Reinventing Cities for People and the Planet


Book Description

Introduction -- An urbanizing world -- Closing the water and waste circuits -- Toward greater self-reliance in food and energy -- Linking transportation and land use -- Financing the sustainable city -- Building political strength -- Appendix.




Reinventing Cities for People and the Planet


Book Description

Introduction -- An urbanizing world -- Closing the water and waste circuits -- Toward greater self-reliance in food and energy -- Linking transportation and land use -- Financing the sustainable city -- Building political strength -- Appendix.




Cities


Book Description

Cities are amongst our greatest creations. Yet, with cities now home to over half the world's population, there is increasing concern over their unchecked expansion and the detrimental effect this is having on the planet. This unfettered growth is affecting every ecosystem on Earth, from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains, as induced climate change and ever increasing demands upon the world's resources take effect. As the pace of urbanisation quickens, how can we make the world's cities more sustainable? Ian Douglas tells the story of cities. He shows why they exist, how they have evolved and the problems they have encountered, revealing how from the very beginning environmental management played a key role in urban life. He addresses specific problems, such as noise and air pollution, water supply and waste management, as well as the vulnerability of cities to hazards such as earthquakes and flooding. And he considers strategies to make cities more sustainable and help them adapt to climate change, such as waste recycling, energy conservation, dual water systems, sustainable housing, as well as initiatives to retrofit existing cities. Written by an acknowledged international authority, this unique volume will be welcomed by students and specialists in environment, planning, geography, ecology and the built environment.




Saving The Planet By Design


Book Description

Can we ‘save the Planet’? For a resilient, durable and sustainable future for human society, we need to repurpose, reinvent, redesign, remake and recover our human-made world so that our built environment is benignly and seamlessly biointegrated with Nature to function synergistically with it. These are the multiple tasks that humanity must carry out imminently if there is to be a future for human society and all lifeforms and their environments on the Planet. Addressing this is the most compelling question for those whose daily work impacts on Nature, such as architects, engineers, landscape architects, town planners, environmental policy makers, builders and others, but it is a question that all of humanity needs to urgently address. Presented here are two key principles as the means to carry out these tasks – ‘ecocentricity’ being guided by the science of ecology, and ‘ecomimesis’ as designing and making the built environment including all artefacts based on the emulation and replication of the ‘ecosystem’ concept. Designing with ecology is contended here as the authentic approach to green design from which the next generation of green design will emerge, going beyond current use of accreditation systems. For those who subscribe to this principle, this is articulated here, showing how it can be implemented by design. Adopting these principles is fundamental in our endeavour to save our Planet Earth, and changes profoundly and in entirety the way we design, make, manage and operate our built environment.




Cities in a Globalizing World


Book Description

'The world has entered the urban millennium. Nearly half the world's people are now city dwellers, and the rapid increase in urban population is expected to continue, mainly in developing countries. This historic transition is being further propelled by the powerful forces of globalization. The central challenge for the international community is clear: to make both urbanization and globalization work for all people, instead of leaving billions behind or on the margins. Cities in a Globalizing World: Global Report on Human Settlements is a comprehensive review of conditions in the world's cities and the prospects for making them better, safer places to live in an age of globalization. I hope that it will provide all stakeholders - foremost among them the urban poor themselves - with reliable and timely information with which to set our policies right and get the machinery of urban life moving in a constructive direction.' From the Foreword by Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations. Cities in a Globalizing World presents a comprehensive review of the world's cities and analyses the positive and negative impacts on human settlements of the global trends towards social and economic integration and the rapid changes in information and communication technologies. In this Global Report, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) draws on specially commissioned and contributed background papers from more than 80 leading international specialists. The report focuses on recent trends in human settlements and their implications for poverty, inequity and social polarization. It develops advance knowledge for urban planning and management policies in support and promotion of inclusive cities and good urban governance. This major and influential report is the most authoritative and up-to-date assessment of human settlements conditions and trends. Written in clear, non-technical language and supported by informative graphics, case studies and extensive statistical data, it should be an essential tool and reference for academics, researchers, planners, public authorities and civil society organizations around the world.




Plan B 4.0


Book Description

Provides alternative solutions to such global problems as population control, emerging water shortages, eroding soil, and global warming, outlining a detailed survival strategy for the civilization of the future.




Blueprint for Reconstruction


Book Description

Inspired by a vision of soaring towers, high-speed transit cars, pristine skies, and blossoming gardens, we move beyond today's automobile-based urban model and embrace a design where the freedom of the individual is paramount and the human energy that defines city life flows unimpeded within an urban matrix engineered to allow for its highest expression. Author Vincent Frank Bedogne drafts a blueprint for what humanity's Evolution of Consciousness and adoption of Economics of Fulfillment make it possible to achieve-perfection of life on earth. We draw a plan for reconstruction of the earth's urban and ecological infrastructure: the city of tomorrow, the countryside of tomorrow, how we will get around and communicate. We embrace a new environmentalism, explore future sources of energy, reveal the solution to humanity's present energy crisis, and look at how we will build to withstand the climatic rigors imposed by a biosphere in evolution.




306090 04: Global Trajectories


Book Description

306090 04: Global Trajectories examines emerging pedagogies in design, technology, and ecology, cultivating and critically addressing the diverse yet intersecting threads of research being pursued by an emerging group of young architects from around the world, including Eye Design, Linda Samuels, Cameron Sinclair, Peter Perisic, and others, as well as commentary from Saskia Sassen, Michael Hardt, Reinhold Martin, David Hays, Nicholas de Monchaux, Stephano Boeri, Keller Easterling, and Neil Leach.




A Survey of Sustainable Development


Book Description

Perpetual economic growth is physically impossible on a planet with finite resources. Many concerned with humanity's future have focused on the concept of "sustainable development" as an alternative, as they seek means of achieving current economic and social goals without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own goals. Sustainable development brings together elements of economics, public policy, sociology, ecology, resource management, and other related areas, and while the term has become quite popular, it is rarely defined, and even less often is it understood. A Survey of Sustainable Development addresses that problem by bringing together in a single volume the most important works on sustainable human and economic development. It offers a broad overview of the subject, and gives the reader a quick and thorough guide to this highly diffuse topic. The volume offers ten sections on topics including: economic and social dimensions of sustainable development the North/South balance population and the demographic transition agriculture and renewable resources energy and materials use globalization and corporate responsibility local and national strategies Each section is introduced with an essay by one of the volume editors that provides an overview of the subject and a summary of the mainstream literature, followed by two- to three-page abstracts of the most important articles or book chapters on the topic. A Survey of Sustainable Development is the sixth and final volume in the Frontier Issues of Economic Thought series produced by the Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University. Each book brings together the most important articles and book chapters in a "frontier" area of economics where important new work is being done but has not yet been incorporated into the mainstream of economic study. The book is an essential reference for students and scholars concerned with economics, environmental studies, public policy and administration, international development, and a broad range of related fields.




The Tourism and Leisure Industry


Book Description

An essential read for all leisure and tourism experts, this educational book analyzes and explains demographics, global supply and demand, globalization, intercultural behavior and mobility to help you forecast future consumer needs.