Urban Sustainability and River Restoration: Green and Blue Infrastructure considers the integration of green and blue infrastructure in cities as a strategy useful for acting on causes and effects of environmental and ecological issues. River restoration projects are unique opportunities for sustainable development and smart growth of communities, providing multiple environmental, economic, and social benefits.This book analyzes initiatives and actions carried out and developed to improve environmental conditions in cities and better understand the environmental impact of (and in) dense urban areas in the United States and in Europe.

This volume examines the applicability of nature-based solutions in ecological restoration practice and in contemporary landscape architecture by bringing together ecology and architecture in the built environment. Green infrastructure is used to address urban challenges such as climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and stormwater management. In addition, thermal comfort nature-based solutions reintroduce critical connections between natural and urban systems. In light of ongoing developments in sustainable urban development, the goal is a paradigm shift towards a landscape that restores and rehabilitates urban ecosystems. The ten contributions to this book examine a wide range of successful cases of designing healthier, greener and more resilient landscapes in different geographical contexts, from the United States of America and Brazil, through various European regions, to Singapore and China. While some chapters attempt to conceptualize the interconnections between cities and nature, others clearly have an empirical focus. Therefore, this volume provides a rich body of work and acts as a starting point for further studies on restoration of ecosystems and integrative policies such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

This book presents the author's thirty years of practical experience managing long-term stream and river restoration projects in heavily degraded urban environments. Riley provides a level of detail only a hands-on design practitioner would know, including insights on project design, institutional and social context of successful projects, and how to avoid costly and time-consuming mistakes.

The revitalizing and restoration of rivers, creeks and streams is a major focus of urban conservation activity throughout North America and Europe. This book presents models and examples for organizing multiple stakeholders for purposes of waterway revitalization – if not restoration – within a context of fairness and environmental justice. After decades of neglect and misuse the complexity of cleaning up urban rivers and streams is shown to be complex and truly daunting. Urban river cleanup typically involve multiple agendas and stakeholders, as well as complicated technical issues. It is also often the situation that the most affected have the least voice in what happens. The authors present social process models for maximum inclusion of various stakeholders in decision-making for urban waterway regeneration. A range of examples is presented, drawn principally from North America and Europe.

River Restoration River restoration initiatives are now widespread across the world. The research efforts undertaken to support them are increasingly interdisciplinary, focusing on ecological, chemical, physical as well as societal issues. River Restoration: Political, Social, and Economic Perspectives provides a comprehensive overview of research in the field of river restoration in humanities and the social sciences. It illustrates how, in the last thirty years or so, such approaches have evolved and strengthened within the restoration sciences. The scientific community working in this domain has structured itself, often regionally and circumstantially, to critically assess and improve restoration policies and practices. As a research field, river restoration tackles three thematic axes: Human-river interactions – especially perceptions and practices of rivers, and how these interactions can be changed by restoration projects Political processes, with a particular interest in governance and decision-making, and a specific emphasis on the question of public participation in restoration projects Evaluation of the social and economic benefits of river restoration River Restoration: Political, Social, and Economic Perspectives encompasses these three topics, and more, to provide the reader with the most up-to-date and holistic view of this constantly evolving area. The book will be of particular interest to human and social scientists, biophysical scientists (hydrologists, geomorphologists, ecologists), environmental scientists, public policy makers, design or planning officers, and anyone working in the field of river restoration.

Pollution of air, soil, and waterways has become a primary concern of urban environmental policy making, and over the past two decades there has emerged a new era of urban policy that links development with ecological issues, based on the notion that both nature and the economy can be enhanced through technological changes to production and consumption systems. This book takes a new look at this application of "ecological modernization" to contemporary urban political-ecological struggles. Considering policy processes around land-use in urban watersheds and pollution of air and soil in two disparate North American "global cities," it criticizes the dominant belief in the power of markets and experts to regulate environments to everyoneÕs benefit, arguing instead that civil political action by local constituencies can influence the establishment of beneficial policies. The book emphasizes ÔsubalternÕ environmental justice concerns as instrumental in shaping the policy process. Looking back to the 1990sÑwhen ecological modernization began to emerge as a dominant approach to environmental policy and theoryÑDesfor and Keil examine four case studies: restoration of the Don River in Toronto, cleanup of contaminated soil in Toronto, regeneration of the Los Angeles River, and air pollution reduction in Los Angeles. In each case, they show that local constituencies can develop political strategies that create alternatives to ecological modernization. When environmental policies appear to have been produced through solely technical exercises, they warn, one must be suspicious about the removal of contention from the process. In the face of economic and environmental processes that have been increasingly influenced by neo-liberalism and globalization, Desfor and KeilÕs analysis posits that continuing modernization of industrial capitalist societies entails a measure of deliberate change to societal relationships with nature in cities. Their book shows that environmental policies are about much more than green capitalism or the technical mastery of problems; they are about how future urban generations live their lives with sustainability and justice.