Eco city assessment

Assessment - draft
Understanding success and faliure of Eco-cities
Cases studies : Masdar, UAE + Zara Zero Island, Azerbaijan + Dongtan, China + Tianjin Eco-city, China + Caofeidian, China, ...

1.Eco-city
A sustainable city is one that is reducing its ecological footprint (its resource consumption, land consumption and waste production) whilst simultaneously improving its quality of life (its health, housing, work opportunities and livability). Peter Newman,Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University, Perth, Australia

There is no single definition for Eco-city : it is still an open question that will be able to respond to the main concerns for the future generation : Better city, better life. But we are overwelhmed by examples of new Eco-city all around the world, designed by the most recognized architects and urban planners. From Masdar to Tianjin by Dongtan, why do they all look the same ?

1.1.Code
Chinese technocracy produces quantity of rules and code by numbers and ratios. We are able to define how sustainable and livable our cities are.

1.1.1. Energy
An Eco-city is mainly define by its level of performance and energy efficency is the main concern. Low consumption, carbon neutral, positive energy, … the first step preliminary to any design, is to choose which level of performance our city will reach.
City standard survey
- LEED for Neighborhood Development
- Tianjin Eco city Key Performance Indicators
- Chinese policy
- Masdar, Zara Zero Island, Tianjin, ...
Building standard survey
- LEED Building
- …
What are we aiming for ? Zero carbon city ?

1.1.2 Quality of life
However, we can not summarize a city to a single factor of efficiency. Peter Newman introduces the term of improving the quality of life in his definition of sustainable city. And we are also able to determine these criteria, in the most objective way by using tools developped by urban planners, PR and government.
Survey
- Livable cities ranking
- The city Calculator (MVRDV)
- Smart City (TU Vienna + TU Delft + University of Lubjana)
- Chinese standard
Could we define our own standard o quality of life ?

1.2.Technology
The technology to make our city sustainable already exists. All the cases studies use a realtively tradionnal way to produce and consume energy : solar panel, wind turbine, geothermy, smart grid.... By introducing from the beginning Shell expertise with the design process, we will be able to the perfect match between producing and consumption.
Survey
- energy (solar, wind ....) cf Bowen
- waste
- ...

1.3.Design process
All the example we can see all over the world are resulting from the same design process. With a better understanding of the city we should aim for a new approach where top-down is merging bottom-up planning.
Survey
- chinese new cities policy
- top down governance
- ...

2.City within its context
By controling numbers and parameters, we are also able to simulate the ultimate city according to chinese standard, absolutely efficient in term of energy, waste recycling, water use,... and livability as well. But do we want to live in this 100 % efficient city ?

A holistic approach aims for a field approach. The context analysis brings the necessary knowledge to implement a new city in the reality.

2.1. Social, demographic context
2.2. Bottom_up
2.3. Participatory governance
where « you » has to be part of the decision process of his own city. Thus require knowledge and willing. Not now,= but later as ultimate goal
2.4. Market
MUD, … By understanding the life style you are able to simulate the market. And making your city marketable does your city resilient.

A Resilient City is a city that has developed the systems and capacities to be able to adsorb shocks and stresses so as to still maintain essentially the same function, structure, systems, and identity, while at the same time implementing strategies to mitigate future shocks and stresses.
http://www.resilientcity.org/index.cfm?pagepath=Resilience&id=11449

Sustainability = Livability = Marketability = Resilience