Sustainable plans aim to minimize urban deterioration over time.
Also known as sustainable development, a sustainable plan is a structured course of action that is designed to meet the current needs of those involved, while laying the foundation for the needs of future generations. The sustainable plan concept is often used in various types of urban and suburban planning, as well as in the design of road systems. A sustainability plan often involves making the most efficient use of available resources, while seeking to ensure that the impact for subsequent generations is as positive as the benefits derived from the current generation.
Sustainable plans can encourage environmental initiatives.
Today, planning a sustainable city, town or neighborhood often includes not only using available resources in the most prudent way, but also taking into account the present and future impact of planning on the environment. This is because there is much greater awareness of the need to preserve the environment for future generations than in previous decades. Therefore, a sustainable plan will take into account factors such as laying out a road network that allows the use of alternative means of locomotion, such as walking or cycling, as well as accounting for the use of cars and similar vehicles.
A sustainable plan may focus on getting around a bad neighborhood.
A sustainable plan will also take a close look at the types of materials used in the construction of buildings, the creation of sewage systems, and even the strategic incorporation of live flora and fauna into the overall design of the community. Street design often allows for future widening of multiple lanes, anticipating the area’s population growth and the need to accommodate increasing amounts of traffic in the coming generations. At the same time, a truly sustainable urban planning process will include ways to preserve the integrity of existing business districts and residential areas in ways that minimize problems such as urban blight and decline from one generation to the next.
There is no ideal process for developing a sustainable plan. Factors such as the weather, the type of raw materials available in the area, the population of the community, and the general state of the environment in the area are important considerations that will affect one or more components of the plan. For this reason, it is often not possible to develop a truly sustainable plan for a city or town without spending a great deal of time and effort to consider all the relevant factors and determine how to proceed in a way that is beneficial in the long run.