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Meet the "brown agenda" challenge of fast-growing cities. Planning and development professionals who need to cope with the problems of increasing urbanization will find practical tools in Joseph Leitmann's Sustaining Cities: Environmental Planning and Management in Urban Design. This unique reference explores the highest priority problems -sanitation and drainage, solid waste management, degradation of environmentally sensitive land, uncontrolled emissions, accidents linked to congestion, and improper disposal of hazardous waste, problems that result in poor health, lower productivity, reduced income and quality of life. It's the first book to give you realistic, innovative, in-depth options that you can use on a day-to-day basis, with examples from many parts of the world. You get a proven planning framework and strategic approach for addressing the environmental issues confronting and caused by cities, and resources you can turn to for more help, information, and training.

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historical transition took place at the dawn of the new millennium: for the first time in human history, more than half the world’s population are living in cities. These cities currently generate two-thirds of economic wealth and will account for 80% of GDP growth during this decade. Population and economic growth in cities create externalities – more people making more things demand more resources and generate more waste. The resulting set of environmental problems, known as the “Brown Agenda”, consists of: a) access to environmental infrastructure and services; b) pollution from urban wastes; c) resource losses; d) environmental hazards; and e) global environmental issues. A huge number of people are affected by urban environmental degradation: 1.1 billion people live in cities that exceed healthful levels of air quality; 420 million have inadequate sanitation; and 220 million city dwellers do not have access to safe drinking water. However, the Brown Agenda has been neglected until recently in favor of “green” issues such as natural resource management, biodiversity and global warming.

Mayors, city organizations and the development community (The World Bank, UNDP, UNCHS) began to recognize the importance of the urban environment in the early 1990s. Their successfully lobbying led to the inclusion of a chapter on local initiatives as part of the 1992 Earth Summit’s “Agenda 21”. Academia and non-governmental organizations followed suit with research, publications, training courses, and professional degrees for urban environmental management. However, no publication has yet assembled this wealth of theoretical and applied material in a textbook that can be used to meet the growing demand for academic and professional training.

The textbook is organized in three sections: 1) cities and sustainability; 2) planning to sustain cities; and 3) managing to sustain cities. The first section provides the rationale and a guide to using the textbook, reviews past thinking about the urban environment, assess key problems and their causes, and looks at whether urban development can be sustained. The second section presents a planning framework for the urban environment, describes useful tools for analysis and planning, and explains the development and use of urban environmental management strategies and action plans. The third section describes issues and options for managing the urban environment and presents intensive as well as extensive examples of good practice. A concluding chapter draws practical lessons for planning and managing, and reviews what we still need to know. Annexes are provided on urban environmental data for the world’s major cities, resources for information and assistance, and resources for research and training.

PREFACE: links book to the Earth Summit, Habitat II and the challenges of a rapidly urbanizing world; jointly authored by the World Association of Local Authorities, UNEP, UNCHS, and The World Bank

SECTION 1: CITIES AND SUSTAINABILITY

I. INTRODUCTION

• Objective of publication: to serve as a primer for students, planners, activists, and academics concerned with the environmental dimension of urban development
• Guide on how to use the textbook for: teaching; planning; organizing; and researching
• Why bother about cities and sustainability?
  • Urbanization and environmental concerns
  • Range and severity of problems
  • Cities as solutions
• Summary of key conclusions and messages

II. THINKING ABOUT THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT

• The environment in urban planning literature
• Cities in environmental theory
• Synthesis
  • Thinking about urban ecology
  • Sustainable development
  • The Earth Summit, Habitat II and “local” Agenda 21
• Other theoretical perspectives
• Theoretical issues
• Resources and exercises for further thought

III. UNDERSTANDING KEY PROBLEMS AND THEIR CAUSES

• Key problems areas
  • Access to environmental infrastructure and services
  • Pollution from urban wastes
  • Resource losses
  • Environmental hazards
  • The global dimension
• Conditions influencing the urban environment
• Underlying causes of urban environmental degradation
• Resources and exercises for further thought

IV. CAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT BE SUSTAINED?

• Differing views of urban sustainability
  • Reducing ecological footprints
  • Sustaining the production of wealth
  • Resolving critical problems
• Case studies of Las Vegas and Mexico City
• Are cities sustainable?
• The case for urban environmental planning and management
• Resources and exercises for further thought

SECTION 2: PLANNING TO SUSTAIN CITIES

V. THE LEAP: A FRAMEWORK FOR URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING

• Styles of urban environmental planning
• Local environmental action planning
  • Informed consultation
  • LEAP development
  • LEAP implementation
• Some procedural considerations
• Application of the framework
• Resources and exercises for further thought

VI. TOOLS FOR ANALYSIS AND PLANNING

• Analytical tools
  • data collection, city-wide indicators and ecological footprints
  • health risk assessment
  • economic valuation
  • community & household-level assessments
  • geographic information systems
• Planning tools
  • rapid urban environmental assessment
  • comparative risk assessment
• Tools and processes: A suitability summary
• Resources and exercises for further thought

VII. THE LEAP PROCESS IN ACTION

• Informed consultation
  • Examples
  • Lessons
• LEAP formulation
  • Examples
  • Lessons
• LEAP implementation
  • Examples
  • Lessons
• Resources and exercises for further thought

SECTION 3: MANAGING TO SUSTAIN CITIES

VIII. CHOOSING APPROPRIATE MANAGEMENT OPTIONS

• Management instruments and selection criteria
• Options for involving stakeholders
  • Transparency and awareness
  • Participation of civil society
• Options for building environmental management capacity
  • General measures for capacity-building
  • Improving municipal operations
  • Introducing new institutions and systems
• Compendium of management options
• Resources and exercises for further thought

IX. GOOD PRACTICE FOR MANAGING THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT

• Defining good practice
• International level: Global campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• National level: Phasing out leaded gasoline in Thailand
• City level: Integrating the environment in Singapore’s development
• Sectoral level: Strategic sanitation planning in Kumasi (Ghana)
• Neighborhood level: Preserving an informal community’s role in waste management in Cairo (Egypt)
• Compendium: 200+ examples of good practice
• Resources and exercises for further thought

X. THE FRONTIES: CONCLUSIONS AND CONUNDRUMS

• Principles for sustaining urban development in the 21st century
• Practical lessons learned for planning and managing
• Tensions and false dichotomies
• What we still need to know

ANNEXES

A. URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL DATA

• Data on socio-economic conditions and the urban environment in the world’s 35 largest cities

B. RESOURCES FOR HELP AND INFORMATION

• Summary of data sources, journals and regional and international programs that provide information and/or support for urban environmental planning and management, with contact information (address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site)

C. RESOURCES FOR TRAINING

• Summary of research, academic and other institutions that develop information and/or offer relevant training, with contact information

INDEX