London's Environment: Prospects For A Sustainable World City


Book Description

This comprehensive volume opens with an introductory editorial giving a general review of London's environment and its prospects for a sustainable future. The subsequent chapters are written by experts on architecture, planning, air pollution, biodiversity, transport, rivers, parks, aesthetic aspects of London's landscape, politics, health, and economics. The highly topical material authoritatively describes the major recent developments that have greatly affected London's environment and in some ways have set the city on a path towards a more sustainable future. This progress includes changes in the law (GLA act), politics (adopting sustainability as a political goal), policies on waste disposal (no more landfills), housing areas, building development (e.g. Canary Wharf), traffic management (congestion charges), policies for enhancing biodiversity, transport infrastructure (cars, railways), and managing the risk of floods and other disasters (in response to climate change). The book shows how these policies and practical developments interact, and therefore need to be understood by considering them as a whole. A postscript by the Deputy Mayor of London, Nicky Gavron, is included summarising London's environmental policies that have been developed since the conference on “London Environment and Future” was held on September 18-19, 2002.




London's Environment


Book Description

- No other environmental book conveys the recent developments in London, or attempts to relate them to the environmental and general history of the city - This book will be useful in the academic world for students and lectures and it will also be useful for local and national government and politics having to make decisions about sustainable development and the environment - The unique overview provided here should also be useful to consultants, businesses and lawyers working on urban environmental/sustainability issues




A Handbook of Sustainable Building Design and Engineering


Book Description

The second edition of this authoritative textbook equips students with the tools they will need to tackle the challenges of sustainable building design and engineering. The book looks at how to design, engineer and monitor energy efficient buildings, how to adapt buildings to climate change, and how to make buildings healthy, comfortable and secure. New material for this edition includes sections on environmental masterplanning, renewable technologies, retrofitting, passive house design, thermal comfort and indoor air quality. With chapters and case studies from a range of international, interdisciplinary authors, the book is essential reading for students and professionals in building engineering, environmental design, construction and architecture.




Towards A Liveable And Sustainable Urban Environment: Eco-cities In East Asia


Book Description

With cities rapidly encroaching onto surrounding lands, the notion of “eco-city” proposes an innovative yet pragmatic approach to designing, building and operating cities in a way that the destructive impact of human urban activity upon nature will be significantly reduced.This book comprises of papers from a workshop organized by the East Asian Institute on Eco-cities in East Asia on 27 February 2009 in Singapore. Contributed by scholars, officials and environmental specialists from Japan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, the papers focus on how individual governments in these countries undertake eco-city projects. The book also highlights best practices that are useful to policy makers and anyone else who seeks to learn from the experiences of other countries in order to reduce their ecological footprints.




Territory, Identity and Spatial Planning


Book Description

This book provides a multi-disciplinary study of territory, identity and space in a devolved UK, through the lens of spatial planning. It draws together leading internationally renowned researchers from a variety of disciplines to address the implications of devolution upon spatial planning and the rescaling of UK politics. Each contributor offers a different perspective on the core issues in planning today in the context of New Labour’s regional project, particularly the government’s concern with business competitiveness, and key themes are illustrated with important case studies throughout.




Handbook of Environmental Fluid Dynamics, Two-Volume Set


Book Description

With major implications for applied physics, engineering, and the natural and social sciences, the rapidly growing area of environmental fluid dynamics focuses on the interactions of human activities, environment, and fluid motion. A landmark for the field, this two-volume handbook presents the basic principles, fundamental flow processes, modeling techniques, and measurement methods used in the field, along with critical discussions of environmental sustainability related to engineering aspects. The first volume provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals, and the second volume explores the interactions between engineered structures and natural flows.




Handbook of Environmental Fluid Dynamics, Volume One


Book Description

With major implications for applied physics, engineering, and the natural and social sciences, the rapidly growing area of environmental fluid dynamics focuses on the interactions of human activities, environment, and fluid motion. A landmark for the field, the two-volume Handbook of Environmental Fluid Dynamics presents the basic principles, fundamental flow processes, modeling techniques, and measurement methods used in the study of environmental motions. It also offers critical discussions of environmental sustainability related to engineering. The handbook features 81 chapters written by 135 renowned researchers from around the world. Covering environmental, policy, biological, and chemical aspects, it tackles important cross-disciplinary topics such as sustainability, ecology, pollution, micrometeorology, and limnology. Volume One: Overview and Fundamentals provides a comprehensive overview of the basic principles. It starts with general topics that emphasize the relevance of environmental fluid dynamics research in society, public policy, infrastructure, quality of life, security, and the law. It then discusses established and emerging focus areas. The volume also examines the sub-mesoscale flow processes and phenomena that form the building blocks of environmental motions, with emphasis on turbulent motions and their role in heat, momentum, and species transport. As communities face existential challenges posed by climate change, rapid urbanization, and scarcity of water and energy, the study of environmental fluid dynamics becomes increasingly relevant. This volume is a valuable resource for students, researchers, and policymakers working to better understand the fundamentals of environmental motions and how they affect and are influenced by anthropogenic activities. See also Handbook of Environmental Fluid Dynamics, Two-Volume Set and Volume Two: Systems, Pollution, Modeling, and Measurements.




Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management


Book Description

A new ‘Multi-Coloured Manual' This book is a successor to and replacement for the highly respected manual and handbook on the benefits of flood and coastal risk management, produced by the Flood Hazard Research Centre at Middlesex University, UK, with support from Defra and the Environment Agency. It builds upon a previous book known as the "multi-coloured manual" (2005), which itself was a synthesis of the blue (1977), red (1987) and yellow manuals (1992). As such it expands and updates this work, to provide a manual of assessment techniques of flood risk management benefits, indirect benefits, and coastal erosion risk management benefits. It has three key aims. First it provides methods and data which can be used for the practical assessment of schemes and policies. Secondly it describes new research to update the data and improve techniques. Thirdly it explains the limitations and complications of Benefit-Cost Analysis, to guide decision-making on investment in river and coastal risk management schemes.




National Security and Human Health Implications of Climate Change


Book Description

Climate change has been identified as one of the greatest threats to humanity of all times. In addition to producing adverse environmental conditions such as rising sea level, drought, crop failure, vector-borne diseases, extreme events, degradation of water/air quality and heat waves, climate change is also considered a threat multiplier that leads to local and international conflicts and armed interventions. Urban areas may bear the brunt of climate change, as they are the centers of human habitation, anthropogenic stressors and environmental degradation, and the ensuing health impacts are of grave societal concern. The papers in this volume span a suite of climate change repercussions, paying particular attention to national security and human health aspects. It is an outcome of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held during April 28-30, 2011 in Dubrovnik, Croatia, sponsored by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Program. The contributions cut across the elements of modeling, natural, political and social sciences, engineering, politics, military intervention, urban planning, industrial activities, epidemiology and healthcare.




The Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology


Book Description

This second edition covers recent developments around the world with contributors from 33 different countries. It widens the handbook’s scope by including ecological design; consideration of cultural dimensions of the use and conservation of urban nature; the roles of government and civil society; and the continuing issues of equity and fairness in access to urban greenspaces. New features include an emphasis on the biophilic design of homes and workplaces, demonstrating the value of nature, in order to counter the still prevalent attitude among many developers that nature is a constraint rather than a value. The volume explores great practical achievements that have occurred since the first edition, with many governments increasingly recognizing and legislating on urban nature and green infrastructure matters, since cities play a major role in adapting to change, particularly to climate crisis. New topics such as the ecological role of light at night and human microbiota in the urban ecosystem are introduced. Additional attention is given to food production in cities, particularly the multiple roles of urban agriculture and household gardens in different contexts from wealthy communities to the poorest informal settlements in deprived communities. The emphasis is on demonstrating what can be achieved, and what is already being done. The book aims to help scholars and graduate students by providing an invaluable and up-to-date guide to current urban ecological thinking across the range of disciplines, such as geography, ecology, environmental science/studies, planning, and urban studies, that converge in the study of towns and cities and urban design and living. It will also assist practitioners and civil society members in discovering the ways diff erent specialists and thinkers approach urban nature.