In the absence of federal leadership, states and localities arestepping forward to address critical problems like climatechange, urban sprawl, and polluted water and air. Making a cityfundamentally sustainable is a daunting task, but fortunately, thereare dynamic, innovative models outside U.S. borders. Green Cities ofEurope draws on the world's best examples of sustainability to showhow other cities can become greener and more livable.
Timothy Beatley has brought together leading experts from Paris,Freiburg, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Heidelberg, Venice, Vitoria-Gasteiz,and London to illustrate groundbreaking practices in sustainable urbanplanning and design. These cities are developing strong urban cores,building pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, and improving publictransit. They are incorporating ecological design and planningconcepts, from solar energy to natural drainage and community gardens.And they are changing the way government works, instituting municipal"green audits" and reforming economic incentives to encouragesustainability.
Whatever their specific tactics, these communities prove that aholistic approach is needed to solve environmental problems and makecities sustainable. Beatley and these esteemed contributors offer vitallessons to the domestic planning community about not only what Europeancities are doing to achieve that vision, but precisely how they aredoing it. The result is an indispensable guide to greening NorthAmerican cities.
Timothy Beatley is Teresa Heinz Professor ofSustainable Communities in the Department of Urban and EnvironmentalPlanning, in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia,where he has taught for more than twenty years. He is the author ofmany books including Biophilic Cities, Resilient Cities, andGreen Urbanism (Island Press)
