Draft Reader Response 2 to "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities"

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho believes that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She further mentions the Envision Sustainability rating system which prioritizes the sustainability of its infrastructure and allows a 360 degree impact on its community. Infrastructures in this era should efficiently serve the community by improving their quality of life. She further shares her focus on its assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and its key challenges of urbanization. In context of sustainability against growth, she hopes that the right project will help community and city to function as a whole. While I agree with Cho on the importance of inputting urban challenges in sustainable infrastructure planning, I feel that her points on dealing with rapid urban growth are incomplete. Her explanations seem to only address developed countries.

The first reason that makes her points incomplete was the lack of explanation on how developing countries deal with its rapid urban growth through sustainability. Cho only mentioned how countries with resources deal with its urban challenge and left out how developing countries will achieve sustainable development. Due to increased poverty and urbanization, the ideals of sustainable development largely remain a distant reality across developing countries (Amoateng, 2015). Developing countries must first ensure their people have access to basic social provision such as before moving towards sustainability. Cho should have addressed the issue on the extra challenges developing countries face and how they can move towards sustainability. She should have provided examples of the success stories on how developing countries like China managed to improve their people quality of life (Fu Jing, 2008).

The second reason is because Cho did not state what developing countries should not do when coping with its rapid urban growth. Though poverty conditions have compounded and weakened the capability of developing countries in achieving sustainability, they still should not ignore sustainability in their development and just continue striving for it (Kiamba, 2012). Cho only mentioned the success stories of sustainable development; the Nuevo Necaxa Avila Camacho Highway in Mexico and Highways Vias Nuevas De Lima in Peru. I liked how the successful infrastructure mentioned by her was from the list of developing countries. However, it would have been more realistic to mention both the success and unsuccessful stories of sustainable infrastructure. From the unsuccessful stories, other countries can efficiently strive for sustainability by learning from their failure. Urban development can be seen in all developing countries. However, successful sustainable development can be rarely identified (Amoateng, 2015).

In conclusion, Cho managed to convince me on the importance of considering urban challenges in sustainable infrastructure. However, her article was incomplete as her points seem to only support developed countries which are economically stable. It would have been better and more realistic to touch on how developing countries work towards achieving sustainability. Also, the actions developing countries should and should not do in working towards sustainability and combating rapid urban growth.

References

Heidi, Cho. (2014). Developing sustainable infrastructure in new cities. Retrieved from

http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

 Fu Jing (2008,August 28).Chinese see dramatic rise in quality of life : economist.. China Daily. Retrieved from

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-08/28/content_6977384.htm

Kiamba, Anita(2012). The sustainability of urban development in developing economies . The Journal of Sustainable Development, 8(1),20-25.

Paul Amoateng.(2015).Sustainable development in developing countries: ramifications of urbanisation and poverty. Retrieved from

http://www.openpop.org/?p=1054

Draft Reader Response to "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities"

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho believes that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She further mentions the Envision Sustainability rating system which prioritizes the sustainability of its infrastructure and allows a 360 degree impact on its community. Living in this era, infrastructures should efficiently serve the community by improving their quality of life. She further shares her focus on its assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and its key challenges of urbanization. In context of sustainability against growth, she hopes that the right project will help community and city to function as a whole. With the soaring number of successful sustainable infrastructure around the globe, I strongly agree with

 Cho on the need to input urban challenges in the construction of any development.

Infrastructures that are blindly built, will be useless when it’s no longer needed. Infrastructures built this way will be left purposeless and be eventually demolished. This will be a total waste of resources in both the building and demolishing process. Architect and developers must fully research and understand their infrastructure outcome well. What works for a certain country might not work for another country. Likewise, architects must create infrastructure within the context of their city’s environment and resources. It must also be built in such a way that they can be repurposed over time to meet the needs of the community (Geis and Kutzmark, 2006). Cho even shared the success stories of 2 awarded infrastructures; Highway Vias De Lima in Peru and Nuevo Necaxa Avila Camacho Highway in Mexico. These 2 development are currently serving the citizens well and has allowed integration through transportation and neighbourhood hubs, connecting the people. These developments have provided ease for their people, shortening distance time and meeting their needs.

The writer’s current project, KAEC also proves the importance of including urban challenges in infrastructure planning. Saudi is expecting a high population growth and in response, KAEC plans to build 2 million homes and create 20,000 jobs for their people. KAEC is also expected to boost Saudi tourism. With this, Saudi won’t be relying 100% on their oil money as it will run out in the years to come (Mclelland, 2015). Looking at the writer’s current involvement and influence in KAEC, it further proves how important it is in creating infrastructure by working with the peoples need and fully maximising the infrastructure capability. She also shared her belief that Saudi KAEC ‘can evolve to lay the groundwork for a broader sustainability platform that will serve communities for generations to come.’ Other than boosting their economy, advanced transportation has also been included in KAEC. As ‘Speed is integral to KAEC’s vision for future’, high-speed rail systems is included and aims to lessen demands on roads and will be a safer ride for the people (Sylvia Smith, 2015). The train network will link KAEC with Mecca and Medina and is expected to reduce journey time from Jeddah to 30 minutes.

In conclusion, inputting urban challenges in infrastructure planning is very important. Maximising the infrastructure capability is very important so that we can better provide and serve the people. The example provided by Cho was ambitious and as proven above will be benefitting Saudi in all aspect. Planning infrastructure now is more than just having that on the map, it involves having a good relationship with both the people and its environment. Infrastructure created with this approach will be unbreakable.

References

 Don Geis., Tammy Kutzmark.(2006). Developing Sustainable Communities: The Future is Now. Retrieved from http://www.freshstart.ncat.org/articles/future.htm

 Heidi Cho.(2014,December 14). Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities. Retrieved from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

 Jennifer Lee.(2014). Case study of Nuevo Necaxa-Ávila Camacho Highway, Mexico. Retrieved from http://research.gsd.harvard.edu/zofnass/menu/current-research/infrastructure-360/nuevo-necaxa-avila-camacho-highway-mexico/

 Euan Mclelland.(2015,May 23).The city springing up in the desert. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3094052/The-city-springing-DESERT-New-pictures-67billion-project-house-two-million-people-Saudi-Arabia-2035.html

 Sylvia Smith.(2015, March 20). Saudi Arabia's new desert megacity. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31867727

Final Summary of "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities"

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho believes that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She further mentions the Envision Sustainability rating system which prioritizes the sustainability of its infrastructure and allows a 360 degree impact on its community. Living in this era, infrastructures should efficiently serve the community by improving their quality of life. She further shares her focus on its assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and its key challenges of urbanization. In context of sustainability against growth, she hopes that the right project will help community and city to function as a whole.

Draft Summary of "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities"

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho believes that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She further mentions the rating system that is created to ensure performance. Living in this era, infrastructures should efficiently serve the community by improving the quality of life. She further shares her focus on its assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and its key challenges of urbanization. In context of sustainability against growth, she hopes that the right project will help community and city to function as a whole.

My English Language Journey

Being a Singaporean student, you cannot deny the importance of English. English is a common language that we all know. At least for most of us. For me, English was my second language. I liked English but I dislike the grammar and composition classes. They were just boring and just troublesome. Throughout my education years, getting a C grade for English was something I’m okay with. My mindset was that I just have to pass.

As I got older and discovered my interest in being a building service engineer, things started to change. I wanted to be a successful engineer. Being in this field, report writing is something I definitely will do. I had a taste of that during my polytechnic years. It was frustrating having to re-edit my report a couple of times. My lecturer then was someone with high expectations and he’ll reject any report that didn’t meet his expectation. Due to those rejections, I managed to improve my report writing skills. Now, I realized the importance of English. I do regret neglecting my English foundation classes in primary school but it’s never too late to get it right.