IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section A

Abstract

As climate disasters become more frequent and devastating to people, infrastructures, and systems, urban planners must adopt practices that promote climate resiliency within cities. This research, in collaboration with The City of [Redacted], investigates the financial feasibility and economic benefits of transforming suburban lawns in the rapidly growing city of [Redacted], Canada, into a network of decentralized nodes of sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructures. The research primarily executes an economic analysis of implementing household-scale sustainability technologies on the average house in [Redacted], such as backyard gardens, rainwater harvesting systems, and solar photovoltaics (PVs). Possible investments into household sustainable infrastructure were then divided into four tiers of affordability and calculated by their Return on Investment (ROI) and Payback Period (PBP)—with each technology featuring different ROI or PBP profiles. Initial research findings indicate that when accounting for inflation, especially climate-fueled inflation, ROIs of sustainable infrastructures will precipitate and become increasingly more financially attractive investments. This work is oriented towards informing productive intersections between municipal policy and the economic benefits of sustainable infrastructures as catalysts for environmental and climate resilience at an urban scale. Current work is exploring how finance innovation, when applied through an ecological lens, can support fiscal health and the wellbeing of the public.