I spent yesterday attending the first day of the 2008 Ecocity World Summit Academic and Talent Scouting Sessions, which gave attendees a view of academic research aimed at solving some of our toughest global challenges in urban planning.  (The Main Conference begins April 24.) 

Green Building has become a prominent international concern in recent years, given that nearly half of the world's 6 billion people live in cities.  The challenge to reduce environmental impact through urban design improvement is being tackled by professionals and students alike around the world, such as Jordi Oliver-Sola of Spain and Jeremy Gabe of New Zealand. 

Oliver-Sola's work "Life Cycle Assessment as a Tool for Designing More Sustainable Cities" focuses on energy demands of housing developments of varying densities in Barcelona.  By comparing length of natural gas pipe and service life of components in the three developments, Oliver-Sola determined that length of pipeline was the key factor in minimizing energy demands.  Single-family homes with longer grids are more demanding than housing developments consisting of townhouses or apartments, which supply more inhabitants with necessary fuels on a shorter grid. 

Jeremy Gabe's work "Feasibility of a Performance-Based Framework for Monitoring Integrated Sustainability at the Neighborhood Scale" compared two Auckland, New Zealand, developments  to determine the feasibility of developing shared principles of sustainable development on a neighborhood scale.  Gabe cited the lack of common sustainability assessments for neighborhoods as complicating the process. He says contextual differences -- ie the goals of the communities -- between the two developments could make it difficult to share principles in sustainable urban design.  One community was built by commercial developers and was more of a "top down" driven agenda while the other was a native Maori community that was building on native lands. Core similarities existed in their environmental objectives, however, so there was potential for sharing basic principles. 

The Ecocity World Summit offers a refreshing variety and quality of presenters looking to share their achievements in sustainable development. These academic researchers can provide important data and analysis for city planners and builders to use in making progressive changes in sustainable urban planning.  Collectively we can simultaneously build better communities for both people and the environment.