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
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