Urban Innovation and Sustainability

Chapter 1. Beyond Scarcity: Reimagining Urban Futures Through Resourceful Innovation.- Part I. Community-led Innovation.- Chapter 2. From Derelict Riverside to Residents’ Commons: Coin Street Community Builders and the Politics of Collective Urban Stewardship.- Chapter 3. Building with Scarcity: Koroipita and the Resourceful Urbanism of the Pacific.- Part II. Adaptive Reuse and Retrofitting.- Chapter 4. From Tracks to Commons: The Goods Line and Adaptive Urbanism in Sydney, Australia.- Chapter 5. From Grain to Gallery: The Zeitz MOCAA and the Cultural Rebirth of Cape Town’s Waterfront.- Part III. Circular Resource Management.- Chapter 6. Loops of Value: The Kalundborg Industrial Symbiosis and the Architecture of Circular Exchange in Denmark.- Chapter 7. Everyday Circularity: Informal Labour and the SWaCH Model in Pune, India.- Part IV. Multifunctional Urban Spaces.- Chapter 8. Landscapes of Multiplicity: Yokohama’s Zoorasia and Forest Park Network.- Chapter 9. Resourceful Social Urbanism: Medellín’s Library Parks as Engines of Collective Transformation.- Chapter 10. From Ingenuity to Transformation: The Future of Resourceful Urbanism.

People-Centered Approach, Urban Innovation, and the SDGs.- Eco-Friendly Farmer Card: Protect Your Environment, Collect Points, and Win Prizes in Antalya, Türkiye.- Bogotá Care Blocks: How a city is Reorganizing itself for Women and Achieving the SDGs in Bogotá, Colombia.- Building Resilient Food Systems in Cape Town, South Africa.- Ancient Engineering of Sustainable Water Management Meets Urban Innovation through Citizens’ Participation in Chalandri, Greece.

Chesh and Chongqing: Sun, Sin, Sanity, and the City that Sings.- Chongqing City Walks and Mapping the City.- Verticality and the Metabolic City: Chongqing’s Adaptive Urbanism in the Heights.- Horizontality Reimagined: Unfolding Spatial Continuities and Urban Expanses in Chongqing.- Streets and Paths in Motion: Unfolding Chongqing’s Layered Journeys.

AI Agency in Climate Emergency is a daring and topical examination of how AI is evolving from a stand-alone solution to a crucial, integrated force in the fight against climate change. In a time of increasing inequality, dwindling forests, failing infrastructure, and rising oceans, it repositions AI as a new type of agent inside ecological, political, and social systems. The book's 20 chapters and six themes cover energy decarbonization, foresight, agriculture, ecological monitoring, green finance, carbon markets, civic involvement, and behavioural change. Its fundamental strength is AI's developing agency, which includes the ability to recognize patterns that are inaccessible to humans, adjust in real time, and close the knowledge-to-action gap.

Yet this is not technological determinism. It is about ethics, imagination, and governance. Justice, transparency, and solidarity—not speed—must guide AI in climate action. The book envisions AI that is inclusive, adaptive, accountable, and context-aware, offering a roadmap for scholars, professionals, and citizens in the urgent systemic shift ahead.

A New Thinking: The Idea of Advanced City Thinking.- The Future of Cities vs. The Future Cities.- Just Because Smart Cities DO NOT Imply Smart People.- Advanced City Thinking (ACT): Development, Determination and Dimensions.

The COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis and Growing Inequalities and Disparities in a not-so-inclusive contemporary society.- 50 Inequalities under 5 Inequality Categories.- Economic Inequality.- Political Inequality.- Gender Inequality.- Inequality of Access.- Inequality of Opportunity.- 50 Disparities under 5 Disparity categories.- Economic Stability.- Physical Environment.- Istitutional Systems.- Food.- Community Safety and Social Context.- Learning from the current inequalities and disparities for future sustainable development pathways: A brief reflection.

Chapter 1. Nature as Design: Recasting the Urban Blueprint.- Part I. Design Methods and Material Practices.- Chapter 2. Nature-Built: Greening Tomorrow’s Subtropical Cities with Native Plants/= Chapter 3. Material Paradox in Nature-Driven Placemaking: Contested Sustainability at Barongan Market, Indonesia.- Chapter 4. Biophilic Urban Streetscapes: GIS-Based Approaches for Nature-Driven Placemaking in Uzbekistan- Part II. Heritage, Identity and Urban Transformation.- Chapter 5. Genova behind the scenes: a didactic approach for including urban nature in placemaking-heritage driven strategies.= Chapter 6. Tracing Nature in an Iranian City: A Socio-Spatial Analysis of Natural Spaces in Shiraz.- Chapter 7. Dialectical Relationship Between Human and Nature: Sustainable Placemaking in Hilly Cities with a Critical Perspective.- Part III. Edge Ecologies: Coasts and Deserts.- Chapter 8. Nurturing Coastal Cities through Blue Carbon: Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilience and Inclusive Development.- Chapter 9. Nature and Climate Resilience: Nature-Based Solutions for Climate-Resilient Coastal Shorelines: Strategic Lessons for Kuakata, Bangladesh.- Chapter 10. Greening a Desert City: A Case Study of Riyadh.- Chapter 11. Reimagining Urban Futures: Lessons for Designing Nature into Cities.

Chapter 1. Cities Can No Longer Outsmart Nature: Designing with Ecological Systems in the Climate Era.- Part I. Water-Sensitive and Community-Scale Nature-Based Urban Systems.- Chapter 2. Designing Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Village Regeneration.- Chapter 3. Inclusive blue-green public open spaces: learning from Tansen, Nepal .- Chapter 4. From Principles to Design: Sustainable Urban Drainage with Decentralized and Nature-Based Solutions in Developing Economies.- Chapter 5. Sustainable Water Management in the Built Environment: Ground Cover Plants as a Solution.- Chapter 6. Urban Water in the Age of Climate Crisis: Potentials of Water Sensitive Urban Design Strategies for Gopalganj City, Bangladesh.- Part II. Ecological Systems, Coastal Resilience, and Inter-Scalar Urban Futures.- Chapter 7. Small Coastal Cities Under Climate Pressure: Nature as Infrastructure and Lessons from Morondava, Avarua, Honiara, and Cairns.- Chapter 8. Interscaler Design for a Rewilded City: A Case Study of the Green Monterrey Metropolis.- Chapter 9. Climate-Responsive Coastal Design: Mangrove-Based Urban Resilience in Port Vila, Vanuatu.- Chapter 10. Cities Must Learn from Nature or Fail with It: From Adaptation to Transformation by Reimagining Urban Systems with Nature.

Chapter 1. Designing for a Planet in Flux: Architecture, Technology, and the Future of Climate-Resilient Cities.- Part I. Design Intelligence for Climate-Resilient Architecture and Urban Form.- Chapter 2. Passive and Nature-Based Design Innovations for Climate Resilient Cities: A Systematic Literature Review.- Chapter 3. The Key to Yazd's Resilience: Badgirs and Qanats, Innovative Secrets for Coping with the Arid Climate.- Chapter 4. Geometry-Led Residential Design for Climate Resilience in Hot Semi-Arid Cities: A Case Study of Lahore.- Chapter 5. Aqua Vascular Tower: A Biomimetic Approach to Climate-Resilient Vertical Architecture in Dense Urban Settings.- Chapter 6. Transforming Industrial Heritage into Climate-Resilient Cultural Spaces: Comparative Insights from Coal Drops Yard (UK) and Argo Factory (Iran).- Chapter 7. Housing Futures: Comparative Strategies for Climate-Resilient Housing in the Global North and South.- Part II. Technological, Infrastructural, and Systemic Pathways to Climate Resilience.- Chapter 8. AI-Enabled Emerging Technologies for High-Performance Building Benchmarking: Balance Energy, Comfort, and Health Resilience.- Chapter 9. Integrating Source-Sink Theory and Road Pavement Solar Collectors for Urban Climate Resilience.- Chapter 10. Potential Strategies for Green Building Technology Adoption: Empirical Insights for Climate-Resilient Urban Development in Construction Sector.- Chapter 11. Furthering a Systemic Approach to Resilience: Planning, Infrastructure, and Applications of Adaptation.- Chapter 12. Designing Resilience in Practice: Lessons, Transitions, and the Future of Climate-Responsive Cities.