Themes, theories and methods have been selected as a response to the case studies.

Open space is essential for well-being in urban life, but it is not possible to rely on the market to provide or preserve it. Using examples from across Europe this book demonstrates the need for governmental intervention to deliver a successful urban space strategy.

Sub-Saharan Africa is urbanizing rapidly, but most countries lack appropriate tools to manage their urban growth. This creates both risks and opportunities for prospective land holders, resulting in a tangle of insecure land rights and claims under multiple tenure systems. Recently, innovative land tools have been proposed and implemented to formalize land tenure. It is envisaged that tenure security for land holders will increase and in turn contribute to poverty reduction. This study evaluates such tools in three peri-urban areas in Lusaka (Zambia), Oshakati (Namibia) and Gaborone (Botswana), with a focus on the perspective of the land holders. The author concludes that the tools are to some extent pro-poor, and makes recommendations for further improvements. These innovative land tools are also considered a necessary addition to conventional and administration tools. This study makes valuable reading for academics, policy makers and practitioners within the land administration domain and related disciplines.

Analyses of Interdependencies. An academic and policy debate has been running in recent decades on whetherand to what extent travel behaviour is influenced by the built environment.This dissertation addresses the influence on daily travel distance, chainingbehaviour, car ownershi

To date, the focus in the field of sustainable building has been on new building design. However, existing residential buildings inflict great environmental burden through three causes: continuous energy consumption, regular building maintenance and replacements. This publication analyses and compares these three causes of environmental burden and shows that material resources needed for replacements generally have a limited potential to reduce environmental impact. Reducing energy consumption for climate control and electrical appliances is much more effective. According to the author, sustainable measures should be tested for shifts in the kind of environmental impact caused due to the use of alternative types of energy resources and altered material quantities. The sustainability of the electricity supply is essential to decrease the total environmental impact of the residential building stock.

Delft Centre for Sustainable Urban Areas carries out research in the field of the built environment and is one of the multidisciplinary research centres at TU Delft. The Delft Research Centres bundle TU Delft's excellent research and provide integrated solutions for today's and tomorrow's problems in society. OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies and the Faculties of Architecture, Technology, Policy and Management and Civil Engineering and Geosciences participate in this Delft Research Centre. --

Collection of texts partly published previously.