SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT BASED ON BIOMIMICRY CONCEPT

Abstract

Can cities behave like Nature...??? Sustainability has always been an aim for any development to ensure our existence on the Earth. In early ages, finding shelter in caves and eating animals, sustained human life. Later agriculture and shelter became essential feature to provide sustainability. Gradually our activities changed and the changing "needs" transformed into "wants". Endless wants exploited more and more resources to fulfill our requirements. Each product was accompanied by its by-product or waste. Today we realize that unplanned approach of consuming resources is responsible for over exploitation of resources, increased energy requirements and degradation of environment which are proving to be dangerous for our survival. Pondering on this matrix we come up with an observation that sustainability meant different in early ages than what it means now. In other words, the means to achieve sustainability has changed from time to time, and thus we may conclude that sustainability is contextual. At present we need to realize that harming nature is our biggest mistake which now is at alarming stage. Nature is the only medium without which our survival is not possible therefore the human activities and development should be nature oriented. The best way to understand and live with nature is to observe and act like it, till the time we, and our cities behave like nature: The bottom line thus comes out to be: To `live in nature' or to `live with nature' we should `live like nature'. Sustainable development is a response to awareness, which attempts to find planning solutions that tend to engage the well-being and co-existence; based on three fundamental concepts; based on three fundamental concepts of objectives, means and end. The traditional planning concepts and their reinterpretations and limitations require the need to search for alternatives. The paper attempts to study the efforts made to achieve nature like urban development, by introducing the concept of biomimicry and evolving thoughts to act like nature, by producing energy from renewable sources, optimization of transport system and services and efficient waste disposal and treatment. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON BIOMIMICRY CONCEPT 1 CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND The need for finding long-term Sustainable design and development solutions; which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, that warrant continuing human existence and well-being is far more compelling in these days of depleting resources and catastrophic climate change, than in the former days. Contrary to sustainability, facts like to live like Americans it will require five Earths to fulfill our supply of resources really are eye opener (Smail, August 2007). Unfortunately we have only one earth to live in, and therefore understanding of sustainability needs to be stressed on nature more. Our way of producing energy or . exploiting resources to achieve urban development is extremely inefficient which produces high amount of waste and pollution. Urban development's or our cities translate human activities and further their impacts for ages which should be nature oriented. By observing nature, the way it produces energy from renewable resources and where one's waste is another's food claiming to be no waste concept. In this study efforts are made to achieve nature like urban development, introducing concept of Biomimicry. Evolving thoughts to act like nature, producing energy from renewable resources and treating waste to achieve urban development which makes no difference in nature even after its existence. 1.2 AIM To achieve sustainable urban development based on biomimicry concept. 1.3 OBJECTIVES: To achieve sustainable urban development which will :- • Behave like nature in terms of functionality (resource conservation, energy generation, waste treatment and low carbon emissions). • The development shall generate energy from renewable resources to fulfill all required energy demand of that development. • The transportation within development shall be based on defined hierarchical pattern, and thus the growth will take place in desired pattern. As observed everywhere in nature for example-Foliage of tree or shape of a leaf. • All the generated waste/water to be treated within the development itself. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON BIOMIMICRY CONCEPT 1.4 SCOPE: It has high scope as sustainability has become major challenge. Here efforts have been made at every scale of work. And thus this study can prove itself to be one of the best solutions to problem like climate change, scarcity of resources, ecological footprint, etc. Lessons or principles of Biomimicry can be observed, understood and can be applied on global context to achieve nature oriented developments (to make difference in large scale). 1.5 LIMITATIONS: As this thesis is based on a new concept and lessons derived from nature itself, it may not compliment already made laws and bye-laws or master plan. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON RIOMIMICRY CONCEPT f 1.6 METHEDOLOGY _...._......._........_ ....... ...................._......... AIMS & OBJECTIVES LITERATURE REVIEW • Identification of problem • Aim • Objectives CASE STUDIES ■ Learning from. ..._ ................_................,Jr.............. -..............: nature and ! STUDY AREA - Site in 'L' zone of Delhi developing understanding DATA in urban COLLECTION development's :................................._..........................._................._......................_..................._... context i ■ Existing Plans ■ Photographs ■ Standards PIZIMAIZYM a SEC NDARY f • Physical ■ Reports observations ■ Guidelines ANALYSIS & IDENTIFYING 1. APPLYING BIOMIMICRY CONCEPTTO UKBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON BIOMIMICRY CONCEPT 1.7 Concept of Sustainability Sustainable development is defined as "Development that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". (Development, 1987) Built forms contribute to the impact of development on global ecosystems. It is therefore, important to study the impact of built forms on the totality of the environment. One should take care of it at various stages of development. Developments should be facilitated taking into consideration the entirety of the systems; resource, energy and transport, waster etc. and population of the Nation, along with the specific characteristics of the region being developed. Sustainable development describes the fact that we receive what we need, from the nature; it also talks about mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation of the toxic, greenhouse gases like CO2 which saves environment, and adaptation of the future context with climate change and other challenges. Sustainable development, then,. is afar sighted positive response to awareness that everything we need is received from nature, not a prescriptive formula just for our survival. In other words, the goal of sustainable design is to find development solutions that warrant the well-being and coexistence of constituent groups. Therefore, a conceptual approach to framework is to be developed in order to meet the goal of well - being and coexistence in an effort to attain sustainability. These relate to the environmental responsibilities, creating environmental awareness, explaining the building ecosystem and designing sustairiable built forms for future. In early human history, the, use of fire and desire for specific foods may have altered the natural composition of plant and animal communities(Scholars, 2003).Between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago, Agrarian communities emerged which depended largely on their environment and the creation of a "structure of permanence(Clarke, 1977)Since then whole globe is trying to achieve sustainability to ensure their existence. But it seems harder we are trying to achieve sustainability the tougher it is becoming to achieve it. There are number of such planning and development failures all over the world which challenge to handle the situation prevailing. Not to go any far to recall our own cities and their problems will make picture clear. Starting from resources, such as water, electricity, transport, social infrastructure and environmental quality etc. people are not satisfied with the living conditions. Thus in search of sustainability we need to take a pause and think, where actually our blind short term solutions are leading us to. We need to go to our basics; basics of what actually we are, and where we are heading towards. The answer is we are just a negligible contribution to nature, to which everything belongs. We simply forgot our nest to which we belong, and knowingly or unknowingly we started damaging our own home, our shelter, and our living conditions. We need to evolve a new concept so as to develop better understanding of whole process. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON BIOMIMICRY CONCEPT 1.8 NEED FOR ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTS "We cannot solve the problems by the same iii inking that created them ". -Albert Einstein It is important to understand the limitation of traditional design models to generate unique built forms that meet the requirements of sustainable developments. Mostly, the inability in the traditional models is manifest by way of stereotyped inherent thinking which leads to typical designs. As we are still unable to produce nature conscious developments, environmental aspect is degrading from bad to worse. It is worthwhile to ponder the words of Albert Einstein "We cannot solve the problems by the same thinking that created them". Due to the lack of novelty in conceptualization and approach, such designs offer very little scope for sustainable solutions such as optimization and lowering of energy and resource consumption. This problem of stereotype could be resolved creatively by a search for alternate models in designs. Nature, at this stage, presents itself with harmonious designs that are sustainable, self-supporting and.self-organizing. Solutions that are found in the harmonious natural systems are always in evolution, perfecting and adapting to their contexts. Thus, what is seen today has been working over billions of years for evolving a reliable and sustainable model. Adoption of these evolved models in human designs would facilitate the making of future systems better sustainable; environmentally, ecologically and economically. Hence, Biomimicing reveals itself as a fine model to follow in the generation of alternative sustainable design solutions (Phillips, 2009).............