global and regional environmental problems originate in cities, but at the same time cities provide major opportunities to achieve economies of scale and use natural resources more efficiently (Alberti, Susskind 1996).
Taking these as a starting point for the course, we demonstrate and discuss different understandings of the concept of urban sustainability in global, regional and local scales, as well as the ways in which it can be promoted in practise. The questions we will address during the whole course are, among others, what makes a city sustainable, and what strategies should be adopted to achieve greater sustainability.
In particular, the course covers the following problems:
1. Urban growth and its consequences.
2. Contemporary patterns of urbanisation within different geographic zones.
3. Urban development and spatial planning, and their linkages with environmental and sustainability issues.
4. Historical approaches to urban development.
5. Urban neighbourhoods and communities (housing provision, social problems, inequalities, etc.).
6. Challenges for urban infrastructure.
7. Sustainable transport.
8. Linkages between urban development and environmental issues: biodiversity, water resource management, etc.
9. Green infrastructure.
10. Urban ecosystem services and its relationship with sustainable urban development.
11. Living conditions and quality of life in different urban environments.
12. Place-making and urban design.
All of these problems are discussed within the framework of sustainable urban policy, planning and development. Practical examples of sustainable interventions and solutions from cities across the globe, both the developed and the developing one, are evoked to illustrate how metropolitan areas respond to the challenges they are facing.