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Pathways to Urban Sustainability Research and Development on Urban Systems: Summary of a Workshop (2010) / Chapter Skim
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5 Moving R&D into Practice
Pages 25-30

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
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From page 25...
... For example, it has built a wastewater treatment plant that relies on membrane bioreactor technology to improve water quality in a more ecologically sound way; it has turned to ocean thermal conversion techniques to generate irrigated water through condensates; and it has designed a series of bus rapid transit routes, modeled after the successful program begun in Curitiba, Brazil, to promote public transportation. To reduce development-related environmental impacts, Honolulu has also begun microtunneling when laying sewer lines and has mounted photovoltaic cells on its street posts to power the city's lights.
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From page 26...
... Most urban officials operate in a chronic state of "crisis management," he proclaimed, and you cannot expect them to take a long-term approach to urgent matters. Not surprisingly, then, urban officials often turn to the research community to help shed light on consequential matters that are continually unfolding over long periods.
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From page 27...
... Connecting with Political Will Between 1950 and 1973, Dana Williams, the Mayor of Park City, Utah, recalled, "his town was listed on the national registry of ghost towns." Park City, in short, once a thriving silver mining town, had gone bust. Then, in the 1960s, "the city received a federal grant to build ski runs" as a way of giving renewed life to its moribund economy.
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From page 28...
... , but the capitol city of neighborhoods – low- and moderate-income residential areas, industrial zones that await redevelopment, transportation corridors that enable residents to get toand-from work, and commercial districts where people shop, go to restaurants and see movies. For Tregoning, neighborhood improvement initiatives, however halting and fragile, give hope of a better future and serve as examples of how we might be able to chart our way out of the endless swathes of urban decay and suburban sprawl that have been the twin hallmarks of the United States' unsustainable growth patterns for the past half century.
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From page 29...
... She also mentioned Washington, D.C.'s recent transportation survey, which was designed to determine people's transportation preferences. She pointed out that the findings of the survey confirmed the prevailing notion that little things can mean a lot.
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Key Terms

  • park city
  • capitol city
  • urban future
  • sustainable urban
  • urban officials

  • shed light
  • extension service
  • public transportation
  • economic behavior
  • household transportation

  • williams noted
  • sustainable future
  • unsustainable growth
  • legacy costs
  • harris added

  • tregoning readily
  • neighborhood improvement
  • waste management
  • water quality
  • employment center

  • captivating winter
  • devise strategies
  • transportation corridors
  • bus rapid
  • bus stop

  • energy independence
  • suburban sprawl
  • build ski
  • indispensable ingredients
  • transit routes


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