Introduction

In the Introduction, the editors, Brown, Melis, and Coulter, set the scene for the book and its origins with the JPI Urban Europe funded CRUNCH project. The global urban population is set to reach 68% by 2050. Cities are increasing their demands on the environment to provide for their growing food, water and energy needs whilst also contributing to environmental problems; in turn, they are suffering from the effects of climate change in the form of heat stress and flooding. Central to this collection are the small changes that can be made to how we source and manage food, water and energy resources that can make cities more resilient to meeting the challenges of the future. The CRUNCH project, comprising a transdisciplinary research team working across six diverse cities (Gdańsk, Eindhoven, Miami, Southend-on-Sea, Taipei, and Uppsala), developed urban living laboratories (ULLs) in order to test small and tangible ways for cities to become more resilient by focusing on the interdependencies between food, water and energy. The first part of the collection explores the ULLs before moving on to discuss the outcomes of the ULLs and the development of an Integrated Development Support system, developed to aid planners make decisions.