Sustainable Cities
Key words
Geothermal energy
BARCELONA SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES;
Solar energy
Recycling
SINGAPORE SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES
Several regional centres developed to so people do
not need to travel across the island to shop.
Only industries that do not produce pollution are
Around REYKJAVIK SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES
allowed are near to housing areas. Heavy industry
entire city and has reduced the dependence on
concentrated on small separate island called
fossil fuels. Reykjavik is one of the cleanest
Jurong Island, away from housing.
cities in the world due to its low emissions of
A Mass Rapid Transit network handles all public
Carbon dioxide.
transport (mini motorways across the city). The
All hot water is heated up as the ground.
integrated system of railways buses and taxis
Greenhouses are dotted across the city using
making everywhere in the city easily accessible and
heat from the ground, this is transferred into
avoiding congestion.
solar energy and plants are grown to avoid
Two thirds of all journeys in Singapore are made by
importing food.
public transport. A card system is used costing as
little as 10p a journey.
Singapore had the first charging congestion zone.
Large dams are constructed away from the
city and used to collect electricity.
In 2006, 26.5% of electricity generated was
Almost all vehicles have electronic tags where the
from geothermal energy, 73.4% from hydro-
tax is debited from their bank account.
power and just 0.1% from fossil fuels.
Owning a car is very expensive. You must first
On the coast no fishing is allowed and there
have a certificate of entitlement which can cost up
are exclusion zones to protect fishing stocks.
to £ 6,000 and then pay an expensive price for an
Fishermen have quotas (set number) of fish
imported car (up to an extra 40%).
they are allowed to catch to help maintain the
Very efficient waste management scheme, involving
fish population.
incineration plants and landfill sites underneath the
city. Apartment blocks have their own recycling
system and are fined if waste is too high.
A huge geothermal energy plant powers the
Recycling is encouraged by door to door collection
of recyclable materials
Bikes are made available as an alternative to cars. This service is
called BICING. If you have a city address you can buy a year’s
membership and then pick up a bike from one part of the city
and drop it off at another. Most of the locations are close to
train or bus stations and the bike can be used for two hours at a
time per day. In the city there are 50,000 trips on an average
day.
Selective vehicle access control reduces traffic entering central
shopping zones. Access is provided for delivery services only.
Solar panels. All new buildings are obliged by law to include solar
panels for the production of domestic hot water. Solar panels
will also be added to new schools, hospitals, sports halls and
other buildings that use more than 2,000 litres of water per day.
Although these additions on average increase the price of
buildings by 1%, this additional cost would be paid off within five
years as a result of reduced energy demands.
Recycling. A rubbish selective collection system has been running
in Barcelona for some time: a system based on the existence of
specific rubbish dumps to be used by the citizens on a voluntary
basis - also known as "Punts Brossa Neta" (Clean Rubbish Spots),
-each of which is comprised of three igloo-shaped rubbish
containers in three different colours : green for glass, blue for
paper and cardboard, and yellow for lightweight packaging
0
