08.04.2024

Podcast: Sofia needs a sustainable alternative to cars

Pavel Yanchev is an architect and urban planner who deals with urban planning and design, as well as with urban studies. He works in an architectural office in Brussels, and he devotes his free time to causes for the improvement of the urban environment in Sofia, being part of the collectives of "Sofia Team" and "Gradoscope". We spoke with him on the podcast of ESGnews.bg "Our Planet Matters" on the prerequisites for a city to be sustainable, what are the major challenges that climate change will confront city governments and how can the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, cope in its quest to become a greener city .

Mr. Yanchev, what are the most important factors that make a city sustainable?

Whether a city is sustainable depends on many things, but mostly on what the habits of its inhabitants are and also how they participate in its governance. It is important how much and what resources the city uses in order for its residents to live a quality, dignified and fair life. Of course, it is also very important how the city can react to modern crises - climatic, economic, migration, to changing trends in the modern world.

For example, an optimal option for the city would be if residents have equal access to infrastructure - social, cultural, to affordable housing. It will be positive if they can also participate in the management of their neighborhood, for example, and accordingly push certain neighborhood policies or projects that improve their lives.

Another optimal option would be if city dwellers travel no more than 10-15 minutes to reach all points of first necessity – affordable housing, workplace, social and cultural services, park or entertainment.

It is also important that the resources that the city uses for transport, energy, food and construction are located in the region and are easily renewable.

The city must also be resistant to climate changes, to disasters, storms, floods, extreme changes in temperatures. This can be done through natural resource management and planning.

What should a city do to be prepared for climate change and its negative effects on the urban environment? I ask this question thinking, for example, of an important center like Barcelona, ​​which is currently in the grip of a water crisis.

The optimal policies that a city should pursue in order to be sustainable should not be mutually exclusive. But each city, depending on where it is and what its context is, should try to go more in one direction or the other. The relationship of urbanization to water is extremely important, as is the case of Barcelona. It is no accident that our cities were founded and built where there is enough clean and potable water. In this sense, the water cycles of cities are very important. It is necessary to take measures against the forecasts for local climate changes, which, for example, for Bulgaria, are associated with extreme rains in some places at the expense of extreme droughts and high temperatures in others. What is happening in Spain can also happen in Bulgaria. Perhaps, however, the solutions in the two countries will be different.

However, there are more or less one-size-fits-all solutions when it comes to urban environments. For example, it is important for urbanization to seal its soils as little as possible, so that rainwater can drain into the ground and not be diverted into sewage infrastructure, which always at some point fails, overflows and causes damage. Having more unsealed soils is a guarantee of a cooler and more biodiverse urban environment. Also, unsealed soils and restoration of natural riverbeds on the other hand would help the urban environment to act as a sponge and absorb incoming water in times of extreme rains. Such policies are already in place in certain locations. It is important to study the movement of water in cycles over the years so that certain areas are not urbanized, for example when filling up ravines for construction purposes. We must conserve water as a resource and treat it as a resource. This can be achieved through taking care of rainwater – how much we store it and then use it without polluting it.

According to new studies, 55% of the world's population currently lives in an urban environment. This percentage is expected to grow to 2050 by 70. In Europe, 75% of people already live in cities. In what directions will city authorities need to change their thinking and, more importantly, their planning in the future?

It is important to say that these actions are very specific to each continent, to each country or city. These processes depend on the given economic and social systems, on the way a country or a city reacts. The figures quoted are accurate, more and more people will become urban dwellers. In general, we pay more attention to big cities, big capitals. But in Europe, the mass city in the future will be the medium-sized city with a population between 50 and 100 thousand people. The policies for them would be different from those for very large cities. Yet there are some universal answers. Always providing affordable housing, social, transport and cultural infrastructure, citizens' access to natural resources, will be key factors for a city to be sustainable. Because if we don't take these first steps, all subsequent actions would have no effect on people's quality of life.

In certain cases, all these services, or should we call them goods, are provided only by the state, in other cases only by business. Of course, it is important that everyone participates, but the leading role must be of the municipality and the state in order to preserve the public interest and to overcome the existing huge inequalities in the access of city dwellers to these goods. Also, speaking of inequalities, we must be clear that some citizens are more vulnerable to the coming economic and climate crises. In every city there are richer and poorer neighborhoods. The real question is how we can all together face crises in the same way, and above all the climate crisis. Because it is a fact that, all over the world, poorer citizens have more difficulty coping with climate change. Our gaze must be turned to them as well, we must think about how in each of our cities we can have an equal distribution of care for what quality life means in the context of the climate crisis.

Let's look at Bulgaria and Sofia. The Ministry of Energy recently announced the creation of a National Fund for Decarbonization, which will be the main financial instrument to support the renewal of the building stock in the country. Are you familiar with how this fund will work? What are its benefits? What are the main problems with the building stock in Sofia?

Certainly the National Decarbonisation Fund is a positive step in the direction in which these policies should be developed. Globally, construction is one of the sectors that contributes between 35 and 40 percent of carbon emissions – through the production of new materials, through construction processes, through the processing of construction waste and the operation of buildings. Bulgaria is not one of the biggest producers of emissions in Europe, but it is in our public interest to renovate as much as possible of the existing building stock, not to demolish it and build new buildings. Such a policy has already begun to be implemented in cities such as Moscow, where old residential buildings are being demolished to build brand new, much higher density ones, destroying the existing urban fabric. We are interested in renovating the existing building stock and building only what we actually need in the future. Otherwise, society will pay a higher price through climate change.

In the context of Sofia - our capital, there are about 23 multi-family residential buildings. Their maintenance and the development of the building stock in general depends a lot on how the so-called condominium works - how the owners organize themselves in each building in order to manage it, carry out current repairs and generally react when the building needs to be maintained. Unfortunately, there are currently a total of 000 registered condominium management associations, or about 900% of all multifamily residential buildings.

It seems to me, without being specifically aware, that the Decarbonisation Fund addresses exactly the problems we need to solve, namely how to renovate, what mechanism to come up with for long-term maintenance of both existing and new buildings. But even if there is an extremely large amount of funds in such a fund, if there is no sustainable way for residents to be mobilized through participation in condominiums, the effect will be much weaker. A communication strategy is needed, a mediating role is needed from the municipal and regional administrations and non-governmental organizations. Policy is very good, but it needs to be fully deployed in society to be truly effective.

We constantly hear about new spectacular projects - huge buildings in the Belite Brezi district, in the Lyulin district, a skyscraper next to the Paradise Mall. Is the city of Sofia developing according to the needs of the residents of the capital?

We can say that after the 90s, the housing market in Bulgaria, and not only in Bulgaria, opened much more for private entrepreneurship. This necessitates the abandonment of city planning as we knew it until the 70s and 80s. For example, Sofia did not have an updated urban development plan until 2007 and was working on its old plan from 1961.

To a large extent, the market decides how much new construction there needs to be. In these processes, Sofia loses many valuable green areas, public spaces, valuable architectural and other heritage. After 2007, these problems were addressed in some way, but there is no mechanism by which the municipality has sufficient funds to expropriate properties for new infrastructure, and also through new construction to finance social or technical infrastructure that it needs. In this sense, whether there will be a tall building somewhere or an extremely large project depends on the investor's decision. He assesses what his abilities are, what built-up area he can build and accordingly negotiates with the municipality each project.

And when we talk about really large-scale projects - they go through certain loopholes in the laws and the plan of Sofia, which are called partial amendments in the detailed development plans. These partial amendments very often cannot be refused by the municipalities. There is a need for a very large political will, which, however, does not reach the main architects of Sofia and the regions. This is also about the municipal councilors, who have to support a refusal of permission for very large buildings. So no matter what the city needs, it's actually right now that investors are deciding whether there will be big buildings and projects.

There are studies that show that according to the current general development plan of Sofia, as many buildings can be built to accommodate an additional 940 people. By 000, certainly not so many people will come to the capital. The city is not growing fast enough to feel the need for such new built-up area. Accordingly, there are currently many empty homes in Sofia, which is proof that the market is not always able to predict everything. There is already a report from a leading Bulgarian bank in which it is written that the housing market is overheating. The question is whether there is an effective mechanism by which the municipality will react to this economic process.

WHO gave recommendations during the covid pandemic to increase pedestrian areas and bike lanes. As if the result of these instructions was not felt in Sofia...

During the Covid crisis, daily commutes suddenly dropped dramatically. After which, in many cities, they never recovered to the amount they were in 2019. Then we wondered if the office, the office space, would exist anymore. We asked ourselves many questions as people trying to predict where cities will develop. There were cities, such as Brussels and Paris, which reacted very quickly and used the Covid crisis to expand their bike lanes, reduce car spaces and parking spaces. Sofia, unfortunately, does not benefit from this, although there are still many people who continue to work from home. It is a fact that the administration of Sofia until 2023, let's say in the last 12-14 years, was not convinced of such type of policies. In 2017, the Danish urban planner Jan Geel proposed that networks of bicycle lanes and pedestrian areas be made in Sofia. At that time, work was already underway on such projects - such as "Graf Ignatiev" and "Shishman" streets. But these projects are too few to be a city-wide trend and for all residents of the capital to feel this type of change.

The previous administration of Sofia did not believe that these policies were sustainable and that they made sense. Let's see if from now on the new administration would be convinced to implement bold policies to provide a city-wide network of connected pedestrian spaces and connected bike lanes, at least on the major boulevards. So far, there are good signs. These two policies should provide a sustainable alternative to the car, if not for longer distances, then at least for movement within a neighborhood or a distance of several hundred meters to one kilometer. Unfortunately, even for such a short route, the preferred way to travel is still by car.

Is the urban transport of our capital developing in a positive direction? What else can and should be done?

We can say that many things have been done in improving the city transport. However, there is still more to be done and with much greater thrusts in the same direction. The metro is a well-functioning infrastructure that has really changed the lives of Sofians. It is right to be critical of this type of project, which was focused on itself and failed to connect with the other types of transport in the city. Metro stations have failed to become real neighborhood centers - with public spaces, with connections to existing public transport and rail transport, which is also extremely important.

A much higher level of integration between different modes of transport is needed. Together with the pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, they should be developed as a whole. This, of course, is a very difficult task and requires the joint work of many institutions, not only municipal, but also state. This is a challenge not only for Sofia, but also for every big city. If we have to look in any direction, it is this one - the integration of different types of transport, improvement of the quality and accessibility of vehicles, also tickets for public transport... Only in this way will it become a sustainable alternative to the car, which for Sofia remains one of the main vehicles.

How can the air quality problem in Sofia be solved?

This is a very specific topic. It seems to me that too much attention is paid to domestic heating as the main source of air pollution and not so much to cars. And this is understandable - many people use cars and it is difficult to convince them, given that there is no alternative to move in certain neighborhoods, that they should move in another way - on foot, by bicycle or by public transport. But - on the other hand, there are also many neighborhoods that are already well connected with public transport, mainly with the metro. And even there it's hard to get residents out of their cars. I am convinced that the things we have talked about – cycling, connected pedestrian areas, attractive public transport, connectivity between different areas – this is the real key to better air quality.

We already have evidence from other cities that have reduced car travel – the air is cleaner there. These are the policies we must follow, they must be continued and supported by expanding the design and infrastructure of streets and boulevards that must not allow the presence of so many cars. Mainly in the city center and in the centers of the neighborhoods, which should be increasingly oriented towards pedestrian and bicycle traffic. It is also good to have designated bike lanes around all schools. Going to work and to school or kindergarten are the main movements in the city. We need to find a way to make them not by car, but by more sustainable and climate-friendly transport.

Talk about some innovations that would help a city to be more sustainable - for example, "wind trees" - metal structures with wind turbines - are becoming more popular. What innovative solutions do we realistically believe can be implemented in our capital?

I believe in this type of innovation. At the same time, it is important not to overly technologize city life and processes. Excessive technologicalization would not be a sustainable solution. A city that relies too much on ultra-high technologies and long productive chains can easily become their victim. When we think about innovation, let's not forget what happened around the Covid crisis, when vital products became expensive and disappeared. For Sofia, very simple solutions can be applied that have a great effect. I have already listed the most important of them.

Let's think - renovating old buildings and using the already urbanized areas would be a big step towards keeping the carbon emissions already invested in them. We must strive for less energy use, use less cars and therefore polluting resources, strengthen the connections between parks and green areas, realize the role of rivers as natural elements that can also be public spaces, and and a mode of transport connecting the city in a different way, to start thinking also about the existing rail transport as an alternative, not only to the subway, to make it easier to integrate renewable energy sources such as wind and solar into modern building design... Here it is are things that would make the city much more sustainable without seeming too impossible.