Towards a real-world understanding of less ecologically damaging patterns of urban development

Brief for volume 18 number 2 (October 2006) of the journal 'Environment and Urbanization' entitled 'Ecological Urbanization II'.~Most of the growth in the world\'s population over the next 20 years will be in urban centres in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These urban centres will also house most of the growth in industrial production and much of the growth in greenhouse gas emissions. How this urban growth is planned for, managed and governed has enormous implications for whether developmental goals are met and whether the potentially catastrophic implications of climate change can be avoided. Yet most agencies ignore urban developoment.