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Christopher Luederitz and Beatrice John, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany
The “WHY” – Sustainable transformations of urban environments
“Cities are the abyss of the human species” wrote Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1762 (1972, p. 59). His description of human life in urban environments is widely echoed in today’s view. Cities are held accountable for producing human ill-health, contributing to climate change, and threatening the diversity and viability of life on Earth (i.e. Grimm et al., 2008). Yet, cities are also considered to have advantages compared to rural environments. They function as innovation hubs and enable material and energy efficiency (Weisz & Steinberger, 2010; Glaeser, 2011). Moreover, well-designed cities promote green and blue spaces, i.e. urban parks or rivers, benefiting the well-being of humans and nature. This is why cities have to play a pro-active role in addressing sustainability: the integrated challenge of economic development, ecological integrity, and social justice.
Current development trends provide evidence as to why sustainability transitions of urban environments are urgently needed. Further, substantial knowledge exists on what should be achieved to move towards sustainable cities. Today, around the world solution-oriented initiatives are shaping such places, which indicate how transformations can be initiated, nurtured, and reinforced. In this chapter we present guiding principles for sustainable urban development and revisit how urban neighborhoods can transform cities and navigate societies towards sustainability.
The “WHAT” – Guiding principles for sustainable urban development
Sustainability principles guide actions that work towards the vision of an ecological integrated and socially viable future (see box 1): They (i) provide a universally functioning compass for practitioners, (ii) demarcate core objectives, and (iii) describe key actions to move towards sustainability (Gibson, 2006; Luederitz, Lang, & Von Wehrden, 2013). However, instead of offering blue prints for well-functioning urban environments, they depict the essential dynamics and features that a sustainable city comprises. Principles break down the complexity of sustainability into small, manageable chunks elaborating on the city’s way of being and functioning, its physical features, and its soul and spirit. Thus, implementing guiding principles requires contextualization to the local specifics that drive the development path of a particular urban environment (Luederitz et al., 2013).
Human-environment integrity
Create integrated urban ecological systems that support and protect the life support functions of existing ecosystems Develop the city with regards to local settings and conditions, harmonize development with the given landscape, historical background, social significance, economic situation and political factors. Reduce the negative impacts and enhance the positive effects of urban environments on their surroundings.
Human well-b