The UK Planning Regulations are a minefield for anyone looking to build a new home - and for those who are worried about the impact of a new planning application near their home. Avoid being one of the thousands whose application is turned down - and whose dreams are crushed - by using this book to familiaries yourself with the system and beat it. With a step-by-step guide to every part of the application process and ehaustive coverage of the do's and don'ts this is an essential guide to s...

"This powerful book of cultural criticism" by the renowned art historian "shines a harsh light on" a historic city's destruction in the name of profit ( The Washington Post).What is Venice worth? To whom do its irreplaceable treasures belong? This eloquent book by art historian Salvatore Settis urgently poses these questions, igniting a new debate about urban stewardship and cultural patrimony at large. As Venice grows increasingly unaffordable and inhospi...

*Carrion crows in the Japanese city of Sendai have learned to use passing traffic to crack nuts.*Lizards in Puerto Rico are evolving feet that better grip surfaces like concrete.*Europe's urban blackbirds sing at a higher pitch than their rural cousins, to be heardover the din of traffic.How is this happening?Menno Schilthuizen is one of a growing number of "urban ecologists" studying how our manmade environments are accelerating and changing the evolut...

The urban world is an exciting terrain for investigating the central institutions, structures and problems of the social world and how they have transformed through the last 200 years. This Reader comprises sections on urban social theory, racial and social difference in the city, culture in everyday life, culture and the urban economy, globalization and transnational social relations and the regulation of urban space.Drawing together seminal selections covering the ninete...

This book moves beyond superficial generalizations about Cairo as a chaotic metropolis in the developing world into an analysis of the ways the city's eighteen million inhabitants have, in the face of a largely neglectful government, built and shaped their own city. Using a wealth of recent studies on Greater Cairo and a deep reading of informal urban processes, the city and its recent history are portrayed and mapped: the huge, spontaneous neighborhoods; housing; traffic and transport; ci...

Urbanization is occurring at an unprecedented rate; by 2050 three quarters of the world’s people will live in urban environments. The cars we drive, products we consume, houses we live in and technology we use will all determine how sustainable our cities will be. Bridging the increasing divide between cross-disciplinary academic insights and the latest practical innovations, Resilient Sustainable Cities provides an integrated approach for long term future planning within ...

With a foreword written by Senator Bernie SandersWhat is a durable economy? It is one that not only survives but thrives. How is it created, and what does it take to sustain over time? Sustainable Communities provides insight and answers to these questions.Citing Burlington, Vermont's remarkable rise to award-winning status, this book explores the balance of community planning, social enterprise development, energy and environment, food sy...

While urban preservation is almost as old as cities themselves, it has become increasingly controversial in modern cities. In this book, Yue Zhang presents a cross-national comparative analysis of the politics of urban preservation. Based on comprehensive archival research and more than two hundred in-depth interviews in Beijing, Chicago, and Paris, Zhang finds that urban preservation provides a tool for diverse political and social actors to frame their propositions and advance their favo...

This book focuses on sustainable solid waste management in an urban context and gives an example of how a modern city can work with waste management for increased sustainability in close cooperation with the academy. The book describes challenges which the city is facing and presents a case on how these can be tackled based on several research and development projects performed in the City of Malmö over the last decade. In these projects, the city has worked as a test bed for new solutions...

With increasing awareness of the urgent need to respond to global warming by reducing carbon emissions and recognition of the social benefits of car-free and car-lite living, more and more city planners, advocates, and everyday urban dwellers are demanding new ways of building cities. In Low Car(bon) Communities, authors Nicole Foletta and Jason Henderson examine seven case studies in Europe and the United States that aim explicitly to reduce dependency on cars. Innovative and ins...

A benchmark study in the changing field of urban anthropology, Berlin, Alexanderplatz is an ethnographic examination of the rapid transformation of the unified Berlin. Through a captivating account of the controversy around this symbolic public square in East Berlin, the book raises acute questions about expertise, citizenship, government and belonging. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the city administration bureaus, developers’ offices, citizen groups and in Alexanderplatz its...

Peri-urban interfaces - the zones where urban and rural areas meet - suffer from the greatest problems to humans caused by rapid urbanization, including intense pressures on resources, slum formation, lack of adequate services such as water and sanitation, poor planning and degradation of farmland. These areas, home to hundreds of millions of people, face unique problems and need distinctive and innovative approaches and solutions.This book, authored by top researchers and practiti...