The future of urban planning lies in the development of compact cities with well-designed public amenities so that available resources and energy can be efficiently utilized, the National Science Council (NSC) yesterday said.
By avoiding reckless and scattered development in the suburbs, the natural environment can be preserved and natural disasters managed more effectively, it said.
“Climate change-related natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina that ravaged New Orleans in 2005, make sustainable development a priority for governments and international organizations in terms of urban planning,” National Taiwan University Graduate Institute of Building and Planning professor Lin Feng-tyan (林峰田) said.
Lin and a team of researchers were commissioned by the council to conduct a study on urban land use.
Using advanced software that can simulate real cities with 90 percent accuracy, the researchers were able to determine the types of natural disasters that could affect Taiwanese cities, Lin said.
“We do not claim to be fortunetellers, but our studies can provide valuable insight for governments as they do planning,” he said.
One of the objectives of the research project was to help the government quantify restrictions on construction to minimize the likelihood of disaster, Lin said.
“For example, if the slope of a hill is above a certain degree, construction could be banned,” he said.
One of the conclusions of the research was that compact cities made it easier to use resources more effectively, which can contribute to saving the environment, Lin said.
“A compact city — as opposed to a sprawling one — is one where people live and work in close proximity,” Lin said.
Many US cities, where people live in the suburbs many kilometers away from the city and drive to work every morning, “is a waste of resources, because of the fuel used in their vehicles, the roads that need to be constructed and the pipelines that need to go all the way to the suburbs,” Lin said. “The natural scenery is destroyed in the process.”
“Some developments in Taipei County, such as in Tamsui, Sanjhih and Linkou, are also examples of sprawling cities,” Lin said.
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