Water-related Urbanization and Locality: Protecting, Planning and Designing Urban Water Environments in a Sustainable Way

This book discusses the protection, planning, and design of sustainable urban water environments. Against the backdrop of environmental changes, it addresses issues of water resource protection and sustainable development in China and Germany at different stages of urbanization, as well as relevant strategies and lessons learned. It focuses on three topics: balance between water environment protection and utilization in the urbanization process; sustainable use of water resources in the urbanization process; and water-related planning and design strategies in urbanization and local cultural development processes. In the context of water resources, China and Germany can learn from each other’s experiences and can support one another in the fields of urbanization and locality. As such, the book brings together Chinese and Germans scientists from various disciplines, such as planning, geography, landscape, architecture, tourism, ecology, hydraulic engineering and history to provide a multicultural and multidisciplinary perspective on the topic and examine the challenges and opportunities as well as the planning and design strategies to achieve sustainable, water-related urban spaces. By combining theoretical and practical approaches, it appeals to academics and practitioners around the globe.

Ms. Fang Wang is a Professor at the College of Architecture and Landscape and at the Institute of Ocean Research, Peking University, the Chinese director of the NSFC-DFG Sino-German Cooperation Group on Urbanization and Locality (UAL), a registered urban planner, and an Associate Editor of the journal Indoor and Built Environment. Prof. Wang has conducted research on the locality and adaptability of the built environment and is particularly interested in the human-water relationship in the Yellow River and Grand Canal regions. She has published eight books and more than 100 articles in books and journals. Her six monographs, including one co-edited with Martin Prominski, were published with Springer Nature. She has directed seven projects subsidized by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, including five Sino–German Center projects co-organized with Martin Prominski. As the team leader, she won the First Prize of the China Construction Science and Technology Award in 2017, sponsored by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China, as well as the Second Prize of the Land Resources Science and Technology Award in 2015, sponsored by the Ministry of Land and Resources of the People’s Republic of China. 

Mr. Martin Prominski is a Full Professor and Chair of Designing Urban Landscapes at Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany, a registered landscape architect, and the German director of the NSFC-DFG Sino-German Cooperation Group on Urbanization and Locality (UAL). He holds a PhD in Landscape Planning from the Technical University of Berlin and a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He co-founded the Journal of Landscape Architecture (JoLA) in 2006 and served as editor until 2010. He has published five books and more than 70 articles in books and journals. His current research focuses on design research strategies, qualification of urban landscapes, and concepts of nature and culture in the Anthropocene. His most recent books are Design Research for Urban Landscapes (with von Seggern, H. (Eds.), 2019), River. Space. Design. (with Stokman A. et al., second, expanded edition, 2017; translated into Chinese), and Urbanization and Locality - Strengthening Identity and Sustainability by Site-specific Planning and Design (with Fang Wang (Eds.), 2015).