Masdar City
Emirate
Masdar (Arabic مصدر, DMG Masdar, source 'or' origin ') is a city construction project in the United Arab Emirates. The core of this project is Masdar City, a planned eco-city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, whose construction was begun in February 2008. In the future, the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA ) will be there.
Idea of the eco-city
Known as the ' CO2-neutral science city " announced projects to be powered entirely by renewable energy. For example, the water supply is planned with solar-powered desalination plants. Overall, there should be only one energy expenditure of 25 per cent per capita compared to the current rates of consumption. In addition, the city is facing a strict sustainability guidelines so that they will be CO2 - emission-free and consistent recycling virtually waste-free. Fresh air corridors and parks are run through the construction areas and reduce the temperature in comparison to the city of Abu Dhabi drastically.
Masdar is being built about 30 kilometers east of the capital Abu Dhabi, west adjacent to the Abu Dhabi International Airport. The ambitious project covering an area of six square kilometers, is designed for 47,500 inhabitants and about 1500 companies and institutes in the ecology sector and no point in the urban area will be more than 200 meters from a public transport stop. The initiative is led by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company ( ADFEC ) and Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Initiated in 2006, the project for a first time in 2016 was planned. In spring 2010, has been reported in various media about delays and financial problems. Construction has lost pace and determination, as the new completion date of the entire project is now called the year 2025.
Research and development site
The planned city will also be home to a new university, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. It should be the first university in the world that is exclusively dedicated to the complex of environmental sustainability on the basis of renewable energies. Since 2009, the first university offices already be obtained, a third of the students will live in Masdar area and practically involved in the urban planning and construction as part of their study programs. One also expects that providers established in and around Masdar companies and their institutions shall collect in the course of construction projects new experiences need to apply special technological process or generate new ecologically useful knowledge so that they can market in the growing global market for sustainable systems.
It is the declared intention of the Masdar initiators to demonstrate this pattern of urbanization that the in the United Arab Emirates very high energy consumption can be counteracted. Masdar City will be largely autonomously by its own solar power plant and a crown of wind turbines.
The planning is done by Masdar's Foster Partners from the United Kingdom. On the design and construction of many companies and institutions from around the world are already involved, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, General Electric, Siemens (Research Middle East with about 2,000 jobs ), BP, Shell, Mitsubishi, Rolls- Royce, Total SA, Mitsui, Fiat, BASF, RWTH Aachen, Bosch Solar Energy (formerly ersol Solar Energy) and Conergy. The cost of the project is estimated at $ 22 billion.
The idea of the eco-city is copied from the traditional Arab settlements: where little sunlight can penetrate, the climate remains tolerable. The closely Asked, shady construction can avoid what all modern high-rise buildings is in warm zones undoing: You have to be cooled down with a huge amount of energy. In addition, the initiators believe that the low alleys construction despite all the modern technology, the human need for a public space with personal communication best suits. The novel architecture of many areas of the city, which was designed in part by star architect Norman Foster, is characterized by a partial organically shaped aesthetics. In addition, the best idea of local cooling by wind towers should revive in a modernized form: Some great buildings are grouped around huge " Modern wind towers" around, combined with all sorts of environmental energy harvesting techniques.
It's in the major project Masdar not least to the large-scale production of a laboratory situation to clarify the question of whether the man is basically able to adapt to the environmental needs, or if he refuses to be sustainable lifestyle. Since all environmental stressors should be banned from Masdar, there will be no fossil-fueled vehicles within the settlement - they must be left outside the walls of Masdar and the journey continues with sustainability-based public transport.
Traffic
The smooth traffic in the model city is planned with various matching public transport, which are each assigned to a level. In the underground of Masdar and two other districts of Abu Dhabi locally called Personal Rapid Transit networks ( PRT networks) the Dutch company 2getthere be installed. Here is an electrically motorized transport, in which the user wait in an automated cabin without to be self-determined target passes. Since August 2011, the system is tested in Masdar City with 10 cabins, the use of separate freight transport is in the program. The cabins are boarded or loaded at secured with doors separating stops and move on with the floor Guidance System with up to 40 km / h in the transport deck.
Masdar is it the world's first city to be placed by a PRT network for a car-free city. On the ( ground-floor ) Road, the " podium level ", no cars are allowed. They are intended only for pedestrians and cyclists. In a higher level, an elevated railway ( Light Rail Transit, LRT) is planned, which connects Masdar with other parts of the city and the airport. Furthermore, it is planned a regional train at the level of the PRT.
Progress, economic conditions
According to initial plans, Masdar City should be completed in 2016; However, since January 2010, announced that the total completion will be delayed at least until 2025, only the part of the Masdar project core city should be able to work in 2016. The officially stated reason is the consideration of other new technologies. Since May 2009, the work is underway on the foundation of the headquarters of the eco-city, the Masdar Institute of Technology College opened for term 2010/2011 with 170 handpicked postgraduate students. Otherwise there because of the financial crisis hardly progress of construction, as are eg the orders for the construction of housing and office space not yet assigned. Is heard from the project environment that befände the key urban planning part of the project in limbo. The main obstacle is the lack of planning security proves a result of the autocratic leadership of the country. Agreements may be revoked by the ruling family of the Emir at any time.
Criticism
Critics a miscalculation in the concept of a CO2 - neutral eco-city on the example of Masdar City. As the city through the Clean Development Mechanism is to be financed, this means that the savings in greenhouse gas emissions Masdar be certified as a so-called Certified Emissions Reductions and sold. The buyer may then emit emissions on his part. To calculate the reduction of a city is considered as it would " normally " built in this region. The difference between the estimated emissions from these hypothetical city and the actual emissions Masdar is certified as a reduction performance. Since the United Arab Emirates, the country with the world's second highest per capita emissions are ( 28.2 tons of CO2 per person in 2007), Masdar is the bottom line cause particularly many greenhouse gas emissions per capita.