Search results for ""island press""

Julia Wondolleck and Steven Yaffee are hopeful. Rather than lamenting the persistent conflicts in global marine ecosystems, they instead sought out examples where managers were doing things differently and making progress against great odds. They interviewed planners, managers, community members, fishermen, and environmentalists throughout the world to find the best lessons for others hoping to advance marine conservation. Their surprising discovery? Successful marine management requires not only the right mix of science, law, financing, and organisational structure, but also an atmosphere of collaboration, a comfortable place for participants to learn about issues, craft solutions, and develop the interpersonal relationships, trust, and understanding needed to put plans into action. Marine Ecosystem-Based Management in Practice is the first practical guide for the marine conservation realm. In a unique collection of case studies, the authors showcase successful collaborative approaches to ecosystem-based management.The authors introduce the basic concepts of ecosystem-based management and five different pathways for making progress from community to multinational levels. They spotlight the characteristics that are evident in all successful cases --the governance structures and social motivations that make it work. Case analyses ranging from the Gulf of Maine to the Channel Islands in Southern California comprise the bulk of the book, augmented by text boxes showcasing examples of guiding documents important to the process. They devote several ending chapters to discussion of the interpersonal relationships critical to successful implementation of marine ecosystem-based management. The book concludes with a discussion of the implications for policy and on-the-ground practice. This book offers a hopeful message to policy makers, managers, practitioners, and students who will find this an indispensable guide to field-tested, replicable marine conservation management practices that work.

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Eight illuminating biographies that inspire passion, persistence, and partnershipsIt’s easy to feel powerless in the face of big environmental challenges—but we need inspiration now more than ever. In Nature’s Allies, Larry Nielsen presents the inspiring stories of eight conservation pioneers who show that through passion and perseverance we can each make a difference, even in the face of political opposition. Nielsen’s vivid biographies of John Muir, Ding Darling, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Chico Mendes, Billy Frank Jr., Wangari Maathai, and Gro Harlem Brundtland are meant to rally a new generation of conservationists to follow in their footsteps and inspire students, conservationists, and nature lovers to speak up for nature and prove that individuals can affect positive change in the world.

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Transit and cities grow together. As cities work to become more compact, sustainable, and healthy, their work is paying dividends: in 2014, Americans took 10.8 billion trips on public transit, the highest since the dawn of the highway era. But most of these trips are on streets that were designed to move private cars, with transit as an afterthought. The NACTO Transit Street Design Guide places transit where it belongs, at the heart of street design. The guide shows how streets of every size can be redesigned to create great transit streets, supporting great neighbourhoods and downtowns. The Transit Street Design Guide is a well-illustrated, detailed introduction to designing streets for high-quality transit, from local buses to BRT, from streetcars to light rail. Drawing on the expertise of a peer network and case studies from across North America, the guide provides a much-needed link between transit planning, transportation engineering, and street design. The Transit Street Design Guide presents a new set of core principles, street typologies, and design strategies that shift the paradigm for streets, from merely accommodating service to actively prioritizing great transit. The book expands on the transit information in the acclaimed Urban Street Design Guide, with sections on comprehensive transit street design, lane design and materials, stations and stops, intersection strategies, and city transit networks. It also details performance measures and outlines how to make the case for great transit street design in cities. The guide is built on simple mathematics: allocating scarce space to transit instead of private automobiles greatly expands the number of people a street can move. Street design and decisions made by cities, from how to time signals to where bus stops are placed, can dramatically change how transit works and how people use it. The Transit Street Design Guide is a vital resource for every transportation planner, public transport operations planner, and city traffic engineer working on making streets that move more people more efficiently and affordably.

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Green infrastructure is becoming a priority for cities, counties, and states across the world. Recognition of the need to manage natural assets, trees, soils, water, and habitats, as part of our green infrastructure is vital to creating livable places and healthy landscapes. But the land management decisions about how to create plans, where to invest money, and how to get the most from these investments are complex, influenced by differing landscapes, goals, and stakeholders. Strategic Green Infrastructure Planning addresses the nuts and bolts of planning and preserving natural assets at a variety of scales, from dense urban environments to scenic rural landscapes. A practical guide to creating effective and well-crafted plans and then implementing them, the book presents a six-step process. Well-organized chapters explain how each step, from setting goals to implementing opportunities, can be applied to a variety of scenarios, customisable to the reader's target geographical location. Chapters draw on a diverse group of case studies. Abundant full colour maps, photographs, and illustrations complement the text. For planners, developers, conservationists, and others interested in the creation and maintenance of open space lands and urban green infrastructure projects or promoting a healthy economy, this book offers a comprehensive yet flexible approach to conceiving, refining, and implementing successful projects.

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Food waste, hunger, inhumane livestock conditions, disappearing fish stocks - these are exactly the kind of issues we expect food regulations to combat. Yet, today in the United States, law sexist at all levels of government that actually make these problems worse. Baylen Linnekin argues that, too often, government rules handcuff America's most Sustainable farmers, producers, sellers, and consumer's, while rewarding those whose practices are anything but sustainable. Biting the Hands that Feed Us introduces readers to the perverse consequences of many food rules. Some of these rules constrain the sale of "ugly" fruits and vegetables, relegating bushels of tasty but misshapen carrots and strawberries-to food waste. Other rules have threatened to treat manure, the lifeblood of organic fertilisation as a toxin. Still other rules prevent sharing food with the homeless and others in need. There are even rules that prohibit people from growing fruits and vegetables in their own gardens.Linnekin also explores what makes for a good food law, often, he explains, these emphasise good outcomes rather than rigid processes. But he urges readers to be wary of efforts to regulate-our way to a greener food system, calling instead for empowerment of those working to feed us, and themselves, sustainably.

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There exists a category of America n cities in which the line between suburban and urban is almost impossible to locate. These suburban cities arose in the last half of twentieth-century America, based largely on the success of the single-family home, shopping centres, and the automobile. The low-density, auto-centric development of suburban cities, which are largely in the arid West, presents challenges for urban sustainability as it is traditionally measured. Yet, some of these cities, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Salt Lake, Dallas, Tucson, San Bernardino, and San Diego, continue to be among the fastest growing places in the United States. In The Future of the Suburban City, Phoenix native Grady Gammage, Jr. looks at the promise of the suburban city as well as the challenges. He argues that places that grew up based on the automobile and the single-family home need to dramatically change and evolve. But suburban cities have some advantages in an era of climate change, and many suburban cities are already making strides in increasing their resilience. Gammage, focuses on the story of Phoenix, which shows the power of collective action, government action, to confront the challenges of geography and respond through public policy. He takes a fresh look at what it means to be sustainable and examines issues facing most suburban cities around water supply, heat, transportation, housing, density, urban form, jobs, economics, and politics. The Future of the Suburban City is a realistic yet hopeful story of what is possible for any suburban city.

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Scientists have been warning for years that human activity is heating up the planet and climate change is under way. In the past century, global temperatures have risen an average of 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit, a trend that is expected to only accelerate. But public sentiment has taken a long time to catch up, and we are only just beginning to acknowledge the serious effects this will have on all life on Earth. The federal government is crafting bread-scale strategies to protect wildland ecosystems from the worst effects of climate change. The challenge now is to get the latest science into the hands of resource managers entrusted with protecting water, plants, fish and wildlife, tribal lands, and cultural heritage sites in wildlands. Teaming with NASA and the Department of the Interior, ecologist Andrew Hansen, along with his team of scientists and managers, set out to understand how climate and land use changes affect montane landscapes of the Rockies and the Appalachians, and how these findings can be applied to wildlands elsewhere. They examine changes over the past century as well as expected future change, assess the vulnerability of species and ecosystems to these changes, and provide new, collaborative management approaches to mitigate expected impacts. A series of case studies showcases how managers might tackle such wide-ranging problems- as the effects of warming streams on cold-water fish in Great Smoky Mountain National Park and dying white- bark pine stands in the Greater Yellowstone area. A surprising finding is that species and ecosystems vary dramatically in vulnerability to climate change. While many will suffer severe effects, others may actually benefit from projected changes. Climate Change in Wildlonds is a collaboration between scientists and managers, providing a science-derived framework and common-sense approaches for keeping parks and protected areas healthy on a rapidly changing planet.

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As managers grapple with the challenges of the effects of climate change in a hyper-connected, global economy, they are paying increasing attention to their organisation's resilience - its capacity to survive, adapt, and flourish in the face of turbulent change. Sudden natural disruptions and increasingly vulnerable supply chains are increasingly the new normal. Business as usual is no match for this new world and many companies are unaware of how fragile they really are. If they are going to cope, management needs a new paradigm, one that considers as an interrelated whole the infrastructure, the built environment, the ecosystems, and the social fabric in which businesses operate. Resilient by Design provides managers with a more complete approach to creating lasting success in a changing world. Rich with examples and case studies of organisations that are designing resilience into the very fabric of their organisations, it explains how to connect the important external systems, stakeholders, communities, infrastructure, supply chains, and natural resources, to create innovative, dynamic organisations that survive and prosper under any circumstances. Resilient enterprises continue to grow and evolve in order to meet the needs and expectations of their shareholders and stakeholders. They adapt successfully to turbulence by anticipating disruptive changes, recognising new business opportunities, building strong relationships, and designing resilient assets, products, and processes. Written by one of the leading experts in how such companies are built and managed, Resilient by Design offers a better way forward in a world that is increasingly less certain than ever.

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Is it time to embrace the so-called "Anthropocene"--the age of human dominion--and to abandon tried-and-true conservation tools such as parks and wilderness areas? Is the future of Earth to be fully domesticated, an engineered global garden managed by technocrats to serve humanity? The schism between advocates of rewilding and those who accept and and even celebrate a "post-wild" world is arguably the hottest intellectual battle in contemporary conservation.

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This book presents key concepts for students to understand chemical resistance in agriculture and apply that knowledge to achieving global food security. In the race to feed the world's seven billion people, we are at a standstill. Over the past century, we have developed increasingly potent and sophisticated pesticides, yet in 2014, the average percentage of U.S. crops lost to agricultural pests was no less than in 1944. To use a metaphor the field of evolutionary biology borrowed from Alice in Wonderland, farmers must run ever faster to stay in the same place, i.e., produce the same yields. With Chasing the Red Queen, Andy Dyer offers the first book to apply the Red Queen Hypothesis to agriculture. Dyer examines one of the world's most pressing problems as a biological case study. He presents key concepts, from Darwin's principles of natural selection to genetic variation and adaptive phenotypes. Understanding the fundamentals of ecology and biology is the first step to "playing the Red Queen," and escaping her unwinnable race. The book's novel frame will help students, researchers, and policy-makers alike apply that knowledge to the critical task of achieving food security.

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As cities continue to face climate change impacts while growing in population, they find themselves at the centre of resilience and green city solutions, yet political and budgetary obstacles threaten even the best-planned initiatives. The Guide to Greening Cities is the first book written from the perspective of municipal leaders with successful, on-the-ground experience working to advance green city goals. Through personal reflections and interviews with leading municipal staff in cities from San Antonio to Minneapolis, the authors share lessons for cities to lead by example in their operations, create programmes, implement high-priority initiatives, develop partnerships, measure progress, secure funding, and engage the community. Case studies and chapters highlight strategies for overcoming common challenges such as changes of leadership and fiscal austerity. The book is augmented by a companion website, launching with the publication of the book, which offers video interviews of municipal leaders, additional case studies, and other resources. Rich in insights, tools, and tricks of the trade, The Guide to Greening Cities helps professionals, policymakers, community leaders, and students understand which approaches have worked and why and demonstrates multidisciplinary solutions for creating healthy, just, and green communities.

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How do you achieve effective low-carbon design beyond the building level? How do you create a community that is both liveable and sustainable? More importantly, how do you know if you succeeded? Harrison Fraker goes beyond abstract principles to provide a clear, in-depth evaluation of four first generation low-carbon neighbourhoods in Europe, and shows how those lessons can be applied. Using concrete performance data to gauge successes and failures, he presents a holistic model based on best practices. The four case studies are: Bo01 in Malmo and Hammarby in Stockholm, Sweden and Kronsberg in Hannover and Vauban in Freiberg, Germany. Each was built deliberately to conserve resources: all are mixed-used, contain at least 1,000 units, and employ aggressive strategies for energy and water efficiency, recycling, and waste treatment. For each case study, Fraker explores the community's development process and principles, goals and objectives as they relate to urban form, transportation, green space, energy, water, and waste systems, social agenda, overall performance, and lessons learned. Later chapters compare the different strategies employed by the case-study communities and develop a comprehensive model of sustainability, looking specifically at how these lessons can be employed. Fraker also shows that sustainability isn't limited to newly built neighbourhoods - retrofits can benefit even our most established communities. This whole-systems approach promises not only a smaller carbon footprint, but an enriched form of urban living.

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Project Planning and Management for Ecological Restoration addresses a problem that is the reason many current restoration projects are not as effective or successful as they could be: a lack of understanding of the principles of sound planning and management. John Rieger, John Stanley, and Ray Traynor, who collectively have decades of experience implementing successful restoration projects, provide a straightforward framework for developing and executing an ecological restoration project in order to maximize its potential for success. The authors focus on process, planning, design, implementation, and management rather than science. They describe a simple project management plan, identify the design approaches and the commitments that decisions require, and explain how design theory is translated to on-the-ground project design. The book includes numerous illustrations, as well as a series of checklists and tables to help restorationists recognize and then correct problems that may arise.

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What makes strolling down a particular street enjoyable? The authors of "Measuring Urban Design" argue it's not an idle question. Inviting streets are the centrepiece of thriving, sustainable communities, but it can be difficult to pinpoint the precise design elements that make an area appealing. This accessible guide removes the mystery, providing clear methods to measure urban design. In recent years, many "walking audit instruments" have been developed to measure qualities like building height, street length, and pavement width. But while easily quantifiable, these physical features do not fully capture the experience of walking down a street. In contrast, this book addresses broad perceptions of street environments. It provides operational definitions and measurement protocols of five intangible qualities of urban design, specifically: imageability, visual enclosure, human scale, transparency, and complexity. The result is a reliable field survey instrument grounded in constructs from architecture, urban design, and planning. Readers will also find a case study applying the instrument to 588 streets in New York City, which shows that it can be used effectively to measure the built environment's impact on social, psychological, and physical well-being. Finally, readers will find illustrated, step-by-step instructions to use the instrument and a scoring sheet for easy calculation of urban design quality scores. For the first time, researchers, designers, planners, and lay people have an empirically tested tool to measure those elusive qualities that make us want to take a stroll.

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While rising seas are now inevitable, we are far from helpless. By making hard choices - including uprooting communities, changing where and how we build, and developing a coordinated response - we can save property, and ultimately lives. With unassailable research and practical insights, "The Rising Sea" is a critical first step in understanding the threat and keeping our heads above water.

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The jaguar is one of the most mysterious and least-known big cats of the world. The largest cat in the Americas, it has survived an onslaught of environmental and human threats partly because of an evolutionary history unique among wild felines, but also because of a power and indomitable spirit so strong, the jaguar has shaped indigenous cultures and the beliefs of early civilizations on two continents. In An Indomitable Beast: The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar, big-cat expert Alan Rabinowitz shares his own personal journey to conserve a species that, despite its past resilience, is now on a slide toward extinction if something is not done to preserve the pathways it prowls through an ever-changing, ever-shifting landscape dominated by humans. Rabinowitz reveals how he learned from newly available genetic data that the jaguar was a single species connected genetically throughout its entire range from Mexico to Argentina, making it unique among all other large carnivores in the world. In a mix of personal discovery and scientific inquiry, he sweeps his readers deep into the realm of the jaguar, offering fascinating accounts from the field. Enhanced with maps, tables, and colour plates, An Indomitable Beast brings important new research to life for scientists, anthropologists, and animal lovers alike. This book is not only about jaguars, but also about tenacity and survival. From the jaguar we can learn better strategies for saving other species and also how to save ourselves when faced with immediate and long-term catastrophic changes to our environment.

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In 2006, "Resilience Thinking" addressed an essential question: As the natural systems that sustain us are subjected to shock after shock, how much can they take and still deliver the services we need from them? This idea caught the attention of both the scientific community and the general public. In "Resilience Practice", authors Brian Walker and David Salt take the notion of resilience one step further, applying resilience thinking to real-world situations and exploring how systems can be managed to promote and sustain resilience. The book begins with an overview and introduction to resilience thinking and then takes the reader through the process of describing systems, assessing their resilience, and intervening as appropriate. Following each chapter is a case study of a different type of social-ecological system and how resilience makes a difference to that system in practice. The final chapters explore resilience in other arenas, including on a global scale. "Resilience Practice" will help people with an interest in the "coping capacity" of systems - from farms and estates to regions and nations - to better understand how resilience thinking can be put into practice. It offers an easy-to-read but scientifically robust guide through the real-world application of the concept of resilience and is a must read for anyone concerned with the management of systems at any scale.

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This trailblazing book outlines a tested interdisciplinary "process model" for urban design. Its goal is not to explain how to design a specific city precinct or public space, but to describe useful steps to approach the transformation of urban spaces. "Urban Ecological Design" illustrates the different stages in which the process is organized, using theories, techniques, images, and case studies. The authors believe that environmental concerns demand that ecological and sustainability issues are addressed in urban design. It is, after all, the urban designer who helps to orchestrate human relationships with other living organisms in the built environment. The overall objective of the book is to reinforce the role of the urban designer as an honest broker and promoter of design processes and as an active agent of social creativity in the production of the public realm.

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Robert Brown helps us see that a 'thermally comfortable microclimate' is the very foundation of well-designed and well-used outdoor places. Brown argues that as we try to minimise human-induced changes to the climate and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels - as some areas become warmer, some cooler, some wetter, and some drier, and all become more expensive to regulate - good microclimate design will become increasingly important. In the future, according to Brown, all designers will need to understand climatic issues and be able to respond to their challenges. Brown describes the effects that climate has on outdoor spaces - using vivid illustrations and examples - while providing practical tools that can be used in everyday design practice. The heart of the book is Brown's own design process, as he provides useful guidelines that lead designers clearly through the complexity of climate data, precedents, site assessment, microclimate modification, communication, design, and evaluation. Brown strikes an ideal balance of technical information, anecdotes, examples, and illustrations to keep the book engaging and accessible. His emphasis throughout is on creating microclimates that attend to the comfort, health, and well-being of people, animals, and plants. "Design with Microclimate" is a vital resource for students and practitioners of landscape architecture, architecture, planning, and urban design.

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Since the first publication of this landmark textbook in 2004, it has received high praise for its clear, comprehensive, and practical approach. The second edition continues to offer a unique framework for teaching and learning interdisciplinary environmental planning, incorporating the latest thinking, newest research findings, and numerous, updated case studies into the solid foundation of the first edition. The book has been reorganised based on feedback from instructors, and contains a new chapter entitled "Land Use, Energy, Air Quality, and Climate Change." Throughout, boxes have been added on such topics as laws and local environmental programmes, and critical problems and responses. This new edition addresses three broad subject areas. Part I, "Environmental Planning and Management," provides an overview of the field, along with the fundamentals of land use planning, and presents a collaborative approach to environmental planning. Part II, "Sustainable Land Use Principles and Planning Analysis," considers environmental and geospatial information; soils, topography, and land use; stream flow, flooding, and runoff; stormwater management and stream restoration; groundwater hydrology; landscape ecology; wildlife habitats and biodiversity; energy, air quality, and climate change; and methods for land analysis. Part III, "Managing Watersheds, Ecosystems, and Development to Achieve Sustainable Communities," explains the principles of ecosystem management, restoration, and protection; land conservation; and the mitigation of natural hazards. With this thoroughly revised second edition, "Environmental Land Use Planning and Management" maintains its pre-eminence as the leading textbook in its field.

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For more than three decades, David Orr has been one of the leading voices of the environmental movement, championing the cause of ecological literacy in higher education, helping to establish and shape the field of ecological design, and working tirelessly to raise awareness of the threats to future generations posed by humanity's current unsustainable trajectory. "Hope Is an Imperative" brings together in a single volume Professor Orr's most important works, including classics such as "What Is Education For?" one of the most widely reprinted essays in the environmental literature, "The Campus and the Biosphere", which helped launch the green campus movement, and "Loving Children: A Design Problem", which renowned theologian and philosopher Thomas Berry called 'the most remarkable essay I've read in my whole life'. The book features thirty-three essays, along with an introductory section that considers the evolution of environmentalism, section introductions that place the essays into a larger context, and a foreword by physicist and author Fritjof Capra. "Hope Is an Imperative" is a comprehensive collection of works by one of the most important thinkers and writers of our time. It offers a complete introduction to the writings of David Orr for readers new to the field, and represents a welcome compendium of key essays for long-time fans. The book is a must-have volume for every environmentalist's bookshelf.

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Community Character provides a design-oriented system for planning and zoning communities but accounts for how people who participate in a community live, work, and shop there. The relationships that Lane Kendig defines here reflect the complexity of the interaction of the built environment with its social and economic uses, taking into account the diverse desires of municipalities and citizens. Among the many classifications for a community's 'character' are its relationship to other communities, its size and the resulting social and economic characteristics. According to Kendig, most comprehensive plans and zoning regulations are based entirely on density and land use, neither of which effectively or consistently measures character or quality of development. As Kendig shows, there is a wide range of measures that define character and these vary with the type of character a community desires to create. Taking a much more comprehensive view, this book offers 'community character' as a real-world framework for planning for communities of all kinds and sizes. A companion book, "A Practical Guide to Planning with Community Character", provides a detailed explanation of applying community character in a comprehensive plan, with chapters on designing urban, sub-urban, and rural character types, using character in comprehensive plans, and strategies for addressing characteristic challenges of planning and zoning in the 21st century.

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This eye-opening book reports the results of a large-scale study based on extensive financial and technical analyses of more than 150 green buildings in the United States and ten other countries. Using sophisticated modeling techniques, the study analyzes the costs and financial benefits of building green on both large and small scales, and addresses the role of the built environment in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The author reports that green buildings cost roughly 2 per cent more to build than conventional buildings - far less than previously assumed - and provide a wide range of financial, health, and social benefits. In addition, green buildings reduce energy use by an average of 33 per cent. The book also evaluates the cost-effectiveness of 'green community development' and presents the results of the first-ever survey of green buildings constructed by faith-based organizations. A compelling combination of solid facts and specific examples, it proves that green design is both cost-effective and earth-friendly.

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This title shows how to strengthen and revitalize our historic commercial districts and suburban centers, too. Public space and street design in commercial districts can dictate the success or failure of walkable community centers. Instead of focusing our efforts on designing new 'compact town centers,' many of which are located in the suburbs, we should instead be revitalizing existing authentic town centers. This informative, practical book describes methods for restoring the health and vibrancy of the streets and public spaces of our existing commercial districts in ways that will make them positive alternatives to suburban sprawl while respecting their historic character.Clearly written and with numerous photos to enhance the text, "Creating Vibrant Public Spaces" uses examples from communities across the United States to illustrate the potential for restoring the balance provided by older urban centers between automobile access and 'walkability.' In advice that can be applied to a variety of settings and scales, Crankshaw describes the tenets of contemporary design theory, how to understand the physical evolution of towns, how to analyze existing conditions, and how to evaluate the feasibility of design recommendations.Good design in commercial centers, Crankshaw contends, facilitates movement and access, creates dynamic social spaces, and contributes to the sense of a 'center' - a place where social, commercial, and institutional interaction is more vibrant than in surrounding districts. For all the talk of creating new 'green' urban spaces, the ingredients of environmentally aware design, he points out, can often be found in the deteriorating cores and neighborhoods of towns and cities across the United States. With creativity, planning, and commitment, these centers can thrive again, adding to the quality of local life and contributing to the local economy, too.

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Salvage logging - removing trees from a forested area in the wake of a catastrophic event such as a wildfire or hurricane - is highly controversial. Policymakers and those with an economic interest in harvesting trees typically argue that damaged areas should be logged so as to avoid "wasting" resources, while many forest ecologists contend that removing trees following a disturbance is harmful to a variety of forest species and can interfere with the natural process of ecosystem recovery."Salvage Logging and Its Ecological Consequences" brings together three leading experts on forest ecology to explore a wide range of issues surrounding the practice of salvage logging. They gather and synthesize the latest research and information about its economic and ecological costs and benefits, and consider the impacts of salvage logging on ecosystem processes and biodiversity. The book examines: what salvage logging is and why it is controversial; natural and human disturbance regimes in forested ecosystems; differences between salvage harvesting and traditional timber harvesting; scientifically documented ecological impacts of salvage operations; and, the importance of land management objectives in determining appropriate post-disturbance interventions.Brief case studies from around the world highlight a variety of projects, including operations that have followed wildfires, storms, volcanic eruptions, and insect infestations. In the final chapter, the authors discuss policy management implications and offer prescriptions for mitigating the impacts of future salvage harvesting efforts."Salvage Logging and Its Ecological Consequences" is a "must-read" volume for policymakers, students, academics, practitioners, and professionals involved in all aspects of forest management, natural resource planning, and forest conservation.

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This book offers a uniquely practical look at how 'green' solutions in Australia can benefit U.S. cities. In this immensely practical book, Timothy Beatley sets out to answer a simple question: what can Americans learn from Australians about 'greening' city life? "Green Urbanism Down Under" reports on the current state of 'sustainability practice' in Australia and the many lessons that U.S. residents can learn from the best Australian programs and initiatives.Australia is similar to the United States in many ways, especially in its 'energy footprint.' For example, Australia's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are second only to those of the United States. A similar percentage of its residents live in cities (85 percent in Australia vs. 80 percent in the United States). And it suffers from parallel problems of air and water pollution, a national dependence on automobiles, and high fossil fuel consumption. Still, after traveling throughout Australia, Beatley finds that there are myriad creative responses to these problems - and that they offer instructive examples for the United States."Green Urbanism Down Under" is a very readable collection of solutions. Although many of these innovative solutions are little-known outside Australia, they all present practical possibilities for U.S. cities. Beatley describes 'green transport' projects, 'city farms,' renewable energy plans, green living programs, and much more. He considers a host of public policy initiatives and scrutinizes regional and state planning efforts for answers. In closing, he shares his impressions about how Australian results might be applied to U.S. problems.This is a unique book: hopeful, constructive, and filled with ideas that have been proven to work. It is a 'must read' for anyone who cares about the future of American cities.

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"The Living Landscape" is a manifesto, resource, and textbook for architects, landscape architects, environmental planners, students, and others involved in creating human communities. Since its first edition, published in 1990, it has taught its readers how to develop new built environments while conserving natural resources. No other book presents such a comprehensive approach to planning that is rooted in ecology and design. And no other book offers a similar step-by-step method for planning with an emphasis on sustainable development. This second edition of "The Living Landscape" offers Frederick Steiner's design-oriented ecological methods to a new generation of students and professionals." The Living Landscape" offers: a systematic, highly practical approach to landscape planning that maximizes ecological objectives, community service, and citizen participation; more than 20 challenging case studies that demonstrate how problems were met and overcome, from rural America to large cities; scores of checklists and step-by-step guides; hands-on help with practical zoning, land use, and regulatory issues; coverage of major advances in GIS technology and global sustainability standards; and, more than 150 illustrations.As Steiner emphasizes throughout this book, all of us have a responsibility to the Earth and to our fellow residents on this planet to plan with vision. We are merely visiting this planet, he notes; we should leave good impressions.

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This title offers new understanding of fire in the Rockies from a landscape-scale, multi-century perspective. "Fire Ecology in Rocky Mountain Landscapes" brings a century of scientific research to bear on improving the relationship between people and fire. In recent years, some scientists have argued that current patterns of fire are significantly different from historical patterns, and that landscapes should be managed with an eye toward re-establishing past fire regimes. At the policy level, state and federal agencies have focused on fuel reduction and fire suppression as a means of controlling fire. Geographer William L. Baker takes a different view, making the case that the available scientific data show that infrequent episodes of large fires followed by long interludes with few fires led to naturally fluctuating landscapes, and that the best approach is not to try to change or control fire but to learn to live with it. In "Fire Ecology in Rocky Mountain Landscapes", Baker reviews functional traits and responses of plants and animals to fire at the landscape scale; explains how scientists reconstruct the history of fire in landscapes; elaborates on the particulars of fire under the historical range of variability in the Rockies; and, considers the role of Euro-Americans in creating the landscapes and fire situations of today. In the end, the author argues that the most effective action is to rapidly limit and redesign people-nature interfaces to withstand fire, which he believes can be done in ways that are immediately beneficial to both nature and communities.

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The evidence is irrefutable: global warming is real. While the debate continues about just how much damage spiking temperatures will wreak, we know the threat to our homes, health, and even way of life is dire. So why isn't America doing anything? Where is the national campaign to stop this catastrophe? It may lie between the covers of this book. "Ignition" brings together some of the world's finest thinkers and advocates to jump start the ultimate green revolution. Including celebrated writers like Bill McKibben and renowned scholars like Gus Speth, as well as young activists, the authors draw on direct experience in grass-roots organization, education, law, and social leadership. Their approaches are various, from building coalitions to win political battles to rallying shareholders to change corporate behavior. But they share a belief that private fears about deadly heat waves and disastrous hurricanes can translate into powerful public action. For anyone who feels compelled to do more than change their light bulbs or occasionally carpool, "Ignition" is an essential guide. Combining incisive essays with success stories and web resources, the book helps readers answer the most important question we all face: "What can I do?"

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Sustainability Indicators defines the present state of the art in indicator development. It presents a comprehensive assessment of the science behind various indicators, while placing special emphasis on their use as communications tools. The contributors draw on their experience as academics and practitioners to describe the conceptual challenges to measuring something as complex as sustainability at local, regional, national, and global scales.

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A growing body of evidence shows that agricultural landscapes can be managed not only to produce crops but also to support biodiversity and promote ecosystem health. Innovative farmers and scientists, as well as indigenous land managers, are developing diverse types of "ecoagriculture" landscapes to generate co-benefits for production, biodiversity, and local people."Farming with Nature" offers a synthesis of the state of knowledge of key topics in ecoagriculture. The book is a unique collaboration among renowned agricultural and ecological scientists, leading field conservationists, and farm and community leaders to synthesize knowledge and experience across sectors.The book examines: the knowledge base for ecoagriculture as well as barriers, gaps, and opportunities for developing improved ecoagriculture systems; what we have learned about managing landscapes to achieve multiple objectives at a landscape scale; existing incentives for farmers, other land managers, and investors to develop and invest in ecoagriculture systems; and pathways to develop, implement, manage, and scale up successful ecoagriculture.Insights are drawn from around the world, in tropical, Mediterranean, and temperate environments, from farming systems that range from highly commercialized to semi-subsistence. "Farming with Nature" is an important new work that can serve as a foundation document for planners, farm organizations, researchers, project developers, and policy makers to develop strategies for promoting and sustaining ecoagriculture landscapes. Replete with valuable best practice guidelines, it is a critical resource for both practitioners and researchers in the field.

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As a manager you have a responsibility to deliver financial returns to your shareholders: how can you balance this obligation with your responsibilities to society and the environment? This book offers an innovative approach to meeting this challenge in a language familiar to business. The key, according to the author, is to create value for investors as well as society and the environment in an integrated bottom line. The book provides detailed case studies of leading companies illustrating this new paradigm in practice. Its engaging, straightforward text tells the reader how to compete and thrive in an increasingly complex world.

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Kruger National Park in South Africa has one of the most extensive sets of records of any protected area in the world, and throughout its history has supported connections between science and management. In recognition of that long-standing tradition comes The Kruger Experience, the first book to synthesize/summarize a century of ecological research and management in two million hectares of African savanna. The Kruger Experience places the scientific and management experience in Kruger within the framework of modern ecological theory and its practical applications. The book uses a cross-cutting theme of ecological heterogeneity -- the idea that ecological systems function across a full hierarchy of physical and biological components, processes, and scales, in a dynamic space-time mosaic. Contributors, who include many esteemed ecologists who have worked in Kruger in recent years, examine a range of topics covering broad taxonomic groupings and ecological processes. The book's four sections explore: the historical context of research and management in Kruger, the theme of heterogeneity, and the current philosophy in Kruger for linking science with management; the template of natural components and processes, as influenced by management, that determine the present state of the Kruger ecosystem; how species interact within the ecosystem to generate further heterogeneity across space and time; humans as key components of savanna ecosystems; In addition to the editors, contributors include William J. Bond, Jane Lubchenco, David Mabunda, Michael G.L. ("Gus") Mills, Robert J. Naiman, Norman Owen-Smith, Steward T.A. Pickett, Stuart L. Pimm, and Robert J. Scholes. The book is an invaluable new resource for scientists and managers involved with large, conserved ecosystems as well as for conservation practitioners and others with interests in adaptive management, the societal context of conservation, links between research and management in parks, and parks/academic partnerships.

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A central goal of transportation is the delivery of safe and efficient services with minimal environmental impact. In practice, though, human mobility has flourished while nature has suffered. Awarness of the environmental impacts of roads is increasing, yet information remains scarce for those interested in studying, understanding, or minimizing the ecological effects of roads and vehicles. Road Ecology addresses that shortcoming by elevating previously localized and fragmented knowledge into a broad and inclusive framework for understanding and developing solutions. The book brings together fourteen leading ecologists and transportation experts to articulate state-of-the-science road ecology principles and presents specific examples that demonstrate the application of those principles.

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In metropolitan areas across the country, you can hear the laments over the loss of green space to new subdivisions and strip malls. But some city residents have taken unprecedented measures to protect their open land, and a growing movement seeks not only to preserve these lands but to link them in green corridors. Many land-use and urban planning professionals, along with landscape architects and environmental advocates, have joined in efforts to preserve natural areas. "MetroGreen" answers their call for a deeper exploration of the latest thinking and newest practices in this growing conservation field. In ten case studies of U.S. and Canadian cities paired for comparative analysis - Toronto and Chicago, Calgary and Denver, and Vancouver and Portland among them - Erickson looks closely at the motivations and objectives for connecting open spaces across metropolitan areas. She documents how open-space networks have been successfully created and protected, while also highlighting the critical human and ecological benefits of connectivity. "MetroGreen's" unique focus on several cities rather than a single urban area offers a perspective on the political, economic, cultural, and environmental conditions that affect open-space planning and the outcomes of its implementation.

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Looking at the predominant form of land use in America, known as sprawl, this text examines where it came from, what it is and what the alternatives are. The author argues that sprawl is here to stay and that by understanding it we can address the problems it has created.

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A fascinating story that explores the birth and development of ecological design. In the late sixties, as the world was waking to a need for Earth Day, a pioneering group founded a small non-profit research and education organization they called the New Alchemy Institute. Their aim was to explore the ways a safer and more sustainable world could be created. In the ensuing years, along with scientists, agriculturists, and a host of enthusiastic amateurs and friends, they set out to discover new ways that basic human needs - in the form of food, shelter, and energy - could be met. "A Safe and Sustainable World" is the story of that journey, as it was and as it continues to be. The dynamics and the resilience of the living world were the Institute's model and the inspiration for their research. Central to their efforts then and now is, along with science, a spiritual quest for a more harmonious human role in our planet's future. The results of this work have now entered mainstream science through the emerging discipline of ecological design. Nancy Jack Todd not only relates a fascinating journey from lofty ideals through the hard realities encountered in learning how to actually grow food, harness the energy of the sun and wind, and design green architecture. She also introduces us to some of the heroes and mentors who played a vital role in those efforts as well, from Buckminster Fuller to Margaret Mead. The early work of the Institute culminated in the design and building of two bioshelters - large greenhouse-like independent structures called Arks, that provided the setting for much of the research to follow. Successfully proving through the Institute's designs and investigations that basic land sustainability is achievable, John Todd and the author founded a second non-profit research group, Ocean Arks International. Here they applied the New Alchemy's natural systems thinking to restoring polluted waters with the invention and implementation of biologically based living technologies called Ecomachines and Pond and Lake Restorers. "A Safe and Sustainable World" demonstrates what has and can be done - it also looks to what must be done to integrate human ingenuity and the four billion or so years of evolutionary intelligence of the natural world into healthy, decentralized, locally dreams hard won - and hope.

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This is the result of an unprecedented effort among the world's largest environmental organizations, scientists, the business community, media, and international governments to address marine issues. It offers a broad strategy, with priorities and costs.

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The solution to our water problems may not lie in new technologies - though they will play a role - but in recovering ancient traditions, using water more efficiently, and better understanding local hydrology. Searches for alternatives to mega-engineering projects.

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Humans are terrestrial animals, and our capacity to see and understand the importance and vulnerability of life in the sea has trailed our growing ability to harm it. While conservation biologists are working to address environmental problems humans have created on land, loss of marine biodiversity, including extinctions and habitat degradation, has received much less attention. At the same time, marine sciences such as oceanography and fisheries biology have largely ignored issues of conservation. Marine Conservation Biology brings together for the first time in a single volume leading experts from around the world to apply the lessons and thinking of conservation biology to marine issues. Contributors including James M. Acheson, Louis W. Botsford, James T. Carlton, Kristina Gjerde, Selina S. Heppell, Ransom A. Myers, Julia K. Parrish, Stephen R. Palumbi, and Daniel Pauly offer penetrating insights on the nature of marine biodiversity, what threatens it, and what humans can and must do to recover the biological integrity of the world's estuaries, coastal seas, and oceans.

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This text offers an informative examination of natural hazard mitigation for planners, policymakers, stu dents, and professionals that work in this field. The topics include guidelines for hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. '

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This work is an assessment of the state of current knowledge of the carbon cycle by a group of leading experts. It gives an introductory overview of the carbon cycle and covers both biophysical and human aspects of the cycle.

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Whether you are managing wetlands, protecting endangered species, or restoring ecosystems, you need to be able to communicate effectively in order to solve conservation and resource management problems. Communication Skills for Conservation Professionals can help you do just that-it is a practical and inspiring book that provides user-friendly guidance on achieving conservation goals through effective communications.

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Information regarding population status and abundance of rare species plays a key role in resource management decisions. Ideally, data should be collected using statistically sound sampling methods, but by their very nature, rare or elusive species pose a difficult sampling challenge. Sampling Rare or Elusive Species describes the latest sampling designs and survey methods for reliably estimating occupancy, abundance, and other population parameters of rare, elusive, or otherwise hard-to-detect plants and animals. It offers a mixture of theory and application, with actual examples from terrestrial, aquatic, and marine habitats around the world. Sampling Rare or Elusive Species is the first volume devoted entirely to this topic and provides natural resource professionals with a suite of innovative approaches to gathering population status and trend data. It represents an invaluable reference for natural resource professionals around the world, including fish and wildlife biologists, ecologists, biometricians, natural resource managers, and all others whose work or research involves rare or elusive species.

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When Admiral Richard E. Byrd set out on his second Antarctic expedition in 1934, he was already an international hero for having piloted the first flights over the North and South Poles. His plan for this latest adventure was to spend six months alone near the bottom of the world, gathering weather data and indulging his desire "to taste peace and quiet long enough to know how good they really are". But early on, things went terribly wrong. Isolated in the pervasive polar night with no hope of release until spring, Byrd began suffering inexplicable symptoms of mental and physical illness. By the time he discovered that carbon monoxide from a defective stovepipe was poisoning him, Byrd was already engaged in a monumental struggle to save his life and preserve his sanity.

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