Creating Sustainable Cities

2879 Words12 Pages
Human systems of today are unsustainable. They rely too heavily on nonrenewable resources or are unconcerned with replacing what is being used. Tons of waste and pollution is also being created from these systems. One way to help make human systems more sustainable would be to build more sustainable cities. Make changes that would benefit our urban areas which would benefit the earth as a whole. This can be achieved in cities by urban planning. Urban planning would involve the implementation and credit for implementing technologies that do not require so much of our precious natural resources. One of the best places to start is in our nations subdivisions. This is becoming one of the most dominant housing forms to accommodate large amounts of people in small areas. We could lessen front yards to give a larger interface between urban dwelling and open areas. We could also implement more trees per yard and more species diversity. We could take the focus away from total beautification and add practicality as a main focus of subdivisions. We could implement community parks and gardens for the masses to compensate for loss of front yard space. The more greenery would help the environment as well as the people. Brittany Benjamin Ryan Nicholas Environmental Science 14 March 2013 Creating Sustainable Cities –Urban Development As part of urban dwelling, we depend on a complex web of interdependent human systems. They are a core element of our daily lives and we depend on them to work without even noticing what they are. Systems like waste management, transportation, energy, water use, and urban planning/development are all examples of these integral systems that we pay no attention to yet depend so heavily on. The bulk of these systems, however, are unsustainable and inefficient. They primarily depend on nonrenewable energy and have little or no involvement in
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