Committee on Disaster Research in the Social Sciences: Future Challenges and Opportunities. Facing Hazards and Disasters: Understanding Human Dimensions. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2006.

An assessment of social science research on community and individual responses to disaster — whether natural or man-made. Areas of focus include community resiliency and responses to terrorism. Report includes more than 30 recommendations for researchers and practitioners in the hazards and disaster fields.

Low, Nicholas, et al. The Green City: Sustainable Homes, Sustainable Suburbs. New York City: Routledge, 2005.

The book's essential message is that the sustainable city can be built by a thousand well-directed small changes. It draws on practical case material from around the world and weaves together four critical aspects of urban life: housing, open space, workplaces and transport. A "photographic essay" of 32 color plates illustrates the ideas discussed.

Oates, Wallace E., Ed. The RFF Reader in Environmental and Resource Policy. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 2006.

The Reader is an accessible introduction to key issues in environmental and natural resources policy. It is especially effective in demonstrating the contribution that economics and other social science research can make toward improving public debate and decision making. New to the second edition are an expanded set of readings on global climate change and sustainability, plus cutting-edge policy applications on topics like the environment and public health and the growing problem of antibiotic and pesticide resistance.

Scholz, John T., and Bruce Stiftel, Eds. Adaptive Governance and Water Conflict: New Institutions for Collaborative Planning. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 2005.

"Adaptive Governance and Water Conflict is a carefully conceived and very well organized text that provides important insights into water resource management and governance. ... Its effort to draw on a range of cases and perspectives in a concise and well-edited volume make it a valuable and accessible text for students, practitioners and researchers." — Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. "Planners Library" review in July 2006 Planning magazine.

Waldheim, Charles, Ed. The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

A collection of essays by many of the new field of Landscape Urbanism's top practitioners. The 14 essays are written by leading figures across a range of disciplines and from around the world — including James Corner, Linda Pollak, Alan Berger, Pierre Bélanger, Julia Czerniak, and more — and capture the origins, the contemporary milieu, and the aspirations of this relatively new field.

CPULs: Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes: Designing Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Cities. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2005.

Extends and develops the "compact city" solution. Provides a design proposal for a new kind of sustainable urban landscape: Urban Agriculture. By growing food within an urban rather than exclusively rural environment, urban agriculture would reduce the need for industrialized production, packaging and transportation of foodstuffs to the city dwelling consumers. "Planners Library" review in July 2006 Planning magazine.

Kemp, Roger L., Ed. Cities and Nature: A Handbook for Renewal. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2006.

This work brings together essays from more than 50 experts throughout the U.S., providing a wide-ranging view of the cities-and-nature efforts that exist throughout the country. Creation, protection, preservation and restoration projects are fully covered. Divided into three sections — cities and nature, best practices, and the future — these case studies come from across the nation. Differing geographically, politically, and culturally, these cities offer a variety of ideas and inspirations while sharing a commitment to an urban environment enhanced by natural beauty. Regional and national resource directories are also included.

Levine, Jonathan. Zoned Out: Regulation, Markets, and Choices in Transportation and Metropolitan Land-Use. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 2006.

Zoned Out argues that the debate about transportation and land-use planning in the United States has been distorted by a myth — the myth that urban sprawl is the result of a free market. According to this myth, low-density, auto-dependent development dominates U.S. metropolitan areas because that is what Americans prefer. Jonathan Levine confronts the free market myth by pointing out that land development is already one of the most regulated sectors of the U.S. economy. Noting that local governments use their regulatory powers to lower densities, segregate different types of land uses, and mandate large roadways and parking lots, he argues that the design template for urban sprawl is written into the land-use regulations of thousands of municipalities nationwide. Reviewed in May 2006 Planning magazine.

Talen, Emily. New Urbanism and American Planning: The Conflict of Cultures. New York City: Routledge, 2005.

Presents the history of American planners' quest for good cities and shows how New Urbanism is a culmination of ideas that have been evolving since the 19th century. In her survey of the last 100 or so years of urbanist ideals, the author identifies four approaches to city-making, which she terms "cultures": incrementalism, plan-making, planned communities, and regionalism. She shows how these cultures connect, overlap, and conflict and how most of the ideas about building better settlements are recurrent. Review in April 2006 Planning magazine.

Capelin, Joan. Communication by Design: Marketing Professional Services. Atlanta: Greenway Communications, 2004.

"Public relations consultant Joan Capelin lays out 29 principles for architects, designers, project managers, and related professionals looking for ways to sell themselves. The book, with a foreword by consultant C.E. Vick, Jr., is packed with relevant anecdotes. Capelin's clients are usually in private practice, but many of her maxims apply to anyone who works with other groups on a regular basis, whether they're called "clients" or not." — Harold Henderson in "Planners Library," Planning magazine, July 2005.

Girling, Cynthia, and Ronald Kellett. Skinny Streets and Green Neighborhoods: Design for Environment and Community. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2005.

Can good urban design and sound environmental design coincide at a neighborhood level to create healthy communities? Green neighborhoods offer a mix of housing types in order to serve a broad cross-section of people with a finely-grained variety of land uses and services, all close to home. In ecologically sound communities, the urban landscape is a functioning part of the whole ecosystem. Wooded areas, meandering streams, wetlands, and open spaces are planned and engineered to clean the air and the water. Skinnier streets and practical pathways weave into a functional, economical network to provide a range of equally good transportation choices, from walking to mass transit, that move people efficiently and economically. Drawing from eighteen case studies, these green neighborhoods are the best examples of how the natural environment can play integral roles in neighborhoods. Reviewed in August/September 2006 Planning magazine.

Millard-Ball, Adam, et al. Car-Sharing: Where and How It Succeeds. Washington, D.C.: Transportation Research Board, 2006.

Examines development and implementation of car-sharing services. Issues addressed include the roles of car-sharing in enhancing mobility as part of the transportation system; the characteristics of car-sharing members and neighborhoods where car-sharing has been established; and the environmental, economic, and social impacts of car-sharing. The report also focuses on car-sharing promotional efforts, barriers to car-sharing and ways to mitigate these barriers, and procurement methods and evaluation techniques for achieving car-sharing goals.

Berger, Alan. Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

"If you've ever looked out of an airplane window over the American urban landscape below, chances are you're familiar with the 'drosscape', the sprawling wasteland on a city's periphery that supports the spillage and detritus of industrial life­acres of contaminated land, redundant commercial space, and dumping grounds for infrastructure. Is it possible to reclaim this land profitably, sustainably, and holistically? Berger's 'Drosscape Manifesto' suggests that with some creative thinking, it is. And judging from his aerial photos, it's a task that's long overdue." — Metropolis, August 2006. Reviewed in June 2006 Planning magazine.

Morris, Douglas E. It's a Sprawl World After All. Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, 2005.

The U.S. now has the most rapes, assaults, murders and serial killings per capita, by a wide margin, than any other first-world nation. It's a Sprawl World After All links America's increase in violence and the corresponding breakdown in society with the post WWII development of suburban sprawl. Advocating that urgent attention be paid to managing development by emulating the smart growth examples of European cities, the book's final section offers readers tools to rebuild community in their lives as well as in society at large. It offers practical solutions that can improve everyone's quality of life. Read this with Bowling Alone. Review in May 2006 Planning magazine.

Saunders, William S., Ed. Urban Planning Today. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.

A series of essays pulled from the Harvard Design Magazine. The contributors to Urban Planning Today report on real projects in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York, Omaha, Portland, and Vancouver. They bring varying, and sometimes divergent, perspectives from backgrounds in urban design and development, city and regional planning, criticism, and law to bear on the mixed bag of results observed in these cities. Noting the increasing influence of local nonprofit developers as well as national organizations, the contributors also imagine clear and effective roles for government leaders. This book illustrates that adopting a single model universally will not work and that effective planning must indisputably demonstrate that any public action and private market reaction will be in the local community's interest — physically, functionally, financially, politically, aesthetically, and spiritually.

Committee on Identifying Data Needs for Place-Based Decision Making. Community and Quality of Life: Data Needs for Informed Decision Making. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2002.

"The book comes at an opportune time to affect decision making at many scales; it provides a comprehensive guide to defining livability and outlines the advantages and disadvantages of providing and using federal, state, local, and private data sources. The language is quite accessible, so it is appropriate for policymakers, planners, researchers, and graduate students from varying disciplines. Transportation policy makers and planners should find this book particularly useful, though the book will also be informative for decision makers and researchers interested in clarifying and measuring other facets of growth, community, and environment." — Journal of Regional Science, February 2004

Smith Steven B. The Weather and A Place to Live: Photographs of the Suburban West. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2005.

Since the early 1990s Smith has been making large-format photographs in California, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. He portrays the manmade landscape of the western United States, a vast reality of sprawling suburbs reconfiguring what was once unpopulated territory.