Abstract

In this Little Book we suggest that rethinking urban sustainability needs to be done by taking a systems approach. We illustrate how human beings and cities are integrated, complex living systems and that the health and wellbeing of people is compromised by degrading their functioning through various forms of pollution. We need to promote and protect health, both for the people who live in the urban environment and of the urban environ- ment itself. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 1998) “A healthy city is one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and developing to their maximum potential”. Costanza and Mageau (1999:105) have proposed that “a healthy ecosystem is one that is sustain able – that is, it has the ability to maintain its structure (organization) and function (vigor) over time in the face of external stress (resilience).”