How evidencebased solutions can make your city green and livable

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how well do you remember

the city you grew up in do you have

vivid memories of your neighborhood

i recently went on a journey back to

relive those memories

i grew up in madras in the early 70s and

i have

foreign memories of cycling with my

friends to

and from school often stopping at the

marina beach for a quick snack

or a quick game of cricket before

homework the streets

rarely had many vehicles i can still

smell the fragrance of the incense from

the temple

and the filter coffee from the street

stalls the home

was a refuge from the heat the flow

always felt cool on the feet

and the ceiling fans provided all the

comfort we needed

the romance of my stories motivated my

daughter to join me on a trip

back to my city now called chennai

as soon as we landed we were caught in

traffic for an hour and a half

the foul smelling toxic air prevented us

from

lowering the taxi window and as we were

being welcomed by

our friends we were quickly steered into

air-conditioned rooms

i’m not sure my daughter will ever

believe the stories of my wonderful

childhood

when we look around us what sort of

future do we see

a future where air conditioning is on

throughout the day

because of intolerable heat not to

mention

frequent power outages because of the

grid being unable to cope

a future where water is as precious as

oil

coming to us in tankers from far far

away

a future where without without covered

wearing a mask

will become a necessity you know in

spite of

all of these issues there’s little doubt

that cities are places of great

opportunity

and inward migration to cities will

continue at a rapid rate

but at the same time the future will be

rather bleak

if you continue with business as usual

i feel we are at an inflection point not

just for chennai but for all our cities

but it’s not all bad news over the last

decade

working for the world bank ifc i’ve

traveled to more than 100 cities

collecting data analyzing innovations

to see what has worked and what is not

these are some of the more inspiring

solutions i have seen

these experiences and observations have

resulted in us creating a solutions

based tool called

apex apex provides you with information

in real time

and demonstrates the enormous potential

of incremental

improvements it proposes measures

in four key sectors of the city built

environment

public transport water supply and the

one thing that plagues all our cities

thrash or waste management i’m using

chennai as an example but please feel

free to log on and select your own city

as you can see apex predicts the

resources that will be used

by your city in the future if things

continue as they are

you as a user can go through actionable

solutions that will lower the future

impacts

within each of the sectors you have all

of this information at your fingertips

and the complexity has been greatly

reduced so that

anyone can use it for geeks like me apex

also has the ability to show

how much each measure will cost how much

it will reduce in terms of carbon

emissions

and even how many jobs it will add to

the local economy

so that you’re able to understand the

solutions better here are three examples

that have worked

well and show great potential for many

cities

the first example is about the built

environment and energy use

this is freiburg a city in germany and

almost

every roof is covered in solar panels in

chennai we are much luckier

as we have twice the amount of sunlight

let’s say that by year 2050

every household in chennai decides to

install solar panels much like freiburg

there will be 34 drop in the amount of

electricity consumed

this has many indirect but substantial

benefits to your quality of life

firstly your electric bill will be much

lower

you will have air that is less polluted

because generating electricity from coal

causes pollution and finally quite

importantly you will be able to use less

of the finite resources

of the earth the second example is to do

with public transport

rapid economic growth in shanghai led to

disastrously high levels of pollution

due to rising car ownership of course we

all know

how the chinese have invested heavily in

public infrastructure

but what is less known is that over the

last decade they’ve established

dedicated bike lanes

electric vehicles have been incentivized

and you know

at the same time they’ve limited the

number of new cars allowed on the

streets which has ensured that there is

much less pollution

and all of this makes cycling feel less

like hell

and more like an exercise so how would

chennai benefit from such interventions

it will mean 54 decrease in the distance

traveled

by private vehicles less time stuck in

traffic

better air quality and more space for

pedestrians and our children to play

outdoor

finally an example that shows good water

management

i was amazed to see this poster at a bus

stop in singapore

which as you know is a small island

surrounded by saline water

this picture was taken in 1965 today

singapore has managed to create

interconnected catchments of rainwater

along with superbly managed system to

reclaim wastewater

or sewage water they are heading towards

water self-sufficiency which is no small

accomplishment

considering their geographic location if

we did the same in chennai by 2050

water security will increase by 40

how will this impact you as a resident

well

firstly water will flow freely through

your traps when you want

it’ll be much less expensive and it’ll

be much cleaner as it’s not being

brought in by tankers

some of these solutions might seem

bigger than you and some of these issues

might seem insurmountable

but really ultimately policy is actually

driven

by the people if you want your city to

be green and more livable

in the future the time is to act now now

but how you might ask can you meet

with some of your neighbors look at the

information that is available through

tools such as apex

armed with information can you come up

with simple workable vision

can you take this to your cooperator

your policy maker as a group

you know even if there’s no immediate

change information that is

evidence based and compelling will stick

and it will motivate it might be complex

but it needn’t be complicated

if you have the right information and

the right solution

i for one plan to retire in chennai in

15 years and three months approximately

i aim to do all i can to ensure my

grandchildren

visit me not only because they

appreciate my company

but because they love where i live

thank you very much