Mitigating The Impact Of Urbanisation Through Smart Cities

Earlier this week, Tomorrow City published an article on the polluting impact of urbanisation, and what Smart Cities can do to limit this. The article points to some uncomfortable truths, such as the fact that human-made materials, including concrete, bricks or plastic, exceeded the mass of all living things on the planet in 2020. And that’s before we even talk about the energy utilised to create these materials, or the environmental impact of widespread urban developments and how they affect both human health and surrounding biodiversity.

As we edge closer to our collective environmental goals for 2030 and 2050, and with growing numbers of the human population migrating to cities - what can we do, from the perspective of Smart Cities, to limit the impact of urbanisation?

Tomorrow City’s article rightly points out that while the environmental impact of urban developments is unavoidable, there are differences that make certain models more polluting than others - and it’s all down to designing low-impact urban spaces. It also points to certain factors that should be included in the design of a city, such as sufficient density to encourage walking or cycling, creating designs that are as durable as possible or, as recently discussed at length in this blog, the promotion of a circular economy.

However, we’ve known this for a rather long time - so what are the challenges in getting these factors more widely implemented, and what can we do to accelerate the transition to low-impact spaces?

Let’s look at the immediate health benefits for the human population first. Multiple studies have described the positive impact on physical health from living in walkable neighbourhoods, with some of these finding a direct improvement on health markers such as obesity or high blood pressure when people moved to a more walkable area of their cities.

How do you take walkable neighbourhoods to the next level? Enter ecological urbanism; a strategy to shift the design of cities in order to blend them in with the natural environment - allowing natural elements to define urban design, rather than being subjected to it. This adds another layer of resilience to the design of cities, such as sponge cities (which I included in my top 5 green and resilient city initiatives) or green corridors. Rooftop gardens are also being put forward as a key initiative in reducing atmospheric heat in cities.

If these factors aren’t enough encouragement for local and regional authorities to act now, then the energy crisis should be. Designing cities that are less reliant on fossil fuels and the transitioning to cleaner forms of energy is a major factor that’s only been aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the last month, but it’s not the only crisis of natural resources that is going to affect how we look at and design cities in the future. The global sand crisis predicts a 45% increase between 2020 and 2060 in the global use of sand of construction materials and infrastructure - at least half of which is avoidable through the use of material efficiency strategies.

Indeed, Tomorrow City’s article points to the fact that we should prioritise the design of more durable cities, because demolishing and building again carries with it a huge environmental cost. This however doesn’t mean that you can only apply durability to new constructions; Europe (and Easten Europe in particular) is a prime example of utilising materials in order to improve the energy efficiency and overall resilience of old apartment buildings.

Mitigating the environmental impact of urbanisation (both existing and developing) doesn’t just bring immediate benefits, but is also part of a long-term strategy that should be highly prioritised by local governance authorities.