Book notes
This book tackles class, race and other differences in the Caribbean environmental movement, based on analysis of Willemstad, Curaçao and Kingston, Jamaica.
There is increasing awareness of the impacts of climate change on the health of urban residents. Although Thailand has seen relatively low rates of urbanization compared to its ASEAN counterparts, cities across the country are growing.
Much of India’s future urbanization will be the result of migration from rural areas and small cities and towns. These urban migrants are often invisible, voiceless and powerless.
Conservation for Cities by Robert McDonald widens the traditional concept of conservation, as biodiversity protection, and introduces it as a tool for using nature to improve the lives of city dwellers.
A publication of Down to Earth magazine, Why Urban India Floods reviews the state of urban flooding across India and its relation to urbanization and drainage, which is often neglected.
In Managing the City Economy, Le-Yin Zhang provides a practice-oriented book about managing the city economy, especially in developing countries.
Natural Hazards, Risk and Vulnerability, by Roanne van Voorst, examines the concept of risk behaviour and explores why – if people share the same risks – they express such heterogeneity in their responses.
It’s clear that NGOs have proliferated in recent decades. A 2003 estimate is that “close to 90 per cent of all non-governmental organisations have been formed since 1970” (page 2). Their power has also grown and diversified, at least for international NGOs (INGOs) at the top.
GrEEEn Solutions for Livable Cities proposes an integrated approach to addressing the challenges of sustainable development, combining the 3Es of economy, environment and equity.
Plenty has been written about Detroit as a cautionary tale of urban decay – from its industrial manufacturing heyday to its persistent problems with racism, poverty and mass flight to the suburbs.