Island Press began with a simple idea: knowledge is power—the power to imagine a better future and find ways for getting us there. Founded in 1984, Island Press’ mission is to provide the best ideas and information to those seeking to understand and protect the environment and create solutions to its complex problems.
Floodplain Management
A New Approach for a New Era
Floodplain Management outlines a new paradigm for flood management, one that emphasizes cost-effective, long-term success by integrating physical, chemical, and biological systems with societal capabilities.
Building an Emerald City
A Guide to Creating Green Building Policies and Programs
Modeling the Environment, Second Edition
Where the Dragon Meets the Angry River
Nature and Power in the People’s Republic of China
This book brings big geopolitical issues to life through the narrative of a particular region and its people.
Life in a Bottle
The Reality Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water
Authored by one of the world's foremost experts on water, this lively critique exposes the corporate misdeeds in the bottled water industry within the context of growing water shortages, and possible crisis.
Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities
Design Strategies for the Post Carbon World
If widely used, these rules would lead to a much more livable world for future generations – a world that is not unlike the better parts of our own.
5 Easy Pieces
The Impact of Fisheries on Marine Ecosystems
5 Easy Pieces features five contributions demonstrating the massive impacts of modern industrial fisheries on marine ecosystems.
Design with Microclimate
The Secret to Comfortable Outdoor Space
Arguing that a comfortable microclimate is the foundation of well-used outdoor places, Robert Brown provides useful guidelines for dealing with climate data, site assessment, microclimate modification, communication, design, and evaluation.
Principles of Brownfield Regeneration
Cleanup, Design, and Reuse of Derelict Land
The first book to provide an accessible introduction to the design, policy, and technical issues related to redevelopment of "brownfields" – idle property whose development or improvement is impaired by contamination.
Cities for People
Renowned architect and urban planner Jan Gehl explains the methods and tools he has used to reconfigure unworkable cityscapes into safe and sustainable cities for people – something he has helped do in Copenhagen, Melbourne, and New York City.
The Sprawl Repair Manual
The Sprawl Repair Manual demonstrates a step-by-step design process for the re-balancing and re-urbanization of suburbia into more sustainable, economical, energy- and resource-efficient patterns, from the region and the community to the block and the individual building.
Ecological Economics, Second Edition
Principles and Applications
Biophilic Cities
Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning
A biophilic city, says Beatley, is a place that learns from nature and incorporates natural forms and images into its buildings and cityscapes. Biophilic Cities outlines the essential elements of a biophilic city, and provides examples and stories about cities that have successfully integrated biophilic elements – from the building to the regional level – around the world.
Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change
This provocative and engaging work emerges from Calthorpe’s belief that, just as the last fifty years produced massive changes in our culture, economy and environment, the next fifty will generate changes of an even more profound nature.
The Rising Sea
The authoritative book on sea level rise and its coastal consequences.
Architecture of Community
A seminal work by a renowned architect and planner that provides a contemporary roadmap for designing or completing today's fragmented communities.
Sustainability in America's Cities
Creating the Green Metropolis
This book highlights how America's largest cities are acting to develop sustainable solutions to conflicts between development and environment.