InfraDyn-C

Matthias Lüdeke

Summary:

Cities are places of economic activities and innovation, but also major emitters of carbon dioxide and, due to their high population and infrastructure density, sensitivity hot spots with regard to climate change impacts. In other words they are a large part of the global climate problem. In the developing countries they are hosts of tremendous poverty and other social disparities. Furthermore, they attract natural resources from rural areas inducing large gradients in terms of life style, transportation opportunities, housing, and other infrastructures. Due to the overwhelming complexity of cities most of the conceptual and model approaches in the last 120 years are still descriptive and seldom transferable from one city to another. The results of the UNESCO "Man and the Biosphere" Programme, for example, made clear that a development of a general theory of cities failed. Therefore an infrastructure based approach to city related problems seems to be more adequate. By doing this the following points will be addressed by the project:

1. What are the major components of urban areas, e.g. housing, traffic, etc., connected to both energy consumption/carbon dioxide emissions and sensitivity towards climate change? How do they have to be designed in order to prepare for unavoidable climate change and to achieve emission and energy saving targets?
2. Is it possible to determine typical development pathways for western/southern cities, and which conclusions can be drawn with regard to future city development and construction?
3. How does urban infrastructure interact with its rural environment?
4. With respect to climate change, do typologies of sustainable and liveable cities exist that consider both energy efficiency and individualism?

Third party funded NSP projects completely/partly contributing to InfraDyn-C:

Archetypes, ENSURE, Hyderabad, ESPON CC, KIBEX, PROGRESS

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