In the U.S., policy has increasingly shifted toward economic incentives and liability attenuation for promoting cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated sites, but little is known about the effectiveness of such policies. These policies include state Voluntary Cleanup Programs (VCPs). This study focuses on 116 Baltimore properties that were enrolled and participated in the Maryland VCP from its inception in 1997 to the end of 2006 and examines what type of properties tend to participate in these programs, how these properties compare with other eligible but non-participating sites, and what the redevelopment potential of VCP properties and implications is toward open-space conversion. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand report.

As global climate change proliferates, so too do the health risks associated with the changing world around us. Called for in the President’s Climate Action Plan and put together by experts from eight different Federal agencies, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health: A Scientific Assessment is a comprehensive report on these evolving health risks, including: Temperature-related death and illness Air quality deterioration Impacts of extreme events on human health Vector-borne diseases Climate impacts on water-related Illness Food safety, nutrition, and distribution Mental health and well-being This report summarizes scientific data in a concise and accessible fashion for the general public, providing executive summaries, key takeaways, and full-color diagrams and charts. Learn what health risks face you and your family as a result of global climate change and start preparing now with The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health.

This study offers a way to think about the regeneration of America's legacy cities -- older industrial cities that have experienced sustained job and population loss over the past few decades. It argues that regeneration is grounded in the cities' abilities to find new forms. These include not only new physical forms that reflect the changing economy and social fabric, but also new forms of export-oriented economic activity, new models of governance and leadership, and new ways to build stronger regional and metropolitan relationships. The report also identifies the powerful obstacles that stand in the way of fundamental change, and suggests directions by which cities can overcome those obstacles and embark on the path of regeneration.

Cities have experienced an unprecedented rate of growth in the last decade. More than half the world's population lives in urban areas, with the U.S. percentage at 80 percent. Cities have captured more than 80 percent of the globe's economic activity and offered social mobility and economic prosperity to millions by clustering creative, innovative, and educated individuals and organizations. Clustering populations, however, can compound both positive and negative conditions, with many modern urban areas experiencing growing inequality, debility, and environmental degradation. The spread and continued growth of urban areas presents a number of concerns for a sustainable future, particularly if cities cannot adequately address the rise of poverty, hunger, resource consumption, and biodiversity loss in their borders. Intended as a comparative illustration of the types of urban sustainability pathways and subsequent lessons learned existing in urban areas, this study examines specific examples that cut across geographies and scales and that feature a range of urban sustainability challenges and opportunities for collaborative learning across metropolitan regions. It focuses on nine cities across the United States and Canada (Los Angeles, CA, New York City, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Grand Rapids, MI, Flint, MI, Cedar Rapids, IA, Chattanooga, TN, and Vancouver, Canada), chosen to represent a variety of metropolitan regions, with consideration given to city size, proximity to coastal and other waterways, susceptibility to hazards, primary industry, and several other factors.

Why have so many central and inner cities in Europe, North America and Australia been so radically revamped in the last three decades, converting urban decay into new chic? Will the process continue in the twenty-first century or has it ended? What does this mean for the people who live there? Can they do anything about it? This book challenges conventional wisdom, which holds gentrification to be the simple outcome of new middle-class tastes and a demand for urban living. It reveals gentrification as part of a much larger shift in the political economy and culture of the late twentieth century. Documenting in gritty detail the conflicts that gentrification brings to the new urban 'frontiers', the author explores the interconnections of urban policy, patterns of investment, eviction, and homelessness. The failure of liberal urban policy and the end of the 1980s financial boom have made the end-of-the-century city a darker and more dangerous place. Public policy and the private market are conspiring against minorities, working people, the poor, and the homeless as never before. In the emerging revanchist city, gentrification has become part of this policy of revenge.

This document (which is a corrected edition of the publication first issued in January 2005) sets out the Government's five year plan to create sustainable mixed communities by addressing the varied housing challenges faced in different parts of the country and improving the supply and quality of housing for everyone, including first time buyers, social tenants, key workers and private sector tenants. Proposals for reforms include: investment in housebuilding and infrastructure to tackle housing shortages in the South East, using the private finance initiative; a new Code for Sustainable Buildings, new powers to limit low density development and to protect the Green Belt; measures to help 80,000 first time buyers and an extension of the Key Worker Living scheme; a new Choice to Own scheme for council and housing association tenants; a new moveUK system to provide information about availability of jobs and homes to offer people the opportunity to move to new areas; improved quality and availability of private rented accommodation; an enhanced strategic role for local authorities in planning housing and growth; investment in housing related services to help older and disabled people live independently; and plans to address homelessness, including halving the number of households living in temporary accommodation by 2010.

Details the rationale behind grades in 15 categories as announced by ASCE. This book presents an analysis of each category, an assessment of your state's status, case studies of successful projects, suggestions for actions you can take and ways you can get involved, and more.

The liability for cleanup or remediation of contaminated sites is an issue causing difficulty in current attempts to achieve a sustainable environment and economy. This report presents a set of recommended principles to provide a model framework on which governments can develop legislation and regulations regarding contaminated sites and which will promote and facilitate a consistent approach to the issue of environmental liability. The first five principles are those that contain the general policies which should form the basis of legislation, including the polluter-pay principle, fairness, openness, and sustainable development. This is followed by specific principles regarding such matters as statutory exemptions from liability, recovery of public funds spent in remediation, allocation of responsibility, designation of contaminated sites, and compliance certification.