Critically asses the relevance of sustainability as a concept of understanding urban

development
Introduction
Sustainability is the ability to maintain and retain a particular process in an existing
system (Pieterse, 2004). The word sustainability has been used since in 1980s. Its application
has been mainly on the human sustainability on earth, which has resulted in the term
sustainability that forms part of the sustainable development concept. The term sustainable
development means a kind of development that satisfies the requirement of the present
generation without compromising the capability of the future generation to be able to meet
their needs.
There are three main sustainable development goals. These goals are also known as
the pillars of sustainability. They include environmental protection, social development and
economic development. These three pillars of sustainability have served on common grounds
for several sustainability standards as well as certification systems in the past and even today.
These three pillars can be illustrated in details as follows:
1. Environmental protection: this is the capability of an environment to provide a given
environmental quality and also natural resource extraction rate indefinitely.
2. Social development: this is the capability of a social system like a country or an
organization to function at a particular level of social well-being and in harmony.
3. Economic development: this is the indefinite capability of an economy to provide a
specific level of economic production.
Sustainable development involves the balancing of the global and local efforts in
order to meet the necessary human needs without depleting or degrading the natural

environment (Skype, 2014). In addition to this, it also implies an innovative, proactive and a
responsible decision making that aims at reducing negative impacts and thus ensuring a
desirable environment for every species that exist today and even in the future (Boyko, 2001).
Some of the key types of sustainability include sustainable architecture and sustainable
agriculture.
In the present world, a bigger number of the population resides in the urban areas. If
this trend continues to prevail, then the population that resides in urban areas will rise to
approximately two-thirds of the total population. This will mean that; the land being
converted to urban places will triple by 2030. Currently, urban places contribute
approximately 70% of the carbon emission throughout the globe. Urban areas also contribute
about 70% of the global energy consumption. Both carbon emission and energy consumption
are on the rise (Cooper, 2009). While these unsustainable productions of materials and
consumerism bring about changes in urban systems, they also bring about negative effects to
the lives of the urban residents. Climate change, environmental pollution and loss of
biodiversity clearly show the need to reduce both material and energy flows in order to lower
environmental impacts. Solutions to these sustainability problems can be reached at by the
cities themselves. This may be achieved through the improvement of urban forms as well as
building designs and also by enabling a more sustainable lifestyle. Even though pilot projects
are present that are sometimes asserted as sustainable, the urban forms are still regarded as
being unsustainable. They are unsustainable with respect to planning processes, construction
as well as their usage. Over the last few years, sustainable development of urban areas has
received an increasing focus and attention by researchers, who aim at defining and
elaborating this concept in greater detail. Different approaches have illustrated aspects that
may be considered as fundamental for sustainable urban area development. These range from
ecological issues to social aspects, economic circumstances and cultural dimensions. Some

approaches also point towards social and economic determinants. All these approaches have
got a common feature that aims at transforming the current processes of development of
urban areas. The transformation is either through redevelopment of existing sites or through
designing other new urban areas. Many of these approaches are based on generic principles
which are regarded to apply equally to various situations. The assumptions that underlie these
principles is that guiding, or pursuing particular attributes would promote sustainability either
through behavioral or in technological terms. Moreover, it is said that sustainable urban
forms improve benefits for residents, government, businesses and developers.

With respect to urban environments, inspecting sustainable urban development principles is

vital. This is because they provide overall insights into the desirable development paths for
the urban centers. Principles at times serve as a compass in diverse circumstances.
Sustainability
This paper will mainly focus on critical assessment of sustainability as a concept that
enables one to understand urban development. In order to understand sustainability as a
concept, at least five roots of sustainability need to be analyzed. These roots are also known
as intellectual traditions. They include:
1. Capacity: this is the carrying capacity of a given region to hold a population. In the
context of the urban environment, sustainability is all about meeting the needs while
at the same time incorporating the desires of the community. In the present context of
environmental, social and economic stress, people need a city that increases their
capacities within the present mass, and also in the currently unused plus under-used
spaces. On the same note, the notion of capacity requires to be carefully weighed with
the irregular growth of urban centers (Rydin, 2010).

2. Fitness: this is the second perspective. It has got a long tradition in both biology and
conservation. In relation to the idea of natural selection in the case of evolution of life,
the statement or term survival for the fittest was coined out. From this context,
adaptation is see as the main tool for survival in a changing environment. Fitness thus
shows an evolutionary process that is marked by the mutual relations among the
species themselves and also between the species and the environment. Fitness is a
local trait that stems from the adaptations that are responding to immediate contexts
or environment. From the urban context, the fit of a settlement may refer to how good
the spatial as well as temporal patterns match the customary behavior of its residents.
The term fitness or fit is as well aligned to the factor of appropriation plus
interpretation. With respect to sustainability, fitness adds to the gist of ecology a
crucial element of human empowerment as well as the agency. In simple terms,
sustainability and fitness create the human relationship plus interaction to one another
and also to the environment at the heart of the discussion (Jacobs, 2002).
3. Resilience: this word borrows its meaning from the notion of health like immunity
and recovery. Whether for an individual or a community, resilience is center on the
accommodation in between the community and other the external agencies. Therefore,
resilience shares some things in common with the fitness as well as capacity.
Capacity, resilience and fitness are all centered on the interaction among elements in
any an interdependent system of human ecology. Just like fitness, resilience is also a
process of adjustment via interaction.
4. Diversity: this indicates health, either for an ecosystem, urban community or even for
an organization. The term diversity refers to as variety as well as heterogeneity of
members in a given community and also the positive position of members in respect
to one another. It indicates respect, interaction, tolerance and adaptation for different

groups of beings to take up same space simultaneously. In other words, the diverse
groups must learn to coexist. At least, difference is recognized by diversity and thus
establishes co-presence and also the awareness of others.
5. Balance: this is the final root of sustainability. It refers to harmony as well as
balancing the natural environment together with the human development. In simple
term, balance indicates equilibrium. In open, dynamic and complex systems such as
cities, there exists a multiple of contradictory interests. These differing agencies bring
about continuing question of balance that exists between human will, power, as well
as inherent power of nature. The struggle of the human to understand the environment
and to cope up with these changes is the urban process.
Sustainable Urban design and development
The idea of urban design has varied from the modernist architectural conception of
the city up to the post-modern problematic effect of the negative space. In the past, urban
design was considered as a discourse in architecture that focuses on the design of a city as an
object. From Plan Voisin by Corbusier to Broadacre City by Wright, the solutions to urban
problems were established (Mitchell, 2004). These solutions were determined by redesigning
the spatial order of urban morphology. In the recent literatures, post-modern critical thinking
has questioned the design dominance, and has called for the understanding of complex
relationships of politics, environment, economics, behavior and sociology. A few of urban
designers have tried to tackle this post-modern urban problem through the study of
environment and human behavior, and examining economic-political connection as a
development machine.
In the current patterns of urban development training, urban developers are mainly
trained as either architects or engineers; each possessing ones own design bias. Architects

view design as a formal orientation in space. Planners view design as a regulatory framework as well as implementation of bodies that reflect social and economic values. On the
other hand, engineers conceive design as efficiency in production. These various approaches
of urban design result into a partitioned education model that has got conflicts and
contradictions. Therefore, urban design is defined in many ways depending on the person
who defines it.
Due to these contradictions, architects and designers have not been to reconcile the
need to tackle everyday life through a wish to engage abstract concepts. Minton (2002)
proposed a sensible approach to urban design. These approaches were technological, catalytic
and also relevant towards a training model that is process oriented, particular and in-depth.
The problems that involve positioning a perfect urban design should greatly focus on the
understanding of the complex relationships of the city with the community, politics and
economics; instead of design/planning (Cronon, 1995).
Many authors say that the relationship that exists between urban and design is
indivisible and thus their integration is necessary. The attention on understanding urban
planning and development, on the contrary, needs an adaptive inclusive model that tackles
the relational issues among many dimensions of urban and also the urban environment.
In any urban structure, the three underlying orders include; cultural order, physical
order and territorial order. The three orders create an urban design framework that solves the
issues of heterogeneity, contradictions as well as complexity of the urban context. The
ongoing idea of understanding urban design reinforces the distinct rigid boundaries for the
three triad elements. These elements result in one-dimensional exclusive perspective of the
urban, for instance, either through the historic meanings or even through land use and
ownership. An inclusive approach in urban design can be developed through constructing an

existing place model and also imagining a different relationship that could be overlapping
and hierarchical. Such kind of interpretation may create an open dialogic space for a
communicative system and it also allows interrelationships as well as interactions to take
place among the triad elements. For instance, urban design from a formal order and spatial
topology perspective may also be analyzed as a reflection of everyday needs as well as
activities that are associated with such kind of topologies. The new model of urban design
and development facilitates urban designers to create a specific role for them and also for
urban design in the city (Harvey, 2011). These roles do not overlap with those of the
architects, engineers and planners. But instead operates in relation to them and also to the
social, economic and political forces in the city. Urban design does not have a theoretical
framework of its own. This crucial examination for the existing urban design as well as
development of the new inclusive model that explores the different ways, where urban can be
well understood in relation sustainable development (Beatly, 2003). Therefore, this inclusive
model i.e. social, economic and environmental can also be suitable to be applied to
understand the main concepts in current theories as well as practices of sustainable urbanism.
Rather than comprehending these ideas as separate silos within a given theoretical realm, the
inclusive model focuses on the available opportunities as well as potential of
interrelationships that exist in between the city and the evolving aspects of sustainable urban
place-making.

Sustainability in relation to urban design and development

Many urban designers have actually began to question what urban is, in the
contemporary environment. At the same time, there still exist classic definitions that are
timeless and also relevant today. A few of the definitions include: a city is a moderately big,
dense, and permanent settlement of individuals from different social backgrounds.

To find out sustainable urban development or to examine the relevance of

sustainability in relation to urban development, the imperative of urban designers is to have
knowledge of the cities. In a given perspective, the most long-lasting feature of a city has
been traditionally known to be its physical form. The physical form of a city remains the
remarkable persistence (Adhya, 2014). The focus of the predominating urban development is
increasing and is responsive to the most current economic demand and also a reflective of the
latest stylistic vogue. On the other hand, it is shown that urban society is one of the most
dynamic and also complex and it is continually developing. The urban environments vary
greatly more than any other kind of human settlement. Economic innovation is also another
thing that usually comes into cities rapidly as well as boldly. Issues of immigration are also
manifested at the urban center. This forces the cities to take up the role of accommodating
refugees from the countryside.
As per the discussions in this paper, there are three different levels relationship
between any urban development project and sustainability. They include; pure aesthetical and
informed notion of urban design as a finished product (for example: does it look nice?),
secondly, gist of the project as an autonomous object usually functions in affordable,
comfortable and convenient manner for its users (for example: does it really work?). Thirdly,
this is a new idea that is meant to have urban development projects produce or substantially
take part in the environmental as well as socio-economic development processes (for
example: does it give a long-term quality impacts of life?). In this way, urban developers as
well as urban projects have become catalysts meant for economic improvement,
environmental sensitivity and community betterment.
To add on the above arguments, it is problematic for sustainable urban development
whenever we define urban design based only on policies (urban planning), efficiency (civil
engineering) and form (Architecture). Responsive urban design and development is assumed,

where the issue of sustainability is reframed in, and not in terms of efficiency, policy or form,
but in terms well-being of human, social hope and social improvement (Glaeser, 2011).
Therefore, sustainable urbanism can be imagined as one of the application of the societal
ethics and public health in areas that encompasses the formal, technological, policy and
economic elements. For sustainability to be the basic of contemporary urban design and
development, then sustainability needs to be defined in terms of three principal elements,
which cut across professional and categorical boundaries. These elements include; social
ethics, place specificity and health.
The first element that is fundamental to sustainable urban development is health.
Health is associated with the individual human beings and also the community. Dorling
(2008) distinguishes the search for knowledge from that of the status of end-in-self. It is
realized that defining sustainability from the status of end-in-itself is a problem since it
creates the danger restricting the discussion of sustainability into particular categories and
boundaries. On the contrary, from the perspective of system approach, sustainability
addresses more on healthy living. There are two elements of health that addresses the two
principal values of sustainability. They include: 1) human capacity development, 2) human
well-being sustenance. Focus on human health leans to the human dimension of sustainability
in form of societies, individuals as well as communities.
The next element of sustainable urbanism in respect to urban development is place
specificity. This element is also known as a process of place-making. It is called so, because
it describes the way human beings change/transform areas in which they live. There are
diverse creative ways through which people find themselves into places that they live. It is
the principal human activity to sustain as well as maintain their communities. Getting to
understand the sustainability from the human perspective shows the significance of human
appropriation in places. The people are also empowered by this idea of place in relation to

sustainability so as to control, define and even construct place quality through means of their
actions, interactions and reactions. Quality of a place pushes the boundary of sustainability
and even offers challenging and exciting opportunities that make a place sustainable and
adaptive. Taking place into consideration as one of the critical component of sustainability,
sustainable urban development is a continuous process of place-making.
The last element of sustainable urban development is the recent growth of social
ethics towards social enhancement and hope. Between the social justice and the sustainable
development, and also equity, there exist powerful synergies everywhere around the globe.
Everyone should at least be given an access to attractive, clean as well as green quality of life
despite their race, color, class and even creed. Issues such as energy, waste, transport and
climate change cannot be ignored when it comes to the issues justice and social equity. Rise
in social ethics is one of the major aspects of sustainable urban development, which should be
fortified in the same context of sustainable urban development. The role played by urban
designers and urban development is can be clearly from the above discussions as community
development catalysts. The process-placed approach for sustainable urban development and
focus on the system is vital in framing accessibility as well as equity issues in social ethics.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, the meaning of sustainability and its five roots has been
well illustrated. In addition, the concept of urban design and development has also been
illustrated. The paper has also dealt with critical assessment of sustainability with respect to
urban development.
The discussion also touched on the role of ecological as an idea of sustainability and
the associated human values. The discussion of sustainable urban development in the current
capitalist society should be in reference to the production as well as consumption of space. It

has also been realized that in the present times, there is a twofold gap that exists in between
the consumption and production of sustainable urban developments. The fact is that both the
architects and the designers have continually become less and less of any role in the
production of such sustainable urban areas.
The human connection to the sustainability has been highlighted in the discussion.
Role of sustainability in urban design and development has also come out clearly.

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