Urban environmental management : environmental change and urban design /

In this path-breaking book, White (Univ. of Toronto) is concerned with the environmental role of cities and their growing impact on the global ecosystem. Specifically, the aim is to examine urban planning and management problems from that environmental perspective. The first two chapters trace the evolution and functioning of cities vis-`a-vis the global environment and the context of urban areas with respect to the dynamics of large-scale environmental systems. Subsequent chapters treat the inputs and outputs of urban resource-use, the link between urban pathologies and the natural environment, effects on air and water quality, prescriptions for improving urban environmental impacts, and a fascinating case study involving initiatives in metropolitan Toronto. A useful glossary is provided as well as a listing of references that is both comprehensive and current. This book builds upon earlier classics by geographers, most notably Thomas R. Detwyler and Melvin G. Marcus's Urbanization and Environment (CH, Feb'73) and Brian J.L. Berry and Frank E. Horton's Urban Environmental Management (1974). White's lively prose is well supported by maps, diagrams, and tables. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduate and graduate students and for urbanists, environmental scientists, microclimatologists, and planners. P. O. Muller; University of Miami