Regions are the smallest geographic unit of sustainable growth and development. Rural Smart Growth strategies combined with urban Placemaking efforts contribute to a region’s quality of life and sense of place.
Arcology, Gestalt ,Ekistics, Ecumenopolis, Principles of intelligent urbanism, Transit Oriented Development, Permaculture , Ergonomics, Biomimetics, Urban design , Garden city movement, Smart growth, Walkability, Urban planning, Green-collar worker,...
It may be a dirty word now, but density will help us clean up our cities as well as the environment
Developing countries are projected to gain 2.2 billion new urban residents between now and 2050.…
Arcology, Gestalt ,Ekistics, Ecumenopolis, Principles of intelligent urbanism, Transit Oriented Development, Permaculture , Ergonomics, Biomimetics, Urban design , Garden city movement, Smart growth, Walkability, Urban planning, Green-collar worker,...
This book delves into the urban planning theory of \"smart growth\" to encourage the creation of smart cities, where compact urban spaces are optimized to create transit-oriented, pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly areas, with a clear focus on developing a sustainable, humanistic transport system. Over the last century, increased demographic changes and use of motor vehicles in the wake of \"urbanization\" led to the rapid expansion of cities, giving rise to economic, social and environmental problems. Sprawls and extension into natural areas caused a scattered urban context replete with empty spaces. This book provides an effective solution to this with an overview of the historical application of smart growth principles as a response to the issue of sprawling cityscapes, and sheds light on the theoretical information and methodologies used by cities to re-develop the urban landscape. It also encloses a checklist for practitioners and decision makers to inform the developmental process and integrate smart growth strategies into land use planning. This book effectively engages with the global problem of urban sprawl in cities and hence will be an asset to both urban planning professionals, and graduate and postgraduate students of urban studies and the related disciplines.
Sustainable neighborhoods are the building blocks of sustainable cities. Neighborhoods are where development decisions are made and where increments of change -- whether good or bad -- actually take place, as well as where residents and workers experience the city environment on an everyday basis.
It’s time to pick the nation’s top form-based code. While this type of zoning is catching on, some form-based codes can miss the mark if they deviate from best practices. That’s where the Form-Based Codes Institute’s standards—and the Driehaus Award—come in.
Urban landscaping serves an essential role in mitigating against rising temperatures and boosting biodiversity.
To start off this blog post, I would like to focus on the specific policy framework my ideal city would utilize in achieving sustainable growth and economic viability. I am a very avid supporter of smart growth policies that would enhance the sustainability and efficiency of an urban center. In addition, these policies would combat the inexorable, often-harmful force of urban sprawl. Urban sprawl in Florida Smart growth can be defined as a "policy framework that promotes an urban development pattern characterized by high population density, walkable and bikeable neighborhoods, preserved green spaces, available mass transit, and limited road construction" (1853). Besides the positive implications for conservation of natural areas, smart growth has many potential health benefits, such as "diminished air pollution, fewer motor vehicle accidents, lower pedestrian mortality, and increased physical exercise" (1853). In being confronted with the "considerable evidence that urban sprawl has adverse environmental impacts and contributes to a variety of health problems - including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease" - one must understand that smart growth is a viable policy framework that will sustainably provide a city the services and needs that a growing urban population demands. Source: Dr. David B. Resnik: "Urban Sprawl, Smart Growth, and Deliberative Democracy" Addison Circle, Dallas, Texas - Example of Smart Growth "Good" City - Seattle Seattle's newest public light rail system in action Seattle seems to be one of the most, if not the top, environmentally minded big cities in America. It has very recently begun a light rail system within the city that will further be expanded in the coming years. This light rail system may also serve as an example to other cities around the country. However, this is just one of many smart growth aspects that places Seattle into my "good" city distinction. "Bad" City - Atlanta (pertaining to urban sprawl) West Atlanta metropolitan area - Douglas County In relation to urban sprawl, Atlanta has experienced an unimaginable growth of its surrounding metropolitan area. Its sprawl has nearly connected the city with the sprawl of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is important to note that while around 500,000 Atlantans live in the city proper, there are almost 5.5 million people sprawled into the eight-county metropolitan area.
As the Bay Area struggles to meet sustainability goals, double-digit population growth presents a clear challenge to reducing the region’s ecological footprint. Residents must use resources more efficiently to counteract the addition of more than a million new residents. In many ways, it mirrors a challenge the planet is facing. Can population growth in San Francisco and the Bay Area be sustainable?
Last week we resurrected a look at the preservation movement — asking if, rather than strict adherence to ideology, love of place could ultimately rule the day — so that, this week, we could put a …
To address recurring, dangerous speeding problems on neighborhood streets, the City of South Bend launched a demonstration project to test out traffic-calming tools they had never used before including traffic circles, chicanes, and bump outs. They worked closely with the local community to decide where these traffic-calming strategies were most needed. They also added educational signs to help teach people how street design can improve safety by encouraging drivers to slow down while simultaneously creating more vibrant places for people. As a result of this demonstration project, drivers drove slower on these streets, and South Bend also built trust with the community. To replicate the success of this project elsewhere, South Bend will develop a toolkit based on this experience to launch additional traffic calming projects in other neighborhoods throughout the city to improve safety and convenience for people on foot or bike.
Since at least Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin and the development of La Defense business district and the Tour Montparnasse, Paris has been subjected to the modernist redevelopment ideal of high-rise density.
Having lived in six 100-year-old homes over the last 25 years, autumn always makes me carefully consider what it takes to keep these beautiful elders operational and up-to-date. As we were going th…
Successful economic development is increasingly about creating great, walkable, and connected places. Smart Growth America’s (Re)Building Downtown technical assistance helps your community get ready for walkable development quickly and efficiently. We help local public officials identify the necessary strategies, including improving regulations for land use, establishing clear public investment practices, and reforming administrative processes. Our experts … Continued
This product comes with everything you need to start growing: 12x Rockwool cubes, 12x netcups, two seed satchets of your choice, and a 50mL bottle of hydroponic nutrients. Bring the outdoors inside with the EcoKitchen! The perfect system for indoor growing. Grows much faster than conventional gardening, experience massive yields of freshly grown herbs and veggies in no time. All the joy of gardening without the hassle! Refill the water every couple of weeks and harvest as needed. You’ve never tasted food this fresh. Our innovative indoor gardens don’t use soil. Your plants grow in water, just add nutrients. Powerful grow lights with automatic timers give your plants the perfect light dose. A water aeration pump keeps roots healthy. Bring the outdoors inside with the EcoKitchen! The perfect system for indoor growing. Grows much faster than conventional gardening, experience massive yields of freshly grown herbs and veggies in no time. All the joy of gardening without the hassle! Refill the water every couple of weeks and harvest as needed. You’ve never tasted food this fresh. Our innovative indoor gardens don’t use soil. Your plants grow in water, just add nutrients. Powerful grow lights with automatic timers give your plants the perfect light dose. A water aeration pump keeps roots healthy. This product comes with everything you need to start growing: 12x Rockwool cubes, 12x netcups, two seed satchets of your choice, and a 50mL bottle of hydroponic nutrients. Beware - if you buy the EcoKitchen you'll be wowing crowds of guests and will need to polish up your hydroponics pitch to explain how it works to all your friends and family! Why You Will Love It! Neville from the Garden Gurus takes you through why you will love the EcoKitchen! Super water efficient The EcoKitchen roots float directly in the water that they grow in, this results in high water efficiency - reducing the amount of maintenance that the system needs! Refill on average once every 3 weeks. Faster & higher yields Experience higher yields and faster growth as the EcoKitchen provides the perfect nutrient balance and light exposure that your plants need to grow. Convenience at your fingertips Modern design fits in most kitchens or living rooms - just metres away from your plate. Save the trip to the supermarket and harvest fresh herbs when you need them! Reduce food miles By growing food in your own home, you reduce the distance food travels to get to you - resulting in a fresher meal on your table and fewer emissions from food miles! Yay environment! How Much Can You Grow? Tap below to see how much you can grow: Lettuce: On average harvest 2.4 supermarket servings of lettuce every week (1 serving = 55g). Using just 3.6 litres of water/week, $1.60 of electricity and $1.29 of rockwool and nutrients. Perfect for making a delicious cos chef's salad! Basil: Over the life of the plant, on average harvest 4 supermarket servings of basil every week (1 serving = 29g). Using just 12 litres of water/week, $1.60 of electricity and $3.24 of rockwool and nutrients. Perfect for making a heartwarming Thai chicken and basil stir-fry! Coriander: Over the life of the plant, on average harvest 3 supermarket servings of coriander every week (1 serving = 16g). Using just 6.25 litres of water/week, $1.60 of electricity and $2.43 of rockwool and nutrients. Perfect for making mouthwatering vegetarian carrot, black bean and coriander fritters with smoky avocado salsa! Dill: Over the life of the plant, on average harvest 2.4 supermarket servings of dill every week (1 serving = 15g). Using just 6 litres of water/week, $1.60 of electricity and $1.82 of rockwool and nutrients. Perfect for making tasty salmon escalopes with dill and avocado salad! Specifications High-performance full spectrum LED grow lights with two light settings: white and red light, or white, red and blue light. An integrated timer that operates on a set timer that runs 14H on/10H off. Built-in pump that provides aeration and nutrient circulation for the roots of your plant. 7 Litre water reservoir lets you grow and grow and grow before you need to re-water your plants! Easy setup which can be done in less than 5 minutes! Specifications Dimensions: 38 cm x 38 cm x 32cm (roughly the size of a milk crate!) Product Weight: 2.2 kg Energy Usage: Monthly energy cost* ~ $3.10 *Assumes operation for 18 hours per day, with electricity costs as average Australian prices ($0.25/kWh). Whats in the box? Instruction manual 12x Rockwool cubes 12x Re-usable net cups Water Aeration Pump Product Basin and Light Panel Power Supply: AC to 24V DC Power adapter (Australian Outlet) 50mL hydroponic nutrients for herbs and leafy greens. 2 Packets of seeds of your choice included Features LED Grow Lights The lights themselves replicate the wavelength of light that plants need to grow. This wavelength is usually a small band of blue light between 400 and 500 nm, and red light between 600 and 700 nm which when combined result in a purple glow. The white light LED diodes in this product emit a lot of blue light, and the red lights provide the red light. When combined it provides all the light that most plants need to grow! See our FAQ for more on how growlights are different to normal lights Hydroponic Nutrients There are 17 essential elements required for plant growth. Three of these are carbon, hydrogren and oxygen (which the plant gets from water and air), the rest are macronutrients (Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphate) and Micronutrients (Calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, chlorine, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, molybdenum, and nickel). Most fertilisers only have the three macronutrients at best. In comparison our Hydroponic nutrients contain 14 essential elements required for plant growth! All you need to do to use it is mix it in with water and watch as your plant grows! You can find way more detail on how hydroponic nutrients work in our faq. Rockwool Growing Medium The plant is held in rockwool - which is the product of a molten rock that has been heated and spun like fairy floss. Rockwool provides uniform oxygenation for a plant's roots, as well as a stable medium for the plant to be secured by. Germinating seeds in rockwool has a 90% success rate if you make sure to wet the seeds! Once the roots grow out of the rockwool, they simply float in our hydroponic nutrient water and grow. providing you with soil-free growing that makes this product perfect for your kitchen! This EcoKitchen has 12 rockwool growing pods! So you can grow a variety of your favourite herbs and leafy greens such as lettuce, basil, coriander, parsley, rocket and more! All you need to get started are seeds and nutrients of your choice! Assembly If you've ever setup somethign that's flatpacked then this will be a walk in the park for you! All you need to do to setup the EcoKitchen is screw in the wooden panels with the allen key provided, add in your rockwool cubes to the netcups, plant seeds, add water and nutrients and you're good to go! Maintenance There isn't too much maintenance required - on average you will only need to re-fill water and nutrients every 2-4 weeks. When the water runs low, refill it and add two scoops (scoop provided) of the hydroponic nutrients provided into the water basin and mix! Make sure you mix the nutrients in correctly - as it won't work if it's not dissolved! If anything goes wrong - troubleshooting is easy, the best way to get back on track is to throw our the old nutrient water solution (into the garden or some other plants) and start again with fresh water and nutrients!
I live in a city that is currently updating its Community Plans. This is an historically difficult planning job because Community Plans transcend both broad policy statements (such as the amorphous…
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “India is to be found not in its few cities, but in its 700,000 villages.” Though that may at one time have been true, it is no longer the case. With about 30 country dwellers moving lock, stock and barrel every minute from Indian villages to [...]
Arcology, Gestalt ,Ekistics, Ecumenopolis, Principles of intelligent urbanism, Transit Oriented Development, Permaculture , Ergonomics, Biomimetics, Urban design , Garden city movement, Smart growth, Walkability, Urban planning, Green-collar worker,...
/PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Smart City Platform Market by Offerings (Platform, Service), by Deployment Model (On...
Arcology, Gestalt ,Ekistics, Ecumenopolis, Principles of intelligent urbanism, Transit Oriented Development, Permaculture , Ergonomics, Biomimetics, Urban design , Garden city movement, Smart growth, Walkability, Urban planning, Green-collar worker,...
Arcology, Gestalt ,Ekistics, Ecumenopolis, Principles of intelligent urbanism, Transit Oriented Development, Permaculture , Ergonomics, Biomimetics, Urban design , Garden city movement, Smart growth, Walkability, Urban planning, Green-collar worker,...
Arcology, Gestalt ,Ekistics, Ecumenopolis, Principles of intelligent urbanism, Transit Oriented Development, Permaculture , Ergonomics, Biomimetics, Urban design , Garden city movement, Smart growth, Walkability, Urban planning, Green-collar worker,...
Explore Dubai Urban Tech District: A hub for smart city innovation and sustainable growth. Invest in the future of urban living.
Marvin and Integrity products are now organized into three collections under one Marvin brand.
Arcology, Gestalt ,Ekistics, Ecumenopolis, Principles of intelligent urbanism, Transit Oriented Development, Permaculture , Ergonomics, Biomimetics, Urban design , Garden city movement, Smart growth, Walkability, Urban planning, Green-collar worker,...
