SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT AND THE MANAGEMENT OF URBAN

SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT AND THE MANAGEMENT OF URBAN.

INTRODUCTION

This book is the result of a research project funded by the Fund for Scientific Research—Flanders (Belgium) that looks into strategic environmental assessment as an instrument to develop urban areas more sustainably. This research is carried out at the Environmental Impact Assessment Center, which is part of the Human Ecology Department at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). In 1975 the VUB instituted a Master of Human Ecology educational program. As the interdisciplinary study of the relationships between the human species and its environment, human ecology is distinct from traditional animal, plant, or microbial ecology in that it recognizes the…

By early in the coming decade, the majority of humankind will be living in cities. For the first time in the two-million-year history of our species, the immediate human environment will be the “built environment.” By some conventional accounts, accelerating urbanization is just another piece of evidence that the human economy is “decoupling” from the environment, that humanity is finally leaving nature and the rural countryside behind. This is a perceptual error. Even as we urbanize, human beings remain dependent on the environment, and cities become the major drivers of global ecological change. Moreover, the sustainability of our cities is…

As a concept, the notion of sustainable urban development is simple, appealing, and an essential component of global sustainability. On a technical level we already have many of the pieces that we need to construct communities that would be much more sustainable than those we inhabit today. We can even identify working examples of urban activities that are more sustainable than the typical ones. However, the incentive structure of regulations, prices, and taxes does not encourage the diffusion of these improved practices. We need to put into place the regulations—such as a tax on carbon emissions—that will create…

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SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT AND THE MANAGEMENT OF URBAN.