From the Back Cover
The answers to the questions of why and how people live where they live as well as how they maintain and integrate with one another are fundamental human settlement issues rooted in history and culture. Human settlements are historically linked to resource availability, fortification, and the mythos of civilizations. Cities play a central role in redefining the interface between human beings and nature. They have revolutionized the human experience by taming natural surroundings and building environments that are human-centric--often narrowing human life outside the experience of wilderness or the untamed. This book is divided into three parts, it examines urban development trends, explores perspectives in energy efficiency and agriculture security, and considers policy development and future scenarios in human-nature relations. It is a compendium of multidisciplinary work that challenges the directions of modernity and offers reference to alternatives. Authors come from a diverse background and international context to address common overarching theories facing current geography-specific problems. An interconnected overtone of the book attempts to link accelerated urbanization and settlement location to how societies are maintained and integrated. Human settlements are shaped by human ecology and the relationship between humans and their interaction with their environment. Two sectors central to human survival are specifically explored: energy and agriculture. Cutting-edge, smart development looks at the latest findings that reflect the on-going debate facing these sectors. A human settlement metric is envisioned in terms of the past, present, and future. This book is a unique attempt to combine a rethinking about human settlements for scientists, policy-makers, public officials, and people committed to improving urban life, society-wide. Possible agents to resolving human settlement problems include international cooperation and various mechanisms that interlace the international community. Methodological and applied aspects of sustainable management focus on topics such as adaptive knowledge sharing, renewable energy, climate change, agricultural planning, and policy development. An emphasis on scientific and technological advancement, from a bottom-up mapping of society, elucidates a better understanding of the role of knowledgeable societies in which need is considered alongside how such need can be sustained--advancing towards a more promising future.
Prof. Dr. Giuseppe T. Cirella, Professor of Human Geography, works at the Faculty of Economics, University of Gdansk, Sopot, Poland, where he recently received his equivalency Doctor of Habilitation (Dr. Hab.) in Economics and Finance. He specializes in economic development, environmental social science, and sustainability. His interdisciplinary background also includes socio-political research throughout Eastern Europe, Africa, and China. After completing a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D.) at Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia, within the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Management, developing a sustainability-based index, he founded the Polo Centre of Sustainability in Italy. Notably, he has held professorships and scientific positions at Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia; Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, China; Life University, Sihanoukville, Cambodia; and Free University of Bozen, Bozen, Italy. In his early career, he worked with the Canadian International Development Agency in Indonesia as well as with Radarsat International in Brazil. He is also on the editorial board of a number of internationally-renowned academic peer-reviewed journals.
