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Books > Earth & environment > Regional & area planning > General
New Issues in Polar Tourism traces and analyzes a decade of growing interest in the polar regions, and the consequent challenges and opportunities of increasing tourist traffic in formerly remote and seldom-visited places. The book arises from the recently-formed International Polar Tourism Research Network (IPTRN), and documents the outcomes of its 2010 conference, held at Sweden's Abisko Scientific Research Station.
The concept of "Place" has become prominent in natural resource management, as professionals increasingly recognize the importance of scale, place-specific meanings, local knowledge, and social-ecological dynamics. Place-Based Conservation: Perspectives from the Social Sciences offers a thorough examination of the topic, dividing its exploration into four broad areas. Place-Based Conservation provides a comprehensive resource for researchers and practitioners to help build the conceptual grounding necessary to understand and to effectively practice place-based conservation.
An interdisciplinary research unit consisting of 30 teams in the natural, economic and social sciences analyzed biodiversity and ecosystem services of a mountain rainforest ecosystem in the hotspot of the tropical Andes, with special reference to past, current and future environmental changes. The group assessed ecosystem services using data from ecological field and scenario-driven model experiments, and with the help of comparative field surveys of the natural forest and its anthropogenic replacement system for agriculture. The book offers insights into the impacts of environmental change on various service categories mentioned in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005): cultural, regulating, supporting and provisioning ecosystem services. Examples focus on biodiversity of plants and animals including trophic networks, and abiotic/biotic parameters such as soils, regional climate, water, nutrient and sediment cycles. The types of threats considered include land use and climate changes, as well as atmospheric fertilization. In terms of regulating and provisioning services, the emphasis is primarily on water regulation and supply as well as climate regulation and carbon sequestration. With regard to provisioning services, the synthesis of the book provides science-based recommendations for a sustainable land use portfolio including several options such as forestry, pasture management and the practices of indigenous peoples. In closing, the authors show how they integrated the local society by pursuing capacity building in compliance with the CBD-ABS (Convention on Biological Diversity - Access and Benefit Sharing), in the form of education and knowledge transfer for application.
The experience developed by Ian McHarg represents the first attempt to base environmental planning on more objective methods. In particular, he supposed that the real world can be considered as a layer cake and each layer represents a sectoral analysis. This metaphor represents the fundamental of overlay mapping. At the beginning, these principles have been applied only by hand, just considering the degree of darkness, produced by layer transparency, as a negative impact. In the following years, this craftmade approach, has been adopted for data organization in Geographical Information Systems producing analyses with a high level of quality and rigour. Nowadays, great part of studies in environmental planning field have been developed using GIS. The next step relative to the simple use of geographic information in supporting environmental planning is the adoption of spatial simulation models, which can predict the evolution of phenomena. As the use of spatial information has definitely improved the quality of data sets on which basing decision-making process, the use of Geostatistics, spatial simulation and, more generally, geocomputation methods allows the possibility of basing the decision-making process on predicted future scenarios. It is very strange that a discipline such as planning which programs the territory for the future years in great part of cases is not based on simulation models. Sectoral analyses, often based on surveys, are not enough to highlight dynamics of an area. Better knowing urban and environmental changes occurred in the past, it is possible to provide better simulations to predict possible tendencies. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the main methods and techniques adopted in the field of environmental geocomputation in order to produce a more sustainable development.
One of the most controversial issues of the water sector in recent years has been the impacts of large dams. Proponents have claimed that such structures are essential to meet the increasing water demands of the world and that their overall societal benefits far outweight the costs. In contrast, the opponents claim that social and environmental costs of large dams far exceed their benefits, and that the era of construction of large dams is over. A major reason as to why there is no consensus on the overall benefits of large dams is because objective, authoritative and comprehensive evaluations of their impacts, especially ten or more years after their construction, are conspicuous by their absence. This book debates impartially, comprehensively and objectively, the positive and negative impacts of large dams based on facts, figures and authoritative analyses. These in-depth case studies are expected to promote a healthy and balanced debate on the needs, impacts and relevance of large dams, with case studies from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Latin America. "
People either love new urbanism or hate it. Some find compact new
neighborhoods of brownstone row houses, elegant Victorian mansions,
or country cottages delightful: places that celebrate the city and
its history, and offer hope for a sustainable future. Others see
these 'urban villages' as up-graded suburbs mired in the aesthetics
of another time and place: cloyingly nostalgic anachronisms for
affluent elites. This book examines new urban approaches both in
theory and practice. Taking a critical look at how new urbanism
lives up to its theory in its practice, it asks whether new urban
approaches offer a viable path to the good community.
The development of U.S. urban transportation policy over the past half-century illustrates the changing relationships among federal, state, and local governments. This comprehensive text examines the evolution of urban transportation planning from early developments in highway planning in the 1930s to today's concerns over sustainable development, security, and pollution control. Highlighting major national events, the book examines the influence of legislation, regulations, conferences, federal programs, and advances in planning procedures and technology. The volume provides in-depth coverage of the most significant event in transportation planning, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which created a federal mandate for a comprehensive urban transportation planning process, carried out cooperatively by states and local governments with federal funding. Claiming that urban transportation planning is more sophisticated, costly, and complex than its highway and transit planning predecessors, the book demonstrates how urban transportation planning evolved in response to changes in such factors as the environment, energy, development patterns, intergovernmental coordination, and federal transit programs. This updated, revised, and expanded edition features two new chapters on global climate change and managing under conditions of constrained resources, and covers the impact of the most recent legislation, 50 years after the Highway Act of 1962, emphasizing such timely issues as security, oil dependence, performance measurement, and public-private sector collaboration.
This book offers a unique perspective on cosmopolitanism, examining the ways it is constructed and reconstructed on the small scale in an ongoing process of matching the local with the global, a process entailing mutual transformation. Based on a wide range of literatures and a series of case studies, it analyzes the different versions and functions of cosmopolitanism and points to the need to critically re-examine current conceptions of globalization. The book first illustrates the interplay between networks and narratives in the construction of cosmopolitan communities in three specific cities: Trieste, Odessa and Tbilisi. Each has a past more cosmopolitan than the present and each uses that cosmopolitan past to guide them towards the future. Next, the book focuses on narrative dynamics by isolating several discourses on the cosmopolitan place and figure in European cultural history. It then goes on to detail the internal representations and local functions of larger wholes in smaller communities, shedding a new light on issues of inter- disciplinary interest: self- governance, participation, local knowledge, social memory, scale, planning and development. Of interest to political scientists, anthropologists, economists, geographers and philosophers, this book offers an insightful contribution to theories of globalization and global/ local interaction, bringing the local discursive mechanics into sharper focus and also emphasizing the semi- autonomous character of narrative constructions of self and community in a larger world.
"On Location: Heritage Cities and Sites"merges the material and
the social perspectives of preservation and historical
interpretation in urban landscapes. The essays in this volume focus
on the social life of historic cities and large-scale sites. They
examine the ways that cities are dynamically changing as they are
made and then remade by the people who inhabit or simply visit
them, and concentrate on change, pluralism, and fragmentation. The
strength of"On Location: Heritage Cities and Sites"is
itscomparative approach to both theory and grounded research. It
includes an introductory essay that explains the heritage principle
under study--the challenges of scale in the environment of a city
or large complex--and its development as seen in the policy
instruments of ICOMOS, UNESCO, and other major heritage
organizations.The combination of wide-ranging case studies
(including essays on North America, South America, Central America,
the Middle East, and Europe) and the theoretical background make
this volume an invaluable asset for researchers in archaeology,
urban studies, art and architecture, cultural heritage, public
policy, and tourism.
This book analyzes the reasons of spontaneous transformation in self-built houses in the context of developing countries. Recognizing Housing Transformation as a natural phenomenon, the book focuses on self-built houses in the city of Dhaka. Firstly, it explains the explicit reasons behind spontaneous housing transformations. Then the book carefully unveils the implicit values that are hidden behind those explicit reasons. The entire book is an ethnographic journey, which expresses unique stories behind houses in transformation.
1.1 Basic idea and main task of photogrammetry If you want to measure the size of an object, let's say the length, width and height of a house, then normally you will carry this out directly at the object. Now imagine that the house didn't exist anymore - it was destroyed, but some historic photos exist. Then, if you can determine the scale of the photos, it must be pos- ble to get the desired data. Of course you can use photos to get information about objects. This kind of - formation is different: So, for example, you may receive qualitative data (the house seems to be old, the walls are coloured light yellow) from photo interpre- tion, or quantitative data like mentioned before (the house has a base size of 8 by 6 meters) from photo measurement, or information in addition to your background knowledge (the house has elements of the "art nouveau" style, so may be c- th structed at the beginning of the 20 century), and so on.
Conflict over the extraction of coal and gas resources has rapidly escalated in communities throughout the world. Using an environmental justice lens, this multidisciplinary book explores cases of land use conflict through the lived experiences of communities grappling with such disputes. Drawing on theories of justice and fairness in environmental decision making, it demonstrates how such land use conflicts concerning resource use can become entrenched social problems, resistant to policy and legal intervention. The author presents three case studies from New South Wales in Australia and Pennsylvania in the US of conflict concerning coal, coal gas and shale gas development. It shows how conflict has escalated in each case, exploring access to justice in land use decision making processes from the perspective of the communities at the heart of these disputes. Weaknesses in contemporary policy and regulatory frameworks, including ineffective opportunities for public participation and a lack of community recognition in land use decision making processes, are explored. The book concludes with an examination of possible procedural and institutional reforms to improve access to environmental justice and better manage cases of land use conflict. Overall, the volume links the philosophies of environmental justice with rich case study findings, offering readers further insight into both the theory and practice of land use decision making.
Mobility and Environment calls for a mobility revolution which does not simply mean taking a bus instead of a car: it implies a dramatic shift in the political debate from a technical to a political culture. The author introduces his book by disputing "non-political" Sustainable Development policies which are among the major culprits for the conservatism in environmental policies. For at least forty years, urban mobility policies, based on compulsive infrastructure building, have failed both in satisfying transportation demand and in coping with high environmental impacts. Nonetheless decision-makers keep employing the same professionals and therefore they act as shepherds who commit their sheep in the wolf's custody. Corrado Poli treats mobility policy as a political, ethical, social and educational issue rather than as a mere civil engineering one. Mobility and Environment challenges some deeply entrenched professional and economic monopolies which negatively affect urban and transportation planning in North America and Europe, and argues the old idea which bounded transportation and communication. A real environmentalist effort in traffic planning should begin from new technologies and from the analysis of citizens preferences. A series of new projects are presented which include mobility demand reduction and focus on democracy in planning.
'Advances in Tourism Economics' follows his predecessor 'Advances in Modern Tourism Research' (2007) in providing a thorough assessment of state-of-the-art economic research in this rapidly developing field. The authors start by analyzing the recent upsurge of model-based economic research in the field, which builds on powerful tools in quantitative economics, such as discrete choice models, social accounting matrices, data envelopment analyses, impact assessment models or partial computable equilibrium models including environmental externalities. The volume originates from this novel research spirit in the area and aims to offer an attractive collection of operational research tools and approaches. It forms an appealing record of modern tourism economics and positions the field within the strong tradition of quantitative economic research, with due attention for both the demand and supply side of the tourism sector, including technological and logistic advances.
This volume intends to summarize the most important changes in the Central European countries and their settlement network emphasizing the last 20 years since the collapse of the Iron Curtain.
Eco-city planning is a key element of urban land use planning in perspective and of ongoing debate of environmental urban sustainable development with a spatial and practical dimension. The conceptual basis of ecological planning is that we can no longer afford to be merely human-centred in approach. Instead, the interdependency of human and non-human species has forced us to appreciate the 'rights' and 'intrinsic values' of non-human species in our pursuit for a sustainable ecosystem. This volume has as approach an emphasis on environmental planning policies whereby, for example, energy saving, anti-pollution measures, use of non-car modes, construction of green buildings, safeguarding of nature and natural habitats in urban areas, and use of more renewable resources are promotional norms. Their aims and leading outcome serve to protect the Earth from adverse effects of global warming and different sources of pollution threatening the quality of life of human societies.
This book provides an overview of recent developments and applications of the Land Use Scanner model, which has been used in spatial planning for well over a decade. Internationally recognized as among the best of its kind, this versatile model can be applied at a national level for trend extrapolation, scenario studies and optimization, yet can also be employed in a smaller-scale regional context, as demonstrated by the assortment of regional case studies included in the book. Alongside these practical examples from the Netherlands, readers will find discussion of more theoretical aspects of land-use models as well as an assessment of various studies that aim to develop the Land-Use Scanner model further. Spanning the divide between the abstractions of land-use modelling and the imperatives of policy making, this is a cutting-edge account of the way in which the Land-Use Scanner approach is able to interrogate a spectrum of issues that range from climate change to transportation efficiency. Aimed at planners, researchers and policy makers who need to stay abreast of the latest advances in land-use modelling techniques in the context of planning practice, the book guides the reader through the applications supported by current instrumentation. It affords the opportunity for a wide readership to benefit from the extensive and acknowledged expertise of Dutch planners, who have originated a host of much-used models."
atmosphere and vegetation. In what ways can key ural and cultural functions of water, primarily elements of the water balance and the hydrological through direct interference by agriculture and cycle be altered by climate change? To answer this through pollutant loads emanating from point and question, the Council presents an analysis in which non-point sources in settlements, the small business characteristics of the hydrological cycle under pre sector, agriculture and industry. Too little is known sent climatic conditions are compared to those in a about the behavior of substances that enter water simulated climate with CO doubling (equivalent to through human activities, about their decomposition 2 twice present-day levels). Here, the Council draws on and conversion, and about the impacts they have on calculations made with the ECHAM/OPYC coupled ecosystems and humans. The most important factors atmosphere-ocean model developed by the German influencing global water quality include acidification, Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ) and the Max eutrophication, salinization, and pollution caused by Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI). Simulations organic and inorganic trace compounds (pesticides with the model show that more precipitation falls on and heavy metals, for example). Quality standards land masses in a warmer climate, especially at high such as those governing agricultural and industrial latitudes and in parts of the tropics and subtropics, uses have yet to be defined for many other types of while other regions have less rain. The latter include use.
What kind of science do we need today and tomorrow? In a game that knows no boundaries, a game that contaminates science, democracy and the market economy, how can we distinguish true needs from simple of fashion? How can we distinguish between necessity and fancy? whims How can we differentiate conviction from opinion? What is the meaning of this all? Where is the civilizing project? Where is the universal outlook of the minds that might be capable of counteracting the global reach of the market? Where is the common ground that links each of us to the other? We need the kind of science that can live up to this need for univer sality, the kind of science that can answer these questions. We need a new kind of knowledge, a new awareness that can bring about the creative destruction of certainties. Old ideas, dogmas, and out-dated paradigms must be destroyed in order to build new knowledge of a type that is more socially robust, more scientifically reliable, stable and above all better able to express our needs, values and dreams. What is more, this new kind of knowledge, which will be challenged in turn by ideas yet to come, will prove its true worth by demonstrating its capacity to dialogue with these ideas and grow with them."
As urbanization progresses at a remarkable pace, policy makers and analysts come to understand and agree on key features that will make this process more efficient and inclusive, leading to gains in the welfare of citizens. Drawing on insights from economic geography and two centuries of experience in developed countries, the World Bank's World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography emphasizes key aspects that are fundamental to ensuring an efficient rural-urban transformation. Critical among these are land, as the most important resource, and well-functioning land markets. Regardless of the stage of urbanization, flexible and forward-looking institu- ons that help the efficient functioning of land markets are the bedrock of succe- ful urbanization strategies. In particular, institutional arrangements for allocating land rights and for managing and regulating land use have significant implica- ons for how cities deliver agglomeration economies and improve the welfare of their residents. Property rights, well-functioning land markets, and the management and servicing of land required to accommodate urban expansion and provide trunk infrastructure are all topics that arise as regions progress from incipient urbani- tion to medium and high density.
Global climatic change will most likely affect natural resources and human living conditions in semiarid regions. This volume presents disciplinary as well as integrative methods to assess these impacts considering the interactions between climate variability and change, water availability, land-use systems, and quality of life. Taking the semiarid northeastern area of Brazil as an example, a wide range of expertise and knowledge (from integrated water analyses to transregional migration) is necessary to understand the complex relationship between natural and socio-economic systems. Tools to integrate this knowledge and make it available for the strategic planning of sustainable development are described. This book is a summary of the main research results and the presentations given at the final conference of the WAVES Program on June 25-26 2001 in Fortaleza (Brazil). From the reviews: "This book focuses on results from a joint German-Brazilian program (Water Availability and Vulnerability of Ecosystems and Society, or WAVES) to assess the socioeconomic impacts that global change will have on northeast Brazil. This book, divided into eight parts, describes the many factors that should be included in developing scenarios for future planning purposes. The book provides useful information concerning the complex multidisciplinary task of developing scenarios that can aid decision makers in formulating plans for sustainable development in an area that is highly vulnerable to climate variability and change. For someone who is unfamiliar with the semiarid northeast Brazil region, the book provides considerable useful background information." (Vernon E. Kousky, BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEORLOGICAL SOCIETY, December 2004)
This book explores the challenges population decline presents for Europe's urban and rural areas. It features recent demographic data and trends not only for Europe as a whole, but also for selected countries, and compares growth and shrinkage from a historical as well as a theoretical perspective. In addition, the book critically reviews relevant notions from geography, sociology, and public administration. It also identifies good practices across Europe. Throughout, theories are complemented with concrete examples and proposals are made on how to tackle demographic shrinkage in European cities and villages, from attempts to attract new residents to the countryside to innovative ways to guarantee public services. In the end, the authors conclude that solving the challenges caused by population decline require novel ways of thinking and provide answers to such future-oriented questions as: how to ensure the quality of life in an environment that is inhabited by fewer and older people, what investments are needed, and which actors should be involved. Managing Population Decline in Europe's Urban and Rural Areas offers detailed coverage of an underestimated and complex governance issue that asks for solutions in which citizens have to play an important role. It concludes that shrinkage requires a rethink of the specific tasks and roles of government and presents a way forward based on initiatives currently underway throughout Europe. The book will be a valuable resource for population policy makers as well as students and researchers interested in human geography, urban planning, rural development, European studies, public administration, and other social sciences.
This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date, and expert synthesis of location theory. What are the impacts of a firm's geographic location on the locations of customers, suppliers, and competitors in a market economy? How, when, and why does this result in the clustering of firms in space? When and how is society made better or worse off as a result? This book uses dozens of locational models to address aspects of these three questions. Classical location problems considered include Greenhut-Manne, Hitchcock-Koopmans, and Weber-Launhardt. The book reinterprets competitive location theory, focusing on the linkages between Walrasian price equilibrium and the localization of firms. It also demonstrates that competitive location theory offers diverse ideas about the nature of market equilibrium in geographic space and its implications for a broad range of public policies, including free trade, industrial policy, regional development, and investment in infrastructure. With an extensive bibliography and fresh, interdisciplinary approach, the book will be an invaluable reference for academics and researchers with an interest in regional science, economic geography, and urban planning, as well as policy advisors, urban planners, and consultants.
Planning is central to economic, social and environmental life but its practice is frequently criticised by all who engage in it. Seen as too restrictive by those who promote development and too weak by those opposing it, planners who advise on proposals cannot sit on the fence. Is it the planning system that is problematic or is it the planners who work within it? This valuable book examines these issues at the continuing professional development level and discusses the ways in which management theories, tools and techniques can be applied to planning practice and used by all who engage in it. Written by an experienced author and widely respected academic, the book includes case studies and question and answer sections, and will be valuable through both initial and continuous professional education, helping candidates prepare for examinations and subsequent management.
Founded on the core notion that we have reached a turning point in the governance, and thus the conservation, of ecosystems and the environment, this edited volume features more than 20 original chapters, each informed by the paradigm shift in the sector over the last decade. Where once the emphasis was on strategies for conservation, enacted through instruments of control such as planning and 'polluter pays' legislation, more recent developments have shown a shift towards incentive-based arrangements aimed at those responsible for providing the environmental services enabled by such ecosystems. Encouraging shared responsibility for watershed management, developed in Costa Rica, is a prime example, and the various interests involved in its instauration in Java are one of the subjects examined here. |
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