Review : Resilient Cities: Overcoming Fossil Fuel Dependence By Peter Newman, Beatley Timothy, and Heather Boyer

Abstract

others across the United Sates. Steiner clearly appreciates these as bold efforts to reshape and create sustainable urban ecology. He notes that all of these regions have evolved politically, socially, and environmentally. He briefly mentions others such as the Pinelands and Meadowlands in New Jersey. Because of the wide range of examples and the author’s strong views about regional planning, this is one of my two favorite chapters in the book. Chapter 6 is about the nation, the state, and the nationstate. The author takes care to distinguish among these. Nations, for example, are said not to need a written language, but states do in order to manage their bounded area. A key message is that designers and planners are critical in establishing a nation-state identity with signal structures and landscape designs. He argues that cultures have their own way of settling the Earth, structuring social and political relationships. Their signal designs define multiple nations within a single state, and they also signal that a nation crosses state boundaries. As we know, nation-state mismatches have sometimes led to prolonged armed and political conflict. Chapters 7 and 8 look at the entire planet and nature’s reactions to planetary changes. Steiner points to increasing pressure caused by massive population growth and resource use, especially in cities. I expected the author to call for more investment in infrastructure and cultural symbols, and he does, but he focuses more on the need for investment in education. The book has notable strengths. The author’s knowledge is nothing short of remarkable. I can imagine him in front of a room casually discussing “adaptation,” “culture and landscape,” and many elements of human ecology, and drawing from decades of personal experiences across the globe to illustrate how culture and landscape adapt to change. The book directly fits into planning and architecture curricula as they weave through geographic scales and encounter different cultures. At the micro-geographic scale (home, neighborhood, community, landscape), the book fits comfortably into urban design, community development, and environmental planning and management classes. At the meso and macro scales (region, nation, state, planet), the book reinforces the need to act locally while thinking globally about planning and design. The writing is crisp, direct, and easy to read. Yet I think my students would need introductions to planning, design, and geography before they could appreciate what this book has to offer. Earlier, I noted that the first edition was published in 2002. As the author notes in his preface, quite a few changes have occurred. If this book is to be used in a class, it needs to be supplemented with emerging issues such as resilience, sustainability, energy use, climate change, hazard mitigation, and the continuing growth of urban agglomerations in places around the world that lack infrastructure. Each of these issues is mentioned in the book, but recent material would need to be added. In regard to methods, I would add environmental impact, risk analysis, and health impact analyses. I would also add the basics of risk perception and risk communications, as well as new visualization tools. The book contains many interesting examples throughout. However, when using the book as a text, I recommend incorporating a class example that requires the students to consider each scale from home to the planet for students to better understand the terms and concepts. I have used food security and brownfield redevelopment in my classes. This book is a wonderful read. Yet, at this time, I would not pick it as a primary book for a course. Richard Forman’s (2014) Urban Ecology: Science of Cities covers much of the same material, is more current, and contains more graphical and photo material that appeals to today’s students. Ian Douglas and Philip James’s (2015) Urban Ecology is more valuable for the kinds of environmental science and riskscience-oriented students whom I teach. For those focusing on climate change and the global scale, I would recommend Mike Hodson and Simon Marvin’s (2010) World Cities and Climate Change. Overall, this book is a classic. It defines the basic components of our increasingly complex interconnected world of peoples, places, institutions superimposed on a landscape that slowly evolves in response to tectonic processes and changes because of human activities. I read this book when it was first published. Now fifteen years later, I read it again, and enjoyed it even more. The text is beautifully written, and the messages are timeless.