Over the next 20 years, most low-income countries will, for the first time, become more urban than rural. Understanding demographic trends in the cities of the developing world is critical to those countries - their societies, economies, and environments. The benefits from urbanization cannot be overlooked, but the speed and sheer scale of this transformation presents many challenges. In this uniquely thorough and authoritative volume, 16 of the world's leading scholars on urban population and development have worked together to produce the most comprehensive and detailed analysis of the changes taking place in cities and their implications and impacts. They focus on population dynamics, social and economic differentiation, fertility and reproductive health, mortality and morbidity, labor force, and urban governance. As many national governments decentralize and devolve their functions, the nature of urban management and governance is undergoing fundamental transformation, with programs in poverty alleviation, health, education, and public services increasingly being deposited in the hands of untested municipal and regional governments. Cities Transformed identifies a new class of policy maker emerging to take up the growing responsibilities. Drawing from a wide variety of data sources, many of them previously inaccessible, this essential text will become the benchmark for all involved in city-level research, policy, planning, and investment decisions. The National Research Council is a private, non-profit institution based in Washington, DC, providing services to the US government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The editors are members of the Council's Panel on Urban Population Dynamics.

'Transforming Cities with Transit' explores the complex process of transit and land-use integration and provides policy recommendations and implementation strategies for effective integration in rapidly growing cities in developing countries.

The aim of the book is to examine the transformation of the city in the late 20th century and explore the ways in which city life is structured. The shift from modern-industrial to information/consumption-based 'post-modern' cities is traced through the text. The focus is not just on America and Europe but also explores cities in other parts of the world as city growth in the twenty first century will be predominantly outside of these regions.

Publisher Description

Annotation This volume is one in a series initiated by the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies on the inter-relationship between globalisation and urban transformation. It identifies and describes the inter- and intra-urban transformations of Central and Eastern European cities and considers their pre-1945 historic legacies, the socialist period, and their contemporary transition towards market oriented and democratic systems. The dramatic changes since 1989 including the collapse of Communist ideology, the break-up of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, the end of the Cold War and the impact of globalisation and European integration, have reconfigured this region and affected their re-integration into European and global networks. This book first examines the similarities and differences between significant Central and Eastern European cities, comparing the differing patterns of historical context and socialist legacies before 1990, and the impacts of internal and external forces on re-shaping these cities and their paths of transformation since 1990. It also examines the role of contemporary planning within the overall development of Central and Eastern European cities. The conclusion demonstrates the similarities and differences between Central and Eastern European cities and their re-integration into global networks.

How do cities transform over time? And why do some cities change for the better while others deteriorate? In articulating new ways of viewing urban areas and how they develop over time, Peter Bosselmann offers a stimulating guidebook for students and professionals engaged in urban design, planning, and architecture. By looking through Bosselmann’s eyes (aided by his analysis of numerous color photos and illustrations) readers will learn to “see” cities anew. Bosselmann organizes the book around seven “activities”: comparing, observing, transforming, measuring, defining, modeling, and interpreting. He introduces readers to his way of seeing by comparing satellite-produced “maps” of the world’s twenty largest cities. With Bosselmann’s guidance, we begin to understand the key elements of urban design. Using Copenhagen, Denmark, as an example, he teaches us to observe without prejudice or bias. He demonstrates how cities transform by introducing the idea of “urban morphology” through an examination of more than a century of transformations in downtown Oakland, California. We learn how to measure quality-of-life parameters that are often considered immeasurable, including “vitality,” “livability,” and “belonging.” Utilizing the street grids of San Francisco as examples, Bosselmann explains how to define urban spaces. Modeling, he reveals, is not so much about creating models as it is about bringing others into public, democratic discussions. Finally, we find out how to interpret essential aspects of “life and place” by evaluating aerial images of the San Francisco Bay Area taken in 1962 and those taken forty-three years later. Bosselmann has a unique understanding of cities and how they “work.” His hope is that, with the fresh vision he offers, readers will be empowered to offer inventive new solutions to familiar urban problems.

In Saving Our Cities, William W. Goldsmith shows how cities can be places of opportunity rather than places with problems. With strongly revived cities and suburbs, working as places that serve all their residents, metropolitan areas will thrive, thus making the national economy more productive, the environment better protected, the citizenry better educated, and the society more reflective, sensitive, and humane. Goldsmith argues that America has been in the habit of abusing its cities and their poorest suburbs, which are always the first to be blamed for society's ills and the last to be helped. As federal and state budgets, regulations, and programs line up with the interests of giant corporations and privileged citizens, they impose austerity on cities, shortchange public schools, make it hard to get nutritious food, and inflict the drug war on unlucky neighborhoods.Frustration with inequality is spreading. Parents and teachers call persistently for improvements in public schooling, and education experiments abound. Nutrition indicators have begun to improve, as rising health costs and epidemic obesity have led to widespread attention to food. The futility of the drug war and the high costs of unwarranted, unprecedented prison growth have become clear. Goldsmith documents a positive development: progressive politicians in many cities and some states are proposing far-reaching improvements, supported by advocacy groups that form powerful voting blocs, ensuring that Congress takes notice. When more cities forcefully demand enlightened federal and state action on these four interrelated problems—inequality, schools, food, and the drug war—positive movement will occur in traditional urban planning as well, so as to meet the needs of most residents for improved housing, better transportation, and enhanced public spaces.

To Transform a City is a valuable guide for those who dream big about the spiritual and social changes possible for the cities and towns that surround their churches. Two visionary leaders examine the foundations, history, theology, and practical methods of community transformation.

Cities in the Third Wave surveys the remarkable transformation that is taking place in urban America. In the belief that technology is the force that has created and recast cities throughout history, this book addresses the important question of how the modern-day technology affects cities today and how it will shape cities in the future.