City Blueprint Research Articles

Istanbul: the challenges of integrated water resources management in Europa’s megacity

Effective integrated water resources management (IWRM) and developments impacting on water resources are recognized as key components of environmentally sustainable development. Istanbul (Turkey) is a very large metropolitan city with a population of approximately 14 million. Istanbul is one of the 23 megacities (metropolitan areas with a population of more than 10 million) in the world and one of the most rapidly growing cities in Europe. The annual population growth is 2.8 %. The population growth in the city is almost twice the overall rate of the whole of Turkey, because of a large in-migration. The present study is a baseline assessment of IWRM of Istanbul and also provides a critical review of Istanbul’s future challenges. The assessment is part of an action on water governance (City Blueprints) in the context of the European Innovation Partnership on Water of the European Commission. The City Blueprint indicator approach and process have been applied as first step of gaining a better understanding of IWRM and the challenges ahead. This is done by using well-established and high-quality data sets, a relatively cost-effective online survey and a relatively simple questionnaire. Istanbul has set a good example to the challenges faced in water supply in megacities, where illegal settlements on watershed zones posed a threat to scarce water resources. Despite these enormous efforts, the projected future population growth and climate change in Istanbul will necessitate further major transitions towards sustainable IWRM. This holds for all aspects of the water cycle: water quality, water quantity, water supply and sanitation, coping with extreme weather events (floods and droughts), as well as for the protection of the sources of water, i.e. ecosystem conservation. Istanbul is a place where problems emerge and solutions need to be found. The time window available to do this is rapidly closing. As such, this review of IWRM of Istanbul confirms the conclusions of the World Economic Forum that water supply is one of the top three global risks for both the impact and likelihood. Our framework has been applied for nearly 40 cities, and the results for Istanbul are discussed in the broader context of recent initiatives on water governance and smart cities by the European Commission.

The City Blueprint of Amsterdam: an assessment of integrated water resources management in the capital of the Netherlands

In this study the sustainability of integrated water resources management in Amsterdam has been reviewed using the City Blueprint approach. The City Blueprint® is a set of 24 dedicated indicators divided over eight categories, i.e., water security, water quality, drinking water, sanitation, infrastructure, climate robustness, biodiversity and attractiveness, and governance including public participation. In 2006 the various urban water-related services in Amsterdam were brought under one roof, culminating in the country's first water cycle company called Waternet. Waternet is responsible for surface water (rivers, canals, ditches and lakes), groundwater, stormwater, drinking water supply and waste water treatment. The city's unique water cycle approach has proved highly beneficial. Currently Amsterdam is the best performing city of the 30 cities assessed so far. This can be explained by: (1) a long-term vision and a multi-level water governance approach, (2) integration of water, energy and material flows (e.g., struvite production), (3) the entanglement between urban quality and water management, and (4) the transparent communication to and feed-back from customers, i.e., farmers and citizens. Surface water quality and biodiversity remain future challenges.

Research of Urban Planning and Design Based on 3D Visualization GIS

With the development of the information technology we have gradually entered a new world which character is digitalization. Digitalization gradually infiltrates into our city including the work of city planning, construction, management and services, and also acts a more and more important role as the methods for building a continual city. At present, visualization in city 3D scene is core technique of Cyber City. Querying and anglicizing information and base on city 3D scene not only provide vision taste for user, make user have cognition for city construction, but also make decision-maker, designer and user have more lifelike, impersonal and rational cognition for status in quo of city layout and blueprint of design. So we need these new technologies of 3D-GIS and visualization to aid the city planner and decision maker to make plans and decisions, and to provide the information platform for public participation city planning.

City Blueprints: Baseline Assessments of Sustainable Water Management in 11 Cities of the Future

The necessity of Urban Water Cycle Services (UWCS) adapting to future stresses calls for changes that take sustainability into account. Megatrends (e.g. population growth, water scarcity, pollution and climate change) pose urgent water challenges in cities. In a previous paper, a set of indicators, i.e., the City Blueprint has been developed to assess the sustainability of UWCS (Van Leeuwen et al., Wat Resour Manage 26:2177–2197, 2012). In this paper this approach has been applied in 9 cities and regions in Europe (Amsterdam, Algarve, Athens, Bucharest, Hamburg, Reggio Emilia, Rotterdam, Oslo and Cities of Scotland) and in 2 African cities in Angola (Kilamba Kiaxi) and Tanzania (Dar es Salaam). The assessments showed that cities vary considerably with regard to the sustainability of the UWCS. This is also captured in the Blue City Index (BCI), the arithmetic mean of 24 indicators comprising the City Blueprint (Van Leeuwen et al., Wat Resour Manage 26:2177–2197, 2012). Theoretically, the BCI has a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 10. The actual BCIs in the 11 cities studied varied from 3.31 (Kilamba Kiaxi) to 7.72 (Hamburg). The BCI was positively correlated with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person, the ambitions of the local authorities regarding the sustainability of the UWCS, the voluntary participation index (VPI) and all governance indicators according to the World Bank. The study demonstrated that the variability in sustainability among the UWCS of cities offers great opportunities for short-term and long-term improvements, provided that cities share their best practices.

The city blueprint: experiences with the implementation of 24 indicators to assess the sustainability of the urban water cycle

A set of indicators, i.e. the city blueprint, has been developed to assess the sustainability of the water cycle (SWC). The city blueprint comprises a set of 24 dedicated indicators divided over eight categories, i.e. water security, water quality, drinking water, sanitation, infrastructure, climate robustness, biodiversity and attractiveness and governance including public participation. The city blueprint can be used as a first step or quick-scan to benchmark the SWC in cities and may help: (1) to communicate a city's SWC performance and exchange experiences, (2) to select appropriate water supply and sanitation strategies, (3) to develop technological and non-technological options as future alternatives for the water cycle, where several possible changes in the use of technology, space and socio-economic scenarios can be introduced. This should finally lead to: (4) a selection of measures, including an evaluation of their costs and benefits under different development scenarios, and how to integrate these in long-term planning on urban investments. So far, a city blueprint has been made for the city of Rotterdam. This study reports on three other cities, i.e. two Dutch cities (Maastricht and Venlo) and one city in a developing country (Dar es Salaam in Tanzania). Experiences so far and further plans will be discussed.

Study on Location Planning of Regional Parking

Parking difficulty is being a highlighted problem in nowadays' cities. As a reality of planning of parking lots in Chinese cities are later than other countries, and also parking lot planning are based on city blueprint and needs of parking places, as well as limit of making parking lot plan, we can make a model on planning and choosing parking lot fields to find the most suitable scheme. Thus it can bring the greatest benefit to the whole area in the city, and also make a reference to planning of the parking lot construction in area.

City Blueprints: 24 Indicators to Assess the Sustainability of the Urban Water Cycle

Climate change, population growth and increased consumption, coupled with urbanization, are all placing increased pressure on water management. This global challenge can often best be addressed at the local level, e.g. in cities by optimizing the role of civil society. Although there are approaches for assessing the sustainability of countries and cities, there is no dedicated framework for the assessment of the sustainability of urban water management. We have therefore compiled a comprehensive list of indicators (the city blueprint) for this. The city blueprint is proposed as a first step towards gaining a better understanding and addressing the challenges of integrated urban water management (IUWM). City blueprints will enable the IUWM of cities to be compared, and stimulate the exchange of success stories (good practices) between cities to address the enormous IUWM challenges which lie ahead. The city blueprint provides a quick scan and baseline assessment. It comprises elements from a variety of methodologies, such as water footprint, urban metabolism and ecosystem services. The indicators have been subdivided into eight broad categories, i.e. (1) water security following the water footprint approach developed by Hoekstra and Chapagain (2007), (2) water quality, which includes surface water and groundwater, (3) drinking water, (4) sanitation, (5) infrastructure, (6) climate robustness, (7) biodiversity and attractiveness and (8) governance. Experience using city blueprints for the cities of Rotterdam, Maastricht and Venlo (in the Netherlands) have been included as practical examples. It was concluded that simplicity (ease of calculation and data availability), transparency and ease of communication makes the blueprint a valuable tool for policy makers, decision makers and resource managers as a first step in the process of understanding, envisioning, developing and implementing measures to transform the water management of cities. The best results are obtained when all the stakeholders are involved and connected right from the start.

Disease in Eldorado

Some consider the Emirate of Dubai, within the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a modern Eldorado and blueprint for development. Others question its governance, sustainability and labour practices. Sober judgement of the alternate Dubai narratives stumbles on definitional ambiguities, urban perspective intractability and empirical uncertainty. Definitions of governance and sustainability are particularly contested and presumptions of a universal city blueprint are considered alchemy. Nevertheless, a metaphorical Eldorado is a useful starting point for structured discussion. Acknowledging complexity and data limitations, the paper sketches some likely constituents of a modern Eldorado and then compares it with conditions in the oriental former boomtown. Tentative preliminary indications suggest that Dubai, as many other cities, is overbuilt and unhealthy. Notwithstanding some phantasmagorical projects and scattered architectural icons, disease manifests itself in governance concerns, economic volatility, urban sprawl and social fragmentation. Vectors for disease are excessive regional oil liquidity, constitutional constraints, a narrow commercial focus and institutional limitations. The result: impressive growth is driven by factor accumulation and undermined by overcrowding and pollution. Reforms to the current quasi-feudal modus operandi challenge powerful vested interests in the mercantile Emirate but the global financial crisis could herald beneficial reform.