Creating sustainability within cities can be
difficult. A paper by Luigi Fusco discusses how cities can develop economy
synergy by fostering creativity, resilience, and sustainability (2011). His
work is more focused on port cities but does highlight the concept that human
elements are important considerations in the development of cities that will
survive change. These factors may
actually be measured to help ensure that cities are moving in the right
direction.
Creativity is a powerful energy source for redevelopment.
With creativity people can solve problems, develop new products, and find new
ways to doing things. This creativity helps develop an economic engine with new
ideas and marketable solutions.
Synergy can be seen as the relation principles that help
discus the interconnected nature of business and people. As businesses and
people connect together they develop interactions that can enhance the economic
system. Synergy is based on these social and business networks that focus on a
shared perspective of development.
The author breaks down development into economic
resilience, social resilience, and environmental resilience. The paper focuses
primarily on creating sustainable eco-cities that are economically viable. The
measurements are as follows:
Economic
Resilience:
Funding from local foundations and banks/year
Innovative public procurement
supporting local industries
Regeneration capacity of economic
activities (variations overtime of innovative activities in the area/total
number of activities)
Localization of new creative,
flexible and adaptive activities
Density of networks among
companies
Variation of informal sector
economy
Industrial production activities
integrated in spatial and social context/Total of industrial production
activities
Innovative research
activities/Total of research activities
Number of university
spin-off/year
Incubators of activities
Number of design patents/year
Number of cooperatives
enterprises/Total number of enterprises
Number of micro-businesses/Total
number of enterprises
Density of networks among public
authorities, enterprises and research center
Social
Resilience:
Increase of social cohesion sense
as reflection of circular economic-ecological processes
Percentage of reduction of
unemployed people living in the area
Experiences of self-organization
capacity in neighborhoods
Implementation and upgrading of
existing “public spaces”(number of squares closed to traffic)
Conservation of elements
expressing the area’s cultural identity and memory
Number of events, festivities,
ceremonies, as expression of collective/social memory, in the year
Percentage of people involved in
forums and participative processes/year
Involvement of the III sector in
specific programs/projects/activities (housing cooperative networks, social
housing associations, etc.)
Density of cooperative and
partnership networks
Involvement of local people in
urban planning
Capacity of learning from
explorative experiences
Openness of people to differences
and diversities
Level of interpersonal trust
Perception of belonging to a
specific community
Number of donors/10.000
inhabitants
Environmental
Resilience:
Reduction of vulnerability and
risks levels
Conservation and increase of
green areas (tree planting and maintenance, promotion of green roof and green
façade)
Percentage of local materials
used in productive processes
Conservation and improvement of
landscape quality
Reduced car travel demand
Reduction of motor traffic
Air pollution reduction
Water pollution reduction
Recovery/recycling/regeneration
of waste material (percentage of plastic, metals, tires, slag, cans, glass,
paper reused, recycled and regenerated)
Water recycling (rain water
percentage recovered)
Waste management (self-organized
waste management)
Percentage of local renewable
sources (new electric power plants localization, based on energy innovation)
used in productive processes
Organic waste recycled percentage
(local composting production/year)
Percentage of activities included
in a smart energy grid (to use a variety of fluctuating energy sources)
Localization of new industries
with a low environmental load (ISO and Emas certified)
Number of modern eco-compatible
buildings/Total number of buildings
Luigi, F. (2011).
Multidimensional evaluation processes to manage creative, resilient, and
sustainable city. Aestimum, 59.
