The practice of urbanism has evolved throughout the history parallel to the relevant economical activities. The city, by definition is a permanent human settlement, and the activities of humans have shaped the planning and the construction of these settlements throughout different eras. If these eras are to be categorised under three titles, the leading economic activity would be providing the names. The agricultural era, the industrial and the informational.

Our urban civilisation of today, seems to have alienated us from the nature. We have to make journeys inside our urban environment in order to access pieces of natural land, that are enclosed with fences in our concrete habitat. For long years, the conviction was that the urban society does not make part of the natural processes. The only solution for the individual to “turn back to his roots” was to leave his urban environment to discover the “wilderness” of the unspoiled land. Today’s ideological shift on understanding man’s presence in nature, helped designers to develop new solutions on how to design the post industrial city. Man, therefore his activities, are indeed part of the natural processes. Therefore, how do we integrate the complex living systems of the ecology into our contemporary urban culture?

In the agricultural era, there was a clear distinction between the man-constructed land and the natural, where the human tamed nature existed mainly in the rural for the sole purpose of fulfilling the demand for the cultivation of agricultural goods. Inside the walled city, the congested fabric of the chaotic settlement models prevented the possibility to develop an urban experience that is in contact with the ecosystem. The urban Roman house typologies dating back to the second century CE, were mainly closed on four sides creating an inner courtyard, rigidly separating the human living space and the piece of natural land.

Moving on to a century of industrialisation, the clear boundaries of the cities disappear, where cities become nodes of mass production. In the age of a machine technology that abuses and pollutes the natural resources, unregulated laissez-faire policies on growth, production and consumption creates a worker based economical model, rapidly expanding the unhealthy environment of the industrial city to its natural surroundings. As the fruit of such experiences on the concepts of technology and the growing urban industrial culture, the epoch’s environmentalists ended up demonising technology, writers, artists, and philosophers ended up valuing untouched nature as an escape from the polluted industrial city.

In the 19th century United States, an influential body of thought called “wilderness” arises. Across the American public, this valuing of unspoiled nature, brought by the wilderness thinking, has affected the era’s art, literature, philosophy and clearly, architecture and design. This cultural dualism and the appreciation of the unspoiled land, had a crucial effect on the work of the era’s landscape architect.

“In contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape…

as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where

man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

Wilderness Act 1969

Frederic Law Olmsted, commonly referred to as the founding father American landscape architecture, instead of valuing the extra-urban uncorrupted nature as an escape, he suggested to make nature accessible to the urban citizen. Olmsted, and his work, have been tremendously expedient for the acceptance of this emerging discipline and its differentiation from gardening. Through the design of Central Park, in which the idea of “designing the nature” stems, the necessity and the importance of the landscape architect is commonly accepted and his objectives are defined. While bringing the nature inside the city, provoked a new urban experience, the only advantage of this experience compared to the ones of the early wilderness thinkers, was that the journey from the urban to the nature is shortened, yet the relationship not redefined. Throughout the Olmstedian landscape architecture ideology, the dominant idea is to create a “natural oasis” in the middle of the city, which still aimed to be an escape from the undesired urban condition. Regarding his practice, it would not be unexpected after long years of inveterate wilderness thinking, the aim is to hide the constructed character of the landscape. The critic in this sense, is that an imitated pastoral vocabulary tries to bring the “wilderness” to the urban, but fails at creating an alternative contact between the long separated ideas of the manmade and the natural.

“The dystopia of the megalopolis is already an irreversible historical fact,” states Frampton, underlining the progress from a nature abuser form of technology to an environmentally conscious one. United Nations projects that by 2050 86% of the developed world will be living in urban environments. Therefore, the circumstance is the inevitable expansion of the cities as a global network of human activity hubs. Moving on from a “…worker based economical model to an entrepreneur based one” as Guallart states, the post-industrial city becomes the reflection of the age of technology and information. The environmentally-cognisant costumer, directs the market and the technological achievements, in the search of their eco-friendly and sustainable substrates. With the public conscious becoming increasingly acceptable of the remedial potential of the technology in healing the nature, it is about time that the urbanism of the post industrial city, to plan and construct with nature. By the emergence of landscape urbanism, the fundamental practices of the planning of the contemporary city, is defended to strategically function through time, if they can integrate the living systems and the constructed – through the medium of landscape.

Corner states that “The debate is not only concerned with bringing landscape into cities but also with the expansion of cities into the surrounding landscape.” Bringing into attention, the context and the condition in which the idea of working with the landscape has been developed. Waldheim puts this area of focus as the “ex-urban middle,” where he gives the definition “between the traditional city centre and greenfield suburb beyond.” The absence of the industrial activities in this ex-urban middle, results as abandonment, in which cities like Detroit, striking vistas of the nature taking over the man constructed, underlines the importance of landscape in redesigning the post-industrial city. Opposed to the primary ideas of the destruction of the unused West High Line of New York, the approach via landscape urbanism, is to value the ex-industrial site as heritage and blend their strong constructed character with the twenty first century notions of what it means to live with nature. The transformation of the unused West High Line of New York into the distinctive High Line Park of today, is possibly one of the most suitable examples to revise the theory of landscape urbanism. Hard surfaces mixing and melting into the soil proposes an elevated ecological journey inside the concrete, blending of the constructed character with the natural one. The quality of the space, points out the opportunity of an unused infrastructural construction to be transformed into an alternate public space, which provides a new urban experience that is integrated with the natural. It would not be misleading to say that, this contact of the man constructed and the nature, in the context of the ex-industrial – or the ex-urban, is somehow a reflection and a celebration of our passage from an ecologically polluted, industry based urban civilisation into an eco-responsible, information based one.

Through this new possibility of planning our cities by building profound human-nature contacts, the perception of the urban park that we visit in our daily lives, transume into an enclosed floral zoo that we visit, but then leave to turn back to the reality of our low eco-quality built environment. The urban park of the industrial city provided for the needs for the era, created an oasis-like escape from the intensity of the urban condition. The modernist planning of the 20th century models rigidly allocated the diverse activities of the city, trying to functionalise the urban land by hierarchic categorisation – just as in the idea of an enclosed nature available for the citizen only on the specific lots of the city. Landscape in this point, thrives to be the recoverer of the failing plans and the integrator of the urban culture to the nature.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Sources:

Corner, James. “Terra Fluxus.” The Landscape Urbanism Reader. 2006 ed. N.p.: Princeton UP, n.d. 13-33. Print.

Waldheim, Charles. “Landscape as Urbanism.” The Landscape Urbanism Reader. 2006 ed. NY: Princeton UP, n.d. 37-51. Print.

Guallart, Vicente. The Self-sufficient City. New York: Actar, 2014. Print.

http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/

http://www.iep.utm.edu/am-wild/

Image:

http://www.nycgovparks.org/photo_gallery/full_size/14432.jpg

There was a global economic crisis in 1929 as a consequence Wall Street Crash. It affected newly founded Turkish Republic as it did rest of the world. Private companies and capitals were weak in power. The industrial development was held by the state. State owned factories were built in throughout Turkey and railroad network to connect them were expanded. Despite the limited resources of the period, the transportation network of Istanbul was growing also, until they asked a French urban planner called Henry Prost to make a new urban plan for Istanbul. Henry Prost planned to turn pedestrian oriented city into a more car oriented one. The States which just got out from the WW2 was also supporting this urban plan with financial aid. Eventually all of the tram network were replaced by motorways. During this transformation many of the historic buildings-some of them even dating back from Byzantine times-were wiped off from the world. Industrialisation had a huge impact on working class. The mechanisation of agriculture throughout the country left the farmers without work. In the meantime, Istanbul was packed with private factories. People who used to be farmers couldn’t function in this set up. So they became the cheep labor for these factories. There was a silent agreement between social classes. Neither the state nor the bosses of factories provided housing for the labourers. Instead of this, they were letting the workers to invade empty lots and build their home there illegally. In 1973 the first bridge on the Bosphorus which connects the Asian and European side was opened. This led illegal settlements to flourish more than ever. Motorway traffic went up 6 times in 15 years.

In the 70s, Turkish government adapted Latin American Economic Model, in other words a model called Neoliberalism. Public services were privatised, all of the savings and gains were sold to private investors. Municipality budgets were increased drastically. The state authorised a special law for the owners of the illegal houses. If the shanties were converted into apartments, the state would accept them as legal. This law shift the existing classes. Lower class labourers became the middle class, who own the apartments for the newly coming immigrants from the eastern Turkey. In 1988 second bridge on Bosphorus was opened. This reinforced even more the motorisation of the city. This time not only illegal houses were emerging but also gated communities and shopping malls for the rich were invading the last forest areas of the city.

1990s for Istanbul was about competing “global cities”. Neoliberalism model widened the income gap between the rich and the poor. The industry moved to the outskirts of the city to explore cheap labor there. Thus, turning the city into a consumer heaven, inhabited by only service sector workers. In the beginning of 2000s Istanbul was officially being marketed to foreign and local investors. The state’s housing administration and the municipalities were provided with special laws which enabled them to sell the abandoned industrial areas, public schools, hospitals and lower class labourer neighbourhoods to domestic and foreign capital owners. The workers were pushed out to isolated islands of poverty in the periphery of the city and they became the service workers of the new “global city”.

With the 3rd bridge on the Bosphorus which is currently under construction and other future bridges, Istanbul will turn into an ever expanding city without any limits, lacking of water reservoirs, forests or any public common spaces.

Istanbul’s story is not a unique one. In China Hangzhou, Portugal-Lisbon citizens had to suffer from the same causes. They’re all fast growing cities which want to be a “global city”. Large amount of shopping malls, international banks, large investments, concentrated wealth are all futures which are common for these cities. However these so called “developments” are happening all for a cost. New forces of investments are pushing away the very own people who built the city centre, from the city centre to periphery. People are expulsed with force from towns they lived for hundreds of years. Can you plan a “global city” ? Can a “global city” be planned separate from all of the country ? There you find the starting point of all the problems. Only Istanbul is invested, only Istanbul is developed.

Ayazma is a small neighbourhood in Istanbul, mostly a shantytown. Even though it is small, it is a living example of global neoliberal policies. With Ayazma example, we see how cities become a place for economic speculations, how land become something with material value. This area without any infrastructure and state services at the periphery of the city, turned valuable after the olympic stadium was built. Before it was too far from site, neglected. Suddenly it became valuable and the inhabitants are forced to migrate. The area is planned to be turned into luxurious gated community housing area. The whole transformation of the area is based on architectural drawings that claim to make things “better”. However it is not enough. All human beings have right to shelter, although it is not clear in our constitution. So as a result, politicians and capital owners can manipulate this gap in the system however they want, avoiding people’s right to access healthy environment, education, transportation and privacy. Many of the children of the victims of urban renewal projects can no longer attend to school because of the demolitions. They don’t have anywhere to call home or any money, so children work to bring more money to their family. The problem is basic. It lies on the simple economic actions of the state. All of the production, industry is concentrated in metropolitan city of Istanbul. The factories and the large farms opened in the first decades of republic throughout the country are now abandoned. There are so many fertile lands to grow sugar, tobacco, sunflower etc which now stay idle. If there were jobs in Anatolia, if there were factories there, why would people leave their hometown behind and come to Istanbul with maximum wage of 200 Euros ?

Global actors look for a place to invest, they look for a land; because they can do things easier in Turkey than they do in their countries because of their democratic processes. This enables them to make mega investments, drastic construction executions. Can you build a hotel in Central Park ? They did in Istanbul. A city needs to breath. A city needs rain water to meet with soil. We think in Turkey, building underground parking under green parks is a sign of high civilisation level. We think bulldozing natural greenery and erecting huge concrete blocks instead and putting plants on their balconies is a sign of advancement. We build houses in natural forest areas and making artificial lakes from the underground water. We live in concrete Faraday cages. Sooner to later this city will eat up its inhabitants.

I would like to talk about more on the social housing model which our state adopted. Since the WW2, the model of capitalistic accumulation was based on mass production and mass consumption. This growth engine functioned for several decades and lead to European welfare states. In order to limit the costs of labor force and to provide housing for them, “mass housing construction” was invented. This mass housing was only composed of residential areas. They were all isolated and separate from other aspects of life such as leisure, consumption etc. This model was criticised in Europe in 70s. Because it led to inhumane dwelling conditions without any social interaction space provided. That’s why we cannot solve the shantytown issues like the one in Ayazma-Istanbul, by rapidly constructed, poor quality buildings. Because shantytowns are not an urban issue but rather a social problem. However this is what is proposed or more likely imposed on eviction victims. They are expulsed because of the urban renewal projects and forced to live in basic tenement buildings which are concentrated concrete blocks, far from their jobs (which they earn money just enough to live day by day), isolated and without any social interaction space. We know from the history of the cities, this model failed a long time ago. Today these kinds of social housings are bombed down. Undoubtedly within 20 years these social housings built in Istanbul will generate serious problems and they are going to be bombed down as well for a high economic and social price. This model divides Istanbul based on economical classes. They take the poor from the city centre under the act of “urban renewal projects”, rich people settle to city centre and the poor is forced to live in the outskirts of the city, far from site. So the policies divides the rich and the poor further apart not only socially but also physically. Now it is almost impossible in Istanbul to see different economic/social classes to interact in public sphere. The state’s acts divided people as “us” and “them”. People now are afraid of their maids. This is risky in terms of peace in the city and coexistence of different cultures and classes.  City is also for the poor. City must provide habitation for all.

Now what is left ? The ecological, population and economic levels have been surpassed. Where will this lead us ? Obviously to chaos… This system clearly is not working. The cost for the humanity is too much. The rich’s income level is getting higher with this system and this is good.  But more important is the distribution of that income level. Because in fact level of advancement is measured by the latter concept. However it seems that the state won’t change this model in near future. So the citizens have to protect their own living spaces. We create our own cities. But in turn these spaces we create also create us. So we have to build cities what we aspire to be as humans.

Apparently, Moscow is expanding. On June 17, 2011 Dmitry Medvedev proposed to expand Moscow’s borders and to create a new Moscow federal district (Al-Jazerra 2011). Shortly after, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that the city’s territory would be expanded by more than two
times (by 144,000 hectares or 356,000 acres). In August 2011, a draft proposal for Moscow’s expanded borders was released, and in January of
2012 the contestants announced of an international competition to propose
a development concept for the new federal district (Al Jazerra 2011). This decision – in essence, an attempt to find a tabula rasa to build a ‘new city’ – is declared publically to be aimed at easing the dependency on the core of central Moscow (relieving the center of the city) by creating new financial and moving governmental functions in the new territory as incentives for the development of workplaces.

Although in the past Moscow has expanded to its infrastructural boundaries radially (firstly from the Boulevard Ring to MKAD ring road in 1961), the new administrative region of Moscow city will not expand to the next ring road (the CKAD; currently under construction); nor have the authorities proposed to merge Moscow City with Moscow Region. Instead,new boundaries were drawn to new borders to the southwest of the existing Moscow City territory. According to the Moscow City Government website, the southern and southwestern outskirts were chosen in part because they comprise “a relatively weakly urbanised sector of the Moscow region” (Moscow City Government 2011), counting some 250,000 people. Essentially, the redrawn borders were

More than 50% of the population lives now in cities, this number is expected to rise to two thirds by the year of 2050 according to UN-Habitat project. Cities has an important role in the recognition of sustainable development since the majority of the world’s economic activity is concentrate in urban areas. Each city designs its spaces, buildings and infrastructures in a certain pattern that shapes its urban life and its economic activities. These patterns that the developing cities follow affects the world’s economies, energy use and climate change. Developing green economies at the city scale requires the implementation of sustainable patterns for urban development and supportive city planning. New approaches is essential to be integrated in the urbanization process.
One of the significant approaches that a city can adapt to develop green economies is to create patterns in its land that can provide large green patches and more sustainable urban development. Landscape ecologies always search and analyze the patterns that can give optimal results for both people and natural systems. Richard Forman explained in his book “Land Mosaic”1995 landscape ecologies principles. He stated the two patterns of the urban growth that results favorable sustainable approach.
The ‘satellite cities’ and ‘compact concentric zone’ models of development are the patterns that gives an optimal result. Generally these patterns has a greater number of large patches and areas of green spaces for ecosystems.

Satellite cities is an approach that is being adapted in many developing cites to build a sustainable landscape ecology. In India, the government agreed to develop 35 new satellite townships that will have approximately million – plus population along Gurgaon and Noida. The plan of the city is to provide the accommodation of at least 40% of India’s population in 2012 in Urban India. The intention of implementing such a pattern is to create cities with adequate economic actives that are linked to the major cities around them forming a continuous participation of urban development and activities.
The other pattern explored by Richard Forman that can attain also an optimal result of green urban development, ‘compact concentric zone’, represents a model in which the city is divided in a set of concentric circles expanding from the downtown to the suburbs. Transportation routes and a hierarchy of nodes connects the population center. This model is presented by Burgess in 1925, it was formed from his observations of a number of Americas Cities.
Other patterns of urban growth that leads to less optimal results is the urban sprawl. Urban sprawls represents the spatial expansion of the urbanized areas of a city through time. This model frequently creates communities with heavy automobile usage resulting GHG emissions and infrastructure costs. It is one of the least attractive designs because it conserve fewer patches of land for ecosystems. It mainly occurs in wealthy market economies with rapid population growth where rich people tend to move to big lots on the outskirts of the cities and they will travel by car every day. This will cause environmental and economic drawbacks for city. It will cause extreme traffic in the main transportation nodes and in some cases like the city of Cairo, the settlements resulting from the urban sprawl is disturbing the agriculture land. At present 81 percent of informal units in Greater Cairo sit on privately owned agricultural land. Since 1982 the Government has sought to redirect urban growth out of the Nile Valley into satellite commu¬nities on the adjacent desert area. To this end the Government has prohibited the conversion of private agricultural land to urban uses while investing heavily in housing and infrastructure in desert areas. These measures have been partly success¬ful in meeting goals. Between 1995 and 2007, for example, developers urbanized 110 km2 of desert land, but at the same time 55 km2 of dwindling agri¬cultural lands were urbanized as well. Furthermore, development on desert land brings its own share of challenges, including the sustainable provision of potable water. (UN-Habitat 2010c).
Another pattern that creates undesirable economic activities is the uncontrolled development along transportation corridors. This pattern is very common in all the world, it contributes to a high number of traffic fatalities that arises every year, and most of them take place in low-and middle income countries. This kind of pattern disturbs the natural ecology of land, such as the waterway and it also increases the risk of natural disasters such as the landslides and floods.
Selecting a pattern that will be the ground in which the urban growth will follow is very vital to achieve a sustainable economic. Fortunately, with proper urban planning we can preserve the ecosystem and create a sustainable development while accommodating population and economic growth.
Another pattern that can be adapted to achieve a sustainable economy is the development of compact cities and preplanned extensions of urban areas. This approach provides relatively high residential density with mixed land uses. It is established on an efficient public transport system and has an urban layout which encourages walking and cycling, low energy consumption and reduced pollution. Compact cities also encourages the input sharing and knowledge spillovers. Besides that compact cities yield economic savings in constructing and operating infrastructure and in the urban services. In addition that, compact cities has a lower consumption of energy and emission of greenhouse gases compared to sprawling cities.One of the reason for this difference is the amount of traffic distance in the sprawling cities.
To obtain a sustainable development it is preferred that the growth of the compact cities happens around the public transportation network to minimize the emission of greenhouse gases and to reduce the use of private vehicles.
Significant challenges remain to achiev¬ing green economic development in the cities, including, firstly, a set of hurdles related to governance. Few sub-national authorities correspond to the natural economic boundaries of a city. Within an urban region, officials may establish specialized agencies either to address a specific environmental issue such as air pollution or to promote economic development. If cities are to continue to benefit from agglomeration advantages in the face of planetary crises, it is the responsibility of all city stakeholders to work together to pursue these goals as a matter of urgency.

http://mirror.unhabitat.org/documents/SOAC10/SOAC-PR1-en.pdf

https://books.google.es/books?id=PN-gBxsW3q4C&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=%28UN-Habitat+2010c%29+cairo&source=bl&ots=dXsCyjaMf4&sig=VlCTqZbi_1CShWl_YuJGlJD1apo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JuuTVMnYI4Xiau6wguAH&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://books.google.es/books?id=WkiJEquhzG4C&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&dq=urban+patterns+for+sustainable+development&source=bl&ots=r–vtNVAb4&sig=NjhJSPs9Z6LNv6LaeL4XkO1LFgg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=b–TVMX_HIqxaei_gegE&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=urban%20patterns%20for%20sustainable%20development&f=false

MALE’ CITY | CONGESTION | WATER CRISIS ?

        Male’ City – The capital of Maldives          www.obofili.com

Male’ is the capital city of the Maldives, a nation made up of over a thousand islands and completely surrounded by water. The Maldives is most well known as a favorite destination for tourists around the globe for it’s natural beauty, clear seas, rich marine ecosystems and white sandy beaches. However, the capital city Male’ is far from being a natural beauty unlike rest of the country.

While the Maldives is made up of hundreds of islands, the capital city is the only island with ‘proper’ health, education and other necessities. This has caused the majority of the population of the country to move to Male’ and this has caused major congestion in the island over the years. Maldives cover an area of 90,000 square kilometers in the Indian Ocean, but this island nation is often considered one of the most dispersed countries in the world. The capital city covers an area of 5.798 square kilometers by land. The population of the country is just over three hundred thousand and almost fifty percent of the whole population live in Male’. The government has had no proper infrastructure in place for the growing population. The island’s natural water resources are almost completely unusable due to over consumption and the increased construction of buildings throughout the island. It has become impossible to collect rainwater at all in the capital city, due to air pollution and the air being contaminated with dust and cement. However, people have started using bottled drinking water completely. Over the years, with the fight for democracy, Malé has been the epicenter of political protests and milestone events, and this has also brought in many socioeconomic problems in to this very small-congested island.

The Maldivian government established the Maldives Water and Sewerage Company as a solution for this and to provide the public with desalinated water from seawater as the main supply. MWSC has seen slow growth similar to the rest of the government owned companies and is the only water supplier for the whole island. The main income source of the country tourism gets most of it’s income through Resort Hotels established in islands which are fully equipped with desalination plants and resources, which is proof that the country has businessmen or investors who are fully capable of establishing a private water company. Although the government’s policy for this is quite closed and prefers a state owned company.

However, the inhabited islands also face the same problem of water scarcity at some extent. A dozen islands had nearly run out of water completely. If it weren’t for the weekly cargo boat that brought in bottles of water in plastic, the stored water in some households wouldn’t last a week. “I am very upset with the government because we need water,” 42-year-old Jameela Aboobakuru from Gaafaru. “We ran out of water, so we borrowed water from our brother. When he ran out of water we started buying bottled water imported from Male’.” In some parts of the country where there is shortage of clean drinking water a family would spend 22 dollars a day to buy bottled water for drinking and cooking. Due to the dispersed geographical positioning of islands, it has always been a challenge for the authorities responsible to provide proper facilities and services to the public. Not only is the water scarcity, but also in the field of education and health, it has always been a challenge to provide proper and up to standard facilities in every island.  And this has been the main reason why the capital city Male’ have been able to offer better infrastructure compared to islands, and this brought in many residents from islands into the city.

After the Asian Tsunami, over 70 of the 200 inhabited islands had disruptions to their water supplies, either through destruction of rainwater tanks or salinization of groundwater. The immediate response of the authorities was to provide mobile desalination plants, which proved effective if not expensive until rainwater harvesting could be reestablished in the monsoon. This has also brought in new thought of changing from traditional household self-managed systems to community systems necessitating co-operative management, which requires levels of technical expertise and financial recovery.

       Male’ City – How congested we are…          www.obofili.com

The Island of Malé, the fifth most densely populated island in the world, without proper management has faced several problems in the last couple of years. The political unrest in the country itself brought in many new challenges and difficulties to the citizens, and also the struggle for power over political parties have diminished the standards of some basic public services like management of water, health services and also education standards. The Male’ city council at present governed by the opposition party members faces several difficulties when dealing with the government bodies, and this results in poor service for the citizens or delayed service. It is the question of interest that arises, the political interest or the general public interest that needs to be catered first. The decisions that we make for the gain of one single citizen would have several negative effects for the future.

Likewise, in the designing and construction industry designers do not further research into the possible challenges that might arise with poor designing of residential buildings in such a crowded and congested piece of land. If we do not make our designs sustainable enough now, then we do not have a chance even to exist on the land we care so much. Global warming and sea level rise has been one of the most concerning environment factors that the low laying islands have faced in the past several years. Due to its low height above sea level, seasonal rain floods the capital city with water and without proper drainage it becomes a complete chaos in the monsoon season. The poor waste management facilities in the capital add to this bringing in diseases during the rainy season. I believe this could be resolved with better and firm management and designing and proper waste management and recycling.

It is impossible to believe that a country surrounded by water does not actually have a proper water infrastructure. Designers when designing multi-storey residential buildings do not take into account consulting a professional electrician or plumber and even the authorities responsible for checking the building regulations do not take this as a strict measure. However, an office building or a resort island has proper regulations. But I believe that it is the residential buildings that need to be first properly managed in order to have other services running appropriately.Some of the policies of the government have caused increased prices for public services and slow growth in these areas, which could easily be resolved by privatising these companies.

One of the very recent issues the capital island of Male’ faced was the fire in the lone desalination plant (MWSC) on December 4^th 2014, which left the capitals 130,000 inhabitants without running water for days. Schools and government offices were closed and the complete city was under fear of not having clean water for days. The issue was solved due to foreign relations with the neighboring countries like India and Sri Lanka who began airlifting bottled water to the capital as taps ran dry while China and the United States also provided assistance.  India also provided ships with desalination capabilities to boost supplies. However it is sad to say even at times of such crisis political preferences play a huge role in the tiny island nation. The designing also made the situation worse by people living on upper floors not being able to get water for days. Street scuffles erupted at many places where authorities were distributing bottled water under a strict rationing system. Shops ran out of containers to collect water and people went on to collect empty bottles from the junk yards, and the situation was worsened when there was dispute over water being supplied to certain citizens and were limited to others. While water is a basic need that needs to be provided apart from the political preferences.

Shekhar Kapur, at the WaterWoMen conference in the Maldives: ‘Long before we run out of water, we’ll go to war over it.’ 

Many restaurants and shops were closed and some residents travelled to neighboring islands where there is water for drinking and washing. The crisis did not hit the atoll nation’s luxury tourist resorts located on other islands, which have their own power generation and desalination plants.

Maldives with the biggest challenge of global warming and sea level rise needs to rethink in terms of designing and planning for the future. We need to reconsider how we want to shape our future city, and not constructing just buildings, but buildings that are sustainable and efficient in terms of providing the best services and facilities. I also believe that the capital city of Maldives needs better urban spaces and public spaces for the betterment of the future generations. The congestion and such crisis needs to be resolved sooner if we want to make our cities a better place to live in. We also need to keep our political differences aside, which quite seem impossible in a country like Maldives which recently went through a police mutiny by bringing down a government which was elected by the people. But if we are to improve our living standards and improve public services we need to keep political preferences aside. We need to be sustainable and we need to be economical.

Picture source: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/environmental-pollution/

Introduction:

Human health greatly suffers in large cities; this issue has become one of the main problems in the context of environment and health. It is obvious that air, water, vegetation, soil and even the animals are different in villages. People in the city suffer greatly from the negative effects of emissions, discharges, pollution and waste. At the same time, modern men almost cannot imagine themselves outside large settlements and find their lives in the city more suitable then the bucolic charm of the countryside.

On the one hand, modern Russian cities – place of attraction for the people, and on the other hand, the area of high environmental risk. To overcome, or at least mitigate, this contradiction needs a special way of life organization in the territory of a large settlement that matches the interests of citizens with the possibilities of the natural environment of the city to ensure environmental safety for residents.

City Problems:

Omsk is one of the largest cities in the Asian part of Russia with a population of over 1.5 million people and produces a significant amount of pollutants in the environment. This is mainly because of large industrial clusters around the vicinity of the city as well as traffic, waste and emissions from the buildings.

Industrial enterprises in Omsk developed by giving free land parcels resulted in an abnormal growth of the city. Industrial areas cover the city from the north to the east, eliminating the possibility of development of the city in those areas. Industrial sites, increased during the war between 1941 and 1945 in many places, which were located between several residential zones. Sanitary improvement is required in nearly 40% of the city. Also the interconnection between the residential and industrial zones is a chaos resulting in heavy traffic and increased air pollution. Most of the old low rises buildings still use coal to heat the houses this enhances the city pollution.

Omsk originated and developed at the confluence of two rivers: Om and Irtysh. Irtysh is a trans- boundary river and the only source of water for the city, since groundwater of Omsk is highly mineralized. The main reason for the contamination of Irtysh is the rain water run-off along with the lack of waste water treatment. The river flow is greatly at risk due to the construction of a dam in the neighboring country.

Changes on the structure of city planning have been passed since the integrated assessment of ecological situation in Omsk that showed the critical situation.

For Omsk total air pollution emissions are determined by enterprises, transport and emissions from fuel combustion in the areas of unimproved residential development. State reports allows to point a significant reduction in emissions of the industrial enterprises in recent years, but the number of city transport increases, which leads to an increase in  emissions from mobile sources. In addition, it is impossible to estimate emissions from slums, since it is necessary to develop special methods of calculation. As a result, the level of pollution is still high.

The situation with the state of water bodies and, above all, the Irtysh and Om has improved, not only by reducing the amount of relief, but also by reducing the amount of pollutant discharge. However, one must consider the fact that the calculation does not switched river reset to the city, which has no treatment and contributes to water pollution.

On the border of the Omsk region of the Irtysh water comes “dirty.” In the city, water quality improves and goes from class “dirty” to class “very polluted”, but outside the city again becomes “dirty”. This situation explains the process of self-purification of water from the border area to the border of the city and its pollution discharges on the municipal wastewater treatment plants.

However, the volume produced and exported to the municipal solid waste landfill is constantly increasing.

Highlights:

Thus, despite the significant reduction of the impact of industry on the environment of the city of Omsk, the threat of environmental safety is maintained. In order to solve these problems should be carried out a number of arrangements that could improve the overall environmental picture of the city.

Increase green areas and change their composition will improve the air in the city and protect the population from the effects of emissions derived of the industries and motor vehicles. In addition to the environmental impact of parks and squares have aesthetic value, as well as provide a place for relaxation. An important supporting factor for the development of this trend is that the city of Omsk admitted in the 70s of the last century “garden city” and the public appreciated this fact.

General culture and education of citizens – the key factors influencing the attitude towards the environment. Currently, environmental priorities in the minds of the modern citizen are reduced due to the need to solve social and economic problems and the false notion that these problems can be solved at the expense of natural resources. In fact, education, and its enlightenment should be aimed by explaining the impossibility of complete safety without maintaining a healthy environment.

The problem of waste, especially municipal solid waste, is recognized as the basis for any major city. Millions of cubic meters of solid waste generated and the city should be placed in landfills or recycled. To do this, there are methods of recycling and waste recycling technologies. Supporting factor for the solution of this problem is the econ

The environmental system of protection from the modern states does not provide safe placement and operation of the new and threatening settlements. This is due to the fact that environmental “powers” are divided between dozens of government agencies. The interests of the population, which are located directly in the zone of influence of a dangerous settlement, can be presented during the public examination provided by applicable law.

Quality of food affects the health of the population, and therefore, is directly linked to environmental security. For the city of Omsk environmental assessment will form the recommendation to expand the range of organic foods.

Various government agencies observe the state of environment. Nevertheless, the prevailing state system of monitoring the rapid growth number of polluting factors do not allow to monitor a large number of objects and have a full dynamic picture of their condition. The output is seen in the organization of an extensive system of public monitoring and evaluation, which is open to all comers, and first of all, students of educational institutions. The main requirement of any monitoring and evaluation is the comparability of the results of observations and conclusions. In order to ensure this, it is necessary to use a single method of assessing public and create a common database.

The system of state environmental monitoring has the task of overall assessment of the state of nature in Russia and the impact of enterprises – pollutants. Socio-hygienic monitoring aims to assess risks for the health of citizens.

The existing system in Omsk State Environmental Control is the structure on the basis of federal and local laws, even thought does not provide operational control and response to violations of environmental laws, primarily because of its small size. Creating environmental police can increase the number of violations and violators to install, but for this you need to create an additional regulatory framework.

River Irtysh and Om are not only a natural basis for the development of the city, but also bear cult urological value. In addition to these rivers, in Omsk, there are other bodies of water, which traditionally serve as a place of rest for the townspeople. This results in a large amount of debris on the beaches causing water pollution. But clearing and landscaping ponds is necessary not only from an aesthetic point view. The state of the rivers and lakes depends on environmental safety of the city’s population, and therefore require special protection program reservoirs.

Analysis of the circuit boundaries of sanitary protection zones of Omsk shows that the gaps between the industrial zones and residential areas are not maintained in many cases. Sanitary protection zones are designed to serve residential areas of active protection against the harmful effects of industrial enterprises, and in fact they are located in residential and suburban areas. In Omsk, sanitary protection zones occupy almost 40% of the city and more than 28% of the residential development. The output of this situation has been reflected in the removal of industrial enterprises outside the city, or to develop specific measures aimed to reduce the impact and improvement of sanitary protection zones. The main performers of such works should be polluting enterprises, and the administration of the city of Omsk and the public should monitor this process.

The main source of water pollution is storm water runoff, which in Omsk is not purified. In addition, the city does not have a common system for the collection and disposal of storm water, which does not allow them to organize the cleanup. Thus, the problem of sewage treatment of storm water provides the organization with the opportunity for the construction of special treatment facilities. Both of these problems are really hard to implement at the moment, as they require substantial financial costs. However, it is possible to implement storm water collection and treatment at local territories, gradually developing this system.

The transport system in Omsk includes various types of transport; the main traffic flows are concentrated in the city center (except railway). That made transportation the main source of environmental hazards for the city. Complexity is arising from the necessity to solve this problem, determine the balance of powers of the state, municipal authorities and owners of transport. The analysis of the situation indicates that practically the only possible direction, which can be implemented at the municipal level, is the optimization of the transport system. This concept includes the expansion of the transport system (through the construction of alternate road) traffic intersections without traffic lights, underground and aboveground crossings.

Flooding in the city of Omsk is one of the most serious problems. This requires extensive engineering and technical transformation of the entire infrastructure of the city of Omsk.

Currently, the only source of water for the city of Omsk is the Irtysh River. From the standpoint of the amount of water obtained from Irtish, exists a problem with the projected decline in the level of the river, by reducing the total runoff in dry years, and due to changes in the structure of the channel as a result of dredging. The solution to this problem is the technical reconstruction of the existing municipal water intake. However, the main problem lies on the need to find an alternative source of water supply due to the deterioration of water quality of the Irtysh, up to the level of potentially toxic heavy pollution from the territory of Kazakhstan. For an alternative supply, the groundwater might be used; however, it is highly mineralized, which leads in a considerable expense in the process of purification. Another option is the use of so-called underflow water, but this feature requires a deeper research study.

People understand the extent of the danger posed by the flippant attitude towards the environment. Meanwhile, the solution of global problems such as environmental, require the urgent joint and efforts of international organizations related to energy, states, regions and the public. Certainly the implementation of measures to address the problems requires huge economic costs, but if it continues to delay, this process may become irreversible. And then, it will be mandatory to apply a number of critical measures that affect not only the economy but also on the lives of the citizens as a community.

source: http://www.urenio.org/2012/04/02/current-smart-city-research-projects-in/

Economics of sustainability

https://megacitycondos.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/high-rise-construction1.jpeg

Toronto, the largest city in Canada located on the shore of Lake Ontario, has been going through a major metamorphosis, a significant one that reminds us of New York City in the mid-20th century. Indeed, its current tendency of population growth is projecting from 6.3 million in 2011 to 9 million by 2036 in the Greater Toronto Area. Without doubt, within 20 or 30 years, the GTA is expected be the fourth biggest metropolitan area in North America surpassing Philadelphia, Dallas and even Chicago with Los Angeles, New York and Mexico City on the top of the list.

Ontario (provincial) government has imposed an absolute restriction of urban sprawl beyond the “Greenbelt” a permanently protected strip of natural heritage land since 2005, including over 700 thousands hectares of nature, forest and farmlands,  in order to contain this dramatic demographic growth within existing footprint, to minimize the impact on the environment. ( Toronto has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by mid 21st century.) Indeed, while this greenbelt is the most successful one in the world, its effective containment of urban sprawl within the limit has a direct impact on the densification of the city core. Actually, the downtown densification is merely a very recent shift in the demographic flow, since less than eight years; many decades prior, major exodus for seeking suburban life seemed to be the trend, however the vector is clearly now reversed to the opposite direction. Beyond the Greenbelt legislation, truth is that many other factors are contributing to this shift, combined with the trendy highly-educated/skilled younger population of “echo boomers” seeking for a more convenient location to live in term of easy access to transit, work and amenities, instead of more affordable housing in the outer suburbs. The new generation is more likely to change career than the baby boomers, which leads to seeking commuting flexibility. This desire for these young people or the large waves of immigrants with economic resource, to live in or nearby the city core has thus led to this demographic return to the urban core. Consequently, additional to the 50 thousands new condo units in downtown core that have all been built, sold and occupied from 2000 to 2011, from when 90 thousands extra units have been approved as of 2013.

Hence, one can easily notice all the cranes and construction sites while visiting downtown Toronto at any time, since some years. The number of construction projects is among the top-class if not the highest in North-America. In June 2014, the number of condominium construction projects has reached 154 in the city of Toronto, which is equivalent to more than 46 thousand units, while most of them belong to highrise towers. 90% of these units were already sold by then, a clear statement that it is positive tangency that is promised to be more than stable at least for another 10 years. This residential explosion also comes with growth in employment and businesses: its rate was -3.3% for downtown core, from 2000 to 2005, but, since the settlement of Greenbelt restriction from 2006, the growth rate has skyrocketed to 14.2%, an interesting correlation that justify the need to support the increasing demand for good and services.

The city has passed to a horizotal growth to vertical growth especially around the downtown core. Furthermore, the densification and the race to build in mass and higher to accommodate the “back to the core” trend in residential sector, which may be a practical solution, is a great story for developers and investors. It creates many jobs and investment; in one hand, it seem a positive development, for economy.  However, their interests does not equal to the ones of the new residents. It leads to a preparation to handle the hundreds of thousands of new residents and offer them a suitable liveability; Toronto must now face a substantial turning point, where architects and urban planners must critically plan ahead to overcome the challenges and struggles, fighting against this under planned and almost thoughtless extreme densification. Some deep thoughts for long-term effects are required.

At this rate, Toronto’s street culture is disappearing at least where the new highrise condominiums are getting built in a overhasty manner. It is disrupting the urban fabric of the city core, which is already disrupted by the railroad tracks splitting the city in north and south along the waterfront. This area of city is clearly in need of solutions for this problem, instead of blindly construct high density housings.

However, in a way, the vertical development isn’t the real problem, it lays in the quality of the neighbourhood. A neighbourhood where residents can socially engage. The mass concentration of single-use development is no different, or worse than the suburbs, where a massive amount of people are gathered in a despair way: a vibrant neighbourhood with mixed-use and mixed-income community is what should be aimed. As social beings, we need micro neighbourhoods that offers both work and housing, community and cultural spaces and retails, where sidewalks and ground floor facade are in reasonable, human scale with city street like atmosphere.

That being said, another critical problem is already surfacing in the city: urban infrastructure and public transit. As many Canadian cities, the investment in public transit is often weaker than it should be. With such unprecedented scale of obvious expansion, the city should move onto a preparation worthy of such said scale, acknowledging the fact that the current infrastructure and public transit is already meagre. The demographic growth both around and within GTA and the city core will lead to an steep increase commuters by train, bus and cars. Although the whole area of Union station with its monumental heritage building is going under a major revitalization project, one have to understand that the projected number of daily users of the station is going to triple within 20 years, from quarter of million to a three quarter of million, and that is for those using the public transit including subway, intercity trains, commuting regional trains, regional buses… Not only there is already a intense human traffic around rush hour in the narrow sidewalks around in the area and in the station, the increase in car traffic on the road is also to be expected without a doubt.

This overflow of human and vehicle traffic leads us to the problem of these highrise condominiums being constructed within the high traffic area and gridlock, many right along the major streets and expressway that also go through the downtown core. Even the construction of these buildings obliges to close the street to make the situation worse. This aspect combined with filling and packing the narrow lots and limited available lots in downtown core with super tall transparent curtain wall residences will lead to these units that are not only very few meters away from the expressway traffic at the same eye-level. Already few condo towers have units in this situation but due to the younger crowd of professional who tend to spend less time at home or some investors who never actually saw the units before purchasing them. Either way people live in these housings directly exposed to the exhaust gas emitted by the motor vehicles. They are main contributor to the air pollution that cannot be ignored. It is a serious issue, where 1300 premature deaths per year for this cause, of which 280 are due to the traffic-related pollution. Nonetheless, the densification in a walkable active core neighbourhoods with access to transit shouldn’t be ignored, especially in order to decrease the use of automobile. It has been observed that 45% of commuting within downtown is by walk, a healthier and more environmental friendly option, however, some will still have to do so within heavy traffic pollution.

http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2014/01/downtown-toronto-growth-watch-2014

Many other challenges can be listed. First, the lack of public facilities. If you carefully look at the city’s, all the new residential development around the southern core are in construction but the lack of actual space and green space in downtown with luxurious vegetation and parks is easily observable even throughout other parts of the city core. There is some large scale waterfront improvement proposals with parks and amenities, but due to the scale and disruption of the urban fabric, most of the residents will still have to walk many large blocs through awkward spaces with skyscrapers, highways and rail tracks to reach the waterfront area. Other public facilities will be required such as hospital, schools and civic centres. Moreover, there is an actual lack of skilled constructor for all the hasty constructions. Many projects are delayed and several new residents cannot move in even way after the expected date. The speedy construction also results in some faulty installation or cheap building parts. The most famous example was the balcony glass came off the railing and fell all the way to the street…

The urban centre densification is happening for the sake of sustainability. Some considerable management and planning along the growth are critically essential. However, the reality is not only that. One must not forget that the suburban expansion is existing all over the continent; Canada is still very considered a suburban nation with more than two-third of the population is living outside the main city area with majority of lower-density automobile-dependent developments. Some migration toward inner megalopolis is encouraged and happening but reversing all exodus is not an easy task. Better regional planning for sustainable suburbs will also be required…

“Monopoly is an American-originated board game originally published by Parker Brothers. Subtitled “The Fast-Dealing Property Trading Game”, the game is named after the economic concept of monopoly—the domination of a market by a single entity. It is produced by the United States game and toy company Hasbro. Players move around the game board buying or trading properties, developing their properties with houses and hotels, and collecting rent from their opponents, with the goal being to drive them into bankruptcy.” ¹

The Industrial City.

1.1

Monterrey, Nuevo León; Is a city in the north of Mexico, historical renowned as one of the most developed industrial cities, and with a huge influence in the national issues, because his relevant inside the national economy, in the last 30 years the city has experienced a significantly increment in the number of industries, and its capacity and the volume of  production. This increment is not only connected with the expansion of the existing industry, also with de apparition of new industries as a consequence of the investment of foreigner capital and from others region of the country; and too with the presence of new markets of commercial interchange of products in the global economy. Mainly in the mid 90’s the sign of the TLC, between de countries of North America: United States, Canada and Mexico, with the interest of open the borders for an international import and export policies without fees or with a lower fees. Nowadays, the industries with a headquarters from Asia, especially the related with the auto motor and its derivate; In the same way, caused by the impulse that the national government is enforced to the process and international cooperation, in the objective and the interest of investment and the employment generation.

Employment opportunities.

By generating completely new opportunity areas, growth for obvious reasons, demands that the workforce been sufficient in quantity and technical expertise, to meet its operating needs, sourcing, production, distribution, sales, etc. Consequently there is a considerable increase in labor supply; in an emerging economy, with notable and significant social differences and where the lack of opportunities for those who are part of the social base, seeking better living conditions generally reflected in the use of employment opportunities in other regions. This phenomenon has been driven largely by industrial growth described above, and the search for alternative younger people, for their academic and professional training in universities and colleges.

Development of education options.

The educational options increase, they diversify and new fields of research are now open in both public and private schools, since education is geared to the needs of the existing range of work dictated by the growing industry. The quality level of education that is developed, is now attractive for certain sectors of the population not only in the same city but also attractive to the population of the rest of the country.

The city has now labor supply and high quality educational offer responding to the needs of employers, people from all over the country and some other South American countries have migrated to the city of Monterrey seeking development  opportunities labor, initially only the parent migrated to the city to try his luck and once he established the family migrated too; In other examples young generations after completing their studies or professional training, decide to stay in the city and take advantage of the jobs, rather than return to their town or place of origin.

Migration + natural growing of population = housing needs.

As a consequence of this migration phenomenon, the amount of the city population increased significantly, adding to this the natural population growth that already lived in the city. Given this significant population growth, one of the main demands that had to cover was housing, and one of the big problems that the city had to faced, was that the city wasn’t ready to meet that demand, the likewise, health services and education, transport, public space , etc. didn’t meet the needs of the new status of the city.

Informality as answer.

In the 70′s one of the fastest and almost forced solutions to the need for shelter were the irregular settlements, which are understood by those populations that are set in a property which are not legally adjudicated its occupation and where illegally and precariously built without expertise on building, and without access to public services; This is due to the lack of immediate supply of housing, the city was not ready for such conditions of population and much less for the needs of it. Over the next few years were gradually meet these needs, the government began to consider these conditions and investors and developers began to see business opportunities in this new need. In the next 30 years since the development of social housing boomed thus became the only option for many to have their own place to live and do not pay rent for something that is not theirs when the amount does not differ much the price of rental, people could have their own house by paying of this amount for the next 20 years, since the cultural issues of ownership and belonging is deeply rooted in Mexican society.

Institutional respond.

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Currently the city through programs that implements the federal and state governments try to meet the demand by means of affordable mortgages and these are used by housing developers to place their product, however housing produced by developers is a low cost product initially and low quality construction and is far from meeting the needs of the citizens, not to mention the lack of recreational areas and public space.

One of the most serious drawbacks of these housing developments known as social interest, is its location, because are located on the outskirts of the city and several factors are affected by this site; as are access to health services, education, social infrastructure, urban mobility and public transportation.

the deficiency and in some cases the lack of public transport, has a great impact on quality of life and welfare of the population living in these developments, the above situiation incites to use of private vehicle as transportation, with obvious consequences, as the spending that for families represents the purchase of a car, the maintenance and fuel of it.

In urban issues, the above situation,  causes an increase in vehicular traffic in the city, which in turn causes vehicular congestion on major transport routes ; this at the same time, determines that the quality of public transport services, is not improving and efficiency remains very low. Currently approximate travel times on average ranges between 1 and 3 hours due to these conditions of mobility.

Another major disadvantage is that these city areas being relatively new have not educational centers, sports and services for Medical care of the population, and these are another reasons why people should be in constant motion seeking options to meet your needs basic; without considering the cost and investment of natural resources and pollution that generate all these needs by not be close to the population.

Externalities’ introduction

The conditions that have been described, induce almost systemically to a series of externalities, wich are the reason for explain the low levels in the population quality life, and we can see this mostly in the suburbs, in houses where the population lives that were built under government coverage models, and naturally the people who live in these houses are part of the workforce of the industrial and productive system of the city.

These externalities are measurable in qualitative and quantitative way, currently exist a series of studies and research in progress, whose aim is to achieve a greater understanding of the conditions of how the life develops on the outskirts of the city ; One of the most significant notes is the cost of externalities, since one of the clearest approaches that is used to give a universal outlook, is the economic one; this approach has defined certain patterns that allows us to evaluate the real cost of living in the periphery and herein lies one of the externalities they cause more impact; a home, as those that described above, has a cost of sale and/or purchase of around 16,000 usd as the initial price; As the location, and other conditions that have arisen in the following years are now a problem, the city government should develop a series of investments, fully justified just to allow the access to a series of social services to improve the life conditions of this population, such investments if they consider the total divided by the period and the number of homes that will be affected by these urban improvements, projected a price in real terms of housing around 90,000 usd, which is significant to show the impact and volume that the  externalities and their effects produce, and all of these is caused by the absence or deficiency in planning, or inconsistent or limited analysis ofvthe urban conditions and the needs of certain sectors of the population.

The meta-evaluation as the way.

The evaluation process is fundamental, for the understanding and the projection of changes in the political view and the programs that the public administration promotes; naturally these decisions have been influenced by some many factors; In one hand we had the political career, or the political image of the politicians, as an actor that is finding a personal development inside de political life of the region or country; In the other hand, there are some groups with particular interest, some many times this groups are represented by the figure of business men or the corporations, and the one that complete the scene is the singular condition of the policy making, since this is carried out in a very particular and peculiar way in Mexico, all this factors takes a fundamental part inside de process..

One of the results or consequences of the above, is that measurements or assessments currently being carried out, tend to be partials or manipulated, i.e. seek to show some result that somehow benefit or promote certain conditions, with a vested interest or particular; Generally these numbers reflect a state of apparent welfare, but would yield significantly different if we do a meta-evaluation.

Consider the meta-evaluation , as a way to consider all the factors involved in urban development and growth of cities , such as Monterrey , would largely avoid or mitigate the problems described, and which are common in many cities Latin American , and would allow us to put into perspective the realities of most of the population, and put these realities above the interests of the individuals or small groups of population that are the ones with more influence of how the city will develop cause they have the wealth to do the investments, and try to project a time of change, in which all carry equal benefit, and that the achieving of this improvement are the welfare conditions and quality of life.

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_%28game%2la

Pictures

1.1 http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1521750

1.2 http://trendconsultores.com/proyecto-detalle-fracresidencial.html