The five chapters featured in Urban Design: Tools & Resources for the Planning Practitioner—as well as the titles from which we’ve excerpted them—share the goal of making urban areas functional, attractive, and sustainable. The aim in selecting the chapters included here was to highlight some of the practitioner-oriented titles and illustrate the global scope of the work being done in this field. The chapters in the book are from authors based all over the world, and their approach to their work reflects a truly global outlook.

The focus on practicality in Urban Design makes this book an ideal resource for urban design practitioners, but it should also prove useful to professionals across the Built Environment, including those in architecture, planning, and even urban geographers and policymakers. Although the book has been conceived as a cohesive whole, it is also possible to read individual sections to take advantage of the chapters that have the most relevance to individual practitioners.