Follow the requirements, write up 500-750 words.
up100_s17environmentpart1.pptx

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UP100
Environment I
Mark Wilson
Overview
• Environment
• Water and Waste
• Reading
• Cities A-Z
• City:
• Eco-Cities pp302-311
• Brown: Landmarks in American Civil Engineering History




Philadelphia Waterworks
Croton Aqueduct
Reversal of the Chicago River
Chain of Rocks Water Treatment
Environment
• Cities and the environment





Human desire to find safety and security by controlling the world around them
Early settlements provided safety and domesticated agriculture provided food security
Cities seek to control their environment
Manage water, remove hills, build in difficult locations
Ecological footprint of our environmental impact
• Cities occupy 2% of the earth’s surface but consume over 75% of the earth’s
resources
• BUT, urban residents in dense cities often efficient per capita in use of some
resources
• Equity and social justice issues of uneven resource distribution
Environment
• Choosing a place to live/attractive urban environments
• Those with little labor market power often forced to accept poor conditions
• For those with skills in demand, amenity value of locations important
• Developed economies place a priority on environmental quality
• Is environmental quality a superior good only to be attained with higher incomes
• Some urban environments encouraging to trees and vegetation, others deny the
presence of nature
Environment
• Context – How to conceptualize the environment?
• Resource
• Economic
• Aesthetic
• Management issues
• Social and economic impacts
Sources of Pollution





Air
Water
Waste
Noise
Natural events
• Dust storms
• Fires
• Volcanic eruptions
• Light
California Fires
Pollution Costs
• Social costs as a concept
• Externality not included in the market
• Health
• Damage to property
• Increased maintenance
• Reduced property values
• Increased processing costs
• Cleaning water
• Cleaning air
Sustainability
• Increasing urbanization/industrialization demands more resources for production
and daily life
• Change energy consumption
• Use planning to develop more efficient cities
Sustainability
• Renewable energy sources
Sustainability
• Transportation
Sustainability
• Urban design: energy use, microclimates, construction materials, proximity
• Compact landscapes
A to Z
Air 1




“City as a place of smells and fumes”
“We abuse the air and the air abuses us in return”
Drivers need to be exhaust aware
Paris 2014/15
Air 2
• Average air quality, table p5
Xian, China
Dust 1
• Modern city shown as it is without dust (le Corbusier)
• Desire for ‘brighter and cleaner’ spaces
• Connection between dust and disease, concern with preventing dust from settling
Floods






Boston 1918
Outbreak of influenza, followed by winter with a warm January
January 15, tank at Purity Distilling Co exploded spilling 2 million gallons of molasses
40 foot wall of molasses
Led to the worst infestation of flies in the Summer
21 killed, 150 people injured
Noise
• Noise is not sound; noise is produced by the city
• Musical avant-garde seek inspiration from urban noise
• Increasingly, noise is dampened by design or by intent (urban design)
Noise
• Headphones
• Individual soundtracks or urban
isolation?
• Inattention blindness
• Listening, texting, talking
• Mobile device distraction
• 2004-11: 116 deaths attributed
to inattentive pedestrians using
headphones
Chongqing no-phone pedestrian lanes Link
Vinyl
• PVC, polyvinyl chloride, commonly
used in construction, for shelter,
trash bags, packaging
• Degrades slowly, lingering when
discarded
• “Vinyl signals the changing material
culture of poverty” in its use in poor
countries
Water 1




Political significance of London’s water supply
Mid 19th century realization of the need for clean water as a public health issue
Also a metaphorical association between water supply and nature
Popularity of mineral water, seeking purity
Weeds
• “What makes a weed a weed?”
• Anti weed agenda of cities due to their being
out of place
• “Weeds, then, represent impurity, disorder –
the wild”… “They are nature out of place”
Water and Waste
Water Supply




Concern for supply, quality
Only largest cities in US had central water supply systems in mid 19th century
Mainly private funding with government contracts
Conflict over profits vs public services
• Who do water systems serve? Owners or consumers?
• Growth of water privatization
Water Supply
• Philadelphia
• 1799-1801, response to yellow fever epidemics and need for fire control
• A major engineering project, became a public utility
• Used classical architecture to reflect its significance
• New York
• Response to disease
• Private initiative
• Croton system started in 1830s, continues to serve the city
• Los Angeles
• Water rights
• London cholera outbreak
London: John Snow 1854
Drainage/Sewerage




As water use increases so does waste water
Cesspools not healthy and unable to handle growing levels of waste water
Drains and gutters unpleasant and seen as a health hazard
1870s patents for water closets
Drainage/Sewerage
• What does our waste show?
• Sewage reveals drug use
• College campus spike with Adderall and Ritalin especially during finals (760% higher)
• Potential trends in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) drug use on a college
campus: wastewater analysis of amphetamine and ritalinic acid. Link
• Shows what drugs commonly used and when
• Weekend use of cocaine and ecstasy
• Changes over time
Chicago Case Study






Water from Lake Michigan but problems with waste
Contaminated ground water a public health hazard
Led to a public utility in 1855
Sewers laid and ground level raised 2-6 feet
Waste flowed into Chicago River, which became a health hazard itself
Water tower and pumping station to provide pressure
Chicago Case Study




Canals built to flush contents to south
Flow of Chicago River reversed
No benefit seen to processing waste as the city would not benefit
Advances in science about disease led to changes in management of waste water;
anti-contagionist replaced by germ theory
The American Bathroom
• Toilets
• How Stuff Works Link
• Buffalo Statler Hotel, 1908, first private bathroom in hotel
• 1920s films; bathroom as shrine
Refuse/Trash
• Growing consumption led to waste disposal problems
• Trash, dung, dead animals piled in streets or on vacant land; disposal left to the
individual
• Late 19th century trash disposal a municipal responsibility
• Call for cleaner streets
Trash Disposal





Tipping on vacant land
Dumped at sea
Incineration and reduction
Landfill as land reclamation (Boston)
Sanitary landfill, 1930s method to manage waste by layering trash and earth
A to Z
• Services
• Contract cleaning multinationals
• Global standards for buildings/facilities used by international firms
• Sewage
• Disease and plumbing in London
• 1865 plan for sewers to reduce cholera
• Privatization of water/sewer services
A to Z
• Public toilets
• Installed at Crystal Palace in
1851
• Not accepted as part of public
culture at the time
• Once a sign of socialized urban
space, now hard to find
Plumbing
• Modern Marvels – History of Plumbing
Study Guide






What is inattention blindness?
Why did US cities build water supply systems in the early 1800s?
What does sewage reveal about a city?
What is the origin of the term ‘plumbing’?
What are the major water borne diseases?
What is the origin of the term ‘fireplug’?
UP100: The City — Spring 2017
A-Z Essay
10% of grade
The textbook for the second half of the course, Cities A-Z, is filled with short essays that focus
on one aspect of urban life. This assignment asks that you write a short essay on any topic that
captures one feature about cities. The goal of the assignment is to thoughtfully consider one
aspect of the city. Feel free to choose your own topic as long as it is not the same as one of the
essays in the book. Pick elements of the city you hate, enjoy, or can’t understand; be creative!
The essay should be 500-750 words long, to be submitted via dropbox before 3pm on April 6.
Include citations if appropriate.

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