The everchanging city: disconnecting and plugging in

Climate change also has its influence on the urban environment. The city is hotter, often dryer -but as a result also more prone to flooding at the same time- and an important source of pollution and emissions. Sustainable Urban Drainage systems, with a focus on improving infiltration of precipitation into the soil, storing rain water in bodies of water, creating more water to offset built-up areas, separating sewage from rain water flows and disconnecting rain pipes from the sewer. Other people are disconnecting from the grid, disabling the sewer connection, going without a gas supply or relying entirely on self-produced energy. As traffic is an important factor in tackling pollution and improve quality of life in the city, cycling and public transport are promoted, polluting -diesel- vehicles are barred from entering certain areas and vehicles are replaced by less polluting types. The electric car and the electric van are slowly taking off, as the infrastructure for plugging in lags behind.

Sustainable drainage systems have been pioneered in the Netherlands as it is understood that to build in a delta you need to create more water to balance the system. In some places surface water with variable levels was created in laying out new housing estates (on the left an example from Eindhoven from the 1980s). On high ground and on sandy or gravely soils an infiltration ditch suffices to store water after heavy rainfall and let it drain away into the ground slowly afterwards. In the middle an example from Veghel in an ecological housing estate. In the sustainable housing estate of Nw Monnikenhuizen in Arnhem all housing have rain pipes disconnected from the sewer. The water flows down from the roof into these rills and then onto the pavement into a water retention area (a pond after rain a depression in a field at other times).  

The Netherlands are also famous for the cycling infrastructure. I too cycle short and medium distances within the city. To promote cycling it is important there is enough places to park a bicycle. Solutions vary from bike racks (middle) to underground bicycle parking. Good cycle paths with safe crossings are also very important; on the right the Hovenring, an elevated roundabout for cyclists on the border of Eindhoven and Veldhoven. As most people own at least one bike (I have three, including my handy fold-away) bike sharing and bike hire schemes are not as prevalent as in the surrounding countries. These bike stations can be found in Belgium, England, France and Germany. On the left an example of the Metropolrad from Essen in the Ruhr Area.

Electric cars are still quite rare, but several governments have taken stapes to phase out combustion engines and facilitate a transition to electric vehicles. These don’t just include cars, but also trains (some still run on diesel), bicycles and transport vehicles like small vans for inner-city delivery. The biggest bottleneck for a roll out of electric transportation is the lack of charging points. Many local authorities are now including special places in their car parks and parking structures indicated by a sign (middle) where two cars can be charged from a single charging column (right). In other places home owners are given private chargers near their residence.