Designing Resilient Cities


Book Description

CD-ROM contains appendices: A1. Using scenarios to explore urban UK futures and A2. A day in the life of the UK urban scenarios.




Masterplanning for Change


Book Description

Cities are under increased pressure to be resilient and resistant to the effects of climate change and rapid urbanisation. However, this idea has still not been fully integrated in to practice. This book presents a practical approach to masterplanning the city and its areas (existing and new) as urban environments for the 21st century, addressing the design of cities as complex adaptive systems.




Resilience Reset


Book Description

Drawing on evidence from urban resilience initiatives around the globe, the authors make a compelling argument for a "resilience reset", a pause and stocktake that critically examines the concepts, practices and challenges of building resilience, particularly in cities of the Global South. In turn, the book calls for the world’s cities to alter their course and "pivot" towards novel approaches to enhancing resilience. The book presents shifts in ways of acquiring and analysing data, building community resilience, approaching urban planning, engaging with informality, delivering financing, and building the skills of those running cities in a post-COVID world grappling with climate impacts. In Resilience Reset, the authors encourage researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to break out of existing modes of thinking and doing that may no longer be relevant for our rapidly urbanising and dynamic world. The book draws on the latest academic and practice-based evidence to provide actionable insights for cities that will enable them to deal with multiple interacting shocks and stresses. The book will be an indispensable resource to those studying urbanisation, development, climate change and risk management as well as for those designing and deploying operational initiatives to enhance urban resilience in businesses, international organisations, civil society organisations and governments. It is a must-read for anyone interested in managing the risks of climate impacts in urban centres in the Global South.




Urban Design for an Urban Century


Book Description

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to urban design, from a historical overview and basic principles to practical design concepts and strategies. It discusses the demographic, environmental, economic, and social issues that influence the decision-making and implementation processes of urban design. The Second Edition has been fully revised to include thorough coverage of sustainability issues and to integrate new case studies into the core concepts discussed.




Resilient Sustainable Cities


Book Description

Urbanization is occurring at an unprecedented rate; by 2050 three quarters of the world’s people will live in urban environments. The cars we drive, products we consume, houses we live in and technology we use will all determine how sustainable our cities will be. Bridging the increasing divide between cross-disciplinary academic insights and the latest practical innovations, Resilient Sustainable Cities provides an integrated approach for long term future planning within the context of the city as a whole system. In the next 30 years cities will face their biggest challenges yet, as a result of long term, or ‘slow burn’ issues: population growth will stretch to the breaking point urban infrastructure and service capacity; resource scarcity, such as peak oil; potable water and food security, will dramatically change what we consume and how; environmental pressures will change how we live and where and; shifting demographic preferences will exacerbate urban pressures. Cities can’t keep doing what they’ve always done and cope – we need to change current urban development to achieve resilient, sustainable cities. Resilient Sustainable Cities provides practical and conceptual insights for practitioners, researchers and students on how to deliver cities which are resilient to ‘slow burn’ issues and achieve sustainability. The book is organized around three overarching themes: pathways to the future innovation to deliver the future leadership and governance issues The book includes a variety of perspectives conveyed through international case studies and examples of cities that have transformed for a sustainable future, exploring their successes and failures to ensure that readers are left with ideas on how to turn their city into a resilient sustainable city for the future.




Design with Life


Book Description

Design with Life chronicles the breakthroughs and projects of a nonprofit that is defining resolute new directions in socio-ecological design and other deep-seated intersections of synthetic biology, architecture, and urban systems. In the challenging context of accelerating climate dynamics, the core discipline of architectural design is evolving and embracing new forms of action. New York-based nonprofit Terreform ONE has established a distinctive design tactic that investigates projects through the regenerative use of natural materials, science, and the emergent field of socio-ecological design. This kind of design approach uses actual living matter (not abstracted imitations of nature) to create new functional elements and spaces. These future-based actions are not only grounded in social justice, but are also far-reaching in their application of digital manufacturing and maker culture. Terreform ONE tackles urgent environmental and urban social concerns through the integrated use of living materials and organisms.




Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century


Book Description

Environmental engineers support the well-being of people and the planet in areas where the two intersect. Over the decades the field has improved countless lives through innovative systems for delivering water, treating waste, and preventing and remediating pollution in air, water, and soil. These achievements are a testament to the multidisciplinary, pragmatic, systems-oriented approach that characterizes environmental engineering. Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges outlines the crucial role for environmental engineers in this period of dramatic growth and change. The report identifies five pressing challenges of the 21st century that environmental engineers are uniquely poised to help advance: sustainably supply food, water, and energy; curb climate change and adapt to its impacts; design a future without pollution and waste; create efficient, healthy, resilient cities; and foster informed decisions and actions.




The Demography of Disasters


Book Description

This open access book provides worldwide examples demonstrating the importance of the interplay between demography and disasters in regions and spatially. It marks an advance in practical and theoretical insights for understanding the role of demography in planning for and mitigating impacts from disasters in developed nations. Both slow onset (like the of loss polar ice from climate change) and sudden disasters (such as cyclones and man-made disasters) have the capacity to fundamentally change the profiles of populations at local and regional levels. Impacts vary according to the type, rapidity and magnitude of the disaster, but also according to the pre-existing population profile and its relationships to the economy and society. In all cases, the key to understanding impacts and avoiding them in the future is to understand the relationships between disasters and population change. In most chapters in this book we compare and contrast studies from at least two cases and summarize their practical and theoretical lessons.




Restorative Cities


Book Description

Overcrowding, noise and air pollution, long commutes and lack of daylight can take a huge toll on the mental well-being of city-dwellers. With mental healthcare services under increasing pressure, could a better approach to urban design and planning provide a solution? The restrictions faced by city residents around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic has brought home just how much urban design can affect our mental health – and created an imperative to seize this opportunity. Restorative Cities explores a new way of designing cities, one which places mental health and wellness at the forefront. Establishing a blueprint for urban design for mental health, it examines a range of strategies – from sensory architecture to place-making for creativity and community – and brings a genuinely evidence-based approach that will appeal to designers and planners, health practitioners and researchers alike - and provide compelling insights for anyone who cares about how our surroundings affect us. Written by a psychiatrist and public health specialist, and an environmental psychologist with extensive experience of architectural practice, this much-needed work will prompt debate and inspire built environment students and professionals to think more about the positive potential of their designs for mental well-being.




Biophilic Urbanism


Book Description

Biophilic Urbanism provides readers with the tools to create more nature-based urban environments that are climate positive, sustainable, and healthy. The principles of biophilia are intended to support appreciation and direct engagement with nature, to responsibly utilize on-site natural resources, and to plan according to climatic conditions and local ecological processes. It seeks to create resilient and equitable human places capable of providing critical life-support functions and a strong sense of community, and to foster experiences that raise the human spirit creating a sense of awe. Twenty-five pattern attributes are defined and explored, each of which contributes to these goals. Because of the dire necessity to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, Biophilic Urbanism includes discussion of our need for connections, both to nature and one another, and the physical characteristics of cities and buildings relative to the contagious qualities of the air-borne virus. Case studies, found throughout the world, are presented illustrating detailed biophilic planning and design strategies. The book will be of use to practitioners and students in the fields of natural and social sciences, behavioral science and psychology, environmental engineering, health and wellness professionals, architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, and planning.