Sustainable urban infrastructure expands on the concept of urban infrastructure by adding the sustainability element with the expectation of improved and more resilient urban development. In the construction and physical and organizational structures that enable cities to function, sustainability also aims to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the capabilities of the future generations.
Sustainable Development Goal 9 (SDG 9), of the international Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations General Assembly, deals with infrastructure, however, infrastructure is a building block for the rest of the SDGs. Therefore, the achievement of sustainable infrastructure is of significant concern in multiple areas of society.
The sustainable development of urban areas is crucial since more than 56% of the world's population lives in cities. Cities are in the lead of climate action, while being responsible for an estimated 75% of the world's carbon emissions.
Concept A bibliometric study, published in 2019, of the evolution of research regarding sustainable urban infrastructure emphasizes that this concept continues to grow in the research community and change in scope as technology improves. According to the College of Engineering and Applied Science of the University of Colorado Denver, urban infrastructure refers to the engineered systems (water, energy, transport, sanitation, information) that make up a city. Not solely based on evaluating utilities, sustainability efforts in urban infrastructure seek to combat global warming and municipal waste, as well as encourage economic prosperity. Socioeconomic implications of these efforts often involve policy and governance in the implementation of sustainable infrastructure, and their variation results in different programs sized on national, regional, or more local scales. Challenges resulting from increasing population growth have generated a need for sustainable infrastructure that is high performing, cost-effective, resource-efficient and environmentally-friendly.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency maintains that the planning process of sustainable design can lead to the development of a community that is ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable. The design for a sustainable urban infrastructure emphasizes localization and sustainable living. According to the principle of sustainable development, the aim is to reduce an individual's ecological footprint in areas with a high population density.
The criteria for what can be included in this kind of urban environment vary from place to place given differences in existing infrastructure and built form, climate, and availability of local resources and talents.
Generally speaking, the following could be considered sustainable urban infrastructure: public transport networks distributed generation and integrated energy demand management initiatives and programs high efficiency buildings and other development constraints such as only permitting the construction of green buildings and sustainable habitats with energy-efficient landscaping. connected green spaces and wildlife corridors low impact development practices to protect water resources disaster mitigation techniques and plans highly integrative communication networks systems to increase accessibility of localized and renewable resources A more systematic view of sustainable urban infrastructure has grown in popularity. Instead of just focusing on housing and space, experts now incorporate ideas regarding urban resource metabolism, the interconnectedness of citizens, and the complex vulnerabilities that cities develop over time. Green infrastructure is a subset of sustainable urban infrastructure, and mostly considers ecological implications, water resources, and nature-based solutions.
Global Initiatives
Generalized When comparing volume of research and developments, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and China are the most involved in generating solutions for infrastructure. Different national priorities often result in different sustainability foci among countries. According to a review of available projects and research, the United States and United Kingdom prioritize sustainable solutions towards culture, water, disasters, and urban planning. The United States especially has made progress with green infrastructure initiatives (e.g. Green Alley Programs). China and Australia have similar priorities, but Australian tourism takes larger precedence as opposed to disaster prevention, while China is significantly involved in governance, electricity, and land development.
Africa Existing infrastructure and governance challenges in general can slow progression towards sustainable urban practices. The United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, applicable for a multitude of African countries, seeks to deal with these challenges while working towards sustainability. According to the UN, only 40% of the African population lives in urban areas, but these urban areas, and their interconnectedness, are quickly growing, requiring the consideration of sustainability. In light of this, the African Union (AU) began its own sustainability and infrastructure initiative in Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. African discourse with the UN has notably referenced the ethical extraction of resources and equitable access to resources as measures of sustainability within the infrastructure of a society's urban culture and metabolism. However, a lack of consistent government regulation and socioeconomic conditions continue to hinder attempts to establish a resilient and sustainably motivated network of cities across Africa. A national movement to create integrative urban policies, which have been adopted by many African countries, gives hope to the idea of governmental commitment to cooperatively developing land in the best interest of growing urban areas.
Australia In contrast to the increasing Chinese population, the population in Australia faces threatened resiliency due to decreasing population growth rates. More efficient land development, also carried out by an integrated group of bureaucratic bodies throughout Australia, and multiuse utility systems can maximize the social, environmental, and economic benefits of a country regardless of whether the population is increasing or decreasing.
Canada
Sustainable urban infrastructure is also called sustainable municipal infrastructure in Canada. It is an infrastructure initiative that facilitates progress towards the goal of sustainable living in a place or region. Attention is paid to technological and government policies which enable urban planning for sustainable architecture and sustainable agriculture.
In Canada, several organizations related to the FCM InfraGuide project, including the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, National Research Council of Canada, and Canadian Public Works Association, seek to achieve sustainability in municipal infrastructure, especially large scale urban infrastructure. These organizations advocate environmental protocols, and inclusion of ecological and social indicators and factors in decision making at the earliest possible stage. There is little focus yet on sustainable rural infrastructure, though, this is a stated goal of the project, as is the achievement of sustainable rural development in developing nations.
In their view, sustainability concerns apply to all of "maintaining, repairing and upgrading the infrastructure that sustains our quality of life" including at least: municipal decision making and investment planning potable water supply stormwater and wastewater especially minimizing the distance that such water travels to be treated and reused roads and sidewalks and their integration with transit systems to achieve smoother flow of people environmental protocols and multidisciplinary practices to ensure they are respected, e.g. green procurement.
These and other Canadian official entities, including the Auditor General of Canada and Service Canada, are focused on related efforts such as municipal performance audits, information technology, communications technology, moral purchasing and sharing of "data, information, common infrastructure, technology," and the need to "integrate their business processes." In particular, this integration further reduces duplication and waste, especially e-waste and greenhouse gas emissions that were a concern under Kyoto Protocol targets that Canada committed to achieve. In 2011, Canada withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol due to economic concerns.
China The increasing population of China has significantly impacted the ratio of resource consumption to resource production, which has put pressure on the Chinese government and economy to establish a more efficient way of using resources to permit sustained longevity of Chinese society. The Circular Economy Policy has already begun to address this issue by enforcing repeated analysis and reuse throughout a product's entire life cycle. To solve this problem, first of all, China will improve to promote the progress of science and technology and business management and improve labor efficiency. The second is to guide enterprises to optimize the combination of production factors following market needs and achieve the interface between production and demand. Thirdly the government will allow competition and the mechanism of eliminating winners and losers among enterprises to enhance the ability to produce and operate goods. Last but not least, the Chinese government plans modern urban centers in completely different areas. A modern framework includes open transportation, water supply, and distinctive private regions and mechanical regions dissemination. First-world and developed countries, such as some parts of China, often seek to grow exponentially in economic productivity and consumerism, but this exponential growth must be matched with an exponential drop in resource consumption that may be achieved through an integrated system approach. This systematic approach of incorporating consumerist and lifestyle changes on many societal levels, reflects the systematic dynamic of sustainable urban infrastructure. By treating sustainability as a function of interconnected systems (e.g. transportation, land development, community formation, etc.), the impact of any change in one system can be amplified without causing a sector of infrastructure to singularly fail.
Indonesia The redevelopment of North Jakarta was the subject of a 2012 project to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing sustainable design, as well as public knowledge about the benefits of such design. City areas along the coast particularly suffer from large socioeconomic gaps, high density slums, and poor development planning. Results from the Structural Equations Model (SEM) revealed that, although sustainable redesigning would help uplift coastal areas, public efficacy towards sustainable urban infrastructure was lacking significantly. Public surveys conducted in Jakarta emphasized the following priorities:
land use public transportation built space open space network infrastructure and waste energy hydrology air and sun