ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. Section nine of the book examines how sustainability research can help prioritize the interests and needs of regions, taking their local histories and social-ecological context into account. By focuses on China’s rural migration and urban resettlement, explored in detail through a case study in Shanghai, the book explores how the interface between residential experiences and cultural contexts requires adjustment and alignment. It then provides deeper explanation for the privilege that has plagued environmental knowledge systems and planning regimes. The book also explores how locally embedded leaders used their place-based understandings, regional and statewide connections, and shared values to successful ends to gain more practical amenities and neighborhood focus in transit-oriented development projects being implemented in California, United States of America. The global impact of urbanization is nowhere more keenly felt than coastal communities facing flood risk and extreme weather damage from climate change.
