Sustainable urban infrastructure facilitates progress towards ecological, economical and social sustainability in cities. This involves localizing energy sources, reducing resource use and waste generation and creating the conditions necessary for shifting to lifestyles with lower impacts.
Research in this cluster explores key obstacles to urban infrastructure planning and examines possible solutions. It provides a means of guiding policy reforms and devising innovative blue-green infrastructure/nature-based solutions which promote sustainability.
Environmental
Sustainable infrastructure is defined as “constructions and systems designed, constructed, maintained and operated in accordance with sustainability principles”. This means they aim to minimize their negative environmental impact by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving ecosystems, using resources efficiently, and using them responsibly.
Cities can have an immense environmental impact due to their high population densities, complex transport networks and resource-intensive economies, leading to sprawl, air pollution and limited public spaces. But cities can also play an instrumental role in addressing urban issues and shaping a more sustainable future.
The City of Chicago’s Sustainable Urban Infrastructure Guidelines will assist CDOT with implementing cutting-edge sustainable practices across its public right-of-way and meeting citywide environmental planning goals. It provides a framework to ensure sustainability principles are considered at every step from design through construction, maintenance and operations for projects within its jurisdiction. All City departments using infrastructure works will utilize the guidelines as they carry out infrastructure works within public right-of-ways.
Social
As migration patterns shift to urban living, infrastructure must adapt accordingly. A sustainable urban infrastructure minimizes environmental impacts while supporting social equity and contributing to economic development.
Although new sustainable infrastructure projects often cause disruptions and inconvenience, research suggests they could have many indirect benefits. For instance, installing walking paths and playgrounds within a park could increase property values while simultaneously improving air quality and decreasing pollution in local lakes.
CDOT’s sustainable design guidelines offer an essential blueprint for incorporating cutting-edge green practices into projects throughout Chicago. They cover every stage of project delivery – from planning through to maintenance – with particular attention paid to sustainability in all stages of delivery, from planning through maintenance. This includes developing environmental protocols and integrating ecological and social indicators into decisions at project design time as well as adopting green procurement procedures – helping ensure Chicago’s transportation right-of-way will remain sustainable into the future.
Economic
Sustainable infrastructure investments often offer greater social and economic returns than their conventional counterparts, including job creation, increased household income and enhanced health benefits – this is particularly evident for nature-based solutions such as urban parks.
Cities are hubs of innovation and economic development, yet they face numerous challenges such as poverty, inequality and environmental degradation. To remain inclusive and sustainable, they must provide affordable housing, reliable public transport systems and green spaces for all.
As well as reducing operating costs, many of these developments are also designed to be self-healing in order to decrease maintenance requirements and ensure sustainable operations over the life of their projects. This eliminates waste disposal fees altogether for a zero waste approach.
UNEP-WCMC has spearheaded the development of various resources designed to assist city planners and construction companies in understanding these multiple values, including urban ecosystem accounting (EA) and the hedonic pricing method for quantifying indirect benefits.
Resilience
Resilience is the ability to overcome life’s difficulties and setbacks with grace, strength and resilience. Fostering resilience can help you face challenging situations with poise by strengthening both mental and physical well-being and creating a resilient mindset that allows you to face challenging circumstances with calm confidence.
Sustainable urban infrastructure is essential to creating safe, healthy, and livable cities. It can lower energy use, air pollution emissions, carbon emissions and biodiversity loss while supporting economic development and social inclusion as well as providing ecosystem services such as water purification and stormwater management.
The Sustainable Urban Infrastructure Guidelines promote environmentally-friendly practices in all construction projects by including environmental performance goals into design and development criteria, creating more resilient futures for Chicagoans while decreasing ecological impact. Incorporating an environmental review process incorporating an extensive checklist of environmental factors and indicators will ensure new and existing projects adhere to high sustainability standards.