ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines how residents, municipal staff, and local officials in rural or metro-edge areas can begin to imagine better futures for their communities. It addresses the design issues pertaining to retail, service, and industrial uses as well. Communities that have successfully attracted retail trade from tourists and other new customers have done so, in many cases, by taking stock of the appearance of their downtown districts and then taking steps to build support among merchants and landlords to gradually re-create their community's once-distinctive streetscapes. Working with a multidisciplinary team having expertise in soils, hydrology, vegetation, materials, and human health and well-being, the initiative developed criteria for sustainable land practices to foster new landscapes capable of protecting existing ecosystems and regenerating ecological capacity where it has been diminished or lost.
