KKKH 4284 SUSTAINABLE URBAN PLANNING

KKKH4284 SUSTAINABLE URBAN PLANNING

SEMESTER II, SESSION 2014/2015

TASK 6 GLOBAL WARMING

NAME:
TAN WEI ZHOU

MATRIC NO:
A138166

DEPARTMENT:
CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

LECTURER:
PROF. IR. DR. RIZA ARIQ ABDULLAH BIN O.K RAHMAT
DR. MUHAMAD NAZRI BIN BORHAN

KKKH 4284 SUSTAINABLE URBAN PLANNING

PROBLEM
Supposed you are living in a coastal city. The city administrator has noticed that the mean sea
level has been rising for the past 50 years. The raising is small but over a long period of time
it may cause problems in the city center as the level of that part of the city is quite low. If you
are hired as a consultant, write a plan of action on what can be done to reduce or mitigate the
problems.

SOLUTION
As a hired consultant, the accelerated warming of the global climate may seem like a
remote concern to me. First of all, I have to consider and list down all the impacts of
global warming to the city. The impact of rising sea level due to global warming might be
severe as the city is just nearby the coastal area and the level of that part of the city is
quite low.
Climate change could affect coastal areas in a variety of ways. Coasts are
sensitive to the sea level rise, changes in the frequency and intensity of storms, retreating
and eroding shorelines, dying coral reef, salt water intrusion intro freshwater aquifer,
increases in precipitation, and warmer air and sea surface temperatures. The impacts of
climate change are likely to worsen many problems that coastal areas already face.
Shoreline erosion, coastal flooding, and water pollution affect man-made infrastructure
and coastal ecosystems.
In addition, rising atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) causing the
oceans to absorb more of the gas and become more acidic. This rising acidity could have
significant impacts on coastal and marine ecosystems. Contronting existing challenges is
already a concern. Addresing the additional stress of climate change may require new
approaches to managing land, water, waste and ecosystems. In coming years, these
effects may become more common and increasing severe.

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The major problems faced by city as following:

Coastal communities are seeing more frequent flooding during high tides. As sea
level rises higher over the next 15 to 30years (refer to figure 1.1), tidal flooding is
expected to occur more often, cause more disruption (local transportation and
daily life) and even render some areas unusable. High tides and storm surges
riding on ever-higher seas are more dangerous to people and coastal infrastructure.

Coastal forests, coral reefs, sand dunes, wetlands, barrier islands, mangrove
stands, mud and sand are the natural habitat that protects the coastline from
hazards such as hurricane storm surges. However, these natural habitats are
increasingly threatened, unless there are obstructions along the retreat path. If
they cannot move, these natural protections are washed over or drowned. Their
current defenses will not be enough as the water level rises.

Many shorelines have structural defenses such as sea walls, jetties and others to
protect coastal resources, buildings, roads, and also human. In these areas, sealevel rise cause the increase of erosion of beaches, wetlands and engineered
structures.

Global emissions are rising rapidly, and are on a trajectory to push surface temperatures
more than 2C above the preindustrial average- the threshold beyond which scientists
say dangerous climate change becomes unavoidable. To stay below this threshold, and
slow the rate of sea level rise later, global carbon emissions need to be peak and begin to
decline. Leaders at all levels of government need to take seriously the risks facing people
living along the coasts and the urgent need for action in order to minimize the impact of
global warming to the coastal city. Mitigations strategies lie on our daily activities and
needs. We must tackle in these issues as these are the main contributor for greenhouse
gases which lead to global warming.

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Figure 1.1: Increasing sea level due to global warming

What is Mitigation?
Mitigation is an intervention to reduce the causes of changes in climate, such as through
reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. (Rae Zimmerman & Craig
Faris, 2011)
There is no single solution to global warming, which is primarily a problem of too much
heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere. The
technologies and approaches outlined below are all needed to bring down the emissions
of these gases to minimize the global warming effect. Scope of work included:

Ensuring sustainable development

Climate change and development are increasingly recognized to be closely
interlinked. On one hand, climate change influences key natural and human living
conditions, as well as social and economic development. The countries of the
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world from the most to the least developed vary dramatically in their
contributions to the problem of climate change and in their responsibilities and
capacities to confront it. A successful global compact on climate change must
include financial assistance from richer countries to poorer countries to help make
the transition to low-carbon development pathways and to help adapt to the
impacts of climate change.

Greening transportation
Transportation, being a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, is the
prime target to reducing air pollution and obtaining sustainable environment.
There are a lot of issues with the current transportation system, it causes not just
environmental harm, but bad land use practices, many sorts of economic problems,
resource supply problems, health problems (both physical and emotional), and is
contributing to fears that our society is not viable over the have long term. As
being a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, is the prime target to
reducing air pollution and obtaining sustainable environment. This lead to Green
Transportation, which means any kind of transportation practice or vehicle that is
eco-friendly and does not have any negative impact on the immediate
environment.
Green transportation involves effective and efficient resource utilization,
changes in transportation structure and making healthier travel choices. This
demands enhanced public awareness and participation, control of private vehicles
and development of vehicles powered by renewable energy sources such as solar,
wind, electricity, biofuels etc. Though it is much more comfortable and
convenient to drive ones own private vehicle to a destination but being
responsible world citizens we should opt for green transportation modes that are
easily accessible to everyone especially walking, cycling and taking public
transport.

KKKH 4284 SUSTAINABLE URBAN PLANNING

Boosting energy efficiency

Reducing the amount of energy the world wastes is the first and best step toward
fighting global warming. Almost one-half of the necessary climate mitigation will
need to come from improved energy efficiency. Eliminating energy waste and
improving energy efficiency is the most constructive and cost-effective ways to
address the challenges of high energy prices, energy security and independence,
air pollution, and global climate change.

Local governments can take a wide range of approaches by provide

technical assistance as well as informational resources to promoting energy
efficiency such as achieve substantial energy cost saving across their facilities,
demonstrate environmental leadership, and raise public awareness of energy
efficiency benefits associated with reducing CO2 emissions. In addition to
improving the efficiency of existing and new facilities, local governments can
incorporate energy criteria into product procurement decisions.

Revving up renewables
The use of renewable energy-supply technologies such as solar, wind, geothermal
and biomass must be enlarged and available around the world. Multiple studies
have shown that renewable energy has the technical potential to meet the vast
majority of our energy needs. Renewable technologies can be deployed quickly,
are increasingly cost-effective, and create jobs while reducing pollution.
Renewable energy sources must either be used in a distributed manner or
concentrated to meet the higher energy demands of cities and industries. Only by
developing an entire portfolio of energy sources will we be able to m eet the
short, medium and long term needs of a nation and world increasingly
dependent on inexpensive, reliable energy.

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Managing forests and agriculture

Forestry, agriculture and climate change are closely linked, posing challenges for
the coordination of development, adaptation and mitigation policies. Land-use
change in the form of deforestation and forest degradation is a major source of
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There are three major ways to store additional
carbon in forests (including soil):

1. Preventing long term deforestation

In some cases, forested areas are harvested but not replanted, or land is
converted to non-forestry or non-agricultural use. This limits the Earths
natural ability to regulate greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide.
This can be offset by reducing long-term or permanent deforestation.

2. Increasing tree planting

More trees can be planted on marginal land, such as less-productive
agricultural land. This directly removes additional carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere, and locks it away in the woody tissue of the trees.

3. Improving forest management

Advanced forest management practices can be adopted more quickly and
uniformly, particularly in developing countries where they have not yet
taken hold. With such techniques, forests can be managed for long-term
health and carbon storage as well as for wood production.

Phasing out the uses of fossil fuels

Fossil fuel phase out is the proposed energy transition beyond fossil fuels through
multiple means, including transport electrification, decommissioning of operating
fossil fuel-fired power plants and prevention of the construction of new fossilfuel-fired power stations. The purpose of dramatically reducing our use of fossil
fuels especially carbon intensive coal is to reduce air pollution, mining tragedies,
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and greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change. A move to the many
forms of renewable energy is involved in shifting away from fossil fuels.

Developing and deploying new low-carbon and zero-carbon technologies

Research into and development of the next generation of low carbon technologies
will be critical to deep mid-century reduction in global emission. Low carbon
energy relates to the energy sources which generate fewer greenhouse gases
during the power conversion. Low carbon technologies consist of zero carbon
generation processes and energy sources like wind power, solar energy and
geothermal power. There is now unlimited application of renewable and
alternative energy technologies like low carbon technologies. Current research on
battery technology, new materials for solar cells, harnessing energy from novel
sources like bacteria and algae, and other innovative areas could also provide
important breakthroughs.

Low carbon technologies like carbon capture and storage, natural gas and
combined cycle gas turbines, hydroelectric power, wind power, solar power,
nuclear power, geothermal power and tidal power are the great way to reduce the
burden of carbon dioxide on atmosphere and prevent our planet from global
warming. The low carbon standard promotes the reduction of life cycle emission
of gases. It can also help to divert the attention of fuel suppliers to also make use
of cheap and environment friendly fuels like ethanol. The worlds have realized
that the use of alternative energy sources for producing electricity is soaring very
high. This would not only provide us clean environment but would also help us to
lower the burden of foreign oil form our economy

Exploring nuclear
Because nuclear power results in few global warming emissions, an increased
share of nuclear power in the energy mix could help reduce global warming.
However, there is still have a disadvantage as nuclear technology poses serious
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threats to our security and, as the accident at the Fukushima Diaichi plant in Japan
illustrates to our health and the environment as well. Thus, issue of safety,
proliferation, waste disposal, and cost barriers of nuclear power have to be
overcome by government and private company before we proceed to explore
nuclear.
Mitigation and Adaptation strategies must be complementary and interconnected in
order to put solid policies saving coastal cities from the threats of Global warming. The
coastal cities must develop Adaptation strategies also as the mitigating climate change
and reducing GHG emission will not prevent sea level from rising or weather pattern
from changing. For examples:
a) Form a Collaborative Adaptation Task Force composed of all relative city
departments, urban planners and designers, knowledgeable businessmen,
scientists, academics, analysis experts, NGOs, engineers, and private sector
representatives, in order to put a plan addressing the specific needs of the city
and prioritize future action.
b) Establish a risk assessment map to help the city prioritize and allocate its funding
effectively.
c) The risk assessment will make it clear if and where methods of flood protection
need to be developed. Cities must choose the most appropriate measures to
protect themselves from (Sea Level Rise) and flooding. Each city must adapt the
techniques suitable to its situation.
d) Cities must develop plans to beware and educate their population of the dangers
of (Sea Level Rise) and flooding so that the people could take part in the
implementation of the Adaptation strategies.
e) There must be coordination between all the relative authorities in order to take
advantage of their already established programs and any available funding and
share information with other coastal states in an effort to become increasingly
knowledgeable on Sea Level Rise.

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CONCLUSION
The impacts of a global warming world are already felt by people around the globe. If the
climate change continue unchecked and become severe, these impacts are almost certain
to get worse.

All stakeholders must work together and their efforts must be

complementary and integrated to fight against climate change impacts. This fact should
take into consideration by all the cities, states and countries over the world. The most
important option that communities and governments must focus on, in my view, is to
develop local and national strategies in which Mitigation and Adaptation plans
complement each other. Developed countries must take a leadership role in providing
financial and technical help for adaptation, especially for the poor, vulnerable and those
in the least developed countries.

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