ABSTRACT
Eco-city refers to 'home city', implying that a whole city can be looked after as wisely as a private house, economically and with cupboards for old pieces of string and empty jamjars. Modernist cities have high inputs and high outputs. Eco-city planners should aim to produce cities with lower inputs of energy and materials, with lower outputs of waste and pollution. Environmentally a sustainable city is one that can keep going because it uses resources economically, avoids waste, recycles if possible. Forestry is the oldest and best example of sustainable planning. Despite the merits of the forester's conception of sustainability, it remains far from perfect. Modern scientific forestry, which originated in nineteenth century Germany, was aimed at producing a sustainable high yield of timber. The chapter explains that if people were making a physical model of a city, the five chief elements such as landform, water, vegetation, transport and buildings are required.
