ABSTRACT
Urban environmental problems can be divided into two sets of issues, or two agendas. First, there are the items on the conventional ‘sanitary’ or environmental health agenda (often termed the ‘brown’ agenda), which have long been familiar to urbanists (Bartone et al, 1994; Leitmann 1994). These include unsanitary living conditions, hazardous pollutants in the urban air and waterways, and accumulations of solid waste. Such problems have many immediate environmental health impacts and tend to fall especially heavily on low-income groups (see, for instance, Bradley et al, 1991; McGranahan, 1991; Hardoy et al, 1992). Secondly, there are the items within the more recent ‘green’ agenda promoted by environmentalists (mostly from high-income countries): the contribution of urban-based production, consumption and waste generation to ecosystem disruptions, resource depletion and global climate change. Most such problems have impacts that are more dispersed and delayed, and often threaten long-term ecological sustainability.
