Current research and initiatives for a green Gauteng City-Region 16 - - PDF document

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Current research and initiatives for a green Gauteng City-Region

16 November 2011 Graeme Gotz, Josephine Musango, Alexis Schaffler

• 1. Context and quick overview of GCRO’s work in relation to a ‘Green Economy’ for

Gauteng – Graeme Gotz

• 2. Metabolic flows and infrastructure transitions – Josephine Musango
• 3. Green assets and infrastructure: Sustainable stormwater drainage in the GCR –

Alexis Schaffler

• 4. Green assets and infrastructure: State of Green Infrastructure – Alexis Schaffler

Overview

Structure of the presentation

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• Gauteng presents both a challenge and opportunity for the greening of South Africa.

Within some 18 000km2 – 11,2 million people, a quarter of SA’s population

Context

Gauteng in the national space economy

• Gauteng = 34% of national GDP; the wider city-region = 43%. A significant part of the

‘problem’ in terms of unsustainable production and consumption ….

• But if we can get things right in Gauteng …..

Context

Gauteng in the national space economy

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• Note that green economy

commitments were already visible (albeit in embryonic form) in GPG’s 2009-2014 MTSF

• Between December 2009 and February

2010, on request from the MEC: DED, GCRO worked with Mark Swilling and

• ther specialists to produce a

Developmental Green Economy Strategy for Gauteng

• Document was notable for taking a

wide view of what it means to green an economy (not just picking a few sectors pre-ordained as green), and for detailed calculations

• The argument in this document was

picked up in the Gauteng Employment Growth and Development Strategy (GEGDS), approved mid-2010

GCRO’s work on a ‘green economy’ for Gauteng

January 2010 ‘Development Green Economy for Gauteng’

Total no of low income sector systems to be installed 666 000 Total cost to install low-income sector systems (discounted (10%) to 2009 Rand for later installations) R 1,189 million Total electricity saved per year when all low-income sector systems installed 543 GWH Estimate of annual electricity bill savings per household per year R 651 Carbon emissions averted per year when all low-income sector systems installed (metric ton) 712,215 tons Carbon Credit revenue per year when all low income sector systems installed R 11.7 million Total jobs created to achieve all high and low income targets with maximum local content 6,707

• In late 2010 GCRO was approached by

GPG: DED to provide support on a Green Strategic Programme

• Process involved two phases over 6

months (January – June 2011)

• Phase 1: Research into existing policies

& strategies. Phase 2: Development of Programme Statements in 9 sectors

• GSP approved mid-August 2011

January – June 2011: Gauteng’s Green Strategic Programme 1. Air Quality 2. Climate Change 3. Economic Development 4. Energy 5. Food Security 6. Land Use 7. Transport 8. Water and Sanitation 9. Waste

GCRO’s work on a ‘green economy’ for Gauteng

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Objective/target Key activities Intergovernmental agreement

• n specifications and

standards of new technologies to receive targeted support

• Work with national departments of Economic Development,

Trade and Industry, etc, as well as IDC and other agencies such as NRCS, to clarify where specifications/standards on new technologies are required before targeted support is provided or mass procurement is implemented (e.g. CFLs vs. LED lighting)

• Work with national partners to agree specifications and

standards for key technologies to be supported / procured Intergovernmental alignment

• n industrial strategy support

for selected industries

• Work with national departments and agencies to investigate

where government requirements for new products and services can create market demand for new industries that are receiving corresponding support from national agencies (esp via IDC) A regional system of innovation geared to support R&D and innovation around green products and services

• Evaluate the degree of support being provided to R&D and

innovation in green products and services within the existing regional system of innovation (e.g. through CSIR, DST‟s bio- economy strategy, university research programmes, etc)

Programme Statement: Economic Development – a small extract

GCRO’s work on a ‘green economy’ for Gauteng

January – June 2011: Gauteng’s Green Strategic Programme

• Note that the GSP calls for work to establish baseline measures against which to

benchmark progress in achieving a greener Gauteng:

• A key commitment is therefore to:

“Ensure that Gauteng is the first province to develop ‘aggregate measures of economic progress’ (a ‘beyond GDP index’), which will include: a system of provincial environmental and economic accounting … and systems to measure urban metabolic flows”

• The next section of this presentation describes the project that will achieve this
• Within the green economy basket of GCRO’s work, we are looking at a further

project next year to investigate the actually existing green economy as it struggles to emerge in Gauteng. We will look at:

• 1. The micro-economy regulations that inhibit green business
• 2. National, provincial and local co-ordination of green economy support
• 3. The contradictions inherent in the system eg the municipal dependence on a

fiscal base that requires consumption of more power, water, waste, fuel, land

• 4. Case studies of green businesses that have failed, or are starting to succeed

GCRO’s work on a ‘green economy’ for Gauteng

Further work in 2012/13

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• This is a 3-year project of the GCRO, aimed at profiling resource consumption and

understanding how infrastructure transitions can promote reduced metabolism

• The project is being built as a collaboration between GCRO, SI and ACC. Broadening

to potential collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Metabolic flows and infrastructure transitions

Overview

• Gauteng City-Region

may be viewed as living organism, with a metabolism of resource inputs, internal functions and waste outputs

• With increased growth in the city region, there is a potential of reaching “resource

limits”

• The question that arises is how to transition infrastructure in order to promote

reduced metabolism

• Can greener and green infrastructure, green technologies, green industries, green

jobs, etc contribute to a reduction in metabolism?

• This project will provide baseline information that is useful in understanding the

fundamental infrastructure transition required, and the potential for greener infrastructure to promote reduced metabolism. It will also provide a ‘benchmark’ against which future change, positive or negative, can be measured.

• It will thereby provide support for policy-makers who need to make decisions on

long-term infrastructure investment policies and programmes

Metabolic flows and infrastructure transitions

Overview

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Methods

(1) Material flow analysis

• A systematic

assessment of the flows and stocks of materials within a system defined in time and space

• A number of

approaches fall within the material flow analysis – economy wide material flow analysis

Methods

• It enables the derivation of indicators reflecting resource productivity, or resource

use efficiency. Has a practical application in policy making – early recognition; priority setting; effective policy making; and tool for communication (1) Material flow analysis

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Methods

(2) Ecological footprint

• Measures the bio-productive area (land and sea) that would be required to

sustainably maintain a given population using the prevailing technology

Ecological footprint of nations South Africa – 4.0 gha/cap World average – 2.8 gha/cap Earthshare – 2.2 gha/cap Bioproductive categories used for footprinting

Methods

(3) System dynamics

• System dynamics is a method that takes account of the interacting processes in a

complex system in dynamic manner over time

• Viewing city region as a

complex system enables identification of identify interlinking factors

• Can combine physical

resource issues with social and economic behaviours

Building and infrastructure demand Unmet building and infrastructure demand

+

Urgency to provide building and infrastructure

+

Quality of new construction

• Material

consumption

+

Service lifetime of new buildings and infrastructure

+

Demolition of buildings and infrastructure

• Buildings and

infrastructure stock

• Labour capacity and

material availability

+

Initiation of new construction

+ + + +

Example of some interacting factors in building and infrastructure

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Residential material stock Residential demolitions Long term residential additions Operational residential additions Residential new construction Residential mainteinance Residential waste generation

Methods

(3) System dynamics Residential materials system dynamic model - a simplified example …

Methods

(4) Agent based modeling

• Agent based modelling is used to predict how humans behave according to a set of

conditions and can be used to model human behaviour within an urban system

• Evolution of the city dependent on many factors including household, policy and

administrative decisions

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GCRO’s way forward

Current and future work Exploratory investigation 1. Project framework (completed) 2. Methodological investigation (draft completed, now being revised) 3. Scoping studies: identifying data needs for qualitative and quantitative analysis (November 2011 – March 2012), in the following areas

• Water
• Waste
• Energy
• Biomass
• Food

4. Stakeholder engagements (academics, government departments, consultants) (March 2012 workshop) 5. Preliminary research work on infrastructure transitions for a book project with ACC and SI – case study on stormwater and green infrastructure (Draft to be completed November 2011) Year 1

GCRO’s way forward

Current and future work Data collection, in-depth investigation into institutional arrangements and infrastructure networks 1. Data collection and formatting 2. Setting frameworks for comparative analysis 3. Qualitative system dynamics 4. Preliminary qualitative and quantitative analysis 5. Stakeholder engagements Quantitative and qualitative analysis 1. Material flow analysis 2. Ecological footprint 3. Quantitative system dynamics modelling 4. Agent based modelling 5. GIS mapping 6. Exploring political economy of infrastructure transition in GCR 7. Detailing required / possible infrastructure transition in the GCR 8. Stakeholder engagements Year 2 Year 3

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Green Assets & Infrastructure

NYC Green Infrastructure Plan (2009) “… an alternative approach to improving water quality that integrates – green infrastructure, such as swales and green roofs, with investments to optimize the existing system…” NYC GI objectives:

• 1. Reducing combined sewer outflows

volumes by 3.8 billion gallons per year

• 2. Capturing rainfall from 10% of impervious

surfaces in combined sewer outflow areas

• 3. Providing substantial, quantifiable

sustainability benefits including:

NYC Green Infrastructure Plan, 2009

“An adaptive approach to a complicated problem that will provide widespread, immediate benefits at a lower cost.”

Green Assets & Infrastructure

Overall performance & costs: annual CSO volume comparison NYC Green Infrastructure Plan (2009)

NYC Green Infrastructure Plan, 2009

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Green Assets & Infrastructure

Overall performance & costs: city-wide cost scenarios over 20 years NYC Green Infrastructure Plan (2009)

NYC Green Infrastructure Plan, 2009

Green Assets & Infrastructure

Research into storm water challenges in the GCR

• In this research paper, storm water

infrastructure & drainage is used as a focal point to illuminate a fresh conceptual framework for sustainable urban infrastructure: Research objectives:

• 1. What are the storm water challenges

facing the GCR?

• 2. How is the challenge of storm-water

management understood by municipal authorities?

• 3. What planning paradigms shape how

storm-water systems are configured and maintained? “In February 2009, floods that hit areas along the Klipspruit River after a thunderstorm left more than 300 families homeless and killed two people, while three others went missing” (Mungishi in CoJ, 2009; Madumo in CoJ, 2009)

CoJ, 2008: 11

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Green Assets & Infrastructure

Research into storm water challenges in the GCR Research objectives (cont):

• 4. What is the political economy that

determines the way storm water infrastrcture is budgeted for, both in terms of capital investment and operations and maintenance?

• 5. Are alternative, more sustainable, drainage

solutions being considered? i.e. intersection between conventional engineering-heavy storm-water systems and green infrastructure

• 6. What are the immediate and long-term

sustainability consequences of not adequately planning and budgeting for the storm-water infrastructure really needed by the GCR?

• 7. What factors currently and in future might

prevent a transition to more sustainable infrastructure forms better suited to the storm-water realities of the region?

CoJ, 2008: 11

Green Assets & Infrastructure

Research into storm water challenges in the GCR The stormwater drainage challenge:

• 1. General context: With climate change the

region is seeing increasingly intense thunderstorms

• 2. Increasing intensity of floods affect poor

communities disproportionately

• 3. Stormwater is a hidden, less visible service

that receives much less budget and political attention than others

• 4. Poor planning & underinvestment, ageing

infrastructure

• 5. Sprawl & hardscaped surfaces

exacerbating the challenge

CoJ, 2008: 11

“Roads receive most attention in our budgets and we’re not left with much to address storm water deficits” (Johannesburg Roads Agency)

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Green Assets & Infrastructure

Research into storm water challenges in the GCR Project Description Total Cost Klein Jukskei Catchment: Stormwater Control – Willows Development Rehabilitation of Fairlands Spruit and Kelland Bird Sanctuary R 21 400 000 Klein Jukskei Catchment:Bond Stream Relief System: Ferndale Construction of a new stormwater relief system to augment the existing culvert which is over capacity due to increasing CBD runoff. R 50 000 000 Kliptown Stormwater Upgrade (Phase 10 : Bridge Road Low Level Bridge) Raise the low level Bridge Road above the 10 year flood level. R 17 600 000 Robinson Canal Catchment: Structural Repairs: Robinson Canal sub 3, sub 6 and sub 7. Repair spalling and exposed steel reinforcing; Repair the crack in the wall of Robinson Canal Sub 7. R 20 000 00

Green Assets & Infrastructure

Research into storm water challenges in the GCR

• 6. Massive storm water infrastructure deficiencies across the GCR:

CoJ Catchment Audit, 2009

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Green Assets & Infrastructure

Research into storm water challenges in the GCR

• 7. Little inclusion of sustainable urban drainage in storm water planning & minor use of

green infrastructure to supplement grey infrastructure: “Currently, storm water is managed at site-level, with little up- and down- scale investments in catchments” (Jhb Landscape Architect)

Philadelphia Water Department, 2011: 43

“Although sustainable urban drainage is where we’d like to go, spatial development & informal settlement patterns from the past make this really difficult” (JRA

Green Assets & Infrastructure

Research into storm water challenges in the GCR

• 8. Managing storm water more holistically

needs to be understood within the GCR’s hydrological context, especially as Gauteng is also at the head of a major watershed “A number of streams meander through the suburbs of Johannesburg, and form the source of two of southern Africa's primary rivers - the Limpopo and the

• Orange. (River Health Programme, 2005:

29) “Runoff out of the watershed may be considered as a waste from a local point

• f view, but it may be a key resource for

surface withdrawals or recharge of groundwater for downstream users (Ruf, 2006).

CoJ, 2008: 24

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Green Assets & Infrastructure

Research into Green Infrastructure

• Green infrastructure is a

connected network of natural systems, that maintains clear air, water and natural resources, and other ecosystems services that sustain human life (Benedict et al 2002: 3)

• GCRO has embarked on a

‘Green Assets & Infrastructure’ project which examines the current state of green infrastructure in the GCR, whether processes are in place to facilitate the use of green infrastructure in planning and the potential ways of valuing such infrastructure

“The natural ‘open’ features of a Green stormwater system are significantly less costly than the conventional curbs, gutters and pipes, with a 30% average savings in capital costs.” (GI Guide for Canadian Municipalities) “Green stormwater infrastructure creates jobs which require no prior experience and are suitable for individuals who might be otherwise unemployed and living in poverty” (Philadelphia Water Dept)

Philadelphia Water Dept, 2011: 13

Green Assets & Infrastructure

Research objectives

• 1. To identify the green infrastructure components that exists within GCR and the

current state of these infrastructures.

• 2. To assess the extent to which, and how, green infrastructure within the GCR

valued as such?

• 3. To describe the role of non-government players in building and protecting green

infrastructure in the city-region

• 4. To investigate and demonstrate how to potentially value green infrastructure from

an ecosystem services perspective

• 5. To develop a possible framework for implementing green infrastructure in the

GCR Research into Green Infrastructure

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Green Assets & Infrastructure

Research into Green Infrastructure Policy outputs Sub-components Date State of Green Infrastructure Report Digital spatial data collection for green spaces in Gauteng Province March 2012 How is green infrastructure planned and budgeted for? June 2012 What is the quality & health of our green infrastructure? August 2012 A framework for valuing ecosystem services in a GCR municipal context Guidelines on the methods, models and measures of how to value ecosystem services December 2012 Towards a Green Infrastructure plan for the GCR Proposals for regional and metropolitan investments in green assets and appropriate development 2013 Cost benefit analysis of green infrastructure investments Proposals for regulatory changes to settlement guidelines and green asset planning

Green Assets & Infrastructure

Research into Green Infrastructure For our state of green infrastructure report, this sort of digital spatial data can be used to generate a series of measures, eg:

• Of the total land area (of GCR, of a

municipality, of a ward, etc) % under cover of trees

• Total hectares of green assets (trees,

parks, etc) per square kilometer

• Hectares of green space per capita

(can be spatially referenced, eg per ward to draw out region-wide comparisons of areas of advantage and deficit)

• % of population with access to

developed green space within 500 meters

• Biomass and eco-systems services

measures, eg total capacity (in CO2) to sequestrate carbon