santiago meja dugand
Post on 26-Jun-2015
321 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
1
Megacities, megaproblems:
a contextual approach to environmental technology
SymCity
Norrköping, October 13-14 2011
Santiago Mejía Dugand
PhD Candidate
2
What is a Megacity?
A city with more than 10 million inhabitants.
3
There were 2 megacities in 1950
3 in 1975
9 in 1985
18 in 2000
20 in 2005
And there will be 22 in 2015 (17 in the developing world) Source: UN
Some classical examples (metropolitan areas)
•Tokyo (34,300,000)
•Guangzhou (25,200,000)
•Seoul (25,100,000)
•Shanghai (24,800,000)
•Delhi (23,300,000)
•Mumbai (23,000,000)
•Mexico City (22,900,000) Source:citypopulation.de
4
The role of cities in today’s world
More than 50% of the
world’s population lives in cities
(around 7% in megacities)
Few countries left with less than
50% urban population
Source: UN
Source: The Guardian
5
Cities keep growing.
In particular in developing countries.
An estimation of 200,000 people
Migrate everyday from rural to urban areas
Around the world
600 cities generate 60%
Of the world’s GDP
6
Cities facilitate…
Jobs Health care Basic services Security attention
Education Entertainment
7
But also face big challenges
Food shortage Air pollution Water provision Mobility
Fossil fuel
dependency Waste
management Gentrification
Overcrowding
8
Can technology ”save” these cities?
9
Not by itself, isolated from deeper problems (context)
10
When talking about sustainability, there has to be a conscious,
social and technical assessment of the roots of the problem(s)
11
Technology implementation
has to go hand-to-hand with
the stakeholders' training.
A good solution can be meaningless
12
Having a solution does not necessarily
mean commercial success
13
The same solution might work differently
under different contexts...
14
Each particular case deserves special attention!
To innovate is also to find innovative uses
15
The case of transportation in LA
10:1 in costs (compared to a metro)
4:1 compared to a light train
Takes shorter time to implement
Uses most of the existing infrastructure
Dedicated lanes
Flexible (possibility to overtake)
Works "like a metro"
Big coverage
"Outside-the-bus" collection system
Centralized management
16
In less than ten years
17
The case of Cleaner Production dissemination
Concepts face several barriers:
"Rich owners, poor companies"
Non existing/poor regulation
Bribes
Informal economy (parallel production)
Poor communication of incentives (when
they exist)
18
A disfunctional triple helix
Academia
Industry
Government
19
The need and search
for competitiveness and
attraction of foreign investment
in transitional cities (over
environmental concerns)
20
The discomfort (aversion) of getting
foreign-dependent,
because of the fear of a new
"technological colonialism".
Expensive spare parts and support.
Long waiting times (more costs)
21
Utopian views and their incompatibility (e.g. “holistic
solutions")
"Beautiful, but it won't work here"
22
Difference in concepts (and
realities) of what sustainability
is and means for each culture
or geographical area.
23
The fear (and risk)
of losing local knowledge.
24
Thank you!
25
(By the way, during these 20 minutes,
cities around the world have 2800 more
inhabitants)
top related