Achieving sustainable energy and resource use is vital if cities are to thrive or even function in the long term. Focusing on cities in the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark, this book examines the mounting pressures for changes in the management style of utility services in Europe, pressures that stem from a wide range of sources such as liberalization and privatization of markets, tighter environmental standards, new economic incentives, competing technologies and changing consumption patterns. The authors show how changes in the management of utility services can contribute to achieving greater sustainability in urban regions. Whilst more efficient technology has a part to play, truly significant improvements in quality of life will be delivered only when the flow of material and energy through cities is focused on the goal of sustainability in each local context.

Foreword * Preface * Part 1: Interpreting Infrastructure - Flow Management in Urban Regions: Introducing a Concept * Urban Environmental Flows: Towards a New Way of Seeing * Part 2: Reconfiguring Networks - Introduction * Battle of the Systems? Changing Styles of Water Recycling in Berlin * Decentralized Technology in Centralized Networks: Interpretive Flexibility of Rainwater Percolation in Copenhagen * Restabilizing a Heterogeneous Network: The Yorkshire Drought 1995-96 * Conclusions * Part 3: Transforming Buildings - Introduction * Contesting Environmental Design: The Hybrid Green Building * The Social Organization of Environmental Design: Residential Buildings in the Berlin Region * Green Buildings in an Infrastructure Perspective * Conclusions: Understanding Green Design * Part 4: Connecting Plans - Introduction * Local Energy Planning and Electricity Networks: Disconnections and Reconnections * Infrastructure and Local Agenda 21: The Municipality of Albertslund in the Copenhagen Region * Competing Notions of Reshaping Flow Management: Local Agenda 21 in Berlin * Conclusions: Planning for Sustainable Urban Flows * Part 5: Re-interpreting Urban Infrastructure - Conclusions: Contesting Networks * Index