Rising populations and climate change means planners must meet the challenge and come up with better solutions, writes Kevin Duff.
The Irish city is going through a difficult period. The effects of prosperity, a surge in private car ownership and low-density sprawling development have combined to erode quality of life in our cities. Corruption and bad planning in the past have resulted in roads congested with single-occupant vehicles, inadequate public transport and traditional centres where viability and life are threatened by large out-of-town development.
The central areas of the bigger Irish cities have made encouraging civic improvements in recent times through redesign of public spaces and enhancement of other amenities, but there is much to be done in the way of improving the living and working environment of our urban centres. Irish towns and cities will face new challenges, such as coping with the effects of climate change and rising populations. Imagination, resources and good planning need to be applied to meet these challenges and build on the promising start made on regeneration in recent years, in order to foster the kind of sustainable, diverse and liveable places cities should be.
An adequate supply of urban green space is vital to quality of life in the city. Cities like Berlin seem to boast a park every few streets. In Ireland, reduced access to the countryside from towns and cities due to sprawl, and the harmful emissions and pollution caused by heavy car use in urban areas, means that the need for quality urban parks and green spaces has never been greater. Cities need to identify locations where urban greening can occur, for example by carrying out inventories of potential park spaces. Likewise, provision of quality urban green space should be integral to new residential development, in the form of mandatory roof gardens and courtyards.
In Dublin, the impending removal of trucks from the Liffey Quays with the opening of the Port Tunnel offers exciting potential for remaking parts of the riverside as a civic amenity. This could include the creation of green spaces by the river. Ideas for the re-planning of the Liffey could be taken from initiatives such as the annual Paris Beach Project, where two miles of sand and palm trees are installed along the banks of the Seine. This commercially-sponsored project is a runaway success, attracting three million people in one month last summer.
Significant reductions in fossil fuel use and its replacement with renewable energies are necessary if we are to limit our exceeding of greenhouse gas emission targets as agreed under the Kyoto Protocol and avert the worst consequences of climate change. Ireland has already seen the potentially disastrous effects of climate change during recent severe floods and freak storms, which caused extensive damage to homes and other property.
The slowly rising sea levels caused by global warming pose a major threat to cities through their river networks. Incidences of flooding are likely to increase and economic losses will be greatest in urban areas. Infrastructure such as roads and railways will also be at risk. Flood defences will need to be provided and the effects of climate change factored into design of new development.
According to the EPA's Environment Report of last year, emissions from cars and trucks on Irish city streets are "unacceptably high" and a range of tough new measures will be required if we are to meet stringent new EU pollution limits. As a result, restrictions on cars in city centres on certain days may need to be implemented soon. Evidence from the London traffic congestion charge shows that many journeys by car are unnecessary or can just as easily made by other, more sustainable forms of transport. While Ken Livingstone's congestion charge has been a success, it was accompanied by a big boost in public transport services, enabling people to make the switch away from the private car.
Cycling is the perfect form of urban transport. It is healthy, environmentally friendly and - relative to current average urban traffic speeds - fast. But compared to elsewhere in Europe, Irish towns and cities present a formidable environment for the cyclist. Main roads and streets tend to be dominated by traffic all day long and facilities for cycling - particularly outside Dublin - are often poor or non-existent. By failing to provide an attractive cycling environment, there is a sense of a wasted opportunity to ease traffic congestion and improve air quality by reducing car use.
The problem is that while some of the larger cities have cycle-lane networks, the lanes are usually located right beside the traffic on heavy-use arterial routes. The result is that motorists are not coaxed out of their cars, and cycling is left to the hardened minority who are willing to endure the fumes, dirt, noise and danger of cycling beside the traffic.
In order to bring about a substantial increase in cycling numbers, the cycling environment must be made safer and more appealing to use. We must begin to consider introduction of the proper, separated cycle lane networks as found in cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen. In those cities, men and women in office clothes breeze happily around on bikes (as do students and senior citizens) - a currently unimaginable sight in an Irish city.
Also needed is further identification and creation of what have come to be known as cycle "green routes"; where the cyclist is removed altogether from traffic - eg routes beside rivers and canals, through parks, campuses etc. We are probably losing a large number of potential cyclists because of the lack of minimally-trafficked or traffic-free "green routes".
Concerns are being increasingly voiced about the poor design quality of much new development within and adjoining our towns and cities, and its failure to integrate into the existing urban structure. Substandard apartment design and the suburban house model, with its own front and back garden and cars parked to the front, are still common.
Architectural design in new residential and commercial development tends to favour a weak mock-historical style over a confident modern architectural expression. Much of this poor quality, non-architect-designed development has regrettably been fuelled by the urban renewal tax-incentive schemes of the past two decades.
Rising populations in urban areas, and the need for higher density development in order to curb sprawl and current unsustainable levels of one-off housing in the countryside, demands that only the highest quality design standards be applied to new urban development. There is an onus on local authorities to ensure that professionals are engaged in the planning and design of new development. Preparation of framework plans for specific sites is desirable in order to avoid a "developer led" situation.
Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Galway have all recently received - or are in the process of receiving - high quality, hard-landscaped public spaces/pedestrian areas in their centres, with coordinated street furniture and signage. But outside these spaces the picture is frequently one of visual chaos, with traffic signage, electricity boxes, parking meters, flagpoles and other paraphernalia detracting from the amenity of the street and providing an obstacle course for the visually impaired.
Regulatory measures are needed to coordinate the huge variety of service providers and other agencies responsible for alterations to such as pavements and signage.
The aim should be to reduce clutter, achieve a consistent look in the public realm and ensure that essential street furniture items are of good design quality, well-coordinated and positioned so as to respect and complement surroundings.
Billboard and other conspicuous advertising signs are the visual scourge of a quality city environment. Advertisers are always seeking to increase the visibility and impact of their ads, by means such as internally-illuminated box signs, tri-vision billboards, addition of strip lights to older billboards and giant hanging banners. Some continental European cities have tackled the problem by integrating advertising into well-designed street furniture units.
In Ireland, traffic problems in our cities have also been contributing to the problem of outdoor advertising: congestion and gridlock create a captive audience for advertisers, thus increasing expenditure in the sector and demand for advertising sites.
Many historic centres in our towns and cities are worthy of designation as Architectural Conservation Areas under the Planning and Development Act 2000, and will need to be designated as such in the coming years. As well as protection of the architectural character of individual buildings, this designation provides protection for the overall character of an area, and would provide leverage for removal of insensitively located advertising billboards.
Kevin Duff is co-author of Dublinspirations, a report by An Taisce looking at quality of life issues in the capital