About the Book
Many of our global cities are distressed and facing a host of issues: economic collapse in the face of rising expectations, social disintegration and civil unrest, and ecological degradation and the threats associated with climate change, including more frequent and more severe natural disasters. Our long-held assumptions about man and nature and how they interact are defunct. We realize now that we can no longer continue to build without addressing the long-term impacts of our actions and their spillovers. Energy and natural resources are finite. The way we configure economies has come into question. In the developed world, especially in the United States, infrastructure and the notions that underpin it are outdated. Meanwhile, the developing world is experiencing major, rapid transformations in lifestyles and economies that are affecting billions of people and requiring a whole new way of planning human settlements.
Cities are the key to our future; they represent the most effective vehicle for positive advancements in the human condition and environmental change. This volume argues for the need to redesign and re-plan our cities in holistic ways that reflect our new understanding and relate to their diversity and multi-dimensionality. Presenting a range of case studies from around the world, this volume examines how these distressed cities are dealing with these issues in planning for their future. Alongside these empirical chapters are philosophical essays that consider the future of distressed cities. Bringing together a team of leading scholars, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, private consulting firms, international organizations and foundations, and policy officials, this volume provides a unique and comprehensive overview on how to transform distressed communities into more livable places.
Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface; Introduction, Robert K. Whelan; Berlin: resilience and transformation, Robert Mugerauer; Marseille: France’s great port city comes back from the brink, H.V. Savitch, Doddy Aditya Iskandar and Charles Wharton Kaye-Essien; Liverpool story: growth, distress, reinvention, and place-based strategy in a northern city, David Shaw and Olivier Sykes; The evolution of city-wide master plans in the context of urban shrinkage, Robin Boyle and Robert Mehregan; Houston: a livable city without zoning?, Zhu Qian and Elise M. Bright; The transformation of a mid-sized metropolitan area in Canada: the case of the Québec City region, Mario Carrier and Marius Thériault; Rio de Janeiro: urbanistic challenges/experiments for a city at a crossroads, Pedro Novais; In the wake of Katrina: case studies in planning for a healthier and more sustainable New Orleans, Robert W. Becker and Jane S. Brooks; Distressed city: the challenges of planning and managing megacity Jakarta, Christopher Silver; `Green, global, and connected’: can Sydney solve its metropolitan governance problems?, Heather MacDonald; A transformational path for Cape Town, South Africa, David Dewar; Twilight in Delhi: the failure of slum rehabilitation programs in creating a healthier city, Manish Chalana and Susmita Rishi; Planning the recovery: Dubai’s search for a new model, Adnan Husnéin and Surajit Chakravarty; Rapid urbanization and healthy cities and healthy villages programs in the Eastern Mediterranean, Kaiumars Khoshchashm; Integrated urban-rural planning in China: the case of Zhenjiang, Weiping Wu, Min Zhang, Jianjie Shi and Jingyu Tu; Visions of new urban-rural relations and alternative definitions of well-being in rapidly urbanizing China: the case of Chengdu, Sichuan, Jiawen Hu and Daniel Benjamin Abramson; City life in modernizing societies, Daniel J. Monti Jr; Best practice methods for cities: state of the art, Eugenie L. Birch, Susan M. Wachter and Alexander Keating; Conclusions and lessons learned, Fritz W. Wagner, Riad G. Mahayni, and Andreas G. Piller; Index.
About the Author :
Fritz W. Wagner is co-Director of the Northwest Center for Livable Communities, Research Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning, and former Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington. Dr. Wagner also taught at the University of New Orleans, where he served as Director and founding Dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs for twenty years. Riad G. Mahayni is a Professor Emeritus of Community and Regional Planning at Iowa State University and former Chair of the Department. He previously taught at the University of Rhode Island, where he chaired its Urban Affairs Program. Dr. Mahayni worked as the Technical Coordinator of the Makkah (Mecca) Region Planning and Development Project, Saudi Arabia, with Dar Al Handasah Consultants. Andreas G. Piller is a Master of Planning graduate at the University of Washington focusing on land use and transportation. He has a B.A. in Urban Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has worked in the Transportation Department at the City of Bellevue, Washington since 2011.
Review :
'Wagner and his colleagues have developed an interesting and insightful book on the important topic of community transformation. Their focus on healthy, livable and sustainable communities represents an important contribution to the field. Elected officials, university researchers and community leaders can draw upon this work for inspiration and insight.' Raymond J. Burby, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
`Wagner and his colleagues have developed an interesting and insightful book on the important topic of community transformation. Their focus on healthy, livable and sustainable communities represents an important contribution to the field. Elected officials, university researchers and community leaders can draw upon this work for inspiration and insight.’
Raymond J. Burby, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
