Urban Planet: Knowledge towards Sustainable Cities

Description

Global urbanization promises better services, stronger economies, and more connections; it also carries risks and unforeseeable consequences. To deepen our understanding of this complex process and its importance for global sustainability, we need to build interdisciplinary knowledge around a systems approach. Urban Planet takes an integrative look at our urban environment, bringing together scholars from a diverse range of disciplines: from sociology and political science to evolutionary biology, geography, economics and engineering. It includes the perspectives of often neglected voices: architects, journalists, artists and activists. The book provides a much needed cross-scale perspective, connecting challenges and solutions on a local scale with drivers and policy frameworks on a regional and global scale. The authors argue that to overcome the major challenges we are facing, we must embark on a large-scale reinvention of how we live together, grounded in inclusiveness and sustainability. This title is also available Open Access.

Thomas Elmqvist is a Professor in Natural Resource Management at Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Sweden. Xuemei Bai is a Professor of Urban Environment and Human Ecology at Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University. Niki Frantzeskaki is Associate Professor of Sustainability Transitions Governance at the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) at Erasmus University, The Netherlands. Corrie Griffith is Program Manager of the Global Consortium for Sustainability Outcomes at Arizona State University. David Maddox is the founder and Executive Director of 'The Nature of Cities', a transdisciplinary essay site with more than 600 writers from around the world, from scientists to civil society, designers to artists. Timon McPhearson is Associate Professor of Urban Ecology and Director of the Urban Systems Lab at the New School University, New York, and a Research Fellow at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden. Susan Parnell is Professor of Urban Geography and co-founder of the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Visiting Professor at LSECities. Patricia Romero-Lankao is Senior Research Scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research based in Colorado, where she is currently leading the 'Urban Futures' initiative. David Simon is Director of Mistra Urban Futures at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, and Professor of Development Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. Mark Watkins is Program Manager for the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research Program (CAP LTER), part of the US LTER network.

'The fast-paced urbanization of the world significantly alters our attitudes towards space, particularly the ways we comprehend and organize them. This development is unprecedented in our recent history and calls for global reflections aiming at enlightening and supporting the implementation of local policies. Such is the ambition of Urban Planet book. To overcome the major challenges we are facing - particularly the ones dealing with climate and resilience - cities, such as Paris and many other cities around the globe, must understand and embrace their own complexity, so as to harness complexity to better serve the well-being of their citizens. It is by empowering the collective intelligence and sharing knowledge, that our cities will reinvent ways of living together, grounded in inclusiveness and the daily practice of democracy.' Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris 'The authors of Urban Planet make [the] journey to the city more legible, highlighting the hopes and hindrances its brings, and the need for a parallel evolution of our science and systems if we are to reap the rewards of the great urban trek that we are now on.' Greg Clark, CBE, Urban Innovation Centre, London