The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Three 'tainted' stories

2021-05-27T09:45:48.484Z


Increase air quality with green areas and sustainable mobility. Rethink lighting and reduce noise. In recent months, the search for solutions to all forms of pollution has accelerated. Global challenges with a stop in A Coruña, Lisbon and Paris.


THE ROAD TO PERFECTION.

What makes a city become sustainable?

By Irene Conca

For the World Economic Forum, Hong Kong is, along with Zurich, the most sustainable city on the planet. Paris ranks third. According to the index of the Green Globe company, to which a long list of hotels are associated for payment, Zurich is the healthiest city on the planet. The Swiss city accumulates 82% of the energy it consumes, recycles 43% of its waste and 72% of its hotels have a sustainability certificate. Zurich is also at the top of the Barnes index, which measures the richest cities. However, it does not stand out in the smart mobility ranking analyzed by the Arcadis consultancy for BBVA and which considers the economic performance of cities to be part of sustainability.

With little traffic for decades and the lush banks of the Limago River running through it, Zurich does not appear in the Hugsi index that measures the green mass of cities - taking into account the health of the vegetation, its distribution, the number of trees and square meters of lawns. Why will they measure the lawn when it requires so much water that it is anti-ecological? The answer is below. This year, the Hugsi Index named Charlotte, North Carolina (USA) “the greenest city on the planet”. And second place went to Durban in South Africa, despite the fact that most of its new green corridors are destined for tourism.The Swedish company Husqvarna dedicates part of the profits it makes from selling robotic lawnmowers and even leaf blowers (not recommended for substrate and grass maintenance) to building its own list. But there are more indexes. The Mercer of the New York consultancy of the same name has highlighted Vienna among the best cities to live. And the Intelligence Unit index of The Economist magazine has been accused by The New York Times of Anglocentric because it applauds the air quality of Melbourne and Sydney although in the HUGSI ranking they are well below Venice, which is in the 80th position. In the HUGSI list, Madrid is the only Spanish city (123rd).And the Intelligence Unit index of The Economist magazine has been accused by The New York Times of Anglocentric because it applauds the air quality of Melbourne and Sydney although in the HUGSI ranking they are well below Venice, which is in the 80th position. In the HUGSI list, Madrid is the only Spanish city (123rd).And the Intelligence Unit index of The Economist magazine has been accused by The New York Times of Anglocentric because it applauds the air quality of Melbourne and Sydney although in the HUGSI ranking they are well below Venice, which is in the 80th position. In the HUGSI list, Madrid is the only Spanish city (123rd).

How do we measure the sustainability of cities? Can it be distinguished from quality of life? From recycling rainwater? From the energy that is consumed? Of the type of mobility and the aids to improve it? Celia Ojeda, head of cities and consumption at Greenpeace Spain, explains that they measure the greening of cities not only by the amount of vegetation, but also by how it contributes to the biodiversity of the ecosystem and improves air quality. He explains that that is why they study, but do not endorse, the results of these reports.

The UN-Habitat agency has long published its reports on the state of cities. And, far from establishing a classification, it compiles recommendations insisting that vegetation improves not only the quality of life, but also the health of citizens. Everything is linked. That is why the applauded vélo révolution in Paris - which has led its mayor, Anne Hidalgo, to dedicate an investment of 350 million euros in bicycle paths - did not start during the first confinement. It was the 40 days of the public transport strike that pushed the population to get on the bike. Transport on two wheels increased in 2018 by 50% and in 2020 by 13%. This is what happens in cities like Amsterdam or Copenhagen: there are already so many bicycle users that this transport has stopped growing.

Only three decades ago there was opposition to recovering the promenade on the banks of the Seine, which today is the favorite recreation of the Parisians and then drowned by cars. After that decision, Paris has become the new benchmark for urban cycling. The largely flat topography helps. Also that there are 170 kilometers of bike lanes and the fact that where the narrowness of the streets does not allow a specific route, cyclists circulate in the opposite direction to the cars. It has been like this for a year: what was born as a temporary measure during confinement has ended up staying. Some ideas - such as subsidizing the repair of old bicycles with 50 euros - have already been imitated by other cities, such as Bilbao. And that, or building 60,000 bike parking spaces, is also contributing to sustainability.

A SILENT ENEMY.

Light is a great ally at night, but its misuse damages the natural balance.

By Sara Cuesta Torrado

Fran Pulido / EPS

Centuries ago, pilgrims traveled hundreds of kilometers to reach Santiago de Compostela. They oriented themselves by following the luminous trail of the Milky Way when night fell. Today this would be impossible. The artificial lighting of cities and towns, roads and coastlines has generated a kind of cloud of light that prevents in many places from observing the starry sky or being enveloped in total darkness. "Light is associated with progress, modernity, security ... And that has generated a tendency to illuminate much and more", explains Coque Alcázar, founder of Slowlight, a citizen movement that is committed to responsible, sustainable and respectful lighting with the planet and its inhabitants (it was born in 2020 and already has 75 public and private entities that have joined the initiative). This engineer from the A Coruña City Council,responsible for municipal lighting, remember that there is no regulation that regulates light pollution, as there are others.

Highlighting has become the norm. Walking at midnight and distinguishing the treetops seems synonymous with good lighting. But to guarantee the tranquility that the public lighting seeks, it would be enough to see the road and its surroundings. “In the last five decades we have inverted the natural day-night order, and that has consequences on biodiversity [turtle hatchlings that after hatching from the egg head towards land and not towards the sea; birds that fall dazzled; extinct insects] and on people ”. Within each cell of the body there is a biological clock that has always been governed by the cycles of light, white during the day and blue at night, as explained by Ana Ulla, astrophysicist at the University of Vigo, in the meeting

Light, night and town

organized by Slowlight on May 18.

"Altering that order causes disruption and disease.

There are scientific studies that show it ”.

Pedagogy is one of the great challenges.

Raquel Valiño, Coque Alcázar's traveling companion, spends all her free time on it.

"It has become the loudspeaker that tries to carry our message to the neighbors, to the children in the schools ...".

There is a clear public awareness about plastics in the oceans or about waste, but light is understood more as a nuisance.

In the words of Ana Ulla: “As light is not smoked, nor is it drunk, nor is it inhaled, it seems that it is harmless.

And it is not.

In the field of science - astronomy, astrophysics ... - this awareness has existed for decades. The 2007 Declaration of La Palma, signed by international organizations such as UNESCO or UNWTO, highlights that “the control of light pollution must be a basic requirement in nature conservation policies given the impact it generates on many species, habitats, ecosystems and landscapes ”. But until now there was no such reflection in the lighting sector. Slowlight was born with the ambition to create a bridge between both worlds. "Most city councils and technicians have no training in this regard," they say. His roadmap so far has been to illuminate to satisfy the citizen. "Now we must take into account how that lighting affects flora, fauna, urban aesthetics ...".

The trend for governments to reclaim public space by creating healthier, low-emission environments and green areas has skyrocketed after lockdown. In this context, Slowlight expands its philosophy. “It is time to take a step forward. In Spain, five million points of light are pending to be renewed ”, explains Alcázar. “It is time to invest and bet on lighting systems that think in an ecosystem way. Today's technology is ready for it ”. Lampposts that offer different light intensities and color temperatures depending on the time, or sensorized ones, which increase the light when detecting movement. The first will be installed this year on Calle del Palomar, in A Coruña, and the second will be installed in the Los Rosales neighborhood. Little by little, Alcázar is replacing the old luminaire with these new installations that,Although more expensive, they are sustainable and can be profitable in the long term: “In 2019 we saved 100,000 euros on our electricity bill. The year of the pandemic, 400,000. And with better technology and better lighting we would have saved much more ”.

THE INVISIBLE ACTOR.

Noise is the second most dangerous factor for health after pollution.

By Helena Poncini

Fran Pulido / EPS

Horns, plays, shouts and music in the street. The confinement revealed that the noise levels supported in cities exceed what is desirable. “It was a moment of listening to what was not heard so clearly when the city is boiling with activity,” reflects Íñigo Sánchez, coordinator of the Sounds of Tourism project, carried out in Lisbon and who observes how tourism modifies the sound environment. The sudden silence in the spring of 2020 became more evident in places with great tourist pressure like the Portuguese capital and this was recorded in a series of sound postcards. Where before there was noise from the bars, voices and rattling suitcases, there was only calm. “The volume of tourism in Lisbon does not correspond to the carrying capacity of the city.A more sustainable model or managed with sensitivity towards the local environment generates a quieter rhythm ”.

Even being witnesses to the evidence, the pandemic does not seem to have changed certain habits. María Dolores Redel, one of the authors of the study

Monitoring Sound and Its Perception during the Lockdown and De-Escalation of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Spanish Study

(Monitoring of sound and its perception during confinement and de-escalation in the covid-19 pandemic: a Spanish study), developed by the University of Córdoba, tells how they have verified that, as soon as we had freedom of movement, we began to generate more noise than before the arrival of the coronavirus, especially due to the increase in the use of private vehicles. Traffic is one of the main sources of noise, but also construction sites, industry and nightlife. The European Environment Agency (EEA) reports that one in five Europeans is regularly exposed at night to noise levels that can cause serious damage to health. For this reason, organizations such as the Federation of Associations against Noise ask for the limitation of hours in the hospitality industry and, even,the relocation of evening entertainment. "The same thing is necessary to consider removing this environment from the center of cities as industries have been removed," reflects Miguel del Pino, president of the group.

Noise pollution is the second most dangerous environmental risk factor after pollution, according to the WHO. However, Redel says, "in few cities you can find real-time noise meters." The effects range from stress to heart and metabolic problems and cognitive development in children. According to the EEA, continued exposure to environmental noise causes 12,000 premature deaths a year in Europe and 6.5 million people suffer from chronic sleep disorders.

Drawing a collaborative noise map and identifying its origin is the objective of the tool developed by Enrique Torres, a professor at the University of Zaragoza, and Lorien López, a student.

Both have created an application for Android that measures and records noise in real time, including the source, and that allows the data to be shared in a freely accessible cloud and displayed on a map.

Useful information for urban planning, but also for making decisions such as "whether or not you want to buy a flat in a specific area."

An

app

that also allows to know the "sensitivity of the people".

“As a user you will notify when it is bothering you.

Noises do not affect everyone in the same way, ”says the teacher, who hopes that the application - still without a commercial name - will be available this summer.

For both Redel and Ricardo Ayala, from Abogados contra el Noido, the solution involves planning cities taking into account exposure to noise. “The acoustic plans are very general. They do not enter the heart of the city. It is necessary to raise awareness and stop noise in the same way that green areas are created and environmental pollution is taken into account ”, adds Ayala, who points out that the pedestrianization of the streets can be a double-edged sword if they turn them into a“ public square ”And there is no legislation to achieve a balance between leisure and rest.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-05-27

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-10T10:28:40.113Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.