Environment-Friendly Development Philosophy & City’s Sustainability

The Impact of Environment-Friendly Development Philosophy on a City’s Sustainability
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The Impact of Environment-Friendly Development Philosophy on a City’s Sustainability
Cities’ sustainability refers to the proper maintenance of urban areas so that they can support upcoming generations. In particular, one of the primary objectives of the United Nations (UN) is to promote the sustainability of cities. Currently, many cities worldwide are encountering various problems that pose dangers to their sustainability. Some of these issues include traffic congestion, poor sanitation, the lack of clean drinking water, inadequate infrastructure, and environmental degradation (Miller & Roo, 2016). The research question is vital since it focuses on the way forward to making cities eco-friendly. The environment-friendly development philosophy significantly impacts cities’ sustainability since it enables urban centers to eliminate various problems that contribute to pollution.
Saad, Ibrahim, and Sayad (2017) argue that eco-city is the primary strategy in creating sustainable development (Saad, Ibrahim, & Sayad, 2017). Eco-cities promote residents’ comfort and harness ecological systems’ benefits. In other terms, they are the catalyst for a change since they improve the quality of the environment for upcoming generations and upgrade conditions that are appropriate for sustainable development. Moreover, researchers did not forget to note that sustainable development improves people’s quality of life and contributes to urban management and planning. Simon Marvin and Michael Hodson (2017) affirm that sustainable cities enhance economic growth and ecological modernization of their environments (Hodson & Marvin, 2017). They say that the emerging urbanization and industrial capitalism of the 1970s had a significant impact on cities’ sustainability. During this period, industrialization contributed to environmental pollution since producers did not understand the importance of treating waste products before releasing them to the environment. In reality, some of the effects of climate change experienced today, date back in the era of industrialization. The diagram below shows factors that affect cities’ sustainability adversely and proposes appropriate strategies to reverse the effects.


Figure 1: Factors that Promote Cities’ Sustainability.
In the diagram above, it is clear that pollution, misuse of available resources, improper land-use planning, and poor mobility management contribute to environmentally-unfriendly cities. That is the reason why the UN enacted and implemented appropriate measures, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to address the stated problems. For example, it encourages organizations and individuals to reuse, reduce, and recycle waste products. Moreover, the UN prevents the unsustainable accumulation of waste products.
The most significant thing in promoting cities’ sustainability is eliminating pollution. Specifically, the rate of environmental contamination in many cities has been rapidly increasing due to industrialization. Investors are opening numerous industries in urban centers where the majority of people are migrating to these places, searching for jobs. As such, cities are becoming overcrowded without forgetting the increased rate of pollution emanating from the release of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Manufacturers continue to use non-renewable energy sources such as fossil fuel to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their production processes. They despise renewable power since it does not optimize their production capacity. Many industries do not care about the adverse environmental consequences of their actions as long as they are continually making profits. Cities cannot be sustainable if relevant authorities do not regulate the rate of pollution. Saad et al. (2017) say, “minimizing the production of waste by reusing and recycling no matter where possible; minimizing pollution of air, soil, and water, and increasing the rate of natural areas biodiversity in cities” (Saad, Ibrahim, & Sayad, 2017). At this juncture, the authors mean that cities will remain environmentally-unfriendly if appropriate pollution prevention strategies are not implemented. For example, water and air contamination significantly affect the quality of people’s lives negatively. That might be the reason why disease outbreaks are difficult to control in cities since microorganisms are all over. In particular, reducing pollution promotes people’s health since they no longer get exposed to bacteria and viruses that are harbored in the sewage systems. If no policies are implemented to curb pollution, the upcoming generations will be brought up in unconducive and unhealthy environments, which will affect their productivity and contributions to economic growth adversely. The human actions or activities today have long-term consequences to future generations. Consequently, cities cannot be environmentally-friendly if the rate of pollution is not reduced to foster sustainability.
The environment-friendly development philosophy encourages individuals to eat healthy diets and drink clean water, which means that they will have high living standards. Anna Ba...