Learning Guide Unit 8

Overview

Unit 8: Sustaining Human Societies

Topics:

Environmental Economics

Environmental Laws and Regulations

Urbanization and Cities

Urbanization Around the World

The Impacts of Urban Sprawl

The Sustainable City

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

1. Define cost-benefit analysis.

2. Explain why discounting is controversial.

3. Explain the concept of external cost.

4. Know what incentive policies are, what they do, and what their strengths and weaknesses
are.

5. List major international and US environmental laws and regulations.

 6. Define urbanization.

7. Recognize some of the main urbanization challenges facing the developing world.

8. Understand and explain the impacts from urban sprawl.

9. Describe and give examples of green urbanism.

Tasks:

Read the Learning Guide and Reading Assignments

Participate in the Discussion Assignment (post, comment, and rate in the Discussion
Forum)

Complete and submit Written Assignment (Instructor Graded)

Make entries to the Learning Journal

Take the Self-Quiz

Read the Unit 9 Learning Guide carefully for instructions on the Final Exam

Take the Review Quiz

Complete and submit the anonymous Course Evaluation

Introduction

The overview below will help you review the material covered in this unit.

Environmental Economics and Policies

Environmental and natural resource economists study the tradeoffs associated with one of
the most important scarce resources we havenature. Economic activity generally
affects the environment, usually negatively.

Natural resources are used, and large amounts of waste are produced. These side effects
can be seen as ways in which the actions of a producer impact the well being of a
bystander. The market fails to allocate adequate resources to address such external costs
because it is only concerned with buyers and sellers, not with the well-being of the
environment. Only direct costs are considered relevant. External costs are harmful social
or environmental effects caused by the production or consumption of economic goods.

A cost-benefit analysis provides an estimate of the most economically efficient level of

pollution reduction that is practical.

Environmental laws today encompass a wide range of subjects such as air and water
quality, hazardous wastes and biodiversity. The purpose of these environmental laws is to
prevent, minimize, remedy and punish actions that threaten or damage the environment
and those that live in it. Conventions, or treaties, generally set forth international
environmental regulations. These conventions and treaties often result from efforts by
international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) or the World Bank.

It is often difficult, if not impossible, to enforce these regulations because of the

sovereign rights of countries. In addition, rules and regulations set forth in such
agreements may be no more than non-binding recommendations, and often countries
are exempted from regulations due to economic or cultural reasons. Despite these
shortcomings, the international community has achieved some success via its
environmental agreements. These include an international convention that placed a
moratorium on whaling (1986) and a treaty that banned the ocean dumping of wastes
(1991).

Sustainability and Urban Infrastructure

Urbanization is the study of the social, political, and economic relationships in cities.

There are three prerequisites for the development of a city. First, good environment with
fresh water and a favorable climate; second, advanced technology, which will produce a
 food surplus to support non-farmers; and third, strong social organization to ensure social
stability and a stable economy.

Urbanization levels are affected by two things migration and natural increase.

Global urbanization reached the 50 percent mark in 2008, meaning that more than half of
the global population was living in cities compared to only 30 percent 50 years ago.

The access to basic services clean water, sanitation, electricity, and roadsare some of
the main urbanization challenges facing the developing world.

Long commute times, observed in sprawling metropolitan areas are unsustainable from
many aspects. Various negative health and environmental consequences can be
identified related to these development trends.

Green urbanism is a conceptual model that seeks to transform and re-engineer existing
city districts and regenerate the post-industrial city centre. It promotes the development
of socially and environmentally sustainable city districts. The principles of green
urbanism offer practical steps on the path to sustainable cities, harmonizing growth and
usage of resources.
Reading Assignment

Read chapters 16 and 17 in the textbook and answer the 'End of Chapter Review Questions' in
each chapter.
Discussion Assignment

Your posts should cover the questions below in full, and be at least 300 words long. Then
reply to and peer-review at least three other posts by next Wednesday 11:59PM UoPeople
Time, and rate the posts and replies.

There are many current projects around the world to support sustainable development and
growth in urban areas. The general goal is to create livable cities in which people have open
spaces, nature, and areas for congregation and relaxation. The idea is also to have well developed
public transport systems that would reduce the need for cars and other transport that contribute to
air pollution. Through good education programs there can be less litter and reduced waste.
Finally, thoughtful use of more eco-friendly products, renewable energy, and materials can make
a huge difference in reducing both waste production and energy use. Basically, cities can be built
and developed in a way that is healthy for the local environment as well as those living within
the city. Curitiba, Brazil, is a city that has become a model of sustainable city growth and quality
urban planning. At the following links you can learn more about the different ways in which
Curitiba, and its mayor, have supported sustainable, environmentally friendly, urban growth.

Read and learn about this city at the following links and the textbook, then answer the questions
below:

PBS Frontline report on Curitiba

Wikipedia article

UNEP article

Some videos to view:

How a Brazilian City Has Revolutionized Urban Planning

Jaime Lerner: A song of the city Talk Video

Curitiba - Breaking News Videos from CNN

Questions to answer:

1. What is the most significant change or project in the city of Curitiba that you feel has
influenced it becoming more livable, clean, or sustainable?

2. What do you think the future steps in Curitiba should be? For example, what would be a
good 'next project' to continue their movement forth in sustainable development and
quality urban planning?
 3. Do you feel that any of the planning, projects, policy, education programs, and/or
changes they have made would work well in your own city? Which one, and why?
Explain.

Any materials cited should be referenced using the style guidelines established by the American
Psychological Association (APA).

Curitiba is nothing short of an extraordinary tale of sustainable urbanization. We may think of

Sydney or Melbourne as the gold standard of urbanization, but the transformation of Curitiba is
more inspiring, due to its innovative systems, instead of relying on natural resource advantage.

According to (Gnatek, 2003), here is an overview of the changes in the city: an

extensive bus system that operates for less than a tenth of what a subway costs to
operate; developed recycling programs that clean up the environment and also
address poverty; attracted new industry while expanding green spaces; and used
preserved historical areas to revitalize neighborhoods and grow tourism.

The most significant change is reducing CO emissions when applying coordinated

approaches to emission reductions in transport and buildings. The economic and
resource efficiency benefits of such initiatives are considerable. Its fuel usage is
30% lower than in Brazils other major cities. And less wasted time and fuel in traffic
jam contribute up to US$1 million. This achievement was a shift of brilliant thinking:
(1) prioritizing people over cars, and (2) rather than building a new train or subway
system at an exorbitant construction costs, Curitiba's designers worked with
existing roadways to create a convenient, comprehensive and affordable bus
system.

Currently, the population of Curitiba is nearly 3 million. My city, Hochiminh, reaches

nearly 15 million people, out of a total population of 90 million. The biggest issue, I
think, is the transportation system. We rely too much on personal transportation,
the motorbike, because the public transportation rarely works. The bus system is
inconvenient, the metro system is under development and will not be ready within 5
years. Therefore, the transportation system of Curitiba is extremely inspiring to my
city. If it can work, the impact would be tremendously sustainable in every way.

References
Gnatek, T. (2003, Dec). Brazil - Curitiba's Urban Experiment. Retrieved from
PBS.Org: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/fellows/brazil1203/
Written Assignment (Instructor Graded)

Reflect on environmental issues you learned about in this course so far. What have been the most
important decisive experiences or convincing arguments in shaping your own attitudes?

Congratulations! You are in charge of your own city. List three strategies to make you city more
environmentally sustainable. Explain each strategy.

Please answer both questions.

Your answer should be between 700900 words long and should include introduction and
conclusion sections.

A MASTER PLAN FOR SAIGON

As I close the ebook with ALT+F4, the final chapter of Essentials of Environmental
Science dwells on my mind. Sustainability and Urban Infrastructure is the best and
most personal-relevant chapter that I can relate to. All the previous chapter about
air, tree, water, particles, and energy were all great, but not something a city boy
can feel close to.

I am a city boy living (and suffering) in a developing country and its biggest,
polluted, most crowded city. My city, Hochiminh, has been facing heavy problems of
urbanization. First, less-than-ideal environment with less green spaces as
development increase. Second, unsafe food production and sanitation. Third, weak
social organization. Forth, chaos road. Yet this city is a home of more than 8 million
people, out of 90 million total population in Vietnam.

Why has it come down to this?

Ho Chi Minh, a shadow of its former glory Saigon

In 1975, the North Communist took over Saigon, renamed it into Hochiminh, and
established to include the Saigon and surrounding districts. The curtain fell on the
citys former glory, since the winner of the Vietnam War - the uneducated and
violent rebels, knew next-to-nothing about managing a city.
Fast forward to 2017. The modern Hochiminh has become the economic and
financial hub of Vietnam. It also faces the biggest problems of a Vietnam city:

1. Rapid population growth: the city continues to attract migrants from the
provinces. The unofficial population is estimated 8,000,000 people. There is a high
level of unregistered ruralurban migration and the spread of settlement, housing
and industry.

2. Urban poverty is on the rise: While most poverty is concentrated in rural

areas, the proportion in cities is growing as Vietnam moves through the double
transition from rural to urban, and from a planned to market economy. Living
conditions have deteriorated for many civil servants who were made redundant as
part of the latter transition and had to seek employment in the market system.
According to (World Bank, 2014), Vietnam is ranked 124/183 income per capita in
the world (5,629 USD).

3. Lack access to social services: The rising numbers of unregistered rural

migrants moving to cities lack access to social services and face unstable
employment and housing. At least 300,000 people are living in slums in Ho Chi Minh
City.

4. Lack of housing: Land prices has increased by over 500% in the 1990s, making
it difficult for either the government or private sector to redress housing shortages.

5. Unreliable transportation system: To get from here to there, a Saigonese

relies mainly on personal transportation, a motorbike. Due to a huge number of
motorbike and small lanes, traffic jams happens daily in Hochiminh. The bus system
is inconvenient. The metro system is under development and will not be ready in
the next 5 years.

All of the above urbanization problems make the future especially dim for
Hochiminh city.

A Masterplan for a new Saigon

Now as I am in charge of my beloved city, its time to kick the communist
governments asses by implementing the following masterplan.

My urban development strategy focuses on the actions aimed at the above

challenges. Below are the key ideas:

1. Decreasing densities in urban cores and increasing peri-urban densities:

 Build centralized social services in specialized building zones, allowing for
more convenient access to all-in-one healthcare, public service, education,
and more. A resident will not need to travel more than 30km to check in at
the hospital, get notarized copies, or send children to schools.

Implement a low-income housing programme in the suburban areas, with

ready access to jobs and public transportation. The cost can be reduced to
10,000USD per budget apartment, which is achievable for a country with
average annual income of 5,629USD per capita.

New job-training and small-business incubators run by the city will helps
lower-income learn technical skills and launch new businesses.

Vocational training for unregistered rural-urban migrations to export them to

foreign countries, reducing the citys overcrowded population and bring in
foreign dollars.

2. Relocating polluting factories from inner cities to outer areas:

Develop incentive schemes to induce green changes in business, such as

allowing only knowledge-based and service businesses in the urban cores.

Develop an industrial factories to the citys outskirts, called Industry City,

with a complex of low-income housing, restaurants, and budget services.

Increase "green areas" to protected from future development, and invest in technology
parks to attract new-economy business.

Environmental education free, practical short courses for workers and

residents.

3. Improving the provision of urban services, especially water, sanitation, waste

management and public transport.

Initiate a citywide recycling program to separated organic waste and trash,

plastic, glass, and metal. Initiate A garbage-purchase programme which pays
low-income families food in exchange for waste. The city sold the salvage to
cover the costs of operation.

Favor public transport over private automobiles. Charge high tax on

motorbike and cars purchasing to reduce their ownership. Implement various
color-coded express bus-based transportation system with wider lanes. Bus
ticket price scheme is supported by government fund, at the lowest cost
 possible to induce new behaviors. The possible reduce fuel cost and traffic
time and healthcare cost, can support the scheme for years to come.

Conclusion
According to (Vietnamnet, 2015), forty years ago, Saigon was dubbed the Pearl of
the Far East because the US poured millions of dollars into this city to build an
empire of indulgence to serve their huge war machine.

It can be said that after 40 years, from being the Pearl of the Far East, Ho Chi Minh
City the windy and sunny land in the rich, beautiful and hospitable southern
region, is becoming a modern megacity with a firm economic, cultural and social
foundation and is developing on a par with the region and the world.

The masterplan will take 10-30 years to achieve. And then finally, I will rename
Hochiminh to Saigon again. There is no reason why we should let a dictator and
mass-murderer - Ho Chi Minh, take over the name of our beloved city.

References
Gnatek, T. (2003, Dec). Brazil - Curitiba's Urban Experiment. Retrieved from
PBS.Org: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/fellows/brazil1203/

RMIT. (n.d.). Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam. Retrieved from Global Cities: http://global-
cities.info/placemarks/ho-chi-minh-city-viet-nam

Vietnamnet. (2015, Apr 23). 40 Years of Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City. Retrieved from
Vietnamnet: http://vietnam.vnanet.vn/english/40-years-of-saigon-ho-chi-minh-
city/184078.html

World Bank. (2014). GDP per capita. Retrieved from The World Bank:
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?
order=wbapi_data_value_2013+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_data_value-
last&sort=desc
Learning Journal

1. Go to the textbook and read the section about the Tragedy of the Commons.

2. Summarize, in YOUR own words (do NOT copy-n-paste from the book or article) what
the Tragedy of the Commons means.

3. What natural resource in your area, environment, community, or town has been a victim
of the Tragedy of the Commons? In what way? Explain.

4. Offer one solution to that problem. Should there be new laws, policies or resource
management plans to help reduce the problem?

5. Choose one the Review Questions from this weeks readings and answer it in full.

6. Tell me what aspects of the course you really liked and would not want changed if we
update/revise this course.

Tragedy of the Commons is the situation when people donot care about how their
actions will affect the shared public resource. Vietnamese has a similar phrase: Cha
chung khng ai khc, which means: Noone cries over a shared resource.

Over 2 thousand billion VND had been offered to address the Mekong Deltas
problem in Vietnam. But months had passed, still the fund has not been released
even for a single cent. Why? Because it was a shared resource between The Science
& Investment Department and the Agriculture Development Department. While the
Science Department wished to divide it evenly for each provinces to relieve the
damage, the Agriculture Department aka shitty department (see what I did
there), wished to bring some of its unfinished projects to gain more funds.

The result was, the fund has not been released, while millions famers suffer in hell.

The solution should be simple: a deadline for the fund release, a project
management thinking to the old governments administrative system. It is hard to
believe, but most government department function in the most unsystematic ways
possible. A legal law can be passed to require every fund to be released within a
certain amount of days, those who violates this will have to pay 1% of the fund
amount.
Dear professor, to admit, I only chose the course as it is a required part of my
Computer Science education. I intended to skip as much Environmental things as
possible, to focus on programming. The reality was surprisingly different. I enjoyed
each weeks chapter, devoured new things about environmental and our ways of
lives. Each week I learned something new and interesting. The only thing that I
wishes to update is more links to videos, which would make the course twice as fun.