Arup, a professional services firm providing engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment, and Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporate, as a client, have planned the world’s first purpose-built eco-city. Dongtan, located on the island of Chongming, near Shanghai, China, is designed not only to be environmentally sustainable, but also socially, economically and culturally sustainable.
Its goal is to be as close to carbon neutral as possible, with city vehicles that produce no carbon or particulate emissions and highly efficient water and energy systems. Dongtan will generate all of its energy needs from renewable sources including bio-fuels, wind farms and photovoltaic panels. A majority of Dongtan’s waste will be reused as biofuel for additional energy production and organic waste will be composted. Even human sewage will be composted and processed for energy and composting, greatly reducing or entirely eliminating landfill waste sites.
Here are some ways Dongtan plans to do that:
- All housing will be built within a seven minute walk of public transportation.
- Vehicles will be battery or fuel-cell powered.
- Nearby farmland will use organic methods to grow food for the city’s population.
- A heat and power plant will supply energy by running on biomass in the form of rice husks, a waste product from local rice mills.
- Waste will be considered a resource.
- The city won’t have a landfill and human sewage will be processed for energy recovery and composting.
- Buildings will have green roofs to improve insulation.
- Public transportation will include solar powered water taxis and hydrogen fuel-cell buses.
Dongtan is planned to open, with accommodation for 50,000, by the time the Expo 2010 opens in Shanghai. By 2040, the city is slated to be one-third the size of Manhattan with a total eventual population of 500,000. It has fallen way behind schedule and ARUPs Architect expects only a tenth of these to be there by 2010.
Here you can find a fact sheet on this project including all important informations.
(Source: www.perfectcity.net)
