Sustainable Development, Energy and the City - A Civilisation of Concepts and Actions

Hardcover  XXIV, 288 p. 38 illus.  ISBN 0387243542      £59.00

Advancing towards sustainable development will be impossible without the active participation of informed and aware citizens and decision-makers. This publication will provide the unspecialised decision-makers, citizens, students and policy-makers of the future, with significant information about a dynamic sector-energy- and a space-city- that are critical for sustainability.

Cities and the energy field are now on the verge of dramatic changes. Urban energy systems are capital intensive and have long lives. Immediate change is difficult and innovation is crucial for inefficient patterns to be transformed into more intelligent systems. Strongly entrenched ideas start to vacillate and new investments challenge the inertia of old infrastructures. New concepts, values and technological breakthroughs emerge, linked to policy and market initiatives, public expectations and scientific developments.

Written for policy makers, urban planners, NGO's

Contents

• Preface.
• Introduction.
• Cities in the Civilisation of Sustainability.
• The Resourceful City and the Energy Criterion.
• Energy Patterns, Models and Ethics.
• Energy Policy, Security and the Market.
• Towards Brighter Energy Futures.
• The Socio-economic Vitality of Cities.
• The Cultural Energy of Cities.
• Towards Brighter Urban Futures.
• Postface.
• Bibliographic Orientation.
• Selected Web Sites.
• Annex.
• Index.