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Urbanization is a global phenomenon and the book emphasizes that this is not just a social-technological process. It is also a social-ecological process where cities are places for nature, and where cities also are dependent on, and have impacts on, the biosphere at different scales from local to global. The book is a global assessment and delivers four main conclusions: Urban areas are expanding faster than urban populations. Half the increase in urban land across the world over the next 20 years will occur in Asia, with the most extensive change expected to take place in India and China Urban areas modify their local and regional climate through the urban heat island effect and by altering...
The challenges of post-war recovery from social and political reform to architectural design In the months and years immediately following the First World War, the many (European) countries that had formed its battleground were confronted with daunting challenges. These challenges varied according to the countries' earlier role and degree of involvement in the war but were without exception enormous. The contributors to this book analyse how this was not only a matter of rebuilding ravaged cities and destroyed infrastructure, but also of repairing people’s damaged bodies and upended daily lives, and rethinking and reforming societal, economic and political structures. These processes took ...
»Dimensions. Journal of Architectural Knowledge« is an academic journal in, on and from the discipline of architecture, addressing the creation, constitution and transmission of architectural knowledge. It explores methods genuine to the discipline and architectural modes of interdisciplinary methodological adaptions. Processes, procedures and results of knowledge creation and practice are esteemed coequally, with particular attentiveness to the architectural design and epistemologies of aesthetic practice and research. Issue 1, »Research Perspectives in Architecture«, explores different lines of enquiry with specific focus on their methodology. Design-based, reflexive, qualitative, experience-based, archival and interdisciplinary perspectives are investigated.
This book on urban water bodies, catchment areas and drainage pattern is set against the backdrop of the unprecedented heavy rainfall that severely deluged metropolitan cities and other parts of India in recent years. The recurring natural catastrophes in water-stressed cities of India and alarming rate of diminishing water bodies, wetlads and catchment areas needs a re-visit to an entire urban water-cycle. This book, thus, discusses how the processes and implementation of colonial urban development policies and projects have radically transformed the water bodies and their catchment areas – traditional water holding systems of Varanasi city. In this imperative colonial process, through th...
The 21st century has been called the "century of the city." Unprecedented and uneven urban growth and expansion coupled with climate change have compounded concerns that current urbanization pathways are not sustainable. Calls for scholarship on urban sustainability among geographers cite strengths in both examining human-environment interactions and unravelling urbanization patterns and processes that positioned the discipline to make unique contributions to critical research needs. Geographic Perspectives on Urban Sustainability reflects on the contributions that geographers have made to urban sustainability scholarship on varied domains such as transportation, green infrastructure, and ge...
Ideal for city residents, developers, designers, and officials looking for ways to bring urban environments into harmony with the natural world and make cities more sustainable, Urban Ecology for Citizens and Planners offers a wealth of information and examples that will answer fundamental scientific questions, guide green initiatives, and inform environmental policies and decision-making processes. This book provides an overview of the synergistic relationships between humans and nature that shape the ecology of urban green spaces. It also emphasizes the social and cultural value of nature in cities for human health and well-being. Chapters describe the basic science of natural components a...
The notion of ecology has become central to contemporary design discourse. This reflects contemporary concerns for our planet and a new understanding of the primary entanglement of the human species with the rest of the world. The use of the term ‘ecology’ with design tends to refer to how to integrate ecologies into design and cities and be understood in a biologically-scientific and technical sense. In practice, this scientific-technical knowledge tends to be only loosely employed. The notion of ecology is also often used metaphorically in relation to the social use of space and cities. This book argues that what it calls the ‘biological’ and ‘social’ senses of ecology are both...
Cities are striving to become more resilient, adaptive and sustainable; this requires new ways of governing and developing the city. This book features chapters by researchers using regenerative development and transitions theories to envisage how Eco-Cities could be planned, designed and created, and concludes with practical tools and an outline of how this evolution could be facilitated. It examines two major questions: How can we use understandings of Eco-Cities to address the legacy of urban built form and existing practices which often make it difficult to create the systemic changes needed? And what are the elements of complex urban places and spaces that will enable the planning, creation and evolution of thriving cities? The book will appeal to planners, city makers, urban researchers, students and practitioners, including planners, designers, architects and sustainability managers, and all those seeking to envisage the steps along the path to thriving cities of the future.
Der Band befasst sich mit dem Verhältnis von Stadt und Infrastruktur, von Urbanisierung und Infrastrukturentwicklung. Je nach Konstellation symbolisieren und reproduzieren Infrastrukturen gesellschaftliche Beziehungen, können diese aber auch mit hervorbringen und stabilisieren. Das Verschwinden eines erkenntnistheoretisch eigenständigen Raums jenseits der Stadt führt dazu, dass aus der Analyse von städtischen Phänomenen zunehmend Erkenntnisse über Merkmale der Gesellschaft insgesamt zu erwarten sind. Die mit diesem Band vorgelegte Auseinandersetzung mit Infrastrukturen der Stadt offenbart damit grundlegende Mechanismen und Funktionsweisen der heutigen Gesellschaft.