For the first time in history, over half of humanity lives in cities, and they continue to grow globally at two percent a year. They only cover two percent of the Earth's surface, but their impact extends well beyond their borders as they consume 75 percent of the planet's energy and resources, and emit 80 percent of its greenhouse gases. Generally speaking, as cities function today on a global scale they are driving widespread ecological destruction that imperils the planet, while on a local scale many urban neighborhoods are plagued by social inequality, economic insecurity, violence, pollution, and crumbling infrastructure. Not all hope is lost, however, as over the last few decades there has been a growing literature arguing for possible solutions to these pathologies from a new perspective based on sustainability. The books from the library collection below offer a selection of mostly recent entries into the debate over what urban sustainability should like like and how it could be achieved. While no single city has yet to come to grips with all of the issues surrounding environmental degradation and threats to the quality of life, these works illustrate many imaginative and innovative programs and policies in place today working to regenerate cities into healthy communities integrated into sustainable ecosystems.
And a reminder that next week (April 11-17) is once again National Library Week, as all healthy communities of course depend on healthy libraries. You can download the official America Library Association PSA with a picture of author Neil Gaiman reading a book here.
Kent E. Portney. Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously: Economic Development, the Environment, and Quality of Life in American Cities. (2003)
Moving beyond descriptive accounts of community sustainability actions and attempts to derive lessons learned from them, this book is a comparative analysis of such efforts that examines the reasons why some cities pursue sustainability and the factors that shape the operation and effectiveness of their programs. It looks at initiatives in two dozen American cities that have pursued a diverse array of initiatives operating on the basis of sometimes very different conceptions of sustainability, asking among other things whether a program needs to incorporate livability and environmental justice concerns in order to be considered a serious effort.
Peter Newman & Isabella Jennings. Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices. (2008)
Newman and Jennings detail a model for viewing urban dynamics and redevelopment based on the patterns and processes of natural and sustainable ecosystems, including such qualities as health, zero waste, interconnectedness, self-regulation, resilience, and flexibility. With case studies from several different countries, they illustrate their ideas of how cities can better integrate themselves into their local bioregional environment as a path to sustainability.
Peter Newman, Timothy Beatley & Heather Boyer. Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change. (2009)
Do the impending crises surrounding climate change and peak oil spell doom and collapse for cities around the world? Drawing on "resilience thinking" from the field of ecosystem management, the authors argue and illustrate with examples from around the world that there are ways for cities to scale down their ecological footprints, reduce their oil dependence, improve their quality of life, and better fit themselves within the capacities of local, regional, and global ecosystems.
Warren Karlenzig with Frank Marquadt, Paula White, Rachel Yaseen & Richard Young. How Green is Your City? The SustainLane US City Rankings. (2007)
From the SustainLane internet media company (which includes websites www.SustainLane.com and www.SustainLane.us) comes this first effort to benchmark the performance of the fifty largest U.S. cities with respect to sustainability. Find out why they think San Francisco ranks at number two and Oakland at number five. See where they place your favorite large American city online at their latest rankings from 2008.
Patrick M. Condon. Design Charrettes for Sustainable Communities. (2008)
Drawing on his extensive professional experience, professor Patrick M. Condon of the University of British Columbia's School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture has written a practical, step-by-step guide to the design charrette process. Increasingly popular in North America since the late 1980's, the design charrette is a time constrained process that brings together citizens, public officials, developers, architects, engineers, and other stakeholders to collaboratively plan and design new and redeveloped sustainable communities. It is a new paradigm for design decisions that minimizes confrontation while building pubic support.
Richard Register. Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future. (1987)
This pioneering and influential book by Richard Register, founder and President of Ecocity Builders, proposes a set of sweeping changes to give Berkeley, California a sustainable future. Incorporating existing patterns of development and natural features of the landscape, it envisions residential centers becoming increasingly compact and the surrounding land reclaimed by open space, forests, agriculture, and wildlife habitat to the benefit of people, quality of life, and the environment. Extensively illustrated by the author, it shows how a sustainable built environment can be exciting, imaginative, and inspirational.
Harry Wiland, Dale Bell, and Joseph D'Agnese. Edens Lost & Found: How Ordinary Citizens are Restoring Our Great Cities. (2006)
This book profiles the trailblazing individuals and groups in Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Los Angeles who are working to encourage the development of green spaces in their cities and neighborhoods as an alternative to ecological and social breakdown. From roof gardens to urban farms, citizen activism and leadership are working with nature, restoring communities, and transforming American cities through the creation of sustainable urban ecosystems.
