Environment and the City

Joe Ravetz, Clive George, Joe Howe, Peter W. Roberts

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781136978678
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

For the first time at the beginning of the twenty-first century, urban dwellers outnumber rural residents and this trend is set to continue. Consequently one of the most pressing issues of our time is how to square the social and economic development of cities with their environmental limits and those of the wider environment. The theme of the environment and city is topical at every level, from the politics of global trade to local community networks.

Environment and the City looks at the evolution of cities in the developed and the developing world and the implications for resource consumption and environmental impacts. It takes a cross-cutting approach with new thinking on multiple geographies – the configuration of networks, exclusion, consumption, risk and ecological footprint. Urban environmental themes and their related social, economic and political agendas are outlined. In turn the environmental impacts and environmental agendas relating to key sectors of the urban economy are discussed. The global context to such issues is then explored before the practical tools and methods of urban environmental management are investigated. The theme of the sustainable city emerges from this – not so much as a standard menu, but as a learning process between all sections of society.

This book, a valuable resource, provides a concise, accessible route map for all students interested in the environmental issues emanating from our urban society. Written to aid student understanding, the easily navigable text features boxed practical examples, discussion points, signposts to reading and websites, and a glossary.

1 Introduction

● 1.1 Environment and the city

● 1.2 An urban world

● 1.3 The urban century and beyond

● 1.4 The environmental consequences of urbanization

● 1.5 Ecological footprints

● 1.6 Sustainable development and sustainable communities

● 1.7 Governance and engagement

● 1.8 Communities, cities and regions

● 1.9 Understanding and moving towards sustainable cities

● 1.10 The purpose and structure of this book

The city, man’s noblest creation, hardly merits such an accolade in its late twentieth-century form (Eldredge, 1967, vii).

1.1 Environment and the city

Environment and the City looks at the evolution of cities in the developed and developing world, and the implications for resource consumption and environmental impacts, locally, regionally, nationally and globally. This is a huge topic and there is no way to put all the detail into one book. This is especially the case given that this book attempts to look at the city through two lenses: it looks ‘inward’ to the functioning of cities as individual entities, and it looks ‘outward’ to the operation of cities globally.

So this book focuses on the social science view of what is most relevant to the urban environment. This involves a cross-cutting and critical approach, with new thinking on multiple geographies of the city, including changing patterns of networks, exclusion, consumption, risk and expropriation. Then for each of the environmental themes – air, water, and others – there is a social, economic and political agenda, and for each activity sector – housing, employment, leisure, construction, transport and others – there is an environmental agenda.

The practical applications of this approach can be seen in the many methods and tools for urban environmental management, such as impact assessment, environmental taxation and citizen-based governance. From all this, the themes of the sustainable city and the sustainable community emerge – not so much as fixed menus, but more as a continuous learning process between all sections of society.

This continuous learning process is not restricted to one city or one group of individuals or professionals. Rather it is a universal need, set in the context of an urgent requirement for better understanding and action in order to prevent the exacerbation of known environmental (and social and economic) problems. Furthermore, it is evident that some of these problems are long-standing, including the difficulties encountered when attempting to reconcile the conflicting demands of, for example, economic growth and the conservation of scarce environmental resources.

It is for the above reasons that this book concentrates upon what Artur Glikson called the ‘human environment’, which he described as ‘the space which surrounds human movement, work, habitation, rest and interaction’ (Glikson, 1971, 1). This ‘human environment’ as the term suggests, transcends the normal definition of the environment because it deals with the transformation of biological and physical factors in space and the consequences, both negative and positive, of this process of modification. These are important matters which are considered in relation to the scope and methods that underpin the approach adopted in the book. For the purpose of the book Glikson’s ‘human environment’ provides an organising concept for considering urban problems, thereby leading to the use of the term ‘human urban environment’ throughout the following text.

1.2 An urban world

Urban areas are now home to over half the world’s population. They also represent the most significant concentration of global environmental challenges, including a range of major problems that are associated with the excessive consumption of resources; the generation of vast quantities of waste; the pollution of land, air and water; and a vast array of health and security concerns that would appear to be the inevitable collorary of dense urban living.

Cities have been a significant part of human existence for thousands of years, but for most of this history urban areas have played a relatively minor role in terms of housing the population and producing the goods and products necessary for survival. Although towns and cities have always exerted considerable power and influence far beyond that directly associated with their size – they have, after all, always been a focus for political, administrative, religious, cultural, educational, military and trading functions – in many parts of the world the presence and performance of urban settlements has not dominated human affairs as totally as is now the case. In the past the vast majority of the world’s population lived in rural areas and their lifestyles required at least an elementary understanding of the environment upon which they depended for their survival. Nowadays the majority of the world’s population live far removed from the natural environment.

Industrialization

This basic relationship between human settlement and the environment was disrupted with the advent of mass industrialization, which both stimulated the drift of population from the countryside into urban areas, and enabled the in situ growth of the urban population. Whilst there were, and still are, many advantages associated with urbanization, including, for example, the ability to support mass production, the provision of a wide range of services and the stimulation of research and innovation, many diseconomies and unaccounted externalities have emerged. Inevitably the attention of the public and many policy-makers is frequently focused on the negative environmental consequences of urban living. However, there are also many positive environmental attributes associated with urbanization, and it is essential to attempt to provide a balanced assessment of the environmental performance of towns and cities. A brief summary of some of the more important positive and negative environmental challenges facing cities is presented in Box 1.1.

The Aalborg Charter and the Bristol Accord

This book aims to provide a balanced assessment of the evolution and current condition of the human urban environment. In stating this objective, it is appreciated that any attempt to claim complete objectivity will be open to question, and that any assessment of such a massive topic can only ever be selective in terms of its geographic or topic coverage.

Box 1.1

Key urban environmental challenges

● The increasing size of many cities and the massive concentration of population in such areas.

● The massive direct and indirect consumption of finite and renewable natural resources, including water, minerals, food and other materials.

● The generation of substantial quantities of pollutants and wastes.

● The consumption of land for building and the degradation of many other areas of land, including brownfield and derelict sites and areas used for production and waste reception.

● The continued use of unsuitable and unsustainable modes of transport and the pollution and congestion which result from such usage.

● The absence in many cities of sufficient open space and the threat to biodiversity.

● The impact of urbanization on the climate at local and global levels.

● The excessive development of flood plains and the threat that this poses.

● The presence of conceptual and institutional barriers to the development and implementation of strategies to deal with urban environmental problems.

● The social and political barriers which prevent or inhibit the full engagement of all sectors and communities in city management.

● The absence of economic and other incentives to improve urban environmental conditions.

Nevertheless, in presenting the following analysis and discussion, the authors hope to be able to introduce what is now acknowledged as one of the most important issues confronting societies in both the more developed and less developed countries of the world. Although it is set in a European context, the overall nature of the challenge confronting cities was addressed by the Aalborg Charter, in the following terms:

We are convinced that the city or town is both the largest unit capable of initially addressing the way architectural, social, economic, political, natural resource and environmental imbalances damage our modern world and the smallest scale at which problems can be meaningfully resolved in an integrated, holistic and sustainable fashion. (Aalborg Charter, 1994, paragraph 1.3, cited in White, 2002, 4)

The challenge identified by the Aalborg Charter has subsequently been reflected in many other research reports and policy statements. However, the danger remains that the task of making cities sustainable will be fragmented with each individual organization or agency taking responsibility for a particular aspect of policy, such as transport, housing, social infrastructure or environmental management. Although as yet there is no global agreement on how best to take forward a comprehensive and integrated approach to the planning and management of the entire ‘human urban environment’, the member states of the European Union have agreed a broad approach to understanding and implementing a means of delivering sustainable development at the urban scale. This approach, known as the sustainable communities model, was agreed by the European Union member states at a meeting held in 2005 in Bristol (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2005). The sustainable communities model, as agreed in the Bristol Accord, provides a practical means of delivering a fundamental objective of the European Union, that is the delivery of sustainable development.

The sustainable communities model brings together the theory and practice of sustainable development with the politics and practice of placemaking. It is a model that offers a response to the challenge set out in the Aalborg Charter and it aims to create and maintain better places ‘where people want to live and work, now and in the future’ (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2005, 6).

An exploration of how to meet the challenges identified by the Aalborg Charter and the Bristol Accord provides a central theme for this book. Although the Aalborg and Bristol initiatives illustrate the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Series editors’ preface
• List of boxes, figures and tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 The human urban environment: scope and methods
• Chapter 3 Future city: urban environments in transition
• Chapter 4 Urban environments in a global context
• Chapter 5 Towards the eco-city: the physical urban environment
• Chapter 6 City form and fabric: the urban built environment
• Chapter 7 Cities in the global market: the economic urban environment
• Chapter 8 Community and lifestyle: the social urban environment
• Chapter 9 Methods and tools for the urban environment
• Chapter 10 Towards sustainable cities and regions
• Appendices
• References
• Index