“Urban sustainability” refers to efforts to create environmentally viable yet socially equitable cities that
balance human well-being and ecological interests to provide hospitable living conditions for all. Urban
sustainability involves many concepts, including infrastructure reform, sanitation, public transportation,
renewable resources, waste management, social equity, energy consumption, and access to public
services, among others. This challenge tasks you to identify a problem related to urban sustainability in a
specific location (in Wisconsin, in the United States, or internationally), research it, and come up with an
innovative solution to mitigate the problem while still balancing human and environmental interests.

Getting Started

Reference resources provide a starting point for your research projects.

Credo Reference

Credo Reference provides hundreds of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, and more in one place. Below is a sample of keyword searches in Credo Reference related to this topic.

City Planning

Food Security

Renewable Energy

Urbanization and Urbanism

Waste Management

Call Numbers and Subject Headings

You can use the list of call numbers and subject headings below as keyword searches in our catalog and databases, or you can go to these sections of the library to find books on these topics.

City planning—Environmental aspects

Community development, Urban

Sociology, Urban—United States

Urban economics

Urban Sustainability

HE305-311 Urban transportation

HN41-46 Community centers. Social centers

HT101-395 Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology

HT170-178 Urban renewal. Urban redevelopment

Books

Books from Lane Library

All books in this list are located either in the stacks or are e-books.

Beyond the metropolis : urban geography as if small cities mattered | GF125.B49 2007

The death and life of great American cities | NA9108.J3

Downtown America : a history of the place and the people who made it | HT123.I74 2004

Emerald cities : urban sustainability and economic development | e-book

Localist movements in a global economy : sustainability, justice, and urban development in the United States | HC110.E5 H47 2009

Pathways to urban sustainability : challenges and opportunities for the United States | e-book

The sustainability myth : environmental gentrification and the politics of justice | HT241 .C434 2020

Turning up the heat : urban political ecology for a climate emergency | e-book

Urban economics and land use in America : the transformation of cities in the twentieth century | e-book

The very hungry city : urban energy efficiency and the economic fate of cities | Franzen Center south wall & e-book

Books from other libraries

WorldCat: Search for books not available at Lane Library and borrow from other libraries for free through interlibrary loan.

Articles

Databases

The following databases are useful places to search for animal related articles. Contact a librarian if you would like more information on how to search for articles on your specific topic.

Academic Search Complete: Wide range of academic disciplines, including for scholarly and popular journals.
New York Times: Access to news and archival content from NY Times. If you run into a paywall, here is more information on how to sign up.
ProQuest Research Library: Includes both popular and scholarly periodicals covering a variety of subjects, with over 3300 titles available in full text.
ProQuest Social Science Journals: Social science topics.

Get articles from other libraries

If you cannot find a full-text version of the article you need, request it through interlibrary loan. Interlibrary loan is a free service that allows you to borrow books and articles from other libraries. Find answers to frequently asked questions about ILL here.