Ryan Chartrand
The 21st century has seen an unprecedented change in human civilization patterns. For the first time, more people live in cities than rural areas. To accommodate growing urban populations, cities themselves have undergone marked transformations in scale. Known as megaregions, these massive super-cities are agglomerations of metropolitan and surrounding areas that share transportation, communication, environmental, economic and social networks. Living in cities uses energy and resources more efficiently than living in suburban or rural settings, but cities are experiencing rapid population growth, aging infrastructure, social inequity and growing environmental degradation. Given the unprecedented growth in urban migration and increasing strains on urban areas, there must be some form of guidelines to address development and connectivity within and between megaregions. These guidelines should come in the form of the widely accepted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards adapted to megaregions.
Increased urbanization causes strain on the environment-smog and the loss of open space-the economy-city blight, sprawl and slums-and the infrastructure-traffic congestion and power grid over-utilization. To reduce the negative effects caused by urbanization, there is a need to create standards to enhance development practices through resource and energy conservation. LEED has become the national standard for streamlining environmental practices. It is a methodology, or step-by-step guide to reduce the impacts of site planning, energy and water usage, indoor environmental quality, and noxious building materials. A framework of LEED-quality is needed to prepare us for our urban future.
LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) is the evolution of LEED for building design standards. It is the first program to address land infrastructure, housing, jobs and school compatibility, mixed-use and affordable housing on a neighborhood scale. A criticism of LEED-ND is that it fails to look comprehensively at surrounding geographical networks, the linkages of people within those networks, and socio-economic issues.
Imagine the next evolution of LEED should be for Megaregional Development. LEED-MD would respond holistically to social needs with environmental ethics. It would relate growth, density and demographic trends with existing land infrastructure and clustering development. It would increase the connection between large geographical regions through walk and bike networks, car sharing, mass transit, urban food cultivation, the production and use local resources, and local energy production criteria. The emergence of planned megaregions can become the new model for environmental conservation.
Megaregions are evolving naturally: Los Angeles proper is a relatively small city, but it has swallowed up the hole LA Basin, Salt Lake City has expanded across the entire Wasatch Front. The Boston to Washington, D.C, corridor is quickly becoming a super-megaregion. Since the trends of megaregions are occurring naturally, proper planning through LEED will deflate the negative impacts of growth and human entropy.
LEED is the ideal framework to develop and implement these ideas. It can draw upon local, state and federal resources. It currently is the nation’s preeminent guidelines for environmental design and implementation. It is a voluntary standard that is marketable and has proven that its procedures are successful. LEED is ready for expansion, and now we can apply it to megaregions and super-megaregions. What is a better time than now to set up guidelines to support policy and funding for environmental quality on a regional scale?
Nancy J. Cole is a city and regional planning junior and a member of the Empower Poly Coalition.