<i>‘The book focuses on the theory and practice of environmental governance where the socio-technical and socio-legal aspects of the environment meet the political and social need for incentives to change behavior. The author presents a comprehensive overview of the challenges, opportunities, and constraints that government and non-government organizations face in achieving urban sustainability and resilience. The book is readable, accessible, and innovativee in proposing new approaches. Policymakers, architects, urban planners, developers, researchers, and residents will find the book informative and instructive for understanding the complexities of urban governance.’</i>
- Stephanie S. Shipp, Science and Public Policy,
<i>‘The deleterious effects of urbanism on the environment are one of the foremost challenges of the 21st century, and Jeroen van der Heijden’s book is a timely intervention. His argument is that while there is technical knowledge and social know-how about how to enhance the sustainability and resilience of cities, there is need to harness both by developing appropriate governance approaches and tools.’</i>
- Rob Imrie, Building Research & Information 2015,
<i>’The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (2014) has highlighted the importance of urban areas in mitigating emissions of greenhouse gases. Urban centres are also subject to the impacts of climate change. Hence governance for urban sustainability and resilience needs to be developed to deal with the challenge of climate change in the future and its impacts on urban locations. This book is a rich repository of knowledge and information on this subject of growing relevance.' </i>
- Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Professor, Yale Climate and Energy Institute, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, US,
<i>'This book provides a timely overview of the range of government intervention models in the policy domain of urban sustainability. Combining the two closely related, but usually separated, policy objectives of Sustainability and Resilience has particular utility. Having good ideas about how to save the planet are necessary but if we can’t use governance tools to deliver them, we have no hope.’</i>
- Peter Newman, Curtin University, Australia,
In mapping, describing and evaluating nearly 70 traditional and highly innovative governance tools from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, Jeroen van der Heijden uncovers the five most eminent contemporary trends in governance for urban sustainability and resilience. He also develops a series of 12 design principles that will help to develop better governance tools for improving the sustainability and resilience of today's cities and those of the future. The book is unique in drawing lessons from the theoretical literature on environmental and hazard governance into a broad empirical study.
The book will be of great interest to scholars in the field of urban governance, urban planning, sustainable development and resilience, environmental and hazard governance, and climate risk adaptation and mitigation. It will also appeal to students, policymakers and organizations involved with environmental policy and governance.