CITIES: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUSTAINABILITY BRANTLEY LIDDLE AND FRED MOAVENZADEH OR at least 4000 years, cities have been centers of cultural, social, technological Fand economic innovation, inventions and their application, and political power. Only in the last 200 years, the industrial era, have urban areas grown so rapidly, and their populations increased so dramatically that their impacts on the natural environ- ment are being felt beyond their immediate geographic surroundings. As the 21" cen- tury dawns, megacities-great and far-reaching concentrations of power and influ- ence-have become centers of the phenomena of globalization and information ex- change. These concentrations of people and activity are placing stress on the natural environment so great that it is beginning to have extensive regional, and even global impacts. However, asconcentrations ofpower-political, economic, andintellectual- these great urban centers share with the ancestral cities of past millennia the resources to consciously shape the future. The management of these megacities (those having populations of over eight million) in their current formative stages so taxing to natural systems,paradoxicallypresents theopportunity torestoresustainableregional and global environments. Environmental problems consequent to urban growth have two sources: pov- erty and affluence. These two conditions often coexist in dramatic contrast within the same city, particularly in developing countries. In terms of environmental impact, poverty-based problems tend to have local effects, while affluence-based problems usually have transboundary and/or global effects.

CITIES: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUSTAINABILITY BRANTLEY LIDDLE AND FRED MOAVENZADEH OR at least 4000 years, cities have been centers of cultural, social, technological Fand economic innovation, inventions and their application, and political power. Only in the last 200 years, the industrial era, have urban areas grown so rapidly, and their populations increased so dramatically that their impacts on the natural environ- ment are being felt beyond their immediate geographic surroundings. As the 21" cen- tury dawns, megacities-great and far-reaching concentrations of power and influ- ence-have become centers of the phenomena of globalization and information ex- change. These concentrations of people and activity are placing stress on the natural environment so great that it is beginning to have extensive regional, and even global impacts. However, asconcentrations ofpower-political, economic, andintellectual- these great urban centers share with the ancestral cities of past millennia the resources to consciously shape the future. The management of these megacities (those having populations of over eight million) in their current formative stages so taxing to natural systems,paradoxicallypresents theopportunity torestoresustainableregional and global environments. Environmental problems consequent to urban growth have two sources: pov- erty and affluence. These two conditions often coexist in dramatic contrast within the same city, particularly in developing countries. In terms of environmental impact, poverty-based problems tend to have local effects, while affluence-based problems usually have transboundary and/or global effects.

Landfill, as an indispensable part of every waste management system, is subject to a critical revision. The existing scientific, technical, and regulatory concepts are discussed in group reports on the basis of 14 review papers. Landfills are considered as chemical and biological reactors, which can be active over a time span of several centuries. Thus the common goal of the participants of the workshop was to define both scientific and technical criteria for landfills with final storage quality. This new concept is of fundamental importance for environmental engineers and scientists.

An overview of the cultural evolution of material flows and stocks with an emphasis on the design of metabolic processes in urban systems. Over the last several thousand years of human life on Earth, agricultural settlements became urban cores, and these regional settlements became tightly connected through infrastructures transporting people, materials, and information. This global network of urban systems, including ecosystems, is the anthroposphere; the physical flows and stocks of matter and energy within it form its metabolism. This book offers an overview of the metabolism of the anthroposphere, with an emphasis on the design of metabolic systems. It takes a cultural historical perspective, supported with methodology from the natural sciences and engineering. The book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in the fields of regional development, environmental protection, and material management. It will also be a resource for undergraduate and graduate students in industrial ecology, environmental engineering, and resource management. The authors describe the characteristics of material stocks and flows of human settlements in space and time; introduce the method of material flow analysis (MFA) for metabolic studies; analyze regional metabolism and the material systems generated by basic activities; and offer four case studies of optimal metabolic system design: phosphorus management, urban mining, waste management, and mobility. This second edition of an extremely influential book has been substantially revised and greatly expanded. Its new emphasis on design and resource utilization reflects recent debates and scholarship on sustainable development and climate change.