The Peri-Urban Interface


Book Description

Peri-urban interfaces - the zones where urban and rural areas meet - suffer from the greatest problems to humans caused by rapid urbanization, including intense pressures on resources, slum formation, lack of adequate services such as water and sanitation, poor planning and degradation of farmland. These areas, home to hundreds of millions of people, face unique problems and need distinctive and innovative approaches and solutions. This book, authored by top researchers and practitioners, covers the full breadth and depth of the impacts of rapid urbanization on livelihoods, poverty and resources in the peri-urban zones in diverse African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbean contexts. Topics include peri-urban resource sustainability, ecosystems and societies and environmental changes in peri-urban zones. Rich case studies cover production systems and livelihoods including the impacts of irrigated vegetable production, horticulture, dairy enterprises, waste-fed fisheries and pastoral livelihoods. Also addressed are planning and development issues in the peri-urban interface including the difficulty in achieving sustainability, conflict and cooperation over resources, and a fresh look at the relationship between people and their environment. The final part of the book presents policies and strategies for promoting and measuring sustainability in peri-urban zones including community-based waste management, the co-management of watersheds and empowerment of the poor. This book is the most comprehensive examination of the challenges and solutions facing the people and environments of peri-urban zones and is essential reading for all practitioners, students and academics in geography and development.




Coping Mechanisms for Climate Change in Peri-Urban Areas


Book Description

This book discusses the dynamics and resource management qualities of the peri-urban interface to address climate change consequences, focusing on the peri-urban region of the global city of Bengalaru. In 5 chapters, the authors document the unique challenges experienced in peri-urban areas, including soil-water vegetation dynamics, local and regional impacts on water bodies (surface and groundwater), food production issues, and the inhibited adaptive capacity of local communities. The book also provides knowledge on implementations of environmental management by local institutions, government interventions that have acted as catalysts in promoting community based adaptation strategies, and the physical, social and economic aspects of rural-urban dynamics. The book not only adds to the scarce existing literature on peri-urban contexts, but also addresses the role of culture in protecting ecological landscapes and how traditions play an important role in coping with climate change. Furthermore, the authors expand on these climate change coping mechanisms in peri-urban areas, taking into account local cultural factors and interesting governance interventions in the context of health. The book will be of interest to planners, policy makers, and students and researchers engaged in rural-urban dynamics and climate change adaptation.




Unfolding Webs


Book Description




Rural-Urban Dynamics in the East African Mountains


Book Description

This book is the result of a long-term cooperation between French and East African scholars and universities under the aegis of the French Institute of Research in Africa (IFRA-Nairobi). This book presents the main results of the research program Cooperation for University and Scientific Research (CORUS): Mountains and Small and Medium Cities in East Africa: Environmental Management, Flows of People and Resources, funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Afairs and supported by IFRA-Nairobi. The specific subject is to rethink the development of the East African mountains in relation to the fast growing towns and cities that surround them. Three East-African mountains were chosen: Mount Kenya, Mount Elgon (Ugandan side) and Uporoto Mountains (Tanzania). Comparisons are included, especially with Mount Kilimanjaro, which has been studied in previous books and programs (e.g. Kilimanjaro: Mountain, Memory and Modernity, Mkuki na Nyota, Dar es Salaam, 2006). The authors are East African (Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya) and French scholars, most of them geographers. Made from 12 contributions, this book focuses on a recent change in those mountains: a growing urbanization which shapes new mountain systems. This phenomenon, which is actually a major upheaval, is the focal point of this book, giving rise to this question: what are the links between Rural-Urban evolution in such contexts? What are the impacts on livelihoods and development? This book, covering social and environmental scientific issues relating to Rural-Urban nature, is the first of its kind for African mountains.




Urban Green Belts in the Twenty-first Century


Book Description

Planners internationally have employed green belts to contain the explosive sprawl of cities as varied as Tokyo, Vienna and Melbourne during the twentieth century. As yet, no collection has gathered these experiences together to consider their contribution to planning. Juxtaposing examples of green belt implementation worldwide, this book adds to understanding of how green belts can be effected in theory and how practitioners have adapted them in practice. The book provides a typology of green belt implementation and reform, enabling planners to grasp why these policies are employed and whether they are relevant to twenty-first century planning.




Cities and Agriculture


Book Description

As people increasingly migrate to urban settings and more than half of the world's population now lives in cities, it is vital to plan and provide for sustainable and resilient food systems which reflect this challenge. This volume presents experience and evidence-based "state of the art" chapters on the key dimensions of urban food challenges and types of intra- and peri-urban agriculture. The book provides urban planners, local policy makers and urban development practitioners with an overview of crucial aspects of urban food systems based on an up to date review of research results and practical experiences in both developed and developing countries. By doing so, the international team of authors provides a balanced textbook for students of the growing number of courses on sustainable agriculture, food and urban studies, as well as a solid basis for well-informed policy making, planning and implementation regarding the development of sustainable, resilient and just urban food systems.




Sustainability Assessments of Urban Systems


Book Description

Provides guidelines for assessing the sustainability of urban systems including theory, methods and case studies.




Mediterranean Desertification


Book Description

Desertification includes land degradation due to both climatic and anthropogenic causes, where land includes water, soil, and the biosphere. This book presents the most recent findings from the European Community's MEDALUS project, which was formed to understand and manage semi-arid environments that are undergoing great change. * Covers climate and land use processes and responses in the Mediterranean * First book to provide guidelines for the management of land degradation in Mediterranean environments * Based on first-hand experience of the problems by those responsible for solving them




Regenerative Territories


Book Description

This open access book provides new perspectives on circular economy and space, explored towards the definition of regenerative territories characterised by healthy metabolisms. Going beyond the mere reuse/recycle of material waste as resources, this work aims to understand how to apply circularity principles to, among others, the regeneration of wastescapes. The main focus is the development over time, and in particular the way how spatial planning and strategies respond to new unpredictable urgencies and opportunities related with territorial metabolisms. The book specifically focuses on living labs environments, where it is possible to tackle complex problems through a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach - including the use of digital spatial decision support environment – which could be able to include all the involved stakeholders. Through a spatial scope of circularity, this book describes several examples including among others ideas from different contexts such as Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Vietnam. Through including reflections on methodology and representation, as well as on solutions for circular and healthy metabolisms, the book provides an excellent resource to researchers and students.