New Books
Please send an e-mail to Sébastien Piantoni if you would like to have a new book added to this website.
European Territorial Cooperation and Learning
European territorial cooperation is the third objective of the EU Cohesion Policy for 2007–2013, as well as being the new umbrella under which ESDP follow-ups, such as INTERREG and ESPON, can continue. Cooperation is inherent to planning, and so is learning, and this is even more the case for European planning. Learning in itself can become a source of change, such as when ESPON gave rise to the Territorial Agenda. The papers in this issue cast light upon the various aspects of European territorialcooperation and learning, both within the mainstream instigated by the European Cohesion Policy as well as cross-border and bilateral projects. This introduction also speculates on the wider implications of cooperation and learning: the emergence of a transnational group of experts who promote change.
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Dutch Land Use Planning
Dutch land-use planning is - deservedly - widely known and respected throughout the planning world, This is the first comprehensive book in English on that subject written by an 'insider'. 'Dutch land-use planning' includes not only the formal structures and rules but also the informal daily practices. Much attention is given to the frictions between the different planning agencies in the country and to the tensions betweeen principles and pragmatism. After reading this book, the planner will be better able to understand how the Dutch realise those projects which have made them world famous.
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The Image and
the Region
Making Mega-City Regions Visible!
Mega-city regions are currently a frequent topic of discussion. Researchers are exploring the fundamentals for understanding the role of metropolitan regions and their social, economic, and cultural developments on a national and European basis. The responsible decision makers in politics and business are calling for new measures for greater urban areas. But that is just the start of the problem: Europe seems to lack an awareness for metropolitan regions. For the majority of politicians, planners, institutions, and residents the features of mega-city regions remain invisible. They are scarcely charted; there are no concepts for representing them or any direct sensory understanding of them in everyday life. The book is based on the understanding that the visual depiction of mega-city regions is fundamental to identifying, acting, and developing within existing concentrations of urban populations. Through essays from various disciplines the book approaches the phenomenon and discusses the necessity to visualize mega-city regions.
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Planning
Theory
From the Political Debate to the Methodological Reconstruction
Planning Theory expresses a sound unease about the direction taken by the current analysis and criticism of planning experiences, both in the field of economics and in urban and regional planning.
To oppose this, the present book aims to identify the essential guidelines of a re-launch of planning processes and techniques, configuring a kind of neo-discipline, called ‘planology’ by the author, which builds upon a multi-disciplinary integration (never seen and experimented with until now) of economic, environmental, and sociological approaches, a crucial element missing in previous unsuccessful planning attempts.
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Turning a town around a proactive approach to urban design
The book describes a pro-active approach that evolved in Britain though direct experience at Chelmsford in Essex between 1996 and 2003. This expressed and prescribed the desired physical form through both spatial policy and detailed guidance and pursued it through active negotiation. The approach delivered a high quality urban environment in a uniform manner, not merely through isolated examples. Not just the policies but the life and appearance of the town were turned around. The high standards of design achieved were recognised by the award to the Council by the British government of the quality mark of Beacon Status for the Quality of the Built Environment in 2003.
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Philip Booth, Michèle Breuillard, Charles Fraser and Didier Paris
Spatial Planning Systems of Britain and France
Spatial Planning Systems of Britain and France brings together a wide selection of comparative essays to highlight the fundamental similarities and differences between the spatial planning in Great Britain and France: two countries that are near neighbours and yet have developed very different modes of planning in terms of their structure, practical application and underlying philosophies.
Drawing on the outcomes of the Franco-British Planning Study Group and with a foreword by Vincent Renard of the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, the book offers a comparative investigation of the basic contexts for planning in both countries, including its administrative, economic, financial and legal implications, and then move on to illustrate themes such as urban policy and transport planning through detailed analysis and case studies.
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Philip Harrison, Alison Todes, Vanessa Watson
Planning and
Transformation
Learning from the Post-Apartheid Experience
Planning and Transformation provides a comprehensive view of planning under political transition in South Africa, offering an accessible resource for both students and researchers in an international and a local audience.
In the years after the 1994 transition to democracy in South Africa, planners believed they would be able to successfully promote a vision of integrated, equitable and sustainable cities, and counter the spatial distortions created by apartheid. This book covers the experience of the planning community, the extent to which their aims were achieved, and the hindering factors.
Although some of the factors affecting planning have been contextspecific, the nature of South Africa’s transition and its relationship to global dynamics have meant that many of the issues confronting planners in other parts of the world are echoed here. Issues of governance, integration, market competitiveness, sustainability, democracy and values are significant, and the particular nature of the South African experience lends new insights to thinking on these questions, exploring the possibilities of achievement in the planning field.
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Adri van den Brink, Ron van Lammeren, Rob van de Velde and Silke Däne
Imaging the
future
Geo-visualisation for participatory spatial planning in Europe
The principle of public participation in policy-making and policy implementation features in many European Union directives and policy documents. It is also undeniably connected to the rise of what can be called the European e-society, in which digital technologies are expected to strengthen public involvement in democratic processes. One broad group of such technologies are commonly referred to as geo-visualisations.
This book contains the results of a European project that explored
the potential for using innovative geo-visualisation techniques in
public participation processes for spatial planning. The approach
taken in the project involved continual interaction between concept
development, the technological possibilities, and their practical
application in case studies conducted in Belgium, Poland, Portugal,
Spain and the Netherlands. The structure of the book mirrors this
procedure.
For additional information on this book, please visit this site.
Urban
Structure Matters
Residential Location, Car Dependence and Travel Behaviour
Going beyond previous investigations into urban land use and travel, Petter Næss presents new research from Denmark on residential location and travel to show how and why urban spatial structures affect people's travel behaviour.
In a comprehensive case study of the Copenhagen metropolitan area, Næss combines traditional quantitative travel surveys with qualitative interviews in order to identify the more detailed mechanisms through which urban structure affects travel behaviour. The case study findings are compared with those from other Nordic countries and analyzed and evaluated in the light of relevant theory and literature to provide solid, valuable conclusions for planning sustainable urban development.
With a broader
range of statistics than previous studies and conclusions of
international relevance, Urban Structure Matters provides
well-grounded conclusions for how spatial planning of urban areas
can be used to reduce car dependence and achieve a more sustainable
development of cities.
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Wim van der Knaap and Arnold van der Valk
Multiple Landscape: Merging past and present
Recently, the
Land Use Planning Group of Wageningen University has published
"Multiple Landscape: Merging past and present". This book on
archaeological and historical-geographical issues in environmental
planning includes a selected number of revised and updated papers of
the fifth international workshop on sustainable land use planning
"Multiple landscape: Merging past and present in landscape planning"
that was held in Wageningen, The Netherlands in 2004.
The book was
edited by Wim van der Knaap and Arnold van der Valk.
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an overview of the contents of Multiple Landscape.
The book can be ordered on-line for 10 euro (shipping costs included), by completing the order form on the ISOMUL website
Edited by Chris Couch, Lila Leontidou & Gerhard Petschel-Held
Urban Sprawl in Europe
Landscape,
Land-Use Change & Policy
Urban sprawl
is one of the most important types of land-use changes currently
affecting Europe. It increasingly creates major impacts on the
environment (via surface sealing, emissions by transport and
ecosystem fragmentation); on the social structure of an area (by
segregation, lifestyle changes and neglecting urban centres); and
on the economy (via distributed production, land prices, and
issues of scale).
Urban Sprawl
in Europe: landscapes, land-use change & policy explains
the nature and dynamics of urban sprawl.
For additional information on this book, please visit this site.
The Theory and Practice of Strategic Environmental Assessment
Towards a More Systematic Approach
This book provides for a state-of the-art review of SEA theory and practice and promotes a more systematic approach to SEA. It is written for a wide student, professional and academic audience and aims particularly at supporting the development of SEA modules in undergraduate and postgraduate planning, environmental assessment, engineering and law courses. It provides an overview of the fundamental principles and rules of SEA, reports systematically on international SEA practice and theory and pushes the envelope by developing the theory. Supporting material includes boxed examples and case studies from around the world, extra reading suggestions and a glossary of terms.
For additional information on this book, please visit this site.
Shanghai
Pudong
Urban
Development in an Era of Global-Local Interaction
This publication concerns large-scale urban area development in general, and in particular with gaining an understanding of the role played by global-local interaction in shaping the area development strategies in one particularly explosive urban project, the development of Shanghai’s Pudong New Area. The Pudong development provides an extreme example of a situation in which interaction between global and local forces took place in a location whose boundaries had been closed to the outside world for almost forty years and in a period when doors and windows were beginning to open. The research led to a concrete interpretation of the tensions developing at district level and provided an example capable of representing the complexity and dynamics of current area developments. The practical question addressed by the research was: What were the main factors responsible for the speed achieved by the Pudong development? The associated theoretical question was To what extent did the development of the Pudong New Area reflect the characteristics of a developmental state?
For more information, please download the pdf flyer.
Synergy in
Polycentric Urban Regions
Complementarity, Organising Capacity and
Critical Mass
In understanding and explaining the functioning of cities, contemporary urban and regional studies attribute great significance to relationships between cities. This book focuses on relationships between cities in polycentric urban regions (PURs), which are regions containing proximate but distinct cities that are rather similar in size. This book explores whether there are synergies between cities in PURs. In doing so, several widespread assumptions with respect to PURs are questioned. Do cities constituting a PUR increasingly complement each other? Does a PUR provide a similar critical mass for supporting amenities as a monocentric city region? Does a network model of spatial organisation describe the spatial-functional structure of PURs more accurately than a central place model? The author develops theories on synergy in PURs and clarifies related concepts such as complementarity, regional organising capacity and critical mass. Drawing on empirical evidence from PURs in North West Europe, particularly the Randstad, it appears that PURs are often far from being more than the sum of the parts.
For more information, please download the pdf flyer.
The Case of High-Speed Train Station Area Development
Urban quality is generally considered increasingly important for urban competitiveness. Nevertheless, large urban redevelopment schemes often fail to provide sufficient quality from a user’s perspective. This study therefore investigates the role of urban quality in large-scale urban redevelopment, which is here elaborated in terms of Richard Florida’s concept of quality of place. In a number of extensive case studies, it focuses on prestigious redevelopment projects around the high-speed rail stations in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Lille. It provides an analysis of the role of urban quality in the development of these projects, as well as some insights in the applicability of quality of place in a wider Dutch context. In addition, the study advocates a more open and flexible planning process, based on a distinctly long-term perspective on urban quality.
For more information, please download the pdf flyer.
Cost of Land Use Decisions, Applying transaction cost economics to planning & development
This important
new book tackles the ongoing debate between market and government in
planning. By applying transaction cost economics to an evaluation of
land use systems, the author provides a fresh angle and a useful
contribution to a growing field of study for researchers in urban
planning, public administration and land economics.
The book explains the relevance of the cost of land use decisions to
planning practice and analyses institutions and transaction costs.
The author offers evidence from three systematic empirical studies
with detailed analyses of the planning of Nijmegen - Holland being
known for its plan-led development; Bristol - where the UK planning
system is characterised by being development-led and discretionary;
and Houston - generally regarded as the city with no planning at
all.
For additional information on this book, please visit this site.
Many of the key notions associated with spatial planning are essentially ‘fuzzy’ in their nature. For example, while almost everyone accepts ‘sustainability’ as an important goal of planning, the actions of the actors involved can render the achieved ‘sustainability’ minimal, or even counterproductive. Putting forward an innovative way of looking at planning problems and policies, this volume suggests actor-consulting is important in addressing the fuzzy nature of planning.
Stadtmanagement
Strategien zur
Modernisierung der Stadt(Region)
»Stadtmanagement« – ein Modewort oder neue Qualitäten für die Stadtentwicklung?
Please see this pdf document for more information.
Urban and
Regional Technology Planning:
Planning Practice in the Global Knowledge Economy
The contribution of the book is to empower regional and urban planners to work with and mobilize other local stakeholders to engage and plan for the opportunities and challenges that are presented by the forces of globalization. A principal theme is that these forces are facilitated by information and communications technologies (ICT). A further emphasis is the need for local communities to be innovative and planful by creating productive content for the ICTs to enable. The book's message is constructed from analyses of global knowledge economy trends, relational planning theory and local knowledge-economy cases from the global economy's three primary technology-economic regions from Eastern Asia, Western Europe and North America.
For additional information on this book, please visit this site.
Territorial Cohesion and the European Model of Society
In this volume, based on papers first presented in Vienna in the summer of 2005, the authors have taken up territorial cohesion as a kind of successor concept to the European Spatial Development Perspective. The question posed here is whether there are lessons for U.S. planners to be found in the European experience, and, more tentatively, whether it is possible to reflect back to Europe any useful insights based on an American view of the world.
For more information, please download the pdf flyer.
Time Space Places
The fate of the city as a way of organising human social life has frequently been declared as sealed.
For more information, please download the pdf flyer.
The Visual Language of Spatial Planning, Exploring Cartographic Representations for spatial planning in Europe
For more information, please download the pdf flyer.
Bruce Stiftel, Vanessa Watson and Henri Acselrad
Volume 2 of Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning has been released by Routledge in cooperation with the Global Planning Education Association Network. Featuring 12 urban planning research papers authored on six continents, originally in four languages, and nominated by nine planning school associations, this volume seeks to expand access to regional planning scholarship. The papers discuss planning issues of economy and urban place; environment and conservation of heritage; planning processes and the nature of decision making; the development of planning ideas; transport; and gender; each from a different planning scholarship perspective. The editor's introduction proposes directions to overcome regional isolation in planning research.
Three new books published by Techne Press: "Shifting Sense", "Principles of Urban Structure" & "Visualizing the Invisible"
Shifting Sense is a survey of spatial planning as it has developed at the University of Delft, The Netherlands;
Principles
of Urban Structure provides a fresh theoretical outlook on
designing urban space
Visualizing the Invisible combines theory and practice when producing ideas about urban
planning
Graham Towers' new book!: An Introduction to Urban Housing Design: At Home in the City.
The ideal introduction
to contemporary housing design for professionals and students of
architecture, urban design and planning
Unique introductory guide to urban housing design
An accessible text that outlines the current debate on addressing
climate
change and the need for more urban housing
Contemporary case studies showcase representative examples for
high density housing design
ISBN: 0750659025 : April 2005 : Paperback : £21.99 : 336 pages :
Architectural Press an imprint of Elsevier
To order:
Telephone Elsevier customer services on: 01865 474010
Online:
http://www.architecturalpress.com/?isbn=0750659025