Rethinking Environmentalism
Rethinking Environmentalism

Author: Sharachchandra Lele

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2019-03-29

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 0262349930

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A multidisciplinary examination of alternative framings of environmental problems, with using examples from forest, water, energy, and urban sectors. Does being an environmentalist mean caring about wild nature? Or is environmentalism synonymous with concern for future human well-being, or about a fair apportionment of access to the earth's resources and a fair sharing of pollution burdens? Environmental problems are undoubtedly one of the most salient public issues of our time, yet environmental scholarship and action is marked by a fragmentation of ideas and approaches because of the multiple ways in which these environmental problems are “framed.” Diverse framings prioritize different values and explain problems in various ways, thereby suggesting different solutions. Are more inclusive framings possible? Will this enable more socially relevant, impactful research and more concerted action and practice? This book takes a multidisciplinary look at these questions using examples from forest, water, energy, and urban sectors. It explores how different forms of environmentalism are shaped by different normative and theoretical positions, and attempts to bridge these divides. Individual perspectives are complemented by comprehensive syntheses of the differing framings in each sector. By self-reflectively exploring how researchers study and mobilize evidence about environmental problems, the book opens up the possibility of alternative framings to advance collaborative and integrated understanding of environmental problems and sustainability challenges.

Building Adaptation
Building Adaptation

Author: James Douglas

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-08-11

Total Pages: 680

ISBN-13: 1136425101

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As existing buildings age, nearly half of all construction activity in Britain is related to maintenance, refurbishment and conversions. Building adaptation is an activity that continues to make a significant contribution to the workload of the construction industry. Given its importance to sustainable construction, the proportion of adaptation works in relation to new build is likely to remain substantial for the foreseeable future, especially in the developed parts of the world. Building Adaptation, Second Edition is intended as a primer on the physical changes that can affect older properties. It demonstrates the general principles, techniques, and processes needed when existing buildings must undergo alteration, conversion, extension, improvement, or refurbishment. The publication of the first edition of Building Adaptation reflected the upsurge in refurbishment work. The book quickly established itself as one of the core texts for building surveying students and others on undergraduate and postgraduate built environment courses. This new edition continues to provide a comprehensive introduction to all the key issues relating to the adaptation of buildings. It deals with any work to a building over and above maintenance to change its capacity, function or performance.

Making Healthy Places
Making Healthy Places

Author: Andrew L. Dannenberg

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2012-09-18

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 1610910362

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The environment that we construct affects both humans and our natural world in myriad ways. There is a pressing need to create healthy places and to reduce the health threats inherent in places already built. However, there has been little awareness of the adverse effects of what we have constructed-or the positive benefits of well designed built environments. This book provides a far-reaching follow-up to the pathbreaking Urban Sprawl and Public Health, published in 2004. That book sparked a range of inquiries into the connections between constructed environments, particularly cities and suburbs, and the health of residents, especially humans. Since then, numerous studies have extended and refined the book's research and reporting. Making Healthy Places offers a fresh and comprehensive look at this vital subject today. There is no other book with the depth, breadth, vision, and accessibility that this book offers. In addition to being of particular interest to undergraduate and graduate students in public health and urban planning, it will be essential reading for public health officials, planners, architects, landscape architects, environmentalists, and all those who care about the design of their communities. Like a well-trained doctor, Making Healthy Places presents a diagnosis of--and offers treatment for--problems related to the built environment. Drawing on the latest scientific evidence, with contributions from experts in a range of fields, it imparts a wealth of practical information, with an emphasis on demonstrated and promising solutions to commonly occurring problems.

Urban Water Sustainability
Urban Water Sustainability

Author: Sarah Bell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781138929906

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This book investigates the implications of different developments in water technology and infrastructure for urban sustainability and the relationship between cities and nature.

Architecture and the Urban Environment
Architecture and the Urban Environment

Author: Derek Thomas

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-06-01

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1136428674

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This well illustrated text forms a critical appraisal of the place and direction of architecture and urban design in a new world order at the start of the 21st century. The book defines architectural and environmental goals for the New Age by analysing recent contemporary work for its responsiveness to important social and environmental issues and comparing it to successful precedents in architecture. It argues that this new sustainable approach to architecture should be recognised as a new development of mainstream architectural history. This practical guide illustrates current social and natural resource issues to aid architects in their approach to future design. Environmental economics is presented as a potential bridge over the divide between the expectations of the business sector and the concerns of environmental lobbies. Through examples and case studies, an accessible analysis of carefully researched data, drawn from primary sources over four continents, allows the author to outline the current urgency for architects and urban designers to respond with real commitment to current and future changing contexts. This book expresses a holistic vision and proposes a value system in response to the diagnosis. It includes: sound architectural and environmental ethics; end user involvement in the design process and technological advances aimed at sustainable resource use. Includes international case studies from Europe, North America, the Developing world including South Africa, South America and Central Asia.

Global Re-introduction Perspectives
Global Re-introduction Perspectives

Author: Pritpal S. Soorae

Publisher: IUCN

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 283171320X

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"This is the second issue in the Global Re-introduction Perspectives series and has been produced in the same standardized format as the previous one. The case-studies are arranged in the following order: Introduction, Goals, Success Indicators, Project Summary, Major Difficulties Faced, Major Lessons Learned, Success of Project with reasons for success or failure. For this second issue we received a total of 72 case-studies compared to 62 in the last issue. These case studies cover the following taxa as follows: invertebrates (9), fish (6), amphibians (5), reptiles (7), birds (13), mammals (20) and plants (12) ... We hope the information presented in this book will provide a broad global perspective on challenges facing re-introduction projects trying to restore biodiversity."--Pritpal S. Soorae.

Soil Quality, Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Security in Central and Eastern Europe
Soil Quality, Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Security in Central and Eastern Europe

Author: M.J. Wilson

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 9401141819

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Agriculture is a crucial component of the economies of many of the countries in transition from a centrally-planned to a market economy and the sector is by no means immune to the environmental and socioeconomic problems confronting the countries as a whole. The concept of sustainable development provides a convenient framework for the formulation of government environmental policy for such countries, especially those of them that aspire to join the EU and would thus be expected to meet EU environmental standards. For agriculture, this inevitably involves appropriate strategies for balancing crop and animal production while protecting the quality of the national soil and water resources. There is thus an urgent need to compile, exchange and evaluate current information on the quality of soils in these countries, and to assess the potential impact of new management practices on the soil and on the wider environment.

Landscape Reclamation
Landscape Reclamation

Author: Luis Loures

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2020-02-19

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 1789847621

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Ongoing landscape transformation worldwide has raised global concerns and there is a need to rethink landscaping to protect the environment. This is especially true for previously developed sites, currently abandoned or underused. Instead of consuming green lands, these derelict landscapes need to be redeveloped and given new life, enabling their transition to an increasingly sustainable urban setting. In this scenario, the present book, considers a set of subjects that highlight the diverse nature of the scientific domains associated with landscape reclamation, emphasizing the need to acknowledge that the contribution of each sustainability dimension is equally important. This will offer complementary development opportunities, while enabling redeveloped landscapes to fulfill multiple functions in an integrated way and underline the relevance of multifunctionality to promote sustainable landscape reclamation, planning, and development.

Building Safer Cities
Building Safer Cities

Author: Alcira Kreimer

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13:

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In developing countries, disasters can cause major setbacks to economic and social development, inflict massive casualties, and cause the diversion of funds from development to emergency relief and recovery.

Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design
Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design

Author: S.T.A. Pickett

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-01-13

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 9400753411

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The contributors to this volume propose strategies of urgent and vital importance that aim to make today’s urban environments more resilient. Resilience, the ability of complex systems to adapt to changing conditions, is a key frontier in ecological research and is especially relevant in creative urban design, as urban areas exemplify complex systems. With something approaching half of the world’s population now residing in coastal urban zones, many of which are vulnerable both to floods originating inland and rising sea levels, making urban areas more robust in the face of environmental threats must be a policy ambition of the highest priority. The complexity of urban areas results from their spatial heterogeneity, their intertwined material and energy fluxes, and the integration of social and natural processes. All of these features can be altered by intentional planning and design. The complex, integrated suite of urban structures and processes together affect the adaptive resilience of urban systems, but also presupposes that planners can intervene in positive ways. As examples accumulate of linkage between sustainability and building/landscape design, such as the Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park and Toronto’s Lower Don River area, this book unites the ideas, data, and insights of ecologists and related scientists with those of urban designers. It aims to integrate a formerly atomized dialog to help both disciplines promote urban resilience.