Sustainable Cities: Assessing the Performance and Practice of Urban Environments

by Pierre Laconte

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857729576
Publisher:	I.B.Tauris
Publication date:	05/31/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Professor Pierre Laconte is President of the Foundation for the Urban Environment. He was a partner (with Raymond M. Lemaire et J. P. Blondel) of Groupe Urbanisme-Architecture. This organization was responsible for the planning and implementation of the new university town of Louvain-la-Neuve, near Brussels, which received the Abercrombie Award of the International Union of Architects. He is also the editor of Changing Cities: Challenge to Planning Philadelphia.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations vii

Introduction: assessing the assessments Pierre Laconte 1

Part I Levels of Observation

1 Energy use in buildings: contributions and considerations in urban systems Kerry J. Masbford 15

2 The certification of neighbourhoods in Germany: towards sustainable development? Elke Pahl-Weber Sebastian Seelig 38

3 Assessing the urban environment: the European Green Capital Award and other urban assessments Birgit Georgi 50

4 Bilbao, New York and Suzhou - a tale of three cities: assessing the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize Mark Dwyer Calvin Chua 67

Part II Methodologies/Ways of Thinking

5 Assessing urban greenhouse gas emissions in European medium and large cities: methodological considerations Peter J. Marcotullio Andrea Sarzynski Jocben Albrecht Niels Schulz Jake Garcia 83

6 Ecological footprint analysis: assessing urban sustainability William E. Rees 102

7 The evaluation of urban biodiversity Ulrich Heink 115

8 Transforming the psychology of emissions Douglas Mulhall Michael Braungart 134

Part III Urban Sustainability - Best Practices

9 Water and the city: canals and waterfront development as tools for a sustainable post-industrial city - assessing best practices Ian Douglas 145

10 Assessing sustainable urban transport Sir Peter Hall 169

11 Assessing the Amsterdam Singel canal area for the UNESCO World Heritage listing (2010): heritage and sustainability Pierre Laconte 184

12 King's Cross: assessing the development of a new urban quarter for London Chris Gossop 193

13 Concepts for cities in times of climate change: making an entire city district self-sufficient in heat and power Uli Hellweg Kai Dietrich 216

About the contributors 232

Index 237