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Half the world’s population already lives in cities and by 2050 that number will be two out of every three people, according to the United Nations.
The increasing urban population presents a challenge for urban planners and designers, as they try to accommodate more people in less space and try to reduce their use of limited resources.
Key issues, which will be familiar to many in Australia’s denser cities, include finding solutions for the growing pressures on parking, waste collection, water management and green areas.
Here are four smart local design ideas leading the way to make Australia’s cities more amenable places to live and at the same time reducing our impact on the environment.
Stormwater to parkland
The South Bank Rain Bank in Brisbane harvests and reuses stormwater rather than allowing it – and the pollutants it is carrying – to run into the Brisbane River.
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Rain Bank provides a sustainable, drought-proof water supply for South Bank by collecting and treating stormwater from a 30 hectare catchment across West End and South Brisbane and redistributing it around the Parklands. It provides 85 per cent of the Parklands’ irrigation and non-potable water needs and is the first large-scale stormwater harvesting project in Australia to be retrofitted in a fully developed mixed use catchment.
When it rains, underground pipes divert the stormwater from the drain to Rain Bank. From there, the water is treated and redistributed to the Parklands through South Bank’s irrigation system. The system has a 2 megalitre below-ground reinforced concrete storage tank that is subdivided into two sections. One section stores up to 1.75 megalitres of storm water and the other section stores up to a quarter of a megalitre of treated water. This tank means that Rain Bank can continue to store and treat water even when it is not raining.
Treatment facilities filter and clean the stormwater extensively to ensure that it is safe for use. This process involves pre-treating the water to remove any oil and sediment, then passing it through a five-stage process of pre-filtration, media filtration, carbon filtration, UV disinfection and chemical dosing.
No more bins
Maroochydore City Centre is doing away with wheelie bins and instead installing a network of underground vacuum pipes to transport waste from commercial buildings and apartments.
The rubbish will travel at up to 70km/h through the 6.5km network of pipes that will help make the 53 hectare Maroochydore City Centre one of the cleanest and greenest cities in the country, the Sunshine Coast Council says.
Each building in the new CBD will include at least three waste inlets – for organic, recyclable and general waste. Waste dropped into each inlet will be stored in a sealed compartment below ground until the vacuum pump is activated at the central waste facility, usually twice each day.
The vacuum system will then consecutively collect each type of waste, sucking the waste through a system of underground pipes to the central facility, where they will be stored in sealed compactors for collection.
The installation of similar outlets in public spaces will mean no more overflowing bins.
The system spells an end to odours and vermin and the costs of daily street cleaning will be reduced.
Smart parking in the ACT
The days of driving around city streets looking for a parking spot and going to a parking meter to pay could be a thing of the past if a trial in Canberra is any indication.
The ACT government has been trialling a smart parking system in the suburb of Manuka that allows users to download the ParkCBR smartphone app that shows the available parking spaces in real time. The system relies on 460 infra-red sensors in parking spots to monitor their availability.
It also allows users to pay for parking from the app – and if it turns out they need to stay longer, they can top up the parking time via their phone without having to return to their car.
For drivers who do not want to use the smart phone app, five LED intelligent traffic signs guide road users towards available parking spaces and show where available spaces are the two main parking areas in Manuka.
The 12-month trial was designed to provide timely parking information to drivers, decrease congestion and improve user experience.
Vertical gardens
Getting greenery into densely developed urban areas is difficult but something which the developers of Sydney’s One Central Park building have managed with a vertical garden.
In a world first, French botanist Patrick Blanc designed a 150m vertical garden wall for the residential building. The 1200sqm garden was made possible because it does not have any soil, just something for the plants to attach themselves to. Light, carbon dioxide water and nutrients are all mechanically dispersed to the plants.
The project took two years of planning and building and came up with a solution of installing individually designed planter boxes supported by the floor slabs, to create the “living wall” aspect of the façade design. Each horizontal and vertical planter is supplied its own irrigation system through a building management system which also monitors environmental conditions.
The result is a pleasing wall of greenery, right in the midst of a dense urban environment.
Game changing ideas in partnership with Volvo Car Australia.
At Volvo we don’t just think before we act – we think, we rethink, and then we think again. In Sweden we call this Omtanke. It means taking a considered approach in all that we do. From ensuring all new Volvo’s launched from 2019 will include an electric motor variant - to tackling ocean pollution with Living Seawalls. A game changer rethinks where others move on.
We don’t just look differently at cars, we look at the world differently. Omtanke drives those innovations that make life more effortless. More considerate, more sustainable. We welcome you to try it. It could be your first step in becoming a game changer.