Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning


Book Description

In the decades following the first Earth Day in 1970, a generation has been enlightened about the unspeakable damage done to our planet. Federal, state, and local governments generated laws and regulations to control development and protect the environment. Local governments have developed environmental standards addressing their needs. The result-an ecologically incongruous pattern of land development known as urban sprawl. Local land use planners can have a greater effect on the quality of our environment than all of the federal and state regulators combined. Historically, they have existed on the periphery of land management. The author suggests that federal and state environmental regulators need to incorporate local governments into their environmental protection plans. Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning provides easily understood, nuts and bolts solutions for controlling urban sprawl, emphasizing the integration of federal, state, and local land use plans. The book discusses ecological resources and provides practical solutions that municipal planners can implement immediately. It discusses the most recent scientific data, how to extract what is important, and how to apply it to the local land planning process. The author includes the application of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to problem solving. Despite compelling evidence and sound arguments favoring the implementation of an ecologically sensitive approach to land use planning, municipal planners, in general, remain skeptical. It will take considerably more encouragement and education to win them over completely. Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning makes the case for sound land use policies that will reduce sprawl.




News-notes


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Rail and the City


Book Description

An architect makes the case for rail transit as the critical infrastructure for a fluidly functioning and environmentally sustainable urban society. The United States has evolved into a nation of twenty densely populated megaregions. Yet despite the environmental advantages of urban density, urban sprawl and reliance on the private car still set the pattern for most new development. Cars guzzle not only gas but also space, as massive acreage is dedicated to roadways and parking. Even more pressing, the replication of this pattern throughout the fast-developing world makes it doubtful that we will achieve the reductions in carbon emissions needed to avoid climate catastrophe. In Rail and the City, architect Roxanne Warren makes the case for compact urban development that is supported by rail transit. Calling the automobile a relic of the twentieth century, Warren envisions a release from the tyrannies of traffic congestion, petroleum dependence, and an oppressively paved environment. Technical features of rail are key to its high capacities, safety at high speeds, and compactness—uniquely qualifying it to serve as ideal infrastructure within and between cities. Ultimately, mobility could be achieved through extensive networks of public transit, particularly rail, supplemented by buses, cycling, walking, car-sharing, and small, flexible vehicles. High-speed rail, fed by local transit, could eliminate the need for petroleum-intensive plane trips of less than 500 miles. Warren considers issues of access to transit, citing examples from Europe, Japan, and North America, and pedestrian- and transit-oriented urban design. Rail transit, she argues, is the essential infrastructure for a fluidly functioning urban society.




Introduction to Watershed Development


Book Description

"Sprawl" - the spread of development from urban centers into the countryside - is recognized as one of the most serious threats to watershed functionality and health. Introduction to Watershed Development: Understanding and Managing the Impacts of Sprawl presents a logical framework to measure, minimize, and manage the problem of development. From the viewpoint of understanding the responses of watersheds to sprawl, this book addresses issues such as: how water bodies are linked to the land, what the horizon issues and problems are in watershed management, which surveying approaches can be used to monitor the change to watersheds, and how new, water-sensitive developments can be planned. Exploring what landscape architecture approaches cna be used to mitigate the problems of development, Introduction to Watershed Development is Robert L. France's distinctive and extremely well-informed perspective on watershed management, culled from the author's many years of research, scholarship, consulting, and teaching. -- from back cover.




Water-Quality Engineering in Natural Systems


Book Description

FOCUSING ON CONTAMINANT FATE AND TRANSPORT, DESIGN OF ENVIRONMENTAL-CONTROL SYSTEMS, AND REGULATORY CONSTRAINTS This textbook details the fundamental equations that describe the fate and transport of contaminantsin the water environment. The application of these fundamental equations to the design of environmental-control systems and methodologies for assessing the impact of contaminant discharges into rivers, lakes, wetlands, ground water, and oceans are all covered. Readers learn to assess how much waste can be safely assimilatedinto a water body by developing a solid understanding of the relationship between the type of pollutant discharged, the characteristics of the receiving water, and physical, chemical, and biological impacts. In cases of surface runoff from urban and agricultural watersheds, quantitative relationships between the quality of surface runoff and the characteristics of contaminant sources located within the watersheds are presented. Some of the text's distinguishing features include its emphasis on the engineering design of systems that control the fate and transport of contaminants in the water environment, the design of remediation systems, and regulatory constraints. Particular attention is given to use-attainability analyses and the estimation of total maximum daily loads, both of which are essential components of water-quality control in natural systems. Readers are provided with a thorough explanation of the complex set of laws and regulations governing water-quality control in the United States. Proven as an effective textbook in several offerings of the author's class "Water Quality Control in Natural Systems," the flow of the text is carefully structured to facilitate learning. Moreover, a number of practical pedagogical tools are offered: * Practical examples used throughout the text illustrate the effects of controlling the quality, quantity, timing, and distribution of contaminant discharges into the environment * End-of-chapter problems, and an accompanying solutions manual, help readers assess their grasp of each topic as they progress through the text * Several appendices with useful reference material are provided, including current U.S. Water Quality Standards * Detailed bibliography guides readers to additional resources to explore particular topics in greater depth With its emphasis on contaminant fate and transport and design of environmental-control systems, this text is ideal for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in environmental and civil engineering programs.Environmental scientists and practicing environmental/civil engineers will also find the text relevant and useful.