Pathways to sustainable low-carbon transitions in an auto-dependent Canadian city

Abstract

Can growth-oriented resource-intensive cities be redesigned as non-consumptive sustainable places in a climate constrained world? This research tests that proposition through a design exploration of the transformation of a 500-ha inner city industrial district in Calgary, Canada, to a sustainable low-carbon city district. The research is formulated with respect to three theoretical axis—theories of urbanism, complexity and transitions; three spatial moments of the production process—production, reproduction and consumption and three temporal moments of the production process—manufacture, use, and post-use. The spatial and temporal moments leverage models of, industrial ecology and circular economy, sustainable cities and derivatives including smart, post-carbon and eco-cities. We employ a participatory design and backcasting methodology informed by theories of path dependence/creation. We establish a set of performance criteria, conduct three rounds of participatory design explorations and follow a strategy of scale-up of existing technology, engineering and design precedents. We identify a set of eight barriers and associated mitigation strategies. These include the stigma of living adjacent to, and the cost to rehabilitate, industrial lands; spatial and cultural auto-dependence; fragmentation of land ownership; infrastructure financing; regional connectivity and path dependence of the planning process. We propose that in order to achieve socially, ecologically and economically sustainable low-carbon cities attention needs to be addressed to culturally transformative alternatives to automobility, new forms of cooperative and localized economy, provision of non-market modes of land development and democratic and regulatory reform. To conclude we reformulate our conceptual framework within three nested domains—socio-technical, econo-political and cultural–cosmological.