Integrating City Planning and Environmental Improvement: Practicable Strategies for Sustainable Urban Development (Urban Plannin

Donald Miller and Gert de Roo, Ashgate 2004

This collection, first published in 1999, consists of 23 revised essays, produced under the auspices of the International Urban Planning and Environment Association. It represents a move from case studies of integrated urban planning and environmental quality, to theoretical development.

The content hints at a focus for research and policy which is re-shaping physical planning. It has encouraged a new generation of skills that has, thus far, not had sufficient impact on most approaches to urban design development achieved between the 1960s and 1980s. These urban design approaches made a solid entry into public policy literature by the 1990s and, possibly because if their visual reference and frequent reliance on public security interest, remains the focus of urban design.

Here the index reveals little or no reference to the established language of urban design – even the shared concerns of accessibility and density are hardly mentioned.

Sustainability, quality (of life) and policy rule with some of the inward-looking convolutions which often follow. Nevertheless, this is a language which all environmental planners (and designers) must learn, and despite its ponderous nature, this might be a good place to start.

The first part considers national policies for integrated environmental and spatial planning with the potential and problems of the Dutch system laid bare; useful commentaries from the USA, Spain and Australia follow.

The second part explains the regional approach to integration with case studies on Washington State, Rijnmond region of the Netherlands, the South East of England (a clear outline by H.R. Howes), and the Klang Valley of Malaysia.

City-wide approaches form the third section. Here the cultural differences are more evident. A brief discussion of Saxony’s ‘Ecological City’ Model Project is followed by Blanco’s rewarding essay on the application of the Dutch model for integrated environmental zoning (IEZ) in Brooklyn (NYC) where illustration, insights and clarity rise above the book’s average. A concluding Dutch paper was revealing to this reader in its references to past voices such as Faludi, Friend and Jessop.

Logically the fourth part focuses on the neighbourhood where a passing theme of community participation might expect to be joined. This is evident in one of two Groningen case studies, and in a study of Yonge Street, Toronto, that is probably one of the most accessible to urban designers. A concluding paper on area-oriented environmental policy is also particularly revealing in its links between environmental ambitions and the specific qualities of areas (again in a Dutch context).

The final part is devoted to the use of indicators in integrated city planning and environmental impact – an area which has already been explored in urban design research. Cases for Washington State and Quito (Ecuador) are amongst the exploratory essays here.

In the fast-moving field, a set of 1999 essays has often been superseded by public policy and research development. But as the editors intend, this should remain a basic resource in the field for some time – long enough for a new generation of urban designers to come to terms with a new language but which nevertheless harks back to an established, but somewhat marginalised, strand in planning theory.