Hydromania

World Changing 07/09/2010 22:15

Israeli novelist Assaf Gavron's recent book Hydromania has yet to appear in English, as far as I can tell, but I'd love to read it when it does.

[Image: The German cover of Hydromania by Assaf Gavron] (via BLDGBLOG)

Set in a drought-stricken world "several decades into the future," run by "water corporations from China, Japan and the Ukraine," it follows the science fictionalized path of a "maverick water engineer" who has developed an illegal black-market technology for purifying rain water. As the website Qantara explains:

The constantly thirsty people drink "Ohiya Water" or "Gobogobo Water," which they must buy from the companies. The private storage of water is not permitted and the ban is strictly enforced by means of an all-seeing surveillance system.

Further, the political geography of the region has been irrevocably changed:

Israeli territory has been reduced to a narrow strip bordering the Mediterranean Sea and to two major cities, one of which, Tiberias, is destroyed through Palestinian military action in the course of the novel. Israel is thus left with only its capital, Caesarea, and some surrounding districts. Countless Israelis are reduced to refugee status: the poorer living in primitive conditions aboard wrecked destroyers off the coast, whilst the better-off inhabit floating residential areas with appealing names such as "Ocean 8."

The book's speculative fictionalization of future water politics won the Geffen Prize in 2009, and has already been published in Hebrew and German, with a Dutch translation forthcoming next year. Anyone out there read it yet? Is it good?

This post originally appeared on Geoff's blog BLDGBLOG.

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(Posted by Geoff Manaugh in Water at 12:15 PM)

Product-Services, Urban Innovation and the Death of Car Culture

World Changing 07/09/2010 21:30

A few items of interest:

We'll be writing more about the recent spate of books and reports on product-service systems and sharing models soon, but for right now, this image from our friends at GOOD is a pretty interesting take on the evolution of some aspects of the post-ownership trend:

"Sharing is Contagious" graphic; cropped to show only the "Product Service System" column (full graphic via GOOD)

Throughout the Global North, but especially in North America, cars are losing their luster as fetish consumer objects for the younger generations. Simply put, though many people still understand the utility of cars as personal transportation machines in spread-out landscapes, people no longer see cars as particularly important definitions of who they are: "car culture" as it was defined in the 1950s is in steep decline. Increasingly, younger urbanites aren't even getting driver's licenses.

(image via Advertising Age)

What's more, young people in particular own fewer cars than previous generations and are driving a lot less. The most cited reason is concern for the environment -- cars are the single greatest cause of climate change, and contribute to a host of other environmental problems -- but observers see a convergence of an increasing preference for compact urban neighborhoods and high adoption of technology:

"[A]lmost everything about digital media and technology makes cars less desirable or useful and public transportation a lot more relevant. Texting while driving is dangerous and increasingly illegal, as is watching mobile TV or working on your laptop. All, at least under favorable wireless circumstances, work fine on the train. The internet and mobile devices also have made telecommuting increasingly common, displacing both cars and public transit."

Meanwhile, the hippest things around are all about transforming urban spaces for livability. Urban gardening is huge in both Europe and the U.S., of course (though arguably less important for restoring local food resilience than protecting a city's food shed through farmland preservation and direct support of local farmers -- but that's a story for another time). Biking is becoming mainstream in some North American cities (with a surge in political activism by bikers as they realize how completely hostile to bicyclists transportation planning culture is, especially in the U.S.). And the creation of temporary public spaces in parking lots, dead malls and back alleys are hot urban planning innovations.

(image via Metropolis Magazine)

Not that it's easy. Metropolis has an interesting short interview with Andres Power, who plans temporary parks for San Francisco:

Andres Power: Im technically an urban designer in San Franciscos Planning Department. So I work on large capital improvement projects like sidewalk widening, bulb-outs, street replantings. A capital improvement project can take ten years from the moment that its funded to when its built, but a temporary park can go from an idea to a grand opening in three months.
The Pavement to Parks plaza program was inspired by the work of Janette Sadik-Khan, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. Since she was appointed by Bloomberg, shes really pushed the relationship between New York and its streets. We were blown back by what she was doing, using this temporary process to create public space.

Of course, San Franciscos mayor doesnt have the same power that the mayor of New York does.

AP This makes a big difference. Cities like New York have a strong hierarchical structure. We dont have that in San Francisco. And so when there are differences in opinion between groups or agencies, it can be almost impossible to get things done. The first plaza that went in, at 17th and Castro, had a history going back almost ten years of the community talking about using that space. But making it temporary made it happen. Then, the parklets were inspired by PARK(ing) Day .

Which is indigenous to San Francisco.

AP Right. That was started by Rebar . By the way, New York just put in its first parklet, inspired by us. So its coming full circle. And lots of other cities: Portland, Seattle, DC, LA.theyre interested in putting in parklets.

Our plaza program is not exactly like New Yorks. Their Department of Transportation designs their plazas in-house, with their engineers and landscape designers. Which has its advantages. Their plazas are incredibly replicable, efficient, and easy. But in having different local designers work on ours, we have something more organic and site-specific. And theres more room for whimsical projects.

Does the City of San Francisco not have its own designers?

AP DPW does have the in-house talent. But we like working with local professionals and having this partnership between the city, and local designers, and local manufacturers. One reason why the program is so incredibly inexpensive is that the designers are doing it pro bono. And a lot of the materials have been donated, or sold to us at cost.

Theres talk of simplifying the permit process for these temporary plazas. How is that going to happen?

AP The plazas will always likely require some input from the various city agencies, including DPW and the municipal transportation agency. But were working with these same agencies on developing a permit system that will allow anyone willing to hold a permit for a space - a business, a nonprofit, a group of people - to apply to put in a parklet.

This last point touches on something I've been hearing a lot about from multiple quarters recently, which is the degree to which urban bureaucracies throughout the developed world are having a hard time gearing up innovation at the speed which circumstances demand it. As we've discussed before, innovation and experimentation are key to the kind of rapid progress we'll need to see in cities if they're going to respond to the scope, scale and speed of the present planetary crisis, but out-dated rule systems and NIMBY politics have in many cities ground truly new thinking almost to a halt. That needs to change.

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(Posted by Alex Steffen in Urban Design and Planning at 11:30 AM)

Transportation's True Cost and AuthorAid

World Changing 07/09/2010 20:00

Looking back two and five years ago today on Worldchanging:

2009
How Much Does Transportation Really Cost?
Hassan Masum explores the true cost of transportation by examining a study from Transport Canada...

2005
AuthorAid
Jamais Cascio reports on AuthorAid, a proposal for helping more scientists get their voices heard...

Other recent "look backs":
September 2
September 3
September 6

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Transportation at 10:00 AM)

Bus to the Future: Inventor Song Youzhou Presents the 'Straddling Bus'

World Changing 07/09/2010 01:30

You may have already seen renderings of the 'Straddling Bus' when the concept made headlines last month. Now, chinadialogue has posted a six and a half minute video of the inventor, Song Youzhou, explaining the idea, including how the bus works and current plans to make it a reality within the year. It's definitely worth a viewing if you're curious to learn more about the concept.

I think the 'Straddling Bus' is an exciting example of how designers are imagining the future of transportation. It will be interesting to see how this project moves from concept to reality, and according to Youzhou, we won't have to wait long! He says that Beijings Mentougou District already has plans to build 186km of infrastructure for the new system with construction starting at the end of the year.

Note: I was not able to capture the embed code for chinadialogue's video, which is in Chinese with English subtitles, but I found the same video with an English language computer voice over on YouTube, which is below:

The original video in Chinese can be found at Umiwi.com.

A full English transcription of the video is available on ChinaHush.

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(Posted by Amanda Reed in Transportation at 3:30 PM)

The Back Story

World Changing 07/09/2010 00:30

Worldchanging's Executive Editor Alex Steffen has long touted the benefits of product backstories -- see "Principle 1: The Backstory" or "Spinach, Feedlots and Knowing the Backstory " for examples -- and now The New York Times is getting hip to the idea: The Back Story

It's always great to see the spread of Worldchanging ideas!

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(Posted by Amanda Reed in Purchasing Green at 2:30 PM)

Link Round-Up: Energy Efficiency Curbs Climate Change, Smart Land Use = More Jobs, How To Encourage Home Energy Efficiency, and Designers Facilitating Social Change

World Changing 06/09/2010 23:30

Let's start out this link round-up with a hopeful proposition: "America can become vastly more efficient, and we can do it thanks to our track record of innovation." That's what Frances Beinecke, at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), writes in her recent post about David Goldstein's new book on efficiency...

New Book Says Potential for Efficiency Is Much Larger than Previously Thought:

In yesterdays New York Times, NRDCs David Goldstein said that America could reduce our projected energy use by more than 80 percent in the next 40 years.
That may sound like a bold claim, but in his new book, Invisible Energy: Strategies to Rescue the Economy and Save the Planet, David explains exactly why these enormous gains in energy efficiency are possible.

[...]

In his new book, David takes what we know about innovation curves in other technologies and applies it to the realm of efficiency. He concludes that we could reduce our energy use by 30 percent in 2020 and by 88 percent in 2050.

Considering that every kilowatt of energy we save is a kilowatt we dont have to produce at a coal-fired, natural gas, or nuclear power plant, Davids estimates confirm that efficiency is our most potent weapon in the fight to curb climate change.

Kaid Benfield, also at the NRDC, gathers together a series of studies and reports that show how investing in public transit, revitalizing and restoring neighborhoods, and building green buildings all create jobs...

Job Creation through Smart Land Use & Transportation:

The nations workforce has an important stake in smart, environmentally sound development and transportation. At a time when unemployment has reached disturbing levels, public policy should take advantage of the job-creation benefits of a robust agenda for smart, sustainable communities. I wont pretend to know every aspect, but lets look at three categories:

Public transit
People take for granted that shovel-ready highway projects create jobs. But investment in public transportation may be even more effective in generating employment. Yesterday, just in time for Labor Day, the Transportation Equity Network released a report showing that US metro regions that give a high priority to transit generate more jobs per dollar spent on transportation than do regions that emphasize highways...

Shifting back to energy efficiency...the folks over at The Design Council, in coordination with the UK-based Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), have released a PDF proposal that looks at "how to encourage the adoption of home insulation and other low-carbon home modifications."

How Can We Help People Make Their Homes More Energy Efficient?:

A joint proposal How can we help people make their homes more energy efficient? shows how user-centred design research has helped DECC understand how consumers feel about installing cavity wall insulation or lagging their loft and it shows that people feel disengaged with the overarching environmental issues.

If the Warm Homes, Greener Homes strategy's ambition of completing loft and cavity wall insulation for every home by 2015 and installing up to 7 million eco-upgrades beyond insulation by 2020, is to be achieved, DECC know it needs to take advantage of any currently unmet opportunities to improve the uptake of energy efficiency measures. Design Council user-centred research mapped the complexity of the customer journey and identified a number of strategic opportunities for encouraging the uptake of energy efficiency measures.

Cameron Tonkinwise reviews a new exhibition at the Abrons Art Center in the Lower East Side of New York City, which explores the role of designers in facilitating social change.

"Politics Please, We're Social Designers":

What happens if design-based social innovation is not just a way of avoiding conventional, explicit politics, but a way of undermining politics altogether?

The exhibition is not a curation of findings at the end of the project, but a research tool in the middle of a project. It is one of a number of initiatives that are part of the Amplifying Creative Communities project to find examples of people who have taken it upon themselves to innovate new ways of resourcing their everyday lives, normally involving some sort of sharing. The assumption is that people around the world are giving up waiting for government or business to develop more sustainable (both ecologically and socially) ways of living and working, and so are starting to do it for themselves. Having found these sorts of innovations, the project is then exploring how design can enhance their effectiveness, and how design can help others take up similar innovations.

The Amplifying Creative Communities project is therefore about the sustainability of sustainability. It is about making the sort of innovations toward more sustainable societies that are arising in neighborhoods all over at the moment more sustainable, that is, less fragile and more permanent, less sporadic and more pervasive.

Compared to a lot of 'social design' currently being done, DESIS is interesting because of the emphasis it places on design as redesign...

Related stories in the Worldchanging archives:

Grandeur of Delusions: Thoughts on the Public Perceptions of Energy Consumption and Savings Study | Roger Valdez, 19 Aug 10

A recent studyPublic perceptions of energy consumption and savingsconducted by researchers at Columbia University, Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University found two broad categories of energy saving actions people could take, curtailment actions and efficiency actions. Curtailment actionsturning the heat off or downwere seen as saving the most energy, while efficiency actionsinstalling insulation or a new boilerwere seen as saving less energy. Its actually the other way around.

The problem is that the actions people intuitively perceived as having the biggest value actually had the smallest savings. Making retrofits, for example, saves far more energy than turning down the heat a few degrees. This confusion throws a serious kink into efforts to make policy changes that promote energy efficienciesand might speak to the need for more gradual mandates to promote efficiencies in the residential sector.

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(Posted by Amanda Reed in E

Plumpy'nut Update

World Changing 06/09/2010 21:30

Plumpy'nut is a vitamin-enriched mash that's designed specifically to help malnourished children return to health. It can be made with local ingredients, side-steps problems of using dirty water in powdered milk, and can be provided by mothers without direct medical supervision. In short, as Jamais Cascio wrote five years ago, it's "a simple idea, well-executed, with significantly positive results and opportunities for local empowerment." The New York Times Magazine has an update on the Plumpy'nut story; Andrew Rice explores how the easily replicable, yet trademarked, peanut paste has evolved, and been imitated, over the last five years: The Peanut Solution.

Thumbnail image shows children eating a peanut paste at a seaside tent camp in Haiti. Photo by Maggie Steber for The New York Times.

Related stories:
Principle 18: Sustainable Food | WorldChanging Team, 30 May 07

Food of the Future, and the Future of Food | Alex Steffen, 26 Feb 07

Hope for Hungry Children, Arriving in a Foil Packet | Michael Wines for The New York Times, 8 Aug 05

Plumpy'nut | Jamais Cascio, 19 Apr 05

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(Posted by Amanda Reed in Food and Farming at 11:30 AM)
The Living Planet City, Citizens' Assemblies, and denCity

World Changing 06/09/2010 20:30

Looking back one, two and five years ago today (give or take!) on Worldchanging:

2009
New Resource: The Living Planet City
Christa Morris reports on a new website from WWF Canada called the Living Planet City and questions whether it goes far enough in re-imagining our urban way of life...

2009
Citizens' Assemblies: Wise Democracy from the Minipublic
Jason Diceman examines Canada's practice of citizen assemblies as an outstanding example of wise and practical democracy...

2005
Dencity and the Augmented Environment
Jamais Cascio explores mega-tagging tools like denCity and Yellow Arrow as part of his ongoing examination of the Participatory Panopticon...

Other recent "look backs":
September 1
September 2
September 3

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Resource - Cities at 10:30 AM)
Upcoming Events in Design and a Call for Reader Reports

World Changing 04/09/2010 03:30

There are three interesting conferences coming up in the design world this month (see below for details). If you are planning to go to any of these events (or even some others we haven't yet heard of), please consider submitting a "Reader Report." We'd love to get your 'inside scoop' and learn more about all of the cool, innovative projects and ideas likely to be presented at these conferences. Please email me at amanda@worldchanging.com if you'd like to contribute a report!

ASLA Annual Meeting: FridayMonday, September 1013 in Washington, D.C.

More than 6,000 landscape architecture professionals from across the U.S. and around the world will gather in Washington, D.C., September 1013, to earn up to 21 professional development hours, to enjoy the fellowship of our profession, and to reconnect with the fundamental elements of design.

The talks and education sessions that I would love to learn more about include: "Landscape Architecture and Public Health"; "Green Roofs for Healthy Cities: Advances in Living Architecture"; "Redefining Water Management: Landscapes and Buildings Under Water "; and "Global Exchange: The Best Sustainable Codes, Standards, and Policies."

The Designers Accord Seattle Town Hall: Thursday, September 23 at 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm, in Seattle, WA

The Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators, and business leaders working together to create positive environmental and social impact. This town hall meeting is your chance to join fellow Seattle designers who care deeply about these issues, and share in the discussion of how we can make designing in sustainable ways a reality in our region.

Topics of discussion include: mapping the design process towards sustainability; the role of design in sustainability; and collaboration.

Green Building Festival 2010: WednesdaySaturday, September 2225, 2010 at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto, Canada

Sustainable Buildings Canada is pleased to present the 6th annual Green Building Festival. Join us for 3 days of speakers, training and building tours along with IIDEX/Neocon, Canada's premier architecture and design expo.

The seminar titles I find intriguing in the schedule include: "Sustainable Development: Policy, Planning and Infrastructure"; "Contemporary Architecture in Toronto - Past, Present and Where Are We Going?"; "Innovation through the Lens of Transparent Communications"; "Life Cycle Costing for Greenbuilding Design"; "SMART GRID Taking Our Cue From Nature"; and the "Design Panel on Sustainable & Healthy Communities."
...

And of course, don't forget to register for Worldchanging's upcoming event on October 1: FUTURE CITY!

...

For some examples of past "Reader Reports" see these posts in the Worldchanging archives:
Reader Report: Skoll Social Forum | Grace Augustine, 19 Apr 10

Reader Report: Low-cost Clean Tech for Rural Communities | Baskut Tuncak, 25 Feb 10

Reader Report: Investing in a Bright Green Future | Lisa Chacón, 29 Apr 09

Reader Report: Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship | Kristin Hayden, 1 Apr 09

Reader Report: Notes from Greenbuild 2008 | Morgan Greenseth, 15 Dec 08

Reader Report: Sustainability On Campus and Beyond at AASHE 2008 | Xarissa Holdaway, 4 Dec 08

Reader Report: Solar Innovation in Costa Rica | Max Levin, 23 Oct 08

Reader Report: Linking Cities and Climate at The Third International CEU Conference | Faith Cable, 16 Oct 08

Reader Report From the World Cities Summit | Zufan, 18 Jul 08

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(Posted by Amanda Reed in Green Building at 5:30 PM)
Arctic Round-Up: New Sea Routes Opening Up, New Infrastructure Imagined, and Canada's Taking Action

World Changing 04/09/2010 01:30

Melting and thinning ice in the Arctic has proceeded so rapidly that new sea routes are opening up, infrastructure is being imagined, and countries like Canada are working to assert their sovereignty in the north...

Last year, Beluga Shipping became the first shipping company to transport goods through the 'Northeast Passage'; two ships, escorted by a pair of Russian icebreakers, traveled from South Korea to Siberia via the newly broken up NE passage. Now, the sea is ice-free enough in the summer that it is projected to become a regular shipping route as early as next year. As a mark of this change, the Northeast Passage has even been renamed the "Northern Sea Route." Charlie Jane Anders has the story at io9: "2010 Will Be Remembered as the Year the Arctic Ocean Became a Trade Route"

The MV Beluga Fraternity and MV Beluga Foresight traveling through the Northeast Passage, July 2009. (Source: The Boston Globe)

In addition to the new Northern Sea Route (the NE Passage), the 'Northwest Passage' is closer to becoming a viable shipping route connecting the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. As the image below shows, the Northwest Passage was already ice-free in the summer of 2007.

(Image Source: NASA; Credit: Jesse Allen, using data obtained from the Goddard Land Processes data archives (LAADS))

As these Arctic shipping routes open up and Arctic communities become more connected to larger networks of distribution, local economies will likely change and new infrastructure will be needed to support a transition of goods distribution from air to shipping, as well as support growths in population. Infranet Lab explores the design challenges of this transition by looking at one conceptual design proposal for the community of Igloolik: "Frozen Cities/Liquid Networks: (air)Port and Infrastructural Autonomy"

The following project, developed by Amrit Phull and Claire Lubell, in the Frozen Cities/ Liquid Networks studio at the University of Waterloo, examines how new infrastructure can be produced in the Arctic that allows for the transference from air to shipping logistics and, while doing so, addresses the issue of food production and coastal erosion in the Arctic. It questions how remote coastal communities throughout Canadas Arctic can establish self-sufficiency in anticipation of economic and environmental fluctuations. As stated by Lubell and Phull:
"The proposal seeks to provide a hard infrastructure which responds to the immediate needs of the community, but is also the root of growth in a context where change in landscape, resources and community occurs at varying speeds. In particular the project examines the potential development of Port Churchill as well as a major international port in the Northwest Passage and how this can create a network of small ports, at existing communities, along the west coast of Hudsons Bay."

Rendering of New Infrastructure Typology in Igloolik by Lubell and Phull. (via Infranet Lab)

Canada has been preparing for an ice-free Arctic and asserting its sovereignty for a few years (the military operations in Resolute Bay were announced back in 2007), and this week Anita Dey Nuttall at the Edmonton Journal published an update on Canada's plans in the Arctic: "Canada Stakes a Claim to Arctic Power, Influence"

As the Canadian military exercise Operation Nanook 10 drew to a close this week and Prime Minister Stephen Harper travelled in Canada's North, the federal government made two key announcements that sum up the country's main Arctic priorities.
Both the statement on Canada's Arctic foreign policy and confirmation of the location of the long-awaited High Arctic Research Station in Cambridge Bay place Arctic sovereignty and Arctic science at the heart of Canada's resolve to exercise power and influence in the circumpolar region and indeed in the wider international community.

Added to this, the formal apology to Inuit last week for the government's controversial High Arctic relocation program in the 1950s suggests hope for a new chapter in relations with Inuit communities and organizations.

[...]

As climate change makes the Arctic more accessible, and as energy companies assess the oil and gas development potential in Canada's northern territories, the gaps in Canada's infrastructure in the North, both civilian and military, have been brought into sharp focus. This underscores the urgent need for Canada to organize and augment its defence, civic and scientific facilities in the North to enable good governance and responsible stewardship -- key pieces in exercising its sovereignty in the Arctic. Responding to this, recent moves by the government have therefore included plans for investing in new patrol ships, the building of a berthing and refuelling facility in Nanisivik, expanding the size and capabilities of the Canadian Rangers, and establishing a new Canadian Forces Arctic Training Centre in Resolute Bay.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Operation NANOOK 10 on August 25, 2010, a major sovereignty exercise conducted by the Canadian Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Coast Guard and other government departments and agencies in Canadas North. (via Prime Minister of Canada Website)

For more on the new Arctic Research Station mentioned above, see Hannah Hoag's story for Nature News: "Canada Picks Site for Arctic Research Station"

After months of deliberation, the Canadian government has chosen Cambridge Bay a hamlet midway along the Northwest Passage in the country's far north as the site for a world-class Arctic research station.
Once built, the station will house scientists all year round, giving them a modern space to study Arctic issues, includin