The 15th Passive and Low Energy Architecture (PLEA) conference considered the issues of sustainability and environmental friendliness at the city scale. Some 150 papers address the many and varied questions faced by architects and planners in reducing the impact on the environment of cities and their buildings.

PLEA is a network of individuals sharing expertise in the arts, sciences, planning and design of the built environment. It serves as an international, interdisciplinary forum to promote discourse on environmental quality in architecture and planning. This 17th PLEA international conference addresses sustainable design with respect to architecture, city and environment at the turn of the millennium. The central aim of the conference is to explore the interrelationships and integration of architecture, city and environment. The Proceedings will be of interest to all those involved in bioclimatic design and the application of natural and innovative techniques to architecture and planning. The conference is organised by the Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies, University of Cambridge and the Cambridge Programme for Industry, University of Cambridge.

This book introduces the concept of Eco-civilization, highlights the construction and development of eco-cities in China, and assesses the achievements and shortcomings of China’s eco-city construction projects. As both China and Western countries face an impending ecological crisis, responding to that crisis is a common challenge for all human beings. There is an overwhelming consensus among Chinese scholars that in order to successfully address the ecological crisis successfully we must establish an eco-civilization, and one important step toward accomplishing that goal is to plan and construct eco-cities.

This book presents an in-depth study on and summary of the current practice and theories for the construction of eco-cities in China in the context of the country’s rapid urbanization. It argues that by 2020, 60% of China’s population will live in cities. And the evolution from “green cities” to “eco- cities”, and subsequently to “smart cities” is crucial to China’s sustainable development. The book presents a feasible and objective quantitative evaluation system for the sustainable and healthy development of eco-cities. It summarizes the Chinese experience in building eco- cities as the coordinated development of economy, society, resources and environment, with the goal being “to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. This is essential to achieving a number of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, the book defines the current stage of development Chinese cities have reached in terms of ecological construction, and offers guidance on selecting suitable urban ecological construction modes and improvement approaches. It provides a valuable reference source and guidebook for research on and the practice of eco-city construction. Accordingly, it will help other countries around the world, especially the developing countries, to benefit from China’s successful experience.

This book discusses energy use and its environmental footprint in China, as well as issues concerning the transitional green growth of its economy, a subject of great importance in light of China’s size and its impressive record of economic growth. The book includes expert overviews and empirical studies prepared by internationally recognized experts in the field. The empirical techniques utilized by the contributors include econometrics, mathematical programming, and index numbers. The book will provide readers a deeper understanding of the energy and environmental issues China now faces during its transitional growth period, and of the strategies available for resolving these issues. The 2016 Asia-Pacific Productivity Conference, held in Nankai University, Tianjin China from July 7-10, was organized by Nankai University’s College of Economic and Social Development (CESD) in collaboration with the School of Economics Nankai University and Collaborative Innovation Center for China Economy. The primary objective of the event was to highlight the latest developments in efficiency and productivity research.

There are enormous and difficult challenges on a global scale, and we are living in a time when these problems are occurring. Sometimes people would refer to them as "wicked problems." As a result of the interconnected nature of these issues and the prevalence of value systems and points of view that are in opposition to one another, it is challenging to describe, comprehend, and find solutions to these complex and systemic challenges. In the present moment, we are confronted with a number of the most severe challenges that may be traced back to human activities that are not sustainable. We refer to this period of time as the "Anthropocene," which is a geological era that has been developed to acknowledge the tremendous influence that human activities are having on the processes and systems of the Earth. This era was established in order to acknowledge the "Anthropocene." Since the Industrial Revolution, which took place in the latter half of the eighteenth century, human activities have had a significant and far-reaching impact on the systems that make up the Earth. The climate of the Earth has been affected as a result of these activities, as has the chemistry of the land and ocean, and the biodiversity of the globe has been diminished via these activities. It is anticipated that the environmental modifications that have been brought about by human activity will have far-reaching repercussions, some of which could be catastrophic, for the entire planet and the people who live on these planets. In spite of this, the challenges are not restricted to problems pertaining to the environment. These difficulties have gotten even more intricate as a result of their connectivity with social, economic, and peace and security concerns

This book is intended to help explore the field of smart sustainable cities in its complexity, heterogeneity, and breadth, the many faces of a topical subject of major importance for the future that encompasses so much of modern urban life in an increasingly computerized and urbanized world. Indeed, sustainable urban development is currently at the center of debate in light of several ICT visions becoming achievable and deployable computing paradigms, and shaping the way cities will evolve in the future and thus tackle complex challenges. This book integrates computer science, data science, complexity science, sustainability science, system thinking, and urban planning and design. As such, it contains innovative computer–based and data–analytic research on smart sustainable cities as complex and dynamic systems. It provides applied theoretical contributions fostering a better understanding of such systems and the synergistic relationships between the underlying physical and informational landscapes. It offers contributions pertaining to the ongoing development of computer–based and data science technologies for the processing, analysis, management, modeling, and simulation of big and context data and the associated applicability to urban systems that will advance different aspects of sustainability. This book seeks to explicitly bring together the smart city and sustainable city endeavors, and to focus on big data analytics and context-aware computing specifically. In doing so, it amalgamates the design concepts and planning principles of sustainable urban forms with the novel applications of ICT of ubiquitous computing to primarily advance sustainability. Its strength lies in combining big data and context–aware technologies and their novel applications for the sheer purpose of harnessing and leveraging the disruptive and synergetic effects of ICT on forms of city planning that are required for future forms of sustainable development. This is because the effects of such technologies reinforce one another as to their efforts for transforming urban life in a sustainable way by integrating data–centric and context–aware solutions for enhancing urban systems and facilitating coordination among urban domains. This timely and comprehensive book is aimed at a wide audience across science, academia industry, and policymaking. It provides the necessary material to inform relevant research communities of the state–of–the–art research and the latest development in the area of smart sustainable urban development, as well as a valuable reference for planners, designers, strategists, and ICT experts who are working towards the development and implementation of smart sustainable cities based on big data analytics and context–aware computing.

2008 Best Reference, Library Journal "The impact of global warming is rapidly evolving. This valuable resource provides an excellent historical overview and framework of this topic and serves as a general resource for geography, oceanography, biology, climatology, history, and many other subjects. A useful reference for a wide audience of business professionals and government officials as well as for the general public; essential for both academic and public libraries." —Library Journal "This is a useful set because of the individual country entries as well as the general-audience language . . ." — Booklist (Starred Review) The Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change helps readers learn about the astonishingly intricate processes that make ours the only planet known to be habitable. These three volumes include more than 750 articles that explore major topics related to global warming and climate change—ranging geographically from the North Pole to the South Pole, and thematically from social effects to scientific causes. Key Features Contains a 4-color, 16-page insert that is a comprehensive introduction to the complexities of global warming Includes coverage of the science and history of climate change, the polarizing controversies over climate-change theories, the role of societies, the industrial and economic factors, and the sociological aspects of climate change Emphasizes the importance of the effects, responsibilities, and ethics of climate change Presents contributions from leading scholars and institutional experts in the geosciences Serves as a general resource for geography, oceanography, biology, climatology, history, and many other subjects The Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change provides a primarily nonscientific resource to understanding the complexities of climate change for academic and public libraries. READER'S GUIDE Atmospheric Sciences Climate climate and Society Climate Change, Effects Climate Feedbacks Climate Models Countries: Africa Countries: Americas Countries: Asia Countries: Europe Countries: Pacific Glaciology Government and International Agencies Institutions Studying Climate Change Oceanography Paleo-Climates People Programs And Conventions

This book answers the call for New Urbanization, and proposes a “5+9+6” national spatial layout plan for the urbanization of the 770 major cities in China. This macro pattern is based on a few major metropolises at the center, and other cities supporting and benefitting from these metropolises to form a pyramid-like urban hierarchical system. The book also presents a comprehensive regionalization plan for China’s New Urbanization and strategic approaches to improving the quality of this New Urbanization. Currently, China is aggressively promoting a so-called New Urbanization, which has been regarded as one of the primary ways to build a moderately prosperous society, to address critical issues related to agriculture, rural regions and farmers, to expand domestic demand and promote industrial innovation, and to realize the China Dream. From a systematic perspective and using recently released urban data, the authors analyze the current status of New Urbanization in China and also investigate the various potential problems and obstacles to its concrete implementation. Based on the analyses and investigations, the authors propose strategic directions, paths and basic principles for China’s New Urbanization. In addition, they clearly identify the three different modes of New Urbanization, namely, the general mode, differentiated mode, and gradual mode. Today, many scholars argue that China’s urban regions are experiencing a highly unsustainable mode of development. Chinese cities are heavily burdened by the so-called “urban diseases,” which are characterized e.g. by congested traffic, polluted water and air, and a lack of open and green spaces. Traditional urbanization, which primarily focuses on economic development, must be fundamentally reformed. New Urbanization, which focuses on integrated economic development, social integration and space/environmental sustainability, or simply put, on the quality of urbanization, has been called for to provide a potential “cure” for these urban diseases. Due to the vastness of China’s population and its rapidly growing economic, political and cultural relationships with the rest of the world, the book demonstrates that the success of this New Urbanization is critical not only to the future of urban China, but also the future of urbanization worldwide. The book offers a valuable reference work for all researchers, graduate student and policy makers interested in China’s urban development.

The importance of an integrated approach in urban design is becoming increasingly apparent. This book explains how to overcome related challenges in environmental design of urban buildings and offers guidance on the use of new materials and techniques and the integration of new philosophies. Supported by the EC's SAVE 13 programme, Environmental Design of Urban Buildings includes contributions from experts at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, the Hellenic Open University, Greece, Cambridge Architectural Research, UK and REHVA/University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. A free CD-ROM containing multi-media software tools and climatic data accompanies the book. CONTENTS Environmental Urban Design * Architectural Design, Passive Environmental and Building Engineering Systems * Environmental Issues of Building Design * Sustainable Design, Construction and Operation * Intelligent Controls and Advanced Building Management Systems * Urban Building Climatology * Heat and Mass Transfer Phenomena in Urban Buildings * Applied Lighting Technologies for Urban Buildings * Case Studies * Guidelines to Integrate Energy Conservation * Indoor Air Quality * Applied Energy and Resources Management in the Urban Environment * Economic Methodologies * Integrated Building Design * Bibliography, Index Published with SAVE