Imagining Urban Futures PDF Download

Author: Carl Abbott
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
ISBN: 0819576727
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
What science fiction can teach us about urban planning Carl Abbott, who has taught urban studies and urban planning in five decades, brings together urban studies and literary studies to examine how fictional cities in work by authors as different as E. M. Forster, Isaac Asimov, Kim Stanley Robinson, and China Miéville might help us to envision an urban future that is viable and resilient. Imagining Urban Futures is a remarkable treatise on what is best and strongest in urban theory and practice today, as refracted and intensely imagined in science fiction. As the human population grows, we can envision an increasingly urban society. Shifting weather patterns, rising sea levels, reduced access to resources, and a host of other issues will radically impact urban environments, while technology holds out the dream of cities beyond Earth. Abbott delivers a compelling critical discussion of science fiction cities found in literary works, television programs, and films of many eras from Metropolis to Blade Runner and Soylent Green to The Hunger Games, among many others.

Author: Peter Hall
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136369295
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
Prepared for the World Commission on Twenty-First Century Urbanization Conference in Berlin in July 2000. This book is an entirely new and comprehensive review of the state of world urban development at the millennium and a forecast of the main issues that will dominate urban debates in the next 25 years. It is the most significant book on cities and city planning problems to appear for many years.

Author: Zoé A. Hamstead
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030631311
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
This open access book addresses the way in which urban and urbanizing regions profoundly impact and are impacted by climate change. The editors and authors show why cities must wage simultaneous battles to curb global climate change trends while adapting and transforming to address local climate impacts. This book addresses how cities develop anticipatory and long-range planning capacities for more resilient futures, earnest collaboration across disciplines, and radical reconfigurations of the power regimes that have institutionalized the disenfranchisement of minority groups. Although planning processes consider visions for the future, the editors highlight a more ambitious long-term positive visioning approach that accounts for unpredictability, system dynamics and equity in decision-making. This volume brings the science of urban transformation together with practices of professionals who govern and manage our social, ecological and technological systems to design processes by which cities may achieve resilient urban futures in the face of climate change.

Author: Simon, David
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447354079
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Reporting on the innovative, transdisciplinary research on sustainable urbanisation undertaken by Mistra Urban Futures, a highly influential research centre based in Sweden (2010-19), this book builds on the Policy Press title Rethinking Sustainable Cities to make a significant contribution to evolving theory about comparative urban research. Highlighting important methodological experiences from across a variety of diverse contexts in Africa and Europe, this book surveys key experiences and summarises lessons learned from the Mistra Urban Futures' global research platforms. It demonstrates best practice for developing and deploying different forms of transdisciplinary co-production, covering topics including neighbourhood transformation and housing justice, sustainable urban and transport development, urban food security and cultural heritage.

Author: Lisa Maddaus
Publisher: IWA Publishing
ISBN: 1780405235
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Many communities are facing water scarcity in developing and developed countries alike. There are numerous publications and on-going research studies documenting the changes in our climate and potential for worsening shortages in our future. Meeting future potable water demands as communities continue to grow will rely heavily on using our existing water resources more efficiently. Preparing Urban Water Use Efficiency Plans provides detailed approaches to developing and implementing a water conservation plan. This book covers the broad spectrum of conservation planning for urban communities including achieving more efficiency from: Residential domestic uses Commercial and governmental facilities use Industrial uses Pricing Water Loss Control Programs The steps in the Guide clearly outline and provide sample calculations to aid determining which water use efficiency activities are financially justifiable to undertake. The end result is a plan that policy decision makers can adopt and fund, and that water service provider staff can implement to help increase their community's water reliability. It includes numerous case studies and a Microsoft Excel based software tool to allow planners to evaluate the business case for implementing various water conservation activities. This book is an essential resource for professionals in water and wastewater resources, particularly for planners and engineers. It is also a useful guide for Post Graduate and Undergraduate students. Author(s): Lisa Maddaus, William Maddaus and Michelle Maddaus, Maddaus Water Management Inc.

Author: Ben Green
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262352257
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be “smart enough,” using technology to promote democracy and equity. Smart cities, where technology is used to solve every problem, are hailed as futuristic urban utopias. We are promised that apps, algorithms, and artificial intelligence will relieve congestion, restore democracy, prevent crime, and improve public services. In The Smart Enough City, Ben Green warns against seeing the city only through the lens of technology; taking an exclusively technical view of urban life will lead to cities that appear smart but under the surface are rife with injustice and inequality. He proposes instead that cities strive to be “smart enough”: to embrace technology as a powerful tool when used in conjunction with other forms of social change—but not to value technology as an end in itself. In a technology-centric smart city, self-driving cars have the run of downtown and force out pedestrians, civic engagement is limited to requesting services through an app, police use algorithms to justify and perpetuate racist practices, and governments and private companies surveil public space to control behavior. Green describes smart city efforts gone wrong but also smart enough alternatives, attainable with the help of technology but not reducible to technology: a livable city, a democratic city, a just city, a responsible city, and an innovative city. By recognizing the complexity of urban life rather than merely seeing the city as something to optimize, these Smart Enough Cities successfully incorporate technology into a holistic vision of justice and equity.

Author: Michael Oluf Emerson
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479800260
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Introduction: the claim -- How it happens -- Becoming market and people cities -- How government and leaders make cities work -- What residents think, believe, and act on -- Why it matters -- Getting there, being there: transportation and land use -- Environment/economy : and or versus? -- Life together and apart -- Across cities -- To be or not to be -- Acknowledgments -- Methodological appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the authors

Author: UNESCO
Publisher: UNESCO Publishing
ISBN: 9231001701
Category : Cities and towns
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Report presents a series of analyses and recommendations for fostering the role of culture for sustainable development. Drawing on a global survey implemented with nine regional partners and insights from scholars, NGOs and urban thinkers, the report offers a global overview of urban heritage safeguarding, conservation and management, as well as the promotion of cultural and creative industries, highlighting their role as resources for sustainable urban development. Report is intended as a policy framework document to support governments in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Urban Development and the New Urban Agenda.

Author: Stephen T. Um
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433532921
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
We live in a unique moment in history. Right now, more people live in urban centers than ever before. This means that we have an unprecedented opportunity to influence the majority of the world through the church in the city. Helping us to make the most of this moment, urban pastors Justin Buzzard and Stephen Um lay out a compelling vision for cultural engagement and church planting in our world’s cities. If you’re looking for motivation to maintain a commitment to the city or for guidance as you consider going all in, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of urban life that informs, instructs, inspires, and answers questions including: Why cities are so important What the Bible says about cities How to overcome common issues and develop a plan for living missionally in the city Instead of retreating from or taking from our cities, here is a call to make the cities our home, to take good care of them, and to participate in God’s kingdom-building work in the urban centers of our world.

Author: Koon Hean Cheong
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813279419
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
Dr Cheong Koon Hean, CEO of the Housing and Development Board (2010-Present) was the Institute of Policy Studies' 5th S R Nathan Fellow for the Study of Singapore. This book contains edited versions of the three IPS-Nathan Lectures she gave between March and April 2018, and highlights of her dialogue with the audience.Climate change, an ageing population, anti-globalisation sentiments the world over, technological disruption, and social media all pose unique problems and opportunities to cities. Dr Cheong examines how cities deal with their urban challenges to create a better life for their citizens. In particular, what are the considerations needed to plan and develop Singapore in the face of rapid change and uncertainty, given our constraints as a small city-state with an open economy?The IPS-Nathan Lectures series was launched in 2014 as part of the S R Nathan Fellowship for the Study of Singapore. The S R Nathan Fellow delivers a series of lectures during their term to advance public understanding and discussion of issues of critical national interest.