The Value of Green Space

Increased incidences of mental illness have been shown to exist in cities. Conversely living near green spaces has been shown to reduce mental distress. A new study confirms the strong link between well being and green spaces. The study is based on 10,000 individuals finds strong correlations between the lower mental distress and well being for people who live in urban areas with more green space.

This confirms the importance of providing green areas in cities and specifically, near to where people live and work, so that this can be experienced everyday. Given that many of our cities are already developed and some have limited parks and gardens, how can more green spaces be provided?

This could be achieved by:

• Taking over derelict urban areas and developing these as food and ornamental gardens.
• Upgrading and greening 'brown route networks'  (see Green and Brown networks).
• Requiring all buildings to provide areas of green. On tight congested sites this could be provided in the form of planted beds, roof gardens and creepers or vertical gardens. 
• Requiring buildings and sites which develop, or already have gardens, to make these publicly accessible and share these with neighbors and passersby. 

These requirements have been included as criteria in the BEST and SBAT tools, which aim to support the integration of sustainability into the built environment.

More information:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23613211

SANEDI Building Energy Consumption Feeds

The graph below is from South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI)'s website. The graph shows energy consumption in kWh per month for SANEDI and for a number of tenants. The coloured energy consumption histogram is clickable and the specific energy consumption attributable to the different tenants can be ascertained.  

The graph easy to understand and should support energy consumption improvements by SANEDI and their tenants. But does it? For instance:

• Is energy consumption in the building good? 
• How does this compare to other buildings or to benchmarks?
• What are the loads that the building is having to cope with, in terms of number of people and operating equipment? Is the building doing well in terms of these?

Additional information on the site would make increase the usefulness of the data and enable the above questions to be answered.  For instance, it would be useful to know the area of the building, the number of people that occupied the building and the operating schedule of the building.

Normalising the building's energy data in to kWh/m2 per year figures and referencing SANS 204 benchmarks, the consumption of similarly sized buildings in the same climatic zone would enable the current energy consumption data to be compared and evaluated. Thus, the provision of a little extra information would make this this energy consumption feed much more interesting and useful. Gauge has been working on reporting format for energy and more information is available here.

Green And Brown Networks: Time To Give Up On The Car?

The German city of Hamburg is developing a plan to become ca-rfree over the next two decades. This will be achieved through a network of interconnected parks, playgrounds, sports fields, allotments and cemeteries (gruenes netz) which will link up to enable people to walk or cycle safely to most parts of the city. 

Green networks in Hamburg, congestion charges in London and cycle superhighways in Copenhagen suggest that the car is no longer being seen as a viable means of transport in the future and that more sustainable systems are being sought.

Can the green network model be applied to African cities? The answer is that there already numerous 'brown networks' of paths that people use to walk between points in many cities and villages. These are informal routes; between buildings, besides rivers and through unused parts of the city. These are muddy in wet weather and can be narrow, overgrown and dangerous.

Formalizing these routes could make a significant improvement to urban mobility and would not be expensive. Obstacles could be removed and routes could be made wider and more even. Solar lighting and the strategic location of  small stalls (spazas) for passing trade could be used to improve safety and support small businesses. Dedicated pedestrian routes away from roads would supplement public transports networks and reduce accidents caused by people walking along roads. The development and maintenance work involved in these routes could also be easily carried out by unemployed trainees (on Expanded Public Works or  Tshepo10,000 programmes), creating employment.

Therefore, greening the brown route networks of African cities may be a sensible alternative to the ongoing, and increasing expenditure, on roads, especially as leading world cities appear to be giving up on the car.

Neighbourhood Facilities for Sustainability

It is increasingly acknowledged that current plans to implement sustainability are not achieving the scale and speed of change required. National built environment strategies to address sustainability tend to focus on large-scale programmes in areas such as renewable energy and energy efficiency. While this approach can
improve national environmental indicators such as carbon emissions profiles; it appears unlikely to achieve sustainability.

In recent paper titled Neighbourhood Facilities for Sustainability, Jeremy Gibberd argues that more comprehensive, and more local, approaches are required. Interventions at a neighbourhood level should be developed that enable day-to-day living patterns to become more sustainable over time. A key element of this are built environment characteristics and facilities which support sustainability.

Neighbourhood Facilities for Sustainability (NFS) are initiatives undertaken by individuals and communities to build local sustainable systems which not only improve their quality of life but also reduce environmental impacts. The paper argues that this approach is a valuable way of ensuring that sustainability is addressed rapidly and effectively in urban settings. It also argues that the NFS approach may be more efficient and effective than national programmes as it responds to the local context and develops local ownership and capacity to which ensures systems are well managed and maintained. The approach will be illustrated through NFS proposals developed for an informal settlement neighbourhood in South Africa. These proposals will be critically reviewed and recommendations for further study, made. A presentation on the concept is provided below.

Neighbourhood Facilities for Sustainability: Short Cuts to Sustainable Settlements? from Jeremy Gibberd

Integrated Urban Development Framework

The Integrated Urban Development Framework was launched at a conference organised by the Departments of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and Human Settlements on the 25 October 2013. The framework has been developed as a response to Chapter 8 of the National Development Plan. In particular, it aims to address the NDP's vision of urban South Africa:

By 2030 South Africa should observe meaningful and measurable progress in reviving rural areas and in creating more functionally integrated, balanced and vibrant urban settlements. For this to happen the country must: clarify and relentlessly pursue a national vision for spatial development; sharpen the instruments for achieving this vision; [and] build the required capabilities in the state and among citizens.

The document states it will give more practical meaning to the urban vision set out in the NDP and will provide a framework for managing urban development more effectively and efficiently and, where necessary, offer policy and legislative proposals to support the implementation of the framework.

The framework lists many of the problems with current urban situations in South Africa; 'Population growth in our cities is in an upward cycle','Our urban areas remain largely segregated','Existing property values (and land use) perpetuate urban segregation','Our municipalities are facing enormous challenge'.  It also alludes to improvements that will be achieved;  'The urban dividend will be reaped', 'Policies and resource allocation will be more effective','Civil society and the private sector will play their part','Rural development will benefit','Urbanisation will be better managed'.

The document asks for public engagement and to provide input to the framework. However in its current form, this is difficult as the the document does not address the main problems of 'what type of urban environments and processes do we need to move towards' and 'how this will be achieved'. Without this substance, it is difficult to engage with the document. The problems of urban areas are well know and the improvements proposed in the framework will remain a wishlist without appropriate implementation mechanisms.  The NDP also make specific reference to 'functionally integrated, balanced and vibrant urban settlements'. What does this actually mean in detail? This should be central to the framework but appears not be to be discussed.

There are key urban development questions that need to be addressed, such as;

• What should South African urban environments look like? 
• Can a vision of future urban environments be developed?
• Can this vision be described in sufficient detail to show how it incorporates objectives of the Constitution and Nation Development Plan as well as addressing aspects such as climate change and sustainability?
• Given the existing starting point how can this vision be achieved?
• Are there innovative, highly effective and efficient (smarter) ways of achieving this vision?
• What is the role of government, business, NGOs and communities in developing these environments?
• Are there policies and processes that can be used to support the development of these environments?

Tackling these questions and outlining innovative and conceptual solutions could be used to prompt active engagement by key stakeholders and the general public and ensure that important changes in urban environments and processes are achieved more quickly.

Assessing the Social and Economic Impacts of Building Materials

A presentation on "Assessing the Social and Economic Impacts of Building Materials' was made by Jeremy Gibberd at the Sustainable Building 2013 conference in Cape Town in October 2013. This presentation and paper explore how social and economic impacts of building materials can be assessed. One of the recommendations of the study is that a Sustainable Building Material Index be developed. A draft version of this index has been developed by Gauge.


A copy of the conference presentation can be viewed below.

Assessing the sustainability of building materials from jgibberd

The full paper can also be viewed below.

Assessing social and economic impacts of building materials from jgibberd

The Local Climate Solutions for Africa

Training on the Built Environment Sustainability Tool (BEST) was provided at a special Urban-LEDS pre-event training workshop of the Local Climate Solutions for Africa 2013 Congress. Professional staff and counselors from a range of municipalities were trained on the tool and used this to carry out assessments of areas within their municipalities and develop interventions to improve sustainability.

Participants welcomed the approach developed in the methodology and appreciated the simplicity of the tool. In particular, there was positive support for the way in which the methodology was able to address reductions in carbon emission reductions within a sustainable development framework. Participants indicated that this aligned well with sustainable development mandate of local government and the increasing pressure being experienced to accelerate service delivery.

Municipalities also indicated that the methodology and tool would be suitable to working with communities as it was simple and easy to use and provided a way of developing useful inputs for Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) and Spatial Development Frameworks (SDFs).

The Local Climate Solutions for Africa 2013 Congress was held in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania from 30 October to 1 November 2013. More information on the conference can be accessed here.