Welcome to the ECOCITY 2022 Interactive Programme

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Displaying One Session

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/23/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall D

REGENERATIVE URBANISM – PLATFORM FOR NEXT-GENERATION PRACTICE

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/23/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall D

Lecture Time
04:00 PM - 04:10 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

Will our ad-hoc sustainability-as-usual approach be capable of producing sustainability, especially in time, given the accelerating existential threats of climate change and other socio-economic-environmental trends? If not, what can professional planners do?
Enter "regenerative urbanism," emerging from the innovation occurring across our plan, design, and build professions, and which leading-edge cities are advancing around the world.
Urban development that “makes” more than it “takes” - regenerative city-- regions of inclusive prosperity and well-being -- is the necessary innovation required to scale sustainability to the next level of environment, economic and social health performance required for 21st century urbanism.
With cities and the built environment being the spatial dimension of our economy, how the built environment is planned and designed fundamentally determines or “locks in” urban sustainability performance levels for the next 50-100+ year period before replacement at the end of the “useful life."
Regenerative urbanism plays a formative role in creating a circular economy of inclusive abundance that is the necessary material basis for sustainable and equitable cities and society. Our routine ad-hoc approach to sustainability only slows the rate of impact with net-negative mitigation. Regenerative urbanism eliminates impacts at their source and produces inclusive abundance (net positive). This is accomplished with on-going innovation focused on achieving the imperatives of regenerative sustainable systems performance.
The panelists will present and then open the floor for discussion of their research and studies on the strategic scale to deliver regenerative urbanism based on their project experiences across the Pacific Rim including Tokyo, Portland, Vancouver, San Francisco and then open the floor for discussion. These projects are pursuing certifications such as like Living Community Challenge, Regenerative "Living" Districts & City (San Francisco), LEED ND, and they are establishing the necessary game-changing rules of 21st century urbanism.
This panel will illuminate the key features of the regenerative urbanism theme, scale, and practice emerging from innovation across our plan, design, and build professions to make it more accessible to others, to advance the conversation, and to accelerate this innovation in their profession and practice.

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AN INTEGRAL FOUNDATION FOR ECOLOGICALLY HEALTHY CITIES: SUSTAINABILITY AND INDIGENIZATION

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/23/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall D

Lecture Time
04:10 PM - 04:20 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

The British Columbia Institute of Technology adopted an Indigenous Vision in 2019 and a Sustainability Vision in 2020. Both visions advance social justice. The Indigenous Vision provides a framework for action and accountability in building awareness and understanding around Truth, Reconciliation, Indigenization, the legacy of colonization, and the contemporary reality of Canada and Indigenous peoples. The Sustainability Vision aims to enable people to lead socially just lives within ecological limits while building a contemporary understanding about how inequitable access to resources perpetuates unsustainable outcomes, including climate change.

Efforts are now underway to share, learn, collaborate, and build a culture of understanding that brings the Indigenous and Sustainability visions and their core issues together to make their connections clear. Engaging faculty, students, and staff on a shared journey of learning and actions for implementing the Visions ensures the ongoing promotion of social justice as a unifying element in a ‘Just Transition’ towards a sustainable future.

In this presentation, participants will learn about the content of BCIT’s Indigenous and Sustainability visions, and how the foundation of ecologically healthy cities must incorporate both an Indigenous lens and a Sustainability lens. We will demonstrate the social and physical system interconnections of reconciliation and sustainability to ecologically healthy cities. The path to a sustainable and equitable future must include all voices and be rooted in systems and structures that are reflective of all peoples and cultures. The status quo is inequitable and therefore unsustainable and a comprehensive, inclusive and wholistic world view is required for ecologically healthy cities. The foundation of an ecologically healthy city must be grounded in the history of place with a vision for the next seven generations.

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BIOCULTURAL DIVERSITY AS A FRAMEWORK FOR JUST AND SUSTAINABLE CITIES: A CASE STUDY OF VANCOUVER, CANADA

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/23/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall D

Lecture Time
04:20 PM - 04:30 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

Human-nature relationships are a critical part of sustainable cities, supporting the health and wellbeing of urban socio-ecological systems. As awareness of this issue grows, urban environmental justice and urban green equity are increasingly entering the sustainable cities discourse. As we strive to build greener and more sustainable cities, there is increasing acceptance that we need to build cities with and for diverse urban communities, both human and non-human. One of the dominant frameworks driving sustainability and urban environmental justice discourses is that of ecosystem services. However, ecosystem services have been criticized for prioritizing unidirectional human-nature relationships and failing to recognize alternative ways of knowing.

This research presents biocultural diversity as an alternative framework for environmental justice analysis and action. Drawing on media and document analysis, and interviews with key urban forest actors, we examine the concept of biocultural diversity as a grounding for urban environmental justice via a case study of Vancouver, Canada. The research tracks the biocultural diversity in Vancouver’s urban forest and the development of its key biocultural discourses. Despite the presence of dominant sustainability discourses focused on “Vancouverism” and ecosystem services, results highlight a diversity of biocultural relationships, including opportunities for intercultural learning and sites of conflict. Building on the biocultural diversity framework, we present a path forward towards a more just and sustainable urban future, based on recognitional equity and mosaic governance systems.

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THE SELECTION OF DISTRICTS REGARDING LOW-CARBON DAILY COMMUTE ACROSS TEHRAN: A SQL-BASED DATA ANALYSIS

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/23/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall D

Lecture Time
04:30 PM - 04:40 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

Large cities are in constant changes. These changes are becoming increasingly compulsory due to the dynamism and growing urban population. Such flows of people rely on sound and timely transport systems daily. Therefore, more paved paths must be developed while more private and public vehicles used. The result will be more traffic congestions, air pollution, carbon emissions, infrastructure, and energy consumptions. Sustainable solutions and strategies must be developed to reduce these burdens and make transportation more sustainable and effective.

This research has made a case for Tehran as the largest city in Iran in terms of population and size area. The city has grown fast due to mass rural-urban migrations, industrialization, and improper urban development over the past decades. Currently, the city has embedded 22 Municipality Districts across its vast fish-like shape area.

Based on a recent comprehensive annual report published by the Tehran Municipality, we determined the most influential parameters affecting daily commutes across all residential areas located in 22 Districts. A total of 15 variables were defined, such as ‘number of the population per area unit’ (Pop_dens). As an innovative data analysis approach, we employed SQL algorithms to evaluate relationships between these 15 variables and select those with lower-than-mean thresholds. We then crossed each of these variables chosen with daily commutes figures for each District. We could attain several SQL-based queries and determine the best District for offering low-carbon daily commutes. Among all Tehran Districts, District-22 could offer higher scores (6 out of 10) based on queries made for low-carbon daily commutes.

This research revealed a reliable data analysis approach to tackle transport inefficiency and reducing carbon emissions in the cities.

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SOCIAL INNOVATIONS AND MULTI-STAKEHOLDER ALLIANCES TO STRENGTHEN URBAN FOOD SYSTEMS AND CONSERVE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN THE PERI-URBAN AGRICULTURAL AREA IN MEXICO CITY

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/23/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall D

Lecture Time
04:40 PM - 04:50 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

The transformation of food systems and its relationship with cities is a crucial issue for sustainability, where a multiplicity of social, economic and environmental problems converge in a context marked by population growth, social inequality and the accumulated effects of climate change, loss of biodiversity and deterioration of ecosystems. This research addresses this complex subject from the perspective of an action-research project based in a mega city in the global south, Mexico City.

Over the last decades, City governments have promoted public policies that respond in compartmentalized ways to problems surrounding poverty, health (among these those derived from the double burden of malnutrition), the supply of food and the preservation of the “conservation zone”, an area occupied by forests and small-scale agricultural areas that represent about 57% of the city's territory (just over 87,000 hectares). These areas are central to the health and food security of City inhabitants, and fundamental to the provision of essential ecosystem services, such as, stabilization of soils, conservation of hydrological and biogeochemical cycles, carbon capture, retention of suspended particles, recharge of local aquifers and conservation of biodiversity.

This project seeks to contribute to the construction of positive synergies that promote the strengthening of sustainable agricultural practices in the “Conservation zone” and other areas producing ecosystem services and improving access to healthy fresh food staples in the city. Specifically, we seek to analyze through a transdisciplinary approach the processes by which sustainable agricultural practices are appropriated and strengthened by small producers; their collaboration strategies with citizen groups and public universities to strengthen sustainable production, distribution and consumption practices; and the creation of spaces that serve as distribution points for healthy food at affordable prices, promoting reflection regarding nutrition and encouraging the exchange of experiences between participating stakeholders.

It is important to note that this project is financed by the Mexico City government through an open call for projects that seeks to promote proposals for public policies for sustainable food systems for the City.

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REGIME CHANGE: COMMUNITY-LED GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AS A CATALYST TO THE TRANSITION OF GREY AGENCY MANAGEMENT

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/23/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall D

Lecture Time
04:50 PM - 05:00 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

In many cities green stormwater infrastructure has emerged as an alternative to the industrial management regime. Yet stormwater agencies are profoundly unprepared to implement infrastructure that is decentralized, adaptively managed, and dependent on ephemeral biotic systems. Green stormwater engages thorny issues of land use and urban design, topics outside of most agencies’ engineering "pipes and pumps" expertise and requires sensitivity to environmental empowerment.

While stormwater authorities may show deference to green stormwater infrastructure’s (GSI’s) socio-ecological benefits, they find small-scale community-led green stormwater infrastructure (CLGSI) difficult to integrate into adaptive management systems that are driven by data, automated technology, and accountability-seeking financial structures. Studies of the historic shifts in water infrastructure suggest that the integration of GSI will not occur through incremental implementation but through regime change.

By looking at city-wide green stormwater plans from two North American cities, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Buffalo, New York, this paper will examine the viability of community-led GSI and possible supportive policies to integrate it into existing agencies and industrial stormwater management systems. This paper will define community-led green stormwater initiatives and how they are informed by landscape-water interactions, the morphology of the natural system, and socio-cultural spatial practices. The paper will also identify the limiting factors of technology, management, and values of the current industrial-scale stormwater system. Lastly, the paper will conclude with a model for regime change, including policies to enable CL-GSI integration within the existing grey practices and how to shift to a tipping point that transitions from grey into a new green-blue regime.

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Q&A

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/23/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall D

Lecture Time
05:00 PM - 05:30 PM