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.
How to Study Public Life
Methods in Urban Design
Urban Street Design Guide
The Hidden Potential of Sustainable Neighborhoods
Lessons from Low-Carbon Communities
Common Ground on Hostile Turf
Stories from an Environmental Mediator
Measuring Urban Design
Metrics for Livable Places
Designing Suburban Futures
New Models from Build a Better Burb
State of the World 2013
Is Sustainability Still Possible?
The Kingdom of Rarities
An original and important investigation of rarity and its relationship to conservation.
River Notes
A Natural and Human History of the Colorado
Combining science and adventure with glorious imagery, this book follows environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis on a rafting adventure down the Colorado.
Global Farms Race
Land Grabs, Agricultural Investment, and the Scramble for Food Security
The first book to examine the burgeoning trend of buying up huge swaths of farmland abroad in all its complexity, considering the implications for investors, host countries, and the world as a whole.
Tibet Wild
A Naturalist’s Journey on the Roof of the World
Follows Dr. George Schaller’s expeditions to the Tibetan Plateau from 1984 until the present day, including an inside look at Schaller’s current and possibly most ambitious project: the creation of the Pamir International Peace Park at the junction of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and Tajikistan.
Planning as if People Matter
Governing for Social Equity
This book goes beyond theory to give real-world examples of how better planning can level inequities.
Resilience Practice
Building Capacity to Absorb Disturbance and Maintain Function
In this follow-up to Resilience Thinking, Brian Walker and David Salt explore how systems can be managed to promote and sustain resilience.
Stewardship of the Built Environment
Sustainability, Preservation, and Reuse
Stewardship of the Built Environment shows how rehabilitating and reusing existing structures holds untapped potential for achieving sustainable communities.
The Shape of Green
Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design
The Shape of Green argues that beauty is inherent to sustainability, for how things look and feel is as important as how they’re made.
Climate and Conservation
Landscape and Seascape Science, Planning, and Action
Climate and Conservation offers readers tangible, place-based examples of projects designed to protect large landscapes as a means of conserving biodiversity in the face of the looming threat of global climate change.
Green Cities of Europe
Global Lessons on Green Urbanism
With Green Cities of Europe, Beatley offers the North American planning community not only a vision of holistic sustainability, but a clear guide to accomplishing it at home.
Cooler, Smarter
Practical Steps for Low-Carbon Living
This science-based guide shows you the most effective ways to cut your own global warming emissions by twenty percent or more, and explains why your individual contribution is so vital to addressing this global problem.
Vital Signs 2012
The Trends that are Shaping Our Future
From obesity to ecosystem services, from grain production to nuclear power, this book offers the sometimes-shocking facts that need to guide our stewardship of the Earth’s resources.
State of the World 2012
Creating Sustainable Prosperity
An incisive assessment of environmental successes and failures over the past twenty years—and what we should do next.
Environmental Land Use Planning and Management, Second Edition
Creating Sustainable Communities, Watersheds, and Ecosystems
Human Transit
How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich OurCommunities and Our Lives
This book explains the fundamental geometry of transit that shapes successful systems; the process for fitting technology to a particular community; and the local choices that lead to transit-friendly development.
City Rules
How Regulations Affect Urban Form
City Rules offers a challenge to students and professionals in urban planning, design, and policy to change the rules of city-building, using regulations to reinvigorate, rather than stifle, our communities.
The World's Water Volume 7
The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources
Introduction to Restoration Ecology
Success in ecological restoration requires not only technical proficiency but also skill in the social, cultural, and political arenas. Introduction to Restoration Ecology can help students develop the skills they need to succeed in all of these areas and is a much-needed new resource.
The Case for a Carbon Tax
Getting Past Our Hang-Ups to Effective Climate Policy
A clear-eyed, sophisticated analysis of climate-change policy, Hsu weighs the economic, social, administrative, and political merits of a carbon tax to argue it is the most effective policy.
Chasing Molecules
Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry
Chasing Molecules explores the development of green chemistry as an alternative to the dangerous synthetic chemicals found in countless consumer products.
Making Healthy Places
Designing and Building for Health, Well-being, and Sustainability
Making Healthy Places presents a diagnosis of-and offers treatment for-problems related to the built environment.
Intelligent Tinkering
Bridging the Gap between Science and Practice
One approach he advocates is what he calls "intelligent tinkering," where practitioners employ the same kind of careful but informal trial-and-error strategy followed by such groups as indigenous peoples and hobbyist mechanics. Cabin illustrates the power of intelligent tinkering using examples from his own work and other restoration projects.
The gap between science and practice is a widespread problem across all fields of applied science. Intelligent Tinkering offers an insightful look at the underlying causes of the problem, along with invaluable suggestions for addressing it.
Making Nature Whole
A History of Ecological Restoration
Making Nature Whole is a landmark contribution, providing context and history regarding a distinctive form of land management and giving readers a fascinating overview of the development of the field. It is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding where ecological restoration came from or where it might be going.
Wicked Environmental Problems
Managing Uncertainty and Conflict
This new book examines past experience and future directions in the management of so-called "wicked" environmental problems-those characterized by large-scale, long-term policy dilemmas and contentious political stalemates. Most important, the book reviews current thinking on the way forward, focusing on the implementation of "learning networks," in which public managers, technical experts, and public stakeholders collaborate in decision-making processes that are analytic, iterative, and deliberative.
Wicked Environmental Problems offers new approaches for managing environmental conflicts and shows how managers could apply these approaches within common, real-world statutory decision-making frameworks. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with managing environmental problems.