Photo : adeupa de Brest

The term "eco-city" was first coined by author Richard Register, in the book Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future. When published in 1987, it aimed to offer planning solutions and ideologies focused around future cities, in order to improve our quality of life and increase our cities' lifespan.

A sustainable or eco-city is one that is self-reliant and that can power itself with renewable sources of energy. The ecocity aims to create the smallest possible carbon footprint, to efficiently use land, and to convert waste-to-energy. If practices like these are adhered to, the city's overall contribution to climate change will be minimal.

Ecological cities are achieved by various processes and initiatives such as agricultural plots of land being planted within urban centres to reduce the distance between cities and food supplies.This concept is called from "field to fork". Some countries have even taken up rooftop gardening where gardens are grown on the rooftops of city houses. Here's an example of such an effort in China:

Building cities from more efficient materials counters over-heating caused by an abundance of tarmac and asphalt, which can make urban areas several degrees warmer than surrounding rural areas—as much as six degrees Celsius during the evening.This way, people can avoid abusing artificial ventilation systems such as air conditioning, which is a major energy drain.

Improved public transportation, zero-emission transport, and fine-tuning city roads with pedestrians in mind, all help to reduce and discourage the population's reliance on cars.So from a mobility perspective, what should be done to build the perfect eco-city? Should we eliminate parking stations to encourage the use of car-sharing programs and other eco-friendly modes of transportation such as biking, walking and public transportation? Can establishing lower speed limits help reduce fuel consumption and noise pollution while making our roads safer? Take a look a the "20's Plenty for Us" campaign in the UK, that aims to make the default speed limit on all residential roads 20mph:

What do you think are some of the most importatnt components of an eco-city? Let us know in the comments section below!