Urban Galapagos

This book addresses the future of urbanisation on the Galapagos Islands from a systems, governance and design perspective with the competing parameters of liveability, economic and ecological, using the Galapagos as a laboratory for the theoretical and postulative understanding of evolving settlement and habitation.The Galapagos islands are one of the world’s most examined and reported examples of a series of naturally evolving ecosystems. The biodiversity of these island ecosystems are the focus of tourism and the image across the world yet human settlement are part of the local ecology. While human intervention is limited, the islands are a distinctive context in which to consider the impact of human habitation as a part of our ecosystems.In this book, authors take the framework of complex adaptive systems (CAS) in which to model systems that grow and evolve, the relations between these various sectors change; systems that get more complex as they evolve. Tested and applied discretely in the two realms of natural and urban, for the first time this text will bring the two together in understanding options for the future of urban settlements on the Galapagos Islands and, by extension, consider how the approach can be used globally in other contexts.

Professor Tom Kvan is Pro Vice Chancellor (Campus and Global Developments) in which role he provides leadership in the alignment of academic and research strategies with opportunities for campus developments and has particular responsibilities for partnerships in the Middle East and Africa. Tom has many years in senior leadership roles in three universities, most recently serving from 2007 – 2015 as Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning in Melbourne during which time he led the establishment of the Melbourne School of Design and delivered an award winning building to host the graduate school. He was Professor and Dean at the University from Hong Kong, being a member of HKU from 1993-2005.