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