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| #11 - Posted 14 March 2012, 9:54 AM | |
 Location: United States, NYC Join date: October 2009 Member #: 3761 Posts: 16617  | What is LED lighting? 16 December 2011 Last updated at 02:46 ET LEDs offer a brighter future, says report By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News  Social housing block fitted with LED lights (Image: Energy Saving Trust) The EST wanted to measure the effectiveness of LED lights in order to test manufacturers' claims A field trial of LED light fittings in social housing says the new technology can deliver huge energy savings, reduce costs and makes residents feel safer. The study, carried out by the Energy Saving Trust (EST), measured the performance of more than 4,250 LED light fittings installed at 35 sites. The EST said it carried out the trial because an increasing number of LED lights were now commercially available. It is predicted the technology could dominate the lighting market by 2015. "We like to test things in-situ in order to understand their real performance rather than rely on manufacturers' claims," explained James Russill, EST's technical development manager. But, he added: "We are at one of those rare times when there is a revolution, I think it is fair to say, within the lighting sector. "LEDs promise to be the way forward for the whole sector, to be honest. There are so many benefits: they can be smaller, brighter; it is one of those rare technologies where the trial has shown it performs better than the lighting systems it is replacing but, at the same time, using less energy." LED appreciation At the 35 sites in the field trial, the authors of the Lit Up report calculated that the LED fittings saved more than three million kilowatt hours (kWh) each year when compared with the previous lighting. What is LED lighting?  Communal area with standard lighting (left) and LED fittings (right) (Image: Energy Saving Trust) Light-emitting diodes have been around for years. Traditionally, they have been used as indicators on electrical devices, such as standby lights on TVs. This was because LEDs were only available in red, but recent advances means that other colours are now available, and the light emitted is much brighter. White light (used for general lighting) using LEDs can be created via a number of techniques. One example is mixing red, green and blue LEDs. It is suggested that LEDs can last for up to 100,000 hours, compared with the 1,000 hours of traditional incandescent light-bulbs and compact fluorescent lamps' (CFLs) 15,000 hours. The technology is also much more energy efficient, using up to 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs. The long lifespans and low energy use make LEDs economically attractive because even though the fittings cost more, the running and maintenance bills are lower. "The trial has shown that the installation of LED light fittings can be used to maintain or enhance light levels, and in both cases can generate energy savings," the report's authors wrote. They added: "The increase in colour temperature typically produced by LEDs also improved the environments monitored in the field trial, a factor much appreciated by the social housing tenants. "With the rising price of electricity, the high efficiencies of LED lighting technology will make it an even more attractive investment in the years ahead." Mr Russill said that he thought that there would be a natural take-up for the new lighting systems. "I am already aware of many people that have bought LEDs without any subsidy or incentive," He told BBC News. "As with any new technology, there is a higher initial cost - these products are new to market - but people seem to be looking beyond that and seeing they last much longer. "LEDs will take over the market in due course because I think they are such better products, but I do think introducing them into a subsidy scheme would be a real benefit to speed things up," he added. As well as the technical benefits, Mr Russill said feedback from tenants involved in the trial highlighted social benefits too. "Some of the comments we had was that the light was fresher, brighter and more like daylight," he said. "Generally, the feedback was that the lighting make it a nicer place to live." The brighter light levels also had a positive impact on people's sense of security, he observed. "We also did fit some lighting in external area, such as balcony areas and car parks. "People also did comment and did make the areas outside feel like a safer environment because it was better lit. "That also applied to stairwells as well which could be perceived to be an area where shadowy figures like to hang out." "If you want to sleep well at night, it's best to avoid watching the making of sausages or politics." Otto Von Bismarck William Arthur Ward - "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. |
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| #12 - Posted 14 March 2012, 9:58 AM | |
Location: United States, NYC Join date: October 2009 Member #: 3761 Posts: 16617 | RE: What is LED lighting? These are all made in the same way: from wafers of semiconductor, the material used to make computer chips. As their name suggests, LEDs consist of a simple diode. In traditional electronics these are two metal posts – an anode and a cathode – placed very close to one another, through which power can only flow in one direction. In LEDs, the anode and cathode are formed by depositing two areas of semiconductor that have been “doped” – impregnated with impurities – next to one another. As power flows through the junction between these two patches, some of it is unable to make it through and is instead emitted as photons of light. The colour of the light is dictated by the precise mixture of impurities used to create anode and cathode. For example, the bluish light seen in many pocket LED torches is created by introducing specific quantities of elements such as gallium and aluminium. Like a LED balloon Although this may sound complicated, the manufacturing process to create LEDs is well understood. And – like all processes involving semiconductors – it is coming down in cost all the time, and at predictable rates. In fact, the rates are so predictable that there is even a law – called Haitz’s law – that describes the fall. This states that every decade, the cost of producing useful light will fall by a factor of 10, whilst the amount of light generated increases by a factor of 20. Haitz’s law, first proposed in 2000 by now-retired scientist Roland Haitz, is considered to be the LED equivalent of Moore’s Law – a computer industry axiom which states that the number of transistors that can be squeezed on to a computer chip at a fixed cost will double every 18 or 24 months. This is crucial for LEDs, which are currently around ten times more expensive than incandescent bulbs. Yet decreasing costs are only one part of the excitement. In traditional incandescent bulbs, only about 5% of the electricity used is converted into light, while the rest is wasted as heat – the bulbs are therefore little more than tiny electric heaters which give out light as a fortuitous side-effect. A CFL tends to be around four times as efficient as a 60W bulb, but LEDs can be up to ten times as efficient. As a result, the potential energy savings in the future from LED lights are enormous. Although the United States currently has no plans to phase out all incandescent bulbs, the US Department of Energy estimates that if the whole country switched to LED lighting over the next 20 years, this could result in energy cost savings of $120bn, reduce electricity consumption for lighting by a quarter, and reduce carbon emissions by 246 million metric tons. In China it is a similar story, where its central planning agency expects to save 48 billion kilowatt hours of electricity every year, once China's phase-out is complete, and hopes to reduce annual carbon emissions by 48 million tons. And LEDs have another environmental trick up their sleeve: they last far longer than most other light sources. Incandescent bulbs last around 1,000 hours before burning out, while comparable CFLs last 8,000 to 10,000 hours. LEDs do not burn out in the same way but simply get dimmer over time, and when they fall to 70% of their initial brightness their useful life is considered over. A good LED light should have a useful life of between 30,000 and 50,000 hours, and maybe up to 70,000 in the future, meaning less are thrown away and less are made. But LEDs do not have it all their own way. One of the biggest challenges they face is the quality of the light that they produce. LED bulbs tend to generate a stark, cold light – a world away from the warm, yellowish light we are used to from incandescent bulbs. This can cause illuminated objects to take on unnatural colours, which the human eye can find uncomfortable or just odd. This is the result of manufacturers building bulbs from efficient blue LEDs. To create a “white” light, a phosphor coating is applied that emits other colours in the visible spectrum. When these mix – like shining light through two prisms – they produce a white light. Crucially, however, there are “gaps” in the spectrum, and it is these missing chunks that cause the harsh effect. To get around this, scientists and manufacturers are now working on using a combination of blue LEDs and less efficient red ones to create a warmer glow. Others are working on new phosphor recipes that can convert blue LED light to more parts of the visible spectrum, effectively filling in the gaps. But other problems remain. For example, light from LEDs also tends to be highly directional – emitting light in a tight beam. This can be very useful in certain situations, such as illuminating a painting, but it is hardly a selling point for consumers wanting to replace the bulb in their reading lamp. Most manufacturers get around this problem by fitting reflectors and diffusers in their bulbs, but while this is effective it tends to reduce the overall efficiency of the bulb. That has not stopped the industry moving ahead, however. Already, 50W and 60W equivalent bulbs are on the market. But going any higher may be difficult. “100W bulbs have been demonstrated in the lab, but I don't think they will be on the market for a year or two,” says Robert Karlicek, director of the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center at the New York-based Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. White light, white heat The problem, he says, is one that blights traditional bulbs: heat. Specifically, LEDs do not radiate heat away like other bulbs do. As a result, they have to be attached to bulky heatsinks, to allow circulating air to draw the heat away. This is where problems arise. Currently, packing all of the components into the space of a traditional bulb allows a heatsink able to cool an LED bulb producing the equivalent of a 50W or 60W conventional bulb. But the bigger the output, the bigger the heatsink needed. Quite simply, there is not enough space for a heatsink big enough to dissipate the heat from a 100W-equivalent LED. But this problem would become irrelevant if consumers are prepared to rethink their approach to lighting, rather than simply focusing on updating old incandescent bulbs with newer LED technology, according to Fredric Maxik, chief scientific officer at Florida-based manufacturer Lighting Science Group. “When the first digital head was put on to a reel-to-reel audio system, it was complicated and heavy, but people thought that that was going to be the future of digital audio. That was replacing old technology with new technology. But of course, they hadn't thought of something like the iPod,” he states. “Instead of retrofitting lights with LEDs, we now have the possibility of making completely new lights that don't look like any light that we know of. Instead of hiding the heatsink, we should be making it part of the design of the light itself.” Since LEDs last so long, it should be possible to do away with the whole concept of a light fitting with a separate disposable light bulb altogether, Dr Maxik says. The possibility of creating innovative lighting using LEDs may be enticing to interior designers, but it is the prospect of using processors built in to LED lights to make intelligent lighting systems that is getting many of the researchers involved in the industry excited. At the most basic level, this can include a motion sensor which switches on the light when someone approaches, or a system which alters the brightness of the light automatically. “You could very easily design a light that learns your habits and tunes its brightness to save energy,” says Dr Maxik. “If you like a certain amount of light in your room, then as it begins to get dark outside the window, the light would compensate by becoming brighter automatically.” "If you want to sleep well at night, it's best to avoid watching the making of sausages or politics." Otto Von Bismarck William Arthur Ward - "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. |
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| #13 - Posted 14 March 2012, 9:59 AM | |
Location: United States, NYC Join date: October 2009 Member #: 3761 Posts: 16617 | RE: What is LED lighting? When individual lights are given the power to talk to each other, or to lighting controls, then the potential for smart lighting becomes even greater. To do this, LED lights can use visible light communication – essentially sending signals to each other by pulsing themselves on and off too rapidly for the human eye to notice. This could be used to send signals between street or motorway lights, so that they only switch themselves on when people or cars are approaching. The same street lights could also be used to transmit internet data around a neighbourhood, and internal lighting could be used to send internet data around buildings such as hospitals, where wi-fi is not allowed. A system that can transmit high definition video using LEDs has already been demonstrated by a researcher at the University of Edinburgh. Since white light is made up of a spectrum of different colours, the possibility of manipulating the light spectrum emitted by LED lights offers some of the most intriguing possibilities. “If we can control spectral distribution, this would give us a control knob that we have never had before,” says Dr Karlicek. For example, it should be possible to tune lights to give out a dose of near-violet light that would have antiseptic-like qualities, he adds. These could be used to keep countertops in kitchens clean, or to help maintain sanitary conditions in washrooms. Spectral tuning could also make people more productive, Dr Karlicek believes. “There's certainly evidence that certain distributions can affect the ability of the brain to sleep or learn, for example,” he states. Although more research is needed, he suggests that it may be possible to design lamps that emit tailored light for students to use, to help them study more effectively, or ones that counter natural circadian rhythms to help night workers to stay awake. Whilst these kinds of tricks mean the LED could have a bright future, there are other technologies hot on its heels. Recent research at the US government-owned Sandia National Laboratories showed that it is possible to generate white light that is pleasing to the human eye, by mixing the light from red, blue, green and yellow lasers, while a Illinois-based company called Eden Park Illuminations hopes to commercialise technology that involves sealing plasma behind glass in tiny aluminium foil micro-cavities, to produce ultra-thin, flexible lighting sheets. But Dr Karlicek believes that LEDs are here to stay. “Plasmas, incandescents and fluorescents will go the way of the vacuum tube after the invention of the transistor,” he promises. “People still use vacuum tubes for some applications, and similarly incandescent bulbs may never go away completely. But it is not a question of if, but of when LED lighting will be the norm throughout the world.” You may never look up at the ceiling in the same way again. "If you want to sleep well at night, it's best to avoid watching the making of sausages or politics." Otto Von Bismarck William Arthur Ward - "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. |
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| #14 - Posted 24 March 2012, 6:38 PM | |
Location: United States, NYC Join date: October 2009 Member #: 3761 Posts: 16617 | New Big Brother facial recognition system scans 36 million faces per second Roy, this system is still at its infancy   And you think biometrics is too difficult  The price will drop within a decade and systems like these will become ubiquitous. Saturday, March 24, 2012 New Big Brother facial recognition system scans 36 million faces per second Madison Ruppert, Contributor A new system has emerged to process surveillance footage for facial recognition, and it makes much of the previous technology seem like it belongs in the Stone Age, further empowering the Big Brother surveillance state. This is just another front in the rapidly growing surveillance industry which preys upon the fear and paranoia of the American people which has been instilled by the government through the Department of Homeland Security and their allied entities. Perhaps the only system that can compete with this blazing fast technology is the facial recognition systems being developed for military drones, which incorporate three-dimensional models of the target’s face. This method allows for even less of the target’s face to be visible while still being able to positively identify them. The novel system developed by Hitachi Kokusai Electric of Japan is able to process video footage faster and more flexibly any previous technology could allow, thus enabling an even faster response to positive identification. The system was displayed at the Security Show Expo in Japan and it is capable of processing a wide range of information including both still images and video footage. It is capable of recognizing faces in real-time, or at least as close to real-time as possible, as it is able to compare a target’s face to a stunning 36 million different faces every second. That’s right, in less than ten seconds it could compare your face to every single person in the United States. Faces matched by the system can then be displayed as thumbnails, allowing the individual(s) analyzing the footage to tell exactly what the person was doing over time. The raw speed of this new system is achieved through processing images for facial recognition as it is being recorded from the camera, whereas older systems would process the images after the fact. Obviously this was seen as a problem because it caused significant delays, although I must question how accurate this new technology is, especially since facial recognition software is notoriously unreliable. Unlike the aforementioned system which utilizes three-dimensional models for more accurate recognition in a wide variety of circumstances, this system is only capable of working with faces turned less than 30 degrees from the camera either vertically or horizontally. Furthermore, faces must be at a minimum 40 pixels by 40 pixels (width by height) in order for the system to work as it should. This is obviously less impressive than the military’s system which requires just slivers of an image, although this system might be faster in processing faces. However, this system, which Hitachi Kokusai Electric is planning to begin selling in the next fiscal year, is apparently going to be commercially available, which is likely not the case with the drone-based surveillance system relying on the three-dimensional face model. The widespread acceptance of this trend, and the almost nonexistent resistance to it, is somewhat disturbing to me. Maybe the American people, and the people of the world for that matter, will not start to care until facial recognition cameras are on every corner, in every home, business, and other public place. Hopefully that is not the case but the seeming lack of opposition in the United States is not promising. "If you want to sleep well at night, it's best to avoid watching the making of sausages or politics." Otto Von Bismarck William Arthur Ward - "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. |
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| #15 - Posted 24 March 2012, 8:28 PM | |
 Location: Australia Join date: October 2010 Member #: 6074 Posts: 8659 | RE: What is BRT? Quote: dreadlocks previously said: one of the main reasons why there is so much traffic on the roads is that there was no planning built into the cities here. zero. zilch. therefore, people always have to be on the roads. it does not matter by which method you travel, if you have to travel. bus, car, motoconcho, anything, you still clutter up the roads. why is it that if i need certain vital documents, i have to go to Santo Domingo? you can apply for a passport , in the USA, at the post office. then, when you go to Santo Domingo, you have to go to six different offices, and they are all crosstown from each other. you are forever travelling. if there was some sense of intelligent planning, maybe you could resort to a brilliant new idea i just thought of...WALKING. all the relevant departments would be in easy distances from each other, and you would get to all, BY FOOT POWER. that is called urban planning. that would never work in the DR, because somebody, somewhere, would be losing money, and we just cannot have that, can we?  Dominicans are allergic to walking. The multimillion dollar car-park at UASD is not used because some faculties are at the other side of the campus. Student drive to the front door of where they want to go, then look for the nearest parking spot. The campus is full of cars. San Cristobal is a small, mostly flat town, ideal for push-bikes and walking. However everyone uses motorized transport if going any more than 50 yards. 56% of Dominicans are overweight, and 36% of Dominican women over 15 are obese. In modern 1st-World cities, there is much emphasis on developing walking, roller-blading and cycling paths. It won't happen here unless there is a dramatic change in the public's attitude.  "Arguing on the internet is like running in the Special Olympics... Even if you win, you're still retarded." |
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| #16 - Posted 24 March 2012, 8:37 PM | |
Location: Australia Join date: October 2010 Member #: 6074 Posts: 8659 | RE: What is BRT? Quote: Atabey previously said: Thanks for the input. I believe that this BRT system is a better choice for a poor developing country to consider, and given that so many other similarly "middle income" countries like COSTA RICA, have taken the BRT system for their mass transit handling makes me think that once again we made the suboptimal decision in going the Metro route. Again, in an ideal world we might have a combination of both systems to meet the needs and demands of our growing mass transit requirements. The costs savings are so vast, up to 100 times LESS THAN a Metro system, that this consideration alone should be considered the driving force behind what system to promote. However, given the already two line system in SD, the better option should be to reconsider the entire system with perhaps 3 or 4 Metro lines feeding a system-wide--Santo Domingo- BRT system. If the cost structure is correct, just ONE METRO LINE would be sufficient, in terms of costs comparison, to an entire BRT system in SD And that's too attractive a deal to pass up.  I have serious reservations about the 100:1 cost saving of RBT compared to a Metro. Regardless, BRT requires a good road system and law-abiding motorists and cyclists. Santo Domingo has none of these. "Arguing on the internet is like running in the Special Olympics... Even if you win, you're still retarded." |
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| #17 - Posted 24 March 2012, 8:56 PM | |
Location: Australia Join date: October 2010 Member #: 6074 Posts: 8659 | RE: What is BRT? New Big Brother facial recognition system scans 36 million faces per second Roy, this system is still at its infancy And you think biometrics is too difficult The price will drop within a decade and systems like these will become ubiquitous. I do not doubt this for one moment. I was involved 20 years ago with a company developing the software to read number-plates on vehicles from red-light and speed cameras. Computer power has increased enormously since then. Systems are scanning and identifying faces on social networks like Facebook as we speak. Whether this is good or bad depends whether you fear government intrusion more than terrorism. For me, probably the latter. "Arguing on the internet is like running in the Special Olympics... Even if you win, you're still retarded." |
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| #18 - Posted 24 March 2012, 9:16 PM | |
Location: United States, NYC Join date: October 2009 Member #: 3761 Posts: 16617 | RE: What is BRT? Quote: RoyStone previously said: Quote: Atabey previously said: Thanks for the input. I believe that this BRT system is a better choice for a poor developing country to consider, and given that so many other similarly "middle income" countries like COSTA RICA, have taken the BRT system for their mass transit handling makes me think that once again we made the suboptimal decision in going the Metro route. Again, in an ideal world we might have a combination of both systems to meet the needs and demands of our growing mass transit requirements. The costs savings are so vast, up to 100 times LESS THAN a Metro system, that this consideration alone should be considered the driving force behind what system to promote. However, given the already two line system in SD, the better option should be to reconsider the entire system with perhaps 3 or 4 Metro lines feeding a system-wide--Santo Domingo- BRT system. If the cost structure is correct, just ONE METRO LINE would be sufficient, in terms of costs comparison, to an entire BRT system in SD And that's too attractive a deal to pass up. I have serious reservations about the 100:1 cost saving of RBT compared to a Metro. Regardless, BRT requires a good road system and law-abiding motorists and cyclists. Santo Domingo has none of these. How about if it's 10:1 cost savings Perhaps a BRT system will work in my native Santiago. "If you want to sleep well at night, it's best to avoid watching the making of sausages or politics." Otto Von Bismarck William Arthur Ward - "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. |
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| #19 - Posted 3 May 2012, 8:13 AM | |
Location: United States, NYC Join date: October 2009 Member #: 3761 Posts: 16617 | China's eco-cities: Sustainable urban living 3 May 2012 http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120503-sustainable-cities-on-the-rise China's eco-cities: Sustainable urban living in Tianjin Gaia Vince Tianjin Eco-city  Model of Tianjin Eco-city, due to be completed in 2020 (Copyright: Getty Images) The world’s largest eco-city is rising from wastelands in China and our environment columnist is there to get a first-hand look. It takes less than an hour on the new high-speed train line to travel the 150 kilometres (93 miles) southeast from Beijing to Tanggu, the dirty coastal port town of nearby Tianjin – the world's fifth biggest port. Here, you can see signs of the past and present: fine colonial architecture built by European settlers a century ago nestle among the gleaming modern high-rises. But for a glimpse of the future, I am driving a few minutes up the coast from Tanggu to see a city so new that most of it is still being built. Few things can be certain about the future, as philosophers wiser than I have pointed out, but one trend that is likely to continue is urbanisation. The Anthropocene will be populated by city dwellers, in contrast to the rural demography of the past millennia, and this has profound implications for human society. Nowhere will this be felt more keenly than in China, home to more than 1.3 billion people. Urbanisation has been one of the most important factors in China's phenomenal economic growth and rapid industrialisation over the past three decades, providing essential labour and new consumers. More than half the population now lives in cities, which at 690 million is double the entire US population. In 1980, less than 20% of the Chinese population lived in cities. By 2030, this number is predicted to rise to 75%. This rapid rise in urbanisation brings with it tremendous challenges – people need housing, infrastructure, water, food and jobs, as well as rising pollution and social inequality issues. In a typically top-down style, the Chinese government is tackling all of these at once: the biggest polluters have been moved out of the biggest cities (inland into rural areas or other cities), slum populations (here, called “urban villages”) have dropped from 37% to 28% since 2000, and China is in the midst of a building frenzy. Visit any city in the country – there are over 650 of them – and you will soon be negotiating a route around a noisy, dusty construction site, beneath towering cranes. Much of this construction is taking place in existing cities, converting low-rise to high-rise to pack more people into the unlimited vertical space. But in the place that I am visiting, planners have started from scratch. Building a blueprint China, like several other countries, is exploring the creation of sustainable urban areas, or “ecocities” as they are known. Around the world, ecocities are beginning to emerge from the drawing board, from Masdar City in Abu Dhabi to PlanIT Valley in Portugal. Aimed at being the world’s largest of its type, Tianjin Eco-city is a collaborative project between the Chinese and Singaporean government that will house 350,000 people in a low-carbon, green environment around half the size of Manhattan by 2020. All going well, the team hope its model for building a sustainable city will provide the blueprint for future urbanization efforts in China, and other countries. As I approach the city under an ever-present pall of filthy air, across a wasteland of contaminated soil and water, I have my reservations about the Eco-city's success. The site chosen for the project was an industrial dumping ground for toxic waste, barren salt flats abutting one of the world's most polluted seas. This was deliberate, says Ho Tong Yen, head of Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city Development and Investment, the firm charged with building the city. "In the past, so-called ecocities have been built in ecologically important areas or on useful arable land. We wanted to show that it's possible to clean up a polluted area and make it useful and liveable." The clean-up took the best part of three years, and included the development of a newly patented technology that removes the heavy metals from a central reservoir – soon to be a boating lake. This hard graft looks like it has paid off. I enter the part-complete city down an avenue lined with fragrant trees and solar-energy panels. Among the newly planted saplings I spot five wind turbines and solar-powered street lighting. One-fifth of the energy used here will be emission-free – from solar, wind and, as I discover on a visit to the almost finished international school, from ground-source heat pumps, which use the temperature difference in the ground for energy. Walking up stairs in the school, I trigger another innovation into action: Dutch-owned Philips is trying out its new sound- and motion-sensitive lights, which default to off unless the switch hears or feels someone approach. Buildings will have smart controls, automatically raising and lowering window blinds to regulate light and temperature, for example. Other innovations include a pneumatic municipal waste collection system, produced by the Swedish company Envac, which will eliminate the need for refuse trucks, and the authorities will be allowing General Motors to road-test the next-generation of its driverless EN-V (Electric Networked-Vehicle) cars. Sustainable living In March, the first 60 families moved into the city's residential buildings, all of which are designed to a minimum green buildings standard, including water-saving sanitary fittings, insulated walls and double-glazed windows, as well as a south-facing orientation to optimise passive heat. Such techniques may be standard in some countries, but in China they are rare. Also rare here is the emphasis on liveability. Parks and green spaces are planned around the city, and reed beds have been created to attract birdlife and help clean the water. Lanes and alleyways have been strung through the usual grid layout of big blocks, meaning communities can develop. Everywhere is walkable or cycle-able, so that people do not feel socially excluded from areas. Free recreation facilities will be provided within 500m (1,640ft) walk of anywhere. A green spine, called the “eco valley” runs through the heart of the city with cycle routes and a tram. Residents will be encouraged to use regular low-carbon transport or walk, rather than driving. Cars won't be banned, Ho says. "We don't want to create obstacles for people, but rather make it conducive to use alternatives." Niche designs that have focused blindly on eco-technologies have not worked, he says. "This eco-city will be practical – it will work." To that end, the city is setting itself up as a hub for green tech enterprise and creative industries. Six hundred companies have already set up shop, including an animation studio that is powered by its own energy station, incorporating solar PV walls as well as roof panels. Water provision is one of the bigger challenges in this naturally arid area. Tap water will be drinkable and piped in, although the city is planning a possible desalination plant too. A lot of effort is being put into conserving water and recycling it for irrigation and toilet flushing. "The lakes and water pipes have been lined in clay or concrete to prevent salt water incursion, and all waste water is being sent to plant for anaerobic biodigestion," says Ary de Koning of the EU-China River Basin Management Programme, who is advising the city on water issues. "The methane emitted in the digestion process is then used to produce energy," he says. It certainly feels like a more pleasant place to live than the traffic choked, polluted cities further inland, even at this incomplete stage. And unlike the majority of planned ecocities, this one will actually be finished and already has residents. But whether it lives up to its green credentials will depend in part on the type of society it nurtures. It strikes me that social inclusivity is perhaps Tianjin’s most novel and important mission. One fifth of the housing will be subsidised for low-wage workers and their families. "We want to avoid the idea that this is a haven for rich people or second-homers from Beijing," says Ho. "Being green isn't a luxury, it's an affordable necessity. This city should be a practical, replicable, scalable model for elsewhere in China and the world." Edited on 5/3/2012 8:15 AM by Atabey. "If you want to sleep well at night, it's best to avoid watching the making of sausages or politics." Otto Von Bismarck William Arthur Ward - "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. |
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| #20 - Posted 3 May 2012, 9:38 AM | |
Location: United Kingdom, Dominican Republic Join date: August 2008 Member #: 1307 Posts: 10609 | RE: China's eco-cities: Sustainable urban living Nice photos of BRT systems in Brazil. In SD center exclusive bus lanes would be required on existing roads. http://www.ptv-vision.jp/Seminar/2011/PDF_Download/S1_BRT%20Systems%20in%20Brazil.pdf Substantial progress is being made on eco towns / cities all over the World. Countries like DR are behind and just invest billions on unnecessary power stations, motorways in cities and importing unnecessary cars that should be taxed at a far higher rate as Singapore, HK etc. pi2 Quote: Atabey previously said: 3 May 2012 http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120503-sustainable-cities-on-the-rise China's eco-cities: Sustainable urban living in Tianjin Gaia Vince Tianjin Eco-city Model of Tianjin Eco-city, due to be completed in 2020 (Copyright: Getty Images) The world’s largest eco-city is rising from wastelands in China and our environment columnist is there to get a first-hand look. It takes less than an hour on the new high-speed train line to travel the 150 kilometres (93 miles) southeast from Beijing to Tanggu, the dirty coastal port town of nearby Tianjin – the world's fifth biggest port. Here, you can see signs of the past and present: fine colonial architecture built by European settlers a century ago nestle among the gleaming modern high-rises. But for a glimpse of the future, I am driving a few minutes up the coast from Tanggu to see a city so new that most of it is still being built. Few things can be certain about the future, as philosophers wiser than I have pointed out, but one trend that is likely to continue is urbanisation. The Anthropocene will be populated by city dwellers, in contrast to the rural demography of the past millennia, and this has profound implications for human society. Nowhere will this be felt more keenly than in China, home to more than 1.3 billion people. Urbanisation has been one of the most important factors in China's phenomenal economic growth and rapid industrialisation over the past three decades, providing essential labour and new consumers. More than half the population now lives in cities, which at 690 million is double the entire US population. In 1980, less than 20% of the Chinese population lived in cities. By 2030, this number is predicted to rise to 75%. This rapid rise in urbanisation brings with it tremendous challenges – people need housing, infrastructure, water, food and jobs, as well as rising pollution and social inequality issues. In a typically top-down style, the Chinese government is tackling all of these at once: the biggest polluters have been moved out of the biggest cities (inland into rural areas or other cities), slum populations (here, called “urban villages”) have dropped from 37% to 28% since 2000, and China is in the midst of a building frenzy. Visit any city in the country – there are over 650 of them – and you will soon be negotiating a route around a noisy, dusty construction site, beneath towering cranes. Much of this construction is taking place in existing cities, converting low-rise to high-rise to pack more people into the unlimited vertical space. But in the place that I am visiting, planners have started from scratch. Building a blueprint China, like several other countries, is exploring the creation of sustainable urban areas, or “ecocities” as they are known. Around the world, ecocities are beginning to emerge from the drawing board, from Masdar City in Abu Dhabi to PlanIT Valley in Portugal. Aimed at being the world’s largest of its type, Tianjin Eco-city is a collaborative project between the Chinese and Singaporean government that will house 350,000 people in a low-carbon, green environment around half the size of Manhattan by 2020. All going well, the team hope its model for building a sustainable city will provide the blueprint for future urbanization efforts in China, and other countries. As I approach the city under an ever-present pall of filthy air, across a wasteland of contaminated soil and water, I have my reservations about the Eco-city's success. The site chosen for the project was an industrial dumping ground for toxic waste, barren salt flats abutting one of the world's most polluted seas. This was deliberate, says Ho Tong Yen, head of Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city Development and Investment, the firm charged with building the city. "In the past, so-called ecocities have been built in ecologically important areas or on useful arable land. We wanted to show that it's possible to clean up a polluted area and make it useful and liveable." The clean-up took the best part of three years, and included the development of a newly patented technology that removes the heavy metals from a central reservoir – soon to be a boating lake. This hard graft looks like it has paid off. I enter the part-complete city down an avenue lined with fragrant trees and solar-energy panels. Among the newly planted saplings I spot five wind turbines and solar-powered street lighting. One-fifth of the energy used here will be emission-free – from solar, wind and, as I discover on a visit to the almost finished international school, from ground-source heat pumps, which use the temperature difference in the ground for energy. Walking up stairs in the school, I trigger another innovation into action: Dutch-owned Philips is trying out its new sound- and motion-sensitive lights, which default to off unless the switch hears or feels someone approach. Buildings will have smart controls, automatically raising and lowering window blinds to regulate light and temperature, for example. Other innovations include a pneumatic municipal waste collection system, produced by the Swedish company Envac, which will eliminate the need for refuse trucks, and the authorities will be allowing General Motors to road-test the next-generation of its driverless EN-V (Electric Networked-Vehicle) cars. Sustainable living In March, the first 60 families moved into the city's residential buildings, all of which are designed to a minimum green buildings standard, including water-saving sanitary fittings, insulated walls and double-glazed windows, as well as a south-facing orientation to optimise passive heat. Such techniques may be standard in some countries, but in China they are rare. Also rare here is the emphasis on liveability. Parks and green spaces are planned around the city, and reed beds have been created to attract birdlife and help clean the water. Lanes and alleyways have been strung through the usual grid layout of big blocks, meaning communities can develop. Everywhere is walkable or cycle-able, so that people do not feel socially excluded from areas. Free recreation facilities will be provided within 500m (1,640ft) walk of anywhere. A green spine, called the “eco valley” runs through the heart of the city with cycle routes and a tram. Residents will be encouraged to use regular low-carbon transport or walk, rather than driving. Cars won't be banned, Ho says. "We don't want to create obstacles for people, but rather make it conducive to use alternatives." Niche designs that have focused blindly on eco-technologies have not worked, he says. "This eco-city will be practical – it will work." To that end, the city is setting itself up as a hub for green tech enterprise and creative industries. Six hundred companies have already set up shop, including an animation studio that is powered by its own energy station, incorporating solar PV walls as well as roof panels. Water provision is one of the bigger challenges in this naturally arid area. Tap water will be drinkable and piped in, although the city is planning a possible desalination plant too. A lot of effort is being put into conserving water and recycling it for irrigation and toilet flushing. "The lakes and water pipes have been lined in clay or concrete to prevent salt water incursion, and all waste water is being sent to plant for anaerobic biodigestion," says Ary de Koning of the EU-China River Basin Management Programme, who is advising the city on water issues. "The methane emitted in the digestion process is then used to produce energy," he says. It certainly feels like a more pleasant place to live than the traffic choked, polluted cities further inland, even at this incomplete stage. And unlike the majority of planned ecocities, this one will actually be finished and already has residents. But whether it lives up to its green credentials will depend in part on the type of society it nurtures. It strikes me that social inclusivity is perhaps Tianjin’s most novel and important mission. One fifth of the housing will be subsidised for low-wage workers and their families. "We want to avoid the idea that this is a haven for rich people or second-homers from Beijing," says Ho. "Being green isn't a luxury, it's an affordable necessity. This city should be a practical, replicable, scalable model for elsewhere in China and the world." |
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