Low-Carbon Urban Infrastructure

Abstract

As cities consider how to provide essential urban services in the post-fossil fuel age, they find that incremental strategies are not enough. The challenge, and opportunity, is to reinvent essential city infrastructure-for water, food, shelter, energy, transport, culture, and economy-in a climate-friendly way. By reclaiming human-scale neighborhoods, relearning and further developing sustainable and passive building techniques, and reaching forward with technology in the service of society, cities can thrive with less energy and fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This chapter examines essential concepts and examples of low-carbon urban infrastructure, highlighting urban form designed in harmony with the city's geography; resilience to climate change impacts as well as reductions in greenhouse gas emissions; and prioritization of demand-side management in city systems, through improved design, efficiency, and de-carbonization.