The Routledge Handbook of Urbanization and Global Environmental Change PDF Download

Author: Karen C. Seto
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317909313
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 799

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Book Description
This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the interactions and feedbacks between urbanization and global environmental change. A key focus is the examination of how urbanization influences global environmental change, and how global environmental change in turn influences urbanization processes. It has four thematic foci: Theme 1 addresses the pathways through which urbanization drives global environmental change. Theme 2 addresses the pathways through which global environmental change affects the urban system. Theme 3 addresses the interactions and responses within the urban system in response to global environmental change. Theme 4 centers on critical emerging research.

Author: Michael Pacione
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415191968
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 716

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Book Description
This text is an introduction to the study of towns and cities. The book synthesizes a wealth of material to provide a comprehensive introduction for students of urban geography, drawing on a rich blend of theoretical and empirical information, to advance their knowledge of the city. For the first time in the history of humankind, urban dwellers outnumber rural residents and this trend is destined to continue. Urban places, towns and cities are of fundamental importance: for the distribution of population within countries; in the organization of economic production, distribution and exchange; in the structuring of social reproduction and cultural life; and in the allocation and exercise of power. Even those living beyond the administrative or functional boundaries of a town or city, will have their lifestyle influenced to some degree by a nearby or distant city.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309086388
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
World human population is expected to reach upwards of 9 billion by 2050 and then level off over the next half-century. How can the transition to a stabilizing population also be a transition to sustainability? How can science and technology help to ensure that human needs are met while the planet's environment is nurtured and restored? Our Common Journey examines these momentous questions to draw strategic connections between scientific research, technological development, and societies' efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable improvements in human well being. The book argues that societies should approach sustainable development not as a destination but as an ongoing, adaptive learning process. Speaking to the next two generations, it proposes a strategy for using scientific and technical knowledge to better inform future action in the areas of fertility reduction, urban systems, agricultural production, energy and materials use, ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation, and suggests an approach for building a new research agenda for sustainability science. Our Common Journey documents large-scale historical currents of social and environmental change and reviews methods for "what if" analysis of possible future development pathways and their implications for sustainability. The book also identifies the greatest threats to sustainabilityâ€"in areas such as human settlements, agriculture, industry, and energyâ€"and explores the most promising opportunities for circumventing or mitigating these threats. It goes on to discuss what indicators of change, from children's birth-weights to atmosphere chemistry, will be most useful in monitoring a transition to sustainability.

Author: R. Ramachandran
Publisher: OUP India
ISBN: 9780195629590
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
This substantive and original contribution to the study of urbanization in India critically analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the Indian urban system and provides new insights into contemporary urban problems. The author's perspective of urban development in India interrelates the geographical dimension with historical and socio-economic aspects. The book focuses on the processes of urbanization and the nature of interdependence among urban centres and between urban centres and their hinterlands. The approach is at the macro level. The first chapter provides an overview of studies of urbanization in India, and a detailed chapter on the history of urbanization follows. These provide the necessary background to the chapter on urbanization processes. The locational aspects of urbanization are covered in the next five chapters which discuss the problem of defining an urban place, spatial patterns of urbanization, classification of cities, theories of settlement location and the analysis of settlement systems. The relationships between a city and its surrounding area are then studied at two levels - the larger area of city dominance and the city fringe area. Finally, the author examines the fundamental issues involved in framing a national urbanization policy, and expresses the hope that the development of smaller cities and towns may provide some relief from the problems of overcrowding and unplanned growth.

Author: William D. Solecki
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1610919793
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Approximately 80% of the U.S. population now lives in urban metropolitan areas, and this number is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. At the same time, the built infrastructure sustaining these populations has become increasingly vulnerable to climate change. Stresses to existing systems, such as buildings, energy, transportation, water, and sanitation are growing. If the status quo continues, these systems will be unable to support a high quality of life for urban residents over the next decades, a vulnerability exacerbated by climate change impacts. Understanding this dilemma and identifying a path forward is particularly important as cities are becoming leading agents of climate action. Prepared as a follow-up to the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA), Climate Change and U.S. Cities documents the current understanding of existing and future climate risk for U.S. cities, urban systems, and the residents that depend on them. Beginning with an examination of the existing science since 2012, chapters develop connections between existing and emerging climate risk, adaptation planning, and the role of networks and organizations in facilitating climate action in cities. From studies revealing disaster vulnerability among low-income populations to the development of key indicators for tracking climate change, this is an essential, foundational analysis. Importantly, the assessment puts a critical emphasis on the cross-cutting factors of economics, equity, and governance. Urban stakeholders and decision makers will come away with a full picture of existing climate risks and a set of conclusions and recommendations for action. Many cities in the United States still have not yet planned for climate change and the costs of inaction are great. With bold analysis, Climate Change and U.S. Cities reveals the need for action and the tools that cities must harness to effect decisive, meaningful change.

Author: Celine Rozenblat
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811077991
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
This book reviews the recent evolutions of cities in the world according to entirely revised theoretical fundamentals of urban systems. It relies on a vision of cities sharing common dynamic features as co-evolving entities in complex systems. Systems of cities that are interdependent in their evolutions are characterized in the context of that dynamics. They are identified on various geographical scales—worldwide, regional, or national. Each system exhibits peculiarities that are related to its demographic, economic, and geopolitical history, and that are underlined by the systematic comparison of continental and regional urban systems, following a common template throughout the book. Multi-scale urban processes, whether local (one city), or within national systems (systems of cities), or linked to the expansion of transnational networks (towards global urban systems) throughout the world over the period 1950–2010 are deeply analyzed in 16 chapters. This global overview challenges urban governance for designing policies facing globalization and the subsequent ecological transition. The answers, which emerge from the diversity of situations in the world, add some reflections on and recommendations to the “urban system framework” proposed in the Habitat III agenda.

Author: Yuji Murayama
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401720061
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
This book is an attempt to explain Japanese regional structure and associated dynamism in terms of urban systems. It is extremely effective to use the urban systems approach to explain the regional changes in today's Japan, which is undergoing changes wrought by economic globalization and the information revolution. This is because the transformation into a service economy has become the key component of the economic activities of cities, linkages are being mutually strengthened, and regional development is being determined by the interdependency of cities. Readers hoping to gain an understanding of the regional geography of Japan may feel that the structure and content of this book are lacking something. However, it is not the intention of this book to systematically paint a total geographical image of Japan within the context of East Asia. Instead, by focusing on urban systems theory, it might be possible to theorize about the factors related to the changing geography of Japan, such as the growth and decline processes of Japanese urban systems, the strengthening of ties among cities and associated factors, and the expansion of socioeconomic exchanges with cities overseas, from a perspective that is different from the conventional approach.

Author: Graeme Hugo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351914952
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
There is increasing appreciation in the social sciences that context is an important element in understanding social, economic, cultural, political and demographic processes. An important element in context is the type of settlement in which people live and work and so, it is vital to be able to categorise people into particular settlements types. This book brings together a leading team of social scientists to present the latest information on urbanization around the world, highlighting examples of development patterns that are not adequately captured by the UN's type of reporting systems and drawing attention to other ways of representing current trends.

Author: Sergio Albeverio
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3790819379
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Book Description
This book contains the contributions presented at the international workshop "The Dynamics of Complex Urban Systems: an interdisciplinary approach" held in Ascona, Switzerland in November 2004. Experts from several disciplines outline a conceptual framework for modeling and forecasting the dynamics of both growth-limited cities and megacities. Coverage reflects the various interdependencies between structural and social development.

Author: Yannan Ding
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319640429
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
This book offers a unique contribution to the burgeoning field of Chinese historical geography. Urban transformation in China constitutes both a domestic revolution and a world-historical event. Through the exploration of nine urban sites of momentous change, over an extended period of time, this book connects the past with the present, and provides much-needed literature on city growth and how they became complex laboratories of prosperity. The first part of this book puts Chinese urban changes into historical perspective, and probes the relationship between nation and city, focusing on Shanghai, Beijing and Changchun. Part two deals with the relationship between history and modernity, concentrating on Tunxi, a traditional trade center of tea, New Villages in Shanghai and street names in Taipei and Shanghai. Part three showcases the complexities of urban regeneration vis-à-vis heritage preservation in cities such as Datong, Tianjin and Qingdao. This book offers an innovative interdisciplinary and international perspective, which will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese urban studies, as well Chinese politics and society.