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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 June 2015
Concern about the quality of our environment has been given increasing prominence by public, private and voluntary bodies alike. We are advised through newspapers and the media on such matters as lead in petrol, the waste on non-renewable resources, the greenhouse effect, extinction of wild flora and fauna, the dumping of nuclear waste, which are all threatening the future of our planet. There is a strong emphasis on checking and reversing the deterioration and destruction of may aspects of our world.
The word “environment”, however, has come to mean to many the natural or rural, not the human or urban. Little attention is paid to the urban environment, yet in Britain most people live in towns or cities where vast changes are taking place with dramatic effect on those who live there. We are faced with poverty, unemployment and disadvantage, as well as derelict, degraded and inhuman environments. The scale of change and complexity of issues in the urban environment demands a deeper understanding and more positive action. (Kean, 1991)