This book studies the role of Local Traditional Knowledge (LTK) during the cultural preservation of an ethnic Chinese city, Dali, from the perspective of Bai minorities. With ethnic minorities as its central focus, mixed research methods are employed here to ensure the reliability and validity of residents’ perceptions. The findings of the book provide empirical evidence of the cultural process that has been reshaping Dali’s urban landscape. In particular, this study captures the dynamics and complexities of integrating LTK during rapid urbanization. By delineating the urban-rural difference, it develops a better understanding of how urbanization influences the transformation of cultural traditions and the built environment. Potential solutions to cultural preservation are also explored, alongside a discussion on the implementation of an inclusive urban governance. This book presents new knowledge beneficial to scholars, practitioners and policymakers, and will serve as a good reference for further similar studies.

This book studies the role of Local Traditional Knowledge (LTK) during the cultural preservation of an ethnic Chinese city, Dali, from the perspective of Bai minorities. With ethnic minorities as its central focus, mixed research methods are employed here to ensure the reliability and validity of residentsâ (TM) perceptions. The findings of the book provide empirical evidence of the cultural process that has been reshaping Daliâ (TM)s urban landscape. In particular, this study captures the dynamics and complexities of integrating LTK during rapid urbanization. By delineating the urban-rural difference, it develops a better understanding of how urbanization influences the transformation of cultural traditions and the built environment. Potential solutions to cultural preservation are also explored, alongside a discussion on the implementation of an inclusive urban governance. This book presents new knowledge beneficial to scholars, practitioners and policymakers, and will serve as a good reference for further similar studies.

Traditional knowledge (TK) has contributed immensely to shaping development and human well-being. Its influence spans a variety of sectors, including agriculture, health, education and governance. However, in today's world, TK and its practitioners are increasingly underrpresented or under-utilized. Further, while the applicability of TK to human and environmental welfare is well-recognized, collated information on how TK contributes to different sectors is not easily accessible. --

Sustainability notions have been widely embraced by planners. However, the question of what can planners contribute to the advancement of such notions has not received much attention until now. This volume examines the potential contribution of planning to the advancement of sustainability at sub-national level, and the limitations it faces in doing so. Bringing together case studies from the US, UK, Poland, Israel, South Africa, The Netherlands and Italy, it covers a wide range of issues and contexts, ranging from the metropolitan to the community level. On the basis of these case studies, the book shows that planners do indeed have a variety of options to advance sustainability notions at these levels, and appear to be doing so. The book proposes that planners should operate at two levels: firstly to change institutional structures, and secondly to advance sustainability notions incrementally in the meantime, within the existing institutional constraints.

Discover how conservation can be made more effective through strengthening links between science research, policy and practice. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This book explores how Pacific Island communities are responding to the challenges wrought by climate change—most notably fresh water accessibility, the growing threat of disease, and crop failure. The Pacific Island nations are not alone in facing these challenges, but their responses are unique in that they arise from traditional and community-based understandings of climate and disaster. Knowledge sharing, community education, and widespread participation in decision-making have promoted social resilience to such challenges across the Pacific. In this exploration of the Pacific Island countries, Bryant-Tokalau demonstrates that by understanding the inter-relatedness of local expertise, customary resource management, traditional knowledge and practice, as well as the roles of leaders and institutions, local “knowledge-practice-belief systems” can be used to inform adaptation to disasters wherever they occur.

Urban Sustainability in the Arctic advances our understanding of cities in the far north by applying elements of the international standard for urban sustainability (ISO 37120) to numerous Arctic cities. In delivering rich material about northern cities in Alaska, Canada, and Russia, the book examines how well the ISO 37120 measures sustainability and how well it applies in northern conditions. In doing so, it links the Arctic cities into a broader conversation about urban sustainability more generally.

When environmental health problems arise in a community, policymakers must be able to reconcile the first-hand experience of local residents with recommendations by scientists. In this highly original look at environmental health policymaking, Jason Corburn shows the ways that local knowledge can be combined with professional techniques to achieve better solutions for environmental health problems. He traces the efforts of a low-income community in Brooklyn to deal with environmental health problems in its midst and offers a framework for understanding "street science"—decision making that draws on community knowledge and contributes to environmental justice. Like many other low-income urban communities, the Greenpoint/Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn suffers more than its share of environmental problems, with a concentration of polluting facilities and elevated levels of localized air pollutants. Corburn looks at four instances of street science in Greenpoint/Williamsburg, where community members and professionals combined forces to address the risks from subsistence fishing from the polluted East River, the asthma epidemic in the Latino community, childhood lead poisoning, and local sources of air pollution. These episodes highlight both the successes and the limits of street science and demonstrate ways residents can establish their own credibility when working with scientists. Street science, Corburn argues, does not devalue science; it revalues other kinds of information and democratizes the inquiry and decision making processes.

This latest Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will again form the standard reference for all those concerned with climate change and its consequences, including students, researchers and policy makers in environmental science, meteorology, climatology, biology, ecology, atmospheric chemistry and environmental policy.

This latest Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will again form the standard reference for all those concerned with climate change and its consequences, including students, researchers and policy makers in environmental science, meteorology, climatology, biology, ecology, atmospheric chemistry and environmental policy.