Urban Experience

Urban Experience


Babcock Ranch



     Babcock Ranch is an 18,000-acre community rising from cattle, land, and wildlife habitat located in Southwest Florida in Fort Myers. It is America's first solar powered town with Above is a picture taken at Babcock Ranch with a solar panel. I decided to do a virtual trip of the community. The picture is sourced from “Babcock Ranch” about us section. After watching the virtual trip of this sustainable community, I was able to observe a few things. 


    One personal observation I was able to encounter during this virtual trip is the solar energy panels. As mentioned earlier, the community is a solar powered town and is Babcock Ranch's key component. When you turn on a light during the day, it will be powered by solar energy. When the sun goes down at night, light will be powered by natural gas. This makes the community having the cleanest form of energy.  In Robertson, it would be called energy efficiency and conservation. "Energy efficiency offers the biggest opportunity for cutting carbon emissions and provides, in effect, free energy. Conservation, or reducing demand, is a related but different strategy." (p. 180)
    
    The second observation I encountered during this virtual trip is the community gardens. Babcock Ranch has thier own garden for the community for residents which is another sustainable way of living. Many of the ingredients are locally sourced and residents can grow their own vegtables, herbs, and more in the commnity garden. In Robertson, it would be called community garden as well. "A community garden is any piece of land gardened by a group of people. The land may be owned by a city, a land trust, a community group, or a private owner." (p. 246)


    And lastly, the third observation I encountered was the alternative transportation. With all the sustainable options that Babcock has, the alternative transportation really caught my attention.  Babcock's plans for innovative internal transportation embraces advanced and developing technologies to provide environmentally-friendly ways to get around town that are more convenient and affordable than driving your own car. The layout of the community allows residents to leave their car at home and use alternative transportation such as bikes, walking, kayaking, and even a community bus. In Robertson, this would be called Alternative Energy for Transportation. "One approach to improve vehicle efficiany is to reduce vehicle miles traveled by providing public transportation options and by rethinking our urban planning and land use decisions so that travel is less necessary." (p. 171)


Reference:

https://www.babcockranch.com/video-archives/

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