Sustaining Cities: Environmental Planning and Management in Urban Design [Hardcover]

Josef Leitmann (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0070383162 | ISBN-13: 978-0070383166 | Publication Date: July 27, 1999 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The publication on books and journal articles on "sustainability" in recent years has been relentless. Often sustainability is prominent in the title but hard to find in the text. Sustainable Cities is a unique entry in that it is a textbook, clearly designed to promote the understanding and implementation of sustainability principles among educators, students, planning practitioners, decision makers, administrators, and community leaders.

As a senior urban planner at the World Bank, Leitmann has specialized in urban and environmental management. The author respects cities, which is important in a world experiencing rapid urbanization. The book includes 10 chapters, divided into three parts. In the first part, "Cities and Sustainability," the author presents historic views about the urban environment, assesses major problems and their underlying causes, and discusses whether urban development can be sustained. In the second part, "Planning to Sustain Cities," he provides an urban environmental planning framework, supported with analytical planning tools, strategies, and action plans. In the final section, "Managing to Sustain Cities," Leitmann provides a range of urban environmental management options, seasoned with many successful examples of good planning practice around the globe.

Leitmann offers a realistic, concise assessment of the problems and underlying causes of global environmental degradation, as illustrated by Mexico City and Las Vegas. For example, based upon his three-part definition of urban sustainability (minimizing ecological footprints, sustaining production of wealth, and reducing key environmental impacts), Las Vegas, a rapidly developing, recklessly water-consuming desert city, is clearly a poster child for unsustainable urban growth, earning a "sustainability rating" of "two thumbs down" (p. 121).

Leitmann proposes the "Local Environmental Action Planning" or LEAP process (p. 143), as a strategic alternative to current growth trends. LEAP seeks to stregthen local capacity to plan effectively in three ways:
informed consultation (clarify environmental issues, involve key stakeholders, secure political commitment, and set priorities and objectives;
integrated local environmental action plan (establish long-term goals with phased targeting, achieve stakeholder agreement or issue-oriented solutions, and develop specific action plans based upon least-cost project options, policy reforms, and institutional improvements);
implementation (initiate projects, policies, and programs; institutionalize the process; and monitor and evaluate).

Leitmann acknowledges that any planning process, including LEAP, has its problems and weaknesses. He warns, for example, of the danger of excluding stakeholders and allowing experts to dominate an intended "bottom-up" planning process and of potential political and/or bureaucratic opposition to needed institutional changes.

LEAP is not merely a generic theory looking for experimental application. Leitmann presents case studies illustrating commitment to sustainability at several levels: international (global campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions), national (phasing out leaded gasoline in Thailand), city (integrating the environment and urban development in Singapore), sectoral (matching sanitation services to socioeconomic status in Kumasi, Ghana), and neighborhood (perserving a community's informal role in solid waste management in Cairo). He provides a compendium of more than 200 examples of good planning practice from nations and cities around the globe, including 12 from North America.

The book is clearly international in scale and pragmatic in concept, and is well suited for either academic or practical use. The chapters are coordinated to build Leitmann's planning framework, and their internal consistency enhances the boo's clarity. An introductory outline is followed by a well organized, readable text with informative charts, tables, box inserts, and visuals. At the end of each chapter are "Resources and Exercises for Further Thought" that include expanded comments by chapter subheading, recommended Web sites, further readings, organizational contacts, and a list of informative references. A variety of exercises encourage the user to apply chapter concepts to personal experience... (Journal of the American Planning Association )

From the Back Cover

"At last! A textbook that brings together the latest thinking on urban environmental issues, and practical tools for a new generation of urban planners." ÑDr. Gordon McGranahan, Urban Environment Program Director Stockholm Environment Institute. "A must for urban planners and environmental managersÑas well as academicsÑwho wish to seriously engage with cities in quest of a sustainable future." ÑDr. Carl Bartone, Principal Urban Environment Specialist, The World Bank. "The last ten years have witnessed a stunning increase of investment and experimentation with urban environmental planning and management (EPM). Joe LeitmannÕs EPM primer, Sustaining Cities, is a much-awaited distillation of the lessons of these years." ÑJeb Brugmann, Secretary General, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. This is the first book to give you realistic, innovative, in-depth strategies for dealing with all the environmental problems of our expanding cities. To those concerned with any aspect of urban planning, design, or environmental engineering, Sustaining Cities brings: Proven techniques for assessing, improving, and managing critical environmental issues such as air quality, urban waste and emissions, hazards, and resource depletion; Innovative approaches to planning and management from international sources that include Earth SummitÕs Agenda 21 and the City SummitÕs Habitat Agenda; American, European, and Japanese examples of good practice as well as case studies from Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, Singapore, Ghana, and Egypt; Local solutions to global environmental issues for your city. Sustaining Cities is an indispensable tool for any urban planning or environmental professional and the perfect text to introduce a new generation of urban planners to best-practice environmental strategies. (20040524)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (July 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070383162
• ISBN-13: 978-0070383166
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,700,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sustainability in Politics, April 14, 2000

By 

Khaled Mansy (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sustaining Cities: Environmental Planning and Management in Urban Design (Hardcover)

The book gives a broad understanding on what is going globally in the field of sustainability. The initiatives declared by the UN are stressed on. The book is suited for decision-makers, because it gives a good advice that is based on statistics. however, it does not go through the details at all. It sets up objectives and action plans, not technical solutions. It is good for city and regional planners.