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This edited volume centers around the concept of BioCities, which aim to unify nature and urban spaces in order to reverse the effects of global climate change and inequity. Following this principle, the authors propose multiple approaches for sustainable city growth. The discussed concepts are not only relevant for newly constructed cities, but offer transformative perspectives for existing settlements as well. Placing nature at the forefront of city planning is not an entirely new concept, so the authors build on established ideas like the garden city, green city, eco-city, or smart city. All chapters aim to highlight aspects to develop a city that is a resilient nature-based socio-ecological system. Many of these concepts were formed in an effort to copy the best traits of a forest ecosystem: a home for many different species that build complex communities. Much like many of our forests, urban areas are managed by humans for multifunctional purposes, using living and abiotic components. This viewpoint helps to understand the potential and limitations of sustainable growth. With these chapters, the authors want to inspire planners, ecologists, urban foresters and decision makers of the future.
Urban forestry is not a one-size-fits-all solution; each city and region, with its own unique set of challenges and opportunities, requires tailored strategies. In recognition of the diversity and distinctiveness of urban forestry issues and their potential for mitigating environmental and socioeconomic inequality across the globe, FAO has asked experts around the world to share their views on how urban forests and trees are perceived and managed in their respective geographical areas, bringing together a broad range of regional perspectives. The primary goal of this publication is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of urban forestry worldwide. By showcasing the regional perspectives, insights, experiences and case studies in urban and peri-urban forestry (UPF), we hope to inspire individuals, communities and policymakers to reimagine their relationships with urban green spaces.
The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) calls its 9th Advanced Architecture Contest as a global reflection to rethink human settlements at a time when our natural environments and the human habitats are more clearly intertwined. We look to the model of Biocities, cities that follow the principles of ecological principles in order to promote life and biodiversity, to provide us with potential design solutions. How can we reimagine our cities as Biocities, capable of creating an ecologically attuned and reciprocal relationship with nature? This year’s competition challenges students and professionals from all over the world to propose how to design urban spaces, cities, buildings, objects, or solutions of any scale, directed towards the transition to Biocities. The contest encourages participants to propose a design at any scale, anywhere in the world, that reflects different cultural, environmental, economic, or social conditions.
A toolkit for realising a more sustainable and co-operative urban future.
The contributors to this volume propose strategies of urgent and vital importance that aim to make today’s urban environments more resilient. Resilience, the ability of complex systems to adapt to changing conditions, is a key frontier in ecological research and is especially relevant in creative urban design, as urban areas exemplify complex systems. With something approaching half of the world’s population now residing in coastal urban zones, many of which are vulnerable both to floods originating inland and rising sea levels, making urban areas more robust in the face of environmental threats must be a policy ambition of the highest priority. The complexity of urban areas results from their spatial heterogeneity, their intertwined material and energy fluxes, and the integration of social and natural processes. All of these features can be altered by intentional planning and design. The complex, integrated suite of urban structures and processes together affect the adaptive resilience of urban systems, but also presupposes that planners can intervene in positive ways. As examples accumulate of linkage between sustainability and building/landscape design, such as the Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park and Toronto’s Lower Don River area, this book unites the ideas, data, and insights of ecologists and related scientists with those of urban designers. It aims to integrate a formerly atomized dialog to help both disciplines promote urban resilience.
With increasing pressure on resources, the looming spectre of climate change and growing anxiety among eaters, ecology and food are at the heart of the political debates surrounding agriculture and diet. This unique contribution unravels agri-environmental issues at different spatial levels, from local to global, documenting the major shifts in agriculture from a long-term perspective. The book begins by exploring the changes in the industrialisation and socialisation of agriculture over time, through the lens of institutional economics including The French Regulation School and Conventions Theory. Building on Polanyi’s ‘Great Transformation’, the chapters in this volume analyse long-term and contemporary changes in agriculture and food systems that have occurred throughout the last few centuries. Key chapters focus on the historical changes in provisioning and the social relations of production, consumption, and regulation of food in different socio-political contexts. The future of agriculture is addressed through an analysis of controversial contemporary political claims and their engagement with strategies that aim to improve the sustainability of agriculture and food consumption. To shed light on ongoing changes and the future of food, this book asks important environmental and social questions and analyses how industrial agriculture has played out in various contexts. It is recommended supplementary reading for postgraduates and researchers in agricultural studies, food studies, food policy, the agri-food political economy and political and economic geography.
In today’s changing and transforming socio-economic, political, cultural, and technological paradigms, we encounter many methodologies, approaches, proposals, and practices in reconsidering the disappearing or emerging relations in the human/nonhuman-environment-nature interaction. These approaches, proposals, and practices range from new methods of urban gardening to biophilic design and augmented/immersive environments. However, these human-centric approaches, which only aim to meet their needs or emerge as technology-oriented replicas and representations of nature, lead to a departure from a holistic approach to the natural and artificial environment. Therefore, how can new and emerging approaches or methodologies draw a holistic framework for environmental health, sustainability, wellness, and co-existence between environments for all living beings? Emerging Approaches in Design and New Connections With Nature covers a variety of topics related to the intersection between nature, environment, and ways of living and provides a comprehensive guide to biophilic design and the idea of design and nature, including benefits, theories, and effects. Covering topics such as biophilic design and sustainability, soundscapes and landscapes, and urban environments and design, it is ideal for architects, designers, urban planners, landscape designers, policymakers, engineers, interior designers, practitioners, students, academicians, and researchers.
When an electromagnetic pulse from space triggers a total communications blackout on Earth, astronomer Zeb Aberly tracks the signal to an intelligent alien race, but the government will stop at nothing ensure his silence. Reprint.