Welcome to the ECOCITY 2022 Interactive Programme

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Displaying One Session

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/24/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall C

EXPELLED FROM THE GARDEN? UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF GREEN GENTRIFICATION THROUGH VANCOUVER URBAN AGRICULTURE

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/24/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall C

Lecture Time
04:00 PM - 04:10 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

There is substantial evidence detailing the ecological and social benefits provisioned through urban greening; however, research in the field of urban green equity has revealed that these benefits are not enjoyed equitably by all residents. Rather, there exist vast disparities in the distribution, accessibility, and experience of urban greening that disproportionately affect historically marginalized communities and residents. Furthermore, green gentrification scholarship has indicated that instances of urban greening intended to rectify inequities, can contribute to or elicit shifts in property value, encouraging speculative commercial and retail investment, disrupting existing socio-spatial relationships, and threatening the housing security of residents. Although there is consensus on this general characterization of green gentrification, many questions remain concerning the relationships present between urban residents engaged in practices of small-scale urban greening and the perpetuation of green gentrification outcomes. Contributing to this line of inquiry, we will present a case study of an urban farm operating in Vancouver, Canada facing displacement due to the redevelopment of its current site. Our results from the study will illuminate the contradictory position in which urban residents practicing urban greening are placed — both implicated in and impacted by green gentrification processes. We will present a review of our case study to highlight the power dynamics that farm members must navigate in the effort to preserve their access to land and continue their farming practice. Then, we will discuss the farm’s role as a consultant for the redevelopment process, exploring how their vision, mission, and identity has been coopted by development agents and used as a branding tool to promote and support the public perception of the redevelopment. The findings we present will offer insight into the risks urban greening poses to communities engaged in urban greening as well as suggest novel modes of public consultation and urban greening decision making that may curb trends in green gentrification.

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GLOBAL EXPOSURES TO URBAN GREEN SPACE

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/24/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall C

Lecture Time
04:10 PM - 04:20 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

Evidence shows that green space in cities can benefit human health by reducing exposures to heat, noise, psychological stressors, and air pollution, and/or promoting healthful activities such as physical activity. Studies have linked green space exposure to a wide range of favorable health outcomes including improved mental health, reduced blood pressure, better self-perceived general health, higher birth weights, and lower risk of overall and cardiovascular mortality.

The objective of this project is to develop a global indicator for the extent of urban green space in world cities from the satellite-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a measure of the density of vegetation. NDVI is a dimensionless number, with higher levels indicating increasing density of vegetation. We obtained quarterly NDVI from the NASA MODIS satellite, which provides images every 16 days at a 250-m resolution, and overlaid this with population and spatial extent data from over 500 global cities. This was done at five-year intervals from 2010 to 2020 to assess trends. Urban area spatial boundaries were defined using the Global Human Settlement program of the European Commission, which uses remote sensing and demographic data to define more than 10,000 urban centers worldwide. Data on population were collected from the Center for International Earth Science Information Network - CIESIN - Columbia University, which models the distribution of human population (counts and densities) on a continuous global raster surface with an output resolution of 30 arc-seconds (approximately 1 km at the equator). Four metrics were calculated for each urban area: Peak NDVI (maximum NDVI across all seasons); annual mean based on the four-season average NDVI; population weighted average based on peak NDVI; and population weighted average based on annual mean NDVI.

Peak NDVI averaged 0.45 across cities, ranging from 0.10 to 0.76 across cities. Among global regions, South-East-Asian cities had the highest peak and four-season NDVI, followed by cities in Europe and America. These data will serve as crucial indicators for access to green space across the globe for the benefit of human health, as well as climate resilience.

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CORRELATION BETWEEN TRANSIT USE, POLLUTION, AND SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS IN MAJOR CITIES

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/24/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall C

Lecture Time
04:20 PM - 04:30 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

With the development of urban areas and the growth of roads and road use, either in public transit or in personal transit, air pollution comes with it. On the other hand, there are not many solutions to the large percentage of pollution occurring from motor vehicles. One of the many reasons for this is that traffic growth data is challenging to process and manage. After detailed research on the current issues regarding public and private transportation in major cities around the world and their effect on our environment, this study aims to create an adaptive computer model that can give insights and allow us to establish new procedures and protocols to achieve Net-Zero carbon emissions. The model that we created will fetch important data regarding traffic patterns, volume, emissions, and other factors such as Electric Vehicles' growing popularity. Our model is fully generic and can be used with any city open data APIs. It will then analyze and discover the crucial features that will help identify critical problems in the areas of transportation that need to be dealt with in the first place. It will also display the correlation between traffic growth and increased air pollution in our cities. Finally, data will be fully visualized to provide fast access and easy comparison between various solutions to the problem.

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TOWARDS A SOCIALLY EQUITABLE APPROACH TO URBAN RESILIENCE ASSESSMENT

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/24/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall C

Lecture Time
04:30 PM - 04:40 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

The effects of the covid-19 pandemic highlight a systemic gap in our knowledge of urban resilience and the urgent need to rethink how we define, measure, and (re)build resilient cities. It is estimated that the global pandemic cost would total $28tn with severe shocks to the urban economy and outputs. Debates on social inequities as a roadblock to urban resilience is coming to the fore in countries like the United States—where about one in five counties are disproportionately black; these areas account for 52% and 58% of COVID-19 cases and deaths. The current research and resilient city models overemphasise the environmental, institutional, and infrastructure side of urban resilience. In contrast, the social and economic structure and processes are neglected, leading to under-preparedness by cities to face extreme events. Whether and how are the resilient city design and assessment frameworks tackling the underlying social disparities? This research presents a comprehensive review of literature on urban resilience assessment tools to measure the extent to which the current knowledge address social inequity to ensure disasters do not disproportionately hit vulnerable communities. We examine whether these tools provide instruments for cities to create an agile urban economic system that can withstand climate crisis or pandemics to ‘bounce back’ to previous equilibrium points or ‘bounce forward’ towards new paths through innovation adaptation. We systematically studied 380 papers from the Scopus database using science mapping techniques VOSviewer and CiteSpace—two widely known software tools for bibliometrics analysis and scientometric visualisation. We employed the Qualitative Content Analysis method to recognise the dimensionality and spectrum of different indicators and assessment tools. Analysis of the urban resilience literature and assessment tools reveals that most of them fall short of appropriately emphasising the core social and human systems as enablers of resilient cities, and further improvements are required. This study argues for assessing resilience against socio-economic risks and articulates the way forward for cities to emphasise social inclusion as much as physical infrastructure. Findings from this study advance knowledge on resilient cities sensitive to changing realities and needs of the disaster-prone communities.

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THE OAKLAND ECOBLOCK: A CASE STUDY IN ACCELERATING THE DEPLOYMENT OF ADVANCED ENERGY COMMUNITIES

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/24/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall C

Lecture Time
04:40 PM - 04:50 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

The Oakland EcoBlock is a planning project that will retrofit an existing residential city block to change resource use and energy production at the block scale. This scale is believed to be more resource use efficient than the individual house scale, using less energy and water, and in turn, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) production. Existing residential city blocks are considered underutilized sites to realize reductions, since they are significant sources of GHG emissions. Further, the block scale is thought to be more cost-efficient with the potential to unlock funds to accelerate deployment of retrofit measures. Little is known about how action at this scale can transform the consumptive characteristics of America’s existing urban and sub-urban residential landscape. The study contributes a detailed description of the planning process for a block scale project that seeks to address today’s challenges of energy and water scarcity, greenhouse gas emissions, and enhanced resilience. Drawing on interview data with members of the Oakland EcoBlock project team in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA, the project team identified key decision-making points and factors (positive and negative) that informed this neighborhood-scale residential retrofit project. The project team also identify which factors are more likely to lead to scaling up of water, energy (and associated transportation) sectors. Interview narratives reveal a high level of complexity between the technical and social elements of the project. Descriptions suggest that identifying the right scale for a residential retrofit project is linked to planning, modeling, simulating and demonstrating a specific project. In addition, initiatives to deploy and scale up retrofit measures will be affected by the success of the project team to secure external support, develop generalizable approaches, and create compelling narratives. The study concludes that social barriers, on balance, outweigh technical limitations. In addition, cost, and to a lesser degree valuation, is a primary input for critical decision-making points throughout the project planning process.

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THE FUTURE IS OURS TO IMAGINE: USING WORLDBUILDING TO CREATE MORE RESILIENT URBAN FUTURES

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/24/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall C

Lecture Time
04:50 PM - 05:00 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

This research investigates how worldbuilding can be used to create more participatory and interdisciplinary planning initiatives for resilient urban futures. A design methodology with origins in fiction and Hollywood filmmaking, worldbuilding employs a collaborative, ethnographic design methodology that emphasizes extensive research at individual, community, and world scales to explore grounded visions of alternative futures. It uses a narrative, story-based approach to synthesize research strains in order to create more human-centered articulations of potential future conditions. Because narratives are processed differently than other forms of information, the narrative tools of worldbuilding can challenge existing views and belief systems without threatening deeply held values (Zaidi, 2019). In this way, worldbuilding can provide fertile ground for enhanced collaboration and participation, between professional disciplines as well as groups with significant cultural differences. As stronger degrees of collaboration have been shown to enhance social resilience (Ledogar and Fleming, 2010), the worldbuilding approach presents valuable potential to create the more resilient cities the 21st century demands.

The presentation focuses on a project titled Future World Vision. The project is a worldbuilding initiative created for the American Society of Civil Engineers, to envision and articulate what dense urban environments could become by the year 2070. Developed as an interactive educational video game for emerging civil engineering students, the project is designed to provoke deeper questions about what urban life might be like and invite in-depth conversation, planning and strategy to identicy about what preferable futures could be. A breakdown of the project’s methodology serves as an example of worldbuilding’s potential utility in creating more collaborative, participatory engagement in long-term urban development and building more resilient communities.

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MERIDIAN WATER – RESILIENT BY DESIGN

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/24/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall C

Lecture Time
05:00 PM - 05:10 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

The Meridian Water redevelopment project is a major £6 billion ($7.75bn), 20-year London regeneration program led by Enfield Council, bringing 10,000 homes and 6,000 jobs to the London Borough of Enfield, north London. Alongside beautiful homes and world-class public spaces and community facilities, the 200-acre development will have its own brand-new railway station, linking commuters to the region.

Jacobs is partnering with Enfield Council to provide program and master plan leadership, technical design and planning advisory services for the development of a new masterplan for Meridian Water as well as design and delivery of over $150 million of strategic infrastructure work to help transform the Meridian Water site.

As part of a digital transformation strategy, we are also creating the data visualization platform and KPI-driven geodesign processes required to synthesize data coming from multiple sources into a common and connected data environment or platform to support better, more informed decision-making.

The result is a set of live, interactive 2D and 3D dashboards and models to help optimize the master planning process to ensure that it delivers on the vision and meets the sustainability and resilience goals set forward by the council, including: 1) a vibrant mix-use development with access to parks and green infrastructure for flood control combined with multiple well-being benefits, 2) access to multi-modal transit and pedestrian-friendly streets, and 3) a vibrant setting for ‘making and create, with workshops, shops, restaurants and businesses with ample affordable housing.

The benefits to the geodesign approach are many, including:

- Increase design efficiency saving time and money.

- Improve communication using visually compelling content.

- Enable innovative solutions through realized synergies.

- Increase speed of data sharing, reporting, and the surfacing of issues.

- Improve transparency and trust.

- Justify decision-making using a documented and data-driven approach.

At each step of the way, geodesign is balancing sustainability goals such as access to open space, transit, schools, jobs, and affordable housing in order to build the social, environmental and economic capital so important to community resilience.

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Q&A

Session Type
Academic Sessions
Date
02/24/2022
Session Time
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Room

Hall C

Lecture Time
05:10 PM - 05:30 PM