Urban Sustainability and Energy Management of Cities for Improved Health and Well-Being

Book excerpt: Global environmental challenges such as climate change, rapid urbanization, and human influence on the environment continue to grow. Many of these resulting risks lead to diseases and negative impacts on health and quality of life. It is now essential to develop more sustainable and healthy environments with greater focus on prevention by targeting the root causes of disease. Urban communities comprise a high concentration of services, consumption, and waste and represent an unsustainable pattern of urbanization that accelerates the decline of global ecosystems services rather than supporting them through the compensatory contributions of peri-urban and rural areas. By focusing on reducing environmental and social risk factors, almost a quarter of the global burden of disease can be avoided through better health promotion strategies and improved prevention and hygiene measures. Urban Sustainability and Energy Management of Cities for Improved Health and Well-Being highlights the interdisciplinary connections between the environment and human health, focusing on new ideas and suggestions for promoting both sustainable development and human health and well-being. It creates a new approach to the analysis of human impacts on the natural environment and, conversely, determines how the environment can modulate human lifestyles and health. Furthermore, this book explores opportunities and challenges urban communities face as they seek to become sustainable systems embedded in their diverse and complex social and environmental contexts. Covering topics such as affordable housing, ecological waste materials, and urban health, this premier reference source is an essential resource for environmentalists, civil engineers, government officials, architects, libraries, students and educators of higher education, urban planners, researchers, and academicians.