June 30 / Millenium Park as a sustainable resource to Chicago

"Sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions."

Sustainability can be reached through different tools such as environmental management, management of human consumption of resources and human production of waste, territory planning... In any ecosystem, and that includes urban ecosystems, sustainability must be approached as a whole. Some parts of the city can be considered as unsustainability sources; others can be considered as sustainability sources. This is the case of Millenium Park.

As mentioned in the definition above, sustainability contains three different dimensions: environmental, economic and social. I would like to give some examples to illustrate each for Millenium Park. I haven't chosen concrete physical elements but general aspects of the park.

1. ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSION

 - Park as a carbon sink for the city: Millenium park is a quite big vegetation patch in the city. As it photosythesizes, vegetation absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits. On the contrary, the rest of the city acts as a very important carbon source, since cars, heatings, air-conditioned systems, etc. are continuously emitting carbon dioxide. So, in this sense, Millenium park can balance carbon emission and absortion in Chicago.

- Park as a habitat island for fauna: whoever went for a 15 minutes walk around Millenium Park would be able to see many different species of birds, mammals, insects and other types of animals. This is important as vast paved surfaces erase big amounts of habitat for fauna. Besides animals, we can also observe a high diversity of plants, including over 900 trees, shrubs, groundcovers, perennials, annuals...

2. ECONOMIC DIMENSION

From the economic point of view, Millenium Park gives Chicago many opportunities to get money inputs: concerts, food stands, festivals, etc. It also provides a relaxation area for those who go working or shopping downtown. 

3. SOCIAL  DIMENSION

People who live in urban areas have many different needs that public services must meet. They need job, they need stores, they need transportation, they need residential areas... but they also need recreation places, green areas, places where they can do sports... In this sense a good urban planning should consider spaces for each different use. That is essential to build a sustainable city.