Thursday, September 24, 2015

Reader Response on "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities" Draft 1



In the article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities” Cho (2014) mentions that enhanced infrastructural development is vital in considering the economic, social and environmental issues in urban cities. She further asserts that the major factor of a nation’s competitiveness to unite and incorporate cities to greater serves the resident is by having sustainable and competent infrastructure. She also mentions about her involvement in the Impact King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) that would bring positive impact on the community in the future. The writer beliefs that infrastructure must improve the aspect of life of the society while preserving energy resources as well as considering the natural environment and climate change. I agree with the writer that if the right and well planned infrastructure is built, it would bring positive impact for the nation.

Investing on infrastructure can lead to the economic growth. According to the article “Infrastructure for economic and social development, and a more sustainable world” English (2015) states that investment in infrastructure leads to economic growth and improve the well-being of the people in a country. Cross referencing to another article “Singapore, Tokyo among the top ten best cities for urban sustainability” Reyes (2013) claims that Singapore was awarded the intelligent city award for its smart transport system.  Singapore achieves to be one of the least congested major cities in the world.  The success was led by the Singapore government, who understood the importance of efficiency and affordable transportation system. Reyes asserts that Singapore Land Transport System Authority will further invest in transport infrastructure.

Similar to Cho’s article, English’s article also emphasized that climate change is one key challenge to overcome. English further asserts that suitable sustainable infrastructure is needed to adapt the consequences of climate change by installing clean energy technologies to reduce emission of greenhouse gases to earth’s atmosphere.

A good example of sustainable infrastructural development is in Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. The city will be the world’s first sustainable city to have zero carbon waste. The city will be power driven by solar, wind and geothermal energy. From here, we can see that extra efforts for an improved infrastructure can help preserve energy resources and contribute less to global warming.

Lastly, in English’s article he affirms that for an enhanced, greener, harmless and more sustainable world the infrastructure community must unite at national, regional as well as global level to bring comprehensive sustainable infrastructure for the people.

Overall, after reading Cho’s article and other articles, I found a lot of similar ideas were discussed. I have a better understanding why sustainable infrastructure is important especially in this 21st century. I feel that in order to achieve sustainable infrastructural development, a good planning in building designs, the construction methods, using environmental friendly materials need to be adopted. Although it may be very costly it is a worth investment in a long run.

References





PS: this is really the draft version posted on 25/11/2015 at 1120 hours



No comments:

Post a Comment