Cities under threat from rapid urbanisation and climate change

Architects, planners, surveyors and engineers from around the globe came together last week to urge Commonwealth countries to take a lead in tackling natural and man-made disasters and problems caused by rapid urbanisation.

“In the next generation there will be 2 billion more people on this earth and half of those people will be living in slums unless we do something about it,” said Vincent Goodstadt, former president of the UK’s Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI).

“We’re talking about a city the size of Madrid being built every month, year in year out, for 20 years,” he told an audience of 80 in a gallery in Clerkenwell, in London’s recently rejuvenated East End. “The scale is really difficult to comprehend.”

Mr Goodstadt was attending a forum organised by Built Environment Professionals in the Commonwealth (BEPIC) – an international association of professionals working with the building industry – ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago this November.

Delegates from organisations as diverse as the International Red Cross, Engineers Without Borders and construction firm Balfour Beatty, as well as Trinidad and Tobago Minister Counsellor Gail Guy, heard how policy-makers and professionals must work together to combat issues made only more urgent by the pace of climate change.

Mr Goodstadt, chairing a panel discussion, argued that architects and planners, among others, should be seen as “part of the solution” to major crises, adding that Commonwealth leaders had the “ability to lead that international, global debate”.

According to research prepared by the RTPI for the Commonwealth Consultative Group on Human Settlements meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, last month, the urban population of the Commonwealth is set to climb a staggering 73 per cent between 2000 and 2015.

The scale of urban spread threatens agricultural land, food security and the living standards of the poorest, in addition to forest areas vital for absorbing damaging CO₂ emissions.

Forum delegates were asked to suggest issues to take forward to Trinidad and Tobago – including presenting exemplar sustainability projects to leaders and examining whether Western-style development models can be integrated in developing countries.

Tony Godwin, executive director of the Commonwealth Association of Architects, expressed the hope that CHOGM would address issues of disaster management, climate change and making buildings and urban settings more environmentally friendly.

“Cities [within the Commonwealth] are some of the largest in the world, and you find the majority of countries fall within tropical parts which have more than their fair share of natural disasters. That is why Commonwealth countries should take a lead,” he said.

“If we can work with BEPIC to raise awareness of the input that architects as well as other built environment professionals can bring to the urban planning process, that would be wonderful.”

During a series of presentations, delegates heard how planning policy across the Commonwealth has developed over the last 60 years, with cases studies on India and Nigeria. Speakers also looked at issues of corruption and the affordability of sustainability.

Tony Lloyd-Jones, director of the Max Lock Centre for international development at Westminster University in London, used the event to launch a new guide for humanitarian agencies dealing with crisis preparation and reconstruction.

The ‘Built Environment Professions in Disaster Risk Reduction and Response’ publication, designed with the help of BEPIC member organisations including the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, was produced in the wake of lessons learned after the Asian tsunami of 2004.

“It was felt that at that time there was a gap between the emphasis on relief after disasters and longer-term reconstruction,” said Mr Lloyd-Jones.

“It is very apt that we are launching this document today ... BEPIC is really a model of the collaboration of professions that is also behind this document.”

The forum was chaired by Clifford Dann, chairman of the Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy.

Related Websites:

• Built Environment Professions in the Commonwealth (BEPIC)
• Commonwealth Engineers’ Council
• ComHabitat
• Commonwealth Association of Architects