Books on the topic 'Urban sustainability transition experiments'

After having explored various locally oriented projects in participatory governance that present practical alternatives to the theory of deliberative democracy, this chapter examines the democratic participatory potentials and realities of other local initiatives. It looks at the participatory activities of cities, including large cities, with a particular focus on the role for citizens in programs designed for adaptive responses to the consequences of climate change. Sponsored by city officials, these participatory initiatives are seen to be largely top-down in nature and not generally democratic per se. We then turn to the Transition Town movement, often cited by environmentalists as a progressive ecological alternative founded on citizen engagement. The participatory activities of this movement, while ecologically credible, are shown not to be geared to the furtherance of democratic practices. One main reason has to do with its emphasis on the theory of resilience, which ignores the political questions raised by ecological transition.

Abstract Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Sustainability provides comprehensive insights on existing technologies and up-to-date advances in the field of water, wastewater and waste treatment using nature-based approaches and systems. This book highlights: Process fundamentals of nature-based solutions, including hydrodynamics, media, bacteria/media interactions and phytoremediation for pollution control, resource recovery and energy generation.Critical insights on the status, major challenges and modern engineering solutions in nature-based solutions for the treatment of rainwater, storm water, wastewater and solid waste.Advanced methods for valorisation using nature-based solutions through integration with other technologies, such as composting, anaerobic digestion and bioelectrochemical systems.Up-to-date information on modern approaches for deriving value-added operation, by combining nature-based solutions with agricultural practices such as fish farming or protein production.Case studies of nature-based solutions from countries in transition including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines. This reference textbook is recommended reading for both undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in environmental sciences, technologies, or engineering. It is equally useful for a broader audience including researchers, engineers, and policy makers interested in the field of nature-based solutions for urban sustainability. It is also tailored to be used as an advanced manual for practitioners and consultancies working in the field of diffuse pollution and climate change mitigation. ISBN: 9781789065008 (paperback) ISBN: 9781789065015 (eBook) ISBN: 9781789065022 (ePub)

Sustainability and resilience have become indispensable parts of the contemporary debate over the built environment. Although recognised as imperatives, the complexity and the variety of interpretations of sustainability and resilience have raised the necessity to again rethink their notion in the context of the built environment and to reframe the state-of-the-art body of knowledge. The book Sustainability and Resilience: Socio-Spatial Perspective so begins with the exploration of the broadest conceptual frame-of-reference of issues related to sustainability, and the re-establishment of the connection between the built environment and the conditions that are vital to its functioning, primarily in relation to energy, land use, climate, and economy. Subsequent discussion on resilience as a term, approach, and philosophy aims to conceptualise an interpretation of key resilience concepts, explain relationships and links among them, and propose the classification of resilience as applicable to the context of urban studies. By studying the processes of transition of the built environment, the book then reveals a coherent formula of ‘thinking sustainability + resilience’ aimed at improving the ability to respond to disruptions and hazards while enhancing human and environmental welfare. The necessity to integrate the two approaches is further accented as a result of a deliberative discourse on the notions of ‘social sustainability’, ‘sustainable community’, and ‘socio-cultural resilience’. The potential of measuring sustainable development and urban sustainability on the basis of defined social, human, and, additionally, natural and economic values is presented though an overview of different wellknown indicators and the identification of a currently relevant tangible framework of sustainable development. Correspondingly, the role of policies and governance is demonstrated on the case of climate-proof cities. In this way, the consideration of approaches to sustainability and resilience of the urban environment is rounded, and the focus of the book is shifted towards an urban/rural dichotomy and the sustainability prospects of identified forms-in-between, and, subsequently, towards the exploration of values, challenges, and the socio-cultural role in achieving sustainability for rural areas. In the final chapters, the book offers several peculiarised socio-spatial perspectives, from defining the path towards more resilient communities and sustainable spaces based on a shared wellbeing, to proposing the approach to define community resilience as an intentional action that aims to respond to, and influence, the course of social and economic change, to deliberating the notion of a ’healthy place’ and questioning its optimal scale in the built environment. The study of sustainability and resilience in this book is concluded by drawing a parallel between environmental, economic, and social determinants of the built environment and the determinants that are relevant to human health and well-being.

Formidable challenges confront Australia and its human settlements: the mega-metro regions, major and provincial cities, coastal, rural and remote towns. The key drivers of change and major urban vulnerabilities have been identified and principal among them are resource-constraints, such as oil, water, food, skilled labour and materials, and carbon-constraints, linked to climate change and a need to transition to renewable energy, both of which will strongly shape urban development this century. Transitions identifies 21st century challenges to the resilience of Australia’s cities and regions that flow from a range of global and local influences, and offers a portfolio of solutions to these critical problems and vulnerabilities. The solutions will require fundamental transitions in many instances: to our urban infrastructures, to our institutions and how they plan for the future, and perhaps most of all to ourselves in terms of our lifestyles and consumption patterns. With contributions from 92 researchers - all leaders in their respective fields - this book offers the expertise to chart pathways for a sustainability transition.

“Transforming Glasgow is designed to become an essential book for academics, students, and urban practitioners. The book explores how the city of Glasgow is coming to terms with its post-industrial status and the challenges it still faces to reposition itself as an economically competitive and socially just modern city. The ways in which Glasgow is navigating its transition from a de-industrial to a post-industrial city and beyond will be critically examined through 14 thematic chapters along with an introduction and conclusion. The chapters cover the fundamental elements of urban transformation including health, housing, migration, transport, the built environment, culture, sustainability, community development, governance, and economic development, with attention to the transformation of Glasgow as a place and the impacts on people in the city. In so doing Transforming Glasgow seeks to question what comprises a post-industrial city and the extent to which Glasgow is moving beyond characterisation as a post-industrial city.”