All text and photos taken from the Tianjin Eco-City Development’s official website:

The Master Plan of Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city lays down the guidelines for the Eco-city’s development as a scaleable, practicable and replicable model for sustainable development for other cities in China and around the world. It was jointly developed by the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, the Tianjin Institute of Urban Planning and Design, and the Singapore planning team led by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. 

The basic building block of the Eco-city Master Plan is a single cell, or “Eco-Cell”, that serves to integrate the different land uses within a modular 400m by 400m grid. Educational institutions, commercial areas, workplaces and recreational areas are distributed within these Eco-Cells and located close to the residential areas to minimize commuting. Together, these Eco-Cells add up to form neighbourhoods, districts, and eventually the urban centres.

Another highlight of the Master Plan is an “Eco-Valley” running through the Eco-city as a north-south connector. It serves as the main ecological green spine and incorporates water-sensitive urban design elements, such as eco-swales and dry streams. The Eco-Valley will connect the major transit nodes, residential areas, community facilities and commercial centres. It will be a key public open space and focal point of the Eco-city. 

Last night I learned about the pioneering economist Jeremy Rifkin, and the groundbreaking work he is doing in Europe.  

The above is a master plan he created with the help of over 100 businesses to turn Rome into the world’s first post-Carbon city.  It is an exciting project and one that is gaining momentum.

Taken from this article:

“…..According to the US economist, who became well-known across the Atlantic after publishing his best-seller The European Dream, the exit strategy to push the EU into the third industrial revolution rests on a four-pillar infrastructure revolution that will give the EU the same economic multiplier effect that drove previous industrial revolutions: the railroad in the 19^th century and more recently the interstate highway in the US.

“A bit of sun on the roof, a little bit of wind on the walls and heat from the ground, and buildings become partial power plants,” he said, stressing that buildings are not only the major cause of climate change, but also the solution.

Hydrogen is the third pillar of Rifkin’s vision. The EU must commit to hydrogen as a means of storing intermittent energy sources, he said. “We have to set up hydrogen infrastructure across all buildings, infrastructure and power lines in Europe.”

The fourth strand of his strategy combines the Internet and communication technology revolution and the distributive renewable energy revolution.

“Millions and millions of buildings producing their own energy, throwing some of the surplus in hydrogen - like you store digital and media - then what they don’t use, they can share across 27 states with 500 million people on an intergrid that acts exactly like the Internet,” he said, insisting that the technology exists……”

If you live in Ontario, you can watch an interview of Jeremy Rifkin on The Agenda with Steve Paikin.  Check it out:

http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?videoid?107728977001

China has adopt a relatively aggressive campaign to lower its carbon emissions through the creation of various eco-cities across the country.  The first of its kind will be Turpan, located in Western China.

I found the following from an article in the China People’s Daily:

In the face of industrialization and fast urbanization, Chinese cities are now working on cost-effective ways to protect the environment in a sustainable way based on previous experiences and national conditions while gaining more benefit and producing less emissions.

On May 5, urban-rural Turpan model zone, the national new-energy model city, broke the ground. Turpan plans to change 8.8 square kilometers of barren land into a new green oasis in 10 years. The new Turpan zone will strive to adopt a low-carbon policy to build every plot of the land from urban planning, industrial presence, to architecture and design as well as energy use. 

For example, electricity will be generated by PV power, heating and cooling will be provided through ground source heat pumps, and the architecture will adopt natural ventilation and natural light.

I tried to find pictures of Turpan’s masterplan with little success so far.  I will continue the search and post them if I find any.

As mentioned earlier, I am hoping to understand urban planning in China in the next few weeks before I start my actual education in Urban Planning.  Even though I live in Toronto and will be studying Canadian Urban Planning, I feel I must ultimately understand the situation in both China (and eventually India) in order to truly help plan for a sustainable future. 

Anyways, today I learned about Beijing’s need for water.

It was 41.8 degrees Celsius in Beijing today and pretty much the same temperature here in Toronto, Canada.  The type of day that makes you inhale water like oxygen.  It was appropriate than (or, rather, inappropriate) that I should find this story from June 28th about Beijing’s plans to import water from south of the country.

Here is an exert:

“The delay of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is accelerating the water crisis in China’s capital, where 17.55 million people are overdrawing inadequate supplies, Tuesday’s China Daily quoted experts as saying.  

 The project was planned to transfer 1 billion cubic meters of water to the capital in 2010, but its completion has been postponed until 2014.  

 According to Beijing’s urban planning design (2004-2020), the city’s annual water demand will be 4 to 5 billion cubic meters by 2020. The water diversion project will transfer at least 1 billion cubic meters of water every year.  

 The project is very important to alleviating the capital’s water shortage, Wang Jianhua, a scientist with the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, was quoted by Beijing media as saying in May. The city’s current shortage has reached 400 million cubic meters, experts said.  

 The capital’s urban planning design recommended that the capital’s population be kept within 18 million. But it grew from nearly 17 million at the end of 2008 to at least 17.5 million a year later, Beijing government figures show.”

It will be interesting to follow Beijing’s water problems and how they plan on keeping the population of the city to within 18 million, especially considering the urbanizing trend of the population.  This is a huge issue for Beijing’s planners to deal with and hopefully will lead to innovations in water management policy and technology.

The following 10 Principles were created by the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy to “meet the challenges of rapid population growth and climate change while improving competitiveness.”  

1. Walk the walk: Create great pedestrian environments.
2. Powered by people: Create a great environment for bicycles and other non-motorized vehicles.
3. Get on the bus: Provide great, cost-effective public transport.
4. Cruise control: Provide access for clean passenger vehicles at safe speeds and in significantly reduced numbers.
5. Deliver the goods: Service the city in the cleanest and safest manner.
6. Mix it up: Mix people and activities, buildings and spaces.
7. Fill it in: Build dense, people and transit oriented urban districts that are desirable.
8. Get real: Preserve and enhance the local, natural, cultural, social and historical assets.
9. Connect the blocks: Make walking trips more direct, interesting and productive with small-size, permeable buildings and blocks.
10. Make it last: Build for the long term. Sustainable cities bridge generations. They are memorable, malleable, built from quality materials, and well maintained.

You can read more about them here.

A Ministry of Infrastructure video by the Government of Ontario.  It is about the Government’s work to expand High-way 69 (hehe) by 2 lanes between Sudbury and Perry Sound.  The work is slated to be done by 2017 and costs who knows what.

I found it interesting because essentially the Government is boasting that it is expanding a high-way in order to create jobs and “enhance economic opportunity”.

You heard that right: we are building roads to create jobs.  

Now I’m sure it will improve transportation between the two cities, making the region more productive.  I’m less convinced that the added lanes will necessarily lead to less accidents, but I’m willing to give that a pass.  What concerns me is that we are trying to fix an economy (the globe economy, of which Canada is very much a part of) by feeding the very forces which cause its problems.

Cars, roads, houses, mortgages.  

Why are we destroying our planet in order to feed this insane economic system?

BP, Shell, Exxon, etc, must be shitting their pants!