This book examines the sustainability of cities and regions and concludes that currently sustainability is not achievable. By identifying how cities and regions in the past have maintained or lost sustainability and how cities and regions of today might achieve sustainability in the future, it

• gives a clear definition, and an understanding of the true meaning, of sustainability

• provides a new conceptual framework for the assessment of the sustainability of cities and regions

• reveals what options are available for humankind to achieve or loose sustainability

• identifies research that will allow the systematic establishment of the appropriate indicators for sustainable development in cities and regions.

Presenting a framework to guide and direct research in the measures needed to achieve and maintain sustainability, the book will be of considerable help to local authorities and political and government bodies responsible for establishing guidelines for the planning and monitoring of sustainable urban development. It will be of fundamental interest to ecologists, environmentalists, geographers, regional planners and urban designers, both in private practice and academia.