Sustainable Affluence
A Concept Paper for Meixi Lake
Changsha, Hunan
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INTRODUCTION
It is the government of Hunan Province*s intent that the West
Changsha Pioneer Zone will be a growth pole that will spearhead
economic growth for the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiantan city group, and
by extension, the Hunan province and the central-south China
region. Within the Pioneer Zone, Meixi Lake is assigned three
key mandates:
• Meixi Lake will be a model of the ※Dual-Oriented Society§ - a
paragon of energy efficiency and environmental protection;
• Meixi Lake will be an incubator for innovative and high-tech
industries;
• Meixi Lake will offer a healthy and vibrant life-style.
The balanced attainment of these
three goals will enable the city to develop in harmony with the
environment, the economy and society 每 the ※Triple Bottom Line§
of sustainable development.
As the developer of Meixi Lake, Gale International aims to
exceed these mandates and define a new model for the 21st
century Chinese city:
• A city in which the environmental, economic and social goals
do not conflict with one another but reinforce each other in a
virtuous cycle of growth.
• A city in which collaboration among Gale, its global partners,
the government and the future citizens of Meixi Lake generates a
combined effort that is greater than the sum of its parts,
• A city in which a framework of integrated planning, design,
development and management promotes continuous adaptation and
innovation, and propels growth.
Welcome to Meixi Lake, an innovative city model for Hunan, China
and the World 每 a model of Sustainable Affluence.
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MEIXI LAKE: SYNERGY
THROUGH INTEGRATION
Meixi Lake seeks to address the challenge of Sustainable
Affluence in a holistic manner, through the integrated planning,
design, development and management of the critical elements that
affect a city*s environmental performance, productive capacity
and quality of life. These include the city*s land use,
transportation, energy, water, food, waste, telecommunications,
ecological and social systems, among others. Integrated
solutions can bring about system synergies that produce
dramatic, multiple benefits.
Here are a few examples that illustrate how this holistic
process helps to achieve the project mandates.
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DEVELOPMENT MANDATE #1: HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT
Healthy air, water and food
provide key ingredients for healthy living at
Meixi
Lake. Urban gardens along the ※Green River§, the 3,000-mu
Meixi
Lake itself, and the southern
Yuelu
Mountain combine to create a biologically diverse natural
environment, abundant recreational opportunities and a serene
counterpoint to the urban setting. Linking all three natural
amenities is a north-south nature corridor that will serve as a
springboard for local eco-tourism, agro-tourism and cultural
tourism.
Maintaining Meixi
Lake*s environmental quality requires a coordinated strategy to
curtail automobile pollution, mitigate water pollution, and
manage urban waste.
INTEGRATED ENERGY, FOOD AND WATER MANAGEMENT
With increasing population, cities must address the critical
relationships between energy, food and water, and their impact
on the environment. Agriculture and power plants are the two
largest users of freshwater. It takes energy to extract, treat
and transport water, sometimes across vast distances, while the
production of energy requires large quantities of water.
Dwindling water supplies will impede the ability to generate
more energy, while rising energy prices will hamper efforts to
supply more clean water.
Food production consumes 70% of the world*s freshwater, while
growing, processing, storing and transporting food require
considerable energy. Global warming exacerbates the problem: for
every rise of one degree Celsius above the norm, wheat, rice and
corn yields fall by 10%. While
biofuels
such as corn-based ethanol can boost energy supply, they consume
20 or more times as much water for every kilometer traveled as
the production of gasoline. Therefore, in any effort to scale up
food or biofuel
production, water may well be a limiting factor.
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The interdependence of food,
water and energy means that water shortages can result in food
and energy shortages. By addressing these problems in an
integrated manner, Meixi
Lake can help to boost each resource without adversely impacting
the others:
• Harvesting rainwater and reusing municipal and industrial
wastewater for agriculture, park irrigation, industry and
cooling power plants.
• Reducing agricultural water consumption by adopting more
efficient irrigation and water recycling systems, and other
high-performance farming strategies, including locally produced,
pesticide-free, organic food.
• Adopting or designing a holistic energy management plan that
cuts carbon dioxide emissions by:
a) Building decentralized
co-generation or tri-generation power plants to reduce energy
loss through transmission, reuse the waste heat for district
heating and air-conditioning, and increase the overall
resilience of the system;
b) Raising the energy, water and land efficiency of buildings;
c) Investing in high efficiency equipment;
d) Installing automatic sensors and integrated building
management systems;
e) Harnessing renewable energy: solar thermal, wind farms,
geothermal heating and cooling, water-efficient biofuels,
waste-to-energy plants, urban bio-digesters, among others.
f) Investing in ※Smart Grids§ that allow multi-directional
energy flow, optimal energy distribution and grid-accessible
energy storage.
INTEGRATED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
An integrated urban resource management system can turn a city*s
waste into a resource, helping to save energy and water, recycle
nutrients, reduce pollution, minimize landfill space and create
a source of green jobs. Some examples include:
• Using inorganic waste as the raw material for new products and
packaging.
• Converting solid waste to energy through gasification or
incineration.
• Using urban bio-digesters to recover biogas and nutrients from
sewage and organic waste.
• Converting restaurant and commercial grease waste into
biodiesel.
Using compost centers to convert food and garden waste into
organic fertilizers.
A healthy environment is a resilient environment, one that can
fortify a city*s capacity to withstand natural or man-made
disruptions to its water, food and energy supply systems.
Through integrated resource management, Meixi Lake promotes a
healthy environment and provides for water, food and energy
security.
DEVELOPMENT MANDATE #2: CIRCULAR ECONOMY
INNOVATIVE
In studies of high-growth, high-tech, creative cities in the
United States, social economists such as Richard Florida have
found that, ※Creativity has become the principal driving force
in the growth and development of cities, regions and nations.§
The three hallmarks of such creative cities are:
• Talent (Human Capital)
• Technology (Hi-Tech Companies)
• Tolerance (Social Diversity)
Of these, Talent is a key factor in attracting hi-tech companies
and generating high regional incomes. Research indicates that
Talent is attracted to socially diverse cities that offer a high
quality of life.
With strong contemporary design, a 3,000-mu crystal-clear lake,
a meandering ※Green River§ and a backdrop of rolling hills,
Meixi Lake provides a high quality urban and natural environment
that offers physical and biological diversity, accessible
amenities and abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation and
social activities, important elements of an overall program to
attract the necessary talent to build a innovative economy.
In turn, attractive natural amenities generate tourism, while
the services and products required to support a ※dual oriented
society§ and maintain a healthy environment help to create jobs
for a green, ※circular§ economy. Meixi Lake*s healthy
environment thus provides not only a foundation for a creative
economy, but also a catalyst for a circular economy.
COMPETITIVE
Apart from attracting talent, a city must also provide
cost-effective services and resources to be competitive.
Streamlining the flow of energy, traffic, people, goods, capital
and information, and providing efficient delivery of public
services are key measures of a city*s competitiveness that the
McKinsey Global Institute calls ※Urban Productivity§.
Urban productivity initiatives 每 for example, promoting the
efficient use of energy, water and land resources, and the
implementation of transit-oriented development 每 can reduce a
city*s annual public spending up to 2.5% of GDP, and generate
savings for the private sector, in particular its utility bill,
an additional 1.7% GDP.
In short, urban productivity initiatives help a city improve its
competitiveness while improving its quality of life. For
example:
• High-density, mixed-use, ※Transit Oriented Development (TOD)§
helps to reduce the reliance on automobiles, encourage walking,
biking and the use of public transportation, thereby reducing
energy consumption, GHG emission, urban congestion and
pollution.
• Implementing web-based e-Government systems will streamline
the delivery of public services, improve management of
infrastructure and public emergencies.
• Embedded intelligence within a city*s infrastructure enables
the city to manage its transportation, energy, water, public
safety and security systems on an integrated platform, vastly
improving efficiency. For example, roadway sensors can
streamline traffic, ease congestion and improve environmental
quality.
By providing timely information to users, embedded
intelligence helps to create educated, engaged and empowered
citizens, allowing them to ※interact§ with the city and use its
resources more efficiently. For example, Wi-Fi enabled public
spaces can promote knowledge sharing and social collaboration,
important components of a creative economy.
In bolstering Meixi Lake*s creative and competitive capacity,
the city will expand investment, business and employment
opportunities in the region's service, cultural, creative and
green industries, enriching the ecosystem of a robust, circular
economy.
DEVELOPMENT MANDATE #3: HARMONIOUS SOCIETY
HIGH-AMENITY, HIGH-QUALITY
A creative, competitive economy seeks the best and brightest of
talents. Research has shown that, as a group, talented
individuals value high-amenity, high-quality environments that
exhibit a high level of social diversity. At Meixi Lake:
• The lake and the mixture of
residential/commercial/entertainment functions that surround it,
the pedestrian environment, the waterfront promenade, the finger
canals, the river parkway and outdoor recreational facilities
jointly provide a high level of amenity and a high-quality
life-style.
• Public spaces and community facilities around transit nodes
help to foster a vibrant community.
• Mixed income, affordable housing promotes socially diverse
neighborhoods.
• Smart ※G-Cards§ can promote green consumerism by tracking and
rewarding green consumer behavior, as when consumers use green
transportation or patronize Ecosystem Service providers. The
result is a sustainable, healthy and high-quality environment.
In short, Meixi Lake embodies the three harmonies of ※Heaven,
Earth and Man§ 每 a city that develops in harmony with the
environment, with the economy and with society 每 the epitome of
a Harmonious Society.
GOVERNMENT SYNERGY
The unique opportunities and challenges presented by Meixi Lake
will require a new generation of public-private partnerships to
enable additional capital and knowledge infusion from the
private sector. Government*s policy support is needed to:
• Create an integrated policymaking framework that can address
planning, design, development and management issues
holistically, thereby promoting continuous adaptation,
innovation and growth of Meixi Lake.
• Promote environmental services such as integrated resource
management.
• Promote green consumption to create a market for green
products and services.
• Offer floor area bonuses for green building design.
• Offer floor area bonuses for affordable housing.
CONCLUSION
The Meixi Lake that emerges from this model is a city in which
the environmental, economic and social goals reinforce each
other in a virtuous cycle of growth.
A clean and healthy environment sustains a high quality of
life that attracts the best talents, which in turn supports a
creative and technologically advanced economy.
An innovative and competitive circular economy generates
well-paying jobs and provide goods and services that benefit
society and protect the environment;
An affluent and harmonious society where educated, engaged and
empowered citizens actively participate in supporting green
living.
In short, Meixi Lake will be a competitive, resilient and
livable city that defines the term, "Sustainable Affluence".
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