Net-Positive Design and Sustainable Urban Development

Dr. Janis Birkeland is Honorary Professorial Fellow, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. She was Professor of Sustainable Design at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and Professor of Architecture at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Before that, she was a lawyer, architect and planner in San Francisco. She originated the theory of net-positive design, design for eco-services and other increasingly popular concepts, and taught and published various aspects of sustainable development for over two decades. Her PhD was Planning for Sustainability (1993) and her books include Positive Development, Mapping Regional Metabolism and Design for Sustainability.

Net-Positive Design and Sustainable Urban Development is aimed at students, academics, professionals and sustainability advocates who wonder why existing approaches have been ineffective. It explains how to reform the anti-ecological biases in our current frameworks of environmental governance, planning, decision making and design

PART I: DESIGN AND ANALYSIS Section A. Introduction to Positive Development Chapter 1. Overview of Net-positive Development Chapter 2. Centrality of the Built Environment in Sustainability Section B. Sustainability Revisited Chapter 3. Sustainability Paradigms in Historical Context Chapter 4. Sustainability and Positive Development Theory Section C. Built Environment Solutions Chapter 5. Eco-positive Retrofitting Chapter 6. Design for Nature Exemplified Section D. Systems Mapping Themes (SMT) Analyses Chapter 7. SMT Analyses for Physical Design Chapter 8. SMT Analyses for Institutional Designs PART II: DECISION MAKING AND ASSESSMENT Section E. Development Governance Chapter 9. Governance and Futures Planning Chapter 10. Development Control and Assessment Section F. Rating Tools Critiqued Chapter 11. Rating Tools and Procedures Chapter 12. Rating Tools and Substance Section G. Eco-positive Design Review (a qualitative tool) Chapter 13. The Eco-positive Design Review (social issues) Chapter 14. The Eco-positive Design Review (ecological issues) Section H. STARfish (a quantitative tool) Chapter 15. The STARfish Tool Described Chapter 16. The STARfish Tool Benchmarks