As different parts of the globe deal with the challenges of coastal settlements in the Anthropcene landscape of increasing uncertainty, the methods of design offer new strategies for developing and testing solutions. These complex problems require collaboration across disciplines, with scientists, planners, engineers, designers, and others able to work together in finding new ways of living in coastal and changing landscapes. Sustainable Coastal Design and Planning is an outstanding collection of essays by leading practitioners and academics from across the globe on design and planning for coastal resilience in the face of climate change. It thoroughly explores the questions of coastal change at different scales and provides international case studies that illustrate diverse strategies in different geographies and cultures. Taken as a whole, they canvas a broad palette of approaches and techniques for engaging these complex problems. Divided in two parts, this book focuses on how to develop solutions through multidisciplinary design thinking and informs all stakeholders on specific methods and practices that will be needed to work effectively in this dynamic space.

Climate change is predicted to increase the frequency and magnitude of coastal storms around the globe, and the anticipated rise of sea levels will have enormous impact on fragile and vulnerable coastal regions. In the U.S., more than 50% of the population inhabits coastal areas. In Planning for Coastal Resilience, Tim Beatley argues that, in the face of such threats, all future coastal planning and management must reflect a commitment to the concept of resilience. In this timely book, he writes that coastal resilience must become the primary design and planning principle to guide all future development and all future infrastructure decisions. Resilience, Beatley explains, is a profoundly new way of viewing coastal infrastructure—an approach that values smaller, decentralized kinds of energy, water, and transport more suited to the serious physical conditions coastal communities will likely face. Implicit in the notion is an emphasis on taking steps to build adaptive capacity, to be ready ahead of a crisis or disaster. It is anticipatory, conscious, and intentional in its outlook. After defining and explaining coastal resilience, Beatley focuses on what it means in practice. Resilience goes beyond reactive steps to prevent or handle a disaster. It takes a holistic approach to what makes a community resilient, including such factors as social capital and sense of place. Beatley provides case studies of five U.S. coastal communities, and “resilience profiles” of six North American communities, to suggest best practices and to propose guidelines for increasing resilience in threatened communities.

The effect of manmade activities is primarily local but can extend far away from the location of intervention. This underlines the importance of establishing coastal zone management plans covering large stretches of coastlines. In recent years, interest in Low Crested Structures (coastal defense structures with a low-crest) has been growing together with awareness of the sensitivity to environmental impacts produced by coastal defenses. The relation between wave climate, beach erosion, beach defence means, habitat changes and beach value, which clearly exists based on EC research results, suggests the necessity of an integrated approach when designing coastal protection schemes. In accordance with this need, the present design guidelines cover structure stability and construction problems, hydro and morphodynamic effects, environmental effects (colonisation of the structure and water quality), societal and economic impacts (recreational benefits, swimming safety, beach quality). Environmental Design Guidelines for Low Crested Coastal Structures is specifically dedicated to Low Crested Structures, and provides methodological tools both for the engineering design of structures and for the prediction of performance and environmental impacts of such structures. A briefing of current best practice for local and national planning authorities, statutory agencies and other stakeholders in the coastal zone is also covered. Presented in a generic way, this book is appropriate throughout the European Union, taking into account current European Commission policy and directives for the promotion of sustainable development and integrated coastal zone management. - Fills the gap between engineering and ecology in coastal defense planning - Shows the reader how to perform an integrated design of coastal defense schemes - Presents latest insights on hydro-morphodynamics induced by structures - Provides directly applicable tools for the design of low crested structures - Highlights socio-economic perspectives in coastal defense design

Meeting the Challenge of Sustainable Design "Daniel Williams's Sustainable Design is . . . a thoroughly practical call for the design professions to take the next steps toward transformation of the human prospect toward a future that is sustainable and sustaining of the best in human life lived in partnership not domination." --From the Foreword by David W. Orr, the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College "In this pioneering book, Daniel Williams provides the sort of intelligent, thoughtful, experienced insights that--if followed--will ensure that we make the right choices. It should be on the desk of every architect in the world." --Denis Hayes, president and CEO of the Bullitt Foundation and coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970 Architects identify "sustainability" as the most important change in the future of their profession. Sustainable Design: Ecology, Architecture, and Planning is a practical, comprehensive guide to design and plan a built environment compatible with the region's economic, social, and ecological patterns. In this book, Daniel Williams challenges professionals to rethink architecture and to see their projects not as objects but as critical, connected pieces of the whole, essential to human health as well as to regional economy and ecology. Comprehensive in scope, Sustainable Design answers key questions such as: * How do I begin thinking and designing ecologically? * What is the difference between "green design" and "sustainable design"? * What are some examples of effective change I can make that will have the most impact for the least cost? Written for architects, planners, landscape architects, engineers, public officials, and change agent professionals, this important resource defines the issues of sustainable design, illustrates conceptual and case studies, and provides support for continued learning in this increasingly central focus of architects' and urban planners' work. Williams's book features winning projects from the first decade of the AIA's Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten award program.

Landscape management - Biodiversity - Landscape restoration - Landscape design - Urban design - Urban planning - Architectural design.

Front Cover -- Title Page -- Half Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Foreword by Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic, The New York Times -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. Designing for Coastal Resiliency -- Chapter 2. Visualizing the Coast -- Chapter 3. Reimagining the Floodplain -- Chapter 4. Mapping Coastal Futures -- Chapter 5. Centennial Projections -- Afterword by Jeffrey P. Hebert, vice-president for adaptation and resilience, The Water Institute of the Gulf -- Endnotes -- Glossary -- Index

"This is the only book available that addresses the serious coastal trends and pressures in the United States, assesses the current policy and planning framework, and puts forth a compelling vision for future management and sustainable coastal planning."--BOOK JACKET.