Author Profile

Katherine Breward is a Professor in HR with a focus on non-conscious prejudice and discrimination in the workplace and diversity management. Her research is centered around labour market access for historically disadvantaged populations, with a particular focus on best practices in disability accommodation. She examines concrete methods for fostering labour market justice at multiple levels ranging from how to develop genuine empathy for “the other” in individual workers right up to institutional policy-based solutions to systemic inequity. Prior to her academic career Katherine worked for 16 years in the urban industry in the Kitchener- Waterloo high tech corridor, where she sold and implemented urban related software solutions for large corporate clients. Katherine has also been on the board of directors of numerous not for-profit agencies including the Guelph and District Multicultural Center, Reception House Kitchener-Waterloo (a government funded facility supporting newly arrived refugees), and the Elizabeth Fry Society.

About The Book

A Urban city is an urban area designed to reduce its social, economic, and environmental impact by addressing challenges like climate change and resource depletion through smart urban planning. Key features include efficient public transit, green building practices, waste reduction, conservation of natural resources, and inclusive economic and social development. The book is about the success stories as well as failures in sustainable urban development and management. Students are exposed to both the best management practices as well as the mistakes so that they can learn the good practices and avoid the bad ones. Sustainable Cities and Communities” aims to be a comprehensive resource highlighting the latest advancements, strategies, and best practices in creating environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable urban environments. Sustainable cities and economies are essential pillars for global prosperity, addressing pressing environmental concerns while ensuring inclusive growth and societal wellbeing. This book explores the inter-connectedness between urban development and economic sustainability, advocating for holistic approaches to foster resilient, equitable, and environmentally friendly urban landscapes. This book describes how new digital technologies could be used to design digital and physical twins of cities that are able to feed into each other to optimize their working and ability to create new wealth and wellbeing. The book also describes how to increase cities’ social and economic resilience during crisis time and addressing their almost fatal weaknesses – as it became all too obvious during the recent COVID 19 crisis. Also, the book presents a framework for a critical discussion of the concept of “smart-city”, suggesting its development into a “cyber” and “meta” one– meaning, not only digital systems can allow physical ones (e.g. cities, citizens, households and companies) to become “smarter”, but also the vice versa is true, as off line data and real life behaviours can support the optimization and development of virtual brains as a sum of big data and artificial intelligence apps all sitting “over the cloud”.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Understanding Sustainable Cities
Chapter 3 Eco-Cities and Low Carbon Cities
Chapter 4 Resource Basis of Our Life
Chapter 5 Eco-System Services
Chapter 6 Economy and Environment
Chapter 7 Ecological Footprint and Cities
Chapter 8 Sustainability
Chapter 9 Resiliency
Chapter 10 The Climate System of The Earth
Chapter 11 Global Warming
Chapter 12 Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Energy
Chapter 13 Renewable Energy
Chapter 14 Electricity
Chapter 15 Hydrological Cycle and Cities
Chapter 16 Water for Agriculture
Chapter 17 Water Management in Cities
Chapter 18 Water Budget of a Household
Chapter 19 Rain Harvesting
Chapter 20 Drinking Water Supply
Chapter 21 Waste Water
Chapter 22 Municipal Solid Waste
Chapter 23 Organic Waste
Chapter 24 Food
Chapter 25 Eco2 Cities: Ecological Cities as Economic Cities
Chapter 26 Integration of Flows and Forms in Cities
Chapter 27 Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)
Chapter 28 Financing Transit-Oriented Development with Land Values
Chapter 29 Preservation of Historical and Cultural Heritages
Chapter 30 Land Use Planning
Chapter 31 Decision Support System for Urban Planning
Chapter 32 Infectious Diseases and Pandemics
Chapter 33 Reducing Non-Commmunicable Diseases (NCD) Risks in Urban Areas in the Philippines
Chapter 34 Climate Change and Public Health
Chapter 35 Air Pollution
Chapter 36 Biodiversity
Chapter 37 Education for Sustainable Development
Chapter 38 Rivers and Cities
Chapter 39 Sustainable Urban Drainage and Cities
Chapter 40 Sustainable Cities and Communities in the Context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Chapter 41 Environmental Problems in Hochiminh City, Vietnam
Chapter 42 Heritage Conservation in Climate Change Context in Hochiminh City
References
Index