Download or read book Steering Sustainability in an Urbanising World written by Anitra Nelson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainability has become the key challenge for urban planners, housing and infrastructure policy makers. Citizens are increasingly encouraged to live more compactly; in denser urban developments, to use less water and other natural resources and to choose public transport. While councils, government agencies and private business invest in a broad range of promotions offering discounts on sustainable products and services, uptake has been slow and the impacts marginal at a time when environmental stresses suggest that we must act fast. This book examines this pressing problem in a holistic way, discussing broad-scale sustainability policies and programmes for achieving sustainable urban futures. It brings together academics and practitioners to analyze the complexity and interdependence of principles, models, processes and practices of sustainability in a range of integrated sectors as well as the establishment and maintenance of sustainable physical infrastructure in cities.

Download or read book Ecopolis written by Paul F. Downton and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-12-09 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 2008, for the first time in human history, half of the world’s population now live in cities. Yet despite a wealth of literature on green architecture and planning, there is to date no single book which draws together theory from the full range of disciplines - from architecture, planning and ecology - which we must come to grips with if we are to design future cities which are genuinely sustainable. Paul Downton’s Ecopolis takes a major step along this path. It highlights the urgent need to understand the role of cities as both agents of change and means of survival, at a time when climate change has finally grabbed world attention, and it provides a framework for designing cities that integrates knowledge - both academic and practical - from a range of relevant disciplines. Identifying key theorists, practitioners, places and philosophies, the book provides a solid theoretical context which introduces the concept of urban fractals, and goes on to present a series of design and planning tools for achieving Sustainable Human Ecological Development (SHED). Combining knowledge from diverse fields to present a synthesis of urban ecology, the book will provide a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners in architecture, construction, planning, geography and the traditional life sciences.

Download or read book Housing Sustainability in Low Carbon Cities written by Ralph Horne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Housing affordability, urban development and climate change responses are great challenges that are intertwined, yet the conceptual and policy links between them remain under-developed. Housing Sustainability in Low Carbon Cities addresses this gap by developing an interdisciplinary approach to urban decarbonisation, drawing upon more established, yet quite distinctive, fields of built environment policy and design, housing, and studies of social and economic change. Through this approach, policy and practices of housing affordability, equity, energy efficiency, resilience and renewables are critiqued and alternatives are presented. Drawing upon international case studies, this book provides a unique contribution to interdisciplinary urban and housing studies, discourses and practices in an era of climate change. This book is recommended reading on higher level undergraduate and taught postgraduate courses in architecture, urban studies, planning, built environment, geography and urban studies. It will also be directly valuable to housing and urban policy makers and sustainability practitioners.

Download or read book Australian Environmental Planning written by Jason Byrne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-16 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Planning Institute of Australia's 2015 Cutting Edge Research and Teaching Award! Australians from all walks of life have begun to realise the nation’s cities cannot sustain profligate growth indefinitely. Dwindling water supplies, failing food bowls, increased energy costs, more severe bushfires, severe storms, flooding, coastal erosion, rising transport expenses, housing shortages and environmental pollution are now daily news headlines. Australia’s cities may have reached their ecological limits: a new model for planning the places we live is needed. Understanding the natural cycles of the city is just as important to planning our cities as knowledge of local ordinances, indeed much more so. A profound knowledge of environmental processes is critical for successful planning in today’s world. Environmental planners take as their guiding principle the concept of designing with nature, approaching cities as living organisms that consume water, energy and raw materials, and produce waste. This metabolic view of cities means we can find new solutions to old problems, and steer our cities towards a more sustainable form of planning. Written specifically for students and professionals working in city planning in Australia, this ground-breaking new book enables Australian planners, architects and developers to get a better understanding of the fundamental principles of environmental planning for cities, showing how land, water, air, energy, wildlife and people shape our built environments, and how in turn environmental processes must be better understood if we are to make informed decisions about developing cities that are more sustainable. The book’s coverage is comprehensive: from an overview of the concepts and theories of environmental planning, through analysis of governance systems and urban environmental processes to agendas and policies for the future, all the key topics are covered in depth, with recommendations for supporting reading and an unrivalled selection of additional materials. Ideal for students, essential for professionals, Australian Environmental Planning is vital reading for more sustainable cities in a more sustainable world.

Download or read book Sustainable Development and Planning X written by G. Passerini and published by WIT Press. This book was released on 2018-12-17 with total page 1025 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains research from the 10th International Conference on Sustainable Development and Planning. The papers included in this volume form a collection of research from academics, policy makers, practitioners and other stakeholders from across the globe who discuss the latest advances in the field. Problems related to development and planning, which affect rural and urban areas, are present in all regions of the world. Accelerated urbanisation has resulted in deterioration of the environment and loss of quality of life. Urban development can also aggravate problems faced by rural areas such as forests, mountain regions and coastal areas, amongst many others. Taking into consideration the interaction between different regions and developing new methodologies for monitoring, planning and implementation of novel strategies can offer solutions for mitigating environmental pollution and non-sustainable use of available resources. Energy saving and eco-friendly building approaches have become an important part of modern development, which places special emphasis on resource optimisation. Planning has a key role to play in ensuring that these solutions as well as new materials and processes are incorporated in the most efficient manner. The application of new academic findings to planning and development strategies, assessment tools and decision making processes are all covered in this book.

Download or read book Routledge Handbook of International Environmental Law written by Shawkat Alam and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 854 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook is an advanced level reference guide which provides a comprehensive and contemporary overview of the corpus of international environmental law (IEL).

Download or read book Global Environmental Constitutionalism written by James R. May and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflecting a global trend, scores of countries have affirmed that their citizens are entitled to healthy air, water, and land and that their constitution should guarantee certain environmental rights. This book examines the increasing recognition that the environment is a proper subject for protection in constitutional texts and for vindication by constitutional courts. This phenomenon, which the authors call environmental constitutionalism, represents the confluence of constitutional law, international law, human rights, and environmental law. National apex and constitutional courts are exhibiting a growing interest in environmental rights, and as courts become more aware of what their peers are doing, this momentum is likely to increase. This book explains why such provisions came into being, how they are expressed, and the extent to which they have been, and might be, enforced judicially. It is a singular resource for evaluating the content of and hope for constitutional environmental rights.

Download or read book Emerging Approaches in Design and New Connections With Nature written by Özdamar, Esen Gökçe and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2021-12-03 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In today’s changing and transforming socio-economic, political, cultural, and technological paradigms, we encounter many methodologies, approaches, proposals, and practices in reconsidering the disappearing or emerging relations in the human/nonhuman-environment-nature interaction. These approaches, proposals, and practices range from new methods of urban gardening to biophilic design and augmented/immersive environments. However, these human-centric approaches, which only aim to meet their needs or emerge as technology-oriented replicas and representations of nature, lead to a departure from a holistic approach to the natural and artificial environment. Therefore, how can new and emerging approaches or methodologies draw a holistic framework for environmental health, sustainability, wellness, and co-existence between environments for all living beings? Emerging Approaches in Design and New Connections With Nature covers a variety of topics related to the intersection between nature, environment, and ways of living and provides a comprehensive guide to biophilic design and the idea of design and nature, including benefits, theories, and effects. Covering topics such as biophilic design and sustainability, soundscapes and landscapes, and urban environments and design, it is ideal for architects, designers, urban planners, landscape designers, policymakers, engineers, interior designers, practitioners, students, academicians, and researchers.

Download or read book Making Green Cities written by Jürgen Breuste and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-02-22 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows what role nature can play in a city and how this can make it a better place for people to live. People, planners, designers and politicians are working towards the development of green cities. Some cities are already promoted as green cities, while others are on their way to become one. But their goals are often unclear and can include different facets. Presenting contributions from world leading researchers in the field of urban ecology, the editors provide an interdisciplinary overview of best practices and challenges in creating green cities. They show examples of how to build up these cities from bits and pieces to districts and urban extensions. Each example concludes with a summary of the collected knowledge, the learning points and how this can be used in other places. The best practices are collected from around the world – Europe, Australia, America and Asia. The new dynamic urban development of Asia is illustrated by case studies from China and the Indian subcontinent. The reader will learn which role nature can play in green cities and what the basic requirements are in terms of culture, pre-existing nature conditions, existing urban surroundings, history, design and planning.

Download or read book Comfort in a Lower Carbon Society written by Elizabeth Shove and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Current expectations and standards of comfort are almost certainly unsustainable and new methods and ideas will be required if there is to be any prospect of a significantly lower carbon society. This collection reassesses relationships between people and the multitude of environments they inhabit in the context of increasing carbon intensities of everyday life. In this bold and unconventional volume historians, sociologists, environmentalists, geographers, and cultural theorists provoke and stimulate debate about the future of comfort in a lower carbon society. These contributions are then subject to critical commentary from a range of academic and policy perspectives. The result is a book that promotes academic and policy discussion of the environmental consequences of indoor climate change around the world, and that offers new perspectives and strategies for moving towards a lower carbon future. This book was published as a special issue of Building Research & Information.

Download or read book Ethical Consumption written by Tania Lewis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A not-so-quiet revolution seems to be occurring in wealthy capitalist societies - supermarkets selling ‘guilt free’ Fairtrade products; lifestyle TV gurus exhorting us to eat less, buy local and go green; neighbourhood action groups bent on ‘swopping not shopping’. And this is happening not at the margins of society but at its heart, in the shopping centres and homes of ordinary people. Today we are seeing a mainstreaming of ethical concerns around consumption that reflects an increasing anxiety with - and accompanying sense of responsibility for - the risks and excesses of contemporary lifestyles in the ‘global north’. This collection of essays provides a range of critical tools for understanding the turn towards responsible or conscience consumption and, in the process, interrogates the notion that we can shop our way to a more ethical, sustainable future. Written by leading international scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds - and drawing upon examples from across the globe - Ethical Consumption makes a major contribution to the still fledgling field of ethical consumption studies. This collection is a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between consumer culture and contemporary social life.

Download or read book Sustainability Citizenship in Cities written by Ralph Horne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-28 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban sustainability citizenship situates citizens as social change agents with an ethical and self-interested stake in living sustainably with the rest of Earth. Such citizens not only engage in sustainable household practices but respect the importance of awareness raising, discussion and debates on sustainability policies for the common good and maintenance of Earth’s ecosystems. Sustainability Citizenship in Cities seeks to explain how sustainability citizenship can manifest in urban built environments as both responsibilities and rights. Contributors elaborate on the concept of urban sustainability citizenship as a participatory work-in-progress with the aim of setting its practice firmly on the agenda. This collection will prompt practitioners and researchers to rethink contemporary mobilisations of urban citizens challenged by various environmental crises, such as climate change, in various socio-economic settings. This book is a valuable resource for students, academics and professionals working in various disciplines and across a range of interdisciplinary fields, such as: urban environment and planning, citizenship as practice, environmental sociology, contemporary politics and governance, environmental philosophy, media and communications, and human geography.

Download or read book Smart Energy Technologies in Everyday Life written by Y. Strengers and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-09-25 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book interrogates the global utopian vision for smart energy technologies and the new energy consumer intended to realise it. It enriches and extends the possibilities of four residential smart strategies: energy feedback, dynamic pricing, home automation and micro-generation, focusing on how they are being integrated into everyday practice.

Download or read book Community Quality of Life Indicators Best Cases IV written by M. Joseph Sirgy and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-08-21 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community indicators projects are plentiful. These projects capture the quality of life in towns, cities, counties, metropolitan regions, and larger geographic regions. Community quality-of-life (QOL) indicators are increasingly being integrated into overallplanningandotherpublicpolicyactivities.Thecommunityindicatorsproject reports are used not only in monitoring and evaluation applications but also in the context of increasing citizen participation in guiding communities towards achieving desired goals. This is the fourth book in a series covering best practices in community QOL indicators. Each volume presents individual cases (chapters) of communities at the local or regional levels that have designed and implemented community indi- tors programs. In Volume IV, we present nine chapters from a variety of contexts: cities such as the City of Phoenix (Arizona, USA), Jacksonville (Florida, USA), and Bristol (UK), suburban communities areas such as Long Island (New York, USA) and Sydney (Australia), larger regions such as Vancouver (Canada), and townships such as Sobantu (South Africa).

Download or read book Digital Materialities written by Sarah Pink and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-26 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the distinction between the digital and the material world becomes increasingly blurred, the ways in which we think about design are also shifting and evolving. How can the human, digital and material be brought together to intervene in the world? What constitutes our digital-material environments? How can we engage with digital technologies to make sustainable, healthy and meaningful decisions, both now and in the future? Digital Materialities presents twelve chapters by scholars and practitioners working at the intersection between design and digital research in the UK, Spain, Australia and the USA. By incorporating in-depth understandings of the digital-material world from both the social sciences and design, the book considers how this combined knowledge might advance our capacity to design for the future. Divided into three parts, the focus of the book moves from the theoretical to the practical: how different digital materialities are imagined and emerge, through software emulation, urban sensors and smart homes; how new digital designs are sparked through collaborations between social scientists and designers; and finally, how digital design emerges from the insider work of everyday designers. A fascinating, ground-breaking book for students and scholars of digital anthropology, media and communication, and anyone interested in the future of digital design.

Download or read book Ecocities Now written by Jennie Moore and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a selection of the best papers submitted to the International Ecocity World Summit held in Vancouver, October 7-11, 2019. The objective is to accelerate knowledge dissemination about the development of ecocities through attention to what constitutes an ecocity, what cities around the world are doing, what Vancouver as an emerging ecocity is doing, and how education can play a role in preparing the next generation of ecocity practitioners. The book uses the Summit’s overarching theme and sub-themes as an organizing framework and aligns with the International Ecocity Standards that serve as a diagnostic tool to help cities assess their progress on the path to becoming ecocities. The Ecocity Standards are also proving useful to communities in developing locally relevant pathways to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The book is presented in four parts that align with the Summit overarching theme of i) building a bridge to socially just and ecologically sustainable cities, supported by sub-themes of ii) climate action, iii) circular economy, and iv) informal solutions for sustainable development. Chapters comprising each part in the book are introduced by a brief precis that orients the reader to the relevant Ecocity Standards that are being addressed and other important contextual considerations that open the potential application of the chapters to an international audience. Arguments presented in the selected papers provide an orientation to the importance of engaging people, where they live, in ecocity transformations as well as emerging opportunities for affordable and accessible technologies that help cities build capacity for implementation of ecocity initiatives.

Download or read book Planning After Petroleum written by Jago Dodson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past decade has been one of the most volatile periods in global petroleum markets in living memory, and future oil supply security and price levels remain highly uncertain. This poses many questions for the professional activities of planners and urbanists because contemporary cities are highly dependent on petroleum as a transport fuel. How will oil dependent cities respond, and adapt to, the changing pattern of petroleum supplies? What key strategies should planners and policy makers implement in petroleum vulnerable cities to address the challenges of moving beyond oil? How might a shift away from petroleum provide opportunities to improve or remake cities for the economic, social and environmental imperatives of twenty-first-century sustainability? Such questions are the focus of contributors to this book with perspectives ranging across the planning challenge: overarching petroleum futures, governance, transition and climate change questions, the role of various urban transport nodes and household responses, ways of measuring oil vulnerability, and the effects on telecommunications, ports and other urban infrastructure. This comprehensive volume – with contributions from and focusing on cities in Australia, the UK, the US, France, Germany, the Netherlands and South Korea – provides key insights to enable cities to plan for the age beyond petroleum.