THE AIM OF this book is to examine the problems of urban planning and management from an environmental perspective. The city is analyzed as part of the cycle of organisms, elements and nutrients that make up the natural environment...The general conclusion is that we need to manage our cities so that ... the city lives symbiotically within the environment, rather than at its expense” (page xii). The book is aimed at urban planners and managers and hopes to assist them “...to improve the immediate environment and to reduce the negative impact of our urban society on rural areas, the oceans, and the atmosphere” (page 2).
Chapter one serves as an introduction, outlining the aims of the book and its general content. It gives a brief survey of the spread of urbanization in the last 200 years and outlines the differing urban conditions between North and South. It examines the current views on environmental change and analyzes the inter-disciplinary aspects of environmental problems. The second chapter has a particular focus on global climate change and the implications for the management and planning of urban systems. Chapter three examines the role of urban systems within the natural ecosystems in which they exist and tries to understand how cities act as physical modifiers of materials and energy to produce growth. The following chapter considers how urban systems can be threatened by the consequences of extreme situations of physical blight but also social problems such as unemployment and impaired health. Chapter five discusses urban impacts on air including the effect of discharges on local air quality, their long distance impacts and the impacts on atmospheric change. There is a comparison between the housing, industry and transportation sectors and proposals for necessary changes and an integrated energy approach. The sixth chapter focuses on the impacts of both regulated and unregulated discharges on ground and water and makes some suggestions for improvements. Chapter seven presents ideas for an ecological city, emphasizing the physical rather than the social variables. It explores the concept of “bio-region”, analyzes various examples of planning situations and presents alternative forms of urban organization. The final chapter examines the city of Toronto in the context of the issues discussed in the previous chapters. It looks at its organization, its problems, land use planning, discharges to the air and ground, and the responses to environmental concerns at various levels of government. The book ends with a short postscript and glossary of terms.