Most of the world s mountains are rich in water and, as such, play a pivotal role in the global water cycle. They provide water for diverse human uses and ecosystems. Growing water demands as well as climate change will lead to ever-increasing pressure on mountain waters. Overcoming water-use conflicts and maintaining the ecological functioning of mountain waters presents a highly challenging task and is indispensable for sustainable development.
This book extensively portrays the highly diverse attributes of mountain waters and demonstrates their paramount importance for ecological and societal development. The extensive summaries on the scientific basics of mountain waters are supplemented with considerations on the diverse water uses, needs for management actions, and challenges regarding sustainable water management. This overview concerns not only the mountain areas themselves but also downriver reaches and their surrounding lowlands, and, therefore, the relationship between mountain and lowland water issues."

Technological change is a central feature of modern societies and a powerful source for social change. There is an urgent task to direct these new technologies towards sustainability, but society lacks perspectives, instruments and policies to accomplish this. There is no blueprint for a sustainable future, and it is necessary to experiment with alternative paths that seem promising. Various new transport technologies promise to bring sustainability benefits. But as this book shows, important lessons are often overlooked because the experiments are not designed to challenge the basic assumptions about established patterns of transport choices. Learning how to organise the process of innovation implementation is essential if the maximum impact is to be achieved - it is here that strategic niche management offers new perspectives. The book uses a series of eight recent experiments with electric vehicles, carsharing schemes, bicycle pools and fleet management to illustrate the means by which technological change must be closely linked to social change if successful implementation is to take place. The basic divide between proponents of technological fixes and those in favour of behavioural change needs to be bridged, perhaps indicating a third way.

Technological change is a central feature of modern societies and a powerful source for social change. There is an urgent task to direct these new technologies towards sustainability, but society lacks perspectives, instruments and policies to accomplish this. There is no blueprint for a sustainable future, and it is necessary to experiment with alternative paths that seem promising. Various new transport technologies promise to bring sustainability benefits. But as this book shows, important lessons are often overlooked because the experiments are not designed to challenge the basic assumptions about established patterns of transport choices. Learning how to organise the process of innovation implementation is essential if the maximum impact is to be achieved - it is here that strategic niche management offers new perspectives. The book uses a series of eight recent experiments with electric vehicles, carsharing schemes, bicycle pools and fleet management to illustrate the means by which technological change must be closely linked to social change if successful implementation is to take place. The basic divide between proponents of technological fixes and those in favour of behavioural change needs to be bridged, perhaps indicating a third way.

Most of the world s mountains are rich in water and, as such, play a pivotal role in the global water cycle. They provide water for diverse human uses and ecosystems. Growing water demands as well as climate change will lead to ever-increasing pressure on mountain waters. Overcoming water-use conflicts and maintaining the ecological functioning of mountain waters presents a highly challenging task and is indispensable for sustainable development.
This book extensively portrays the highly diverse attributes of mountain waters and demonstrates their paramount importance for ecological and societal development. The extensive summaries on the scientific basics of mountain waters are supplemented with considerations on the diverse water uses, needs for management actions, and challenges regarding sustainable water management. This overview concerns not only the mountain areas themselves but also downriver reaches and their surrounding lowlands, and, therefore, the relationship between mountain and lowland water issues."

Das Buch geht der Frage nach, ob es in den n{chsten Jahr- zehnten in den urbanen Regionen zu einer Versch{rfung der gegenw{rtigen sozialen, |kologischen und politischen Fronten kommen wird, oder ob die postindustrielle Gesellschaft nicht neue Antworten auf die anstehenden Fragen finden kann. Dazu werden kulturhistorische, soziologische und |konomische Pro- zesse der Stadtdynamik theoretisch diskutiert und exempla- risch anhand der j}ngeren Entwicklung der Stadt Z}rich empi- risch er|rtert. Vor diesem Hintergrund kommen schlie~lich Freiheitgrade der Entwicklung zur Sprache, welche insbeson- dere durch den wirtschaftlichen Strukturwandel sowie neuere soziale Bewegungen erm|glicht werden. Eine Besonderheit des Buches ist, da~ es allgemeine theoretische ]berlegungen zur Stadtentwicklung, insbesondere von Finanzmetropolen, mit empirischen Daten kombiniert. Ein im internationalen Vergleich einmaliger Datensatz }ber die Entwicklung des Fl{chenverbrauchs verschiedener Nutzungen in der Stadt Z}rich erm|glichte eine innovative Behandlung der Bodenrente im st{dtischen Kontext. Das Buch hat das Ziel, einerseits die moderne Stadt alseine auf der Industriegesellschaft basierende Konzeption sichtbar werdenzu lassen, andererseits vor dem Hintergrund des gegenw{rtigen Umbaus der Industriegesellschaft Optionen der Siedlungs- und Stadtentwicklung zu umrei~en. Das Buch geht davon aus, da~ die Konzeption der modernen Stadtsich }berlebt hat. Dies hat viel mit der gegenw{rtigen Transformation der Industriegesellschaft in eine nachindustrielle zu tun. Die damit verbundenensozialen, |kologischen und |konomischen Probleme werden im Buch umfasssend theoretisch er|rtert und anhand des Finanzplatzes Z}richempirisch dokumentiert.