This book is the result of a Special Issue of the journal Resources. The Special Issue was initiated to identify promising solutions and specific challenges in the context of underused resources in urban environments. Authors focus on two main areas: the establishment of circular economy schemes based on valorizing wastes that occur in urban areas and the exploitation of renewable energies. The circular economy and renewable resources hold key potential for increasing the sustainability of cities, and the presented studies enhance our understanding of how to unlock this potential. Effective regulatory frameworks and policymaking processes that balance the power between stakeholders are required to successfully manage energy transition and the transition to more circular economies. The positive role of community engagement merits high attention. To recover valuable resources from household waste, a focus on technology and infrastructure is required but is insufficient; motivational factors and knowledge of citizens are the most essential elements. The need to more reliably quantify and better characterize recyclable material streams also evidently remains, especially where population numbers are further growing. This book provides a rich source to explore promising solutions, challenges, and research needed for the sound management of resources in urban settings.

This 2000 edition of OECD's periodic review of Mexico's economy includes special features on public spending and structural reform.

Providing a comprehensive overview of the urban sharing economy, this Modern Guide takes a forward-looking perspective on how sharing goods and services may facilitate future sustainability of consumption and production. It highlights recent developments and issues, with cutting-edge discussions from leading international scholars in business, engineering, environmental management, geography, law, planning, sociology and transport studies.

As Western aid budgets are slashed and government involvement with aid programmes reduced, NGOs in the voluntary sector are finding themselves taking an ever-increasing share of development work overseas. As they do so, they are forced to grow and to assume new responsibilities, taking more important and wide-ranging decisions - in many cases, without having had the chance to step back and review the options before them and the best ways of maximizing the impact they make. This collection of essays explores the strategies available to NGOs to enhance their development work, reviewing the ways that options can be understood, appropriate programmes and likely problems.

"This report focuses on identifying ways to improve coordination of international and national entities managing the Syrian refugee response in urban areas in Jordan and Lebanon, particularly in the legal, employment, shelter, water and sanitation, health, and education sectors. This report makes several contributions to the existing literature on this topic. First, it assesses the management model of a complex emergency response in urban areas in middle-income countries; most existing literature about humanitarian responses focuses on camps in weak states. Second, it brings together views of a broad spectrum of stakeholders to provide a comprehensive, multidimensional analysis of management of the Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan and Lebanon in particular. Third, this study presents a new framework for planning, evaluating, and managing refugee crises in urban settings, both in the Syrian refugee crisis as well as other such situations going forward. Fourth, it provides concrete recommendations for how to better support the needs of Syrian urban refugees in Jordan and Lebanon and for how to rethink refugee-assistance coordination around the world for improved effectiveness in the future. This study drew on multiple methods: a literature review; interviews in Jordan and Lebanon with officials from donor countries, UN agencies, host governments, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); telephone interviews with international experts; and focus groups with refugees"--Back cover.

A new conventional wisdom, spanning academic and policy communities, sees a combination of economic competitiveness, social cohesion and responsive governance as essential for survival in the post-1980s world - and cities as crucial to achieving these goals. This interdisciplinary text provides the first critical examination of these ideas, drawing on the UK Cities research programme and other recent research. It combines analysis of the competitiveness-cohesion-governance problematic with examination of the major processes underlying key sectors of the urban economy, physical development, social relations, neighbourhoods and urban policy.

Groundwater issues have generated worldwide concern in recent decades. The problems are numerous: too little groundwater, too much groundwater, groundwater contaminated by either saline water or a broad spectrum of industrial and domestic pollutants. Many urban groundwater problems are not unique to any one region, which is the thinking behind this book. Many of the case studies presented here have never before been described in English. Overall, the papers represent the work and experience of researchers and groundwater professionals who have worked on urban groundwater issues in developed and less-developed nations around the world. They reveal the magnitude and scope of the problem as well as identify future challenges, potential courses of action, and emerging technologies that offer hope for the future.

As population growth accelerates, researchers and professionals face challenges as they attempt to plan for the future. Urban planning is a significant component in addressing the key concerns as the world population moves towards the city and leaves the rural environment behind, yet there are many factors to consider for a well rounded community. The Handbook of Research on Social, Economic, and Environmental Sustainability in the Development of Smart Cities brings together the necessary research and interdisciplinary discussion to address dilemmas created by population growth and the expansion of urban environments. This publication is an essential reference source for researchers, academicians, investors, and practitioners interested in the urban planning and technological advancements necessary for the creation of smart cities.

Burgeoning population and climate change are among the most critical challenges facing the 21st century. Both have critical implications for groundwater resources, especially in many developing countries where resources are already under pressure. Due to low rainfall and high evaporation in parts of the Middle East and North Africa, groundwater is not being renewed, and groundwater laid down up to 10,000 years ago is literally being mined for irrigation, often very inefficiently. Over recent decades, groundwater levels have fallen dramatically in key grain-growing regions like the American Great Plains and the North China Plain. As the population grows and emerging economies like China and India demand more food, especially water intensive meat products, agricultural demand for water is set to increase. The rapid shift of population from the countryside to the cities is also adding to this pressure; most old wells in Beijing are now dry. Pollution from industry, agriculture and shanty towns is destroying many groundwater resources; some could take 50 years to clean up even with strict and immediate controls. This volume looks at the technical, socio-economic and political problems being faced, and at the developments in groundwater science and management that may help create a sustainable future for our planet.