Sustainable Development and Community Sustainability

Residential and commercial developments have previously been placed wherever land was available. Few considerations were given to the wildlife and natural geological features that were displaced or destroyed by these human developments. However, recently, city planners have figured out that the sustainability of their communities depends on the restoration of natural hazard barriers and the implementation of responsible development planning for communities in high risk or environmentally sensitive zones.

Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is a mitigation process that focuses on reducing a development's risk of hazard exposure by taking pro-active steps to secure buildings, restore natural hazard barriers, by implementing building and zoning restrictions that keep human structures out of high risk hazard zones like flood plains and areas that are prone to wildfires, and that also establish environmental protection strategies. While some communities have taken steps to design and implement sustainable development strategies, many communities face planning and implementation obstacles caused by negative global attitudes towards environmentally responsible human development planning. (Leiserowitz, 2005). These cultures are not inherently against smart building and city expansion planning, per se, but many communities believe that these strategies are costly and impractical for areas with growing populations and stagnated economies.

Sustainable development is not a short term fix. It is instead an on-going mitigation process that needs to focus on the safety and sustainability of the community's current and future generations. To do this, sustainable development planners need to (1) target structures in high risk or environmentally sensitive zones, (2) buy out the owners of these properties, (3) provide the owners with affordable housing or commercial space replacements, (4) establish zoning restrictions that would prohibit future development in the high risk or sensitive zones, and (4) promote the project in a positive manner to encourage public support. .

Sustainable development it not merely a local concern, it is an international concern. The U.N. has targeted sustainable development as one of the organization's top priorities for the next 50 years. Their efforts are going to focus on promoting sustainable development in a positive light, on developing affordable strategies for countries and on finding ways to fund international sustainability development programs. (Kates, 2005).

In response to the growing need to implement sustainable development initiatives around the world, developmental assistance programs have been fast tracked. These programs have targeted wealthier countries for contributions to fund an international development assistance program. (Leiserowitz, 2005). This program would be funded by tax money and distributed to countries that need financial assistance for their sustainable development programs.

Community Sustainability

While sustainable development strategies focus mostly on building and zoning issues, community sustainability takes a slightly different approach to sustainability planning. The main concern for community sustainability is developing a "community-based resource management" program. (Natcher, 2002). The focus therefore, is on what the people within the community can do to protect the natural resources, health and vitality of the local environment in which the community is both a member and a protector.

Community involvement is very important for community sustainability programs and for sustainable development programs to succeed. If everyone is not working towards the goals for community sustainability then long-term success of these programs is impossible. This is because even if a handful of people continue to dump toxic materials into the sewer drains, or if a group of people refuse to move out of a high risk hazard zone, then a chain reaction of damage is sure to follow. For example, oils, paints and toxic materials that are not disposed of properly can contaminate ground water and impact the lives and health of millions of people.

If community support can be achieved, then it will be much easier to implement sustainability programs in the community and positive results will be observed much faster. There are a lot of things that community members can do to help improve the sustainability of their communities. They can follow proper toxic material disposal protocols, they can select homes designed to withstand common local natural disasters, they can upgrade features in their current homes to make them safer and more resistant to local natural hazards, they can educate themselves on how to landscape their yards to prevent erosion and to reduce fire hazards and they can participate in community discussions or committees that focus on sustainability planning and initiatives.

Sustainability Community Developments - Missoula, Montana

I am lucky to live in a community that is very conscious about community sustainability and sustainable development. There are several local grass root organizations that lobby for and fund sustainability projects. The Five Valleys Land Trust, for example, buys land in environmentally sensitive areas of Western Montana and establishes wildlife preserves and open space areas. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is another local organization, that at one point in time, was the fastest growing non-profit organization in the world, that buys important tracts of land to provide habitat for wildlife, namely elk, and that also secures traditional migration routes.

At the local government level there are several programs in place that are designed to manage where homes and businesses are built, as well as programs that deal with the proper management of the community's natural resources. First of all there are zoning restrictions in place that are designed to prevent further development on local flood plains and there are also building and development restrictions in place that prevent the development of designated open space areas. Next there are programs in place to fund land purchases for parks and open space areas. These areas are maintained by the city to prevent soil erosion, provide habitat for local wildlife and to provide residents and visitors to the city with recreation opportunities. Strict noxious weed control strategies have also been implemented to prevent the spread of these feral plants into rangeland and farmland. However, instead of using pesticides, a herd of sheep are released on the mountains' grassy areas to control the weed growth. Ground water protection campaigns have also been implemented to reduce ground water contamination caused by dumping oil, paint and chemicals into sewers.

While Missoula works hard to create a sustainable community, there are a few problems that we have not targeted yet. The first problem is a huge (well, Montana huge) housing development that is situated on an active fault line. This fault line causes property damage every year as is slowly slides apart. If this fault were to fail, several thousand houses would slide into the valley causing millions of dollars in damage and causing numerous deaths. Another problem that this community has is unsafe houses. Many houses were built by the original families that settled here with less than prime building materials. Many of the homes are not up to code, not properly insulated and are in desperate need of updated wiring and plumbing.

Conclusion

Sustainable development and community sustainability are two mitigation strategies that have similar goals, long term protection of the community from natural and manmade hazards. However, while these two strategies have similar goals they have different foci. Sustainable development focuses on the logistics of sustainability while community sustainability focuses more on resource management and community involvement. When developing either of these sustainability programs it is important to gain community support, because without it the program is doomed to failure.

Sustainable development and community sustainability are not new concepts. They have been around in one form or another since the beginning of time. However, as human populations grew the focus of human development planning shifted from what was best for the ecosystem to what was easiest for the humans. Unfortunately this shift in focus put human lives in jeopardy because it removed natural hazard barriers and put humans right in the path of common and periodic natural disasters. In order to develop safe communities old philosophies of living in harmony with the environment needs to be re-established. Common sense and pro-active risk reduction strategies need to be implemented when planning human developments and community zoning regulations.

References

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Leiserowitz, Anthony A. (2005, November). "Do global attitudes and behaviors support sustainable development?" Environment. Online version accessed 08.05.07 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1076/is_9_47/ai_n15877187/print

Natcher, David C. (2006, Winter). "Putting the community back into community-based resource management: A criteria and indicators approach to sustainability." Human Organization. Online version accessed 08.05.07 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3800/is_200201/ai_n9025883/print

Olivarez, Juan. (2006, Winter). "Bringing sustainability to the community." The Presidency. Online version accessed 08.05.07 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3839/is_200601/ai_n17179876/print