This book provides examples of climate change characterization and decision-making tools for subtropical and tropical adaptation planning. It is intended for local operators, physical planners, besides researchers and students of these subjects. The first chapter describes the status of climate planning in large subtropical and tropical cities. The following six chapters discuss hazards (drought, intense precipitations, sea level rise, sea water intrusion) and early warning systems. Nine chapters enlarge on flood risk analysis and preliminary mapping, climate change vulnerability, comparing contingency plans in various scales and presenting experiences centred on adaptation planning. The last three chapters introduce some best practices of weather and climate change monitoring and flood risk mapping and assessment.

The Urban Fantastic in Nineteenth-Century European Literature explores transnational perspectives of modern city life in Europe by engaging with the fantastic tropes and metaphors used by writers of short fiction. Focusing on the literary city and literary representations of urban experience throughout the nineteenth century, the works discussed incorporate supernatural occurrences in a European city and the supernatural of these stories stems from and belongs to the city. The argument is structured around three primary themes. "Architectures", "Encounters" and "Rhythms" make reference to three axes of city life: material space, human encounters, and movement. This thematic approach highlights cultural continuities and thus supports the use of the label of "urban fantastic" within and across the European traditions studied here.

Advance Praise for Dynamic Urban Design

"Finally, in one book a complete guide to the theory, practice, and potential of urban design by one of Canada's preeminent urban designers."

-David R. Witty, former dean, School of Architecture, University of Manitoba, Canada

"Michael von Hausen has given us a clear and hopeful path to the creation of a sustainable urbanism, one that will be inspiring and instructive to practitioners, students, and all those who are focused on the most fundamental issue of our time."

-Jim Adams, architect and principal, McCann Adams Studio, Austin, Texas

"Dynamic Urban Design establishes Michael von Hausen as a sustainable urban design authority. Sharing insights taken from six millennia ... von Hausen articulates a clearly understandable and masterfully illustrated process."

-Kevin Harris, architect and principal, Kevin Harris Architect, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Whether we are practicing urban designers or interested citizens, virtually all of us want to live in communities that are safe, attractive, and healthy. Yet our good intentions face conflicting goals. How are we going to improve community health, reduce crime, and improve mobility in cities while at the same time expanding our cities to accommodate growth? How are we going to do all this with seemingly limited financial resources? How do we do more with less, live within our means, and still create a higher quality of life? The list of challenges is almost endless. Urban design is emerging as a critical interface that brings various professions together to address these challenges and improve our communities.

For future human survival and quality of life, the world needs a more inclusive, rigorous, socially inspired, and comprehensive urban design model integrated with sustainable development. This book delivers that model-a reference guide for doing it right.

Shaping Terrain shows how the physical landscape and local ecology have influenced human settlement and built form in Latin America since pre-Columbian times. Most urban centers and capitals of Latin American countries are situated on or near dramatically varied terrain, and this book explores the interplay between built works and their geographies in various cities including Bogota, Caracas, Mendoza, Mexico D. F., Rio de Janeiro, Santiago de Chile, and Valparaiso. The multi-national contributors to Shaping Terrain have a broad range of professional experience as urbanists, historians, and architects, and many are globally renowned for their design work. They examine how humans negotiate with the existing environment and how the built form expresses that relationship. The result is a wide-ranging representation of the unique legacy of Latin America's urban heritage, which is a repository of possibilities for future cities.

Each century has its own unique approach toward addressing the problem of high density and the 21st century is no exception. As cities try to cope with rapid population growth - adding 2.5 billion dwellers by 2050 - and grapple with destructive sprawl, politicians, planners and architects have become increasingly interested in the vertical city paradigm. Unfortunately, cities all over the world are grossly unprepared for integrating tall buildings, as these buildings may aggravate multidimensional sustainability challenges resulting in a `vertical sprawl' that could have worse consequences than `horizontal' sprawl. By using extensive data and numerous illustrations this book provides a comprehensive guide to the successful and sustainable integration of tall buildings into cities. A new crop of skyscrapers that employ passive design strategies, green technologies, energy-saving systems and innovative renewable energy offers significant architectural improvements. At the urban scale, the book argues that planners must integrate tall buildings with efficient mass transit, walkable neighbourhoods, cycling networks, vibrant mixed-use activities, iconic transit stations, attractive plazas, well-landscaped streets, spacious parks and engaging public art. Particularly, it proposes the Tall Building and Transit Oriented Development (TB-TOD) model as one of the sustainable options for large cities going forward. Building on the work of leaders in the fields of ecological and sustainable design, this book will open readers' eyes to a wider range of possibilities for utilizing green, resilient, smart, and sustainable features in architecture and urban planning projects. The 20 chapters offer comprehensive reading for all those interested in the planning, design, and construction of sustainable cities.

The natural beauty of Austin, Texas, has always been central to the city's identity. From the beginning, city leaders, residents, planners, and employers consistently imagined Austin as a natural place, highlighting the region's environmental attributes as they marketed the city and planned for its growth. Yet, as Austin modernized and attracted an educated and skilled labor force, the demand to preserve its natural spaces was used to justify economic and racial segregation. This effort to create and maintain a ""city in a garden"" perpetuated uneven social and economic power relationships throughout the twentieth century. In telling Austin's story, Andrew M. Busch invites readers to consider the wider implications of environmentally friendly urban development. While Austin's mainstream environmental record is impressive, its minority groups continue to live on the economic, social, and geographic margins of the city. By demonstrating how the city's midcentury modernization and progressive movement sustained racial oppression, restriction, and uneven development in the decades that followed, Busch reveals the darker ramifications of Austin's green growth.

For the last 50 years, we have been building communities for the wrong reason. "How to Build a VillageTown" proposes to turn real estate development upside down, so that people may regain control of their lives, their communities and their future. Instead of building communities to sell cars, "How to Build a VillageTown" proposes people build communities that provide for their needs and aspirations... places to live that are places they love. The idea is not new. Over 2,000 years ago, Aristotle wrote that when several villages come together so they may become economically self-supporting, the purpose for their continuance is to enable their citizens to enjoy a good life, understood as the social pursuits of conviviality, citizenship, artistic, intellectual and spiritual growth. In almost every place and time, except our own, every aspect of community design, from the central plaza with its meeting places, cafes, taverns and shops, to their support for the artistic, educational and holy places followed these timeless patterns and principles of design. The people who live there help shape its design which is what gives it its character and authenticity. Beginning after World-War II, starting in America and spreading to other parts of the world, we radically redesigned how people live based on a different intent: to perpetually boom national economies. We invented suburbs to sell cars. We reshaped life based on this plan that came to be known as suburban sprawl. The core principle was that of separation. We separated destinations, generations and stages of life. The design principle became that of standardization. If we look at everything that surrounds us in daily life, we notice the extent to which our physical environment has become generic and bland. We redefined citizens as consumers, and in the process lost sight of why we build communities. This radical experiment in suburban sprawl failed to deliver on its promise. We now face a host of new and serious problems our ancestors knew not. For the most part, our response to these problems is either denial or investing substantial energy trying to fix broken and broke systems. In "How to Build a VillageTown," you are invited to take a different approach. Called a VillageTown - a town made of villages - it proposes people come together to form villages, about 500 people in each, with about twenty villages side by side to create the necessary economic and social critical mass of a town of 10,000 people. The optimal size proposes a 150 acre urban core surrounded by a 300 acre greenbelt and a 50 acre industrial park. Within the urban core, all is walkable - no cars within. This rescales everything, permitting a secure, stimulating place for all ages and stages of life. Human-scaled, it more resembles the market-town of yore; only it takes advantage of modern technology, most notably Telepresence that permits one to be in two places at once. It proposes creating its own local economy that enables its citizens to regain control over their own lives and enjoy a Good Life. The purpose of the series of VillageTown books is to put forth a proposal to build a new, timeless form of community to replace suburbs. All profits from book sales go to raise the funds required to build VillageTowns.The author takes no royalties, the publisher charges no fees. To support the idea, to help make it go from a good idea to real built communities, buy books, give them as gifts, leave them in cafes or anywhere else folks gather. This is not a drill. If you like the idea and want to live in a VillageTown, please go to the web site, VillageForum.com and become involved.

While journalists document the decline of small-town America and scholars describe the ascent of such global cities as New York and Los Angeles, the fates of little cities remain a mystery. What about places like Providence, Rhode Island; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Laredo, Texas; and Salinas, California-the smaller cities that constitute much of America's urban ladscape? Jon R. Norman examines how such places have fared in the wake of the large-scale economic, demographic, and social changes that occurred in the latter part of the twentieth century. Small Cities U.S.A. illustrates how smaller cities changed over the last third of the century, exploring how a large group of these cities have experienced divergent fates of growth and prosperity or stagnation and dilapidation. Drawing on an assessment of eighty small cities between 1970 and 2000, Norman considers the factors that have altered the physical, social, and economic landscapes of such places. These cities are examined in relation to new patterns of immigration, shifts in the global economy, and changing residential preferences among Americans. In doing so, he presents the first large-scale comparison of smaller cities across time in the United States. This study shows that small cities that have prospered over time have done so because of diverse populations and economies. These "glocal" cities, as Normal calls them, are doing well without necessarily growing into large metropolises.

Thomas D. Wilson's Charleston and Savannah is the first comprehensive history of Charleston and Savannah in a single volume that weaves together the influences and parallels of their intrinsic stories. As two of the earliest English-speaking cities founded in America, Charleston and Savannah are among the nation's top historic sites. Their historic characters, which attract millions of visitors each year, are each a rich blend of cultural, environmental, and socioeconomic elements. Yet even with this popularity, both cities now face a challenge in preserving their authentic historic character, natural beauty, and environmental quality. Wilson charts the ebb and flow of the progress and development of the cities using various through lines running within each chapter, constructing an overall character assessment of each. Wilson charts the economic rise of these port cities, beginning with their British foundations and transatlantic trade in the colonies through to their twentieth-century economic declines and resurgences. He examines the cultural and economic aspects of their Lowcountry landscapes and their evolution as progress and industrialization made their mark. Employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in his comparisons of the two cities, he considers their histories, natural landscapes, weather patterns, economies, demographics, culture, architecture, city planning, and infrastructure. While each has its own civic and cultural strengths and weaknesses, both are positioned as historically significant southern cities, even as they assess aspects of their problematic pasts.

This book attempts to reveal historical dynamism of transforming contemporary Maritime Asia and to identify key driving forces or agencies for the evolution and transformation of Maritime Asia in the context of global history studies. It seeks to accomplish these goals by connecting different experiences in Maritime Asia both historically from the late early-modern to the present and spatially covering both East and Southeast Asia. Focusing on interactions on and through oceans, seas, and islands, Maritime Asia can deal with any aspects of human society and the nature, including diplomacy, maritime trade, cultural exchange, identity and others. Its interest in supra-regional interactions and networks, migration and diaspora, combined with its microscopic concern with local and trans-border affairs, will surely contribute to the common task of contemporary social sciences and humanities, to relativize the conventional framework based on the nation-state. In this regard, research in Maritime Asia claims to be an integral part of global studies. Part I deals with long-distance trade and diplomatic relations during the late early modern era and its transition to the modern era, mainly in the nineteenth century. Part II focuses on the emergence of transregional and trans-oceanic Asian networks and the original institution-building efforts in the Asia-Pacific region in the twentieth century.

This insightful book provides a comprehensive survey of urban development in Hong Kong since 1841. Pui-yin Ho explores the ways in which the social, economic and political environments of different eras have influenced the city's development. From colonial governance, wartime experiences, high density development and adjustments before and after 1997 through contemporary challenges, this book explores forward-looking ideas that urban planning can offer to lead the city in the future. Evaluating the relationship between town planning and social change, this book looks at how a local Hong Kong identity emerged in the face of conflict and compromise between Chinese and European cultures. In doing so, it brings a fresh perspective to urban research, providing historical context and direction for the future development of the city. Hong Kong's urban development experience offers not only a model for other Chinese cities but also a better understanding of Asian cities more broadly. Urban studies scholars will find this an exemplary case study of a developing urban landscape. Town planners and architects will also benefit from reading this comprehensive book as it shows how Hong Kong can be taken to the next stage of urban development and modernisation.

The efficient usage, investigation, and promotion of new methods, tools, and technologies within the field of architecture, particularly in urban planning and design, is becoming more critical as innovation holds the key to cities becoming smarter and ultimately more sustainable. In response to this need, strategies that can potentially yield more realistic results are continually being sought. The Handbook of Research on Digital Research Methods and Architectural Tools in Urban Planning and Design is a critical reference source that comprehensively covers the concepts and processes of more than 20 new methods in both planning and design in the field of architecture and aims to explain the ways for researchers to apply these methods in their works. Pairing innovative approaches alongside traditional research methods, the physical dimensions of traditional and new cities are addressed in addition to the non-physical aspects and applied models that are currently under development in new settlements such as sustainable cities, smart cities, creative cities, and intercultural cities. Featuring a wide range of topics such as built environment, urban morphology, and city information modeling, this book is essential for researchers, academicians, professionals, technology developers, architects, engineers, and policymakers.

GNSS can detect the seismic atmospheric-ionospheric variations, which can be used to investigate the seismo-atmospheric disturbance characteristics and provide insights on the earthquake. This book presents the theory, methods, results, and modeling of GNSS atmospheric seismology. Sesimo-tropospheric anomalies, Pre-/Co-/Post-seismic ionospheric disturbances, epicenter estimation, tsunami and volcano ionospheric disturbances, and volcanic plumes detection with GNSS will be presented and discussed per chapter in the book.