Investigation to enhance sustainable improvements in high speed rail transport

Transport systems are essential for the life of modern societies and economies. A sustainable transport system can shape a sustainable development pattern and socio-economic attributes of urban centres and regions. The use of private cars and trucks is increasing in most countries, creating more congestion, accidents, pollution and energy consumption. Many governments desire to achieve growth in public transport to overcome these adverse trends. A massive shift toward an environmentally sound type of transport is crucial and railways are deemed to be one of the most sustainable modes. All over the world the railway industry is involved in a renewal to reform and up-date rail, prompted largely by environmental concerns. The trend is to develop speed-competitive systems to expand transportation capacity. The focus of the current research, which is at its commencing stages, is to investigate the opportunities to apply an alternative approach to railway operations to overcome the difficulty of high speed transport in servicing larger amounts of demand, while achieving minimum point to point travel time, in a viable and integrated environment for both passenger and freight services. The expected outcome of the research project is to present a framework that may be used to identify and evaluate the most cost-effective transport solution to service not only major cities, but also regional centres along an interregional rail corridor, thus providing greater benefits on local economies and to build a spine for future development

Sustainable consumption: towards action and impact. : International scientific conference November 6th-8th 2011, Hamburg - European Green Capital 2011, Germany: abstract volume

This volume contains the abstracts of all oral and poster presentations of the international scientific conference „Sustainable Consumption – Towards Action and Impact“ held in Hamburg (Germany) on November 6th-8th 2011. This unique conference aims to promote a comprehensive academic discourse on issues concerning sustainable consumption and brings together scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines. In modern societies, private consumption is a multifaceted and ambivalent phenomenon: it is a ubiquitous social practice and an economic driving force, yet at the same time, its consequences are in conflict with important social and environmental sustainability goals. Finding paths towards “sustainable consumption” has therefore become a major political issue. In order to properly understand the challenge of “sustainable consumption”, identify unsustainable patterns of consumption and bring forward the necessary innovations, a collaborative effort of researchers from different disciplines is needed

Friendship Village : Exploring the Critical Economic Development and Urban Design Link for Sustainable Development

Presented on December 3, 2008 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm in the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development 2nd floor classroom.Full report: Friendship Village Exploring the Critical Economic Development and Urban Design Link for Sustainable Development, January 2009Runtime: 77:11 minutes (Presentation)Runtime: 23:27 minutes (Q & A)The Friendship Village group had the charge of advising a large-scale land developer on directions for promoting sustainability in the plans for a 210 acre multi-use project in south Fulton County, Georgia. Their work included site design recommendations modeled after traditional town centers in ten case studies but also included innovative open space and stormwater management proposals and ideas about educational and health care facilities. The diverse professional audience expressed admiration and the developer’s lead representative indicated that results exceeded her expectations.Faculty Advisors: Nancey Green Leigh, Professor of City and Regional Planning ; Richard Dagenhart, Associate Professor of Architecture ; John Skach, Adjunct Professor; Senior Associate, Urban Collag

Accessibility dynamics and regional cross-border cooperation (CBC) perspectives in the portuguese—spanish borderland

Accessibility plays a major role in achieving sustainable transport, and therefore urban and regional sustainability. The urban public transport system promotes mobility and realizes a large part of urban movements. Moreover, improving accessibility in order to promote sustainable transport requires the application of new concepts and indicators as a powerful tool in the process of creating a balanced urban transport system. In this regard, one of the main goals of this research is to present an overview of the relevant accessibility indicators and assessment of accessibility in regional Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) in order to transcendence challenges and obstacles for sustainable transportation in these regions along of Portuguese-Spanish border. This paper focuses on the accessibility of cross-border cooperation scenarios along the border regions of Alto Alentejo (Portugal) and Badajoz (Spain) where the Case Study Research Method (CSR) made it possible to recognize accessibility as a key factor in territorial success. Also, accessibility analysis can assess improvements as well as regional imbalances. In addition, this methodology can be used to identify missing links, which requires new investments enabling long-term sustainability.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Green public procurement criteria for road infrastructures: State of the art and proposal of a weighted sum multicriteria analysis to assessenvironmental impacts

In the last years, the attention to environmental issue is growing, demonstrating the interest to protect the nature and to better use the non-renewable resources. At international level, and especially in the European Community, for different trades, a wide production of voluntary documents and institutional acts proves the interest and the need for a green economy. An innovative approach may lead to the experience of Green Public Procurements (GPP), to protect the environment as a public interest and to promote technological developments. So far, the experiences of GPP are limited, not entirely positive and in the field of road infrastructures almost entirely absent. Construction and maintenance of road infrastructures is objectively more complex than purchasing goods or services. The paper proposes the integration of the weighted sum multi-criteria analysis into existing procedures. The methodology needs for environmental labels related to materials, machines and works which contribute to the final product "road". The labels are recognized at international level and consistent with procedures, conditions and criteria currently published in road tenders, therefore the approach can be followed to pursue the environmental sustainability of road infrastructures without compromising the economic attention

Limits to Ecological-Based Planning in Zimbabwe the case of Harare

This paper explores the feasibility of adopting ecological based planning in low-income residential development. It explicates that in developing countries efforts by housing authorities have been on housing provision irrespective of the environmental threats to sustainability. As these houses are built, future of urban ecology is under threat. The questions regarding this phenomenon are several: how do low-income populations perceive environmental issues of urban settlements? How capable and willing are the local authorities to embrace and apply ecological based planning in residential development? What are the facilitating instruments of ecological-based planning? What are the prospects of integrating ecological based planning to low-income residential development? What are the restraining factors towards embracement of ecological based planning and how best can they be harnessed towards future ecological cities? The case study of Hatcliffe residential area in Harare shows that there are many challenges to overcome uncoordinated planning approaches, ineffective policies and legislative frameworks, weak institutional settings, financial constraints, outdated planning standards and regulations, poverty, lack of environmental stewardship and lack of political will among others. The study findings call for robust environmental conservation strategies, strong environmental stewardship, responsive institutional and funding mechanism backed by realistic legislative frameworks and robust policy rectification

Sustainable urban regeneration of historic city centres: lessons learnt

Cities are society’s centres of human interaction, creativity, knowledge, diversity, culture, commerce and economic creativity. The accretion of several layers of history tends to reveal a great deal about the city's past, present and even future. Historic city centres are usually endowed with a multitude of historic buildings, heritage sites and the like. However, it is also these historical centres that are most prone to the undesirable and consequential effects of growth and rapid technological advancement, where a range of environmental and developmental challenges find their crude expression. The rehabilitation and conservation of historic city centres serves as a fundamental catalyst for change. Furthermore, urban regeneration of historical city centres also promotes social interaction between inhabitants of the city, and the adoption of its urban spaces encourages public activity. This paper scrutinizes the city centre of two historical cities which are Barcelona, Spain and Istanbul, Turkey. Successful aspects of their ecological performance are highlighted. The two downtown areas discussed in this paper represent the downtown of two Mediterranean cities, and both are distinguished historical cities who have contextual similarities. The historical city centres of these Mediterranean cities have undergone variety of projects and strategic plans for urban regeneration, development and beautification. Moreover, various attempts have been made for the improvement of their environmental quality and ecological performance. This is through increases in urban green spaces and public parks, increased dependence on renewable energy technologies (RETs) and adopting sustainable transportation modes as opposed to undesirable and harmful vehicular transport. In essence, many urban regeneration plans have been aimed at conserving and preserving buildings and sites that are considered symbolic of the two cities heritage and legacy. Concomitantly, the paper presents a review of sustainability issues related to these two city centres and analyses the strategies that have been used through various urban regeneration projects and development plans. The paper particularly focuses on investigating the strategic plans and attempts that have been made at urban regeneration level by the Barcelona City Council and the Greater Municipality of Istanbul for the revitalization of their core areas