The Water Environment of Cities

• Author(s): Lawrence A. Baker,
• Publisher: Springer US
• Pages: 375
• ISBN_10: 1441946632
  ISBN_13: 9781441946638
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Technology & Engineering / Environmental / General , Science / Earth Sciences / Geography , Political Science / Public Policy / City Planning & Urban Development , Law / Environmental , Technology & Engineering / Civil / General , Nature / Natural Resources , Nature / Reference , Social Science / Human Geography , Political Science / Public Policy / Regional Planning , Technology & Engineering / Environmental / Water Supply ,

Description:... The concept for the Water Environment of Cities arose from a workshop “Green 1 Cities, Blue Waters” workshop held in 2006. The workshop assembled experts from engineering, planning, economics, law, hydrology, aquatic ecology, geom- phology, and other disciplines to present research ?ndings and identify key new ideas on the urban water environment. At a lunch discussion near the end of the workshop, several of us came to the recognition that despite having considerable expertise in a narrow discipline, none of us had a vision of the “urban water en- ronment” as a whole. We were, as in the parable, blind men at opposite ends of the elephant, knowinga great deal about the parts, but notunderstandingthe whole. We quickly recognized the need to develop a book that would integrate this knowledge to create this vision. The goal was to develop a book that could be used to teach a complete, multidisciplinary course, “The Urban Water Environment”, but could also be used as a supplemental text for courses on urban ecosystems, urban design, landscapearchitecture,water policy,waterqualitymanagement andwatershed m- agement. The book is also valuable as a reference source for water professionals stepping outside their arena of disciplinary expertise. The Water Environment of Cities is the ?rst book to use a holistic, interdis- plinary approach to examine the urban water environment. We have attempted to portrayaholisticvisionbuiltaround theconcept of water as a coreelement ofcities. Water has multipleroles:municipalwatersupply,aquatichabitat,landscapeaesth- ics, and recreation. Increasingly, urban water is reused, serving multiple purposes.