Masdar is an environmentally friendly city that the United Arab Emirates plans to build in suburbs of capital Abu Dhabi. The project will be built in the desert and will be the first city that reaches zero carbon and waste standard in the world. This plan has been brewed for many years and was officially made public on January 21, 2008. The core of this plan is to develop a new town covering an area of 6.4 km2 in the desert 11km from Abu Dhabi in southeast. The overall planning of the project is in the charge of official institution Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company mainly in cooperation with World Wildlife Fund (WWF; One Planet Living), Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT), Foster + Partners Architectural Design and Urban Planning Company, etc. with a total investment of USD 22 billion. It is expected to build a future city that can accommodate 50,000 people and to be finished before 2016.

30% of 6.4 km2 of Masdar will be planned for residence, 24% for office, 13% for commerce, 6% for schools, 19% for transportation and 8% for culture and recreation.

1、Building design:

◆The city is built facing southwest to get the best lighting and shade.

◆Streets are limited to 3m×70m to keep microclimate stable and promote ventilation.

◆Buildings are traditional Arabian with five stories at most.

◆A large number of planting and waterscape facilities, and wind tower is used to introduce cool breeze into the city for cooling.

2、Communication and transportation:

◆Steam locomotives are forbidden in the city with public transport as means of transportation.

◆Design three types of means of transportation. Long distance transport is dominated by light rail trams linking Masdar and Abu Dhabi, city transport will use Personal Rapid Transit built with rail or maglev, and footpath is built for short distance transport to encourage walking.

◆Where: Personal Rapid Transit will provide 2,500 groups of vehicles to make means of transportation available in 200 m to meet transportation demand of 150,000 person times/day.

3、Electricity supply:

◆Reduce power demand through design of green building.

◆It is expected that only 200 MW will be needed in the city every day, a quarter of that in cities of the same size (about 800MW).

◆Power generation depends on wind, water, solar energy and hydrogen. And proportion of solar power generation will be further increased (if efficiency of conversion between light energy and electric energy is further improved, roof of 80% of buildings will be installed with solar panels).

4、Water resources utilization:

◆Reduce the demand for drinking water through planning of different uses

◆Drinking water needed per day by the city is expected to be only 8,000 tons, which is two-fifths of the existing cities of the same size (about 20,000 tons)

◆Solar energy will be used as power source of desalination plant to manufacture drinking water

◆A large number of rainwater collection facilities, as well as high efficiency wastewater recycling and reuse

5、Reduce waste and reduce charges:

◆From construction at the beginning to the livelihood appliance in the future, only renewable, environmentally friendly materials are used

◆Reduce the generation of waste by 98% through recycling mechanisms in short terms

◆Predicted to reach target of zero waste, zero landfill by 2020

6、Sustainable development:

◆In order to become the reference for countries all over the world and be the main part in the urban industry, the project will be dominated by industries related to environmental protection, including green transportation, waste management, drinking water and sewage treatment, green building and industrial material, biodiversity, climate change study, renewable energy and green financial institution