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Grand Challenge 4: Create Efficient, Healthy, Resilient Cities
Pages 54-65

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From page 54...
... These opportunities draw migrants from the rural countryside where such opportunities are sparser. As noted in a 2016 United Nations report on urbanization, cities are seen as economic hubs and drivers of innovation and competition, propelling a steady flow of people from rural to urban areas, particularly in Asia.216 54 |  ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING IN THE 21st CENTURY:  ADDRESSING GRAND CHALLENGES
From page 55...
... In low- and middle-income countries, large populations live in dense informal settlements that are expanding rapidly; about 880 million people live in slums today and that number is projected to more than double by 2050.218 With many cities unable to provide adequate sanitation or food and water security for these slums, their residents face a high risk of malnutrition and disease.219 Increased human contact with domestic animals and wildlife in these settings heightens the risk of diseases with pandemic potential that emerge from animals and subsequently spread from person to person, as occurred with the SARS epidemic. SARS spread rapidly to more than 30 counties before being contained.220 The functioning and stability of many of the world's major cities are made all the more precarious by threats from extreme events such as floods, heat waves, and droughts, which are expected to hit cities harder and more frequently in the coming decades, putting more lives and infrastructure at risk.221 These challenges, however, are not insurmountable.
From page 56...
... In the past, infrastructure systems were designed to optimize water delivery, energy provision, transit, and land use in a siloed fashion that led to suboptimal solutions. Going forward, sustainable urban infrastructure development needs to look beyond the local scale and consider transboundary infrastructures across regional, national, and global scales.224 For example, developing reliable, nutritious, and sustainable food supplies in densely populated cities requires looking beyond a city's boundaries to the full range of producers, suppliers, and transporters and the implications to energy and water use and greenhouse gas emissions.
From page 57...
... Advancing Smart Cities Improvements in efficiency can also be gained through "smart" technologies that capitalize on advances in sensing technology, data, connectivity, artificial intelligence, and participatory governance to optimize operations and resource management.227 A smart system can be not only reactive but proactive, using inputs, information processing, intelligence, and actuation to anticipate and prevent Create Efficient, Healthy, Resilient Cities  |  57
From page 58...
... When appropriately analyzed and connected to decision making or operational controls, these data can be a powerful asset to improve city functions and planning. Developments in data science and machine learning are advancing these capabilities; a 2018 report by the World Economic Forum230 identified artificial intelligence as a key technology for efforts to transform traditional sectors and systems to address climate change, deliver food and water, protect biodiversity, and bolster human well-being.
From page 59...
... 240 The a carbon-neutral thermal grid that would use geothermal design process was launched in 2017 and Sidewalk Toronto is energy, waste heat, and energy generated by anaerobic working with experts and stakeholders to co-create the final digestion of organic waste to heat and cool buildings, neighborhood design plans. combined with rigorous building construction standards aimed DIGITAL Digital Layer BUILD Buildings PHYSICAL LAYER Mobility MOB Public Realm PUBLIC Infrastructure INFRASTR A NEW KIND OF NEIGHBOURHOOD 19 A vision for Quayside, a mixed-use urban development in Toronto.
From page 60...
... For example, a tightly sealed building is more energy efficient with respect to temperature control, but it also allows build-up of contaminants in air. Likewise, technologies and practices designed to save water and reduce energy used for heating water may inadvertently promote the spread of pathogenic microbes.244 60 |  ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING IN THE 21st CENTURY:  ADDRESSING GRAND CHALLENGES
From page 61...
... , integrated "biocenters" are being used to capture waste and digest it into biogas, which can be used as cooking fuel, thereby helping to manage waste while simultaneously reducing exposures to both outdoor and indoor air pollution from traditional cooking with wood, dung, and charcoal.248 The Diesel Emissions Reduction Act249 has provided grant funding and other incentives to support clean diesel projects, helping to replace old diesel school buses in lowincome communities in Houston with low-emission models, reducing children's exposure to pollution from diesel exhaust. With new emission standards and advances in technology, the percentage of low-income populations in the United States that live with air quality above the current fine-particulate standards dropped from 57 percent in 2006-2008 to 8 percent in 2014-2016.250 What Makes a City Resilient?
From page 62...
... On the other hand, a significant increase in the use of shared vehicles, as might occur with autonomous vehicles, could eliminate 90 percent of parking demand,253 thereby reducing projected flood risk and allowing the repurposing of parking space for the creation of green space. Many cities are actively pursuing sustainable, multipurpose solutions like those in Copenhagen and Boston, but the scale of these projects is often not aligned 62 |  ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING IN THE 21st CENTURY:  ADDRESSING GRAND CHALLENGES
From page 63...
... These efforts should include gleaning lessons from cities that have begun such transitions, as well as finding innovative ways to engage both the private sector, which has significant sway over the state of the built environment, and the public sector, which typically leads the way on infrastructure.254 Creating efficient, healthy, resilient cities involves many overlapping considerations from the challenges discussed previously in this report. The solutions will require leadership, systems thinking, and innovation from environmental engineers working with the many other professionals -- in planning, transportation, energy, and public health, among others -- to create and implement successful urban solutions.
From page 64...
... 64 |  ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING IN THE 21st CENTURY:  ADDRESSING GRAND CHALLENGES
From page 65...
... • Develop and use sensors to support more efficient city operations, including transportation, water and wastewater, energy, environmental quality, and public health. This includes working to develop artificial intelligence decision-making algorithms for smart cities and working, in collaboration with social scientists, to engage citizens in the development and refinement of these algorithms.


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