Abstract
Contemporary social, economic, and environmental challenges that affect the urban experience call for innovative solutions. This chapter details some of the challenging global phenomena that bring about a need for sustainable urban environments and offer a relevant contemporary history of sustainability. This will be followed by an introduction to the pillars and principles of sustainability and their digital counterparts, tools that can be used when planning and developing urban environments and beyond. Lastly, the advantages of data collection will be shown in the context of the ecological and carbon footprints as ways to measure sustainability.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahmed, Z., Ali, S., & Wasif, Z. M. (2020). Linking urbanization, human capital and the ecological footprint in G7 countries: An empirical analysis. Sustainable Cities and Society, 55, 102064. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102064. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Alalouch, C., Bouzguenda, I., & Fava, N. (2019). Toward smart sustainable cities: A review on the role of digital citizen participation could play in advancing social sustainability. Sustainable Cities and Society, 50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101627. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Arnett, H. (2017). The challenges in quantifying social sustainability at a neighborhood level. Cities & Health, 1(2), 139–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2018.1460104. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Bajya, P., Choudhary, M., Kaswan, S., Kaswan, V., & Kumar, P. (2019). Green production strategies. Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100596-5.22292-0. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Campbell, A., & Tindall, A. (2010). “Water security: National and global issues”. US Geological Survey. https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2010/3106/pdf/FS10-3106.pdf. Accessed 10 April 2022.
Canadian Commission for UNESCO. (2020). “Connecting Culture and Sustainability. https://en.ccunesco.ca/blog/2020/1/connecting-culture-and-sustainability. Accessed April 10, 2022
Caradonna, L. (2018). “Part III historiography of sustainability”. Routledge International Handbooks. Ch in Routledge Handbook of the History of Sustainability. https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CoI6DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT14&dq=history+of+sustainability&ots=1LG7U9JxcL&sig=XyrBQclQT8gOES2-SEjGv8w3tus#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20sustainability&f=false. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Contento, A. (2018). “Water scarcity: The Most understated global security risk”. Harvard Law School National Security Journal. https://harvardnsj.org/2018/05/water-scarcity-the-most-understated-global-security-risk/#_edn11. Accessed April 10, 2022.
FAO. (2021). “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021”. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.. https://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Friedman, A. (2007). Sustainable residential developments: Design principles for green neighbourhoods. McGraw-Hill.
Global Footprint Network. (n.d.-a). “Climate change”. https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/climate-change/. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Global Footprint Network. (n.d.-b). “Data”. https://data.footprintnetwork.org/#/. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Global Water Security. (n.d.). “Water security solutions centre”. https://globalwatersecurity.org/. Accessed April 10, 2022.
IPCC. (2018). “Summary for policy makers”. Special report: Global warming of 1.5°C. Chap 00. https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/. Accessed April 10, 2022.
IPCC. (n.d.). “About the IPCC”. https://www.ipcc.ch/about/. Accessed April 11, 2022.
Konyn, C. (2021). “What are carbon sinks?”. Earth.Org. https://earth.org/carbon-sinks/. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). “Economy”. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/economy. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Mirzabaev, A., Muñoz, P., & Zwick, S. (2020). The impact of urbanization on Austria’s carbon footprint. Journal of Cleaner Production, 263, 121326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121326. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Pavid, K. (n.d.). “What is the Anthropocene and why does it matter?”. Natural History Museum. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-the-anthropocene.html. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Pfeffer, J. (2010). Building sustainable organizations: The human factor. Stanford University Graduate School of Business. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1545977. Accessed April 10, 2022
Sarkodie, S. A. (2021). Environmental performance, biocapacity, carbon & ecological footprint of nations: Drivers, trends and mitigation options. Science of The Total Environment., 751, 141912. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141912. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Schraad-Tischler, D., & Seelkopf, L. (2015). “Concept and mMethodology – Sustainable gGovernance iIndicators 2015”. Sustainable Governance Indicators. https://www.sgi-network.org/docs/2020/basics/SGI_Concept.pdf. Accessed April 11, 2022.
Second Harvest. (n.d.). Second Harvest food rescue.. https://secondharvest.ca/foodrescue/app/terms-of-use/. Accessed April 10, 2022.
SGI. (n.d.). “About the SGI”. Sustainable Governance Indicators.. https://www.sgi-network.org/2020/About. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Sitra. (2011). “World-class sustainable solutions from FinlandFinland”. Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Tekes. https://www.sitra.fi/en/publications/world-class-sustainable-solutions-finland/. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Sitra. (2020). “Connecting food businesses and charities to capture surplus food”. The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. https://www.sitra.fi/en/cases/connecting-food-businesses-and-charities-to-capture-surplus-food/. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Stobierskie, T. (2021). “4 impactful sustainable business practices that can makes a difference”. Harvard Business School Online.. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/sustainable-business-practices. Accessed April 10, 2022.
UN. (1972). “Report of the united nations conference on the human environment”. United Nations.. https://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/CONF.48/14/REV.1. Accessed April 10, 2022.
UN. (n.d.-a). “11: Sustainable cities and communities”. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/. Accessed April 10, 2022.
UN. (n.d.-b). “Sustainability”. https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/sustainability#:~:text=In%201987%2C%20the%20United%20Nations,development%20needs%2C%20but%20with%20the. Accessed April 10, 2022.
UN. (n.d.-c). “The 17 goals”. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs - Sustainable Development. https://unric.org/en/united-nations-sustainable-development-goals/#:~:text=The%20SDGs%20are%20integrated%E2%80%94that,for%20those%20furthest%20behind%20first. Accessed April 10, 2022.
UN. (n.d.-d). “What is climate change?”. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change. Accessed April 10, 2022.
University of Gävle. (2018). “Economic sustainability”. https://www.hig.se/Ext/En/University-of-Gavle/About-the-University/Environmental-Work/What-is-sustainable-development-at-HiG/Economic-sustainability.html. Accessed April 10, 2022.
University of Toronto. (2017). Resilience planning guide. John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture. Landscape and Design.
Water Science School. (2019). “How Much Water is There on Earth?”. U.S. Geological Survey. https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/how-much-water-there-earth#:~:text=a%20watery%20place.-,But%20just%20how%20much%20water%20exists%20on%2C%20in%2C%20and%20above,percent%20of%20all%20Earth’s%20water. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Wheeler, S. (2004). “Planning for sustainability: Creating livable equitable and ecological communities”. https://books.google.ca/books/about/Planning_for_Sustainability.html?id=rtghgHKV6pwC&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y. Accessed April 10, 2022.
WHO. (n.d.). “Air pollution”. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_2. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Woon, J. (2018). “Technology and governance in Singapore’s smart nation initiative”. ASH Center for democratic governance and innovation. Harvard Kennedy School.. https://ash.harvard.edu/publications/technology-and-governance-singapore%E2%80%99s-smart-nation-initiative. Accessed April 10 2022.
World Wildlife Foundation. (n.d.). “Ecological Footprint”. https://wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/teacher_resources/webfieldtrips/ecological_balance/eco_footprint/. Accessed April 10, 2022.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Friedman, A. (2023). A Need for Sustainable Urban Environments. In: The Sustainable Digital City. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25488-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25488-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-25487-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-25488-8
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)