Green Urban Planning

Access to clean water will become the single greatest planning challenge of the 21st Century, and while large scale planning solutions will be necessary, small technological innovations will play a huge part in the solution as well. To that end, a cheap, easy to transport and easy to manufacture device for making clean water from brackish water almost anywhere in the world:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/watercone-clean-drinking-water-for-developing-countries.php

India has been a longstanding fascination of mine. The multitude of dichotomous realities found on the subcontinent are simply mind blowing. With nearly one hundred million rural poor it has more poor than any other single country. At the same time hundreds of thousands of Indian’s graduate from college every year, joining the ranks of the 21st century technocracy. This dichotomy is also apparently found in it’s rail system, which has been one of the greatest creators of economic prosperity, but are now hampering progress due to the sheer number of people using the rail system for both personal transport and shipping goods. A fascinating piece on this subject can be found here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/business/global/16indiarail.html?hpw

For all its problems, LEED certification serves an extremely useful purpose by providing (at least theoretically) objective standards for measuring the environmental sustainability of a given project. This certification is now available for entire neighborhoods, from the NRDC. Take a look:

http://www.nrdc.org/cities/smartgrowth/leed.asp

Stacey Mitchell is an amazing author who writes on the subject of ‘local economies‘. Her new piece in YES! magazine is really worth a look.

Recently found a great article on the strange political alliances forming around backyard farming. Highly recommended!

http://www.ajc.com/news/backyard-farm-movement-yields-491119.html

More and more I’m coming to the realization that access to clean water is going to be THE planning issue of the 21st Century. Without this, no other planning intervention is meaningful. When even the Financial Times of London realizes it, you know an idea has gone mainstream.