A people-friendly village is earth-friendly

in "radix No. 29", The Kyushu University Education PR magazine 30 June 2001

by Susuki Shunya (entry in 1974)


 Hi, everybody. It's been a while. Here I would like to tell you, from the viewpoint of natural resource management, autonomy, finance and education, about the environmental policy of Zermatt, a village which is realizing sustainable development without any subsidy from the Swiss government. I visited there in 2000 and wrote about the experience in the last paragraph of my article in "radix−No.27".

Zermatt (1,620m above sea level) belongs to the State of Wallis in the Swiss Confederation. The village (243.36 km2) is the third biggest self-governing body in Switzerland. (For your reference, the area of Fukuoka City is 338.29 km2). It is located near the Italian border and on the foot of Mt. Matterhorn ( 4,478m above sea level: the triangular mountain in the right photograph) attracting as many as three million tourists a year. Tourists who go to Zermatt by gasoline-powered cars must transfer to a train at Tissue, one station before Zermatt. Switzerland is multilingual and has four national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. People in Zermatt mainly use Swiss German. It has an area of 41,285 km2 and is a landlocked country in Western Europe. There are more than 3,000 self-governing bodies (gemainde). The ones with a population of more than 10,000 are called cities, not villages. (this accounts for about 3% of the total)

Everywhere in the village is a pedestrians' paradise.
- From the viewpoint of self-government and finance -

 Three Alps Valley communities allied against the rule of the Hapsburg dukedom in the Holy Roman Empire to keep freedom and internal order (August 1, 1291). This became the germ of the Swiss Confederation. In the beginning, there were lots of small communities (gemeinde) in the valleys. Then, several communities merged into one state. These states repeatedly allied with each other while each reserving its sovereignty, gradually forming a federation. The Zermatt village became one of the Swiss members when the Wallis State, to which the Zermatt village belonged, joined the Confederation in 1815. In the same age when Japan was putting great emphasis on a policy of enhancing the wealth and military strength in the Meiji era, the people of Zermatt were shifting from a development-oriented approach to a whole new viewpoint of Nature Conservation, and in 1890 the village assembly of Zermatt rejected the project to build a cable car and a mountain railway in the Matterhorn. Soon after the end of World War II in 1947, an electric car was introduced in Zermatt. Never having any gasoline cars from the early days due to its geographical conditions, the village twice refused through the local referendum in 1972 and 1986 the proposal of the Wallis State to construct a highway from Tissue to Zermatt. The village has been developing as "a tourist attraction free of gasoline cars". Recently the number of electric cars has reached over 500. The inhabitants participate in almost all decision-making through referendum to resolve the issues their village has. In Switzerland, all matters are first discussed by the residents, then at the village/city level and on to state and federation levels. In Zermatt, both the budget and financial statements approved at the assembly level are submitted to the villager assembly twice a year to be discussed in budgetary and accounting terms. The budget/financial statements are made so that the citizens can grasp the financial status of the village quickly, by using for example bar graphs displaying surplus and deficit. Tax revenues account for half of all incomes of Zermatt, with increasing personal income taxes and corporation taxes thanks to the development of tourist industry. There are some unique taxes introduced there, including sojourn tax and dog tax. Other sources of revenue include cable cars, a railroad, water rights (glacier water is sold) and a hydroelectric power station.

Their own rules

 I had the following talk with my interpreter and the owner of the Hotel where I stayed, while we were enjoying the great view of Matterhorn from the courtyard of the hotel.
I said to the owner, "When working as a Fukuoka City Official, I was involved in mediating some troubles between Fukuoka citizens and the owner of a building under construction. One of the major causes of troubles was that a certain building blocked the view from citizens' homes. When this hotel was built, didn't you receive any complaints from the hotels behind yours that your building blocked the view of the Matterhorn? Didn't people come to the village office to complain about the construction?"
The owner answered, "There was no complaint on the construction of this hotel from other hotels. Because the hotel was built according to the building code of the village, there was no problem."
The interpreter said, "Nobody would complain to the government office on such matters." In other words, there is no reason for villagers to complain about others if they keep the rules that they made by themselves. You can see the rules of the village on the Web site (http://gemeinde.zermatt.ch/).

The traffic regulations of the Zermatt village

 The purpose of the regulations is to give priority to pedestrians over cars in the village as a general rule and to keep the sightseeing spot free of gasoline cars. About the regulations on electric cars, cars for business use such as hotel cars and taxis (cf. photograph left) are permitted, but any electric cars for private use are forbidden to enter the area.

Limit speed per hour : Less than 20km per hour

The size of a vehicle should be less than 4m in length, below 1.4m in width, and the height should be 1.4m or less. It must not have a gasoline-car-like appearance.

The environment with walking speed in mind

  Once, I asked the deputy mayor of the Zermatt village.

"How do you teach environmental problems to students?"

He gave the following answer to me.

"I teach them to students from various angles, by appealing to their sensibility. For example, I told students that these days they are riding their bicycles faster than before. I select various themes that are closely related to everyday life."

I had expected that he would talk about global environmental problems such as global warming or air pollution. So, I was confused when he mentioned such topic as how to ride a bicycle. The next morning, however, I realized that nothing would develop into a global problem if we resolved daily problems one by one, because all the global-level environmental problems could be traced back to small problems in our everyday lives. Later, I told this story to Mr. Yamada who is an environmental counselor living in Zermatt for 13 years. He advised me as follows.

"It is to live with our walking speed in mind"

The environment we feel comfortable is the environment that focuses on people. Designed with walking speed in mind, such environment as in Zermatt reduces traffic accidents and crimes and increases the opportunities for people to interact with each other. It can revitalize its community.

An electric truck passing by children playing on the road

Environmental education

Mr. Yamada's story
"I often hear stories from school teachers on how they teach environmental issues in class rooms, but they are nothing special.
For example, a teacher would tell his/her students to fold a round piece of paper in half and tell them to fill it with a lot of dots. And then the teacher would make the students unfold the paper, which has dots all over in one half and no dots in the other half, and ask a question:
'Do you see the paper half blank or half full?'
And the teacher would go on teaching them about the fragility of nature.
'Imagine that this paper represents the nature of our earth. There may be no blank space on the next day'.
In another case, a teacher would let students research on the rubbish that tourists throw away, and explore where the rubbish came from. On the other hand the teacher would explain to his/her students how significantly tourists contribute to support the living of the people in Zermatt. It is a well-balanced education".

Practical education based on their livelihood

Switzerland is relatively poor in natural resources so it used to earn foreign currencies by dispatching their own soldiers as mercenary to European countries until the 18th century. Therefore Swiss soldiers had to fight each other sometimes. After such hard times, Switzerland established one of the best education systems in the world based on the educational philosophy of Pestalozzi who put importance on vocational education of "learning through everyday life". Generally speaking, students enter vocational schools or high schools (gymnasium) after finishing the compulsory education of elementary and junior high schools. Vocational school students can make a living as a professional with special skills if they pass a federal examination of their specialty after finishing the school. In the case of gymnasium students, anyone can enter the university (but the midterm and final examinations are very difficult to pass) if they pass a high school graduation examination (matoura). Therefore there is no "exam war" like in Japan. The children in Zermatt look really carefree and happy, being raised in a Swiss society which is not academic background-oriented and has built an environment with walking speed in mind.


Applying policies in Switzerland to the reclaimed island "Island City"

 Now I would like to hypothetically apply the following two Swiss policies to "Island City", a reclaimed island constructed by Fukuoka City. 

Pattern I
The policy to replace gasoline-fueled cars with electric ones in the village where gasoline cars have already been introduced

 Aiming to realize the policy "energy in 2000" in which emission of Co2 is targeted to be decreased to 1990 level in 2000, the Swiss federal government chose the village "Menderishio" (cf. figure 1) of 6,500 people located near the Italian border as a model town and have been introducing electric cars(http://www.infovel.ch/).
 It is the aim of the Swiss federal government to introduce Menderishio's success not only in Switzerland, but also over the world.

Pattern II
The policy to keep the status quo in the village where gasoline cars have never been introduced
 Nine self-governing bodies located on mountain tops or deep in the valleys where gasoline cars have never been introduced owing to their geographical conditions cooperated to create "a community of car- free tourism cities in Switzerland " in 1988. Zermatt is the representative of the federation. (cf. figure 1)

 Based on these policies, I designed a model town in which sustainable development is realized through decision-making process among the members of the community on their immediate concerns with walking speed in mind, just like Zermatt. The model city is located on the northeast part of Island City with approximately the same living area as Zermatt. In designing, I referred to the idea of Walt Disney (From his words and the fact that he was a frequent guest of the Grand-Hotel Zermatterhof in Zermatt, I supposed that "the Cinderella Castle" is "the Matterhorn") and the reconstruction plan of "Venice" to establish a university in the famous sinking lagoon city, where cars are not allowed.



A shot of the animation of my 3D-CG simulation (cf. following note)

(1) There is only one railroad station that links to the main entrance of this area, as in Zermatt, Disneyland and Venice.
(2) Gasoline cars are prohibited. Only electric cars (driving at a speed less than 20km per hour) for business use are permitted.
(3) There are commercial facilities between the station and the central open space, around which several kindergartens, two elementary schools, one junior high school, and one high school are set up. The athletic grounds of the schools are connected to the open space, allowing the residents on the island to use the grounds.
(4) The University of Environmental Information stands as the symbol of this area, at the northernmost of the north and south axis on which the entrance and the central open space are located. It is the tallest building on the island, and is open for students from all over the world. (Anyone can enter without taking the entrance exam, but midterm exams are very difficult)
(5)

Canals and ponds retaining rainwater for reuse surround the central open space, and a beltway for electric-powered buses runs along the canals. In addition, the central open space links directly to the neighboring beach parks, thanks to the roads radiating outward.

(6) The buildings are arranged so that high-rise buildings are built in the north and low-rise ones in the south, allowing solar battery panels installed in their roofs and their outer walls to absorb solar energy efficiently without being blocked by each other.
(7) The land is sloping down from the north to the south so that the kitchen waste from the disposers in the buildings can flow into the fuel cell power station efficiently.
(8) To promote self-sufficiency of electrical supply, I would like to propose setting up wind-generated power facilities in the neighboring district, in addition to (6) and (7). (cf. the perspective drawing below)


The photo below shows the image supposing if an electric car of Zermatt runs in Toyohama Town. (CG) The photo below shows the image supposing if an electric car of Zurich runs in Toyohama Town. (CG)

 If such environment designed with walking speed in mind could be developed in Island City, people visiting this island can recognize the importance of good balance among the environment, self-government, finance and education not only as knowledge but also through practical experience, just like I experienced in Zermatt. In this sense, I think this development will contribute to the global environment protection from long-term standpoint.

by Don Quixote

(Note: The 3D-CG usually means three-dimensional computer graphics, but I animated it this time. By this technique, people can experience virtual scenery by three-dimensional animation. It is particularly effective for checking in advance the images of buildings and spaces that may require enormous construction cost. The effectiveness of 3D-CG animation was proven in my previous job at the Hakataza theater.)  

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