Sustainable Urban Metabolism

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Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262019361
Total Pages : 259 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Sustainable Urban Metabolism by : Paulo Ferrao

Download or read book Sustainable Urban Metabolism written by Paulo Ferrao and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-08-30 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unified framework for analyzing urban sustainability in terms of cities' inflows and outflows of matter and energy. Urbanization and globalization have shaped the last hundred years. These two dominant trends are mutually reinforcing: globalization links countries through the networked communications of urban hubs. The urban population now generates more than eighty percent of global GDP. Cities account for enormous flows of energy and materials—inflows of goods and services and outflows of waste. Thus urban environmental management critically affects global sustainability. In this book, Paulo Ferrão and John Fernández offer a metabolic perspective on urban sustainability, viewing the city as a metabolism, in terms of its exchanges of matter and energy. Their book provides a roadmap to the strategies and tools needed for a scientifically based framework for analyzing and promoting the sustainability of urban systems. Using the concept of urban metabolism as a unifying framework, Ferrão and Fernandez describe a systems-oriented approach that establishes useful linkages among environmental, economic, social, and technical infrastructure issues. These linkages lead to an integrated information-intensive platform that enables ecologically informed urban planning. After establishing the theoretical background and describing the diversity of contributing disciplines, the authors sample sustainability approaches and tools, offer an extended study of the urban metabolism of Lisbon, and outline the challenges and opportunities in approaching urban sustainability in both developed and developing countries.

Creating Regenerative Cities

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317654102
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

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Book Synopsis Creating Regenerative Cities by : Herbert Girardet

Download or read book Creating Regenerative Cities written by Herbert Girardet and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Large, modern cities have effectively declared their independence from nature. But while they take up only three percent of the world’s land surface, their ecological footprints actually cover the entire globe. Humanity is building an urban future, yet urban resource use is threatening the future of humanity and the natural world. To meet the aspirations of city people in both developing and developed countries, bold new initiatives are needed. Modern cities are an astonishing human achievement. As centres of innovation they are humanity’s cultural playgrounds. Their communication and transport systems have developed a global reach. They are attractive to investors because they can offer a vast variety of services at comparatively low per-capita costs. But are they viable as ecological systems? The planning of new cities, as well as the retrofit of existing cities, needs to undergo a profound paradigm shift. Mere 'sustainable development' is not enough. To be compatible with natural systems, cities need to move away from linear systems of resource use and learn to operate as closed-loop, circular systems. To ensure their long-term future, they need to develop an environmentally enhancing, restorative relationship between themselves and the natural systems on which they still depend. Creating Regenerative Cities is a concise, solution-oriented manual for creating regenerative urbanisation. A wide range of technical, management and policy solutions already exist, but implementation has been too slow and too little, in large part because the kinds of holistic approaches needed are still unfamiliar to fragmented and process-driven urban policy making and governance. Herbert Girardet's 30 years’ experience as an ecologist, thinker, film maker and consultant working around the world has created this unique combination of tried and tested best practices and policies, which outlines the fundamental shifts needed in the way we think about our cities.

Waterfronts in Post-Industrial Cities

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Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 113452286X
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (345 download)

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Book Synopsis Waterfronts in Post-Industrial Cities by : Richard Marshall

Download or read book Waterfronts in Post-Industrial Cities written by Richard Marshall and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2004-01-14 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most books on waterfronts deal with a relatively narrow collection of cities and projects; one might describe them as the 'top ten' list of waterfront revitalisation projects. For instance, Boston and Baltimore are now the stuff of waterfront redevelopment legend. Waterfronts in Post-Industrial Cities is a second generation waterfront publication which reflects on recent and contemporary developments. Amsterdam, Boston, Genoa, Sydney and Vancouver are successful examples of cities that faced considerable challenges in their revitalisation efforts. Bilbao, Havana, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Shanghai are contemporary examples that represent the emerging contexts for waterfront revitalisation today. Four themes form the basis of this book and provide a structure for considering particular aspects of waterfront redevelopment - connection to the waterfront, remaking the city image on the waterfront, port and city relations and the new waterfronts in historic cities. Broad issues that might be applicable to a variety of situations are dealt with alongside specific city case studies.

Farewell to Growth

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Publisher : Polity
ISBN 13 : 0745646174
Total Pages : 133 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (456 download)

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Book Synopsis Farewell to Growth by : Serge Latouche

Download or read book Farewell to Growth written by Serge Latouche and published by Polity. This book was released on 2009 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of us who live in the North and the West consume far too much – too much meat, too much fat, too much sugar, too much salt. We are more likely to put on too much weight than to go hungry. We live in a society that is heading for a crash. We are aware of what is happening and yet we refuse to take it fully into account. Above all we refuse to address the issue that lies at the heart of our problems – namely, the fact that our societies are based on an economy whose only goal is growth for growth’s sake. Serge Latouche argues that we need to rethink from the very foundations the idea that our societies should be based on growth. He offers a radical alternative – a society of ‘de-growth’. De-growth is not the same thing as negative growth. We should be talking about ‘a-growth’, in the sense in which we speak of ‘a-theism’. And we do indeed have to abandon a faith or religion – that of the economy, progress and development—and reject the irrational and quasi-idolatrous cult of growth for growth’s sake. While many realize that that the never-ending pursuit of growth is incompatible with a finite planet, we have yet to come to terms with the implications of this – the need to produce less and consume less. But if we do not change course, we are heading for an ecological and human disaster. There is still time to imagine, quite calmly, a system based upon a different logic, and to plan for a ‘de-growth society’.

The Politics of Energy

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135710481
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (357 download)

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Book Synopsis The Politics of Energy by : Steve Vanderheiden

Download or read book The Politics of Energy written by Steve Vanderheiden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together leading scholars on the politics of energy, examining the natural resources and developing technologies that are essential to its production and the various public and private factors affecting its use, along with the ecological consequences of both. Section One examines the looming challenges posed by continuing dependence upon oil as a primary energy source, including "peak oil" scenarios and the social and political consequences of resource extraction upon the developing world. Section Two considers proposals to dramatically increase nuclear power production as a means to reduce carbon emissions, with both the risks and potential of this "nuclear option" carefully weighed. Although many tout renewable energy sources for their environmental benefits, Section Three calls attention to several potential problems with large-scale renewable energy development and the dilemmas that they have caused for would-be supporters of such efforts. Finally, Section Four weighs the prospects for developing sustainable energy systems on the ground, including conservation measures that reduce energy demand and system-wide energy policy efforts. Together, these essays demonstrate the importance of sound energy policy along with the numerous obstacles to developing and implementing it. This book was originally published as a special issue of Environmental Politics.