Cities and regions are the foci for many environmental problems such as resource depletion, air and water pollution, and the production of waste, but they also have a central role to play in finding solutions to global environmental problems. It is in cities that people can develop solutions - alternatives to resource-intensive modes of transport, cost-effective waste recycling and environmentally-friendly building and production technologies, for example. Daily environmental problems feature in the media, but although those heighten awareness of the issues involved, progress towards solutions is often frustratingly slow. Environmental planning approaches have tended to be piecemeal, unco-ordinated or even nonexistent. However, the urgent advice in this volume is that the complexity of the natural environment and of urban and economic systems requires an integrated approach to policymaking and decision-taking, one that involves all the actors and agents who determine the environmental effect of cities and urban areas. It is the aim of the contributors to this volume to bridge the gap between environmental analysis and policy implementation. They focus on issues in environmental planning from different viewpoints and from different international experience. All the authors recognize that to address the environmental considerations of urban and regional policy successfully means that environmental considerations must pervade all decision-taking affecting the city and its environment. This volume provides the groundwork necessary in achieving this aim, and should prove useful to academics and students of all subjects involving environmental sciences, as well as to policymakers and practitioners in environmental affairs.
