Introduction to Sustainable Cities and Communities

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

Lectures with the help of audiovisual media where concepts, principles and theories are presented in detail. Practical examples and real data that meet all the needs of students are presented, with guidelines provided.

Assessment of students involves the undertaking of individual assignments including the production and hand-in of the respective reports, and oral presentation subjected to questions where knowledge transmitted during the course is also evaluated.

Learning Outcomes

- Identify, present and transmit knowledge on the most relevant thematic areas associated with the 5 sub-targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities most identified with the Environment and Development area;

- Harmonize the level of basic knowledge on the main theme of the master's course among students who will potentially come from different scientific areas;  

- Introduce students to the diversity of areas, facilities, equipment and conditions for the development of scientific work in the set of universities that are part of the EC2U project alliance, with particular focus on the subset of those involved in the master's course, in order to better inform its process of selection of the thesis theme by the students;

- Develop students' analysis, synthesis and communication skills.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Environmental impacts in and of cities (air quality, noise, waste,…). Transport systems and mobility. Protection and safeguard of cultural and natural heritage. Natural disasters.  Access to green and public spaces. 

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Research work: 50.0%
Exam: 50.0%

Bibliography

- Van der Heijden, Jeroen: Governance for Urban Sustainability and Resilience - Responding to Climate Change and the Relevance of the Built Environment, 2014, Elgaronline, ISBN 978 1 78254 812 6, 256 pages

- Joss, Simon "Sustainable Cities: Governing for Urban Innovation", 2015,  Pallgrave Macmillan Publishers, ISBN-13 978113700635, 352 pages

- Etingoff, Kimberly "Sustainable Cities - Urban Planning Challenges and Policy, 2017, CRC Press, ISBN 9781315365213,  https://doi.org/10.1201/b19796

- Netzband, Maik, Stefanov, William L., Redman, Charles (Eds.) Applied Remote Sensing for Urban Planning, Governance and Sustainability, 2007, Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-68009-3