Public transport in low-income Asian (LIA) cities fails to meet people's mobility needs, generates high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and worsens social exclusion. Following successful Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects in Bogota and Curitiba, LIA countries promoted BRT in their large to medium-sized cities. However, the political and institutional structure distinctive to LIA cities makes their implementation difficult. This book investigates policy tensions by examining the planning and attempted implementation of BRT projects, taking Bandung and Surabaya in Indonesia as case studies. It analyses BRT to understand how power and communication gaps in institutional relationships between different actors at multiple levels of governance create conflict, and concludes that top-down policies and funding mechanisms cause tension in intergovernmental relationships. It also found that BRT solutions generated socio-political tension arising from the socio-economic realities and local political dynamics that shaped city structure, mobility patterns and capacity in resolving conflicts. The superimposed BRT solution generated discursive tension because conflicting discourses were not aligned with local economic, social, and environmental issues. The book highlights the need to take into consideration the vital role of local social and political actors, institutions and planning processes as they respond to and shape policies that are imposed by higher levels.

This edited volume discuses urban transport issues, policies, and initiatives in twelve of the world's major emerging economies - Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, and Vietnam - countries with large populations that have recently experienced large changes in urban structure, motorization and all the associated social, economic, and environmental impacts in positive and negative senses. Contributions on each of these twelve countries focus on one or more major cities per country. This book aims to fill a gap in the transport literature that is crucial to understanding the needs of a large portion of the world's urban population, especially in view of the southward shift in economic power. Readers will develop a better understanding of urban transport problems and policies in nations where development levels are below those of richer countries (mainly in the northern hemisphere) but where the rate of economic growth is often increasing at a faster rate than the wealthiest nations.

This book offers an extended case study of the urban community of Bushwick, located in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The authors begin with a broad review of the history of Bushwick and Brooklyn, from before the earliest European settlements of the 1600s, through the 18th and 19th centuries and up the 1960s. Chapter Two begins by tracing the steep decline of the community, which culminated in catastrophic fires and looting in the wake of New York s electrical blackout of 1977 and goes on to describe the beginnings of urban planning and renewal efforts which launched the recovery of Bushwick in the 1980s to early 2000s. Chapter Three steps back from the immediacy of the community to discuss urban change from a theoretical perspective. The authors outline advances in sustainable urban planning and describe how these apply to Bushwick and the wider Brooklyn community.

Chapter Four offers a detailed examination of the intent and function of New York s community board planning system, known as the Charter 197-a program. In Chapter Five the authors examine the 197-a planning process and its application in the areas of Bushwick, Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Northeast Brooklyn; Brooklyn Downtown and in Southeast Brooklyn including Coney Island.The following chapter examines a number of innovative Bushwick high schools that offer practical experience in urban planning. Drawing the urban planning experiences together, the book concludes with a look at future directions in city renewal. Emphasis here is placed on sustainable urban planning and the lessons to be learned from the experience of Bushwick and Brooklyn.

The specifics of urban planning and renewal are illustrated with tables and figures. The details of planning are informed by an overarching sense of history, beginning with the dedication of the book to the memory of six Universalist writers associated with New York: Henry Thoreau, Helena Blavatsky, Henry George, Henry Miller, Arthur Miller and Walt Whitman. A rich trove of historical materials, ranging from family sketches to school rosters to rarely seen photographs, helps to keep the survey and analysis of urban planning grounded in the lives of Bushwick s residents, past, present and future."

Sustainable Retail Development, addresses the emerging issue of green retail buildings and retail development that will grow significantly in importance over the next half-decade, a trend seen throughout the developed world. This volume is a practical and comprehensive guide to greening retail real estate, including green building and marketing strategies, corporate sustainability programs and features a 10-point action program for greening any retail real estate portfolio.

Sustainable Retail Development, should be essential reading for professionals in design, construction and operations of shopping centers and retail stores. Well illustrated, this volume features over 30 green retail developments from North America, Europe, South America, Asia and Australia, as well as interviews with 25 leading industry experts."

This book investigates the new urban geographies of "smart" metropolitan regionalism across the Greater Seattle area and examines the relationship between smart growth planning strategies and spaces of work, home, and mobility. The book specifically explores Seattle within the wider space-economy and multi-scaled policy regime of the Puget Sound region as a whole, 'jumping up' from questions of city politics to concerns with what the book interprets as the "intercurrence" of city-regional "ordering." These theoretical terms capture the state-progressive effort to promote smarter forms of regional development but also the societal/institutional tensions and outright contradictions that such urban development invariably entails, particularly around problems of social equity. Key organizing themes in the text include: the historical path-dependencies of uneven economic and social development, particularly between Tacoma-Pierce County and Seattle-King County; current patterns of high-wage, medium-wage, and low-wage jobs; the emerging spatial and social structure of recent residential changes, especially with respect to class and race composition; and, finally, transit trends and new urban spaces associated with policy efforts to mitigate highway congestion and car-dependency. Greater Seattle, then, is mapped as a key US urban region inscribed spatially by the uneven search for a more sustainable order. Historically-sensitive, theoretically-informed and empirically topical, this book is of interest to scholars and students at all levels in regional planning, urban geography, political science, sustainability studies, urban sociology and public policy.

This volume contains essays that examine contemporary urban and regional planning and development in China. Through in-depth theoretical and empirical analysis, it provides insights into the urban policies and operational mechanisms of this colossal transitional economy which has presented unprecedented challenges and dynamics. Inside, readers will discover the causes and consequences of rapid urbanization that have led to a series of environmental, economic and social planning and management measures designed to achieve quality urban living. The essays also detail efforts in adopting the latest options in city building such as specific urban planning approaches in developing large city regions, building cities without slums, constructing new townships and green urbanism, including eco-city and sustainable transport. In addition, coverage explores financial management and support as a means to encourage urbanization and urban economic growth in less-developed regions. Overall, the volume offers a wealth of concrete, detailed information on conditions in different regions of China and features an extensive range of content, methods and theory. It provides readers with a comprehensive portrait of the chain relationship between rapid urbanization, spatial planning and management throughout the country. The book will serve as a useful reference for national and international consultancy services doing business or serving public interest in China. It will also be of interest to an international audience seeking a better understanding of urban development and planning in China, including university teachers, students, government agencies and general readers.

This book introduces readers to the concepts of sustainability and philosophy of slowness for the management of public entities such as cities or regions. While many urban communities face economic challenges that clearly show the limitations of growth and ever-increasing speed, this book explores an alternative, thought-provoking standpoint in five chapters. The first chapter explains the importance and essence of slowness, smallness and sustainability for public organizations, while the second addresses the concept of "slow life" in an emotional society. Chapter three examines the issue of "slow management" and presents arguments for the value of small businesses as the true foundation of the economy. Chapter four rounds out the coverage with a focus on agriculture. Finally, in chapter five, the authors discuss the overall benefits of a "slow and curvy" management style in order to provide happiness, economic and social sustainability.

This book, which resulted from an intensive discourse between experts from several disciplines - complexity theorists, cognitive scientists, philosophers, urban planners and urban designers, as well as a zoologist and a physiologist - addresses various issues regarding cities. It is a first step in responding to the challenge of generating just such a discourse, based on a dilemma identified in the CTC (Complexity Theories of Cities) domain. The latter has demonstrated that cities exhibit the properties of natural, organic complex systems: they are open, complex and bottom-up, have fractal structures and are often chaotic. CTC have further shown that many of the mathematical formalisms and models developed to study material and organic complex systems also apply to cities. The dilemma in the current state of CTC is that cities differ from natural complex systems in that they are hybrid complex systems composed, on the one hand, of artifacts such as buildings, roads and bridges, and of natural human agents on the other. This raises a plethora of new questions on the difference between the natural and the artificial, the cognitive origin of human action and behavior, and the role of planning and designing cities. The answers to these questions cannot come from a single discipline; they must instead emerge from a discourse between experts from several disciplines engaged in CTC.

This book, the second volume, highlights 7 out of a total of about 36 megacities in the World which by definition have 10 million inhabitants. The cities/chapters presented in this book are based on recent advance such as the wide use of ICT, IOT, e-Governance, e-Democracy, smart economy and flattening and acceleration of the world that is taking place in recent times as reported by 3 times Pulitzer Prize Winner Thomas Friedman. It therefor departs from other ideologies where only a certain megacity qualifies for the title of smart global megacities while in reality every megacity can, and presents how smart global megacities can be created.

This volume bridges the gap between the global promotion of the Green Economy and the manifestation of this new development strategy at the urban level. Green cities are an imperative solution, not only in meeting global environmental challenges but also in helping to ensure socio-economic prosperity at the local level.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the various aspects for the development of smart cities from a European perspective. It presents both theoretical concepts as well as empirical studies and cases of smart city programs and their capacity to create value for citizens. The contributions in this book are a result of an increasing interest for this topic, supported by both national governments and international institutions. The book offers a large panorama of the most important aspects of smart cities evolution and implementation. It compares European best practices and analyzes how smart projects and programs in cities could help to improve the quality of life in the urban space and to promote cultural and economic development.

Based on research in previously closed Soviet archives, this book sheds light on the formative years of Soviet city planning and on state efforts to consolidate power through cityscape design. Stepping away from Moscow's central corridors of power, Heather D. DeHaan focuses her study on 1930s Nizhnii Novgorod, where planners struggled to accommodate the expectations of a Stalinizing state without sacrificing professional authority and power. Bridging institutional and cultural history, the book brings together a variety of elements of socialism as enacted by planners on a competitive urban stage, such as scientific debate, the crafting of symbolic landscapes, and state campaigns for the development of cultured cities and people. By examining how planners and other urban inhabitants experienced, lived, and struggled with socialism and Stalinism, DeHaan offers readers a much broader, more complex picture of planning and planners than has been revealed to date.

This book gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in urban and regional planning processes and science, as presented by international researchers at the 11th International Conference on Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning (INPUT), held in Catania, Italy, on September 8-10, 2021. The overarching theme of the conference INPUT 2021 was "Integrating Nature-Based Solutions in Planning Science and Practice", with contributes focusing on functionality of urban ecosystems toward more healthier and resilient cities, planning solutions for socio-ecological systems, technologies and hybrid models for spatial planning, geodesign, urban metabolism, computational planning, ecosystems services, green infrastructure, climate change adaptation and mitigation, rural landscapes, cultural heritage, and accessibility for urban planning. The conference brought together international scholars in the field of planning, civil engineering and architecture, ecology and social science, to build and consolidate the knowledge and evidence on NBS in urban and regional planning.

The majority of the world's population live in environments with artificially weakened wind as buildings in urban areas form wind-breaks and reduce wind speeds. Anthropogenic heat is also generated and during the summer dense urban areas suffer from the urban heat island effect, a known urban climate problem. This book discusses how to evaluate the urban wind environment, including ventilation performance and thermal comfort. This book is organized in two parts; Wind Environment and the Urban Environment and Criteria for Assessing Breeze Environments. It includes chapters on sea breeze in urban areas; thermal adaptation and the effect of wind on thermal comfort; health risk of exposures; pollutant transport in dense urban areas; legal regulations for urban ventilation and new criteria for assessing the local wind environment. Keywords: urban wind environments, urban heat island, urban climate, land use change, thermal comfort, risk assessment, urban air pollution, urban ventilation

The book investigates how, and which, forgiving road environments (FOR) andself-explaining road measures (SER) will contribute to increasing road safety and also increase network efficiency on the road.

It presents both the general approach and the methodology for generating the possible FOR and SER measures. The book further discusses the prioritization and the testing methodologies, as well as the designing VMS methodology.

The next parts of the book present a few important examples: lane departure warning systems; intelligent speed adaptation systems and perception enhancement studies;designs of European pictorial signs, e.g. for VMS but also examples of designs of European road wordings; and finally how personalization can take place of VMS signs and wordings for the individual driver.

The last part shows the final evaluation of FOR and SER, anddetailed Multiple Criterion Analysis and Cost Benefit Analyses are performed on a number of FOR and SER measures. This results in the development of a set of guidelines, conclusions and recommendations for the future.

This book reviews a series of new urban ideas or themes designed to help make cities more liveable, sustainable, safe and inclusive. Featuring examples drawn from cities all over the world, the various chapters provide critical assessments of each of the various approaches and their potential to improve urban life. New Urbanism: creating new areas based on a more humane scale with neighbourhood cohesion Just Cities: creating more fairness in decision-making so all residents can participate and benefit. Green Cities: helping places become greener with environmental rehabilitation and protection Sustainable Cities: avoiding the waste of resources and harmful pollution in settlements Transition Towns: developing local initiatives for more sustainable actions Winter Cities: making cities in cold climates more comfortable and enjoyable Resilient Cities: strengthening cities to better enable them to withstand natural hazards Creative Cities: supporting cultural industries and attracting talented individuals Knowledge Cities: creating, renewing and spreading knowledge and innovation Safe Cities: ensuring that citizens are better protected against criminal actions Healthy Cities: making improvements in the health of people in cities Festive Cities: rediscovering the utility of festive events in settlements Slow Cities: enhancing locally unique activities, such as local cuisines and community interactions This volume offers a host of approaches designed to give a new direction and focus to planning policies, helping readers to fully understand the advantages and disadvantages of each potential idea. It seeks to solve the many current problems associated with urban developments, making it a valuable resource for university and college students in urban geography, urban planning, urban sociology and urban studies as well as to planners and the general public.

This book assesses various intelligent-city evaluation systems around the globe, and subsequently combines that assessment with local-government and enterprise practices to create an evaluation index system for quantifying the Intelligent City concept. In addition, the book provides the results of the CityIQ indicator ranking of intelligent cities in China and worldwide, a system that focuses on three of the most crucial aspects of urban development: the development environment, future trends, and construction and operation. After data sorting, calculation and dimensionless treatment, a score system ranging from 0 to 100 is created for ranking and analyzing cities. Providing unique strategies for promoting an intelligent city evaluation system, the book offers a valuable reference guide for intelligent-city decision-makers, as well as leaders in public urban economy, social welfare and environmental authorities.

There is a dearth of collections of scholarly works dedicated wholly to African issues, that comes out of the work done by African scholars and practitioners with both African collaborators and from elsewhere. This volume brings together scholarly works and thoughts that cut across and intertwine the tripods-environment-consciousness, socially just development and African development into options that could deliver on the promise of the SDGs. The book project is an initiative of the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development at the University of Lagos, which realized the gap in ground research linking the housing sector with the SDGs in African cities. This book therefore presents chapters that explore the interconnections, interactions and linkages between the SDGs and Housing through research, practice, experience, case-studies, desk-based research and other knowledge media.

Who decides which stories about a city are remembered? How do interpretations of the past shape a city's present and future? In this book, Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos discusses notions of power and national identity by examining how nation-states negotiate the preservation of urban spaces and how a city interprets, resists, and consents to the functions and meanings that it has inherited and that it reinvents for itself. Looking at the Brazilian city of Ouro Preto, de Souza Santos applies fine-grained ethnography and historical analysis to discuss the limits of Brazil's imagery of social harmony and participatory democracy amid continuous inequality.

Flood control in urban areas can be feasibly and cost-effectively enhanced by implementing flood proofing approaches to risk reduction in the context of environmental and land-use planning and management. Indeed, flood proofing makes it possible to improve, integrate and in some cases even replace traditional measures for flood control, reducing the vulnerability and increasing the resilience of buildings and infrastructures. This book begins by reviewing the physics of stability and instability of both human beings and buildings under flood conditions, together with criteria and models (both conventional and innovative) for assessing flood strains. In turn, it presents a range of flood proofing concepts and techniques, together with a complete and updated classification of related methods and devices. This provides a user-friendly tool to help identify appropriate solutions to real-world problems for each specific risk scenario. In particular, the book focuses on temporary flood proofing techniques, given their ability to deliver effective performance at low costs. Lastly, it features an overview of norms, guidelines and laboratory recommendations that are currently being adopted in various countries with regard to flood proofing devices and testing procedures. The purpose of this book is essentially to encourage authorities, stakeholders, technicians and end users to successfully develop flood proofing solutions that can reduce flood risk in a pragmatic manner. In addition, the authors hope to inspire researchers, manufacturers and designers (engineers, architects, urban planners and urban managers) to pursue further advances in this key sector of public and private safety in urban areas.

Technological innovation combined with scientific research has always constituted a driving force of transformation in our societies. At the same time, it is no longer simply possible to transfer technologies from the North to the South; it is also essential to consider technical innovations that are adapted to the social, environmental, cultural and economic conditions of receiving countries, and which can be appropriated by their potential users and as such prove to be real technologies for fostering development.

The first International Scientific Conference on the topic organized by the UNESCO Chair Technologies for Development at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in 2010 focused on its four priority sectors: Technologies for Sustainable Development of Habitat and Cities, ICTs for the Environment, Science and Technology for Disaster Risk Reduction, and Technologies for the Production of Sustainable Energy.

This volume reflects the main outcomes of the conference and provides some significant orientation and success criteria for the effective implementation and use of innovative technologies, their aims, their particular applications in the context of developing countries, their accessibility for users, and their appropriation by producers and stakeholders in the field of development both in the North and South, thus ensuring their sustainability. This kind of scientific cooperation also highlights the added values for northern researchers in sharing their knowledge and know-how, leading to a real win-win partnership.

The authors gathered within this book include representatives from academic and research institutions and other organizations from diverse countries and offer a significant synergy of competences, approaches and disciplines. "

This broad-ranging new text applies economics analysis to the aims, instruments and outcomes of land use planning and housing policies. The core focus is on providing students with a substantive and sophisticated understanding of the relation of the state and market and such key current issues as sustainable development, urban renaissance, affordable housing and the relationships between planning, housebuilding and house prices. Drawing examples from Britain, the rest of Europe and the US, it emphasizes the role of economics in promoting a theoretically-informed and evidence-based approach to policy formation and implementation.

This book is an effort to foster the entrepreneurial spirit in young minds. It reviews a wide range of product ideas, opportunities and challenges associated with start-ups. In addition, it discusses popular molecular targets for biotechnology research / the biotech industry such as attenuated microbes, gene sequences, biomarkers, and the latest advance in the sector, CRISPR. These molecular targets can be modified for the production of sufficient quantities of food and fuel. Very often, researchers limit their focus to the proof of concept, and fail to successfully convert it into a finished product. To help young entrepreneurs avoid this pitfall, the book addresses various aspects like intellectual property regulations, commerce and management. The book's contributing authors hail from various specialized sectors, and from around the globe. Taken together, the respective chapters are intended to overcome the borders between disciplines that otherwise rarely interact.

This book presents a compendium of the urban layout maps of 2-mile square downtown areas of more than one hundred cities in developed and developing countries-all drawn at the same scale using high-resolution satellite images of Google Maps. The book also presents analytic studies using metric geometrical, topological (or network), and fractal measures of these maps. These analytic studies identify ordinaries, extremes, similarities, and differences in these maps; investigate the scaling properties of these maps; and develop precise descriptive categories, types and indicators for multidimensional comparative studies of these maps. The findings of these studies indicate that many geometric relations of the urban layouts of downtown areas follow regular patterns; that despite social, economic, and cultural differences among cities, the geometric measures of downtown areas in cities of developed and developing countries do not show significant differences; and that the geometric possibilities of urban layouts are vastly greater than those that have been realized so far in our cities.