Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Sustainable Urbanism: Creating Resilient Communities in the Age of Peak Oil and Climate Destabilization

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Environmental Policy is Social Policy – Social Policy is Environmental Policy

Abstract

Peak oil and climate destabilization are combining in this century to create a perfect storm which threatens the human prospect now and for all future time. This chapter surveys four scenarios for the future as we face this crisis of crises: (1) civilizational collapse, (2) sustainable enclaves for the wealthy, (3) urban deconstruction and re-ruralization, and (4) a meta-industrial society comprised of resilient cities and sustainable bioregions. While all four scenarios are likely to be simultaneously present in the decades ahead, it is argued that only the meta-industrial vision is capable of inspiring the thought and action necessary for us to change our direction and respond creatively and effectively to the great challenges of our time. Based on the principles of tolerance and cooperative community and supported by the intelligent use of environmentally and humanly appropriate technology, the meta-industrial society is comprised of resilient and sustainable human settlements. The characteristics of resilient and sustainable cities are defined and illustrated by a case study of the sustainable urban district of Kronsberg (Hannover), Germany.

It is concluded that the only way to create an equitable, socially just, and environmentally sustainable human ecology is to integrate social policy and environmental policy into a seamless whole that results in the creation of new communities such as Kronsberg and the transformation of existing metropolitan areas into a polycentric pattern of mixed-use, humanly scaled, resilient cities and regenerative agricultural landscapes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bang JM (2005) Ecovillages: a practical guide to sustainable communities. New Society Press, Gabriola Island

    Google Scholar 

  • Berry T (1988) The dream of the earth. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Berry T (1999) The great work: our way into the future. Bell Tower, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Blake W (1994) The marriage of heaven and hell. Dover, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown L (2009) Plan B 4.0: mobilizing to save civilization. W. W. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Catton WR Jr (1982) Overshoot: the ecological basis for revolutionary change. The University of Illinois Press, Urbana/Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Chamberlin S (2009) The transition timeline for a local resilient future. Chelsea Green, White River Junction

    Google Scholar 

  • Coates GJ (ed) (1981a) Resettling America: energy, ecology and community. Brick House, Andover

    Google Scholar 

  • Coates GJ (1981b) Future images, present possibilities: revisioning nature, self and society. In: Coates GJ (ed) Resettling America: energy, ecology and community. Brick House, Andover, pp 53–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Coates GJ (1981c) Planning and the paradox of conscious purpose. In: Coates GJ (ed) Resettling America: energy, ecology and community. Brick House, Andover, pp 525–551

    Google Scholar 

  • Coates GJ (1981d) Biotechnology and regional integration. In: Coates GJ (ed) Resettling America: energy, ecology and community. Brick House, Andover, pp 401–414

    Google Scholar 

  • Coates, GJ (2009) The city as garden: a study of the sustainable urban district of Kronsberg (Hannover), Germany, in Documentation Set # 57: Sustainability Issues Shape Planning: Selected from Presentations at the International Making Cities Livable Conferences, IMCL Council, Carmel

    Google Scholar 

  • Condon PM (2010) Seven rules for sustainable communities: design strategies for the post-carbon world. Island Press, Washington/Covelo/London

    Google Scholar 

  • Copur, U (2007) Managing diversity in a sustainable urban setting: Kronsberg, Hannover, Germany. Presented at 45th making cities livable conference, Portland, OR, 10–14 June 2007

    Google Scholar 

  • Da Samraj A (2009) Not-two is peace: the ordinary people’s way of global cooperative order, 3rd edn. The Dawn Horse Press, Middletown

    Google Scholar 

  • Darley J (2004) High noon for natural gas: the new energy crisis. Chelsea Green, White River Junction

    Google Scholar 

  • de la Salle J, Holland M (eds) (2010) Agricultural urbanism: handbook for building sustainable food & agriculture systems in 21st century cities. Green Frigate Books, Winnipeg

    Google Scholar 

  • Deffeyes KS (2001) Hubberts’s Peak: the impending world oil shortage. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond J (2005) Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed. Viking Penguin, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobrowski MN, Walliman I (eds) (2002) On the edge of scarcity: environment, resources, population, sustainability, and conflict. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunham-Jones E, Williamson J (2009) Retrofitting suburbia: urban design solutions for redesigning suburbs. Wiley, Hoboken

    Google Scholar 

  • Eco-Viikki: Aims, Implementation and Results (2005) City of Helsinki Ministry of the Environment

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrlich P, Ehrlich A (1981) Extinction: the causes and consequences of the disappearance of species. Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Farr D (2008) Sustainable urbanism: urban design with nature. Wiley, Hoboken

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman T (2008) Hot, flat and crowded: why we need a green revolution and how it can renew America. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gauzin-Müller D (2002) Sustainable architecture and urbanism: concepts, technologies, examples. Birkhäuser-Publishers for Architecture, Basel

    Google Scholar 

  • Guzowski M (2010) Towards zero energy architecture: new solar design. Laurence King, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton C (2010) Requiem for a species: why we resist the truth about climate change. Earthscan, London/Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen J (2009) Storms of my grandchildren: the truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity. Bloomsbury USA, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hargroves K“C”, Smith MH (eds) (2005) The natural advantage of nations: business opportunities, innovation and governance in the 21st century. Earthscan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawken P, Lovins A, Hunter Lovins L (1999) Natural capitalism: creating the next industrial revolution. Little, Brown & Company, Boston/New York/London

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinberg R (2004) Powerdown: options and actions for a post-carbon world. New Society Press, Gabriola Island

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinberg R (2005) The party’s over: oil, war and the fate of industrial societies. New Society Press, Gabriola Island

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinberg R (2007) Peak everything: waking up to a century of declines. New Society Press, Gabriola Island

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinberg R (2009a) Blackout: coal, climate and the last energy crisis. New Society Press, Gabriola Island

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinberg, R (2009b) Searching for a miracle: “Net Energy” limits and the fate of industrial society. International Forum on Globalization and the Post Carbon Institute (download and hard copy available from www.ifg.org/store.htm)

  • Holmgren D (2002) Permaculture: principles and pathways beyond sustainability. Holmgren Design Services, Victoria

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmgren D (2009) Future scenarios: how communities can adapt to peak oil and climate change. Chelsea Green, White River Junction

    Google Scholar 

  • Homer-Dixon T (2006) The upside of down: catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Homer-Dixon T (2009) Our panarchic future. World Watch, Mar/Apr 2009, 8–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins R (2008–2009) The transition handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience. Chelsea Green, White River Junction

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson H, Svensson K (eds) (2002) Ecovillage living: restoring the earth and her people. Green Books, Totnes

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein N (2007) The shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, LL, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Korten DC (2006) The great turning: from empire to earth community. Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Kunstler JH (2005) The long emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazlo E (2006) The chaos point: the world at the crossroads. Hampton Roads, Charlottesville

    Google Scholar 

  • Leakey RE, Lewin R (1996) The sixth extinction: biodiversity and its survival. Phoenix, a division of Orion Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovelock J (2006) The revenge of Gaia: earth’s climate crisis & the fate of humanity. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonough W, Braungart M (1999) Hannover principles: design for sustainability. William McDonough Architects, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonough W, Braungart M (2002) Cradle to cradle: remaking the way we make things. North Point Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonough W, Braungart M (1998) The next industrial revolution. Atlantic Monthly, 282(4):82–91

    Google Scholar 

  • McKibben B (2010) Earth: making a life on a tough new planet. Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) Our human planet: summary for decision makers. 5 vols. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman P, Beatley T, Boyer H (2009) Resilient cities: responding to peak oil and climate change. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Orr D (2009) Down to the wire: confronting climate collapse. Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Pfeiffer, D (2004) The end of the oil age. Frustrated Artists Productions, Clarkson. www.lulu.com/allendale

  • Ritchie A, Thomas R (eds) (2009) Sustainable urban design: an environmental approach, 2nd edn. Taylor & Francis, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts P (2004) The end of oil: on the edge of a perilous new world. Houghton Mifflin, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruano M (2002) Ecourbanism: sustainable human settlements: 60 case studies. Gili, Barcelona

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumming K (ed) (2004) Hannover Kronsberg handbook. Jütte-Messedruck GmbH, Leipsig

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruppert MC (2009) Confronting collapse: the crisis of energy and money in a post peak oil world. Chelsea Green, White River Junction

    Google Scholar 

  • Schottkowski-Bähre I (ed) (2000) Modell Kronsberg: sustainable building for the future. Jütte Druck, Leipsig

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumacher EF (1973) Small is beautiful: economics as if people mattered. Harper & Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumacher EF (1979) Good work. Harper & Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Tachieva G (2010) Sprawl repair manual. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Tainter JA (2003) The collapse of complex societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (first published 1988)

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson WI (1978) Darkness and scattered light: speculations on the future. Anchor Press/Doubleday & Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Trainer T (1996) Towards a sustainable economy: the need for fundamental change. Jon Carpenter, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Trainer T (2007) Renewable energy cannot sustain a consumer society. Springer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture, College of Architecture Planning and Design, Kansas State University, 211 Seaton Hall, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Gary J. Coates

Authors
  1. Gary J. Coates
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gary J. Coates .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Blauensteinerstr 11, Basel, 4053, Switzerland

    Isidor Wallimann

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Coates, G.J. (2013). Sustainable Urbanism: Creating Resilient Communities in the Age of Peak Oil and Climate Destabilization. In: Wallimann, I. (eds) Environmental Policy is Social Policy – Social Policy is Environmental Policy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6723-6_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation