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Urban Heat Island: Hot and Humid Regions (Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements)
by Napoleon Enteria Matteos Santamouris Ursula EickerThis book discusses the concepts and technologies associated with the mitigation of urban heat islands (UHIs) that are applicable in hot and humid regions. It presents several city case studies on how UHIs can be reduced in various areas to provide readers, researchers, and policymakers with insights into the concepts and technologies that should be considered when planning and constructing urban centres and buildings. The rapid development of urban areas in hot and humid regions has led to an increase in urban temperatures, a decrease in ventilation in buildings, and a transformation of the once green outdoor environment into areas full of solar-energy-absorbing concrete and asphalt. This situation has increased the discomfort of people living in these areas regardless of whether they occupy concrete structures. This is because indoor and outdoor air quality have both suffered from urbanisation. The development of urban areas has also increased energy consumption so that the occupants of buildings can enjoy indoor thermal comfort and air quality that they need via air conditioning systems. This book offers solutions to the recent increase in the number of heat islands in hot and humid regions.
Urban Heat Stress and Mitigation Solutions: An Engineering Perspective
by Vincenzo CostanzoThis book provides the reader with an understanding of the impact that different morphologies, construction materials and green coverage solutions have on the urban microclimate, thus affecting the comfort conditions of urban inhabitants and the energy needs of buildings in urban areas. The book covers the latest approaches to energy and outdoor comfort measurement and modelling on an urban scale, and describes possible measures and strategies to mitigate the effects of the mutual interaction between urban settlements and local microclimate. Despite its relevance, only limited literature is currently devoted to appraising—from an engineering perspective—the intertwining relationships between urban geometry and fabrics, energy fluxes between buildings and their surroundings, outdoor microclimate conditions and building energy demands in urban areas. This book fills this gap by first discussing the physical processes that govern heat and mass transfer at an urban scale, while emphasizing the role played by different spatial arrangements, manmade materials and green infrastructures on the outdoor microclimate. The first chapters also address the implications of these factors on the outdoor comfort conditions experienced by pedestrians, and on the buildings’ energy demand for space heating and cooling. Then, based upon cutting-edge experimental activities and simulation work, this book demonstrates current and forthcoming adaptation and mitigation strategies to improve the urban microclimate and its impact on the built environment, such as cool materials, thermochromic and retroreflective finishing materials, and green infrastructures applied either at a building scale or at the urban scale. The effect of these solutions is demonstrated for different cities worldwide under a range of climate conditions. Finally, the book opens a wider perspective by introducing the basic elements that allow fuel poverty, raw materials consumption, and the principles of circular economy in the definition of a resilient urban settlement.
Urban High Schools: Foundations and Possibilities (Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education)
by Annette B. HemmingsThis multidisciplinary overview introduces readers to the historical, sociological, anthropological, and political foundations of urban public secondary schooling and to possibilities for reform. Focused on critical and problematic elements, the text provides a comprehensive description and analyses of urban public high schooling through different yet intertwined disciplinary lenses. Students and researchers seeking to inform their work with urban high schools from social, cultural, and political perspectives will find the theoretical frameworks and practical applications useful in their own studies of, or initiatives related to, urban public high schools. Each chapter includes concept boxes with synopses of key ideas, summations, and discussion questions.
Urban Horticulture: Sustainability For The Future (Sustainable Development and Biodiversity #18)
by Dilip NandwaniThis book provides comprehensive information on the rapidly developing field of urban horticulture for sustainable use of land resources and creating a better environment. It presents peer-reviewed chapters from leading international researchers in the field of horticulture technologies, environmental issues, urban horticulture, and landscaping and its role in society. It covers a wide array of topics on this subject and constitutes a valuable reference guide for students, professors, researchers, builders, and agriculturists concerned with urban horticulture, city planning, biodiversity, and the sustainable development of horticultural resources. Urban horticultural technologies facilitate the efficient use of available land in urban and residential areas, helping meet the demand for fresh fruits and vegetables to feed ever-growing urban populations. The amount of green space in urban areas is dwindling due to rising land prices, while the climbing numbers of multi-story buildings are producing various environmental and health issues. Technological advances provide tools and techniques for high-density and vertical cropping in small areas, promoting efficient and sustainable resource utilization. As such, urban horticulture is gaining importance in city planning – not only to bolster the food supply but also to improve the aesthetic value, environmental conditions, landscape, and business environment, while also reducing the consumption of fossil fuel in transportation.
Urban Horticulture
by Tina Marie Waliczek Jayne M. ZajicekIn the wake of urbanization and technological advances, public green spaces within cities are disappearing and people are spending more time with electronic devices than with nature. Urban Horticulture explores the importance of horticulture to the lives, health, and well-being of urban populations. It includes contributions from experts in researc
The Urban Housing Handbook
by Eric Firley Victor DeupiTHE URBAN HOUSING HANDBOOK An insightful and revealing look at the intersection of housing and urban design In the newly revised Second Edition of The Urban Housing Handbook, Eric Firley and Victor Deupi deliver a vital design and analysis tool for housing practitioners, students, and researchers. The book outlines the characteristics of 30 of the most notable housing types from around the world, studied against a background of increasing densification. Each of the 30 chapters includes a fully-explored tradi tional example followed by one or two contemporary projects of similar spatial configuration that address changing trends in architecture and urban design. For this latest edition all contemporary examples have been updated and are now presented on two full spreads per chapter. Other features include: A rigorous analytical method that classifies the types according to four main categories (courtyard houses, row houses, compounds and apartment buildings) A thorough introduction to the relationship between an individual housing unit and the urban fabric that it creates through repetition A strong focus on dense metropolitan projects from around the world A set of key figures that translate visual information into metrics Unique, original drawings of illustrated housing accompanied by aerial and street-level context photos Conceived for architects and urban designers, The Urban Housing Handbook is also an ideal resource for urban planners, housing developers, builders, and housing trust professionals.
The Urban Housing Manual: Making Regulatory Frameworks Work for the Poor
by Geoffrey Payne Michael MajaleRed tape is a significant stumbling block to the provision of affordable shelter to the urban poor and, indeed, slums are largely the result of inappropriate regulatory frameworks. This practice-oriented manual tackles the issue of regulatory frameworks for urban upgrading and new housing development, and how they impact on access to adequate, affordable shelter and other key livelihood assets, in particular for the urban poor. It illustrates two methods for reviewing regulatory frameworks and expounds guiding principles for effecting change, informed by action research. The accompanying CD-Rom contains case studies, methods, exercises and tools, references and website links, and a video on reviewing regulatory frameworks.
Urban Humanities: New Practices for Reimagining the City (Urban and Industrial Environments)
by Dana Cuff Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris Todd Presner Maite Zubiaurre Jonathan Jae-An CrismanOriginal, action-oriented humanist practices for interpreting and intervening in the city: a new methodology at the intersection of the humanities, design, and urban studies.Urban humanities is an emerging field at the intersection of the humanities, urban planning, and design. It offers a new approach not only for understanding cities in a global context but for intervening in them, interpreting their histories, engaging with them in the present, and speculating about their futures. This book introduces both the theory and practice of urban humanities, tracing the evolution of the concept, presenting methods and practices with a wide range of research applications, describing changes in teaching and curricula, and offering case studies of urban humanities practices in the field.Urban humanities views the city through a lens of spatial justice, and its inquiries are centered on the microsettings of everyday life. The book's case studies report on real-world projects in mega-cities in the Pacific Rim—Tokyo, Shanghai, Mexico City, and Los Angeles—with several projects described in detail, including playful spaces for children in car-oriented Mexico City, a commons in a Tokyo neighborhood, and a rolling story-telling box to promote “literary justice” in Los Angeles.
The Urban Improvise: Improvisation-Based Design for Hybrid Cities
by Kristian KloecklA book for architects, designers, planners, and urbanites that explores how cities can embrace improvisation to improve urban life The built environment in today’s hybrid cities is changing radically. The pervasiveness of networked mobile and embedded devices has transformed a predominantly stable background for human activity into spaces that have a more fluid behavior. Based on their capability to sense, compute, and act in real time, urban spaces have the potential to go beyond planned behaviors and, instead, change and adapt dynamically. These interactions resemble improvisation in the performing arts, and this book offers a new improvisation-based framework for thinking about future cities. Kristian Kloeckl moves beyond the smart city concept by unlocking performativity, and specifically improvisation, as a new design approach and explores how city lights, buses, plazas, and other urban environments are capable of behavior beyond scripts. Drawing on research of digital cities and design theory, he makes improvisation useful and applicable to the condition of today’s technology-imbued cities and proposes a new future for responsive urban design.
Urban Inclusivity in Southern Africa (The Urban Book Series)
by Hangwelani H. Magidimisha-Chipungu Lovemore ChipunguThis book’s point of departure rests on the premises that dimensions of the mainstream inclusive city discourse fail to capture in detail vulnerable clusters of society (being women, children, and the aging), the minority clusters (i.e., the blind, the disabled), and migrants. In addition, it fails to recognize the increase of spatial inequality driven by racial and class differences—a factor that has seen an increase in community violence and protests. The focus on spatial inequality has, for a long time, blind-folded urban authorities to ignore exclusion arising out of the same environments created with a notion of creating inclusivity. Hence this book “collapses spatial walls” as it seeks to uncover the true perspectives of inclusivity in cities beyond spatial dimensions but within social realms. The depth of this book’s enquiry rests on its critical investigation of Southern African cities’ through historical epochs of apartheid and colonialism in the region.
Urban Inequalities: A Multidimensional and International Perspective (The Urban Book Series)
by Graciela H. TononThis book proposes an interdisciplinary and multidimensional perspective of urban inequalities based on a range of theoretical, methodological, and professional approaches. Chapters consider different types of inequalities: in health, education, age, housing, energy, space, civic rights, social exclusion, ethnicity, poverty, segregation, work status, nutrition, public policies, democracy, human rights, technology, digital learning, subjective well-being, environment, and climate change. Contributions analyze the situation of different groups: children, youth, and indigenous people. The book highlights the importance of policy-making to overcome inequalities and addresses the key role of citizen participation.
Urban Informal Settlements: Chengzhongcun and Chinese Urbanism
by Yannan DingThis book offers a concise and yet diverse study on the Chengzhongcun. It has a broader scope, both geographical and temporal, than existing works on this topic. The typical Chinese urban informal settlement is related to morphologically similar communities to be found elsewhere in the world. The chapters’ themes were inspired by the methods in historical geography, citizenship studies, and new cultural geography. What is truly unique to this book is that ten years after the basis material of this book was defended, it is enriched with practical experience and first-hand observations of the rapidly changing Chinese city. As urbanization in China slows, this book will interest sociologists, urbanists and scholars of China.
Urban Informalities: Reflections on the Formal and Informal
by Michael WaibelBringing together an interdisciplinary and international group of researchers working on a wide variety of cities throughout Asia, Latin America and Europe, this book addresses, rethinks and, in some cases, abandons the notions of formal and informal urbanism. This collection critically interrogates both the ways in which 'informal' and 'formal' are put to work in the governing and politicisation of cities, and their conceptual strengths and weaknesses. It does so by focusing on a wide variety of topics, from specific forms of housing and labour often traditionally linked to the formal/informal divide, to urban political negotiations, cultural practices, and ways of being in the city. The book takes stock of and reflects on how contemporary urban informality/formality relations are being produced and are/might be understood, and puts forward an enlarged and comprehensive understanding of urban informality.
Urban Informality: A Multidisciplinary Perspective
by Maria Vittoria Ferroni Rossana Galdini Giovanni RuoccoThis book analyzes the informal practices of contemporary cities through a close dialogue between different research perspectives, with the shared goal of giving voice to informality and evaluating its benefits and potential in a multidimensional key of social factors. Recently, the human sciences have seen the emergence of this new term “informality,” at first sight in conflict with their function of giving order and form to social phenomena. A term with which, in this book, the authors, having as reference the Italian and European experience, specifically identify those unsatisfied social demands and those collective actions “from below” that aim at the recovery of urban space and the renewal of its organization, often not following the trajectories of legality and institutions. By means of a close dialogue between different areas of social research, this book attempts to establish the different declinations and applications of the term, evaluating the causes and effects, benefits, and potential of the phenomena attributable to it, within a multidimensional analysis that calls into question the regeneration and collective use of spaces, political-institutional confrontation and conflict, legal innovation, and social-economic benefits.
Urban Informality in South Africa and Zimbabwe: On Growth, Trajectory and Aftermath (The Urban Book Series)
by Inocent Moyo Trynos GumboThis book adds to the research of urban informality in the Global South with a specific focus on South Africa and Zimbabwe. It addresses the agency and the potential transformative capacity of the phenomenon of urban informality in connection with Southern African cities and towns. It adopts a political economy approach to analyse the evolution of informality in cities and its implications for urban planning. It brings to bear how the South African and Zimbabwean historical and/or ideological and contemporary political and economic trajectories have impacted on the ever changing nature of urban informality, both spatially and structurally and/or compositionally; thus resulting in unique urban materialities, which are aspects that have scarcely been studied or discussed in the extant literature. This book, therefore, seeks to close the academic gap by dealing with the dearth of literature on spatial (re)locational discourses of urban informality.The work positions urban informality as a resilient force with potency in terms of political mobilisation and (re) shaping urban spaces. Though these are fundamental issues, they have received comparatively little attention, especially in literature that focuses on the Southern African region. Accordingly, undergraduate and post-graduate students, as well as academics in the fields of Urban Geography, Political Science, Development Studies, Sociology, Town and Regional Planning among others, will find the range of topics and depth of coverage in this book particularly valuable. Similarly, practitioners and activists on issues of urban informality and urban governance will find the book very useful.
Urban Infrastructure: Globalization / Slowbalization
by Remo Dalla LongaThe book deals with the concept of urban infrastructure and the strong evolution of globalization, in particular the driving force taken by global cities. Urban infrastructure is a constituent part of the global cities, both have a synergistic evolution. The main reference is to western global cities in the intertwining of financialization, settling and brownfield which is a little different from the urbanization of other global cities of other non- developed countries, or emerging countries. There is therefore a significant link between globalization and urban infrastructure. The occurrence of slowbalization can have consequences on urban areas infrastructures and more generally on the different dichotomy between global city and nation. With the pandemic infectious and the post COVID, there is already a different configuration between the global city and the rest of the national territory. A driving element of the urban infrastructure and the global city has been the financialization and identification of assets within global cities. Urban infrastructure as an asset has grown considerably in the last two decades, in the wake of what has already been highlighted previously for real estate. There are contiguous issues that affect the concept of urban infrastructures and they are the enormous growth of finance and the landings of this in the great cities of the world with investments that first involved Real Estate and then urban infrastructures. There has also been a technological revolution that has merged the ubiquitous technological infrastructure with other more traditional components of the infrastructure, even apparently recent themes, such as smart cities, come from this evolutionary trend and merge with urban infrastructures. The theme of smart cities, if properly interpreted, gives strength to the concept of urban infrastructure.
Urban Infrastructure in Transition: Networks, Buildings and Plans
by Timothy Moss Simon MarvinAchieving sustainable energy and resource use is vital if cities are to thrive or even function in the long term. Focusing on cities in the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark, this book examines the mounting pressures for changes in the management style of utility services in Europe, pressures that stem from a wide range of sources such as liberalization and privatization of markets, tighter environmental standards, new economic incentives, competing technologies and changing consumption patterns. The authors show how changes in the management of utility services can contribute to achieving greater sustainability in urban regions. Whilst more efficient technology has a part to play, truly significant improvements in quality of life will be delivered only when the flow of material and energy through cities is focused on the goal of sustainability in each local context.
Urban Infrastructure in Zimbabwe: Departures, Divergences and Convergences (The Urban Book Series)
by Innocent Chirisa Abraham R. MatamandaThe book provides insights into urban infrastructure debates and discourses in Zimbabwe. Through an inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approach, the book explores the theoretical, conceptual and lived experiences in urban infrastructure. The book focuses on case studies relating to urban transport, public housing, water and sanitation and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) among other substantive issues relating to urban infrastructure and services.
Urban Infrastructure Research
by Alok TiwariThis bookreviews contemporary research on urban infrastructure in 76 Ethiopian cities. It examines urban infrastructure issues in these cities and covers a wide rangeof topics from sustainability and smart cities to research methods employed byurban infrastructure investigators with regard to Ethiopian cities. Research onurban infrastructure legitimacies and modalities has established its valueworldwide in recent years, though it is still fairly young in the Ethiopiancontext. The first chapter outlines ongoing issues of debate concerning urbaninfrastructures, including but not limited to discourses on sustainability, smartcities, innovative financing methods, and potential partnerships. Urbaninfrastructure issues in Ethiopian cities are examined in the second chapter, whilethe third chapter presents a review of the most relevant literature forresearchers. Findings show that the citations in the research reports aremainly from the materials available over the internet, including WHO,UN-Habitat and unpublished local materials. The fourth chapter identifiespatterns in the findings and recommendations of the research reports discussed. The results reveal that there is a wider gap between supply and demand withregard to urban infrastructure in Ethiopian cities, a situation that is furtheraggravated because of the growing urban population and already existingbacklogs. The fifth chapter reviews the essential methods employed by urbaninfrastructure investigators in Ethiopian cities. In this regard, the cross-sectionalstudy method with the use of survey method has been broadly adopted amonginvestigators. Lastly, the book presents a summary and recommendations. It was observed that theurban infrastructure boom in Ethiopia is primarily concentrated in the keycities, and the current pattern of urban infrastructure provision does notincorporate the notion of sustainability. Hence, the book calls for setting theagenda of future research on urban infrastructure and services in Ethiopiancities together with the universities, private sector and government, who shouldideally collaborate to produce the knowledge needed to improve quality of life,welfare, productivity, and economic growth.
Urban Infrastructuring: Reconfigurations, Transformations and Sustainability in the Global South (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Deljana Iossifova Alexandros Gasparatos Stylianos Zavos Yahya Gamal Yin LongThis book is about urban infrastructuring as the processes linking infrastructural configurations and their components with other social, ecological, political, or otherwise defined systems as part of urbanisation and globalisation in the Global South. It suggests that infrastructuring is essential to urbanisation and that it is entangled with socio-spatio-ecological transformations that often have negative outcomes over time. Furthermore, it argues that infrastructuring requires an ethical positioning in research and practice in order to enhance infrastructural sustainability in the face of intersecting environmental, social and economic crises. “Urban Infrastructuring” is developed in three parts. First, it identifies infrastructural entanglements across various urban and urbanising settings in the Global South. Second, it highlights some of the damaging processes and outcomes of urban infrastructuring and argues that the absence, presence and transformation of infrastructure in the Global South (re-)produces socioecological injustice in the short- and long term. Third, the book argues for a shift of infrastructuring agendas towards more just and sustainable interventions. It suggests that an ethico-politics of care should be embedded in systems approaches to infrastructuring in both research and practice. The edited volume contains contributions from authors with backgrounds in a variety of academic disciplines from the natural and social sciences, engineering and the humanities. It provides valuable insights for anyone concerned with the study, design, planning, implementation and maintenance of urban infrastructures to enhance human well-being and sustainability. It will be of interest to researchers and urban decision-makers alike.
Urban Innovation and Upgrading in China Shanty Towns
by Pengfei Ni Banji Oyeyinka Fei ChenBy using field survey and World Bank investment project evaluation method, this book investigates the experience of slum rebuilding in Liaoning province, China. It figures out that the experience of Liaoning province is relatively successful and can be of great significance for developing countries and regions. The issue of slums is a huge challenge in the process of global urbanization. The population living in slums is 0. 8 billion worldwide and the number is still growing. International organizations (e. g. , the World Bank) and relevant countries have been working on the rebuilding of slums but only a few succeeded. In recent years, since some scholars believe that government should play dominant role in slums rebuilding, Liaoning province has developed a systematical model in slums rebuilding from 2005. This model emphasizes the guidance of government, market functions and society involvement. With the application of the new model, Liaoning province has improved 2. 11 million people's living conditions from 2005 to 2010. By introducing the conditions, history, rebuilding process and rebuilding methods of Liaoning slums, this book provides new information and data for slum rebuilding decision makers and researchers.
Urban Innovation Networks
by Alexander GutzmerThis book offers fresh insights into how companies can engage with, and make use of, the modern metropolis. Based on actor-network theory and the resource-based view of the firm, it demonstrates how the contemporary city can be seen - and used - as a resource for corporate innovation. The main argument is that companies have to build what the author calls "urban innovation networks. " After a theory-based outline of such networks, the author demonstrates the extent to which different institutional players - companies such as Audi, Ikea and Siemens, but also arts institutions like the Haus der Kunst in Munich - are already working to create them. The book combines management thinking with urban theory and the sociology of networks to create a unique blend of different views of capitalism and space, offering a new perspective on both the modern metropolis and globally operating companies active within our distinctly urban culture.
Urban Interstices: The Aesthetics And The Politics Of The In-between
by Andrea Mubi BrighentiBringing together a team of international scholars with an interest in urban transformations, spatial justice and territoriality, this volume questions how the interstice is related to the emerging processes of partitioning, enclave-making and zoning, showing how in-between spaces are intimately related to larger flows, networks, territories and boundaries. Illustrated with a range of case studies from places such as the US, Quebec, the UK, Italy, Gaza, Iraq, India, and South-east Asia, the volume analyses the place and function of interstitial locales in both a ’disciplined’ urban space and a disordered space conceptualized through the notions of ’excess’, ’danger’ and ’threat’. Warning not to romanticize the interstice, the book invites us to study it as not simply a place but also a set of phenomena, events and social interactions. How are interstices perceived and represented? What is the politics of visibility that is applied to them? How to capture their peculiar rhythms, speeds and affects? On the one hand, interstices open up venues for informality, improvisation, challenge, and bricolage, playful as well as angry statements on the neoliberal city and enhanced urban inequalities. On the other hand, they also represent a crucial site of governance (even governance by withdrawal) and urban management, where an array of techniques ranging from military urbanism to new forms of value extraction are experimented. At the point of convergence of all these tensions, interstices appear as veritable sites of transformation, where social forces clash and mesh prefiguring our urban future. The book interrogates these territories, proposing new ways to explore the dynamics, events and visibilities that define them.
Urban Issues: Selections from CQ Researcher
by Cq ResearcherWhat are the driving forces behind Smart Cities? What are the ramifications of increasing the minimum wage? What are the causes of aging infrastructure and how should they be addressed? These are just some of the provocative questions that are considered in the new edition of Urban Issues. For current coverage of urban politics, readers will appreciate the balanced and unbiased reporting of CQ Researcher. Urban Issues provides a window into how policy is created and implemented in America’s cities and is sure to spark classroom discussions. Each chapter examines the key players, stakes, background, and lessons for the future, while covering the range of facts, analyses, and opinions surrounding each issue.
Urban Issues: Selections from CQ Researcher
by Cq ResearcherWhat are the driving forces behind Smart Cities? What are the ramifications of increasing the minimum wage? What are the causes of aging infrastructure and how should they be addressed? These are just some of the provocative questions that are considered in the new edition of Urban Issues. For current coverage of urban politics, readers will appreciate the balanced and unbiased reporting of CQ Researcher. Urban Issues provides a window into how policy is created and implemented in America’s cities and is sure to spark classroom discussions. Each chapter examines the key players, stakes, background, and lessons for the future, while covering the range of facts, analyses, and opinions surrounding each issue.