A presentation conducted by Professor Edward J Blakely, Honorary Professor, Urban & disaster recovery expert, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney. Presented on Thursday the 3rd of October 2013. What we term infrastructure today is the built up environment created in the last 100 years to move people and commerce, heat and cool. This infrastructure was created as a buttress against nature. It was built to be solid and immoveable. It also had to be upgraded and repaired in the same places to perform the same functions. Future function were merely linear projections of the past. But the past is no longer prologue. Too much of what we term infrastructure today is not useful for solving today’s problems let along tomorrows. Would we ever create cities on the ocean’s edge, if we knew of sea-level rise? Would we ever create massive non adaptable fixed power stations if we knew fuels would dwindle and centralized systems would be dangerous and unsustainable? We know the answers. But we continue to march backward to the future. In this talk I want to look back to ancient times where cities failed because they were not adaptable and project a future where we will have to create re-generative infrastructure that adapts to its environment and settlement systems that are light on the environment rather than fixed and heavy. This approach calls for a total re-thinking of urban settlement systems and a new generative infrastructure to support them.

1. ENDORSING
PARTNERS
Resilient adaptive and
regenerative
infrastructures for
www.isngi.org
tomorrow
The following are confirmed contributors to the business and policy dialogue in Sydney:
•
Rick Sawers (National Australia Bank)
•
Nick Greiner (Chairman (Infrastructure NSW)
Monday, 30th September 2013: Business & policy Dialogue
Tuesday 1 October to Thursday, 3rd October: Academic and Policy
Dialogue
Presented by: Professor Edward J Blakely, Honorary Professor, Urban &
disaster recovery expert, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney
www.isngi.org

3. Los Angeles ~1952
Human Growth in a Finite
World

5. Government Leadership—Who Me!

6. 
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Home Building Beyond
the Fringe
New Suburban
Commercial Centers
along beltways
Rise of full scale
unconnected
communities on the
fringe

10. Sendai

15. Headline Impact
Human activity implicated in Europe's 2003 heat wave
Man-made pollution during the past century
doubled the chances of the heat wave that hit
Europe last summer, say climatologists.
The sweltering temperatures of August 2003
left many people, particularly the elderly,
struggling to cope killing 20,000 people
throughout Europe.
The heat wave caused many thousands of
extra deaths, while forest fires ravaged large
areas of land, causing $1.6 billion worth of
damage in Portugal.

18. 
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urban environments - incremental:
• Rising sea levels threaten
shorelines and shoreline
development
• Changes in precipitation in
nearby water catchments
lead to water scarcity e.g. Perth
• Heat island effects from hard
surfaces exacerbate heat
waves causing deaths (see NY
Climate & Health Project)
• Sticky unpleasant conditions
induce bad
behaviours/crime waves
• Increased incidence of major
forest fires threaten urban
fringe communities and poison
water catchments

25. Pollution
exporter

26. DROUGHT AND FIRE

28. Happy Jack

35. ROAD DESTRUCTION

42. Holistic Approach
- Best Mix of Mitigation/PreparednessVulnerability
Functionality
100%
Damage
Recovery
Time
Event
Occurrence
Time

43. New Infrastructure Required for Knowledge
Based vs Machine Based Community
1.
Place Creating and Generating Infrastructure
2.
Human Capital Building Infrastructure
3.
Tele-mobility Infrastructure
4.
Social Capital Infrastructure
5.
New Governance Infrastructure

45. Safety of buildings!
 Not
possible at this
stage to have a
safe building “if you
don’t have a safe
community to put it
in” Geis (1994a)

46. Better Place to Live as basic
infrastructure

47. INTEGRATED FACILITIES
 Communities
need to
be based on multiand joint use
facilities that reduce
movement and create
more community
interactions

48. HEALTHY COMMUNITY BY DESIGN

49. HOUSING DIVERSITY

50. DELIVERING NEW COMMUNITY FORM

51. Future Proof Neighborhoods

52. RIVERS
SHORES

53. strategic open space

54.  Determine
Greenspace pattern
 Quantify estimates of surface temperatures
 Develop vulnerability assessments
 Create scenarios and options

56. Quality Places are Safer Places

57. • New materials –
resistant to heat
/ winds, etc
• Floating structures
– Hydropoles
• Computer based
decision support
software for risk
assessment
• GIS based
simulations

59. PLACE WATER AND ENERGY PRODUCTION
THROUGHOUT THE CITY

60. PRODUCE FOOD IN THE CITY REQUIRES A
NEW EASIER INFRASTRUCTURE

65. Build with right materials not cheapest

76. 
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Local Governments
forming regional
companies digitalcom and
new employment
infrastructures
Public-Private Venture
Corporations to provide
both soft and hard
infrastructure for local and
metro communities

81. 
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Master Development Plan
Financing
Environmental Bonds
Development Future as the Goal
for finance Plan not just current
returns
Financing the soci-economic and
environmental sustainability as
key ingredients to measuring
returns

82. High Speed Rail as National
Productivity Connector

83. Sustainable planning
requires a partner
institution privately
sponsored to harness
private investment in
order to deal with vexing
problems that require
public commitment but
rely on private sector
actions.
Creating new leadership for Sustainable Planning

85. ECONOMIC IMPACT ANALYSIS WITH
VALUE CAPTURE APPROACH
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An economic feasibility study of the
project and its effect on the
municipality’s tax base;
A detailed list of estimated project
costs;
A description of the methods of
financing all estimated projects costs
and a cash flow statement;
A map showing existing uses and
conditions of property in the district;
Proposed changes to any zoning
instrument, master plan or other
planning instrument; and
A list of estimated non‐project costs

86. Designing Safe Communities

101. SMART INRASTRCUTURE FACILITY:
• Modeling micro-level impacts esp. extreme weather
events
• Structures - stability, heat
• Infrastructure such as sewerage system overflows
• Streams, lakes - gouging, erosion, mobilization of
toxic
sediments, etc
• Marine environments esp. stability/longevity of
beaches
• Health and social impacts (e.g. NY Health & Climate
ChangeProject)
• Economic and investment ramifications
• Establishing metrics to determine performance
benchmarks

102. Integrating Community
Work, Home, Retailing,
Education and Play

103. Single
Dimensional Live
work/sterile

104. BUILD NEW ECONOMIC AS PART OF
FUTURE PROOFING

105. Neighborhood Safety

108. Function
Affected assets or
activities
Key climate
influence
Possible effects
Sensitivity to
Effects
Planning /
policy
development
Management of private
sector development;
urban expansion;
infrastructure and
communications
planning
All
Inappropriate location of urban expansion areas;
inadequate or inappropriate infrastructure, costly
retro-fitting of systems.
Rivers, groundwater,
drainage, coastal areas,
natural hazards
Coastal
management
Infrastructure;
management of coastal
development
Temperature
changes leading
to sea level
changes;
extreme storm
events
Coastal erosion and flooding; disruption to road
networks, communications; loss of private property
and community assets; water quality impacts.
Coastal areas, natural
hazards
Stormwater
Infrastructure
Increased
rainfall, sea level
rise
Increased frequency of extreme rainfall events
affecting capacity and maintenance of stormwater
infrastructure; increased peak stream flows;
groundwater level changes; changing flood plains and
greater likelihood of damage to properties and
infrastructure.
Rivers, drainage,
coastal areas
Watercare
Management of
watercourses rivers,
lakes, wetlands
Rainfall and
temperature
changes
Increased variation in water volumes possible;
reduced water quality; sedimentation and weed
growth; changes in type/ distribution of pest species
Rivers, lakes, wetlands,
water quality, drainage,
erosion, biosecurity
Transport
Road network and
associated
infrastructure;
management of public
transport; provision of
footpaths, bike tracks,
etc
Extreme rainfall
events; extreme
winds
Disruption due to extreme events; changed
maintenance needs for public transport (road, rail)
infrastructure
Drainage, natural
hazards
Open space and
community
facilities
management
Planning and
management of parks,
gardens, sports fields,
urban open spaces
Temperature/
rainfall changes;
extreme wind and
rainfall events
Changes/reduction in water availability; changes in
biodiversity; changes in type/distribution of pest
species; groundwater changes; saltwater intrusion in
coastal zones; need for more shelter in urban spaces.
Groundwater, drainage,
water availability,
biodiversity, coastal
areas.