Download or read book Pathways to Urban Sustainability written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-11-11 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities have experienced an unprecedented rate of growth in the last decade. More than half the world's population lives in urban areas, with the U.S. percentage at 80 percent. Cities have captured more than 80 percent of the globe's economic activity and offered social mobility and economic prosperity to millions by clustering creative, innovative, and educated individuals and organizations. Clustering populations, however, can compound both positive and negative conditions, with many modern urban areas experiencing growing inequality, debility, and environmental degradation. The spread and continued growth of urban areas presents a number of concerns for a sustainable future, particularly if cities cannot adequately address the rise of poverty, hunger, resource consumption, and biodiversity loss in their borders. Intended as a comparative illustration of the types of urban sustainability pathways and subsequent lessons learned existing in urban areas, this study examines specific examples that cut across geographies and scales and that feature a range of urban sustainability challenges and opportunities for collaborative learning across metropolitan regions. It focuses on nine cities across the United States and Canada (Los Angeles, CA, New York City, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Grand Rapids, MI, Flint, MI, Cedar Rapids, IA, Chattanooga, TN, and Vancouver, Canada), chosen to represent a variety of metropolitan regions, with consideration given to city size, proximity to coastal and other waterways, susceptibility to hazards, primary industry, and several other factors.

Download or read book From Understanding to Action written by Marco Keiner and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hans van Ginkel Rector, United Nations University The challenges of the world's future are linked to the growing share of the global population that will reside in urban areas. UN projections indicate that by 2030 the world's urban population share will rise to 60 percent. Of the two billion added to the global population, 99 percent will be added to the urban areas of the world. Of this number, 95 percent will be in countries of the developing world. As most people will live in urban areas we had better work to build and organize them as both attractive and less resource consuming places. That is, to promote sustainable urban development is to promote the creation of dense human settlements that are livable and have reduced their impacts on larger scale ecosystems. While much attention has been focused on the "mega-cities," those with a population of over 10 million, the amount of people living in these places will remain almost constant while the smaller and medium size cities will be the great absorbers of the world's urban population. Indeed, it is predicted that while the absolute number of people that will live in urban centers of 10 million or more will increase from approximately 263 to 375 million between 2000 and 20 IS, their share of the total urban population will only increase from 9. 2 percent to 9. 8 percent, a 6. 34 percent increase.

Download or read book Indicators for Sustainable Urban Development written by International Institute for the Urban Environment and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Planning Development and Management of Sustainable Cities written by Tan Yigitcanlar and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of ‘sustainable urban development’ has been pushed to the forefront of policymaking and politics as the world wakes up to the impacts of climate change and the destructive effects of the Anthropocene. Climate change has emerged to be one of the biggest challenges faced by our planet today, threatening both built and natural systems with long-term consequences, which may be irreversible. While there is a vast body of literature on sustainability and sustainable urban development, there is currently limited focus on how to cohesively bring together the vital issues of the planning, development, and management of sustainable cities. Moreover, it has been widely stated that current practices and lifestyles cannot continue if we are to leave a healthy living planet to not only the next generation, but also to the generations beyond. The current global school strikes for climate action (known as Fridays for Future) evidences this. The book advocates the view that the focus needs to rest on ways in which our cities and industries can become green enough to avoid urban ecocide. This book fills a gap in the literature by bringing together issues related to the planning, development, and management of cities and focusing on a triple-bottom-line approach to sustainability.

Download or read book City Indicators written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: This paper provides the key elements to develop an integrated approach for measuring and monitoring city performance globally. The paper reviews the role of cities and why indicators are important. Then it discusses past approaches to city indicators and the systems developed to date, including the World Bank's initiatives. After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of past experiences, it discusses the characteristics of optimal indicators. The paper concludes with a proposed plan to develop standardized indicators that emphasize the importance of indicators that are measurable, replicable, potentially predictive, and most important, consistent and comparable over time and across cities. As an innovative characteristic, the paper includes subjective measures in city indicators, such as well-being, happy citizens, and trust.

Download or read book The Sustainable Urban Development Reader written by Stephen M. Wheeler and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together classic readings from a wide variety of sources, this key book investigates how our cities and towns can become more sustainable. Thirty-eight selections span issues such as land use planning, urban design, transportation, ecological restoration, economic development, resource use and equity planning. Section introductions outline the major themes, whilst the editors' introductions to the individual writings explain their interest and significance to wider debates. Additional sections present twenty-four case studies of real-world sustainable urban planning examples, sustainability planning exercises, and further reading. Providing background in theory, practical application, and vision, in a clear, accessible format, The Sustainable Urban Development Reader is an essential resource for students, professionals, and indeed anyone interested in the future of urban environments.

Download or read book Sustainability Assessment of Urban Systems written by Claudia R. Binder and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-26 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our world is becoming more urban. More than fifty percent of the global population now lives in cities, which poses new challenges for sustainable development. This book integrates theory and methods of sustainability assessment with concepts from systems science to provide guidelines for assessing the sustainability of urban systems. It discusses different aspects of urban sustainability, from energy and housing, to mobility and health, covering social, economic and environmental factors, as well as the various stakeholders and actors involved. The book argues for the need to find models and solutions in order to design sustainable cities of the future in light of the complexity of urban social life. Including diverse case studies from the developed and developing world, this book provides a useful reference for researchers and students from a broad range of disciplines working in the field of sustainability, as well as for environmental consultants and policy makers.

Download or read book Promoting the Sustainable Development Goals in North American Cities written by David B. Abraham and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-03-05 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents North American best practices and perspectives on developing, managing and monitoring indicators to track development progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in local communities and cities. In 4 main sections, the book presents and frames the many ways in which community indicator programs are either integrating or retooling to integrate the SDGs into their existing frameworks, or how they are developing new programs to track and report progress on the SDGs. This is the first volume that focuses on SDG adoption within the context of North Americans cities and communities, and the unique issues and opportunities prevalent in these settings. The chapters are developed by experienced academics and practitioners of community planning and sustainable development, and will add broad perspective on public policy, organizational management, information management and data visualization. This volume presents a case-study approach to chapters, offering lessons that can be used by three main audiences: 1) teachers and researchers in areas of urban, regional, and environmental planning, urban development, and public policy; 2) professional planners, decision-makers, and urban managers; and 3) sustainability activists and interested groups.

Download or read book How Green Is the City written by Dimitri Devuyst and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2001-08-01 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with practical ways to reach a more sustainable state in urban areas through such tools as strategic environmental assessment, sustainability assessment, direction analysis, baseline setting and progress measurement, sustainability targets, and ecological footprint analysis.

Download or read book Urban Transformations written by Sigrun Kabisch and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-01-08 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book addresses urban transformations towards sustainability in light of challenges of global urbanization processes and the consequences of global environmental change. The aim is to show that urban transformations only succeed if both innovative scientific solutions and practice-oriented governance approaches are developed. This assumption is addressed by providing theoretical insights and empirical evidence pointing particularly at 3 concepts or qualities which are determined here as being central for achieving urban sustainability: resource efficiency, quality of life and resilience. Urban case studies from several international research projects illustrate our conceptual approach of urban transformations towards sustainable development. Thus, the book reaches far beyond a mere additive description of single case studies. It incorporates the results of condensed synthesis, resulting from comparisons and evaluations. It provides, based on cross-cutting reflection of single cases and different scales and methods of analysis, general and transferable findings. They do not only consider the scientific sphere but deliberately go beyond it discussing transferability of knowledge into practice, governance options and the feasibility of policy strategies in order to pave the way for sustainable urban transformations to happen today and in the future.

Download or read book Advanced Study Course on Indicators for Sustainable Urban Development written by Donald Boyd and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sustainable Urban Development Reader written by Stephen M. Wheeler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-03 with total page 1056 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building on the success of its second edition, the third edition of the Sustainable Urban Development Reader provides a generous selection of classic and contemporary readings giving a broad introduction to this topic. It begins by tracing the roots of the sustainable development concept in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, before presenting readings on a number of dimensions of the sustainability concept. Topics covered include land use and urban design, transportation, ecological planning and restoration, energy and materials use, economic development, social and environmental justice, and green architecture and building. All sections have a concise editorial introduction that places the selection in context and suggests further reading. Additional sections cover tools for sustainable development, international sustainable development, visions of sustainable community and case studies from around the world. The book also includes educational exercises for individuals, university classes, or community groups, and an extensive list of recommended readings. The anthology remains unique in presenting a broad array of classic and contemporary readings in this field, each with a concise introduction placing it within the context of this evolving discourse. The Sustainable Urban Development Reader presents an authoritative overview of the field using original sources in a highly readable format for university classes in urban studies, environmental studies, the social sciences, and related fields. It also makes a wide range of sustainable urban planning-related material available to the public in a clear and accessible way, forming an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the future of urban environments.

Download or read book Global Urban Indicators Database written by United Nations Human Settlements Programme and published by UN-HABITAT. This book was released on 2002 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mapping and Spatial Analysis of Socio economic and Environmental Indicators for Sustainable Development written by Noamen Rebai and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-08-01 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents most recent research studies on mapping and spatial analysis of socio-economic and environmental indicators used by various national and international contributors to regional development projects. It gathers the best contributions to the 1st International Conference on Mapping and Spatial Analysis of Socio-Economic and Environmental Indicators for the Local and Regional Sustainable Development. The conference was held in southern Tunisia, Tataouine in March 2015.The research studies focused on generating and analyzing indicators in various domains of Agriculture, Energy, Industry, Tourism, Transport, Urban Planning, Exploitation of Natural Resources, Infrastructure, Health, Environment, Education, Information and Communication Technologies, Social Affairs and Employability, and Culture and Sport. Socio-economic and environmental indicators are important in regional development plans and strategies as they allow to observe and analyze changes in the economic growth and to measure their impact on the environment and on social networks/daily life of citizens. On the basis of well-defined geomatic approaches, and particularly, through sophisticated digital mapping and spatio-temporal analyses, authors focused on retrieving indicators to evaluate the exploitation rate of natural resources, intensity of the energy consumption in various economic sector, net migratory flows, quality checking of the air in urban areas, adaptation to climate change, and vulnerability of the coastal domain and risk of marine submersion due to sea-level rise. The book is of interest not only to investors and contributors to regional development projects, but also to all relevant policy makers.

Download or read book Sustainable Urban Development Volume 2 written by Mark Deakin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-04-11 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, the second of a three-volume series, leading authorities on the methodology of environmental assessment provide a unique insight into questions of critical importance to sustainable urban development. Using the framework and protocols set out in Volume 1, Volume 2 examines how well the environmental assessment methods evaluate the ecological integrity of urban development and equity of the resulting resource distribution. The examination focuses on: the instruments of environmental assessment approaches to environmental assessment based in systems-thinking methods for environmental, economic and social assessments their use in evaluating the sustainability of urban development. The Sustainable Urban Development Series contains the research and debate of the BEQUEST (Building, Environmental Quality Evaluation for Sustainability) network funded by the European Commission. Together the books provide a framework, set of protocols, environmental assessment methods and toolkit for policy makers, academics, professionals and advanced level students in urban planning and studies, as well as other areas of the built environment.

Download or read book Dimensions of the Sustainable City written by Mike Jenks and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-12-17 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The CityForm consortium’s latest book, Dimensions of the Sustainable City, is the first book to report on an empirical multi-disciplinary study specifically designed to address urban sustainability. Drawing together the various dimensions of sustainability – economic, social, transport, energy and ecological – the book examines their relationships both to each other and to urban form. The book investigates the sustainability dimensions of cities through a series of projects based on a common list of elements of urban form, and which draw on the consortium’s latest research to review the sustainability issues of each dimension. The elements of urban form include density, land use, location, accessibility, transport infrastructure and characteristics of the built environment. The book also addresses issues such as adapting cities, psychological and ecological benefits of green space and sustainable lifestyles, each presenting a critical review of the relevant literature followed by an empirical analysis presenting the key results. Based on studies across five UK cities, the book draws out findings of relevance to sustainable cities worldwide. As well as an invaluable reference to researchers in sustainable planning and urban design, the book will provide a useful text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses and for policy makers dealing with these issues. The CityForm consortium is a multi-disciplinary group of researchers from five universities funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council from 2003-07.

Download or read book Local Sustainable Urban Development in a Globalized World written by Susan M. Opp and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Sustainable development' is a key issue of concern to urban planners across the globe. How it is defined, implemented and measured at the local level remains highly contested and subject to a wide range of external cultural, political and economic pressures. Bringing together leading experts from North America, Europe, the Middle East and SE Asia, this book provides a timely overview of the various methods for understanding and implementing sustainable practices at local levels. In doing so, they present the wide range of local action alternatives available to planners that may be pursued in spite of the constraints generated by globalization processes and highlight the array of public policy options that could reduce the external pressures shaping the possible local alternatives. The book argues that, while local planners and local authorities are willing to act, many are unaware of the range of options available to them. In bringing together these case studies, not only diverse in geographic terms, but also reflecting very different levels of income, general population education, cultural norms, legal systems and government structures, it points out innovations and examples of best practice.