Relationship between human wellbeing and environment

Environmental issues are always a large concern in sustainability. It includes climate changes, air pollution, d depletion in biodiversity and more. It is well established that an unhealthy environment would lead to social and economic issues. A research published by the University of California – Berkeley recently demonstrates the relationship between human wellbeing and depletion in fish stock around Kenya’s Lake Victoria.

The research is based on an assumption that human disease provides ‘a natural to environmental exploitation’. The outcomes of the research demonstrate that poor human health might leads to damages to the environment. According to Science Daily, Kathryn Fiorella the lead author of the study found out that fisher with illness would alter the method to fish, more destructive and illegal methods are used (University of California – Berkeley, 2017). Those methods are usually more time and energy efficient but with large negative impacts on the environment. The research suggests that better healthcare would benefit both environment and social aspect, it can also benefit human in managing the sustainability of resources and environmental development. Richard Yuretich, a program officer for NSFD stated that healthy people would plan carefully on the process which results in less environmental impacts (University of California – Berkeley, 2017).

I think it is important for people to understand this relationship since it is related to the main aspects of sustainability. It demonstrates the impacts of human wellbeing on the environment which is reverted of a common scenario. I think the result of the experiment demonstrate human psychological effect can impact on environmental where a human would focus on short term gain when they are in an unhealthy body. Therefore, I think that this report demonstrated that having healthy social aspects would be benefits to environment sustainability. I think it is important for the public to understand that social aspect has large impacts on the environment, not only economic developments would have impacts on the environment.

University of California - Berkeley. (2017, April 17), When human illness rises, the environment suffers, too. ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170403151145.htm (accessed April 18, 2017).

The sustainability of Electric Vehicles

The innovation of electric vehicles is one of the important factors that effects on sustainability.  Electric vehicles are usually referring to electric cars, which are becoming more exposed to the public. Tesla is one of the leading companies of electric vehicles. As electric vehicles become more popular and the benefits are clearly demonstrated, however, the resistance on social and energy efficiency aspect.

China as a developing country with large population, a number of vehicles operated are high. A large amount of the vehicles causes pollution in many cities in China. Electric vehicles would provide a solution for the issues, however, the sales of electric vehicles only contain 0.3% of the total sales of automobile vehicle in 2014. The main reason is due to the expensive cost of electric vehicles (AIP, 2016). Yu Hao, a researcher in Beijing institute of Technology stated that China has the responsibility to reduce the pollution for fossil consumption. The research team points out that NEV industry in China should be encouraged to invest into research and development while the government should encourage citizen to raise the attention on the environment and sustainable development (AIP, 2016).

The effectiveness of electric vehicles is questioned. A common debatable topic would be the efficiency of the electricity vs fossil fuels. The energy efficiency of electric cars is usually questioned since electricity is generated from coal. The Norwegian University of Science and Technology has conducted a research on the environmental costs of the electric vehicles to determine the ‘cradle to a grave environmental footprint of operating these vehicles.’ The researchers propose a model with nanomaterials for batteries or fuel cells as a guide for the developers. The researchers aim to create a group of vehicles that have highest environmental sustainability (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2016).

I think that it is important for the government to identify and resolve issues on social sustainability. Social factors have high influences on sustainability, therefore, it would be important for China to promote the idea of environmental sustainability and establish clauses, regulations or policies in order to achieve sustainable development in the future. I think that electric vehicles would have to go through more innovation in order to achieve better environmental sustainability. These could be achieved by more sustainable materials or designs in the development of the vehicle.

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (2016, Dec 16), Keeping electric car design on the right road: Closer look at the life-cycle impacts of lithium-ion batteries, proton exchange membrane fuel cells. ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161208125844.htm (accessed April 25, 2017).

American Institute of Physics (AIP) (2016, Nov 16), What factors are influencing electric vehicle purchases in China?, ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161115111651.htm (accessed April 25, 2017).

Reconsidering the definition of high-rise

Skyscrapers are a very common type of building in urban areas around the world, it provides a lot of available spaces within a compact area. Skyscrapers can be used for commercial or residential purposes, mix usage high-rise has become very common as well. Skyscrapers represent the advancement of technology in built environment industry, it also represents the social and financial status of an individual or a company. Skyscrapers are linked with all three aspects of sustainability, the design of skyscraper should be carefully considered.

In March 2017, Dr Antony Wood has delivered a lecture on ‘the future of sustainable vertical urbanism’. According to Jennifer Duke, Wood claim that 95% of the skyscrapers designed is a failure. Wood stated that spaces that resident need and the quality of home should be provided in the high rise as the density of city model have increased (Duke 2017). The city would become ‘unviable’ if those criteria were not meet. His main arguments are the two design approach of the current skyscrapers which are monolithic block style and overtly- sculptural approach (Duke 2017). 

Monolithic block style refers to the design tries to fit in as many apartments in as possible regardless of the living quality in order to maximise the profit. Overtly sculptural approach refers to high rise are built to be iconic without consideration toward their appropriateness which results in a ‘zoo’ liked the city. Wood stated that the purpose of the high rise is bringing all the property of city into the sky, it should be a “city flipped vertically with public space and infrastructure” (Duke 2017).

I personally agreed with the statement of high rise present as a vertically flipped city. I think that the number of skyscrapers or high rise buildings would only increase in the future development of urban areas.  There would be less available land in urban areas, public spaces and infrastructure system should occur in the high rise or even between high rise buildings. For example, in CBD areas in Hong Kong, high rise buildings are connected through bridges for pedestrian accesses while the streets are mainly for traffic accesses. The bridges are also connected to different public facilities such as transport intersections, community centres and public squares. Mix usage high rise building is another example for well- design skyscrapers in urban areas since it provides better living quality for people.

I think it would be important for the design for high rise building to cater for the utility of people in order to achieve sustainability and sustainable development of cities since it is deeply linked with the future development of a city.

Duke, J. (2017, March 9). 95 per cent of skyscrapers 'are crap pieces of design', says architecture professor. Available at: https://www.domain.com.au/news/shortfall-of-the-tall-most-skyscrapers-are-crap-pieces-of-design-expert-says-20170308-gut0ky/ [Accessed 7 April 2017].

Relationship between economic and deforestation

Deforestation refers to removal of a forest or trees from an area and change the function of the area to non-forest uses. The areas are usually turn into urban development areas or agricultural uses, the trees would be used for construction purposes or sold as fuels. Deforestation would cause large environmental impacts to the natural habitat and biodiversity of the area, removal of a large scale of forest would also impact the carbon dioxide rate in the atmosphere.

In terms of economic aspect, deforestation could provide large amount of land and raw resources into the market. The land would be opportunities for urban development or other usages that enhance economic development for a country or city. In 2017, Scientific Report has publish a research paper “Economic Development and Forest Cover: Evidence form Satellite Data” by IIASA (ScienceDaily, 2017). The paper focus on the relationship between Income per Capita and deforestation in different countries. The research is based on an existing theory called “Kuznet’s Curve”, which predicted that economic growth would lead to depletion in environment in undeveloped country and the effect would be revert in developed countries (ScienceDaily, 2017).

The result of the research stated that half of “Kuznet’s Curve” is correct where the developing countries have higher depletion on environment. The studies has demonstrated that undeveloped countries and developed countries both have low depletion on environment. According to researcher of IIASA, the main concern would be undeveloped countries in Africa (ScienceDaily, 2017). Africa have large amount of undisturbed forests, the main concern for the researcher is that the developing stages of Africa countries, the deforestation would create worldwide environmental impacts.

I think that the research result has provide an understanding between environmental impacts in development of countries. I think that developed countries should offers helps and resources to undeveloped countries to prevent or reduce environmental impacts during their developing stages. These resources could be education, technology and financial supports.

ScienceDaily(2017, Jan 17), Trade-offs between economic growth and deforestation. Available at:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170117140246.htm (accessed April 10, 2017).

Social Sustainability in Planning

The term sustainability refers the ability to progress an action. For the majority of people, sustainability usually refers to environmental issues such as climate changes, protection of natural environment and melting of ice caps. Sustainability included three main aspects – economic, environment and social, however, social aspects have been often overlooked. According to Joanna Brain, social sustainability refers to recognise the need and desire of people, consider how individual actions could effected on the community and also open and anticipate to social changes in order to achieve higher social wellbeing (Brain).

Social sustainability is also a crucial factor for development in built environment. According to Brain, ignoring social factors in a planning of city or public domains could lead to serious social issues such as poverty, crime, low quality of life, social exclusion and inequality of communities (Brain). These issues would affect economic and environmental aspects as well. Therefore, social sustainability should be considered during the planning process. There are series of tools and strategies that help us to resolve social issues in the planning. These tools include Social impact assessment and robust research which provides quantifiable outcomes.  Public Participation and social planning are two strategies that planner can consider during the planning process, public participation involved with understanding the function of community, identifying issues in the community and predicting social activities (Brain). Social planning refers to incorporate social infrastructure with physical infrastructure in the planning process, where social factor, facilities affect the physical infrastructure of the city.

In my opinion, social aspect would be the most important aspect of sustainability. It deals with human activities and human wellbeing which are difficult and complex topics. These factors also make up the basis for economic and environmental aspects. Therefore, I think that social factors should well consider and designed in order to achieve an overall sustainable development. It would be impossible to maintain economic and environmental sustainability if social issues are not treated or considered.

Brain Joanna. The Social Side of Sustainability, available at: https://www.planning.org.nz/Folder?Action=View%20File&Folder_id=185&File=Brain.pdf [Accessed 1 April 2017].

The story behind sustainability development

The idea of sustainability development has been proposing for many years. It has become a goal for building construction and city development. The idea of sustainability contains three aspects environmental, economic and social. In order to achieve a healthy sustainable development, all three aspects should be considered. In terms of city development, the common resistance would be coming from the social aspect.

China as a developing country, there are many cities in china are under developing stages where the environment, economy and living quality are increasing. In order to achieve those qualities, a lot of lands is needed. Some of the lands would occupy which means that the building on it would have to be removed in many cases. During the removal of the building, the process would include eviction the people living in the building, reallocated them, provide compensations and destruction of the building. In the example of the Olympic stadiums in Beijing 2008, issues occurred on the evacuation and reallocation of the citizens. The ‘Nail houses’ which refers to people refusing to vacate properties under a state- ordered eviction and demolition (Domain 2017). The main reasons for refusing to move would be gain high compensation from the government to “ensure their own survival in an increasingly unequal society” (Domain 2017). However, the government often uses ineffective ‘strategies’ such as harassment and violence to resolve these type of issues which often worsen the situation.

In my opinion, form a society point of view, the social aspect of the city is not up to standard or not ready to achieve similar advancement of economic and environment. Both government and communities cannot handle the issue on the same mature level which results in conflicts during the negotiation process. This would also be a large issue for sustainability development, therefore, it is important to increase the quality of social aspect through media and education. Also, the desire for a larger amount of compensation also indicated some issues on economic aspect. In other to achieve sustainable development or sustainability, the economic issues also need to be evaluated by the government before development.

Shin, H. B. (2017, March 21). The homeowners taking a stand against China's rapid urbanisation, available at: https://www.domain.com.au/news/how-stubborn-nail-houses-take-a-stand-against-chinas-rapid-urbanisation-20170321-gv2nyv/ [Accessed 1 April 2017].

Image: Holdout (real estate). (2017, March 4), available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holdout_(real_estat

e)[Accessed 1 April 2017].