Performance Metrics for Sustainable Cities PDF Download

Author: Sylvie Albert
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000436330
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
Performance Metrics for Sustainable Cities provides an overview of measurement systems and tools to enable communities to self-assess and benchmark their progress along a continuum of smart, intelligent, and sustainable development. It begins by explaining the importance of measurement and evaluation for cities and smaller communities, as well as future factors that will need to be considered and embedded into planning processes. Across 14 chapters, the book describes existing evaluation mechanisms that are being used for government funding decisions, awards of recognition, and new measurement systems to assess what makes a city smarter and more sustainable, such as broader sustainable goal targets (UN SDGs), green cities, fabrication cities, and compassionate cities. It presents examples of metrics used for important sustainability and liveability concepts for cities such as how to measure trust, engagement, compassion, circular economy, and so forth. The book ends with reflections on the feasibility of a holistic system of measurement and the implications of its implementation. This volume will be of great interest to students, researchers, and professionals of urban sustainability, planning, smart cities, and sustainable communities.

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030944456X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Cities have experienced an unprecedented rate of growth in the last decade. More than half the world's population lives in urban areas, with the U.S. percentage at 80 percent. Cities have captured more than 80 percent of the globe's economic activity and offered social mobility and economic prosperity to millions by clustering creative, innovative, and educated individuals and organizations. Clustering populations, however, can compound both positive and negative conditions, with many modern urban areas experiencing growing inequality, debility, and environmental degradation. The spread and continued growth of urban areas presents a number of concerns for a sustainable future, particularly if cities cannot adequately address the rise of poverty, hunger, resource consumption, and biodiversity loss in their borders. Intended as a comparative illustration of the types of urban sustainability pathways and subsequent lessons learned existing in urban areas, this study examines specific examples that cut across geographies and scales and that feature a range of urban sustainability challenges and opportunities for collaborative learning across metropolitan regions. It focuses on nine cities across the United States and Canada (Los Angeles, CA, New York City, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Grand Rapids, MI, Flint, MI, Cedar Rapids, IA, Chattanooga, TN, and Vancouver, Canada), chosen to represent a variety of metropolitan regions, with consideration given to city size, proximity to coastal and other waterways, susceptibility to hazards, primary industry, and several other factors.

Author: David B. Abraham
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030591735
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
This volume presents North American best practices and perspectives on developing, managing and monitoring indicators to track development progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in local communities and cities. In 4 main sections, the book presents and frames the many ways in which community indicator programs are either integrating or retooling to integrate the SDGs into their existing frameworks, or how they are developing new programs to track and report progress on the SDGs. This is the first volume that focuses on SDG adoption within the context of North Americans cities and communities, and the unique issues and opportunities prevalent in these settings. The chapters are developed by experienced academics and practitioners of community planning and sustainable development, and will add broad perspective on public policy, organizational management, information management and data visualization. This volume presents a case-study approach to chapters, offering lessons that can be used by three main audiences: 1) teachers and researchers in areas of urban, regional, and environmental planning, urban development, and public policy; 2) professional planners, decision-makers, and urban managers; and 3) sustainability activists and interested groups.

Author: Susan M. Opp
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351244256
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Local officials are responsible for a number of important tasks that have a significant impact on the quality of life of most Americans. Arguably, the policy choices made by local governments in the United States more directly impact individual well-being than do the choices made at any other level of government. From zoning decisions to the creation of parks and the maintenance of sidewalks and trails, local governments are largely responsible for direct services to the public and can provide the necessary tools and skills to create an attractive and vibrant community. And yet one area of significant importance for both individuals and for the country as a whole, local sustainability, is a relatively new policy area for many American municipalities. For example, how many local governments are adopting sustainability policies and plans? How are those initiatives performing? Without an honest and robust examination of both the effectiveness and the efficiency of local sustainability policies, the success of the entire sustainability movement in the United States is uncertain. This book provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of what constitutes local sustainability and why it matters. Focusing closely on environmental initiatives, economic development issues, and social equity concerns, each chapter offers both an account of the sustainability policies being adopted and a close exploration of the performance measurement activities of cities in that policy area. Readers are introduced to the metrics that American cities are using to measure the performance of their sustainability efforts, as well as benchmarks and comparison statistics that may be used to develop and evaluate the performance assessment efforts in their own sustainability programs. Students of public administration, urban planning, and political science – as well as public officials – will find this book useful to understand the complexity of sustainability and local government.

Author: Pierre Laconte
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857727540
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Sustainable Cities is about the challenges faced by our urban environments and how these can be met. Examining the built environment at three levels of observation - individual buildings, urban neighbourhoods, and entire cities and towns, the first part of the book reveals the scale of the task. The second part of the book offer a critical assessment of the techniques used to assess urban development, including the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions, ecological footprint analysis, and the measurement of urban biodiversity, where different approaches can yield significantly different results. It concludes with an alternative approach to greenhouse gases, making the case for them to be seen as a resource rather than as a liability. In the final part, case studies of best practice are presented. With contributions from a range of leading international specialists, Sustainable Cities will be essential reading for academics and professionals in urban and municipal planning, environmental policy and planning, architecture, urban geography, climate change, energy resources and environmental science and technology.

Author: Stanislav E. Shmelev
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000638979
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
To assess urban sustainability performance, this book explores several clusters of cities, including megacities, cities of the Global South, European and North American cities, cities of the Middle East and North Africa, cities of Central and South East Asia, a city state of Singapore and a large group of global cities. It applies a multi-criteria approach using a panel of environmental, economic, social and smart indicators to assess progress and policies in global cities including London, New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles, São Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, Beijing, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo and many others. Additional attention is given to the issues of climate change, poverty and smart dimensions, with renewable energy and the drivers of urban CO2 emissions playing the central role. This book is abundant with case studies considering strategies, policies and performance of the leading cities, including San Francisco, Stockholm and Seoul in greater depth, exploring how their successes can be used by other cities. The book identifies key linkages between different smart and sustainability dimensions as well as investment opportunities in cities with sustainability potential. This book will be of great interest to policy makers, city and regional authorities as well as scholars and students of urban planning and sustainable development aiming to facilitate a sustainability transition in our cities around the world.

Author: Uday Chatterjee
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000576558
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
While technology is developing at a fast pace, urban planners and cities are still behind in finding effective ways to use technology to address citizen’s needs. Multiple aspects of sustainable urbanism are brought together in this book, along with advanced technologies and their connections to urban planning and management. It integrates urban studies, smart cities, AI, IoT, remote sensing, and GIS. Highlights include land use planning, spatial planning, and ecosystem-based information to improve economic opportunities. Urban planners and engineers will understand the use of AI in disaster management and the use of GIS in finding suitable landfill sites for sustainable waste management. Features Explains the process of urban heritage conservation, including the process of urban renewal and its regeneration and the role of citizens in urban renewal, planning, and management. Includes several case studies highlighting urban environmental problems and challenges in developed and developing countries and the ways for converting urban areas into smart cities. Focuses on urban resources, the supply of energy in smart cities, and their proper management practices. Introduces the role of remote sensing, GIS, and IoT in making a smart city and meeting sustainable goals. Analyzes unique case studies, their challenges and obstacles, and proposes a set of factors to understanding smart city initiatives and projects.

Author: Tan Yigitcanlar
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3038979066
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
The concept of ‘sustainable urban development’ has been pushed to the forefront of policymaking and politics as the world wakes up to the impacts of climate change and the destructive effects of the Anthropocene. Climate change has emerged to be one of the biggest challenges faced by our planet today, threatening both built and natural systems with long-term consequences, which may be irreversible. While there is a vast body of literature on sustainability and sustainable urban development, there is currently limited focus on how to cohesively bring together the vital issues of the planning, development, and management of sustainable cities. Moreover, it has been widely stated that current practices and lifestyles cannot continue if we are to leave a healthy living planet to not only the next generation, but also to the generations beyond. The current global school strikes for climate action (known as Fridays for Future) evidences this. The book advocates the view that the focus needs to rest on ways in which our cities and industries can become green enough to avoid urban ecocide. This book fills a gap in the literature by bringing together issues related to the planning, development, and management of cities and focusing on a triple-bottom-line approach to sustainability.

Author: Adriano Bisello
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030577643
Category : City planning
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
This open access book offers a selection of research papers and case studies presented at the 3rd international conference "Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions", held in December 2019 in Bolzano, Italy, and explores the concept of smart and sustainable planning, including top contributions from academics, policy makers, consultants and other professionals. Innovation processes such as co-design and co-creation help establish collaborations that engage with stakeholders in a trustworthy and transparent environment while answering the need for new value propositions. The importance of an integrated, holistic approach is widely recognized to break down silos in local government, in particular, when aimed at achieving a better integration of climate-energy planning. Despite the ongoing urbanization and polarization processes, new synergies between urban and rural areas emerge, linking development opportunities to intrinsic cultural, natural and man-made landscape values. The increasing availability of big, real-time urban data and advanced ICT facilitates frequent assessment and continuous monitoring of performances, while allowing fine-tuning as needed. This is valid not only for individual projects but also on a wider scale. In addition, and circling back to the first point, (big) urban data and ICT can be of enormous help in facilitating engagement and co-creation by raising awareness and by providing insight into the local consequences of specific plans. However, this potential is not yet fully exploited in standard processes and procedures, which can therefore lack the agility and flexibility to keep up with the pulse of the city and dynamics of society. The book provides a multi-disciplinary outlook based on experience to orient the reader in the giant galaxy of smart and sustainable planning, support the transposition of research into practice, scale up visionary approaches and design groundbreaking planning policies and tools.--

Author: Mike Jenks
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402086474
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
The CityForm consortium’s latest book, Dimensions of the Sustainable City, is the first book to report on an empirical multi-disciplinary study specifically designed to address urban sustainability. Drawing together the various dimensions of sustainability – economic, social, transport, energy and ecological – the book examines their relationships both to each other and to urban form. The book investigates the sustainability dimensions of cities through a series of projects based on a common list of elements of urban form, and which draw on the consortium’s latest research to review the sustainability issues of each dimension. The elements of urban form include density, land use, location, accessibility, transport infrastructure and characteristics of the built environment. The book also addresses issues such as adapting cities, psychological and ecological benefits of green space and sustainable lifestyles, each presenting a critical review of the relevant literature followed by an empirical analysis presenting the key results. Based on studies across five UK cities, the book draws out findings of relevance to sustainable cities worldwide. As well as an invaluable reference to researchers in sustainable planning and urban design, the book will provide a useful text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses and for policy makers dealing with these issues. The CityForm consortium is a multi-disciplinary group of researchers from five universities funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council from 2003-07.