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City of Forests, City of Farmsis a history of recent urban forestry and agriculture policy and programs in New York City. Centered on the 2007 initiative PlaNYC, this account tracks the development of policies that increased sustainability efforts in the city and dedicated more than $400 million dollars to trees via the MillionTreesNYC campaign. Lindsay K. Campbell uses PlaNYC to consider how and why nature is constructed in New York City. Campbell regards sustainability planning as a process that unfolds through the strategic interplay of actors, the deployment of different narrative frames, and the mobilizing and manipulation of the physical environment, which affects nonhuman animals and plants as well as the city's residents. Campbell zeroes in on a core omission in PlaNYC's original conception and funding: Despite NYC having a long tradition of community gardening, particularly since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, the plan contained no mention of community gardens or urban farms. Campbell charts the change of course that resulted from burgeoning public interest in urban agriculture and local food systems. She shows how civic groups and elected officials crafted a series of visions and plans for local food systems that informed the 2011 update to PlaNYC.City of Forests, City of Farmsis a valuable tool that allows us to understand and disentangle the political decisions, popular narratives, and physical practices that shape city greening in New York City and elsewhere.

Vacant lots, so often seen as neighborhood blight, have the potential to be a key element of community revitalization.As manufacturing cities reinvent themselves after decades of lost jobs and population, abundant vacant land resources and interest in green infrastructure are expanding opportunities for community and environmental resilience.

This study assesses the impact of proximity to light rail transit stations on residential property values in Buffalo, New York, where light rail has been in service for 20 years, but population is declining and ridership is decreasing. Hedonic models are constructed of assessed value for residential properties within half a mile of 14 light rail stations and independent variables are included that describe property characteristics, neighbourhood characteristics and locational amenities. The model suggests that, for homes located in the study area, every foot closer to a light rail station increases average property values by $2.31 (using geographical straight-line distance) and $0.99 (using network distance). Consequently, a home located within one-quarter of a mile radius of a light rail station can earn a premium of $1300-3000, or 2-5 per cent of the city's median home value. Model results further suggest that three independent variables—the number of bathrooms, size of the parcel and location on the East side or West side of Buffalo—are more influential than rail proximity in predicting property values. Individual regression models for each of the light rail system's 14 stations suggest that effects are not felt evenly throughout the system. Proximity effects are positive in high-income station areas and negative in low-income station areas. An analysis of the actual walking distance to stations (along the street network) versus the perceived proximity to stations (measured by straight-line distance) reveals that the results are statistically more significant in the network distance than the straight-line distance model, but the effects are greater in the straight-line distance model, which suggests that apparent proximity to rail stations is an added locational advantage compared with physical walking distance to the station.

In Africa, the urban population and informal settlements are increasing, resulting in additional public health and environmental risks and challenges related to the need for basic and sustainable infrastructures and services. In Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, at least 80% of the city is composed of informal settlements, and although some areas are regularized and have approved urbanization plans, the municipality has major deficiencies in meeting current demands in terms of basic infrastructures, such as water supply, sewerage, solid wastes, energy, roads, and communications. Most of the peri-urban areas are occupied by small but overcrowded houses, mostly self-built, served by unpaved roads, and with access limitations. The water pipe network is almost non-existent, and the same occurs with stormwater drainage, sanitation, waste collection, and public illumination services. Despite the improvements made in the last few years, some households still do not have safe sanitation, and in some neighborhoods, open defecation still prevails. In this study, the authors try to understand and explore the interdependences among the infrastructures of the different sectors and how they may jointly contribute to adequate services and a better life for the urban poor. And how to identify the combination of infrastructures to be implemented in the short term in the face of limited budgets for investments. For that purpose, a simplified conceptual approach is proposed and applied to an informal neighborhood in Maputo.

Background Hazardous air pollutant exposures are common in urban areas contributing to increased risk of cancer and other adverse health outcomes. While recent analyses indicate that New York City residents experience significantly higher cancer risks attributable to hazardous air pollutant exposures than the United States as a whole, limited data exist to assess intra-urban variability in air toxics exposures. Methods To assess intra-urban spatial variability in exposures to common hazardous air pollutants, street-level air sampling for volatile organic compounds and aldehydes was conducted at 70 sites throughout New York City during the spring of 2011. Land-use regression models were developed using a subset of 59 sites and validated against the remaining 11 sites to describe the relationship between concentrations of benzene, total BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes) and formaldehyde to indicators of local sources, adjusting for temporal variation. Results Total BTEX levels exhibited the most spatial variability, followed by benzene and formaldehyde (coefficient of variation of temporally adjusted measurements of 0.57, 0.35, 0.22, respectively). Total roadway length within 100 m, traffic signal density within 400 m of monitoring sites, and an indicator of temporal variation explained 65% of the total variability in benzene while 70% of the total variability in BTEX was accounted for by traffic signal density within 450 m, density of permitted solvent-use industries within 500 m, and an indicator of temporal variation. Measures of temporal variation, traffic signal density within 400 m, road length within 100 m, and interior building area within 100 m (indicator of heating fuel combustion) predicted 83% of the total variability of formaldehyde. The models built with the modeling subset were found to predict concentrations well, predicting 62% to 68% of monitored values at validation sites. Conclusions Traffic and point source emissions cause substantial variation in street-level exposures to common toxic volatile organic compounds in New York City. Land-use regression models were successfully developed for benzene, formaldehyde, and total BTEX using spatial indicators of on-road vehicle emissions and emissions from stationary sources. These estimates will improve the understanding of health effects of individual pollutants in complex urban pollutant mixtures and inform local air quality improvement efforts that reduce disparities in exposure.

New York City community gardens have been the subject of political contestation over the course of their thirty-year existence. In 1999, 114 gardens were slated for public auction and redevelopment. This article examines the controversy over the garden auction as a politics of scale in which garden advocates successively raised the scope of the controversy beyond the scale of individual gardens, and ultimately beyond that of the city. Analysis of this land-use conflict highlights the significance of politics of scale for grassroots organizations within a market-centric, neoliberal economic framework.

Trends in metals concentrations in sediment cores from 35 reservoirs and lakes in urban and reference settings were analyzed to determine the effects of three decades of legislation, regulation, and changing demographics and industrial practices in the United States on concentrations of metals in the environment. Decreasing trends outnumber increasing trends for all seven metals analyzed (Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Hg, Ni, and Zn). The most consistent trends are for Pb and Cr: For Pb, 83% of the lakes have decreasing trends and 6% have increasing trends; for Cr, 54% of the lakes have decreasing trends and none have increasing trends. Mass accumulation rates of metals in cores, adjusted for background concentrations, decrease from the 1970s to the 1990s, with median changes ranging from −46% (Pb) to −3% (Hg and Zn). The largest decreases are from lakes in dense urban watersheds where the overall metals contamination in recently deposited sediments has decreased to one‐half its 1970s median value. However, anthropogenic mass accumulation rates in dense urban lakes remain elevated over those in lakes in undeveloped watersheds, in some cases by as much as two orders of magnitude (Cr, Cu, and Zn), indicating that urban fluvial source signals can overwhelm those from regional atmospheric sources.

City of Forests, City of Farms is a history of recent urban forestry and agriculture policy and programs in New York City. Centered on the 2007 initiative PlaNYC, this account tracks the development of policies that increased sustainability efforts in the city and dedicated more than $400 million dollars to trees via the MillionTreesNYC campaign. Lindsay K. Campbell uses PlaNYC to consider how and why nature is constructed in New York City. Campbell regards sustainability planning as a process that unfolds through the strategic interplay of actors, the deployment of different narrative frames, and the mobilizing and manipulation of the physical environment, which affects nonhuman animals and plants as well as the city's residents. Campbell zeroes in on a core omission in PlaNYC?s original conception and funding: Despite NYC having a long tradition of community gardening, particularly since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, the plan contained no mention of community gardens or urban farms. Campbell charts the change of course that resulted from burgeoning public interest in urban agriculture and local food systems. She shows how civic groups and elected officials crafted a series of visions and plans for local food systems that informed the 2011 update to PlaNYC. City of Forests, City of Farms is a valuable tool that allows us to understand and disentangle the political decisions, popular narratives, and physical practices that shape city greening in New York City and elsewhere.

In 1997, New York City adopted a mammoth watershed agreement to protect its drinking water and avoid filtration of its large upstate surface water supply. Shortly thereafter, the NRC began an analysis of the agreement's scientific validity.The resulting book finds New York City's watershed agreement to be a good template for proactive watershed management that, if properly implemented, will maintain high water quality. However, it cautions that the agreement is not a guarantee of permanent filtration avoidance because of changing regulations, uncertainties regarding pollution sources, advances in treatment technologies, and natural variations in watershed conditions.The book recommends that New York City place its highest priority on pathogenic microorganisms in the watershed and direct its resources toward improving methods for detecting pathogens, understanding pathogen transport and fate, and demonstrating that best management practices will remove pathogens. Other recommendations, which are broadly applicable to surface water supplies across the country, target buffer zones, stormwater management, water quality monitoring, and effluent trading.

Written by 27 World Bank experts, this book draws on the Bank's unique global capabilities and experience to promote an understanding of key global issues that cannot be solved by any one nation alone in an increasingly interconnected world. It describes the forces that are shaping public and private action to address these issues and highlights the Bank's own work in these areas. Covering four broad themes (global economy, global human development, global environment, and global governance), this comprehensive volume provides an introduction to today's most pressing global issues -- from poverty, conflict, and migration to climate change, international trade, education, health, and corruption. With its straightforward presentation of complex topics, use of real world examples, and suggestions for further reading on-line and in the literature, this unique volume will be an invaluable resource for students in international relations, global business, public policy, international development studies, sociology as well as other interested readers.