Reports, Books, Articles & Organizations

Highlights:
Reconstructed Trends National Synthesis Study
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program releases study that evalutes trends in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a group of suspected carcinogens with multiple urban sources, in sediment cores from 10 reservoirs and lakes in six U.S. metropolitan areas. A recent article Urban Sprawl Leaves Its PAH Signature sums up the findings. 

Government Releases National Resources Inventory 
The National Resources Inventory (NRI) is a statistically based sample of land use and natural resource conditions and trends on U.S. nonfederal lands.  This site contains results from the 1997 National Resources Inventory (revised December 2000). The NRI has been reissued because in March 2000 an error was discovered in the results originally issued in December 1999. http://www.nhq.nrcs.usda.gov/NRI/ 

Reports:
James R. Marshall. Building Green Infrastructure: Land Conservation as a Watershed Protection Strategy. San Francisco, CA: The Trust for Public Land, 1999.

Brabec, Elizabeth and Kevin Kirby. The Value of Nature and Scenery. Washington, DC: Scenic America Technical Information Series, vol. 1, no. 3, 1992.

Brenneman, Russell L. and Sarah M. Bates, eds. Land-Saving Action. (Covello, CA: Island Press, 1984).

California Air Resources Board. The Land Use-Air Quality Linkage, Sacramento, CA: California Air Resources Board, 1994.

Conservation Law Foundation. The Smart Growth-Climate Change Connection (Conservation Law Foundation, November 2000).

Diamond, Henry L. and Patrick F. Noonan, Land Use in America: The Report of the Sustainable Use of Land Project (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1996). 

Natural Resources Defense Council. Environmental Characteristics of Smart Growth Neighborhoods (New York, NY 2000).

National Wildlife Federation.  Paving Pardise (Washington, DC 2001).

Lawton, J.H. and R.M. Macy. Extinction Rates. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).

International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group. Second Assessment Report, Summary for Policymakers. SPM-10, 1995.

International Panel on Climate Change. Summary for Policymakers of the Contribution of Working Group I to the IPCC Second Assessment Report, 1995.

Lawton, J.H. and R.M. Macy. Extinction Rates. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Lerner, Steve and William Poole. The Economic Benefits of Parks and Open Space: How Land Conservation Helps Communities Grow Smart and Protect the Bottom Line. (The Trust for Public Land, Washington, DC: June 1999).

Montana Land Reliance and Land Trust Exchange. Private Options: Tools and Concepts for Land Conservation. (Covelo, CA: Island press, 1982).

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. New York State Implementation Plan: Inhalable Particulate (PM10). September 1995.

Northest-Midwest Institute. Smart Growth and the Clean Air Act. (Washington, DC. January 2001)

Northest-Midwest Institute. Smart Growth and the Clean Water Act. (Washington, DC. January 2001)

Scenic America.  Last Chance Landscapes 2000.  November 2000.

Scenic America. Taming Wireless Telecommunications Towers.  February 2001.
 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Our Built and Natural Environments. (December 2000).  www.smartgrowth.org

Books:

Benfield, Kaid, Raimi, Matthew and Chen, Donald, Once There Were Greenfields; How Urban Sprawl Is Undermining America's Environment, Economy, and Social Fabric(Natural Resources Defense Council, 1999). 

A joint project of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Surface Transportation Policy Project teh book documents the consequences of sprawling growth patterns and proposes guiding principles for a new kind of "smart" growth.

Calthrope, Peter The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community and the American Dream (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993)

This ambitious, compelling book straddles the theoretical world of academics with the gritty realities of activists. Calthrope, a San Francisco architect/designer proposes guidelines for building more sociable, environmentally benign cities, and then illustrates the principles through actual region plans for metro areas, transit-oriented urban developments, new neighborhood models, and new towns.

Diamond, Henry L. and Patrick F. Noonan, Land Use in America: The Report of the Sustainable Use of Land Project (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1996).

One of the best, most recent overviews of land use issues. Features an analysis of key problems in the first section, followed by an anthology of essays and specific action recommendations. Includes many case studies of growth management strategies of states and localities.

Duerkson, Christopher, Tree Conservation Ordinances (American Planners Association Planners Press).

From California to Florida, communities are turning to tree conservation ordinances to save their trees from the destruction that often comes with land development. This extensively illustrated report shows how to establish the value of trees - and how to craft an ordinance to protect them.

Greenbelt Alliance, Bound for Success: A Citizen's Guide to Urban Growth Boundaries for More Livable Communities and Open Space Protection in California (San Francisco: Greenbelt Alliance, 1997).

A clear, detailed how-to manual for citizens seeking to establish urban growth boundaries for their own towns or cities. The definitive activist resource for UGBs.

Howe, Jim; McMcMahon & Propst, Luther, Balancing Nature and Commerce in Gateway Communities (Washington, DC:  Island Press, 1998). 

As more and more people flock to America's gateway communities,

towns bordered by public lands, for the beauty and presumably high

quality of life, that same quality of life has taken beating from

sprawl--ironically the reason many emigrated in the first place. 

Balancing Nature provides examples of these communities valuing their natural and historical beauty as their greatest economic asset. 

McHarg, Ian L., Design With Nature (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Natural History press, 1969).

Considered the father of ecological planning, McHarg is one of the most influential landscape architects of this century. This book, as seminal an influence in environmental circles as Silent Spring, virtually invented the field of environmental design by giving it a deep philosophical and empirical grounding. Interested readers may wish to read McHarg's 1996 autobiography, A Quest for Life.

Porter, Douglas R., Managing Growth in America's Communities (Washington, D.C.:Island Press, 1997). 

An excellent review of growth management approaches and techniques by one of the leading experts in the field. Topics include zoning innovations; multimodal transportation; open spaces; transferable development rights; developer impact fees; state leadership for growth management; and organizing citizen support. 

Roodman, David Malin, Paying the Piper: Subsidies, Politics and the Environment (Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Paper 133, December 1996).

This 80-page monograph is a rigorously researched review of the subsidies for sprawl, the environmental consequences, and the political obstacles to achieving sustainable development. The Worldwatch Institute is a respected Washington environmental research organization with an interdisciplinary focus.

Rutherford, H. Platt, et al., editor, The Ecological City: Preserving and Restoring Urban Biodiversity (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994).

An excellent series of essays on how urban development affects ecosystems, and the steps that can mitigate the harm of development. Chapters focus on such diverse issues as urban parks, federal flood control policies, urban landscapes to cool down "urban heat islands," wetlands in the urban landscape, and the deep significance of urban trees and forests.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Articles:
"CELL PHONE SPRAWL LOOMS; TOWERS PROLIFERATE IN SANTA CLARITA VALLEY". The Daily News of Los Angeles. December 11, 2000

California Center for Land Recycling
George Brewster, Exec. Director 
455 Market St., Suite 1100
San Francisco, CA 94105 
415.820.2080

Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Lee Epstein 
162 Prince George Street 
Annapolis, MD 21401 
410-268-8816 

Endangered Habitats League
Dan Silver, Director 
842A Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 592 
Los Angeles, CA 90064-4210 
213-654-1456 

Environmental Defense Fund
257 Park Avenue South 
New York, NY 10010 

Environmental Working Group
Ken Cook, President 
1718 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Suite 600 
Washington, DC 20009 

Greenbelt Alliance
116 New Montgomery, Suite 640 
San Francisco, CA 94105 
415-398-3730 

National Wildlife Federation
The National Wildlife Federation's Smart Growth and Wildlife campaign is working across the US to protect and  restore species and habitats threatened by sprawl, by promoting "smart growth" alternatives.

Natural Resources Defense Council
Kaid Benfield 
1350 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 300 
Washington, DC 20005 
202-783-7800 

Rocky Mountain Institute
Hunter and Amory Lovins 
1739 Snowmass Creek Road 
Snowmass, CO 81654-9199 
970-927-3851 

Sierra Club
Larry Bohlen 
408 C Street, NE 
Washington, DC 20002 
202-833-2300 

The Sonoran Institute
Luther Propst, Executive Director 
7290 East Broadway Blvd., Suite M 
Tucson, AZ 85710 
520-290-0828 
sonoran@igc.apc.org

The Wildlands Project
Steve Gatewood 
1955 West Grant Road, Suite 148 
Tucson, AZ 85745 
520-290-0828 

Ducks Unlimited, Inc.
Gene Henry, President 
One Waterfowl Way 
Memphis, TN 38120-2351 

American Wetlands Trust
James Kennedy, President 
One Waterfowl Way 
Memphis, TN 38120-2351 
901-758-3825 

The Center for Watershed Protection
8391 Main Street 
Ellicott City, MD 21043 
(410) 461-8323 / FAX (410)461-8324 
E-mail: mrrunoff@pipline.com