Alternative Urban Futures: Planning for Sustainable Development in Cities throughout the World

by Raquel Pinderhughes

Overview

Alternative Urban Futures challenges existing models of urban development and promotes alternative paradigms, processes, and technologies designed to fulfill human needs and limit the harmful impacts of human activities on the environment.

The book focuses on how planners and policy makers can develop and manage essential urban infrastructures in ways that support sustainable development in the areas of waste management, water supply and management, energy production and use, building design and construction, land-use, transportation, and food systems. Each chapter features case studies that provide concrete examples of how ecologically and socially responsible urban and sustainable development planning and policy approaches have been successfully implemented in cities around the world. The book is especially effective in its emphasis on recently published statistics and writing supporting new planning and policy recommendations. Each chapter ends with a summary, accompanied by a list of questions that can be addressed with information provided in the text.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742523678
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/23/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.61(d)

About the Author

Raquel Pinderhughes is professor of urban studies and environmental studies at San Francisco State University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Introduction: Planning for Sustainable Urban Development
Chapter 3 Urban Water Quality, Supply, and Management
Chapter 4 Urban Solid Waste Disposal, Collection, and Management
Chapter 5 Urban Energy Supply and Management
Chapter 6 Urban Transportation Planning and Management
Chapter 7 Urban Food Production
Chapter 8 Towards Sustainable Development Planning in Cities
Chapter 9 Bibliography
Chapter 10 Index

Editorial Reviews

Offers a vision of how cities can change basic infrastructure practice and policies to promote sustainability. Both students and practitioners will be impressed with the clear analysis and highly practical approach.

Manuel Pastor

Can urban areas ever be sustainable? This book goes to the heart of the issue—providing useful examples and plenty of rigorous thinking.

Michael Redclift

Well-written and organized, the book provides a very good overview of a highly complex and interrelated set of subjects. The author has skillfully synthesized a diverse array of information into a compelling argument for better, more sustainable, urban planning.

James LaGro

A timely and informative contribution to the ongoing challenge to ensure that cities become part of the solution to the ever more burdensome impact of humans on the earth. The author has included a wealth of interesting detail in a style that is accessible to the general reader.

Rodney R. White

This timely volume will serve as shock therapy for North American professionals whose greatest mind-stretch to date has involved minor disputes over zoning by-laws or the merits of so-called 'smart growth.' The book is a needed 'dirt-under-the-fingernails' addition to the staid old planners' library of routine procedures and administrative abstraction.

William E. Rees

Pinderhughes succeeds in making the subject interesting, and she peppers the text with memorable success stories and noteworthy statistics. .. that will leave readers with a positive vision of the future.

San Francisco Chronicle

Pinderhughes succeeds in making the subject interesting, and she peppers the text with memorable success stories and noteworthy statistics . . . that will leave readers with a positive vision of the future.

San Francisco Chronicle

This timely volume will serve as shock therapy for North American professionals whose greatest mind-stretch to date has involved minor disputes over zoning by-laws or the merits of so-called 'smart growth.' The book is a needed 'dirt-under-the-fingernails' addition to the staid old planners' library of routine procedures and administrative abstraction.--William E. Rees, University of British Columbia

Offers a vision of how cities can change basic infrastructure practice and policies to promote sustainability. Both students and practitioners will be impressed with the clear analysis and highly practical approach.--Manuel Pastor, UC Santa Cruz

Well-written and organized, the book provides a very good overview of a highly complex and interrelated set of subjects. The author has skillfully synthesized a diverse array of information into a compelling argument for better, more sustainable, urban planning.--James LaGro, Jr., University of Wisconsin-Madison

From the Publisher