World Resources: A Guide to the Global Environment (The Urban Environment) 1996-1997

WorldResources 1996-97 focuses on the critical environmental challenges facing the world’s rapidly expanding urban areas. With their concentration of humans and economic activities, urban areas can be the sites of intense environmental degradation. Yet with their vitality and efficiencies of scale, cities and towns also have the potentialto minimize stresses on the natural environment and improve the quality of life. Achieving those opportunities will require approaches that reconcile the demands of economic growth, environmental protection, and social justice.
 
This special section explores the range of urban environmental problems in developing and developed countries and analyzes key policies for addressing them. Specifially, the report examines the impact of urban environmental conditions on the health of the people who live in cities and on urban economic productivity. It considers how urban areas affect the surrounding ecosystems and the global environment. A special chapter examines the challenge of urban transportation and its implications for the urban environment. Turning to solutions, the report examines priorities for action on the urban environment, from providing water and sanitation to reducing air pollution to improving land use planning. Finally, it considers longer-term strategies, such as mobilizing communities, for creating more livable and environmentally friendly cities and towns.

Contents:

Preface
Executive Summary

Part I. The Urban Environment
1. Cities and the Environment
2. Urban Environment and Human Health
3. Urban Impacts on Natural Resources
4. Urban Transportation
5. Urban Priorities for Action
6. City and Community: Toward Environmental Sustainability
Appendix A. Urban Data Tables

Part II. Global Conditions and Trends and Data Tables
7. Basic Economic Indicators
8. Population and Human Development
9. Forests and Land Cover
10. Food and Agriculture
11. Biodiversity
12. Energy and Materials
13. Water and Fisheries
14. Atmosphere and Climate

Acknowledgments

Index

World Resources Database Index
 

Post Date : 15 Juli 2009