Urban Ecology

Half the world's population lives in cities. By the year 2025, this figure will have risen to three-quarters. And yet the modern city -- the creation of a private sector interested in financial reward, and a public sector motivated by short-term expediency -- is a direct cause of pollution, alienation, and social division.

In Cities for a Small Planet, Sir Richard Rogers, one of the world's leading architects and the designer of the Pompidou Center in Paris, demonstrates how future cities could provide the springboard for restoring humanity's harmony with its environment. He describes how we can and must create cities for a planet that is growing smaller and smaller: cities that are sustainable within their own environment, that can make a positive impact on their surroundings, that encourage communication among their citizens, that are compact and focused around neighborhoods, and that are beautiful.

Those concerned with growth and development at national or local levels must pay significantly more attention to the physical structure of urban settings which house many of the leading sectors of the economies of nations. These metropolitan areas must retain the flexibility necessary to meet the needs of an ever-changing mix of activities. Structural, environmental, and economic concerns are brought together to help the reader better understand the problems and identify solutions. This work will be of interest to those economists, environmentalists, sociologists, and practitioners concerned with growth, change, and the environment in urban settings, as well as planning and development agencies in Third World settings.

Responds to the need for up-to-date information about three major challenges posed by urbanization: buildings, transportation, and land use.

In "Independent Cities", Robert Waste suggests an array of solutions to real problems affecting urban America and explores dynamics of urban politics. He examines a range of policy alternatives and proffers his own creative solutions.

Urban lifestyles characterized by high consumption levels, exuberant use of natural resources, excessive production of waste, a widening gap between rich and poor, and rapid growth of the global human population pose a major problem for the future survival of our species. Urban development must therefore meet the needs of the present generations without compromising the needs of future generations. Putting this goal into practice remains a major challenge. This book introduces "sustainability assessment," a new concept that aims to help in steering societies in a more sustainable direction, and applies this concept to cities. It deals with practical ways to reach a more sustainable state in urban areas through such tools as strategic environmental assessment, sustainability assessment, direction analysis, baseline setting and progress measurement, sustainability targets, and ecological footprint analysis. With these tools, humans can maintain or improve the health, productivity, and quality of their lives in harmony with nature.

Urban Habitats presents an illustrated and practical guide to the wide range of British urban habitats and the flora and fauna which live within them, and examines the most important conservation and management issues presently being faced by the British government

Cities focus human creativity, culture, and industry, and offer welfare and livelihood opportunities for billions of people worldwide. If demographic projections are borne out, cities will also be the focus of a global population explosion--particularly in developing countries--that will increasingly reflect common lifestyle experiences for humankind. While these experiences are often positive, burgeoning urban communities will face critical challenges in coming decades. Environmental problems are particularly threatening: cities are a burden upon natural resources and pollute the air and water; development destroys the natural environment surrounding cities; and cities present enormous demands for housing, transportation, water management, and sewage systems that in many cases are not met. Urban environmental challenges threaten the lives of millions, and as urban populations increase, these difficulties will escalate. The goal of eco-societies is to manage or reverse these problems and make cities safe places in which to work, live, and nurture future generations. This volume identifies and conceptualizes the ideal of urban eco-societies, embracing their technological, political, and sociological dimensions and focusing on broad but practical lifestyle changes. It outlines the innovative approaches used in partnerships among disparate actors and the widening process of cooperation on these issues that transcends national boundaries.

Although better known for its sunny skies, Los Angeles suffers devastating flooding. This book explores a fascinating and little-known chapter in the city's history--the spectacular failures to control floods that occurred throughout the twentieth century. Despite the city's 114 debris dams, 5 flood control basins, and nearly 500 miles of paved river channels, Southern Californians have discovered that technologically engineered solutions to flooding are just as disaster-prone as natural waterways. Jared Orsi's lively history unravels the strange and often hazardous ways that engineering, politics, and nature have come together in Los Angeles to determine the flow of water. He advances a new paradigm--the urban ecosystem--for understanding the city's complex and unpredictable waterways and other issues that are sure to play a large role in future planning.

As he traces the flow of water from sky to sea, Orsi brings together many disparate and intriguing pieces of the story, including local andnational politics, the little-known San Gabriel Dam fiasco, the phenomenal growth of Los Angeles, and, finally, the influence of environmentalism. Orsi provocatively widens his vision toward other cities for which Los Angeles may offer a lesson--both of things gone wrong and a glimpse of how they might be improved.

"New Orleans' Mississippi levee, as Kelman explains in this fascinating study, is more than a pile of dirt. It is the key to unraveling the historical dialectic between a great river and an essentially amphibious city. It is also the monumental space of New Orleans' past, where dark plots and heroic dreams remain forever entangled."--Mike Davis, author of "Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster

"Kelman has written a pioneering environmental history of the evolving relationship between one of the nation's oldest and most exceptional cities, New Orleans, and our greatest river, the Mississippi. For New Orleans, the river offered challenges and opportunities alike, providing the lifeblood of the city's commerce and a signature symbol of its identity even as it also brought floods, disease, and death. It is a fascinating story."--William Cronon, author of "Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West

"Kelman makes elegant sense of a story as tangled as the Louisiana bayous and tells,his tale with a verve to rival that of New Orleans itself. A strong addition to American environmental history."--John R. McNeill, author of "Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World

'Urban Futures' brings together commentaries from a wide range of contemporary disciplines and fields relevant to urban culture, form and society.