In an urbanizing world, the majority of people live in urban settlements predominantly on the coastal edge. Focus has historically been on people, place and the challenges and opportunities of living with global change, and academic attention has largely been on sustainability science or sustainable solutions. This book seeks to strengthen the relatively weak link between sustainability science, land use planning and socio-economic change, and show that a more integrated approach to planning will be required to develop more sustainable pathways for cities and regions in the future. Sustainable Pathways for our Cities and Regions builds on the recent publications on cities and climate change, resilient cities and coasts, and sustainable cities, and looks at the ways in which current planning approaches need to be adapted to embrace concepts including green growth, planetary boundaries, healthy cities and longer-term sustainability. Drawing on case studies from four cities selected for their publicly stated commitment to sustainability – Canberra, Kuala Lumpur, Copenhagen and New York – the author proposes seven sustainable pathways and draws conclusions on the positive contribution planning can make in preparing urban and regional communities for significant change in the twenty-first century city. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of urban planning, sustainable cities, climate change, green growth and community engagement. It will also be of great value to leaders and community activists seeking more sustainable pathways for their cities and regions.

This book tackles the future challenges and opportunities for planning our cities and towns in a changing climate and recommends key actions for more resilient urban futures. Urban Planning for Climate Change focusses on how urban planning is fundamental to action on climate change. In doing so it particularly looks at current practice and opportunities for innovation and capacity building in the future - carbon neutral development, building back better and creating more resilient urban settlements around the world. The complex challenge of possible urban resettlement from the impact of climate change is covered as a special issue bringing a focus on adaptation, working with nature and delivering real action on climate change with local communities. Norman recommends ten essential actions for urban planning for climate change along with some suggestions to inspire the next generations to embrace these opportunities with creativity and innovation. Featuring key messages and implications for practice in each chapter, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars, practitioners and communities involved in planning more climate resilient urban and regional futures.

Formidable challenges confront Australia and its human settlements: the mega-metro regions, major and provincial cities, coastal, rural and remote towns. The key drivers of change and major urban vulnerabilities have been identified and principal among them are resource-constraints, such as oil, water, food, skilled labour and materials, and carbon-constraints, linked to climate change and a need to transition to renewable energy, both of which will strongly shape urban development this century. Transitions identifies 21st century challenges to the resilience of Australia’s cities and regions that flow from a range of global and local influences, and offers a portfolio of solutions to these critical problems and vulnerabilities. The solutions will require fundamental transitions in many instances: to our urban infrastructures, to our institutions and how they plan for the future, and perhaps most of all to ourselves in terms of our lifestyles and consumption patterns. With contributions from 92 researchers – all leaders in their respective fields – this book offers the expertise to chart pathways for a sustainability transition.

Urbanization is occurring at an unprecedented rate; by 2050 three quarters of the world’s people will live in urban environments. The cars we drive, products we consume, houses we live in and technology we use will all determine how sustainable our cities will be. Bridging the increasing divide between cross-disciplinary academic insights and the latest practical innovations, Resilient Sustainable Cities provides an integrated approach for long term future planning within the context of the city as a whole system. In the next 30 years cities will face their biggest challenges yet, as a result of long term, or ‘slow burn’ issues: population growth will stretch to the breaking point urban infrastructure and service capacity; resource scarcity, such as peak oil; potable water and food security, will dramatically change what we consume and how; environmental pressures will change how we live and where and; shifting demographic preferences will exacerbate urban pressures. Cities can’t keep doing what they’ve always done and cope – we need to change current urban development to achieve resilient, sustainable cities. Resilient Sustainable Cities provides practical and conceptual insights for practitioners, researchers and students on how to deliver cities which are resilient to ‘slow burn’ issues and achieve sustainability. The book is organized around three overarching themes: pathways to the future innovation to deliver the future leadership and governance issues The book includes a variety of perspectives conveyed through international case studies and examples of cities that have transformed for a sustainable future, exploring their successes and failures to ensure that readers are left with ideas on how to turn their city into a resilient sustainable city for the future.

More than half of the world's people now live in cities. In the United States, the figure is 80 percent. It is worthwhile to consider how this trend of increased urbanization, if inevitable, could be made more sustainable. One fundamental shortcoming of urban research and programs is that they sometimes fail to recognize urban areas as systems. Current institutions and actors are not accustomed to exploring human-environment interactions, particularly at an urban-scale. The fact is that these issues involve complex interactions, many of which are not yet fully understood. Thus a key challenge for the 21st century is this: How can we develop sustainable urban systems that provide healthy, safe and affordable environments for the growing number of Americans living in cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas? To address this question, the National Research Council organized a workshop exploring the landscape of urban sustainability research programs in the United States. The workshop, summarized in this volume, was designed to allow participants to share information about the activities and planning efforts of federal agencies, along with related initiatives by universities, the private sector, nongovernmental groups, state and local agencies, and international organizations. Participants were encouraged to explore how urban sustainability can move beyond analyses devoted to single disciplines and sectors to systems-level thinking and effective interagency cooperation. To do this, participants examined areas of potential coordination among different R&D programs, with special consideration given to how the efforts of federal agencies can best complement and leverage the efforts of other key stakeholders. Pathways to Urban Sustainability offers a broad contextual summary of workshop presentations and discussions for distribution to federal agencies, regional organizations, academic institutions, think tanks and other groups engaged in urban research.

This book presents practical approaches for tackling the threats from climate change and disasters to urban growth in Pacific island countries and Asian nations. With chapters written by leading scholars and practitioners, Urbanisation at Risk presents research and case studies from island countries across the Pacific, Cambodia, Nepal and the Philippines. The book explores and presents the theory, policy and practice of how governments, civil society, aid organisations and people themselves prepare for, withstand and recover better from urban disasters including windstorms, floods, earthquakes and fires, and the effects of climate change. This book is written for urban policy makers, researchers, humanitarian aid and development workers, and anyone interested in urbanisation, participatory approaches, disasters, resilience and climate change adaptation.

Cities have experienced an unprecedented rate of growth in the last decade. More than half the world's population lives in urban areas, with the U.S. percentage at 80 percent. Cities have captured more than 80 percent of the globe's economic activity and offered social mobility and economic prosperity to millions by clustering creative, innovative, and educated individuals and organizations. Clustering populations, however, can compound both positive and negative conditions, with many modern urban areas experiencing growing inequality, debility, and environmental degradation. The spread and continued growth of urban areas presents a number of concerns for a sustainable future, particularly if cities cannot adequately address the rise of poverty, hunger, resource consumption, and biodiversity loss in their borders. Intended as a comparative illustration of the types of urban sustainability pathways and subsequent lessons learned existing in urban areas, this study examines specific examples that cut across geographies and scales and that feature a range of urban sustainability challenges and opportunities for collaborative learning across metropolitan regions. It focuses on nine cities across the United States and Canada (Los Angeles, CA, New York City, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Grand Rapids, MI, Flint, MI, Cedar Rapids, IA, Chattanooga, TN, and Vancouver, Canada), chosen to represent a variety of metropolitan regions, with consideration given to city size, proximity to coastal and other waterways, susceptibility to hazards, primary industry, and several other factors.

Global challenges instigated by climate change and urbanisation are driving research seeking appropriate and effective strategies for social, economic, and environmental sustainability. While technical advancements are a major focus for sustainable development, there are important research avenues that explore the relationship of place and sustainability from a number of perspectives. Place-based sustainability research identifies activities and initiatives that need to be layered and integrated with technological advances, but also help drive them. This research can facilitate the well-considered steering of sustainable development and practices, the essence of stewardship of place. This volume of a wide range of research and design approaches by a diverse group of authors of various disciplines reveals new perspectives on the relationship of the culture of place and sustainability. The central narrative that emerges from the chapters of this book is the critical cultural relationship of people to their environment, both built and natural. The authors delve into this relationship and see new approaches to support our awareness and appreciation of the nature of our cities and countryside as an integral ecosystem, thereby having the potential to nurture social values and political will for increasing our sustainable practices and resilience. The authors extend to us pathways for stewardship of our cities and countryside that are essential if we are to contend with the serious challenges provoked by our changing climate and the continuing urbanisation of the world’s population.

By 2050, an additional 2.5 billion people will be living in the world’s towns and cities, almost 50% of them in the 56 Commonwealth countries. To a significant extent, the future of the planet hangs on how cities and human settlements are managed. It is in our cities that the emissions creating climate catastrophe are stoked and where change can – and must – make a difference at scale. Food security, water, basic services, migration, shelter, jobs, environment: sustainable urbanisation is about changing direction to strive for a fairer and less environmentally damaging future. This well-illustrated book by authors from around the Commonwealth tells how the Commonwealth Association of Planners across five decades has campaigned to make a difference. It also looks ahead, scoping the urgent, practical action that is now required.

The concept of ‘sustainable urban development’ has been pushed to the forefront of policymaking and politics as the world wakes up to the impacts of climate change and the destructive effects of the Anthropocene. Climate change has emerged to be one of the biggest challenges faced by our planet today, threatening both built and natural systems with long-term consequences, which may be irreversible. While there is a vast body of literature on sustainability and sustainable urban development, there is currently limited focus on how to cohesively bring together the vital issues of the planning, development, and management of sustainable cities. Moreover, it has been widely stated that current practices and lifestyles cannot continue if we are to leave a healthy living planet to not only the next generation, but also to the generations beyond. The current global school strikes for climate action (known as Fridays for Future) evidences this. The book advocates the view that the focus needs to rest on ways in which our cities and industries can become green enough to avoid urban ecocide. This book fills a gap in the literature by bringing together issues related to the planning, development, and management of cities and focusing on a triple-bottom-line approach to sustainability.