Customer Reviews

Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book comes across as presenting in-depth information on creating sustainability within cities by utilizing a systems approach. Instead, what it is is a long restatement of "the Ten Melbourne Principles for Sustainable Cities", a set of principles developed at a conference held in Melbourne, Australia. All of the principles are covered in the introduction. The authors then rehash them in ten chapters incorporating a lot of naivete along the way.

One theme that keeps recurring in the book is the idea that indigenous cultures are more aware than other cultures of the importance of preserving the ecosystems on which they depend. This is a good example of "survivor bias". The authors pay attention to cultures that have survived, ignoring all the failed indigenous cultures. They are also making a misleading statement about these cultures by suggesting their practices were such that they would have continued on had they not been interrupted by Europeans.

The authors give some broad, non-science based introductions to topics like resilience, panarchy, and ecosystems, going so far as to misrepresent an ecosystem as some sort of smoothly running conflict-free process. Nature is cutthroat. It is unforgiving to elements that are causing problems. It is not the sort of place where the members are focused on "Fostering a sense of joy and belonging through rituals and celebrations following natural cycles" (p.47). Unless, of course, you see a bear taking down a moose then killing any animal that tries to interfere with his meal a joyful celebration.

On the bright side, I think this book provides a lot of introductory information and some good references on the topics it addresses.

Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems presents a case for locally driven processes that model cities along the principles of ecosystems, and to integrate cities within bioregions. Newman and Jennings organize the book by the ten Melbourne Principles for Sustainable Cities. The Melbourne Principles were developed at an international charrette sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. Each chapter of Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems - the authors call it CASE - discusses one of the Melbourne Principles and describes strategies to achieve them. The authors present a comprehensive overview of all aspects of sustainability, backed by extensive research and best practice examples around the world.

As a description of principles and a compendium of practices, I found the book at times somewhat a dense read. On the other hand, my tenacity was rewarded by a good framework for understanding city sustainability, and by many inspiring efforts. Of particular interest to me is the idea and methods for basing human societies and settlements on the characteristics of sustainable ecosystems: healthy (e.g. use of solar energy, cycling of matter), zero waste, self-regulation, resilience and self-renewal, and flexibility. Newman and Jennings do a good job of applying these characteristics to cities in a practical way. They build on these characteristics to discuss cities as clusters of eco-villages within bioregions.

I read books first from the library to save my money for those I think will be valuable over time. Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems is one I bought.

I used this book as one of two texts for "Introduction to Urban Ecosystems". It presents an important new perspective on viewing cities. As such, I would also assign other readings on the chapter topics.
I reviewed many potential texts for my class and this one covered the topics that I thought were important. For the class, I used the Melbourne principles as a premise that served the topic well.

The book you sent to me is torn and I want to launch a complaint