The Equitably Resilient City

The Equitably Resilient City
Author: Zachary B. Lamb
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2024-10-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262380943

Twelve global planning and urban design interventions—and what they reveal about equity-centered urban resilience in the face of climate change. Hillside favelas in South America imperiled by landslides. Flood-threatened mobile home parks on the American Gulf Coast. Canal-side settlements facing eviction in megacities in Southeast Asia. Too often the places most vulnerable to climate change are the ones that are home to people with the fewest economic and political resources. And while some leaders are starting to take action to reduce climate risks, many early adaptation schemes have actually made preexisting inequalities worse. In The Equitably Resilient City, Zachary Lamb and Lawrence Vale ask how cities can adapt to climate change and other threats while also doing right by disadvantaged residents. Lamb and Vale’s model for the equitably resilient city includes four central domains: (1) environmental safety and vitality; (2) security from displacement; (3) stable and dignified livelihoods; and (4) enhanced self-governance. These principles represent the four LEGS (Livelihoods, Environment, Governance, and Security) of equitable resilience. To illustrate these core principles, the book draws on 12 case studies from settlements facing a range of hazards across diverse geographies in the Global North and South, from heat stress in Paris to drought in Bolivia to floods in Bangkok and New Orleans. Offering concrete strategies in the form of planning, community action, and design interventions, Lamb and Vale show that equitable urban resilience is not a pipe dream nor an abstract ethical proposition but an achievable reality grounded in struggle and solidarity.

Resilient Cities, Second Edition

Resilient Cities, Second Edition
Author: Peter Newman
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2017-06
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1610916859

Drawing from research and examples about resilient cities, this book looks at new initiatives and innovations cities can implement.

Resilient Smart Cities

Resilient Smart Cities
Author: Ayyoob Sharifi
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 477
Release: 2022-06-29
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3030950379

This book provides a thorough guide to building resilient cities, through the use of smart solutions enabled by information and communication technologies. It introduces innovative approaches for integrating smart solutions into urban resilience planning and offers numerous global case studies to illustrate the benefits of the theories discussed. Against a background of increased natural disasters, pandemics, and climate change, this book answers research questions such as: • Do smart city projects contribute to urban climate resilience? • What are the indicators of smart city resilience? • What procedures should be taken to improve efficacy of smart city solutions? • What are the opportunities and challenges for promoting smart city resilience and for integrating resilience thinking into smart city planning? Including contributions from international experts, explanatory illustrations, and data-driven tables, this book is of interest to researchers, policymakers, and graduate students focused on developing more sustainable, smart, and resilient cities.

From the Ground Up

From the Ground Up
Author: Alison Sant
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2022-01-11
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1610918975

For decades, American cities have experimented with ways to remake themselves in response to climate change. These efforts, often driven by grassroots activism, offer valuable lessons for transforming the places we live. In From the Ground Up: Local Efforts to Create Resilient Cities, design expert Alison Sant focuses on the unique ways in which US cities are working to mitigate and adapt to climate change while creating equitable and livable communities. She shows how, from the ground up, we are raising the bar to make cities places in which we don’t just survive, but where all people have the opportunity to thrive. The efforts discussed in the book demonstrate how urban experimentation and community-based development are informing long-term solutions. Sant shows how US cities are reclaiming their streets from cars, restoring watersheds, growing forests, and adapting shorelines to improve people’s lives while addressing our changing climate. The best examples of this work bring together the energy of community activists, the organization of advocacy groups, the power of city government, and the reach of federal environmental policy. Sant presents 12 case studies, drawn from research and over 90 interviews with people who are working in these communities to make a difference. For example, advocacy groups in Washington, DC are expanding the urban tree canopy and offering job training in the growing sector of urban forestry. In New York, transit agencies are working to make streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians while shortening commutes. In San Francisco, community activists are creating shoreline parks while addressing historic environmental injustice. From the Ground Up is a call to action. When we make the places we live more climate resilient, we need to acknowledge and address the history of social and racial injustice. Advocates, non-profit organizations, community-based groups, and government officials will find examples of how to build alliances to support and embolden this vision together. Together we can build cities that will be resilient to the challenges ahead.

Urban Resilience

Urban Resilience
Author: Jon Coaffee
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2017-08-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137288841

As the cities of the world increasingly come under threat from crisis and disaster, planners are searching for ways to build resilience into the foundations of modern urban centres. This important book provides a comprehensive account of the theory and practice of urban resilience in response to a range of disruptions, including terrorism, climate change and economic crises. It examines how the concepts and principles of resilience exert increasing significant influence over the form and function of planning. Discussing a 'politics of resilience' in which fundamental questions of social and spatial justice are posed, this book examines how urban planners are increasingly tasked with the responsibility of safeguarding the future of urbanised centres and those that live in them. Drawing on international examples and detailed case-studies, this book provides a nuanced account of the uses, and misuses, of resilience and points a way forward for planning activity, from an approach that is too often narrowly technical in focus towards an integrated and adaptable model for coping with risk, crisis and uncertainty. It will make essential reading for students of urban planning and researchers alike.

Resilient Cities

Resilient Cities
Author: Peter Newman
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2009-01-09
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9781597264990

Half of the world’s inhabitants now live in cities. In the next twenty years, the number of urban dwellers will swell to an estimated five billion people. With their inefficient transportation systems and poorly designed buildings, many cities—especially in the United States—consume enormous quantities of fossil fuels and emit high levels of greenhouse gases. But our planet is rapidly running out of the carbon-based fuels that have powered urban growth for centuries and we seem to be unable to curb our greenhouse gas emissions. Are the world’s cities headed for inevitable collapse? The authors of this spirited book don’t believe that oblivion is necessarily the destiny of urban areas. Instead, they believe that intelligent planning and visionary leadership can help cities meet the impending crises, and look to existing initiatives in cities around the world. Rather than responding with fear (as a legion of doomsaying prognosticators have done), they choose hope. First, they confront the problems, describing where we stand today in our use of oil and our contribution to climate change. They then present four possible outcomes for cities: ”collapse,” “ruralized,” “divided,” and “resilient.” In response to their scenarios, they articulate how a new “sustainable urbanism” could replace today’s “carbon-consuming urbanism.” They address in detail how new transportation systems and buildings can be feasibly developed to replace our present low efficiency systems. In conclusion, they offer ten “strategic steps” that any city can take toward greater sustainability and resilience. This is not a book filled with “blue sky” theory (although blue skies will be a welcome result of its recommendations). Rather, it is packed with practical ideas, some of which are already working in cities today. It frankly admits that our cities have problems that will worsen if they are not addressed, but it suggests that these problems are solvable. And the time to begin solving them is now.

Building Urban Resilience through Change of Use

Building Urban Resilience through Change of Use
Author: Sara J. Wilkinson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2018-02-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119231442

Describes all aspects of sustainable conversion adaptation of existing buildings and provides solutions for making urban settlements resilient to climate change This comprehensive book explores the potential to change the character of cities with residential conversion of office space in order to withstand the negative effects of climate change. It investigates the nature and extent of sustainable conversion in a number of global cities, as well as the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal drivers and barriers to successful conversion. The book also identifies the key lessons learned through international comparisons with cases in the UK, US, Australia, and the Netherlands. Building Urban Resilience Through Change of Use covers the benefits and aspects of sustainable conversion adaptation through the whole lifecycle from inception, planning, and design, to procurement, construction, and management and operational issues. It illustrates and quantifies, through empirical research, the changes that have been achieved or delivered in sustainable conversion adaptation. The book gives an overview of all aspects of performance characteristics and the conversion adaptation of existing buildings. In the end, it enables planners to make more informed decisions about whether conversion adaptation is a good choice—and if so, which types of sustainability measures are best suited for projects. Provides detailed, empirical knowledge based on real-world research undertaken in five countries over three continents on both a citywide scale and on individual buildings Case studies and exemplars demonstrate the application of the knowledge in North and South America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and in Europe Addresses the key themes of technology, finance and procurement, and the regulatory framework The first research-based book to examine how to improve resilience to climate change through sustainable reuse of buildings, Building Urban Resilience Through Change of Use is a welcome book for researchers and academics involved in building surveying, urban development, and sustainability planning.

Urban Design for an Urban Century

Urban Design for an Urban Century
Author: Lance Jay Brown
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 720
Release: 2014-05-27
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1118846834

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to urban design, from a historical overview and basic principles to practical design concepts and strategies. It discusses the demographic, environmental, economic, and social issues that influence the decision-making and implementation processes of urban design. The Second Edition has been fully revised to include thorough coverage of sustainability issues and to integrate new case studies into the core concepts discussed.

Resilience and Urban Governance

Resilience and Urban Governance
Author: Katarína Svitková
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2021-07-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 100041308X

This book challenges the concept of ‘urban resilience’ by exploring its impact and limitations in three cities. Resilience has become a buzzword in science, industry, and policy, and this volume offers a fresh perspective on urban resilience as a regulatory and constitutive principle of governance in cities. Cities constitute an extremely relevant playground for resilience, as they are exposed to various disruptions, from natural disasters and pandemics to political conflicts and terrorism. This book traces the evolution of urban resilience, from international development organizations to local governments and communities. It explores how this concept was adopted and mobilized by different actors for different purposes, and analyses the resulting resilience momentum in Barcelona, San Francisco, and Santiago. The book outlines the extent to which resilience has become a universal policy tool and a desired end-state, despite its clearly problematic definition. It also contributes to the discussion about contemporary governance, safety and security in times when their very nature and feasibility are being questioned. This book will be of much interest to students of resilience studies, urban studies, development studies, human geography and international relations.

Environmental Justice and Urban Resilience in the Global South

Environmental Justice and Urban Resilience in the Global South
Author: Adriana Allen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2017-12-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137473541

This edited volume provides a fresh perspective on the important yet often neglected relationship between environmental justice and urban resilience. Many scholars have argued that resilient cities are more just cities. But what if the process of increasing the resilience of the city as a whole happens at the expense of the rights of certain groups? If urban resilience focuses on the degree to which cities are able to reorganise in creative ways and adapt to shocks, do pervasive inequalities in access to environmental services have an effect on this ability? This book brings together an interdisciplinary and intergeneration group of scholars to examine the contradictions and tensions that develop as they play out in cities of the Global South through a series of empirically grounded case studies spanning cities of Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe.