Alternative Urban Futures challenges existing models of urban development and promotes alternative paradigms, processes, and technologies designed to fulfill human needs and limit the harmful impacts of human activities on the environment. The book focuses on how planners and policy makers can develop and manage essential urban infrastructures in ways that support sustainable development in the areas of waste management, water supply and management, energy production and use, building design and construction, land-use, transportation, and food systems. Each chapter features case studies that provide concrete examples of how ecologically and socially responsible urban and sustainable development planning and policy approaches have been successfully implemented in cities around the world. The book is especially effective in its emphasis on recently published statistics and writing supporting new planning and policy recommendations. Each chapter ends with a summary, accompanied by a list of questions that can be addressed with information provided in the text.

Linking the worlds of community development, higher education administration, and urban design, this accessible guidebook offers useful information on how universities and communities can best develop partnership projects. Its focus on smart growth projects further enhances its value for those interested in how urban, suburban, and rural growth can be accommodated while preserving open spaces and quality of life. Partnerships for Smart Growth includes 13 case studies for university-community collaborations on smart growth initiatives. The chapters include geographically diverse locations and urban, suburban, and rural projects. Each case includes a comprehensive discussion of how and why the project was initiated, who was involved, what techniques were employed, what were the pitfalls, and what was the outcome. The result is a book with wide appeal for university administrators, land-use planners and administrators, scholars, and community development experts.

This book introduces, synthesizes, and evaluates spatial planning for growth management in the contemporary USA. It discusses the neglected relationship between the actual environmental results of various state growth management systems and the geographically diverse politics of discontent with these various systems.