Future Cities and the Environment

"There is no cookie-cutter model to resolve the climate issues the world is facing. Each state and region has to work closely to help create the solutions that best fit their communities." -Dr. von Holdt

In early 2018, Cape Town, South Africa nearly ran of water. It was one of the first major cities, but will not be the last, to confront this crisis. By the year 2050, more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban settings. Sustaining the demand for clean water, healthy air, and flourishing natural ecosystems to support these communities will be one of the great challenges of this generation. Compounding this challenge is the existential threats brought by historically unprecedented changes in climate. Notably, some parts of cities are, have been, and will continue to be more stressed than others. These inequalities in environmental condition lead directly to disparities in health. They are created by a variety of historical and contemporary actions that affect where people live, work, and play; who participates in decision-making processes; and where environmental risks are created.

How can society create and sustain thriving, equitable environments in modern cities? In this “local-global” course, we examined the physical and social aspects of this challenge through a comparative analysis of our local environment in Richmond, Virginia to that of Cape Town, South Africa. We considered historical explanations for existing environmental problems and learned about proposed actions for the future. Through the  EnCompass Program , we had the unique opportunity to study abroad in a city with some of the world's highest wealth and environmental inequalities and reflect on possible connections to life in Richmond and in other cities around the world. The story below provides a brief travel log of our time in Richmond and Cape Town. We then address specific challenges of food, water, air, and biodiversity in these cities and end with proposed actions for living sustainability in future cities.

More Photos from the Richmond portion of the program can be found  here .

More photos from the Cape Town portion of the program can be found  here .

by Sophie Tanner and Christopher Ortiz-Martinez

Food insecurity is an issue that affects both the northern and southern hemispheres. Building community resilience is crucial not only in combating environmental issues, but more importantly in unifying individuals and ensuring that they are approaching any challenges that arise in a manner that is interconnected and focused on future impacts of their actions. Every action one takes has numerous consequences for the natural world and those who share it. Many of these consequences are experienced most harshly by those who are least prepared to combat them. As an example, much of the historically redlined regions in Richmond and – to a much greater extent – the townships in Cape Town to which black and colored people were displaced during Apartheid are considered “food deserts”: regions that have extremely limited access to healthy, nutritional food. In each of these regions, community leaders are striving to alleviate this struggle by undertaking initiatives that bring fresh food to their communities while also supporting community unity and the long-term well being of the people and the resources that sustain them.

Sankofa Community Orchard

The Sankofa Community Orchard is a one-acre green space dedicated to food justice and climate resiliency consisting of over 80 fruit trees in the Southside of Richmond Virginia. Duron Chavis is one of the facilitators of the garden. His passion for community building is inspiring. He cites redlining and other restrictive forms of living as the main contributors to the inequitable distribution of green spaces in Richmond. In conjunction with the lack of food security in these areas, Duron hopes that a communal space where folks in the community can come and take ownership of the food they grow will incite similar efforts around Richmond.

Sankofa is more than a community garden; it offers positive outlets for individuals combating the negative impacts of neglect and underfunding. Sankofa serves as a place of community building where residents can congregate and feel empowered by planting and maintaining one of few orchards in Richmond. The orchard is also an artistic outlet for Black community members and encourages broad participation from local stakeholders. One of Duron’s primary motivations for beginning this garden was the question of what would happen if the people in this community were abruptly denied access to a grocery store, due to environmental reasons or otherwise. In creating this shared space of growth and connection, he has enabled individuals not only to familiarize themselves with the processes of growing food, but also to unite with other community members that they may not have previously known in order to promote community resilience and collective support. This serves a dual purpose of both building independence from systemically oppressive institutions and working towards changing that same system in a way that positively impacts Black and historically underprivileged communities. Overall, the Sankofa Community Orchard is a project that supports the long-term needs and health of the surrounding individuals and the environment while also building unity within the community itself.

Bo-Kaap Community Garden

This community garden in the Bo-Kaap region was founded by a woman named Mishkah. Bo-Kaap is an area in Cape Town where Muslim individuals have lived since the Apartheid era. Unfortunately, it is experiencing rapid gentrification, which exacerbates issues of poverty, food insecurity, and any violence related to a lack of resources. Mishkah’s primary goal in creating the garden was to bring the young community members together, teach them appreciation of the natural environment, and prevent them from participating in gambling, gang violence, and other harmful activities. Due to the underprivileged nature of the community, she is focused on combating social issues and connecting the youth as opposed to promoting sustainability and halting climate change and its impacts. However, the actions that Mishkah is taking at the garden, in addition to the underlying concepts and practices that drive them, are fundamental in creating communities that promote and facilitate the health and resilience of the people and the natural environment.

Through her work so far, Mishkah has developed strong bonds with the youth in the Bo-Kaap community. In a discussion, she emphasized how much it warmed her heart when children – especially males – would pick a favorite flower from the garden. Given the general lack of green spaces in the community, in addition to a widespread disconnect between people and the food that they eat that is apparent in many regions around the world, Mishkah’s work has undoubtedly increased local understanding and appreciation of growing plants to enjoy or eat. Familiarizing individuals with the processes behind the production and consumption of resources is an essential step in encouraging those individuals to become more involved in improving the process, whether it be for their own health or that of the environment. As if her work with children isn’t enough, Mishkah also assists elderly community members by teaching them some basic agricultural skills and aiding them in growing their own produce and herb gardens that either partially or completely sustain them.

Initiatives like these have a positive impact on the environment, given that they teach individuals how to work in harmony with the natural world and practice methods of cultivation that support the long-term health of the ecosystem and community. Additionally, reconnecting the people with the land in this manner serves the purpose of unifying the community and increasing their resilience to issues such as food or supply chain shortages; lack of transportation; likelihood of participating in gangs, gambling, or violent acts; power outages; and even challenges related to poverty. Overall, understanding and even being able to grow one’s own food decreases reliance on systems that largely favor the needs of the elite white community and functions at the expense of those in marginalized, underrepresented, and impoverished communities.

As the focus of many governments, corporations, and individuals is on economic progress that is often detrimental to the environment, simplicity is often widely undervalued. Although challenges related to climate change are complex and multilayered, their solutions don’t have to be. Moving backwards is not inherently negative, although it is often viewed as such. In reality, so much of the “progress” that societies worldwide are striving to achieve is contributing to a great extent not only to environmental issues, but also to social injustices. Both Duron and Mishkah are working towards building communal independence from these systems and institutions that, in their fight for economic growth, greatly harm the environment and the communities most vulnerable to negative climate impacts. While their respective focuses may not be specifically or completely focused on combating climate change, their initiatives are driving something even absolutely critical to a sustainable future: connecting communities to each other and to the resources that they need and share.

by Maddie Hitching and Ahmed Elnaggar

Water is life. Both Richmond and Cape Town are faced with challenges to control and regulate water supply and water health. In Richmond, the issues revolve around maintaining the health of the James River and its tributaries, which provide drinking water to the city and are part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The main pollutants of the James River are sediments which come from soil runoff, along with nitrogen and phosphorus which can lead to a condition called “eutrophication” where the water gets depleted of oxygen. While visiting Presquile Island National Wildlife Refuge, we conducted two tests to determine water health: an oxygen test and a turbidity test that measures the visibility of the water (and therefore the amount of sediment). The results indicated that the river had sufficient oxygen to support wildlife, but there was too much sediment in the water. A major source of this pollution is urban stormwater runoff from lawns, roads, and construction sites.

In Cape Town, challenges surrounding water mainly concern access for residents in the city and surrounding areas and townships. Because South Africa is an arid region of the world and because Cape Town’s urban population continues to grow, its water infrastructure is increasingly unable to accommodate the population. In 2018, Cape Town experienced a drought so severe the city was a few days away from “Day Zero,” when the water supply would have been shut off completely. Additionally, the high demand and low supply for water is unequally distributed throughout the city; more affluent , predominantly white neighborhoods have much easier access to clean water than residents in informal settlements in Cape Town’s townships who are forced to share only a few taps with hundreds of neighbors.

RVAH2O

The city of Richmond has developed one of the first of its kind comprehensive plans to manage all aspects of water management in the city. The  RVAH20  plan has explicitly considered diverse stakeholder engagement from the beginning. The clean water plan prioritizes reducing pollution (bacteria, nutrients, and sediment) into the James River and proposes 10 specific strategies for accomplishing this goal including: replacing and restoring riparian areas, installing green infrastructure, restoring streams, reducing water use, planting more trees and native plants, and identifying and reducing pollution sources.

A major component of the plan is continued upgrades to the city's Wastewater Treatment Facility, where Ed Edmondson helped us learn about the processes for cleaning water in the city of Richmond. First, solids and floatbales are removed, then smaller particles, and finally the water is disinfected and organic matter is processed for agricultural use. During our visit to the West End Branch Library, we observed the creation of new "green infrastructure" such as bioretention basins, which are low areas near impervious surfaces that contain gravel, soil, and native plants that help filter stormwater after rain events. These basins can be easily implemented in households and are an effective way to improve stream and river health in residential and urban environments. The RVAH2O strategies can be implemented on many different scales and in many different locations, based on the specific needs of the area in question.

Reclaim Camissa

Finding solutions to the water demand crisis in Cape Town presents a different type of challenge. With reluctant legislators and simply the difficulty of having few alternative water sources, it is hard to reallocate the water supply in a sustainable and equitable way. One solution proposed by Caron von Zeil with Reclaim Camissa is to redesign the city’s water infrastructure. In the 2018 water crisis, she created a plan to allocate water to different parts of the city by tapping into alternate sources such as underground springs to provide water access for more underprivileged areas. Her entire plan was not implemented due to pushback from South African legislators, but pieces of her plan have been successful, such as partial reallocation of the water supply in some of the city’s neighborhoods through civic engagement.

Other sustainable approaches to meet water demand in Cape Town include household-scale water retention systems. At the Stellenbosch Sustainability Institute, a community of sixty households called the ecovillage uses a recycled water system where wastewater is filtered through worm decomposition, a patch of wetlands, and storage tanks. This system, while extremely sustainable, is more expensive and would be difficult to scale up to implement in many underprivileged areas of Cape Town and other urban sprawl cities, but simpler versions could be used.

Ultimately, the water situations in both the city of Richmond and the city of Cape Town have their own unique history and challenges. Issues like the threat of sediment pollution in the James River and the limited supply of water in Cape Town require immediate attention are universal problems experienced in cities around the world. As illustrated in these case studies, however, there is hope. From the use of bioretention basins and investing in native species to redesigning the water infrastructure to ensure equal access in the face of drought, solutions can be identified and implemented. It will not be easy, but modern cities will demand action to assure the availability of clean water in the face of rising populations and changing climates.

by Angel-Xavier Elizondo and Kavon Thompson

A person takes, on average, 22,000 breaths per day. Air quality is essential to our well being. When we think of air we often think of climate change. Our fast paced lives tend to lead us to forget how impactful our inaction on climate change is to countless individuals. However, technology and modernization has led to an increase in our carbon footprint. In the United States an individual’s average daily carbon emissions is 16 tons per person, while in South Africa the figure is significantly smaller at around 7 tons per person. These quick figures showcase an already important difference in these two nation’s impact on the world’s climate. Yet, the US ranks considerably higher than South Africa when it comes to the size of the nations' economies.

Regardless of these developmental and economic factors, the overall effect of poor air quality and increasing temperatures in cities is a rise in health implications for the general population, and specifically, for those individuals with lesser resources and wealth. This tends to coincide with historically marginalized communities, who are often at the forefront of the climate crisis. The fossil fuel industry has made it easier to place their high polluting factories and refineries in what are known as “less desirable” neighborhoods that are home to marginalized and low income communities. We learned specifically about an immediate impact to these communities and how where they live can increase their chances of pulmonary and lung diseases.

In Richmond, we saw clear patterns of what areas in the city had higher particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution. The Church Hill North neighborhood’s infrastructure does not support a walkable lifestyle, and a majority of its residents rely on their personal vehicles to travel from place to place. This leads to an increase in traffic and car emissions. A similar situation was observed in Scott’s Addition and the area surrounding the Science Museum of Virginia. In general, we found Richmond to be only moderately walkable and poorly bikable. As we walked around the neighborhoods with our Airbeams, the rustle and bustle of traffic was clear in the PM2.5 readings on our tablets. The area of Scott’s Addition that we visited was additionally experiencing construction, which added to the PM2.5 particles in the air. On campus, we have done many of these “Air Walks” throughout the 2021-2022 academic school year that led to similar conclusions about the sources of emissions, and we observed an overall higher air quality on our campus than in the city.

We repeated our air quality walks in Cape Town, and observed similar causes of poor air quality. Historically, South African Apartheid has led to the “whitification” of the city as it began to prop up its central business district and downtown. This forced Black and Coloured people to move to “informal settlements” in the townships. These neighborhoods have many homes that are not connected to basic utilities like heat and water, which leads to a lot of improvised actions by the residents. Much of the pollution in these neighborhoods also comes from the transportation to and from the city. Roads are clogged with “taxis” from the Central Business District (CBD) to the townships. We conducted an air quality walk on the University of Cape Town campus and its surrounding area. We saw that the further we were from the densely packed townships and city, the cleaner the air . At the top of the Cecil Rhodes memorial, we saw what South Africans call “The Brown Haze” over the bay in Cape Town. This haze is a result of massive industrial and commercial actions across the city. It is especially apparent during the winter months, when people tend to use more heaters and carbon emitters to heat their homes.

One of the striking patterns we observed in both cities was the lack of infrastructure for green transportation, whether that be sidewalks or bike paths. Improving the infrastructure in marginalized communities will have a huge impact on lowering emissions on areas that are car dependent like the Church Hill neighborhood of Richmond. Investment in reliable and green public transportation would be especially useful in Cape Town where thousands travel from the far out townships to the CBD for work. The expansion of green infrastructure in densely populated areas of cities would also help to reduce the negative effects of the Urban Heat Island (the increased temperatures that accompany urbanization). Additionally, the CBD in Cape Town itself would benefit from additional green spaces for citizens and tourists to visit. Adding these spaces in densely populated areas will improve living conditions and air quality in the areas that surround them.

Finally, both climate and air quality are heavily dependent upon how we produce our energy. Energy is a vital source for human kind in general, however, where and how we get it plays a major role in how our future generations will deal with the effects of fossil fuels. South Africa and its major Energy provider, ESKOM, rely heavily on coal for energy and power. Regulations are in place for these companies however enforcement of these regulations is minimal or nonexistent. The government has placed Minimal Emission Standards (MES) on companies like ESKOM, but without proper enforcement, they do not comply. A major distinction between Richmond and Cape Town is the policies and enforcement in place in the two nations. The United States lacks legislation on many climate issues, while South Africa has poor implementation of the policies set by legislation, which lead companies like ESKOM to not follow MES guidelines. In Virginia, Dominion Energy via its interim decarbonization efforts have reduced emissions with electric generation as well as reduced 42% of carbon dioxide emissions. The are further opportunities to shift to greener energy. That means tossing out old polluting fossil fuels and replacing them with greener alternatives like nuclear, hydro and solar. Many scholars and environmentalists disagree on what form of energy is superior but they agree on the moving away of fossil fuels.

by Rowan Keller and Dennis Xu

People were not the first to roam these places. In even our largest cities, animals were the first rulers of the land. Early humans had a relatively harmonious relationship with the animals as they only hunted what they needed and gave back to the earth as the earth gave to them. As humans began to develop, first with agriculture, and then with the Industrial Revolution, we lost sight of this cohabitation with nature. We began to take and take and not give back. We replace trees with tall buildings, and continue to strip the ocean for what isn’t ours to take. We have evicted many animals out of their homes, but act angry when they try to cope and enter our “territory”.

In addition to driving species to extinction, human began moving species around the planet. As they began to explore the world, they brought plants and animals with them. Sometimes it was intentional, and other times it was not. In some cases, colonizers wanted to bring plants from Europe with them to the Americas or Africa. In other cases, people introduced a new animal to a region to hunt. Other times, it was purely accidental. Zebra mussels, for example, attached themselves to ships leaving Asia, and made it to the Great Lakes. The transport of species from their native habitat to new locations led to the ongoing issue of invasive species. These organisms often outcompete native species, decrease biodiversity, and pose a variety of environmental and economic threats.

Richmond: Greening Richmond Public Libraries

We visited the West End Public Library in Richmond, where we weeded out English Ivy and Chinese Privet, two very common invasive species. English Ivy was brought to the U.S. by the British colonizers. It was meant to be a “low-maintenance” groundcover plant. However, as it spread, it began to pose many issues. As the vine grows, it wraps itself around trees to support itself, and wears away at the bark, leaving the trees susceptible to rot and disease. As part of the James River Association's Greening Public Libraries program, we used shears to cut the ivy, allowing the trees to heal from the damage it caused. Chinese Privet was brought to the U.S. around 1850 for ornamental use. Just like English Ivy, it quickly spread out of control, and began to cause damage to its surroundings by outcompeting native species. Chinese Privet dominates the shrub coverage of many forests in Richmond. This causes a decrease in the diversity of plants nearby, which harms animals that rely on native plants for their survival. By removing these non-native plants from the library area, the program hopes to attract more animals and pollinators, and increase biodiversity.

Presquile National Wildlife Refuge

Presquile Island is a 1300-acre island located 25 miles down the James River from Richmond, VA. Its history dates back to the Civil War. Shortly after the war, straight paths were carved through the land, connecting two points of the meandering James River. This shortened the distance that ships had to travel, creating a more direct route for them. The remaining island of land surrounded by the oxbow of water was designated as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1953. This biodiverse island is now a sanctuary, as it is home to many migratory birds and a diverse range of wildlife. It is one of 567 National Wildlife Refuges across the country, managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service, to protect biodiversity, including in areas close to cities. While there, we saw everything from turtles, to fish, caterpillars, and even bald eagles.

During our trip, we learned about the negative impact blue catfish, an invasive species, are having on the ecosystem of the James River. These fish were imported from the Mississippi River by people who wanted to fish for bigger game. The population quickly exploded in size. However, this led to negative effects on other species of fish. The blue catfish are outcompeting many native species, such as the Atlantic sturgeon. This type of fish has been around for 200 million years, but it is now facing threats of extinction due to fishing actitivies and accidental strikes by boats. However, there have been some success in the recovery of sturgeon due to efforts to protect critical habitat, and promote awareness about the decline of this species.

Cape Town: Baboon Matters

Baboon Matters has been around for 25 years and is the face of the conservation of Baboons in South Africa. Due to urbanization, humans and baboons have been interacting a lot more. Chacma Baboons are a native species to South Africa and play a very important role in the ecosystem. They eat many indigenous plant species, which results in the dispersal of seeds across a large area in South Africa. This includes the fynbos transporting their seeds to barren lands after fires, reducing erosion. Baboons also change the landscape as they move rocks while foraging. While they dig for bulbs and roots, they loosen the soil allowing more oxygen to enter the soil. Overall they contribute immensely to the biodiversity of an ecosystem. But sadly their population is decreasing. Due to the failed management of people and the lack of understanding in the public, baboons are commonly viewed as a pest and many baboons get killed as a consequence. Baboons are also losing a lot of their habitat due to human development, further leading to their decreasing population.

In Cape Town, we saw a number of policies and actions implemented that are not especially there to help the Baboon, but more for the benefit of people. These quick and dirty solutions included protocols like raiding sheets, paintball conditioning, and bear-banger usage. On the other hand, a more effective management would be centered more clearly on helping the baboons. For example, better policies prioritize building a diverse and protected habitat for the baboon so they do not cross into the human settlements. This just shows that even though one can be conservation-minded, it is also important to have information and be educated to effectively balance the difficult balance of helping animals and also satisfying the human population, which is a very difficult task.

Boulders Beach

Another example of this wildlife management balancing act was with the Penguins that we observed at Boulders Beach, managed by Table Mountain National Park. The site is home to a colony of endangered African Penguins. The African Penguins only live in South Africa, making them very special and unique to the environment. Unfortunately, this species has been on a decline, with only 2% of the original 2 million population remaining due to a combination of overfishing of their food source, being hunted, their eggs being taken because they were viewed as exotic, habitat destruction from urban development, marine pollution, irresponsible tourism, and global warming. In general, the conservation action taken here at Boulders Beach was better than with the Baboons at Cape Point, with a focus on colony establishment, rehabilitation and rearing to bring back the population.

Anthropogenic movement of invasive species leads to a wide range of environmental issues, including outcompeting native species, worsening soil quality, decreasing abundance of food for animals, and an overall decrease in biodiversity. Conservation efforts, including protecting threatened native species and educating the public about the harms of spreading invasive species, is key to maintaining and protecting biodiversity. Unfortunately, removing these invasive species takes a lot of time and effort, and it can be costly. Plus many times it is just a temporary solution, and they can resurface again. This is a lesson that we have to respect Mother Nature and the balance that she creates. We also have to consider multiple angles and perspectives involved in managing wildlife in cities, including both people and the wildlife themselves.

“Remember: Everything is connected. Everyone lives downstream or downwind” - Louise Maher-Johnson, All We Can Save

• So many of our experiences in both cities revealed voices that may not receive the recognition they deserve but have a huge positive impact on their communities, both socially and environmentally. The most inspiring people we met were content with knowing that they could change their community and not being recognized or well-known for their work.
• Being able to travel to a different continent with different views on race, wealth, and societal value has been extremely eye-opening and has changed our understanding of how different areas of the world value different aspects of their populations, as well as the urgency of environmental issues on a global scale.
• One of the many important notions that we were able to gather was the fact that the individuals working to combat the issues discussed in our program all came from varying backgrounds and walks of life. The experience highlighted the importance of collaborating with individuals from diverse academic and societal backgrounds to garner a sense of understanding through varying perspectives.
• Community-based gardens not only provide fresh produce to people with very limited access to these resources, but also serve as a way to bring communities together, raise awareness about environmental issues, and lead to positive change in people’s lives.
• Invasive species have detrimental effects on the environment, by spreading out of control, and often outcompeting native species for food and resources, which can cause ecosystem imbalance and lead to a decrease in biodiversity. Nature and humans are intertwined whether we like it or not and it is very important that we preserve the balance between the two.
• Local and global are also intertwined. Regions and communities are disparately effected by environmental issues around the world. Oftentimes, due to systemic and institutional problems, under-resourced and marginalized groups in cities both contribute minimally and are least prepared to combat environmental issues. It can require observing and experiencing these communities firsthand to realize the extent of the problem, which is a necessary first-step to finding any equitable, sustainable solutions.

We would like to thank foremost Carole and Marcus Weinstein for their generosity in making it possible for the EnCompass Program's participants to explore and understand issues in different parts of the world. We would also like to thank UR's Center for Civic Engagement for their financial support for the Richmond portion of the program. EDUAfrica and Dave Fisher helped with the logistics and itinerary to fully immerse ourselves in South African culture while still learning about urban communities like the ones we live in back home. On the Richmond side, we thank Sarah Adams and Georgia Osbourne for their incredibly generous help in planning the program, keeping us fed and happy, and making sure our time in Richmond ran so smoothly. Terry Dolson, Beth Zizzamia, and Kristine Grayson also graciously jumped in to help overcome sizable COVID hurdles at literally a moment's notice. On the Cape Town side, we would like to thank Ellen Sayles, Martha Merritt, and the wonderful Office of International Education for their support in making sure we made it there and back, sometimes at different times from each other and our luggage. Our fantastic program facilitator Barnabas Marshall Matore helped us break out of our shells in an unfamiliar environment, and our driver Honest made sure we always made it to and from our activities, flat tires and all. Many, many thanks to Beth Zizzamia for all her help with this StoryMap. We would especially like to thank Todd Lookingbill and Kasongo Kapanga for guiding us and keeping us on our toes throughout this whole program. Finally, we would like to acknowledge all the representatives of organizations and other residents with whom we interacted in both Richmond and Cape Town for their hospitality and taking time to share their knowledge and understanding of the social, economic, and cultural aspects of urban environments, and for allowing us to broaden our perspectives and world views.