Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
'safe' cities by the effective management of the
information system to both give warnings of, and
plan to manage, impending disasters. The need to
expand such urban information systems has been
identified as a priority in the European Commission
fifth Framework Research and Development
Programme.
Applied geography will be a major contributor
to the development of the 'information' city.
Current geographical research in this direction
includes projects to:
•
collaborative work on urban river valley
improvements, where researchers work with
local government, voluntary organisations and
community groups to enhance open space use
for recreation and nature conservation.
Many such tasks aim to improve both the quality
of people's surroundings and the quality of life
for individuals. Resolving or alleviating physical
problems as part of a new urban human
ecology— a new science of human settlements—
is at the heart of the United Nations Human
Settlements Programme (HABITAT) and of the
work of NGOs like the Commonwealth Human
Ecology Council. Applied geography is
geography at the service of the world's people.
Since most of those people will be living in
urban areas in the twenty-first century, there is
no more urgent need than to put geography at
the service of those who have to survive in and
manage cities.
•
use GIS to map areas of energy loss from
buildings using infrared photography so that
better strategies for investment in insulation
can be developed;
•
use GIS and real-time weather data to predict
areas and populations at risk in the event of
major chemical releases to the atmosphere in
urban areas;
•
use GIS to record areas of contaminated soil
at different depths below the surface to look
at sources of substances that might
contaminate groundwater or that may
develop into future 'chemical time bombs';
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•
use GIS to integrate geomorphological
information in the planning of new urban
areas and identify those areas on which new
building should not be allowed as a
contribution to the type of work already done
in the Hong Kong Geotechnical Control
Office or in landslide hazard zoning by the
local authorities around San Francisco Bay.
General syntheses of urban environmental
problems and their management include:
Detwyler,T.R. and Marcus, M.G. (1975)
Urbanization
and Environment.
Belmont: Duxbury.
Douglas, I., (1983)
The Urban Environment
.
London: Arnold.
Hardoy, J., Satterthwaite, D. and Mitlin, D. (1992)
The Environmental Problems of Cities in
Developing Countries.
London: Earthscan.
Girardet, H. (1993)
The Gaia Atlas of Cities—New
Directions for Sustainable Urban Living.
Stroud:
Gaia topics.
White, R.R. (1994)
Urban Environmental
Management.
Chichester:Wiley.
However, the work goes beyond sheer
considerations of wise planning and safety. The
conservation of the built and natural heritage of
urban areas for enjoyment and education benefits
from good geographical analysis, including
considerations of access, relationship to other
facilities and areas and links with the community.
Examples of this approach are to be found in:
•
Good urban environmental histories, which
examine how and why past problems were or
were not successfully remedied, paying
particular attention to the roles of individual
entrepreneurs, lobbyists, city managers and
municipal politicians, are provided by: Tarr, J.A.
(1997) Searching for a 'sink' for an industrial
discussions about the integration of urban
nature reserves and other open spaces of
natural vegetation, perhaps with cultural
heritage buildings or remains, into urban
biosphere reserves;
