Eco-Cities: A Planning Guide / Edition 1

by Zhifeng Yang

Overview

As cities undergo vast changes due to industrialization, urbanization, and globalization, environmental considerations assume a growing importance in the urban planning processes of an increasing number of governments around the world. Several cities and regions around the world have already enacted policies that signal the emergence of a paradigm of sustainability in eco-cities planning. Providing an overview of urban ecosystem structure, function, and change, Eco-Cities: A Planning Guide addresses how to successfully accomplish eco-city planning that meets government requirements. It adds a new dimension to the understanding and application of the concept of urban sustainability, based on hypotheses about feedback between social and biogeophysical processes.

Emphasizing integration, the first part of the book discusses various aspects of planning theory. It presents three innovative theories for socioeconomic models: a theory on the locational choices made by households and firms, an urban version of the stream continuum concept, and an application of metacommunity theory to the fragmented urban biota. These theories raise new urban planning questions and stimulate integrated modeling. The book also introduces urban planning modeling that uses existing social, vegetation, ecohydrological, and ecosystem service modules but is refined and operated for enhanced cross-disciplinary integration and prediction. The second part of the book consists of several case studies of Chinese eco-cities covering a majority of the urban development patterns that offer in-depth examples of planning practices currently in use.

Drawing on experimentation, comparison, long-term measurement, and modeling, this fascinating guide helps readers better understand eco-cities and eco-landscapes as integrated, spatially extensive, complex adaptive systems. It lays a solid foundation for engagement between urban planners, researchers, educators, policy makers, and citizens as they work to adapt to changing environmental, social, and economic conditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439883228
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/15/2012
Series:	Applied Ecology and Environmental Management , #6
Pages:	620
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Zhifeng Yang is a professor and the dean of the School of Environment at Beijing Normal University. His research areas include urban ecological planning and management. He has authored more than 10 books on urban planning, water resources management, and ecological engineering, and has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles. Professor Yang is an associate editor of the Journal of Environmental Informatics and the Journal of Environmental Sciences, and a guest editor of Ecological Modelling and Ecological Informatics. He is also an editorial member of the Journal of Hydrodynamics, Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, and Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering in China.

Table of Contents

Theoretical Bases: Eco-city Planning Theories and Thoughts. Integrated Urban Ecosystem Assessments. Planning of Ecological Spatial System. Planning of Industry System. Planning of Sustainable Energy and Air Pollution Prevention. Urban Water Environment Quality Improvement Plan. Eco-Habitat and Eco-Cultural System Planning. Urban Ecological Planning Regulation. Case Studies: Eco-City Guangzhou Plan. Eco-City Xiamen Plan. Eco-City Baotou Plan. Eco-City Wuyishan Plan. Eco-City Wanzhou Plan. Eco-City Jingdezhen Plan. Assessment of Sustainability for a City by Application of a Work Energy Balance and a Carbon Cycling Model. Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Eco-Cities: A Planning Guide is an essential guidebook to a powerful new way of understanding the relationships between humans and nature in the context of our modern urban ecosystems. Providing a comprehensive theoretical basis, several case studies, and the explanation of very innovative methodologies for integrated urban ecosystem assessment, this book will become a key reference for students, scientists, professionals, and policy makers interested in planning and managing sustainable cities."

—Pier Paolo Franzese, Parthenope University of Naples, Italy

"What fascinates me most is the detailed Chinese eco-city cases and specific eco-city planning processes. Anyone interested in the ‘how and why’ of Chinese eco-city planning history and processes would do well to use this book as a starting point."

—Guoqian Chen, College of Engineering, Peking University, China

"Overall, the book is a needed contribution in combining concepts of ecology and urbanism and in moving sustainable development from theory to practice."

—Brian D. Fath, Towson University, Maryland, USA

"Eco-Cities: A Planning Guide is an essential guidebook to a powerful new way of understanding the relationships between humans and nature in the context of our modern urban ecosystems. Providing a comprehensive theoretical basis, several case studies, and the explanation of very innovative methodologies for integrated urban ecosystem assessment, this book will become a key reference for students, scientists, professionals, and policy makers interested in planning and managing sustainable cities."
—Pier Paolo Franzese, Parthenope University of Naples, Italy

"What fascinates me most is the detailed Chinese eco-city cases and specific eco-city planning processes. Anyone interested in the ‘how and why’ of Chinese eco-city planning history and processes would do well to use this book as a starting point."
—Guoqian Chen, College of Engineering, Peking University, China

"Overall, the book is a needed contribution in combining concepts of ecology and urbanism and in moving sustainable development from theory to practice."
—Brian D. Fath, Towson University, Maryland, USA

From the Publisher