Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Urban economy
Example cities
Environmental
Environmental
trajectory
priorities supported
priorities contested
Rapidly expanding,
Lagos
Urban greening
Polluter-pays initiatives
oil-based urban economies
Khartoum
Carbon reduction imperatives
Caracas
Energy descent strategies
Declining, heavy
Katowice
Environmental clean up
Improving workplace
industrial urban economy
Sofia
of contaminated land
environments
Enforcement of tougher air
Pollution taxation
and water quality standards
High-tech, knowledge-
Boston
Investment in environmental
Reduced dependence on air
based urban economies
Cambridge
services connected to
transport and airport expansion
San Francisco
improved quality of life
(green open spaces, improved
air quality)
Centres for consumption-
Las Vegas
Innovative eco-architecture
Compact-living and anti-sprawl
based services and
Dubai
Quality of life infrastructure
measures
entertainment
Water conservation
Reduce, reuse and recycle
philosophies
Energy efficiency
Global financial centres
London
Climate change initiatives
Restrictions on environmentally
Frankfurt
and carbon rationing
harmful international
Sydney
investments
Tokyo
Airport expansions
New York
Boomburbsand property-
Austin
Quality of life infrastructure
Compact-living and anti-sprawl
based urban economies
Mesa
measures
Congestion charges and anti-
road traffic measures
Source: Mark Whitehead
the basis for forging a new competitive landscape
upon which urban development can be based.
By sharing new technologies and exploiting col-
lective investment opportunities, such cities are
attempting to be ahead of the game when it comes
to being able to 'to
anticipate systematically and
prepare strategically
for a period of [environmental]
constraint' (Hodson and Marvin, 2009: 199). Such
processes of urban anticipation and prepared-
ness are associated with cities attempting to seal
themselves off from the worst effects of climate
change, while also securing a long-term supply
of the energy that their city and its residents are
likely to require. To these ends, urban ecological
security is about the search for competitive
advantage in the Anthropocene.
6.5 CONCLUSIONS
In this chapter we have achieved four primary
things. First, we have established that urbanization
is a prominent force within the contemporary
era, and that cities are becoming an increasingly
dominant context for living on the planet. Second,
we have considered the historical evolution of
cities and illustrated how their emergence was
connected to the agricultural transformation of
nature, and how the specialist practices and trades
that have emerged within cities have played a
crucial role in the subsequent transformations
of the environment. Third, we have explored a
series of theories that help us to understand the
forces that are driving contemporary forms of
