Thursday, 24 September 2015

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/


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

No comments:

Post a Comment