Earth Science in the City A Reader

About this book

Today nearly half of the Earth's peoples live in cities, and projected trends indicate a rise to five billion city dwellers by the year 2025. All cities become increasingly coupled with and vulnerable to their environment as they grow. For cities to be safe and sustainable we must be ever aware of the inter-relationships between natural processes and the urban environment, effects on the population, and – in turn – the effects of population on the environment. Many of these relationships, which become issues or problems of public note usually when we are faced with immediate conditions of risk – including water use sustainability or hazard mitigation from natural disasters – must be addressed via the geosciences. And geoscience researchers should be aware that the results of their work are vital to solving urban problems both in the practical and theoretical domains, and for immediate and future needs. The present book speaks to such concerns. We hope it also serves to stimulate discussion of, and research on, urban geoscience for professionals in the field or associated with it, and for students entering the field.

Contents

Preface
      Grant Heiken, Robert Fakundiny, and John Sutter  v
Introduction
      Grant Heiken  1

Section I. Background--Earth Science in the Cities
Chapter 1. Large Urban ConcentrationsA: New Phenomenon
      George Bugliarello  7
Chapter 2. Geoantiquitiesin the Urban Landscape; Earth History Records in the Cities
      Marjorie A. Chan, Donald R. Currey, Andrea N. Dion, and Holly S. Godsey  21
Chapter 3. Engineering Geology of New York City: Continuing Value of Geologic Data
      Charles A. Baskerville and Robert H. Fakundiny 43

Section II. Natural Hazards and the City
Chapter 4. Towards Integrated Natural Hazard Reduction in Urban Areas
      Greg A. Valentine 63
Chapter 5. Seismic-Risk Evaluation in Cities of New York and Surrounding Regions: Issues Related to all Intraplate Cities
      Robert H. Fakundiny 75
Chapter 6. Facing Volcanic and Related Hazards in the Neapolitan Area
      Giovanni Orsi, Sandro de Vita, Mauro A. Di Vito, Roberto Isaia, Rosella Nave, and Grant Heiken 121
Chapter 7. Tsunami Impact and Mitigation in Inhabited Areas
      G. T. Hebenstreit, E I. Gonzdlez, and J. Preuss 171
Chapter 8. Landslides and Cities: An Unwanted Partnership
      Richard J. Pike, David G. Howell  187

Section III. Urban Hydrology
Chapter 9. Effects of Urbanization on Groundwater Systems
      J. M. Sharp, Jr., J. N. Krothe, J. D. Mather, B. Garcia-Fresca, and C. A. Stewart 257
Chapter 10. Integrated Environmental Modeling of the Urban Ecosystem
      Timothy N. McPherson, Steven J. Burian, Michael J. Brown, Gerald E. Streit, and H. J. Turin 279
Chapter 11. Urban Environmental Modeling and Assessment Using Detailed Urban Databases
      Steven J. Burian, Timothy N. McPherson, Michael J. Brown, Gerald E. Streit, and H. J. Turin 303

Section IV. The Remotely Sensed City
Chapter 12. Mapping the City Landscape From Space: The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflectance Radiometer (ASTER) Urban Environmental Monitoring Program
      Michael S. Ramsey 337
Chapter 13. Airborne Laser Topographic Mapping: Applications to Hurricane Storm Surge Hazards
      Dean Whitman, Keqi Zhang, Stephen P Leatherman, and William Robertson  363

Section V. Integrated Earth Sciences and Urban Development and Sustainability
Chapter 14. Integrating Geological Informationin to Urban Planning and Management: Approaches for the 21 st Century
      B. R. Marker, J. J. Pereira, and E. E J. de Mulder 379
Chapter 15. Greater Phoenix 2100: Building a National Urban Environmental Research Agenda
      Jonathan Fink, Frederick Steiner, Nancy B. Grimm, and Charles L. Redman 413
Chapter 16. Modeling Cities--The Los Alamos Urban Security Initiative
      Grant Heiken, Greg A . Valentine, Michael Brown, Steen Rasmussen, Jonathan Dowell, Sudha Maheshwari, and Denise C. George 427

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Biography

Grant Heiken is an expert in volcanology and interdisciplinary urban studies, having investigated volcanic regions on four continents and the Moon and co-written or edited 10 books, including Volcanoes: Crucibles of Change (1997). He holds a PhD in geology and has worked for NASA during the Apollo program as a researcher and a geology instructor for astronauts. For many years he worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory on geothermal development, many aspects of volcanology from hazard analysis to scientific drilling, and integrated urban science. He was President of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior from 1995 to 1999, and now works as a freelance writer.