How to design a more sustainable and fairer built environment: transport and communications

Abstract

Transport and information and communications technologies (ICT) and the city are closely and inextricably linked. These elements must be designed to work together, in mutually reinforcing ways, so that the economic, environmental and social vitality of the city is maintained and enhanced. Transport must no longer adversely dominate city design, but instead play an important, supporting role in improving the quality of life in the city. This paper explores the debate around urban form, density, settlement size, mixed use developments, the location of housing and neighbourhood design to determine the characteristics of the sustainable city, using empirical and theoretical literature from international sources. Within the new debates of societal change, globalisation and localisation, it then focuses on the role that ICT can have in improving accessibility in the city, before coming to conclusions on the contribution that Intelligent Infrastructure Systems can have in adding to the sustainable and fairer city for the future.