This book addresses up-to-date urban health issues from a systems perspective and provides an appealing integrated urban development strategy based on a 10-year global interdisciplinary research programme created by the International Council for Science (ICSU), and sponsored by the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) and the United Nations University (UNU). The unique feature of this book is its "systems approach" to urban health and wellbeing: solution-oriented for science and society and not purely theoretical, it can be applied in the context of decision-making, and has the potential to unlock cities' unused potential by promoting health and wellbeing. Furthermore, the inter- and transdisciplinary urban issues addressed in this book are examined from a cross-sectoral perspective - e.g. the transport sector is addressed in connection with air pollution, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and the loss of productivity. The interconnected thinking to urban health and wellbeing makes the book a particularly valuable resource. Decision makers in city administrations and civil society organizations from different geographical regions will find the book an informative and inspiring guide for delivering towards the goals of the New Urban Agenda, for which health can be the vital indicator of progress. Graduate students and researchers will be attracted by the case studies, systems methods and models provided in the book.

The effects of recent economic and financial crises have reached an international scale. A number of different nations have experienced the fallout of these events, calling into question issues of accountability and reform in public management. The Handbook of Research on Modernization and Accountability in Public Sector Management is an essential scholarly publication that focuses on responsibility within public sector institutions and the importance of these institutions being ethical, transparent, and rigorous. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as corporate social responsibility, e-government, and financial accountability, this publication is geared toward regulatory authorities, researchers, managers, and professionals working in the public domain.

Regulation of public infrastructure has been a topic of interest for more than a century. Providing public goods, securing their financing, maintenance, and improving the efficiency of their delivery, has generated a voluminous literature and series of debates. More recently, these issues have again become a central concern, as new public management approaches have transformed the role of the state in the provision of public goods and the modalities by which the financing of infrastructure and its operation are procured. Yet, despite the proliferation of new modalities of regulating infrastructure little is known about what works and why. Why do certain regulatory regimes fail and others succeed? What regulatory designs and institutional features produce optimal outcomes and how? And why do regulatory forms of governance when transplanted into different institutional contexts produce less than uniform outcomes? This book addresses these questions, exploring the theoretical foundations of regulation as well as a series of case studies drawn from the telecommunications, electricity, and water sectors. It brings together distinguished scholars and expert practitioners to explore the practical problems of regulation, regulatory design, infrastructure operation, and the implications for infrastructure provision.

East Naples' contemporary history is not special, or unique: its processes shaped a mostly grey suburb nestled in the immediate vicinity of the great southern city, sharing its limits and feeding its needs. An imaginary tourist would search in vain for the ancient natural landscape, formerly a splendid threshold between coastal and marshy ecosystems, now humiliated by the sedimentary accumulation of bricks, fumes, oil and poisons generated by the main actors of the area's contemporary history - manufacturing and housing. Across the globe, peripheral areas have experienced the same deep environmental changes under the processes of energy transitions, economic development and urbanisation. The historian must interrogate the human choices, the material context and the different perceptions of nature, health or production that led to these changes as part of an environmentally-focused perspective on two of modernity's distinctive global processes: industrialisation and deindustrialisation. The resultant narrative of relations between human choices and East Naples' environmental limits is marked by the transition from an actual swamp to a metaphorical one, an ambiguous space characterised by chaos and disorder, hostility and risks, but also resistance, dignity and hope. This book reconstructs the discursive and physical factors that created the East Naples 'swamp', from the late eighteenth century to the present, analysing hygienist thought and urbanisation, industrialisation and deindustrialisation, ecological risks and urban requalification attempts.

This book examines the planning and implementation of policies to create sustainable neighborhoods, using as a case study the City of Sydney. The authors ask whether many past planning and development practices were appropriate to the ways that communities then functioned, and what lessons we have learned. The aim is to illustrate the many variations within a city and from neighborhood to neighborhood regarding renewal (rehabilitation), redevelopment (replacement) and new development. Case study examples of nine City of Sydney neighborhoods note the different histories of planning and development in each. Features of the studies include literature searches, field work (with photography), and analysis. The authors propose a set of sustainability principles which incorporate elements of the twenty seven principles of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development Part One explores sustainable urban planning, and the importance of planning tools that enable best planning outcomes for communities and investors. Common factors in the nine case study neighborhoods are renewal, redevelopment and development pressures affecting Sydney from the 1970s to 2014. Also discussed are the differing circumstances of planning faced by authorities, developers and communities in each of the study areas. Part Two of the book is focused on the case study areas in City of Sydney East area: Woolloomooloo and Kings Cross. Part Three covers case study areas in Sydney's Inner South area: Chippendale, Redfern and Waterloo District. Part Four surveys the Inner West suburb of Erskineville. Part Five looks at the City West area, including the Haymarket District and the Pyrmont and Ultimo District. Part Six concentrates on the North West area suburb of Glebe. Part Seven of the book looks at the growth area of South Sydney District, which includes the suburbs of Beaconsfield, Zetland and the new localities of Victoria Park and Green Square. The authors recount lessons learned and outline directions of planning for sustainable neighborhoods. Finally, the authors challenge readers to apply the lessons of these case studies to further advances in sustainable urban planning.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the most recent development of Chinese cities. It discusses a broad range of subjects of urban planning, including environmental planning, transportation planning, historical preservation, economic development, geographic information systems (GIS) and other technological applications. China, the most populous country in the world, has experienced unprecedented urbanization in a relatively short period. During the past decades, urbanization in China has centered on land development through industrialization and investment, but it has largely ignored the prosperity and well-being of the people. Livable cities are not just those with magnificent buildings and infrastructure; they are great places where people want to live. China's recently inaugurated leaders have proposed a new model to actively and prudently enhance the quality of urbanization through compact, intelligent, and low-carbon development. It symbolizes the departure from land-centered urban development to a form of people-oriented urbanization, as China's Premier, Li Keqiang, has advocated. This new model offers a platform for planning researchers and practitioners to tackle urbanization challenges, such as social equity, environment, energy, ecological and historic preservation, affordable housing, and externalities of mega cities. Furthermore, people-oriented urbanization calls for public participation and stakeholder engagement in the planning process. This book brings together planners, designers, scholars, scientists, and government officials from China and all over the world to exchange ideas on urban regeneration.

Beijing Record, the result of ten years of research on the urban transformation of Beijing in the last fifty years, brings to an extended Western audience the inside story on the key decisions that led to Beijing's present urban fragmentation and its loss of memory and history in the form of bulldozing its architectural heritage. Wang's publication presents a survey of the main developments and government-level (both central and municipal) decisions, devoting a lot of attention to the 1950s and 1960s, when Beijing experienced a critical wave of transformative events.Shortly after its original Chinese bestseller edition was published by SDX joint Publishing Company House in October 2003, it ignited a firestorm of debate and discussion in a country where public interaction over such a sensitive subject rarely surfaces. The Chinese edition is in its 11th print run and was translated into Japanese in 2008. This newly-translated English version has the latest update on the author's findings in the area. As the only edition printed in full color with nearly 300 illustrations, the English version powerfully showcases the stunning architecture, culture, and history of China's Dynamic Capital, Beijing.Home to more than 15 million people, this ancient capital city - not surprisingly - has a controversial, complicated history of planning and politics, development and demolition. The publication raises a number of unsettling questions: Why have a valuable historical architectural heritage such as city ramparts, gateways, old temples, memorial archways and the urban fabric of hutongs (traditional alleyways) and siheyuan (courtyard houses) been visibly disappearing for decades? Why are so many houses being demolished at a time of economic growth? Is no one prepared to stand up for the preservation of the city?For his research, Wang went through innumerable archives, read diaries and collected an unprecedented quantity of data, accessing firsthand materials and unearthing photographs that clearly document the city's relentless, unprecedented physical makeover. In addition, he conducted more than 50 in-person interviews with officials, planners, scholars and other experts. Many illustrations are published here for the first time, compiled in the 1990s when archival public access was reformulated.

'Green space in the community' refers to the public space that is located in sections of residential land, often a space providing entertainment facilities and a place for the community to interact across various activities. As one of the most important components of urban green space, public green space makes a huge impact on the quality of residents' daily lives. With the rapid development of the urbanisation process, people are paying much more attention to the construction of infrastructure in their living environments, thus the construction of public green space is steadily increasing on a larger scale. The construction of green space not only helps improve the quality of residential living spaces and the level of public welfare, but these spaces also inspire residents' participation in the community.

This bookintroduces a key issue in research on the climatic impact of land cover and land use changes via terrestrial biogeophysical processes. The parameterization of surface processes and a systematic approach to modeling the climatic impacts of land use change are discussed respectively, and can be used to improve parameterization schemes for climate numerical models and to provide a systematic method, thus offering more scientific and enhanced support for research on the climatic effects of land use/cover change. Further, based on predictions and scenario analyses of land use changes in typical zones, the climatic impact of various types of changes in different areas can be simulated through climatic numerical modeling, the simulation results are suitable for use in climate mitigation, land use planning, urban development planning, etc. Thus, the book is intended for researchers and professionals working in the area of meteorology systems, climatic numerical modeling, climate change, and land use/cover change, as well as decision makers in meteorology and land use planning.
Professor Xiangzheng Deng is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences."

With more and more of the world's population projected to live in urban areas, the life and death of cities has become a key factor in urban development considerations. This book attempts to bring an original contribution on the analysis of creating living cities. It advances the concept and framework of a "living city" and also explicates the key attributes of a "living city" that are increasingly critical to the reinvigoration and sustainable growth of cities.

The book also seeks to document and compare Singapore's development as a "living city'" with other Asian and world cities. Contributed by researchers and practitioners across different disciplines, the book provides first-hand insights on the development choices that cities can make and expertly draws on case studies to illuminate how innovative cities have a comparative advantage. Written in a simple and accessible manner, this book will appeal to people interested in urban planning, policy and sustainability.

This book takes a bold epistemological approach to address the fundamental questions that urban design has faced since its inception - questions concerning its legitimacy, definition, nature, content, purpose, theory, methods, jurisdiction and above all its knowledge base. The appropriate level of urban design - global or local - is another critical and emerging question discussed. At the end, an integrative theory of urban design is introduced, on the basis of which a set of principles is developed for application by practicing urban designers. These principles are presented at three essential levels: general, global and local-Iranian. Toward an Integrative Theory of Urban Design is intended to dispel many of the ambiguities still troubling urban design as a discipline and profession.

The book discusses the concept of the smart city, and is based on a multi-service and multi-sectoral approach to urban planning, including various urban functions and the human capital of cities. The work is divided into three parts. The first is an introductory section which covers definitions, policies and tools used at European level for the development and classification of a smart city. The second presents a selection of examples of Western and Eastern communities, which experienced technologies and strategies that have made them smart. The third describes in detail the main three possible approaches (economical, technological and social) to the smart city concept which are the focus ambits of the holistic concept of smart city. The work provides a good overview of the concept of smart city, and also offers a critical analysis of the various approaches to smart cities, in order to provide tools to develop solutions that address the smart development of cities with an approach as multi-sectoral as possible. Its accessible language and several examples make the book easy to read and appealing to public administrators, students, planners and researchers.

The purpose of this volume is to treat the progress of history, civilization and urban development of China together in order to demonstrate the unique qualities of Chinese civilization. The author uses historical dynasties as the vertical dimension, starting from the pre-urban origin of round-moat village settlements of the Yangshao Period, until the most recent transitional city under the present "socialist market system". There are a total of 13 chapters, covering a time-span of roughly 6,000 years.The book also discusses the theoretical context of the uniqueness of Chinese urban evolution and compares it with experiences in the West. It comprehensively treats major events, economic developments, territorial changes, and developments in technology, art and culture, military as well as administrative systems in the dynasties as urban change dynamics. The material therefore succinctly covers 6,000 years of Chinese cultural history.Besides using a large amount of Chinese literature - including materials on recent archeological finds - the volume explores substantial Western literature on relevant issues with the purpose of putting the Chinese experience in a global context.The author has included in the volume over 100 maps and line drawings selected from his collection accumulated over 30 years as a university lecturer and researcher of urban geography and the Chinese city. They provide vivid and readily apprehensible illustrations for illuminating key points on the structure of the Chinese city and the geopolitical situation of China in major historical periods. They also add exquisite detail through graphic techniques to the textual treatment of the subject matters, and are in themselves visually appealing, adding unique dimension to the volume.The volume targets a wide spectrum of readers, and will appeal to anyone interested in the culture and civilization, cities, urban planning and economic, philosophical, political and historical developments of China.

This book aims to promote the synergistic usage of advanced computational methodologies in close relationship to geospatial information across cities of different scales. A rich collection of chapters subsumes current research frontiers originating from disciplines such as geography, urban planning, computer science, statistics, geographic information science and remote sensing. The topics covered in the book are of interest to researchers, postgraduates, practitioners and professionals. The editors hope that the scientific outcome of this book will stimulate future urban-related international and interdisciplinary research, bringing us closer to the vision of a "new science of cities."

Contemporary cities face phenomenal risks, and they face particularly high levels of mounting social and environmental risks, including social polarization, urban conflicts, riots, terror, and climate change threats. This book suggests that climate change and its resulting uncertainties challenge the concepts, procedures, and scope of conventional approaches to planning, creating a need to rethink and revise current planning methods. Therefore, this book suggests a paradigm shift in our thinking, interrogation, and planning of our cities. Based on the contemporary conditions of risk at cities, this book conceptualizes the risk city as a construct of three interlinked concepts of risk, trust, and practice. It is a construct of risk and its new evolving conditions and knowledge of uncertainties stem from climate change and other risks and uncertainties. As a construct of practices, the risk city produces social and political institutional framework and promotes practices accordingly in order to reduce risk and risk possibilities and to increase trust. In light of the complex challenges and risks to the human habitat that have emerged in recent years, many cities have prepared various types of plans aimed at addressing the challenges posed by climate change. Nonetheless, despite the importance of these plans and the major public resources invested in their formulation, we still know little about them and have yet to begin studying them and assessing their contributions . From the innovative perspective of the risk city, this book asks critical questions about the nature, vision, practices, and potential impact of the recent climate change-oriented plans. What kinds of risks do they attempt to address, what types of practices do they institute, and what types of approaches do they apply? Do they adequately address the risks and uncertainties posed? How do they contribute to the worldwide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? This book uses the methodologically innovative Risk City framework to examine the nature, vision, outcomes, practices, and impact of these crucial plans, as well as their contribution to the resilience of our cities and to global efforts toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

This book is a selection of the best and peer-reviewed articles presented at the CUPUM (Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management) conference, held in the second week of July 2015 at MIT in Boston, USA. The contributions provide state-of the art overview of the availability and application of Planning Support Systems (PSS) in the framework of Smart Cities.

In the complex, cash-strapped, high pressure world of modern construction, what do you do when something goes wrong? This work looks beyond the best-case scenario to give project managers, contractors, architects and engineers the tools to prepare effectively for the unexpected. Based on the author's more than thirty-five years of construction management experience, the book shows how to proactively mitigate a schedule. It opens with case studies of real life construction mitigation, and goes on to examine the conceptual aspects of anticipating risks and making contingency plans, technical aspects of scheduling, and essential role of communication in change management. Working on the principle that no major project can ever quite go to plan and that "it's not how you start, it's how you finish," Collaborative Risk Mitigation is the ideal complement to traditional scheduling textbooks.

This volume brings a plurality of approaches, from political economic to Foucauldian, to bear on the broad range of contestations around urban neoliberalism. The contributors explore the range of resistant agency and reveal the heterogeneity of intersecting power relations that movements mobilize against.

The main objective of this book is to provide a multidisciplinary overview of methodological approaches, architectures, platforms, and algorithms for the realization of an Internet of Things (IoT)-based Smart Urban Ecosystem (SUE). Moreover, the book details a set of real-world applications and case studies related to specific smart infrastructures and smart cities, including structural health monitoring, smart urban drainage networks, smart grids, power efficiency, healthcare, city security, and emergency management. A Smart Urban Ecosystem (SUE) is a people-centric system of systems that involves smart city environments, applications, and infrastructures. SUEs require the close integration of cyber and physical components for monitoring, understanding and controlling the urban environment. In this context, the Internet of Things (IoT) offers a valuable enabling technology, as it bridges the gap between physical things and software components, and empowers cooperation between distributed, pervasive, and heterogeneous entities.

In 2007, the world's urban population surpassed the number of people living in rural areas and is still growing. The number of city dwellers who do not have access to piped water and rely on groundwater is also increasing. In many Asian cities, groundwater is not only the source of domestic water but also an important resource for industrial development, making better management of groundwater resources essential for sustainable development. Because groundwater is easier to access and costs less than water from piped systems, groundwater abstraction cannot be easily regulated. Policies for groundwater management adopted in Japan and other Asian countries are compared, and technologies for efficient use of groundwater are elucidated. Groundwater contamination is also a serious problem that exacerbates water scarcity in Asian cities. Case studies illustrate the cause and consequences of naturally occurring contaminants such as arsenic and fluoride, and groundwater contamination due to anthropogenic contaminants is described. Also discussed are technologies for treating contaminated groundwater to reduce the health risks of drinking contaminated groundwater.

African Americans have suffered intensely at the hands of America's dominant group, but the roles played by urban planning, land use policy, and the free market are not well known. Presenting a new conceptual approach, this book considers their "locking effect" on African Americans, showing, for instance, that one-acre zoning and similar policies in upscale neighborhoods lock African Americans out while market mechanisms in decaying neighborhoods lock them in. Arguing that the locking effect leads to the disenfranchisement of African Americans, Bobo shows how wealth is channeled to the dominant group and African Americans' life choices are denuded, creating a volatile situation.

Although classical economic theory holds that a free market allocates scarce resources in the best interest of society, in reality market mechanisms do not work to the advantage of African Americans. Nor does public regulation of land use operate in their interest, although public policy is presumed to produce equitable and favorable outcomes for all members of society. This book explores how a combination of government regulation of land use and free market forces have created the locking effect, which has cultivated and sustained a process of disenfranchisement of African Americans.

This book reviews the sources of the air pollutants responsible for building damage and the mechanisms involved. Studies investigating the relationships between pollution concentration (dose) and the resulting damage (response) are described and the latest research findings for dose-response functions are presented.

Trends in pollutant emissions, ambient concentrations and building damage over time are described and future predictions are presented. Methodologies for assessing the extent of the potential problem in a region the stock at risk are presented. Procedures for estimating the economic implications are described and the consequences are discussed in detail, because economic factors are important for reaching policy and management decisions at local, national and international scales.

Damage to cultural heritage buildings is an important additional effect which needs to be considered as the standards are revised and the factors which will need to be brought into the assessment are presented.

Even with significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, a certain degree of climate change will inevitably occur. Adapting to climate change, then, will become a necessary step in reducing the vulnerability of many regions across the globe. This is especially true for urban areas where climate change has been shown to have particularly destabilizing effects. Through the identification and analysis of the most relevant impacts facing urban areas, this book makes clear the need to incorporate climate change concerns into the mainstream of local planning, governance and policy making practices. Adaptation as a workable concept within urban areas cannot be treated in isolation from the many pre-existing challenges facing cities. By offering numerous examples of ongoing adaptation programs and strategies across a wide range of contexts, the authors show the growing potential of cities in the fight against climate change. This book has its origins in a collection of papers originally presented at the Resilient Cities 2010 Congress in Bonn, Germany (May 2010), the first global forum on cities and adaptation to climate change, convened by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability. In this volume, the first in a new series dedicated to this annual event, a range of contributors bring their perspectives to bear on the most pressing issues and controversies surrounding adaptation to climate change within cities. These writings will prove invaluable to anyone interested in understanding and confronting climate change at the local level.