6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable city

1. 6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable city PRODUCTIVE CITY Key issue: Can the local economy provide a majority of residents with means to earn a reasonable living? INCLUSIVE CITY Key issue: Do residents have the opportunities and capacities to share equitably in the social benefits of city life? CITY POPULATION Key issue: What will be the future size, form and character of urban populations, given the commitment that residents have to lives in the city? SUSTAINABLE CITY Key issue: How is the city impacting on the envelope of natural resources that sustains the settlement and makes it livable? WELL-GOVERNED CITY Key issue: Is the political & institutional context stable, open and dynamic enough to accommodate all interests

2. 6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable city Population changes, economic growth and social development all shape the built environment of the city In turn, size and shape of cities affects social development, economic prospects and population stability, because built environments impact on the envelope of natural resources that makes cities liveable. Cities may become so large, dense, polluted and spatially dysfunctional that they become unsustainable (diseconomies of scale exceed benefits of locating in cities) • Key issues examined in report: • Inefficiencies of apartheid spatial planning Air and water quality, waste management, • and long term land and water availability • Environmental health and safety • Urban mobility

3. 6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable city Urban apartheid design resulted in many built environment inefficiencies This means that the apartheid city had a high impact on the envelope of natural resources • On assumption of small populations, many SA cities under-designed – slums are the inevitable result • Designed to marginalise, so large numbers pushed far out into dormitory townships, and designed to impede movement as measure of poliitcal control – high transport costs • Areas deliberately underserviced

4. 6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable city Post-apartheid developments have often excacerbated the apartheid city form • New housing developments on the edges of cities because of subsidy structure and developer preferences • Dedensification especially movement out of backyards. In 2001 there were still 544 667 backyard hsh in 9 cities • Office decentralisation, in part to escape perceived crime and grime from inner cities being occupied by new migrants and those moving out of backyards

5. 6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable city Consequently, cities have a high and growing impact on natural resource envelope Valuable agriculatural land and water sources being strained by the spreading out of cities • NSDP notes that at least four SACN will face major water deficits in the next 20 years • Part of the problem is utilisation of transportation subsidies. If properly realocated R2 billion annually could be made available for better located land making for more compact cities

6. 6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable city Some major challenges in adequately treating all wastewater and managing domestic and business waste • In one city, illegal dumping per annum reached 266 139 tons, almost three quarters of residential waste of 393 226 tons • 22% of households in the nine cities had inadequate sanitation (VIP or less)

7. 6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable city Air pollution, and the health effects thereof, are growing • On average only 15% of the areas of the SACN are monitored for air pollution • Measured tonnage of CO2 & other gass emissions range from 1 061 085 tons in one Gauteng city to 1 360 341 in another • One city reported that DEAT guidelines for air-quality were exceeded 45 days during the year (an ‘air-pollution event’)

8. 6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable city Increasing population densities and greater traffic volumes on sometimes poorly maintained roads means time costs of moving around cities are inreasing Exacerbated by poor availability and use of public transport

9. 6. Urban environment trends and the sustainable city Many cities have begun to think and act proactively on the urban environment. They have new environmental protection by-laws, environmental protection strategies, transport plans, open space management systems Some have alreade taken next steps to do environmental footprint analyses. This determines area equivalent to inputs needed to sustain the city