URBAN ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY
URBAN LAND MANAGEMENT
Girum Mamushet(MSc.)
CONTENTS
- Defining the term
- Urban development & the environment
- Notions of sustainability & Different approaches
DISCUSSION
What is sustainability?
What do you think is your role/ or how you contribute/ in
creating a sustainable world?
What are the different strategies you know in a building and
urban level to address issues of sustainability?
URBAN ECOLOGY?
Ecology – study of relationship of living things & their
environment.
U. E, - Scientific study of the relation of living organisms
with each other and their surrounding in the context of an
urban environment(Wikipedia)
Human habitat
Climate
Land
Water
Vegetation
URBAN ECOLOGY?
Methods of studying
URBAN ECOLOGY
Why we need it?
Within the next 40 years 2/3 of world population will be
living in urban center.
Urban affect environment
Urban affect climate
What does it mean?
URBAN AFFECT THE ENVIRONMENT?
Modifying land surfaces and waterways
Introducing foreign species
Altering biogeochemical cycles
URBAN AFFECT THE CLIMATE?
Urban heat island/oasis effect
Greenhouse gases
Acid rain & pollution
ALL THIS IS B/C HUMAN BEING INTERVENE
How?.........cities ………urban environment
SO WHAT ???
Cities should be planned & constructed to minimize urban effects on
the environment…. ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABILITY CITIES
Why?
City in abstract form is superficial
SUSTAINABILITY/ENVIROMENTAL MOVEMENT
Sustainability?
When & who ….Patrick Geddes, Howard(Garden city
movement), Mumford(The rise and fall of megalopolis)
After 1960s
McHarg is one of the founding fathers of sustainable
development & his ecological thesis spans - landscape,
architecture & planning.
He argued that human development should be planned in a
manner that took full account of nature and natural
processes.
Sustainability?
Meeting the needs of the present with out compromising the
need of the future generation.
Skeptical environmentalist
According to Lomborg’s assessment, conditions on earth
are generally improving for human welfare: furthermore,
future prospects are not nearly as gloomy as environmental
scientists predict.
Discussion
Is the environment degrading?
What are the contributing Factors?
Please discuss this issues
Population, Food production, environmental problems,
energy & the city, biodiversity, climate change…
sustainable development
The Brundtland Report: ‘Sustainable development is
development that meets the needs of the present
generation without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs’ (World
Commission on Environment and Development, 1987).
Solving Global problems - needs policies and programs
THE IMPERATIVE
Sustainability
While there is a general consensus on the features of a
sustainable development agenda amongst many working
in the field of urban design, nevertheless there are
differences in emphasis
there are deferent type of developments in response to the
issue….
THE URBAN LAND MANAGEMENT
Provision of sufficient land for housing
Land for business, industry, economic development
Rights of way for infrastructure and roads
Separation of industrial uses from other uses
Freedom from negative “externalities”
Privacy at home / security in public places
Equity – fairness in land distribution and use
Open space, community gathering space, recreational space
Ability to get from place to place easily (transportation)
Beauty, attractiveness, pride in city
Protection of environment and preservation for the future
WHO’S IN CHARGE OF LAND?
Federal government, regional state or local
government
Decisions by government officials (low or high
level)?
Long-term residents, farmers, or traditional
holders of land rights / leases
Private developers – people with $$?
Current residents of structures on land?
Other citizens?
WHO HAS INTERESTS IN LAND USE?
Current residents, farmers, business operators,
informal vendors
Citizens at large
Government
Developers
Other economic development interests
Environmental interests or groups
Plants and animals
“Neighbors” (local, regional and international)
affected by nature of land use
Seminar for Monday Afternoon
Review the Urban development policy of Ethiopia
prepared by ministry of urban development housing
and construction in the context of sustainability and
land management to point out the main consideration
& strategies aimed to address the issues.
Evaluate also the implementation techniques, the ground
reality, & the results as well.
Note: your can also compare to the other countries
experience to argue on the policy strategies
Format
Title
Main aim of the document(50 words)
Format of the paper/general overview of the contents(50 words)
Main issues discussed in the document concerning sustainability
and land management and also what are the pillar strategies
developed
What is your observation or reflection on the ground reality
concerning the issue ? What do you suggest as an improvement?
(100 words)
