Teaching Urban Sustainability: Lessons from the Classroom and Beyond

Dear Colleagues,

Across the globe, the movement of people from rural to urban is occurring at an unprecedented rate. As a result, more than half the world’s population now lives in urbanized areas. In the US and Canada, the number exceeds 80 percent. The growth of new cities (and the expansion of old ones) is often characterized by poor design and a lack of planning. This leads to sprawling development with all its attendant social and environmental ills. The creation of new cities—and the retrofitting of older ones—need not follow this path. Rather than view urbanization as an environmental problem we posit that urbanization—if planned carefully—offers benefits that may prove crucial to long-term sustainability. In our view communicating the principles of urban sustainability to student audiences is critical. In this Special Issue we seek papers that explore the methodologies, rewards, and challenges associated with teaching urban sustainability to university students. We are particularly interested in drawing perspectives from a wide range of disciplines including, but not limited to, ecology, economics, geography, planning, and sociology. While our emphasis is on undergraduate and graduate education, we welcome submissions that offer lessons learned at the primary and secondary levels as well.

Dr. Geoffrey L. Buckley
Dr. Steward T.A. Pickett
Guest Editors

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