PDF Building a Roll-Off Roof Observatory: A Complete Guide for Design and Construction (The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series) by John Stephen Hicks in Arts-Photography

Description

The contributors to this volume propose strategies of urgent and vital importance that aim to make todayrsquo;s urban environments more resilient. Resilience; the ability of complex systems to adapt to changing conditions; is a key frontier in ecological research and is especially relevant in creative urban design; as urban areas exemplify complex systems. With something approaching half of the worldrsquo;s population now residing in coastal urban zones; many of which are vulnerable both to floods originating inland and rising sea levels; making urban areas more robust in the face of environmental threats must be a policy ambition of the highest priority.The complexity of urban areas results from their spatial heterogeneity; their intertwined material and energy fluxes; and the integration of social and natural processes. All of these features can be altered by intentional planning and design. The complex; integrated suite of urban structures and processes together affect the adaptive resilience of urban systems; but also presupposes that planners can intervene in positive ways. As examples accumulate of linkage between sustainability and building/landscape design; such as the Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park and Torontorsquo;s Lower Don River area; this book unites the ideas; data; and insights of ecologists and related scientists with those of urban designers. It aims to integrate a formerly atomized dialog to help both disciplines promote urban resilience.