Scaling Urban Environmental Challenges: From Local to Global and Back

ISBN 10: 184407322X / ISBN 13: 9781844073221

Published by Earthscan Publications Ltd, London, United Kingdom, 2007

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 041830

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Scaling Urban Environmental Challenges: From Local to Global and Back
• Publisher: Earthscan Publications Ltd, London, United Kingdom
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 184407322X
• ISBN 13: 9781844073221
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Condition: Very Good +

About this title

Synopsis

�Think globally, act locally� emphasizes the importance of scale in dealing with environmental challenges, but not how to factor it in. This major new book focuses on the spatial dimensions of urban environmental burdens, showing how important it is to take these into account when pursuing environmental justice and good governance - whether in the context of the sanitary risks of slum living, the pollution of uncontrolled industrialization and motorization, or the enormous ecological footprints of affluent urban lifestyles.

Written by leading experts in the fields of urban development and environmental planning, the book reviews the urban environmental shifts that have shaped today�s challenges, and examines conditions and problems in the urban centres of low-, middle- and high-income countries. Case studies address such economically diverse cities as Accra, New Delhi, Mexico City and Manchester, while thematic chapters explore issues including water, sanitation and transportation. The book concludes by exploring and analysing different scales of governance. The editors argue that we should not rely solely on local governance to address local burdens like poor sanitation, nor depend only on global governance for global challenges such as greenhouse gas emissions, but that scale is crucial in both understanding the problems and devising successful responses.

Published with UNU-IAS and IIED.

About the Author

Peter J. Marcotullio is a Research Fellow at the UNU-IAS, Japan. Gordon McGranahan is Director of the Human Settlements Programme at IIED, UK co-author of The Citizens at Risk: From Urban Sanitation to Sustainable Cities (2001) and co-editor of Air Pollution and Health in Rapidly Developing Countries (2003).
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