Resilient Downtowns

Street design is among the most important environmental decisions a community makes, affecting everything from clean air and water to efficient land use and the quality of animal, plant, and human life. A well-designed, people-oriented street encourages environmental sustainability by emphasizing the inherent green features of Main Street districts, including the compact blocks, density, and green spaces that make them walkable and accessible.

Retaining the compact layout of historic cores, incorporating green and efficient streetscape elements, and reusing older and historic buildings — all core tenets of people-oriented streets — positively contribute to the environmental sustainability and resilience of downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts.

Adverse effects of car-oriented streets can include:

• Greenhouse gas emissions
• Flooding due to impermeable road surfaces
• Water pollution from heavy metal and toxic chemicals
• Habitat loss and fragmentation
• Heat Island Effect
• Resource consumption

People-oriented approaches can result in these environmental benefits:

• Reduced climate impact
• Biodiversity, flood control, and water management
• Resilience
• Energy efficiency and resource preservation
• Cooler surface temperatures

Recursos

• The Center for Neighborhood Technology
  • Green Values™ National Stormwater Management Calculator
  • The Value of Green Infrastructure A Guide to Recognizing Its Economic, Environmental and Social Benefits
• Badger, Emily (CityLab) — The Way We Build Cities Is Making Them Flood
• Agencia de Protección del Medio Ambiente
  • Benefits of a Green Street
  • Learn About Heat Islands
  • Overview of Air Pollution from Transportation
  • Phase 1: Preliminary Environmental Investigation of Heavy Metals in Highway Runoff
  • Smart Growth and Transportation
• Envi​ron​men​talScience​.org — The Environmental Impact of Roads
• Global Designing Cities Initiative — Streets for Environmental Sustainability
• Institute for Transportation and Development Policy — Climate and Transport Policy
• Fondo Nacional para la Conservación Histórica
  • America Saves: Communities Saving Energy Together
  • Atlas of ReUrbanism: Buildings and Blocks in American Cities
  • El edificio más ecológico: Cuantificación del valor medioambiental de la reutilización de edificios
  • Older, Smaller, Better in Tucson
  • Older, Smaller, Better: Measuring how the character of buildings and blocks influences urban vitality
  • Realizing the Energy Efficiency Potential of Small Buildings
• Oklahoma Main Street Program — Historic Building Energy Efficiency Guide
• Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport — Documents
• Project Drawdown — Transport Mass Transit
• Proyecto de Espacios Públicos
  • Design That’s Environmental
  • Placemaking Drives Resilient Cities
  • Sustainability and Resiliency
• Poon, Linda (CityLab) — Urban Flooding Is Worryingly Widespread in the U.S., But Under-Studied
  Shared Mobility Principles for Livable Cities
• Union of Concerned Scientists
  • Cars, Trucks, Buses and Air Pollution
  • With Ambitious New Program, States Unite to Fight Climate Change by Cutting Transportation Emissions
• U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit — Transportation
• U.S. Green Building Council — LEED for Neighborhood Development
• Walls, Ginette and Etter-Wenzel, Cassandra (TheCityFix) — With Transportation Data, These Cities Became More Sustainable and Socially Inclusive
• World Resources Institute
  • Publications Search
  • Transit-oriented Development (TOD) Guide for Urban Communities

¿Tiene algún recurso que le gustaría añadir? Rellene este formulario.