- The Utrecht Roadmap to a Third Industrial Revolution and how it Works in Reality   1093 kb by    Dubbeling, Martin & van der Heijde, Wouter | martin.dubbeling@sab.nl    Short Outline This paper describes cases, plans and projects (residential areas, business districts, infrastructure as well as climate initiatives and local production and distribution of sustainable energy) in the five major cities of the Province of Utrecht. Abstract The Province of Utrecht is drawing up a strategy for the future of the region with the year 2040 as a planning horizon. The Province of Utrecht is situated at the Northern wing of the Randstad, one of the strongest and most densely populated economic key areas of Europe. The Province of Utrecht is the geographical centre and an important node for railways and motorways. It is one of the urban networks that will propel the economic and social developments forward in the next decades and it is increasingly becoming a meeting place for knowledge and creativity. The region has three cornerstones: a leading position in knowledge and culture, its central location in the Netherlands and the Randstad and the quality of our cities and landscapes. The most important target of the Province of Utrecht in 2040 is striving for a sustainable and appealing region that is low carbon, sustainable as well as liveable. The Utrecht 2040 Strategy has six objectives for the coming decades. This part of the Randstad should be a region • that has room for excellent living, working and nature; • that has an innovative knowledge-based economy; • that is accessible, by car, bicycle or public transport in a better environment; • that is climate-neutral and climate-proof; • in which all people matter and are able to participate in education; • with beautiful nature and a more varied landscape. 2 THE UTRECHT ROADMAP An important ingredient of the Utrecht 2040 strategy is the ‘Utrecht Roadmap to a Third Industrial Revolution’. This roadmap, written by the US economist Jeremy Rifkin, sets an ambitious agenda. It has to lead the Province of Utrecht to become the first region in the world to become carbon neutral by 2040. The Third Industrial Revolution is built upon a foundation of increased energy efficiency, using less energy to provide the same level of goods and services, while maximizing utility from increasingly scarce resources. The Third Industrial Revolution has four pillars. • the expanded generation and use of renewable energy resources; • the use of buildings as power plants; • the development of hydrogen and other storage technologies; • the development of a new energy infrastructure and transport system that is both smart and agile. 3 THIS PAPER This paper describes and summarizes the Randstad 2040 Vision, the Utrecht 2040 Strategy as well as the Utrecht Roadmap. It also describes interesting and related cases, plans and projects (residential areas, business districts, infrastructure as well as climate initiatives and local production and distribution of sustainable energy) in Amersfoort, Nieuwegein, Utrecht, Veenendaal and Zeist, the five major cities of the Province of Utrecht. Half of the population of the Province of Utrecht (1.2 million) lives in these five cities (311.250 in Utrecht, 146.500 in Amersfoort, 62.250 in Veenendaal, 61.000 in Nieuwegein and 61.000 in Zeist). The purpose of thi paper is to assess the various strategies, cases, plans and projects of the Province of Utrecht and cities of Amersfoort, Nieuwegein, Utrecht, Veenendaal and Zeist. A tour across the Province of Utrecht reveals a wide range of local projects and initiatives. The diversity of these is surprisingly large. Take for example the sustainable housing estate Veenendaal Oost with ‘local sustainable energy services’ for 3.000 houses or the ambition of the city of Utrecht to become a climate neutral city in 2030. Each of these projects and initiatives are jewels among the patchwork of projects. Ultimately, sustainable spatial development begins with intelligent planning and sensible spatial structuring. The ultimate questions that needs to be answered is do the strategies, cases, plans and projects in the Province of Utrecht relate to each other and will the objectives and ideas about becoming a low carbon and sustainable region and low carbon and sustainable cities also lead to a more liveable region and more liveable cities ? Keywords Low Carbon Planning, Energy Transition Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2011: LIVEABLE CITIES: URBANISING WORLD, Meeting the Challenge   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper