2018 ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE AWARDS COMPETITION - E54

But what exactly is a sustainable city? Various research organizations weigh individual factors differently, but there's consensus
around key characteristics.
"Sustainable cities have people at their hearts," says Caroline
Assaf, president of Sustainable Cities International in Burnaby,
British Columbia. "They balance physical, social and economic
assets to provide people with healthy and resilient communities
that are less vulnerable to risks and promote collaboration and
inclusiveness among people. Factors like these, in turn, attract
businesses, investments, talent and tourism."
CITIES ASCENDANT

Cities are home to more of the world's population than ever. The
World Health Organization (WHO) says urban areas accounted
for 54 percent of global population in 2014 versus
34 percent in 1960. As people gravitate to cities,
they're expecting a better quality of life. To sustain
and support this growth, which WHO estimates
will be nearly 2 percent every year until 2020,
cities must invest in the future. In addition to an
infrastructure that promotes economic growth,
that means affordable housing, fresh air and drinking water, easy access to public transportation, and
education and health care resources.
With these multifaceted aspects of livability in
mind, Arcadis and CEBR evaluated 100 cities
throughout the world using three sustainability
dimensions:
Quality of Life: The people subindex rates
health (life expectancy and obesity), education (literacy and universities), income inequality, work-life balance, the dependency ratio,
crime, and housing and living costs.
Green Factors: The planet subindex ranks cities on energy
consumption and renewable energy share, green space within cities,
recycling and composting rates, greenhouse gas emissions, natural
catastrophe risk, drinking water, sanitation and air pollution.
Economic Health: The profit subindex examines performance
from a business perspective, combining measures of transportation
infrastructure (rail, air and traffic congestion), ease of doing business, tourism, gross domestic product per capita, the city's importance in global economic networks, access to mobile and broadband
services and employment rates.
(None of the cities, even those in the top of the composite index,
effectively balance all three subindexes, the researchers say. For
example, although Zurich posted the best overall score and ranked
at or near the top for planet and profit, it came in 27th place for
people.)

Zurich wasn't the only European city that ranked highly in the
composite index. In fact, European cities dominated the overall
rankings, taking 13 of the top 15 places. This includes the global
hubs of London (No. 5), Frankfurt (No. 6) and Paris (No. 15).
What about North American cities? The index found they have
a lot to learn from their international peers. Vancouver was the
continent's leader at 23rd in the overall ratings, while U.S. cities
failed to enter the top quartile. The closest contender was New
York City at 26th place.
Infrastructure differences help explain why European cities
outpaced U.S. and Canadian counterparts. Many European urban
centers were settled before the automobile age and, as a result, are
densely settled and supported by well-established public transportation systems. However, many American cities outside the Northeast grew with automobiles in mind. "Carcentric designs can lead to urban sprawl and a
large carbon footprint, with enormous costs,"
Dalkmann says. "Those are fundamental challenges for U.S. cities in terms of sustainability."
His organization is part of The New Climate
Economy (NCE), a global commission that
studies links between economies and climate
change, and its research bolsters the Sustainable Cities Index results. For example, a NCE
study compares Spain's Barcelona (No. 24 in
the Sustainable Cities Index) with Atlanta (No.
63), two cities with approximately 2.5 million
residents. "Atlanta has five times more total area
than Barcelona, and its carbon footprint is six
times higher," he points out. "Where there's urban sprawl, research
shows there are more challenges in terms of access to jobs and
schools and in environmental quality."
But density and transportation aren't the only differentiating
factors. "Europeans recycle and recover resources from municipal
solid waste much more than American cities do on a whole,"
Batten says. He adds that better work-life balance, access to public
health care and lower homicide rates also gave the top 20 municipalities an edge in the composite Sustainable Cities Index.

The World Health
Organization
says urban areas
accounted for
54 percent of
global population
in 2014 versus
34 percent in
1960

SIGNS OF PROGRESS

Although North American cities lagged many in Europe, the
latest index results offers signs of progress, particularly in the various subindexes in the Arcadis research. Experts say much of the
improvement is linked to the direct involvement of engineers during all phases of the project development life cycle. For example,
New York ranked 26th place overall, but for profit it holds an
impressive 8th place. Its 33rd ranking for planet is the best in the

"Europeans recycle and recover resources from
municipal solid waste much more than American cities
do on a whole."
JOHN BATTEN | ARCADIS

ENGINEERING INC.

MAY / JUNE 2017

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