This book explores the planning knowledge that can be gleaned from the experiences of the urban poor, a group frequently affected by floods. Further, it examines the relationship between lifeworld analysis and adaptation planning through the sociology of knowledge, which plays a significant part in determining the adaptation pathway of the urban poor. The book brings together empirical data to translate self-reflective planning theory into the practical context, examines community planning, and enriches the discourse on urban adaptation. Lastly, it provides an adaptation-planning model that can benefit academics, practitioners and policymakers who wish to provide more socially accepted plans.

This book presents multi-sector practical cases based on the author's own research. It also includes the best practice, which could serve as a benchmark for the creation of smart cities. The global urbanisation index, i.e., the ratio of city dwellers to the total population, has been steadily increasing in recent years. It is highest in the Americas, followed by Europe, Asia and Africa. The city of the future will combine the intelligent use of IT systems with the potential of institutions, companies and committed, creative inhabitants. The administrative boundaries of today's cities put certain constraints on their further growth, but in the future these boundaries will no longer be as relevant. Cities in Europe face the challenge of reconciling sustainable urban development and competitiveness - a challenge that will likely influence issues of urban quality such as the economy, culture, social and environmental conditions, changing a given city's profile as well as urban quality in terms of its composition and characteristics.

As the population of the greater Las Vegas area grows and the climate warms, the threat of a water shortage looms over southern Nevada. But as Christian S. Harrison demonstrates in All the Water the Law Allows, the threat of shortage arises not from the local environment but from the American legal system, specifically the Law of the River that governs water allocation from the Colorado River. In this political and legal history of the Las Vegas water supply, Harrison focuses on the creation and actions of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) to tell a story with profound implications and important lessons for water politics and natural resource policy in the twenty-first century. In the state with the smallest allocation of the Colorado's water supply, Las Vegas faces the twin challenges of aridity and federal law to obtain water for its ever-expanding population. All the Water the Law Allows describes how the impending threat of shortage in the 1980s compelled the five metropolitan water agencies of greater Las Vegas to unify into a single entity. Harrison relates the circumstances of the SNWA's evolution and reveals how the unification of local, county, and state interests allowed the compact to address regional water policy with greater force and focus than any of its peers in the Colorado River Basin. Most notably, the SNWA has mapped conservation plans that have drastically reduced local water consumption; and, in the interstate realm, it has been at the center of groundbreaking, water-sharing agreements. Yet these achievements do not challenge the fundamental primacy of the Law of the River. If current trends continue and the Basin States are compelled to reassess the river's distribution, the SNWA will be a force and a model for the Basin as a whole.

Sustainable Communities Design Handbook: Green Engineering, Architecture, and Technology, Second Edition, brings together the major players responsible for sustainable development at both community and metropolitan scales. The book aims to explain and demonstrate the practice, planning, design, building and managing of the engineering, architectural and economic development of cities and communities to meet sustainable development objectives. Offering a holistic approach to creating sustainable communities, the book includes a 40 percent increase in new methods and technology over the last edition, and 50 percent more case studies from around the world to illustrate how common sustainability problems are solved. As the concept and practices of a sustainable built environment have evolved over the years, it is increasingly recognized that the scope should be expanded beyond individual buildings to the community scale. Written by an international team of engineers, architects, and environmental experts this second edition includes new HVAC technologies for heating and cooling, energy effect technologies for lighting, and new construction materials which improve heating and cooling efficiencies. This new edition will also include critical updates on international codes: LEED, BREEAM, and Green Globes.

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.

This volume discusses post-socialist urban transport functioning and development in Russia, within the context of the country's recent transition towards a market economy. Over the past twenty-five years, urban transport in Russia has undergone serious transformations, prompted by the transitioning economy. Yet, the lack of readily available statistical data has led to a gap in the inclusion of Russia in the body of international transport economics research. By including ten chapters of original, cutting-edge research by Russian transport scholars, this book will close that gap. Discussing topics such as the relationship between urban spatial structure and travel behavior in post-soviet cities, road safety, trends and reforms in urban public transport development, transport planning and modelling, and the role of institutions in post-soviet transportation management, this book provides a comprehensive survey of the current state of transportation in Russia. The book concludes with a forecast for future travel development in Russia and makes recommendations for future policy. This book will be of interest to researchers in transportation economics and policy as well as policy makers and those working in the field of urban and transport planning.

This book focuses on interdisciplinary issues of human health in the changing urban environments of India's largest megacities-Delhi and Mumbai. The authors explore human health concerns related to increased temperatures and air pollution in these cities in a study based on primary data collected through interviews, as well as secondary data on causes of mortality from 2001 to 2012. During this period, the surface temperatures for both megacities were mapped using Landsat Images. The rapidly increasing populations of cities and urban centers alter ecosystem services such as water, air and land cover, with disastrous impacts on health and wellbeing, particularly in megacities. In 2015, polluted air was estimated to have been responsible for 6.4 million deaths worldwide, and it is projected that it will cause between 6 and 9 million deaths per year by 2060. In 2017, outdoor air pollution resulted in 1.2 million deaths in India and brought about a 3% loss in GDP. The increase in population, vehicles, and industries has led to changes in land use and land cover and a rise in city temperatures and air pollution, creating urban heat islands (UHIs). Together, UHIs and air pollution have damaging impacts on human health that range from stress and headache to asthma, bronchitis, and chronic diseases, and even to death. Delhi has been experiencing emergency conditions in terms of environmental health over the past two years. At the same time, both the Delhi and Mumbai urban agglomerations are growing at a rapid pace, and the United Nations has projected that they will be the second and third most populous cities in the world by 2025. In this context, the book offers significant insights into the past patterns and responses to the present global urban health emergencies, and explores sustainable means of combating the problem to enable college and university researchers to develop innovative solutions. Further. It presents trans-disciplinary research that cuts across the WHO Action Plan, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and Habitat III to help policymakers gain a better understanding of the global challenges of urban health and wellbeing. The book is especially useful for students and researchers in geography, urban demography, urban studies, environmental studies, health sciences, and policy studies.

A new conventional wisdom, spanning academic and policy communities, sees a combination of economic competitiveness, social cohesion and responsive governance as essential for survival in the post-1980s world--and cities as crucial to achieving these goals. This interdisciplinary text provides the first critical examination of these ideas, drawing on the UK Cities research program and other recent research. It combines analysis of the competitiveness-cohesion-governance problematic with examination of the major processes underlying key sectors of the urban economy, physical development, social relations, neighborhoods and urban policy.

The book investigates the relationship between ecosystem services (ES) and spatial planning, and explores potential means of integrating the two concepts to support the decision-making process. In addition, it presents case studies demonstrating the outcomes, limitations, opportunities and further new developments in ES assessment/mapping for planning support. Then it describes the "Restart from Ecosystem Services" (RES) methodology, which is aimed at integrating ES into the planning process using an ecological balance, and at promoting new planning parameters for the transformation areas. RES ensures the inclusion of ES in planning processes using the incremental measures of limiting, mitigating and compensating soil sealing and land take process promoting operational strategies in applying it. The implementation of RES is associated with strategic environmental assessment and provides valuable support in the definition of strategies across the entire planning process, especially for the evaluation of alternative scenarios.

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.

The book contains the proceedings of CAETS 2015 Convocation on 'Pathways to Sustainability: Energy, Mobility and Healthcare Engineering' that was held on October 13-14, 2015 in New Delhi. This 3 volume proceedings provide an international forum for discussion and communication of engineering and technological issues of common concern. This volume talks about 'Mobility' and includes 14 chapters on diverse topics like creating sustainable transportation systems, mobility of the future, unique engineering features like Delhi metro, digitally re-imagining mobility, trends and future strategies of transportation electrification, etc. The contents of this book will be useful to researchers, professionals, and policy makers alike.

This book presents a new approach to building renovation, combining aspects of various professional disciplines, integrating green building design, structural stability, and energy efficiency. It draws attention to several often-overlooked qualities of buildings that should be comprehensively integrated into the context of building renovation. The book presents an overview of the most important renovation approaches according to their scope, intensity, and priorities. Combining basic theoretical knowledge and the authors' scientific research it emphasizes the importance of simultaneous consideration of energy efficiency and structural stability in building renovation processes. It simultaneously analyses the effects of various renovation steps related to the required level of energy efficiency, while it also proposes the options of building extension with timber-glass upgrade modules as the solution to a shortage of usable floor areas occurring in large cities. This book offers building designers and decision makers a tool for predicting energy savings in building renovation processes and provides useful guidelines for architects, city developers and students studying architecture and civil engineering. Additionally, it demonstrates how specific innovations, e.g., building extensions with timber-glass modules, can assist building industry companies in the planning and development of their future production. The main aim of the current book is to expose various approaches to the renovation of existing buildings and to combine practical experience with existing research, in order to disseminate knowledge and raise awareness on the importance of integrative and interdisciplinary solutions.

The idea of community involvement and empowerment has become central to politics in recent years. Governments, keen to reduce public spending and increase civic involvement, believe active communities are essential for tackling a range of social, economic and political challenges, such as crime, sustainable development and the provision of care. Public Policy in the Community examines the way that community and the ideas associated with it - civil society, social capital, mutuality, networks - have been understood and applied from the 1960s to the present day. Marilyn Taylor examines the issues involved in putting the community at the heart of policy making, and considers the political and social implications of such a practice. Drawing on a wide range of relevant examples from around the world, the book considers the success of existing approaches and the prospects for further developments. Thoroughly updated to reflect advances in research and practice, the new edition of this important text gives a state-of-the-art assessment of the place of community in public policy.

Geographic Knowledge Engineering: Applications to Territorial Intelligence and Smart Cities studies the specific nature of geographic knowledge and the structure of geographic knowledge bases. Geographic relations, ontologies, gazetteers and rules are detailed as the basic components of such bases, and these rules are defined to develop our understanding of the mechanisms of geographic reasoning. The book examines various problems linked to geovisualization, chorems, visual querying and interoperability to shape knowledge infrastructure for smart governance.

This book provides theoretical perspectives and practical experiences on smart governance for smart cities. It presents a balanced linkage between research, policies and practices on this area. The authors discuss the sustainability challenges raised by rapid urbanization, challenges with smart governance models in various countries, and a new governance paradigm seen as a capable approach able to overcome social, economic and environmental sustainability problems. The authors include case studies on transformation, adaption and transfers; and country, regional, municipal contextualization. Also included are best practices on monitoring and evaluating smart governance and impact assessment. The book features contributions from researchers, academics, and practitioners in the field. Analyzes smart governance for cities from a variety of perspectives and a variety of sectors - both in theory and in practice Features information on the linkage between United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and smart governance Covers the connection between research, policies and practice in smart governance for smart cities

R. William Johnstone served on the transportation security staff of the 9/11 Commission, and wrote this book to build upon and supplement the Commission's work. In its pages, he explains the aviation security system failure on 9/11, uses that as a means for evaluating post-9/11 transportation security efforts, and proposes remedies to continued shortcomings. 9/11 and the Future of Transportation Security is based on information originally provided to the 9/11 Commission, augmented by unpublished reports and a wealth of other material that has come to light since the issuance of the Commission's own report in July 2004. Part One analyzes the aviation security system's history and institutions to explain why the system failed on 9/11. Part Two looks at what has been done in aviation and transportation security since 9/11, including the Commission's recommendations and the congressional response to them. Finally and most significantly, Part Three outlines a suggested approach for improving current U.S. transportation security. It begins with fundamental policy questions that must be answered if we are to optimize transportation security efforts, and concludes with both underlying principles for action and specific recommendations.

Chen provides an analysis of the political economy of rural development in China during the reform era. Revolving around the central theme of statecraft, Chen's study gives a concise and comprehensive treatment of the interaction of ideology and politics with central policy and economic growth. He examines China's economic reform in historical perspective, characterizes China's economic and political transformation since the reform, and proposes that the Chinese Communist Party is being transformed into a party of economics while China's ideology is becoming market-oriented communal socialism.

In addressing the issue of the Chinese path of development, Chen discusses the role of local party organizations in China's modernization drive and the microform of market-oriented communal socialism in the newly emerged village conglomerate, highlights the challenges that China faces at the turn of the new century after 20 years of economic reform, and analyzes the context of the introduction of village elections in 1990, and the establishment of Deng Xiaoping's Theory as a new ideological discourse at the 15th National Congress as well as the rationale behind them. In examining the connection between the two goals of statecraft --improving people's welfare and strengthening the state--and between central policies and local initiatives, Chen provides a study that will be of great interest to scholars, students, and other researchers involved with contemporary Chinese politics and development.

Cities are home to over fifty percent of the world's population, a figure which is expected to increase enormously by 2050. Despite the growing demand on urban resources and infrastructure, food is still often overlooked as a key factor in planning and designing cities. Without incorporating food into the design process - how it is grown, transported, and bought, cooked, eaten and disposed of - it is impossible to create truly resilient and convivial urbanism. Moving from the table and home garden to the town, city, and suburbs, Food and Urbanism explores the connections between food and place in past and present design practices. The book also looks to future methods for extending the 'gastronomic' possibilities of urban space. Supported by examples from places across the world, including the UK, Norway, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Romania, Australia and the USA, the book offers insights into how the interplay of physical design and socio-spatial practices centred around food can help to maintain socially rich, productive and sustainable urban space. Susan Parham brings together the latest research from a number of disciplines - urban planning, food studies, sociology, geography, and design - with her own fieldwork on a range of foodscapes to highlight the fundamental role food has to play in shaping the urban future.

This is the second volume in a two-part series on frontiers in regional research. It identifies methodological advances as well as trends and future developments in regional systems modelling and open science. Building on recent methodological and modelling advances, as well as on extensive policy-analysis experience, top international regional scientists identify and evaluate emerging new conceptual and methodological trends and directions in regional research. Topics such as dynamic interindustry modelling, computable general equilibrium models, exploratory spatial data analysis, geographic information science, spatial econometrics and other advanced methods are the central focus of this book. The volume provides insights into the latest developments in object orientation, open source, and workflow systems, all in support of open science. It will appeal to a wide readership, from regional scientists and economists to geographers, quantitatively oriented regional planners and other related disciplines. It offers a source of relevant information for academic researchers and policy analysts in government, and is also suitable for advanced teaching courses on regional and spatial science, economics and political science.

The book covers the topic of the role of public sector in the economic and territorial development across several dimensions of spatial planning, e.g. theoretical-methodological (planning cultures, leadership), executive (regional policies, services of general interest), sectoral (energy, tourism, air-quality) or social (social innovation, preservation of cultural heritage). The book delivers up-to date knowledge build on interactions between representatives of different stakeholders of economic and territorial development with the research represented by renowned experts and academicians. This is mirrored in the content of the book, delivering in a consistent form the conceptual explanations combined with the examples of the role of the public sector in fostering the local economies within the frame of spatial planning. The book reflects and transfers the expert knowledge which has been generated during more than a decade of scientific and research activities of Spa-ce.net. Presents a comprehensive view on different aspects of the involvement of public sector in the local and regional spatial development; Includes a combination of macro-regionally specific perspectives with the generalized knowledge; Provides knowledge from various researchers from prestigious European scientific and research teams.

This book examines urban development and its role in planning in China and other Asian cities. Starting with a substantial narrative on the history, development philosophy, and urban form of ancient Asian cities, it then identifies the characteristics of urban society and different phases of development history. It then discusses urbanization patterns in China with a focus on spatial layout of the city clusters in the Yangtze River Delta since the 20th Century. Lastly, it explores institutional design and the legal system of urban planning in China and other Asian cities. As a textbook for the "Model Course in English" for international students listed by the Ministry of Education in China, it helps international researchers and students to understand urban development and planning in Asian cities.

Climb a mountain and experience the landscape. Try to grasp its holistic nature. Do not climb alone, but with others and share your experience. Be sure the ways of seeing the landscape will be very different. We experience the landscape with all senses as a complex, dynamic and hierarchically structured whole. The landscape is tangible out there and simultaneously a mental reality. Several perspectives are obvious because of language, culture and background. Many disciplines developed to study the landscape focussing on specific interest groups and applications. Gradually the holistic way of seeing became lost. This book explores the different perspectives on the landscape in relation to its holistic nature. We start from its multiple linguistic meanings and a comprehensive overview of the development of landscape research from its geographical origins to the wide variety of today's specialised disciplines and interest groups. Understanding the different perspectives on the landscapes and bringing them together is essential in transdisciplinary approaches where the landscape is the integrating concept.

In many international settings, regional economies are declining resulting in lowered opportunities for these communities. This result attacks the very fabric of cohesion and purpose for these regional societies, and increases social, health, economic and sustainability problems. Community Informatics research, education and practice is an emerging area in many countries, which seeks to address these issues. Encyclopedia of Developing Regional Communities with Information and Communication Technology provides leaders, policy developers, researchers, students and community workers with successful strategies and principles of Community Informatics to transform regions. This encyclopedia develops an integrative cross-sectoral approach in the use of Community Informatics to increase both social and cultural capital as a means to increased sustainability for regional communities.

This monograph presents urban simulation methods that help in better understanding urban dynamics. Over historical times, cities have progressively absorbed a larger part of human population and will concentrate three quarters of humankind before the end of the century. This "urban transition" that has totally transformed the way we inhabit the planet is globally understood in its socio-economic rationales but is less frequently questioned as a spatio-temporal process. However, the cities, because they are intrinsically linked in a game of competition for resources and development, self organize in "systems of cities" where their future becomes more and more interdependent. The high frequency and intensity of interactions between cities explain that urban systems all over the world exhibit large similarities in their hierarchical and functional structure and rather regular dynamics. They are complex systems whose emergence, structure and further evolution are widely governed by the multiple kinds of interaction that link the various actors and institutions investing in cities their efforts, capital, knowledge and intelligence. Simulation models that reconstruct this dynamics may help in better understanding it and exploring future plausible evolutions of urban systems. This would provide better insight about how societies can manage the ecological transition at local, regional and global scales. The author has developed a series of instruments that greatly improve the techniques of validation for such models of social sciences that can be submitted to many applications in a variety of geographical situations. Examples are given for several BRICS countries, Europe and United States. The target audience primarily comprises research experts in the field of urban dynamics, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.