Parking Lots, Opportunities for Green Change

Because of "Urban Sprawl", land has become a premium in suburbs that were once deemed rural. Over the past decade, parking lots have become an opportunity to maximize land use. In some cases, they have become green projects. These parking lots have been made into parks, condominiums with artificial wetlands to stop runoff, and in some cases, solar power generators.

But where do these parking spots go? Many times these parking spots are simply placed underground or in multilevel garages eliminating the need for the traditional parking lot and optimizing land use. Parking lots are seeing a change from level plains of asphalt to more efficient, greener structures that allow for land to be used efficiently.

Here is a great article from Time Magazine that tells more about the suburban parking lot change to combat urban sprawl. This is just another example of the type of thinking it will take to create an efficient, sustainable world (a lower need for parking spots would be nice too :)).

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The Future of Farming

In the future, we are going to need to make innovations to keep living in luxury like we do today. For one thing, land is going to become a premium as the human population grows. Some predictions believe that we are going to have food shortages in urban areas by 2050. Vertical farming seems to be a viable solution. The farm of the future will contain a few hundred acres in a single 10-20 story building within a city block. This will cut down on land use, decrease water use, and reduce GHGs used for transportation of food. The vertical farm is still a few decades away. Advancements in irrigation, solar, and evaporation technologies to reduce costs need to take place before these farms can become profitable. Nevertheless, vertical farming is a great example of the type of thinking and innovation needed to create a sustainable future.

Here is a good article from WhatItCosts.com about the costs and resources needed to create a vertical farm.