The Impact of COVID on Cities and Regions

The Impact of COVID on Cities and Regions
Author: Peter K. Kresl
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2023-10-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1035308959

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has arguably caused some of the most noticeable and influential societal and economic changes since World War Two. This path-breaking book investigates these changes and the subsequent responses of urban policy makers.

Great Planning Disasters

Great Planning Disasters
Author: Peter Hall
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 339
Release: 1982-03-22
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0520046072

"Wide-ranging, significant, and readable...It will earn respect in non-academics as well as academic circles. A first-rate job."—Lloyd Rodwin

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Green Societies

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Green Societies
Author: Chinmay Chakraborty
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2021-03-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030664902

This book covers the sustainability issues of a green environment towards economics and society in terms of alteration in industrial pollution levels, effect of reduced carbon emissions, changes in water bodies characteristics with respect to heavy metal contamination, monitoring of associated impact with respect to ecology and biodiversity, impact of reduced noise levels and air quality influences on human health, handling and management of biomedical waste. According to WHO, 80% of people living in urban areas are exposed to air exceeding safe limits. The advent of "sustainability‟ in development science has led planners to apply evolving notions of "sustainability‟ to the contemporary debate over how cities and regions should be revitalized, redeveloped, and reformed. Market allocation of resources, sustained levels of growth and consumption, an assumption that natural resources are unlimited and a belief that economic growth will „trickle down‟ to the poor have been its hallmarks. The recent advance technology helps to promote green and clean modern societies continuously. The Internet of things will be playing an important role in the upcoming years in environment protection and sustainable development. There is a focus on paradigm shift in the sustainable development for the green environment during the period of isolation of COVID-19. This is the moment for the mobilization against the climate crisis. The sudden fall in pollutants and subsequent blue skies signifies a dramatic shift for India and also other affected countries during this period. Fighting climate change requires a collaborative approach between all spheres of society unlike the former. It must heavily redirect resources towards local, sustainable activities, including education, health, sustainable agriculture and circular management of resources. The impact of COVID-19 pandemic which has resulted in the dramatic change in the different aspects of the environment. The global lockdown has led to a rejuvenation of nature, ecosystems, biodiversity. Even urban environments are discovering a degree of peace and serenity, which led to decrease in greenhouse gas emission.

World Cities Report 2020

World Cities Report 2020
Author: United Nations
Publisher:
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2020-11-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9789211328721

In a rapidly urbanizing and globalized world, cities have been the epicentres of COVID-19 (coronavirus). The virus has spread to virtually all parts of the world; first, among globally connected cities, then through community transmission and from the city to the countryside. This report shows that the intrinsic value of sustainable urbanization can and should be harnessed for the wellbeing of all. It provides evidence and policy analysis of the value of urbanization from an economic, social and environmental perspective. It also explores the role of innovation and technology, local governments, targeted investments and the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda in fostering the value of sustainable urbanization.

Epidemic Urbanism

Epidemic Urbanism
Author: Mohammad Gharipour
Publisher: Intellect (UK)
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2021-12-17
Genre:
ISBN: 9781789384673

Thirty-six interdisciplinary essays analyze the mutual relationship between historical epidemics and the built environment. Epidemic illnesses--not only a product of biology, but also social and cultural phenomena--are as old as cities themselves. The outbreak of COVID-19 in late 2019 brought the effects of epidemic illness on urban life into sharp focus, exposing the vulnerabilities of the societies it ravages as much as the bodies it infects. How might insights from the outbreak and responses to previous urban epidemics inform our understanding of the current world? With these questions in mind, Epidemic Urbanism gathers scholarship from a range of disciplines--including history, public health, sociology, anthropology, and medicine--to present historical case studies from across the globe, each demonstrating how cities are not just the primary place of exposure and quarantine, but also the site and instrument of intervention. They also demonstrate how epidemic illnesses, and responses to them, exploit and amplify social inequality in the communities they touch. Illustrated with more than 150 historical images, the essays illuminate the profound, complex ways epidemics have shaped the world around us and convey this information in a way that meaningfully engages a public readership.

Handbook of Quality of Life and Sustainability

Handbook of Quality of Life and Sustainability
Author: Javier Martinez
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2020-10-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030505405

This handbook provides the latest research related to quality of life and sustainability, taking into account social, economic, environmental, and political/governance aspects as well as specific socio-spatial contexts. The volume includes contributions from established and upcoming scholars from various disciplines and geographical contexts (Global South and North). The varying cultural and socio-spatial contexts of the authors in the selected cases contribute to first-hand knowledge on the realities of sustainability issues affecting the quality of life. The authors apply a wide diversity of methods and tools, which facilitates a unique understanding of the interlinkages between quality of life and sustainability. The chapters are grouped in three main sections: concepts and foundations; tools, techniques, and applications; and innovations. The authors provide their own view and theoretical approximation of the dimensions of sustainability, in particular on how these dimensions play out in relation to quality of life. The combination of sustainability and quality of life concepts and perspectives is particularly important in unravelling the multi-faceted nature of human, urban, rural/spatial development.

Survival of the City

Survival of the City
Author: Edward Glaeser
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0593297687

One of our great urbanists and one of our great public health experts join forces to reckon with how cities are changing in the face of existential threats the pandemic has only accelerated Cities can make us sick. They always have—diseases spread more easily when more people are close to one another. And disease is hardly the only ill that accompanies urban density. Cities have been demonized as breeding grounds for vice and crime from Sodom and Gomorrah on. But cities have flourished nonetheless because they are humanity’s greatest invention, indispensable engines for creativity, innovation, wealth, and connection, the loom on which the fabric of civilization is woven. But cities now stand at a crossroads. During the global COVID crisis, cities grew silent as people worked from home—if they could work at all. The normal forms of socializing ground to a halt. How permanent are these changes? Advances in digital technology mean that many people can opt out of city life as never before. Will they? Are we on the brink of a post-urban world? City life will survive but individual cities face terrible risks, argue Edward Glaeser and David Cutler, and a wave of urban failure would be absolutely disastrous. In terms of intimacy and inspiration, nothing can replace what cities offer. Great cities have always demanded great management, and our current crisis has exposed fearful gaps in our capacity for good governance. It is possible to drive a city into the ground, pandemic or not. Glaeser and Cutler examine the evolution that is already happening, and describe the possible futures that lie before us: What will distinguish the cities that will flourish from the ones that won’t? In America, they argue, deep inequities in health care and education are a particular blight on the future of our cities; solving them will be the difference between our collective good health and a downward spiral to a much darker place.

Meeting Regional Stemm Workforce Needs in the Wake of Covid-19

Meeting Regional Stemm Workforce Needs in the Wake of Covid-19
Author: National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2021-07-23
Genre:
ISBN: 9780309256285

The COVID-19 pandemic is transforming the global economy and significantly shifting workforce demand, requiring quick, adaptive responses. The pandemic has revealed the vulnerabilities of many organizations and regional economies, and it has accelerated trends that could lead to significant improvements in productivity, performance, and resilience, which will enable organizations and regions to thrive in the next normal. To explore how communities around the United States are addressing workforce issues laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are taking advantage of local opportunities to expand their science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) workforces to position them for success going forward, the Board of Higher Education and Workforce of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a series of workshops to identify immediate and near-term regional STEMM workforce needs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The workshop planning committee identified five U.S. cities and their associated metropolitan areas - Birmingham, Alabama; Boston, Massachusetts; Richmond, Virginia; Riverside, California; and Wichita, Kansas - to host workshops highlighting promising practices that communities can use to respond urgently and appropriately to their STEMM workforce needs. A sixth workshop discussed how the lessons learned during the five region-focused workshops could be applied in other communities to meet STEMM workforce needs. This proceedings of a virtual workshop series summarizes the presentations and discussions from the six public workshops that made up the virtual workshop series and highlights the key points raised during the presentations, moderated panel discussions and deliberations, and open discussions among the workshop participants.

Urban Sound Environment

Urban Sound Environment
Author: Jian Kang
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2006-09-27
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0203004787

Over the past two decades there have been many major new developments in the field of urban sound environment. Jian Kang introduces and examines these key developments, including: the development of prediction methods for urban sound propagation establishment and application of noise-mapping software new noise control measures and design methods. Also covered is the new EU directive on noise and the substantial actions it has brought about across Europe. As the importance of soundscape, acoustic comfort and sound environment design have become widely recognized, Urban Sound Environments is a thoroughly useful book for students and practitioners in a wide range of fields, from urban planning and landscape through to architecture and acoustics.

COVID-19 prevention measures in Ethiopia: Current realities and prospects

COVID-19 prevention measures in Ethiopia: Current realities and prospects
Author: Baye, Kaleab
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-05-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Immediately after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Ethiopia in March 2020, the Government of Ethiopia took several public health measures to prevent increased levels of infection These included closing all schools and restricting large gatherings and movements of people. Hand-washing and social distancing were the main prevention measures that government has communicated to the general public through various media platforms. Using the latest round of the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey, COVID-19 relevant indicators related to household access to communication platforms; access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); and characteristics of the home environment were assessed. The analysis shows that a sizeable proportion of the rural population does not have access to the media platforms used to publicize COVID-19 prevention measures. Moreover, without aggressive interventions, current levels of access to water and soap are suboptimal to adopt the hand-washing recommendations, particularly in rural areas. The low proportion of households with electricity, refrigeration, or internet connection and the relatively high prevalence of partner violence suggest that implementing the stay and work from home measures will be challenging. Public health measures that slow down the transmission of the virus should be continued and efforts to prevent transmission to rural areas should be prioritized. Communication platforms and messaging will need to be adapted to different local realities to make any COVID-19 containment recommendations operational. WASH-related support should be ramped-up, and addressing barriers to staying at home, such as the risk of partner violence, should be considered. The efforts needed to end the current pandemic in Ethiopia, as well as similar pandemics in the future, illuminates the serious challenges related to WASH and to the inequalities between rural and urban areas that need urgent attention.