Reader Response to “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities”

In the article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities”, Cho (2014) claims that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. The improvement in performance and flexibility of infrastructure must adapt to the 21^st century extreme urban context. Infrastructures in this era should improve the community’s quality of life. She further mentions the Envision Sustainability Rating System, an evaluation tool that measures the performance of infrastructure and their impact on the community. She further shares her experiences in the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) project and the key challenges of urbanization. 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 considering urban challenges in infrastructure planning, the examples she provided lacked details and wasn’t convincing enough.

The first reason that makes her points incomplete was the lack of explanation on how developing countries like Peru and Mexico managed to build the awarded infrastructure. Developing countries must first ensure their people have access to basic social provision such as water and education before moving towards sustainability. Due to increased poverty and urbanization, the ideals of sustainable development largely remain a distant reality across developing countries (Amoateng, 2015). Cho should have addressed the issue on the extra challenges developing countries face and how they can move towards sustainability. While Cho does mention projects in Peru and Mexico, both of which are ‘middle income developing countries’ according to the World Bank, she could certainly have given more detail especially the process in building the awarded infrastructure.

The second reason is because Cho did not state what developing countries like Peru and Mexico should not do when building its infrastructure. The challenges faced by both the developing and developed countries are different. With different challenges, the actions taken by both countries will be different. As it’s different, they should work and act efficiently. 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 successful stories of infrastructure. It would have been more realistic to mention both the successful and unsuccessful stories of sustainable infrastructure. Cho should have included more details on the unsuccessful stories of sustainable infrastructure for both the developed and developing countries.

In conclusion, Cho managed to convince me on the importance of considering urban challenges in sustainable infrastructure. However, her article lacked detail especially the process of creating infrastructure for both the developed and developing countries. Also, it would have been more realistic to also touch on both the successful and unsuccessful stories of building these infrastructure as not everything has a happy ending.

References

Heidi, C. (2014). Developing sustainable infrastructure in new cities. Retrieved from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/ .

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

Paul, A. (2015). Sustainable development in developing countries: Ramifications of urbanisation and poverty. Retrieved from http://www.openpop.org/?p=1054 .