Sustainable City Development

Aim

After taking this course, the student should be able to:

• Reflect and problematize the significance of technical systems in sustainable city development with main focus on environmental impact and resource efficiency.Explain what characterizes resource efficient technical systems
• Explain how technical systems have developed in society over time.
• Identify and characterize the roles of different actors for sustainable city development.
• Have a general understanding of how spatial planning affects the possibilities to develop resource efficient technical systems.
• Develop theoretically grounded alternative solutions for technical systems in a specific case
• Based on the teaching goals above, conduct an independent study where the student analyses, reflects and communicate issue of relevance to the course context.

Content

This course explores the contribution and role of technical systems to sustainable city development by analyzing the challenges and opportunities that are connected to technical systems in this context. A precondition for sustainable city development is to have a holistic view and integrated approach, not only regarding the technical systems but also with respect to the processes and actors involved. This course will give the students an understanding of how technical systems have and are continuously developed and what processes and actors that have been and are important for a sustainable city development. Lectures, a study project, and seminars will together create a deeper theoretical understanding for sustainable city development. The accumulated theoretical knowledge will be translated into practice in an applied case study project and in a reflective individual assignment.