Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change

ABOUT THE BOOK:

"Citiesare green" is becoming a common refrain. But Calthorpe argues that a more comprehensive understanding of urbanism at the regional scale provides a better platform to address climate change. In this groundbreaking new work, he shows how such regionally scaled urbanism can be combined with green technology to achieve not only needed reductions in carbon emissions but other critical economies and lifestyle benefits. Rather than just providing another checklist of newenergy sources or one dimensional land use alternatives, he combines them into comprehensive national growth scenarios for 2050 and documentstheir potential impacts. In so doing he powerfully demonstrates that it will take an integrated approach of land use transformation, policy changes, and innovative technology to transition to a low carbon economy.

Toaccomplish this Calthorpe synthesizes thirty years of experience, starting with his ground breaking work in sustainable community design in the 1980s following through to his current leadership in transit-oriented design, regional planning, and land use policy. Peter Calthorpe shows us what is possible using real world examples of innovative design strategies and forward-thinking policies that are already changing the way we live.

Thisprovocative and engaging work emerges from Calthorpe's belief that, just as the last fifty years produced massive changes in our culture, economy and environment, the next fifty will generate changes of an evenmore profound nature. The book, enhanced by its superb four-color graphics, is a call to action and a road map for moving forward.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Peter Calthorpe is a leading innovator in sustainable design, planning, and development.He is an architect, urban designer and a founding member of the Congress for New Urbanism, formed in 1992 to promote sustainable urban design practices. He is the author of The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl(Island Press, 2001). He won the 2006 Urban Land Institute's J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development for his work pioneering walkable communities and regional design.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction

Chapter 1: Urbanism and Climate Change

Chapter 2: The Fifty Year Experiment

Chapter 3: Toward a Green Urban Future

Chapter 4: Design for Urbanism

Chapter 5: The Urban Footprint

Chapter 6: The Urban Network

Chapter 7: The California Experiment

Chapter 8: Four American Futures

Chapter 9: A Sustainable Future