This book contributes to a better understanding of why historic cities and sacred sites are important, and how cultural roots may influence and improve urban futures. It emphasises the need to include social and cultural dimensions in economic development and offers cases of best practice.

A new way forward for sustainable quality of life in cities of all sizes Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work. New development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle. Read this book to find out how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life. Develop in-depth knowledge of the underlying logic behind the “traditional” search for never-ending urban growth Learn practical solutions for ameliorating financial struggles through low-risk investment and a grassroots focus Gain insights and tools that can stop the vicious cycle of budget shortfalls and unexpected downturns Become a part of the Strong Towns revolution by shifting the focus away from top-down growth toward rebuilding American prosperity Strong Towns acknowledges that there is a problem with the American approach to growth and shows community leaders a new way forward. The Strong Towns response is a revolution in how we assemble the places we live.

In a world where half of the population lives in cities and more than 90 percent of urban growth is occurring in the developing world, cities struggle to modernize without completely losing their unique character, which is embodied by their historic cores and cultural heritage assets. As countries develop, cultural heritage can provide a crucial element of continuity and stability: the past can become a foundation for the future. This book collects innovative research papers authored by leading scholars and practitioners in heritage economics, and presents the most current knowledge on how heritage assets can serve as drivers of local economic development. What this book tries to suggest is a workable approach to explicitly take into account the cultural dimensions of urban regeneration in agglomerations that have a history and possess a unique character, going beyond an approach based solely on major cultural heritage assets or landmarks. The knowledge disseminated through this book will help stakeholders involved in preparation, implementation, and supervision of development investments to better assess the values of cultural heritage assets and incorporate them in urban development policies.

The highly influential writings by an important early advocate for the conservation of historic cities are made available for the first time in English. The Italian architect, historian, and restorer Gustavo Giovannoni (1873–1947) was a key figure in the fields of architecture, urbanism, and conservation during the first half of the twentieth century. A traditionalist largely neglected by the proponents of modernist architecture following World War II, he remains little known internationally. His writings, however, until now unavailable in English, represent a significant step toward the full appreciation of the historic city and are directly relevant today to the protection of urban historic resources worldwide. This abundantly illustrated critical anthology is a representative sample of Giovannoni’s seminal texts related to the appreciation, understanding, and planning of historic cities. The thirty readings, which appear with their original illustrations, are grouped into six parts organized around key concepts in Giovannoni’s conservation theory—urban building, respect for the setting or context, a thinning out of the urban fabric, conservation and restoration treatments, the grafting of the new upon the old, and reconstruction. Each part is preceded by an introduction, and each reading is prefaced by succinct remarks explaining the rationale for its selection and the principal matters covered. Six plate sections further illustrate the readings’ main concepts and themes.

Several international and European institutions have given increasing importance to sustainable approaches to our existing building stock and the role of built heritage in this process. At the same time, preventive and planned conservation of built heritage has been increasingly recognised by researchers given its cost-effectiveness for owner-managers, effective long-term quality protection and environmental enhancement of structures, as well as its potential of activating heritage in the employment sector and empowering of local communities. ‘Innovative Built Heritage Models’ collects the lectures presented at the international conference on CHANGES (2017 Thematic Week, Leuven, Belgium, 6-8 February 2017). The aim of the conference was to provide an international overview of the existing strategies, processes and operational case studies that support the implementation of a preventive and planned conservation approach in the built heritage sector. The conference twins with the ‘CHANGES’ project, supported by the Joint Programming Initiative Heritage Plus programme. This publication meets the increasing demand for shared information to support the transition towards a more sustainable conservation process. The volume consists of three main parts: ‘The CHANGES paradigm’, ‘Preventive and planned conservation’ and ‘Case studies of Change’. The book reflects on CHANGES in a straightforward manner by providing research and case studies that serve as baseline records, guidance and essential literature for researchers and practitioners involved in the built heritage sector.

In an increasingly globalised world, economic and cultural imperatives can be seen as two of the most powerful forces shaping human behaviour. This book considers the relationship between economics and culture both as areas of intellectual discourse, and as systems of societal organisation. Adopting a broad definition of culture, it explores the economic dimensions of culture, and the cultural context of economics. The book is built on a foundation of value theory, developing the twin notions of economic and cultural value as underlying principles for integrating the two fields. Ideas of cultural capital and sustainability are discussed, especially as means of analysing the particular problems of cultural heritage, drawing parallels with the treatment of natural capital in ecological economics. The book goes on to discuss the economics of creativity in the production of cultural goods and services; culture in economic development; the cultural industries; and cultural policy.

Engineering Asset Management 2010 represents state-of-the art trends and developments in the emerging field of engineering asset management as presented at the Fifth World Congress on Engineering Asset Management (WCEAM). The proceedings of the WCEAM 2010 is an excellent reference for practitioners, researchers and students in the multidisciplinary field of asset management, covering topics such as: Asset condition monitoring and intelligent maintenance Asset data warehousing, data mining and fusion Asset performance and level-of-service models Design and life-cycle integrity of physical assets Education and training in asset management Engineering standards in asset management Fault diagnosis and prognostics Financial analysis methods for physical assets Human dimensions in integrated asset management Information quality management Information systems and knowledge management Intelligent sensors and devices Maintenance strategies in asset management Optimisation decisions in asset management Risk management in asset management Strategic asset management Sustainability in asset management