Urban sustainable energy development: A case study of the city of Philadelphia

Cities throughout the world are key sites for energy sustainability activities. However, analysis of such efforts to date has focused on a sub-set of atypical cities: early adopters and/or world cities. This article undertakes a case-study analysis for an ordinary city, Philadelphia, PA in order to assess the extent to which prior research provides adequate policy explanation for ordinary cities and to gain empirical insight on two under-researched aspects: policy actors, and the policy-making and implementation sites (action sites) for urban energy sustainability. Overall, the types of policy drivers, modes of governance, and enabling factors and barriers in the Philadelphia case fit with prior studies. Focusing on actors and action sites, however, offers insight on the city’s relative policy-making approach based on “non-controversy”, the key role of third-sector actors in both policy-making and implementation, and the diversification of action sites through external-level policy-making operationalised locally nevertheless at the expense of reduced control by urban actors. These findings lead to recommendations for urban energy sustainability research and practice.     

APPLICATION OF THE CONTINUOUS STORMWATER POLLUTION SIMULATION SYSTEM (CSPSS): PHILADELLPHIA CASE STUDY1

ABSTRACT: This paper describes the Continuous Stormwater Pollution Simulation System (CSPSS) as well as a site-specific application of CSPSS to the Philadelphia urban area and its receiving water, the Delaware Estuary. Conceptually, CSPSS simulates the quantity and quality or urban stormwater runoff, combined sewer overflow, municipal and industrial waste water effuent, and upstream flow on a continuous basis for each time step in the simulation period. In addition, receiving water dissolved oxygen, suspended solids, and lead concentrations resulting from these pollutant sources may be simulated. However, only rceiving water dissolved oxygen (DO) response is considered in this paper. The continuous Do receiving water response model was calibrated to existing conditions usinv observed data at Chester, Pennsylvnia, located on the Delaware Estuary approximately 10 miles down stream from the study area. Average annual pollutant loads to the receiving water were estimated for all major sources and receiving water quality improvements resulting from removal of various portions of these pollutant loads were estimated by application of the calibrated stimultion model. It was found that the removal of oxygen-demanding pollutants from combined sewer overflow and urban stormwater runoff would result in relatively minor improvements in the overall dissoved oxygen resources of the Delaware Estuary; whereas. removal of oxygen demanding pollutants from waste water treatment plant effluent would result in greater improvemens. The results of this investigation can be used along with appropriate economic techniques to identify the most cost-effective mix of point and nonpoint source pollution control measures.     

Community-based organisations in city environmental policy regimes: lessons from Philadelphia

In this paper we examine the role of community-based organisations (CBOs) in the environmental policy regime of Philadelphia, through a citywide survey (N?=?40) and interviews with leaders from three types of CBOs: community development corporations (CDCs), civic associations (CAs), and business-improvement organisations. We found that CBOs of all types have changed their organisational missions and identities in response to their pursuit of sustainability goals, but that CDCs more so than either CAs or business organisations have integrated sustainability into their governance structures. Second, we found that a growing number of CBOs have expanded their work to involve environmental policy and programming. Third, we found that the work of local non-profit organisations has become directly linked to the city's broader sustainability plan, Greenworks.     

COMPUTER-OPTIMIZED STORMWATER TREATMENT (COST) PROGRAM: PHILADELPHIA CASE STUDY1

ABSTRACT: Two computer models, the Continuous Stormwater Pollution Simulation System (CSPSS) and the Computer Optimized Storm-water Treatment Program (COST), were developed to aid in performing water quality planning. This paper describes COST and its site specific applications to the Philadelphia urban area, using the results from an updated CSPSS receiving water simulation. COST provides a planning and conceptual design tool to identify the economically optimum combination of wet weather and dry weather pollution abatement alternatives. Economic analysis procedures incorporated are based on production theory and marginal cost analysis. This study demonstrates that by transforming BOD removal to reduction in low DO events, using CSPSS results, the benefits associated with pollutant removal can be accounted for explicitly by COST simulations. This is important because a pound of BOD removed from combined sewer overflow may be of more benefit to the receiving water than a pound of BOD removed from urban stormwater runoff. The selection of a pollution control strategy is often a difficult decision which should consider social, political, financial, and regulatory factors. It is suggested that such a selection can be based on evaluating the tradeoffs between total annual costs and receiving water improvements, as determined using the COST and CSPSS programs.     

Facilitating (?) urban agriculture in Philadelphia: sustainability narratives in the inequitable city

In 2008, the city of Philadelphia made increasing healthy food access a priority for sustainable development. Recognising that almost 25% of the population are considered food insecure, government agencies, non-governmental organisations and community leaders sought to increase food access through increasing food production and access to land in the city. Urban agriculture has gradually been incorporated in sustainability narratives in the past decade, both providing a platform for advocates to inform on policymaking, and potentially stripping away the political and activist origins of gaining access to food, land and green spaces in the city. In this paper, we argue that the depoliticising of urban agriculture advocacy through its incorporation in sustainability planning may serve to increase existing inequities in the city. Focusing on the policy-making scale, we examine measures enacted under the Philadelphia Greenworks Sustainability Plan to facilitate urban agriculture in the city. Our preliminary findings suggest that the processes by which urban agriculture gains acceptance demonstrate a disconnect in urban agriculture advocacy and policymaking and further work is needed to understand the impacts of the formalising of urban agriculture in Philadelphia.