This book is a collection of works written by young scientists involved in the Integrated Disaster Risk Research (IRDR). Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) is a decade-long research programme co-sponsored by the International Science Council (merged by International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). It is a global, multi-disciplinary approach to dealing with the challenges brought by natural disasters, mitigating their impacts, and improving related policy-making mechanisms. The book examines multidisciplinary research and actions related to disaster risk reduction internationally. The Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) Young Scientists programme is: * A sub-programme within IRDR which promotes capacity building of young professionals and encourages them to undertake innovative and need-based research which makes science-policy and science-practice linkages stronger. * IRDR Young Scientists Programme was started in late 2016. Currently, it is a community of 115 young researchers from over 40 countries after 3 batches of application. * IRDR network and partners provide academic advice and training courses, workshops, and programmes for IRDR young scientists. * IRDR young scientists contribute to innovative research in the field of disaster risk reduction and participate in conferences and/or social media as the ambassador of IRDR. The book is of interest to researchers and scholars in the field of governance of sustainability and environmental governance. Postgraduate students will benefit this book within courses on environmental governance, on climate change governance, and on transformation and social change processes. Societal actors in climate change adaptation and other environmental governance fields on local, national, and international levels can benefit from the focus on societally relevant findings in the past 10 years of research on adaptiveness.

Cities are becoming the wealth producing centers of national economies. Increasing the operational efficiency of the city will bring a competitive edge to the whole system. Yet, many city subsystems cannot work together, creating significant problems and inefficiencies. City Competitiveness and Improving Urban Subsystems: Technologies and Applications uses information science perspectives to improve working subsystems in transportation, sewage, electricity, water, communication, education, health, governance, and infrastructure since their efficient and synchronized operation is vital for a competitive city. This pioneering approach will interest researchers, professionals, and policymakers in urban economy, regional planning, and information science disciplines who wish to improve the competitiveness of their cities.

This book investigates how the state intervenes in the urban system in China in the post-reform period. To do so, it constructs a conceptual framework based on the perspective of political hierarchy, suggesting that the state power is hierarchically organized in China's urban system, leading to variations in urban government capacities among cities. The book reveals that the state has largely achieved the goal of its national urban system policy to "strictly control the scale of large cities" resulting in the under-development of the large cities if they are mainly developing according to the market force. However, this has become less influential with the advances toward a market economy. Further, state regulation and policies have reduced the gaps between cities at the top and bottom of the urban hierarchy. The book argues that the Urban Administrative System (UAS) is an important tool for the state to regulate urban system development, and the administrative level has a significant effect on urban growth performance. It contends that China's urban system is strongly shaped by the omnipresent state through the UAS, which hierarchically differentiates between the urban growth processes. By controlling the administrative-level upgrading process, the state can prevent the size and number of cities from increasing too rapidly. This theoretical and empirical enquiry highlights the fact that the hierarchical power relations among cities and the resulting variations in urban government capacities are the key to understanding the role of the state in China's urban system development in the post-reform period.

The 8th International Conference on Sustainable Development and Planning is part of a series of biennial conferences on the topic of sustainable regional development which began in Greece in 2003. The papers included in these proceedings report on the latest advances from scientists specialising in the range of subjects included within sustainable development and planning.Planners, environmentalists, architects, engineers, policy makers and economists have to work together in order to ensure that planning and development can meet our present needs without comprising the ability of future generations.The use of modern technologies in planning gives us new potential to monitor and prevent environmental degradation. Problems related to development and planning, which affect both rural and urban areas, are present in all regions of the world and accelerated urbanisation has resulted in both the deterioration of the environment and quality of life. Urban development can also intensify problems faced by rural areas such as forests, mountain regions and coastal areas, which urgently require solutions in order to avoid irreversible damage. The papers in the book cover the following topics: City Planning; Urban Strategies; Sustainability and the Built Environment; Regional Planning; Environmental Planning and Management; Costal Regions; Sustainable Solutions in Emerging Countries; Policies and Planning; Socio Economic Issues; Community Planning; Culture and Heritage; Energy Resources; Transportation; Mobility and Urban Space; Air Quality; Water Management; Waste Water.

This book features a selection of the best papers presented at two SIEV seminars held in Venice, Italy, in September 2017 and 2018, in the context of the Urbanpromo Green events. Bringing together experts from a diverse range of fields - economics, appraisal, architecture, energy, urban planning, sociology, and the decision sciences - and government representatives, the seminars encouraged reflections on the role of future cites in terms of sustainable development, with a particular focus on improving collective and individual well-being. The book provides a multidisciplinary approach to contemporary green urban agendas and urban sustainability, and addresses the demand for policies and strategies to strengthen resilience through concrete measures to reduce energy consumption, mitigate pollution, promote social inclusion and create urban identity.

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.

This book provides a review of the bioregionalist theory in the field of spatial planning and design as a suitable approach to cope with the growing concerns about the negative effects of metropolization processes and the need for a sustainable transition. The book starts out with a section on rethinking places for community life, and discusses the reframing of regional governance and development as well as social justice in spatial planning. It introduces the concept of the urban bioregion, a pivotal concept that underpins balanced polycentric spatial patterns and supports self-reliant and fair local development. The second part of the book focuses on planning, and particularly on the issues that arise from the 'circular' recovery of the relation between city and agro-ecosystems for integrated planning and resilience of settlements and discusses topics such as foodshed planning, biophilic urbanism and the integration of rural development and spatial planning. This volume sets out the reference framework for Volume II which deals with more specific and operational issues related to spatial policies and settlement design.

Despite roughly thirty years of experience with growth management programs, which are basically land-use planning tools, most U.S. communities do not plan for how best to limit or manage rapid growth; in fact, most communities do not plan at all. In the absence of planning, land-use boards, regulators, and other governing bodies simply react to initiatives from the private sector. The result is predictably haphazard and does not allow communities to achieve such goals as protecting quality of life, attracting certain types of businesses while discouraging others, conserving wildlife or preserving open spaces, and so forth. In contrast, planning by managing growth can help a town or city achieve any number of goals. But it is a complex task. This book brings the benefit of state and local experiences with growth management to researchers, students, and particularly practitioners who seek guidance in these matters. Kelly provides a much-needed context from which any community can answer the following questions: Does growth management work? Is it appropriate for the community and the particular problems that it is trying to address? Is one type of growth management program more appropriate than another for our community? Will the program in question have undesirable (or desirable) side effects?What are the likely effects of adopting no growth management program at all? This work is invaluable for the citizen volunteers who sit on land-use boards, including planning and zoning commissions, conservation commissions, and inland wetlands agencies. In addition, it can aid mayors, city managers, and city councils in interviewing and selecting candidates for town planner.

The worldwide consumption of resources is causing environmental damage at a rate that cannot be sustained. Apart from the resulting environmental and health problems, this trend could threaten economic growth due to rapidly decreasing natural resources and costly solutions. The public sector has a responsibility to stimulate the marketplace in favor of the provision of more resource-efficient and less polluting goods, services, and works in order to support environmental and wider sustainable development objectives. Developing Eco-Cities Through Policy, Planning, and Innovation: Can It Really Work? examines the economic, political, social, and environmental objectives essential to the planning and support of future communities. Highlighting a range of topics such as environmental sustainability, waste management, and green cities, this publication is an ideal reference source for environmental engineers, environmentalists, city development planners, urban planners, technology developers, policymakers, industrialists, academicians, and researchers interested in solving environmental issues.

The question of what architecture is answered in this book with one sentence: Architecture is space created for human activities. The basic need to find food and water places these activities within a larger spatial field. Humans have learned and found ways to adjust to the various contextual difficulties that they faced as they roamed the earth. Thus rather than adapting, humans have always tried to change the context to their activities. Humanity has looked at the context not merely as a limitation, but rather as a spatial situation filled with opportunities that allows, through intellectual interaction, to change these limitations. Thus humanity has created within the world their own contextual bubble that firmly stands against the larger context it is set in. The key notion of the book is that architecture is space carved out of and against the context and that this process is deterministic.

This book argues that, paradoxically, at their moment of triumph and fastest growth, cities need nature more than ever. Only if our urban world is full of biophilic cities will the coming urban century truly succeed. Cities are quintessentially human, the perfect forum for interaction, and we are entering what could justly be called the urban century, the fastest period of urban growth in human history. Yet a growing body of scientific literature shows that the constant interaction, the hyper-connectedness, of cities leads to an urban psychological penalty. Nature in cities can be solution to this dilemma, allowing us to have all the benefits of our urban, connected world yet also have that urban home be a place where humanity can thrive. This book presents best practices and case studies from biophilic design, showing how cities around the world are beginning to incorporate nature into their urban fabric. It will be a valuable resource for scholars and professionals working in the area of sustainable cities.

This book explores the role of cities and the urban-rural linkages in spurring innovation embedded in spatial planning, strategic and economic planning, and decision support systems. In particular, the contributions examine the complexity of the current transitional phase towards achieving smart, inclusive and sustainable growth, and investigate the post-2020 UE cohesion policy.The main topics include: Innovation dynamics and smart cities; Urban regeneration - community-led and PPP; Inland and urban area development; Mobility, accessibility, infrastructures; Heritage, landscape and Identity; and Risk management, Environment and Energy.The book includes a selection of articles accepted for presentation and discussion at the 3rd International Symposium New Metropolitan Perspectives (ISTH2020), held at the University of Reggio Calabria, Italy on 22-25 May 2018. The symposium, which addressed the challenge of local knowledge and innovation dynamics towards territory attractiveness, hosted the final event of the MAPS-LED project under Horizon2020 - MSCA RISE.

This book engages the reader in exploring the relationships between digital social innovation initiatives and the city. It delivers a fresh, accessible and case-based discussion on the emergence of digitally-enabled social innovation practices in Europe that are redesigning the urban space and challenging the consolidated urban governance processes. By adopting a critical geography perspective, this ground-breaking analysis of digital social innovation provides the reader with an accessible overview of the way in which urban reproductive processes mobilise the physical and the virtual dimensions of the city and generate distinctive spatial configurations. Together with novel urban narratives and socio-technical imaginaries, these support the existing geometries of power or construct new ones. The author clearly describes contemporary cities as the new battlegrounds for controlling the digital sphere, shaped by the interplay between digital capitalism and resistance movements. In light of grassroots initiatives advanced by cyber-activists, e-makers and hackers, the book unveils the socio-political and cultural underpinnings of the revolution produced by the digital social innovations in the city and the socio-technological regimes supporting them. This author successfully sheds new critical light on traditional innovation studies exploring the debate on digital innovation through the lens of social and cultural geography providing an invaluable reference for those working in this field.

This book comprises selected proceedings of the International Conference on Recent Advancements in Civil Engineering and Infrastructural Developments (ICRACEID 2019). The contents are broadly divided into five areas (i) smart transportation with urban planning, (ii) clean energy and environment, (iii) water distribution and waste management, (iv) smart materials and structures, and (v) disaster management. The book aims to provide solutions to global challenges using innovative and emerging technologies covering various fields of civil engineering. The major topics covered include urban planning, transportation, water distribution, waste management, disaster management, environmental pollution and control, environmental impact assessment, application of GIS and remote sensing, and structural analysis and design. Given the range of topics discussed, the book will be beneficial for students, researchers as well industry professionals.

"Sustainable Urban and Regional Infrastructure Development: Technologies, Applications and Management", bridges the gap in the current literature by addressing the overall problems present in society's major infrastructures, and the technologies that may be applied to overcome these problems. It focuses on ways in which energy intensive but 'invisible' (to the general public) facilities can become green or greener. The studies presented are lessons to be learnt from our neighbors and from our own backyard, and provide an excellent general overview of the issues facing us all.

Exceptional communities possessing a definitive sense of place, the cities and towns presented in this book have created or re-created a style, ambience, or character that transcends the ordinary and is used as the basis for community economic development. Adapting the idea of concept marketing, these communities have found a niche or specialty to create community recognition and serve as a basis for garnering external investment, tourism, and other revenue-generating events. This book examines the use of popular and corporate culture, retail establishments, historical tradition, and surrealism in community concept marketing and profiles examples of communities from a diverse array of contexts and geographical settings. Bellows Falls, VT, for instance, a once-depressed former milltown has transformed itself to a vibrant community through an arts integrated development strategy, while Austin, MN, the home of Hormel Foods, has drawn on the town's corporate culture with the opening of a new SPAM Museum. Manchester, VT, taking a retail approach, has become a designer outlet mecca, and Walnut, IA, the state's "Antique City." Cape May, NJ, has restored its historic properties and successfully marketed itself as a seaside resort, while Holland, MI, exemplifies the surreal approach, marketing itself as a Dutch town. Considering these and other uniquely marketed communities, this book examines the elements necessary for a successful concept marketing strategy to community economic development.

This book explores the intersections of urban development, travel patterns, and health. Currently, there is a lack of research concerning the subjective dimensions of accessibility in urban environments and travel behavior, as well as travel-related outcomes. Antipova fills this gap in the scholarship by developing an analysis of satisfaction and perception-related indicators at an intraurban level. Specifically, she investigates various aspects of urban environment from the perspective of resident perception and satisfaction, as well as the relationship between urban environment, travel behavior, activity patterns, and traveler health.

The book embarks on the tasks to systematically analyze the macro background of the spatial patterns of China's urban development, the theoretical foundations and framework, and its changing trajectory. From a quantitative perspective, we attempt to evaluate the rationale behind the spatial patterns of China's urban development and systematically simulate the various scenarios. From the simulation results, we propose the optimizing goals, priorities, models, and strategies for the spatial patterns of China's urban development. The work in this book attempts to provide constructive suggestions and potential strategies to support the effort to optimize the spatial patterns of China's urban development. It would be a valuable reference for planning departments, development and reform committees, and science and technology administrative departments at various governmental levels. It could also be a valuable addition to graduate students of urban planning, urban development, urban geography and relevant disciplines.

Containing research from the 25th edition of the Urban Transport conference, the papers included in this book address the need to solve important pollution problems associated with urban transport. There is also a growing need for integration with telecommunications systems and IT applications in order to improve safety, security and efficiency. The need for better urban transport systems and for a healthier environment has resulted in a wide range of research originating from many different countries. These studies highlight the importance of innovative systems, new approaches and original ideas, which need to be thoroughly tested and critically evaluated before they can be implemented in practice. The variety of topics covered in this volume reflects the complex interaction of the urban transport systems with their environment and the need to establish integrated strategies. The aim is to arrive at optimal socio-economic solutions while reducing the negative environmental impacts of current transportation systems.

Nowhere on Earth is the challenge for ecological understanding greater, and yet more urgent, than in those parts of the globe where human activity is most intense - cities. People need to understand how cities work as ecological systems so they can take control of the vital links between human actions and environmental quality, and work for an ecologically and economically sustainable future. An ecosystem approach integrates biological, physical and social factors and embraces historical and geographical dimensions, providing our best hope for coping with the complexity of cities. This book is the first of its kind to bring together leaders in the biological, physical and social dimensions of urban ecosystem research with leading education researchers, administrators and practitioners, to show how an understanding of urban ecosystems is vital for urban dwellers to grasp the fundamentals of ecological and environmental science, and to understand their own environment.

This edited collection explores building construction as an inspiring, yet often overlooked, place to develop new knowledge about the development of human societies. Eschewing dominant engineering and management perspectives on construction, the book is purposefully broad in its scope, both empirically and theoretically, as reflecting the rich underexplored potential of studies of building construction to inform a wide span of intellectual debates across the social science and humanities. The seven chapters encompass contributions to theories of: spatiotemporal organization with wildlife on building sites; institutional change with building ruins; home with Mexican self-help housing; place with a suburban housing development; socio-materiality with the adaptation of a university library; migrant labour with the Parisian postwar construction boom; and gender with a female site manager in Sweden. This book seeks to develop a new critical sub-area for construction studies that focuses on the actual processes and practices of 'constructing'. Bringing together diverse members of construction research communities working in a variety of contexts, it develops empirical engagements with building work to challenge its marginalization, relative to architectural studies, to provoke novel understandings of human history, geography and sociology.

This book provides an overview of innovative and new directions being chartered in South African tourism geographies. Within the context of global change the volume explores different facets and different geographies of tourism. Key themes under scrutiny include the sharing economy, the changing accommodation service sector, touring poverty, tourism and innovation, tourism and climate change, threats to sustainability, inclusive tourism and a number of studies which challenge the present-mindedness of much tourism geographical scholarship. The 18 chapters range across urban and rural landscapes in South Africa with sectoral studies which include adventure tourism, coastal tourism, cruise tourism, nature-based tourism, sports tourism and wine tourism. Finally, the volume raises a number of policy and planning issues in the global South in particular relating to sustainability, local economic development and poverty reduction. Outlining the impact of tourism expansion in South Africa and suggesting future research directions, this stimulating book is a valuable resource for geographers as well as researchers and students in the field of tourism studies.

This book gathers selected papers from the International Conference on Sustainable Design, Engineering, Management and Sciences (ICSDEMS 2019), held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It highlights recent advances in civil engineering and sustainability, bringing together researchers and professionals to address the latest, most relevant issues in these areas.