As an evolving and contested field, urban design has been made, unmade, and remade at the intersections of multiple disciplines and professions. It is now a decisive moment for urban design to reflect on its rigour and relevance. This handbook is an attempt to seize this moment for urban design to further develop its theoretical and methodological knowledge base and engage with the question of "what urban design can be" with a primary focus on its research. This handbook includes contributions from both established and emerging scholars across the global North and global South to provide a more field-specific entry point by introducing a range of topics and lines of inquiry and discussing how they can be explored with a focus on the related research designs and methods. The specific aim, scope, and structure of this handbook are appealing to a range of audiences interested and/or involved in shaping places and public spaces. What makes this book quite distinctive from conventional handbooks on research methods is the way it has been structured in relation to some key research topics and questions in the field of urban design regarding the issues of agency, affordance, place, informality, and performance. In addition to the introduction chapter, this handbook includes 80 contributors and 52 chapters organised into five parts. The commissioned chapters showcase a wide range of topics, research designs, and methods with references to relevant scholarly works on the related topics and methods.

The Routledge Handbook of Planning Research Methods is an expansive look at the traditions, methods, and challenges of research design and research projects in contemporary urban planning. Through case studies, an international group of researchers, planning practitioners, and planning academics and educators, all recognized authorities in the field, provide accounts of designing and implementing research projects from different approaches and venues. This book shows how to apply quantitative and qualitative methods to projects, and how to take your research from the classroom to the real world. The book is structured into sections focusing on Beginning planning research Research design and development Rediscovering qualitative methods New advances in quantitative methods Turning research into action With chapters written by leading scholars in spatial planning, The Routledge Handbook of Planning Research Methods is the most authoritative and comprehensive handbook on the topic, providing both established and ground breaking coverage of spatial planning research methods. The book is an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate level students, young professionals and practitioners in urban, regional, and spatial planning.

The Routledge Handbook of Designing Public Spaces for Young People is a thorough and practical resource for all who wish to influence policy and design decisions in order to increase young people’s access to and use of public spaces, as well as their role in design and decision-making processes. The ability of youth to freely enjoy public spaces, and to develop a sense of belonging and attachment to these environments, is critical for their physical, social, cognitive, and emotional development. Young people represent a vital citizen group with legitimate rights to occupy and shape their public environments, yet they are often driven out of public places by adult users, restrictive bylaws, or hostile designs. It is also important that children and youth have the opportunity to genuinely participate in the planning of public spaces, and to have their needs considered in the design of the public realm. This book provides both evidence and tools to help effectively advocate for more youth-inclusive public environments, as well as integrate youth directly into both research and design processes related to the public realm. It is essential reading for researchers, design and planning professionals, community leaders, and youth advocates.

"This book provides an overview of online research methods in urban and planning studies, exploring and discussing new digital tools and Web-based research methods, as well as the scholarly, legal, and ethical challenges associated with their use"--Provided by publisher.

The Routledge Companion to Games in Architecture and Urban Planning aims to identify and showcase the rich diversity of games, including: simulation games, game-like approaches, game scenarios, and gamification processes for teaching/learning, design and research in architecture and urban planning. This collection creates an opportunity for exchange and reflection on games in architecture and urban planning. Theoretical discussions, descriptive accounts, and case studies presenting empirical evidence are featured; combined with reflections, constructive critical analysis, discussions of connections, and various influences on this field. Twenty-eight international contributors have come together from eleven countries and five continents to present their studies on games in architecture and urban planning, pose new questions, and advocate for innovative perspectives.

This collection seeks to illustrate the state of the art in territoriological research, both empirical and theoretical. The volume gathers together a series of original, previously unpublished essays exploring the newly emerging territorial formations in culture, politics and society. While the globalisation debate of the 1990s largely pivoted around a ‘general deterritorialisation’ hypothesis, since the 2000s it has become apparent that, rather than effacing territories, global connections are added to them, and represent a further factor in the increase of territorial complexity. Key questions follow, such as: How can we further the knowledge around territorial complexities and the ways in which different processes of territorialisation co-exist and interact, integrating scientific advances from a plurality of disciplines? Where and what forms does territorial complexity assume, and how do complex territories operate in specific instances? Which technological, political and cultural facets of territories should be tackled to make sense of the life of territories? How and by what different or combined methods can we describe territories, and do justice to their articulations and meanings? How can the territoriological vocabulary relate to contemporary social theory advancements such as ANT, the ontological turn, the mobilities paradigm, sensory urbanism, and atmospheres research? How can territorial phenomena be studied across disciplinary boundaries? Territories, Environments, Politics casts a fresh perspective onto a number of key contemporary socio-spatial phenomena. Refraining from the attempt to ossify territoriology into some disciplinary straightjacket, the collection aims to illustrate the scope of current territoriological research, its domain, its promises, its theoretical advancements, and its methodological reflection in the making. Scholars interested in social research will find in this collection a rich and imaginative theoretical-methodological toolkit. Students in human geography, anthropology and sociology, socio-legal studies, architecture and urban planning will find Territories, Environments, Politics of interest.

More than half the world's population now lives in cities. Creating sustainable, healthy and aesthetic urban environments is therefore a major policy goal and research agenda. This comprehensive handbook provides a global overview of the state of the art and science of urban forestry. It describes the multiple roles and benefits of urban green areas in general and the specific role of trees, including for issues such as air quality, human well-being and stormwater management. It reviews the various stresses experienced by trees in cities and tolerance mechanisms, as well as cultural techniques for either pre-conditioning or alleviating stress after planting. It sets out sound planning, design, species selection, establishment and management of urban trees. It shows that close interactions with the local urban communities who benefit from trees are key to success. By drawing upon international state-of-art knowledge on arboriculture and urban forestry, the book provides a definitive overview of the field and is an essential reference text for students, researchers and practitioners.

The Routledge Handbook of Regional Design explores contemporary research, policy, and practice that highlight critical aspects of strategy-making, planning, and designing for contemporary regions—including city regions, bioregions, delta regions, and their hybrids. As accelerating urbanization and globalization combine with other forces such as the demand for increasing returns on investment capital, migration, and innovation, they yield cities that are expanding over ever-larger territories. Moreover, these polycentric city regions themselves are agglomerating with one another to create new territorial mega-regions. The processes that beget these novel regional forms produce numerous and significant effects, positive and negative, that call for new modes of design and management so that the urban places and the lives and well-being of their inhabitants and businesses thrive sustainably into the future. With international case studies from leading scholars and practitioners, this book is an important resource not just for students, researchers, and practitioners of urban planning, but also policy makers, developers, architects, engineers, and anyone interested in the broader issues of urbanism.

The birds, animals, insects, trees and plants encountered by the majority of the world’s people are those that survive in, adapt to, or are introduced to, urban areas. Some of these organisms give great pleasure; others invade, colonise and occupy neglected and hidden areas such as derelict land and sewers. Urban areas have a high biodiversity and nature within cities provides many ecosystem services including cooling the urban area, reducing urban flood risk, filtering pollutants, supplying food, and providing accessible recreation. Yet, protecting urban nature faces competition from other urban land uses. The Handbook of Urban Ecology analyses this biodiversity and complexity and provides the science to guide policy and management to make cities more attractive, more enjoyable, and better for our own health and that of the planet. This Handbook contains 50 interdisciplinary contributions from leading academics and practitioners from across the world to provide an in-depth coverage of the main elements of practical urban ecology. It is divided into six parts, dealing with the philosophies, concepts and history of urban ecology; followed by consideration of the biophysical character of the urban environment and the diverse habitats found within it. It then examines human relationships with urban nature, the health, economic and environmental benefits of urban ecology before discussing the methods used in urban ecology and ways of putting the science into practice. The Handbook offers a state-of the art guide to the science, practice and value of urban ecology. The engaging contributions provide students and practitioners with the wealth of interdisciplinary information needed to manage the biota and green landscapes in urban areas.