Pathways to Urban Sustainability Challenges and Opportunities for the United States (2016) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix C: Constraints on the Sustainability of Urban Areas
Appendix C: Constraints on the Sustainability of Urban Areas
Pages 167-176
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From page 167... ...
A number of these challenges are already evidenced in several of the cities profiled in Chapter 4. Among the drivers of these challenges are megatrends in population growth and distribution, climate change, energy scarcity, diminished ecosystem services, and requirements of the food system (Day et al., 2014)
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From page 168... ...
They concluded that, consistent with Figure C-2, megacities are weakly dependent on the local environment for energy and material inputs, but for water supply and waste sinks largely dependent on the local region. Los Angeles and other cities in the West and Southwest are examples of this.
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From page 169... ...
Reprinted with permission from the America 2050 program, Regional Plan Association. R03046, Figure B-2 LANDSCAPE PATTERNS OF CLIMATE CHANGE Global climate change impacts, such as increasing temperatures, sea-level rise, more variable weather, changes in precipitation, and other factors, will challenge sustainability efforts in urban areas of North America in this century (IPCC, 2007; USGCRP, 2009; Walsh et al., 2014)
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Other energy sources are less than 15 percent of total energy use. Hydropower, nuclear, and combustible biomass represent most non–fossil fuel use with the "new" renewables (solar, wind, and liquid biofuels)
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beyond very limited geographic circumstances. Biofuels have a very low net energy yield, often hardly greater than 1, and production competes with food production and the preservation of natural ecosystems.
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food production, significant amounts of the food consumed in the country are imported. This system is highly energy intensive, much of which in the United States is irrigated, and where crop production is highly variable across the landscape.
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. Other factors must be considered in supplying food to cities, such as lower production or crop failure due to climate variability, lack of local production of oils and grains that make up much of dietary calories, competition of food crops with nonedible or export crops, mismatch between local supply and demand, and the costs and resources required for transport (Desjardins et al., 2010; Giombolini et al., 2011)
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2014. Growth curves and sustained commissioning modelling of renewable energy: Investigating resource constraints for wind energy.
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2015. Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: Evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that global warming is highly dangerous.
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2009. United States Global Change Research Program: Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States.
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