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Dimensions of the Sustainable City pp 1–19Cite as

Issues and Concepts

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Part of the book series: Future City ((FUCI,volume 2))

Abstract

There has been a considerable amount of research that defines and characterises the form of the sustainable city, and which urban forms may most affect sustainability. It is a complex issue. The physical dimensions of urban form may include its size, shape, land uses, configuration and distribution of open space – a composite of a multitude of characteristics, including a city’s transportation system and urban design features (e.g. Handy, 1996; Llewelyn-Davies, 2000). However, its sustainability depends on more abstract issues – environmental (including transport), social and economic. Research suggests that, not one, but a number of urban forms may be sustainable (Williams et al., 2000). Yet much of the debate about the sustainability of cities and urban forms has focused on increasing the density of development, ensuring a mix of uses, containing urban ‘sprawl’ and achieving social and economic diversity and vitality – often characterised as the concept of a ‘compact city’ (see Jenks et al., 1996; Jenks and Dempsey, 2005).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This forms part of the output from the CityForm: Sustainable Urban Form Consortium funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under its Sustainable Urban Environments Programme (Grant number GR/520529/01). Further details of the research and publications can be found at http://www.city-form.org/

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  1. Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK

    Mike Jenks

  2. School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

    Colin Jones (Professor of Estate Management)

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  1. Oxford Inst. Sustainable Development, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 0BP, United Kingdom

    Mike Jenks

  2. School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, United Kingdom

    Colin Jones

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Jenks, M., Jones, C. (2010). Issues and Concepts. In: Jenks, M., Jones, C. (eds) Dimensions of the Sustainable City. Future City, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8647-2_1

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