RENOVATED CITY DEMANDING RENOVATION

In 1997, when Astana (now known as Nur-Sultan) became the capital of Kazakhstan, the government launched a large number of architectural projects to transform the city. The city has changed radically and turned into a business center of the country. However, when the design of the city was created, many points were not taken into account. As a result, the city, after 20 years, began experiencing multiple problems.

Distribution of services:

In an attempt to create a modern capital, the city became divided into two parts: new and old. The new part was projected to become a flourishing center of the city. This was successfully achieved as it became full of skyscrapers and glass buildings constructed in modern style. However, the old part of the city was left behind: old low-rise housings built during Soviet times didn’t get proper funding for gentrification. As a result, many services were unable to hold the rent price in the newly built part of the city, so the majority of affordable housing, services and goods became allocated in the old city. Non-profit organizations became most vulnerable as they are all now gathered up in remote areas. A vivid example of that can be eco-points. These eco-points accept wastepaper and even offer to pay a customer for a certain amount of paper handed for recycling. By now, there are 69 branches of eco-points in Nur-Sultan and only three of them are located in the new part of the city, whereas the rest is spread out among the old side of the capital. This creates complicated conditions for citizens willing to send their wastepaper for recycling as they might find it challenging getting there. Therefore, many of them might choose to not recycle their paper at all. So, it can be clearly seen that such uneven distribution of services creates additional obstacles for the citizens.

Another key point to note in this issue is that in order to achieve affordable stores, many citizens have to take more time commuting there. This elevates people’s demand on private vehicles, as everyone seeks for a comfortable way of living. Consequently, larger carbon footprint per person as well as increased pressure on roads become unavoidable. Allocation services evenly throughout the city could allow people to reach their destinations in less time, so that citizens will not feel an urge in private vehicles and make choices in favor of public transportation systems. For that, proper regulations and fundings from the government would be beneficial, since these will enable businesses that are not able to cover high-cost rent get support and set affordable services in the new part of the city. However, in Nur-Sultan this might not be the case, because public transportation systems are still not developed well enough to people choose public transport over private one. In order to prompt people to use public transport more comfortable conditions should be offered. First of all, their frequency should be elevated, so that crowdedness and waiting times will be reduced. Secondly, bus lanes should be increased so that during rush hours people choosing public transport would commute faster. Thirdly, new types of transportation systems should be elaborated to evenly disperse the flow of people using public transport.

Yet, it would be unfair not to mention progress made in this matter. The government had already implemented several measures to ameliorate current conditions of public transport. For instance, warm bus stops were built as the temperature in winter might drop to -40°C. The energy for some of these is obtained from solar panels, installed right on top of the bus stops. The panels showing when the bus will arrive were also placed as well as USB ports to charge phones during the ride were established inside the busses. Moreover, new municipal transportation systems are projected to be established. For instance, in Almaty - largest city in Kazakhstan - the subway system is in operation and is planning to be branched further. Thus, some pressure of overcrowding will be distributed among both types of transport. In Nur-Sultan, a project of sky trains is in development.

Nonetheless, these changes might not significantly affect the improvement of public transport conditions unless all three measures mentioned in paragraph above will be implemented properly.

Urban heat island:

Besides that, when the city was renovated, many aspects regarding the resilience of the city were not taken into consideration. That being said, the new part of the capital started trapping more heat, because during its construction a preference towards the look was given over the efficiency. Most architectural constructions built after 1997 have unusual forms and use glass as the main material to achieve modern style. However, glass tends to have low reflectivity, which means it absorbs larger amounts of sun rays instead of reflecting them. This, in turn, creates a greenhouse effect as more carbon dioxide becomes trapped on the Earth surface. The building gets heated up both inside and outside. For regions where temperature in summer reaches 40°C this kind of choices exacerbate the greenhouse effect as well as heats surroundings further. Moreover, this leads to greater energy consumption as the need of air conditioning within the building occurs.

Another factor to consider in the renovated part of the city is its lack of green infrastructure. Not only trees and other plants absorb some fractions of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere by various human activities, but also help to prevent the secretion of extra greenhouse gasses into the air. It is hard to find any trees along the streets: instead, everything is covered with asphalt. Dark color of asphalt has low albedo, which means it also contributes to aggravation of the greenhouse effect. More heat is trapped on the surface, which creates unbearable high temperatures in the summers. In contrast, the older part of the city is full of trees changing their color from season to season. During summers, these create shadows for comfortable walking. In large quantities, they also reduce the pressure put on the area by human activity, such as use of vehicles, because the photosynthesis allows the capture of carbon dioxide gases, while releasing fresh air.

Such harsh distinctions in building materials as well as street infrastructures led to an occurrence of urban heat island in Nur-Sultan: the temperature in the new center of the city is usually 1-2°C higher than in outlying areas.

Doug Kelbaugh in his “The Urban Fix: Resilient Cities in the War Against Climate Change, Heat Islands and Overpopulation” (2019) work has offered multiple successful mitigation and adaptation strategies to climate change in urban environments. Some of his ideas are feasible to Nur-Sultan. As he mentioned, green infrastructure - especially the one incorporating plants into the walls and roofs of the buildings - should become the main concept to consider for future city architecture. In addition, Kelbaugh proposes to use lighter colors to cover housings because lighter colors, like white, have higher albedo which means they are able to reflect coming solar radiation to greater extent. Besides that, if the building is aimed to be constructed from glass primarily, low-e-glass can be used. This kind of glass has an additional coating that reduces its emissivity, thus allowing it to reflect more sunlight rather than absorbing it.

Conclusion:

Nur-Sultan has changed dramatically since 1997. At that time, the main aim was to transform the city into modern capital as it had to become the representative of newly formed country. However, nowadays, a greater significance should be given to making city resilient by finding ways to improve living conditions in the capital with consideration of climate change issues. Therefore, current flaws in the city infrastructure shall not be ignored: plausible solutions should gain government support and funding.

Reference:

1. Kelbaugh, D. The Urban Fix: Resilient Cities in the War Against Climate Change, Heat Islands and Overpopulation / D. Kelbaugh. - New York, NY: Routledge, 2019.