Alternative Urban Futures: Planning for Sustainable Development in Cities throughout the World
Author(s): Raquel Pinderhughes (Author)
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Publication Date: 12 Mar. 2004
Language: English
Print length: 288 pages
ISBN-10: 0742523667
ISBN-13: 9780742523661
Book Description
Alternative Urban Futures challenges existing models of urban development and promotes alternative paradigms, processes, and technologies designed to fulfill human needs and limit the harmful impacts of human activities on the environment. The book focuses on how planners and policy makers can develop and manage essential urban infrastructures in ways that support sustainable development in the areas of waste management, water supply and management, energy production and use, building design and construction, land-use, transportation, and food systems. Each chapter features case studies that provide concrete examples of how ecologically and socially responsible urban and sustainable development planning and policy approaches have been successfully implemented in cities around the world. The book is especially effective in its emphasis on recently published statistics and writing supporting new planning and policy recommendations. Each chapter ends with a summary, accompanied by a list of questions that can be addressed with information provided in the text.
Editorial Reviews
Review
This timely volume will serve as shock therapy for North American professionals whose greatest mind-stretch to date has involved minor disputes over zoning by-laws or the merits of so-called ‘smart growth.’ The book is a needed ‘dirt-under-the-fingernails’ addition to the staid old planners’ library of routine procedures and administrative abstraction. — William E. Rees, University of British Columbia
Can urban areas ever be sustainable? This book goes to the heart of the issue―providing useful examples and plenty of rigorous thinking. — Michael Redclift, University of London
Offers a vision of how cities can change basic infrastructure practice and policies to promote sustainability. Both students and practitioners will be impressed with the clear analysis and highly practical approach. — Manuel Pastor, UC Santa Cruz
Well-written and organized, the book provides a very good overview of a highly complex and interrelated set of subjects. The author has skillfully synthesized a diverse array of information into a compelling argument for better, more sustainable, urban planning. — James LaGro, Jr., University of Wisconsin-Madison
Pinderhughes succeeds in making the subject interesting, and she peppers the text with memorable success stories and noteworthy statistics . . . that will leave readers with a positive vision of the future. ―
San Francisco Chronicle
A timely and informative contribution to the ongoing challenge to ensure that cities become part of the solution to the ever more burdensome impact of humans on the earth. The author has included a wealth of interesting detail in a style that is accessible to the general reader. — Rodney R. White, University of Toronto
About the Author
Raquel Pinderhughes is professor of urban studies and environmental studies at San Francisco State University.
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