Sustaining Cities: Environmental Planning and Management in Urban Design

THIS BOOK IS designed to meet the needs of both academics and professionals. For academic use, the material has been prepared to support an upper division or Masters-level course in city and regional planning, environmental engineering, civil engineering, public administration, management, political science, architecture or landscape architecture. But sections of the text can be also be used as resources for city planners and managers, housing and urban development agencies, land and real estate developers, aid agencies and community organizers. The content is applicable to lower-income cities as well as wealthier ones, as each chapter contains examples drawn from high- and low-income countries. There is a slight weighting towards cases from poorer countries and cities because the world's urban population is increasingly located in cities in low- and middle-income countries and because, in the past, available information has downplayed what cities in high-income countries can learn from cities in lower-income countries.

The book is organized into three parts. Part I reviews past thinking about the urban environment, assesses key problems and their underlying causes, and looks at responses to the question of whether urban development can be sustained. Part II provides an urban environmental planning framework, tools for analysis and planning, and the elements of urban environmental strategies and action plans. Part III outlines options for managing urban environmental problems and presents intensive, as well as extensive, examples of good practice. A concluding chapter draws practical lessons for planning and management, and reviews what we still need to know. Annexes provide resources for assistance, information and training, and urban environmental data for major cities of the world.