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"Stunning satellite images of one hundred cities show our urbanizing planet in a new light to reveal the fragile relationship between humanity and Earth. Seeing cities around the globe in their larger environmental contexts, we begin to understand how the world shapes urban landscapes and how urban landscapes shape the world. Authors Karen Seto and Meredith Reba provide these revealing views to enhance readers' understanding of the shape, growth, and life of urban settlements of all sizes--from the remote town of Namche Bazaar in Nepal to the vast metropolitan prefecture of Tokyo, Japan. Using satellite data, the authors show urban landscapes in new perspectives. The book's beautiful and surprising images pull back the veil on familiar scenes to highlight the growth of cities over time, the symbiosis between urban form and natural landscapes, and the vulnerabilities of cities to the effects of climate change. We see the growth of Las Vegas and Lagos, the importance of rivers to both connecting and dividing cities like Seoul and London, and the vulnerability of Fukushima and San Juan to floods from tsunami or hurricanes. The result is a compelling book that shows cities' relationships with geography, food, and society."--Provided by publisher

Introduction / JoAnn Carmin Dedication -- Urbanization impacts on environmental systems and driver of global environmental change -- Urbanization, economic growth and sustainability / Michail Fragkias -- Urbanization, food consumption and the environment / Shannon Murray, Samara Brock and Karen C. Seto -- Urbanization and agricultural land / Xiangzheng Deng -- Urbanization and land use / Dagmar Haase and Nina Schwarz -- Contemporary urbanization in India / Chandana Mitra, Bhartendu Pandey, Nick B. Allen and Karen C. Seto -- Resource use for the construction and operation of built environments / Burak Güneralp -- Harnessing urban water demand : lessons from North America / Patricia Gober and Ray Quay -- Urbanization, energy use and emissions / Peter J.Marcotullio -- Suburban landscapes and lifestyles, globalization, and exporting the American dream / Robin M. Leichenko and William Solecki -- Urbanization, habitat loss and biodiversity decline : solution pathways to break the cycle / Thomas Elmqvist, Wayne C. Zipperer and Burak Güneralp -- Urban precipitation : a global perspective / Chandana Mitra and J. Marshall Shepherd -- How is urbanization altering local and regional climate? / CSB Grimmond, Helen C Ward, and Simone Kotthaus -- Urban nutrient cycling / Lucy R. Hutyra -- Global environmental change impacts on urban systems and urbanization processes -- Introduction -- A broader framing of ecosystem services in cities : benefits and challenges of built, natural or hybrid system function / Nancy B. Grimm, Elizabeth M. Cook, Rebecca L. Hale and David M. Iwaniec -- Urbanization, vulnerability and risk / Patricia Romero-Lankao and Daniel -- Knatz -- Extreme events and their impacts on urban areas / Andrea Ferraz Young -- Water supply and urban water availability / Stephan Pfister, Stefan Schultze and Stefanie Hellweg -- Urban water quality / Conor Murphy -- Urban greening, human health, and wellbeing / Alexei Trundle and Darryn McEvoy -- Food price volatility and urban food insecurity / Marc J. Cohen and James L. Garrett -- Urbanization and global environmental change : from a gender and equity perspective / Gotelind Alber and Kate Cahoon -- Urban responses to global environmental change -- Environmental justice and transitions to a sustainable urban future / Christopher G. Boone and Sonja Klinsky -- Progress and challenges in urban climate adaptation planning / Linda Shi, Eric Chu and JoAnn Carmin -- Adaptation to climate change in rapidly growing cities / Roberto Sánchez-Rodríguez -- Spatial planning : an integrative approach to climate change response / Shu-Li Huang and Szu-Hua Wang -- Climate change mitigation in high-income cities / Eugene Mohareb, David Bristow and Sybil Derrible -- Climate change mitigation in medium-sized, low-income cities / Shuaib Lwasa -- Urban and peri-urban agriculture : cultivating urban climate resilience / Corrie Griffith, John P. Connors, Camille Nolasco, Bolanle Wahab and Frank Mugagga -- Integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services into urban planning and conservation / Robert McDonald -- The potential of the green economy and urban greening for addressing urban environmental change / David Simon -- Positive externalities in the urban boundary : the case of industrial symbiosis / Marian Chertow, Junming Zhu and Valerie Moye -- Resilient urban infrastructure for adapting to extreme environmental disruptions / Rae Zimmerman -- Soft and hard infrastructure co-production and lock-in : the challenges for a post-carbon city / Stephanie Pincetl -- Urbanization, global change, and sustainability : critical emerging integrative research -- Adaptation, transformation and transition : approaches to the sustainability challenge / Charles L. Redman -- City action for global environmental change : assessment and case study of Durban, South africa / Debra Roberts -- Climate change mitigation in rapidly developing cities / Alexander Aylett, Boyd Dionysius Joeman, Benoit Lefevre, Andrés Luque-Ayala, Atiqur Rahman, Debra Roberts and Sarah Ward -- Conclusion the road ahead for urbanization and sustainability research -- Box 1. What we need from an urban science : not only planning, but also operations / Colin Harrison -- Box 2. Key concepts for an urban science : urban scaling and cities as social reactors / Luis Bettencourt -- Box 3. The future of the science of cities, urbanism, and urbanization : the places left behind / Colin Harrison -- Box 4. Urbanization and environmental change in china : challenges and opportunities / Weiqi Zhou and Zhiyun Ouyang -- Box 5. Satellite-derived data on global urban human settlements / Martino Pesaresi and Thomas Kemper

To understand how the world's ecosystems are changing we need to understand cities, and to create better cities we need to understand the ecosystems they depend on. The failure of most markets, government policies and even urban studies to take these relations into account has put cities, and increasingly the whole world, in a difficult position. Studies like Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services can help us to extricate ourselves, provided we act on the knowledge they provide. Gordon McGranahan International Institute for Environment and Development The challenges of urbanization are profound, but so too are the opportunities. Cities can reconcile human society and biodiversity by creating environments that are ecologically sustainable, economically productive, socially just, politically participatory and culturally vibrant. I commend this study to all who have a stake in creating ecologically sustainable urbanization for the benefit of humanity and the planet. Ban Ki-moon Secretary-General, United Nations

To understand how the world's ecosystems are changing we need to understand cities, and to create better cities we need to understand the ecosystems they depend on. The failure of most markets, government policies and even urban studies to take these relations into account has put cities, and increasingly the whole world, in a difficult position. Studies like Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services can help us to extricate ourselves, provided we act on the knowledge they provide (Gordon McGranahan, International Institute for Environment and Development). The challenges of urbanization are profound, but so too are the opportunities. Cities can reconcile human society and biodiversity by creating environments that are ecologically sustainable, economically productive, socially just, politically participatory and culturally vibrant. I commend this study to all who have a stake in creating ecologically sustainable urbanization for the benefit of humanity and the planet (Ban Ki-moon Secretary-General, United Nations).

The 'Anthropocene' is now being used as a conceptual frame by different communities and in a variety of contexts to understand the evolving human–environment relationship. However, as we argue in this paper, the notion of an Anthropos, or 'humanity', as global, unified 'geological force' threatens to mask the diversity and differences in the actual conditions and impacts of humankind, and does not do justice to the diversity of local and regional contexts. For this reason, we interpret in this article the notion of an Anthropocene in a more context-dependent, localized and social understanding. We do this through illustrating examples from four issue domains, selected for their variation in terms of spatial and temporal scale, systems of governance and functional interdependencies: nitrogen cycle distortion (in particular as it relates to food security); ocean acidification; urbanization; and wildfires. Based on this analysis, we systematically address the consequences of the lens of the Anthropocene for the governance of social-ecological systems, focusing on the multi-level, functional and sectoral organization of governance, and possible redefinitions of governance systems and policy domains. We conclude that the notion of the Anthropocene, once seen in light of social inequalities and regional differences, allows for novel analysis of issue-based problems in the context of a global understanding, in both academic and political terms. This makes it a useful concept to help leverage and (re-)focus our efforts in a more innovative and effective way to transition towards sustainability.