In metropolitan areas across the country, you can hear the laments over the loss of green space to new subdivisions and strip malls. But some city residents have taken unprecedented measures to protect their open land, and a growing movement seeks not only to preserve these lands but to link them in green corridors. Many land-use and urban planning professionals, along with landscape architects and environmental advocates, have joined in efforts to preserve natural areas. MetroGreen answers their call for a deeper exploration of the latest thinking and newest practices in this growing conservation field. In ten case studies of U.S. and Canadian cities paired for comparative analysis-Toronto and Chicago, Calgary and Denver, and Vancouver and Portland among them-Erickson looks closely at the motivations and objectives for connecting open spaces across metropolitan areas. She documents how open-space networks have been successfully created and protected, while also highlighting the critical human and ecological benefits of connectivity. MetroGreen's unique focus on several cities rather than a single urban area offers a perspective on the political, economic, cultural, and environmental conditions that affect open-space planning and the outcomes of its implementation.
This book examines the processes, practices and principles of defence planning in small and middle powers. Small and middle powers are recalibrating their force postures in this age of disruption. They are adapting their defence planning and military innovation processes to protect the security of their nations. The purpose of this book is to explore defence planning and military innovation in 11 contemporary case studies of small and middle powers in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania. Employing a structured focused comparison framework, it traces patterns in the choices of small and middle powers across the following themes: (1) alliances, dependencies and national ambitions; (2) approaches, processes, methods and techniques; and (3) military innovation strategies and outcomes. Breaking new theoretical ground, it offers a three-pronged typology distinguishing between the strategic defence planner, the transactional defence planners and the complacent defence planner. The book offers a rich array of insights into cases that fall across different geographies, strategic cultures and governance systems. These insights can help guide discussions on how to structure decision-making structures, arrive at ambition levels, formulate priorities, select partners and design defence planning and military innovation processes. This book will be of much interest to students of defence studies, security studies, public policy and international relations, as well as to professionals in defence planning.
THE ULTIMATE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR FINANCES AND PREPARING FOR RETIREMENT INCLUDES LIFETIME ACCESS TO ONLINE INVESTMENT COURSE RESOURCES AND OTHER ESSENTIAL RETIREMENT PLANNING DIGITAL ASSETS Planning for retirement is the biggest financial commitment of your life. Are you prepared? The future is often filled with fear and uncertainty. Fortunately, your retirement doesn’t have to be. Managing your finances, preparing to transition out of the workforce, and ensuring that your money is working as hard as possible to make your golden years sparkle can be overwhelming. Best-selling author and finance industry veteran Ted D. Snow, CFP®, MBA, knows how to prepare for retirement no matter what stage of planning his clients are in. Retirement Planning QuickStart Guide cuts through the chatter to help orient you on your journey to retirement. With financially sound money management strategies, practical tips, and a thorough look at with it takes to prepare for a retirement worth looking forward to Using the guidance and insight provided in this book, anyone, at any stage of their career, can find the answers they’re looking for to prepare for a comfortable, satisfying, and financially secure retirement. Whether retirement is right around the corner or still decades over the horizon, you deserve a retirement that's a fitting reward to a lifetime of hard work. This book is your essential companion. Retirement Planning QuickStart Guide Is Perfect For: - People in their 20’s, 30’s, or 40’s who know they have to start preparing for retirement but aren’t exactly sure how yet. - People in their 50’s, 60’s, and beyond – yes even people who are past the retirement age will find value in this book! - Anyone who is concerned that they aren’t adequately prepared for the largest financial commitment of their lives! Retirement Planning QuickStart Guide Covers: - Everything you need to know to get a head start on retirement planning from financial planning to the fundamentals of saving for retirement - Retirement planning investment strategies, tactics, and techniques that set this book apart from other retirement planning books - Preparing for retirement at any age (no matter how close or far away retirement truly is) - Exactly how to retire from work and into life Retirement Planning QuickStart Guide Will Teach You: - Where and When to Start – How to Understand Your Unique Retirement Needs and Start Preparing Now - 401(k)s, Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, Health Savings Accounts, Mutual Funds, and Other Financial Instruments – Which Ones Are Right for You and How to Use Them to Best Effect - Accelerating Your Retirement Timeline – What to Do If You Don’t Think You Have Enough Time (or Want to Retire Early!) - More Than Money – Going Beyond Financial Security for a Happy, Healthy, and Rewarding Life After Retirement - Fending Off Fraud, Estate Planning, Minimizing Your Tax Burden, Health Planning, Finding a Purpose After Work, and More! *LIFETIME ACCESS TO FREE SUBJECT MATTER DIGITAL ASSETS* - Access to comprehensive online investing courses to ensure your financial preparedness for retirement - A dynamic asset allocation tool to help you put your money to work for you - Life planning guide, a budgeting calculator, anti-fraud resources and more! *GIVING BACK* QuickStart Guides proudly supports One Tree Planted as a reforestation partner.
As China rises to become the world''s largest economy, half a billion rural villagers are expected to become urban residents in the coming decades. The great urbanization of the world''s most populated country is sure to be one of the most far-reaching social-economic events in the 21st century. This book provides a clear and comprehensive review of this unfolding event. It presents not only the evolution of public policies and institutional reforms regarding urban development over the past decades, but also an up-to-date survey and in-depth analysis of contemporary social-economic forces that define and contribute to the process of urbanization. Individuals interested in understanding China''s urban development will find this book useful, informative, and fascinating.
This Handbook is the first to explore the emergent field of ‘placemaking’ in terms of the recent research, teaching and learning, and practice agenda for the next few years. Offering valuable theoretical and practical insights from the leading scholars and practitioners in the field, it provides cutting-edge interdisciplinary research on the placemaking sector. Placemaking has seen a paradigmatic shift in urban design, planning, and policy to engage the community voice. This Handbook examines the development of placemaking, its emerging theories, and its future directions. The book is structured in seven distinct sections curated by experts in the areas concerned. Section One provides a glimpse at the history and key theories of placemaking and its interpretations by different community sectors. Section Two studies the transformative potential of placemaking practice through case studies on different places, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks. It also reveals placemaking’s potential to nurture a holistic community engagement, social justice, and human-centric urban environments. Section Three looks at the politics of placemaking to consider who is included and who is excluded from its practice and if the concept of placemaking needs to be reconstructed. Section Four deals with the scales and scopes of art-based placemaking, moving from the city to the neighborhood and further to the individual practice. It juxtaposes the voice of the practitioner and professional alongside that of the researcher and academic. Section Five tackles the socio-economic and environmental placemaking issues deemed pertinent to emerge more sustainable placemaking practices. Section Six emphasizes placemaking’s intersection with urban design and planning sectors and incudes case studies of generative planning practice. The final seventh section draws on the expertise of placemakers, researchers, and evaluators to present the key questions today, new methods and approaches to evaluation of placemaking in related fields, and notions for the future of evaluation practices. Each section opens with an introduction to help the reader navigate the text. This organization of the book considers the sectors that operate alongside the core placemaking practice. This seminal Handbook offers a timely contribution and international perspectives for the growing field of placemaking. It will be of interest to academics and students of placemaking, urban design, urban planning and policy, architecture, geography, cultural studies, and the arts.
What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.
Reflective Planning Practice: Theory, Cases, and Methods uses structured, first-person reflection to reveal the artistry of planning practice. The value of professional reflection is widely recognized, but there is a difference between acknowledging it and doing it. This book takes up that challenge, providing planners’ reflections on past practice as well as prompts for reflecting in the midst of planning episodes. It explains a reflection framework and employs it in seven case studies written by planning educators who also practice. The cases reveal practical judgments made during the planning episode and takeaways for practice, as the planners used logic and emotion, and applied convention and invention. The practical judgments are explained from the perspective of the authors’ personal experiences, purposes, and professional style, and their interpretation of the rich context that underpins the cases including theories, sociopolitical aspects, workplace setting, and roles. The book seeks to awaken students and practitioners to the opportunities of a pragmatic, reflective approach to planning practice.
Engaging Children and Young People in Planning places planners’ skills for engagement with children and young people centre stage by discussing several projects delivered or supported by planning students to young people in the Northeast of England. Urban or town and country planning is a largely unfamiliar concept to children and young people. Moreover, in England, the environment in which young people live, play and go to school is shaped by a local planning process which lacks their input. This book explores the nature of the gap between that planning process and the voice of the younger members of the community, as well as the barriers that impede this engagement. It highlights why an engagement process is beneficial for those young people, for the wider community and for the planning process itself. At a time when our relationship with and impact on, the environment is being re-examined, this book challenges the planning professional to identify, develop and reflect upon the engagement skills that will help to transform planning into a more inclusive practice. It will be of use to scholars and practitioners in urban planning, community planning, engagement and children’s rights, whilst supporting their academic and professional development pathways.
This engaging and highly regarded book takes readers through the key stages of their PhD research journey, from the initial ideas through to successful completion and publication. It gives helpful guidance on forming research questions, organising ideas, pulling together a final draft, handling the viva and getting published. Each chapter contains a wealth of practical suggestions and tips for readers to try out and adapt to their own research needs and disciplinary style. This text will be essential reading for PhD students and their supervisors in humanities, arts, social sciences, business, law, health and related disciplines.
