Product Description

Most of the world's urban population and most of the large and rapidly growing cities are in developing countries. Often poorly governed, their conditions produce millions of preventable deaths and extensive disease. This book describes these cities' environmental problems and how they affect health, local ecosystems and global cycles. It analyses the causes: the failure of governments to supply clean water and implement existing measures, or land-owning structures that marginalize the poor. It also highlights the innovative ways in which problems are being tackled, showing solutions are available and the action needed by cities, local governments and community organizations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #190843 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"This book is full of ideas with examples, data and an excellent bibliography." -- Built Environment

From the Publisher
‘It’s rare to encounter a work as authoritative and accessible as this. It is a mine of useful information from cities in every corner of the Third World, which does not shy away from the immensity of the problems, but says as much about the solutions to them as about the problems themselves’
JONATHON PORRITT

‘…. not just a masterly analysis; it shows how to manage issues which have often proved unmanageable’
SIR CRISPIN TICKELL

‘Well written and very accessible’
THE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL

‘Of value to students, teachers, practitioners, policy makers and aid agencies’
THIRD WORLD PLANNING REVIEW

‘Will probably be used as a major reference for many years’
HEALTH POLICY AND PLANNING

‘A valuable resource for understanding the underlying problems... [this book offers] practical alternatives’
CITIES INTERNATIONAL

About the Author
David Satterthwaite
David Satterthwaite is Director of the Human Settlements Programme at the IIED and Editor of the journal Environment and Urbanization. He also teaches at the Development Planning Unit, the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of London and at the London School of Economics (LSE). A development planner by training, with a PhD in social policy from the LSE, he has been working at IIED on issues related to housing and the urban environment since 1974. Recent publications include The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Cities (editor, available in paperback and hardback), Earthscan Publications, London, 1999, An Urbanizing World: Global Report on Human Settlements 1996, Oxford University Press (editor and principal author) and The Environment for Children, Earthscan Publications, 1996 (principal author, available in paperback and hardback). He has advised various agencies on urban environmental issues including the Brundtland Commission, WHO, UNICEF, UNCHS, the Department for International Development and Sida and is currently serving as one of the lead authors in the chapter on human settlements for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Diana Mitlin
Diana Mitlin is an economist with the Human Settlements Programme of the IIED in London, a member of the editorial board of the journal Environment and Urbanization and Editor of HiFi News, a newsletter on innovations in housing finance. With a first degree in economics and sociology from Manchester University and a Masters in economics from Birkbeck College (University of London), she has a special interest in the role of NGOs and voluntary organizations in housing and environmental action. She recently returned from a secondment in South Africa where she worked with the People’s Dialogue on Land and Shelter, a South African NGO that supports a number of community and local development activities including local environmental improvements. She is a trustee of International Technology and was a member of Homeless International’s Council of Management from 1991 to 1998.
Jorge E Hardoy
Prior to his death in 1993, Jorge E Hardoy was President of the Instituto Internacional de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo (IIED-América Latina), an international non-profit NGO based in Buenos Aires, which he had also founded. He was also President of the National Commission for Historic Monuments in Argentina and Editor of the journal Medio Ambiente y Urbanizacion. Qualifying as an architect in 1950 with a Masters and PhD from Harvard University in city and regional planning, he wrote widely on both historical and contemporary urban issues. Among his publications with Earthscan are Squatter Citizen: Life in the Urban Third World (with David Satterthwaite), published in 1989, The Poor Die Young, Housing and Health in Third World Cities (edited with Sandy Cairncross and David Satterthwaite), published in 1990 and Environmental Problems in an Urbanizing World, published in 2001 (available in paperback and hardback) .He served as President of the Inter-American Planning Society, was twice a Guggenheim Fellow and served on the Board of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada. He was an adviser of the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission) and also advised the World Health Organization (WHO) on the links between health and environment in cities.