Sustainable cities : local solutions in the Global South / edited by Mélanie Robertson.

"This book presents a selection of papers on research projects carried out by recipients of the ECOPOLIS Graduate Research and Design Awards, an initiative of the International Development Research Centre's (IDRC) Urban Poverty and Environment (UPE) programme ... The research papers featured in this book were among those presented at the workshop Envisioning ECOPOLIS: Innovations in Solving Urban Environmental Problems, held at the 2010 Congress of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada."--Page [x].

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : the challenge of urban sustainability / Mélanie Robertson -- Food-producing trees in urban public spaces : an innovative strategy to fight poverty in Villa El Salvador, Peru / Mariève Lafontaine-Messier -- Urban agriculture in Dakar, Senegal : health aspects related to polluted irrigation water / Mamadou Lamine Ndiaye -- Participatory transformation of the Women's Centre of Malika, Senegal : strategies for the development of a productive ecosystem in the peri-urban context / Émilie Pinard -- Healthy, sustainable, and culturally appropriate living and working environments : domestic pig production in Malika, Senegal / Jessica Gagnon -- Housing for the urban poor through informal providers, Dhaka, Bangladesh / Mohamed Kamruzzaman -- Socio-spatial tensions and interactions : an ethnography of the condominium housing of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia / Alazar G. Ejigu -- Partnership modalities for the management of drinking water in poor urban neighborhoods : the example of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo / Kamathe Katsongo -- Rethink, reuse : improving collective action capacity regarding solid waste management and income generation in Koh Kred, Thailand / Diana Guerra -- Using participatory urban design to integrate organic solid waste management into urban agriculture : a case study from Cayagan de Oro City in the Philippines / Jeannette M.E. Tramhel -- Conclusion : the challenges of sustainable cities for research and practice / Mélanie Robertson.

"As urbanization, environmental degradation, and poverty become increasingly urgent problems, understanding the links between sustainability and poverty reduction is imperative. A sustainable urban future for all requires raising the quality of life of the most vulnerable. Existing at the margins of urban life, low-income residents of cities in the Global South are subject to numerous environmental burdens and are too often excluded from mainstream development and planning. In the face of these challenges, communities have proven to be remarkably resilient and innovative, with tremendous potentential both to improve the quality of their own habitat and to contribute to the development of healthy and productive cities. The research presented in this book attempts to show how this potential can be harnessed, by showcasing sustainable solutions developed by the urban poor themselves"--Page 4 of cover.