Urban water systems face multiple challenges related to future uncertainty and pressures to provide more sustainable and resilient modes of service delivery. Transitioning away from fully centralized water systems is seen as a primary solution to addressing these urban challenges and pressures. We first review the literature on advantages, potential risks, and impediments to change associated with decentralized water system. Our review suggests that adopting decentralized solutions may advance conditions of sustainability and resilience in urban water management. We then explore the potential to incorporate decentralized water systems into broader urban land use patterns that include underserved residential neighborhoods, mixed-use developments, and industrial districts.

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This article examines the impact of metropolitan growth patterns on intrametropolitan spatial differentiation and inner-ring suburban decline in the four metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Portland, using longitudinal census data from 1970 to 2000. The findings of this study show that inner-ring suburbs were increasingly vulnerable to socioeconomic decline relative to other metropolitan subareas. In contrast, the outer-ring suburbs continued to thrive, drawing most of the new population and housing development in the context of intrametropolitan spatial differentiation. The downtowns and some parts of the inner city showed a gradual recovery from the pattern of deterioration. By recognizing the interdependence of all the subareas and applying sound, holistic policies, the public policy decision-making entities can ensure the future stability of the inner-ring suburbs as well as all the surrounding areas of a metropolitan region.

Strengthening the effectiveness of metropolitan smart growth policies requires an understanding of the role and conditions of inner ring suburbs. Nevertheless, the issue of the deterioration of the inner ring suburbs has only recently received significant consideration by urban scholars and policy makers. In this article, the authors review the literature on metropolitan formation and the smart growth movement to critically assess how well it characterizes and explains the evolution of inner ring suburbs, as well as to emphasize the role that inner ring suburbs can play in metropolitan smart growth strategies. They next characterize the literature specifically focused on inner ring suburbs in terms of what it has to offer on defining such areas. After identifying the gaps in the literature, the authors offer a methodology for accurately defining inner ring suburbs and conclude with a discussion of policy for effectively addressing the socioeconomic needs of the inner ring suburbs within the context of metropolitan smart growth.Consequences of suburban sprawl have challenged traditional suburban developments in terms of sustainability and quality of life. As an alternative approach, the smart growth movement emphasizes the reuse of existing resources in already urbanized areas in a metropolitan area. Therefore, in addition to central cities, the revitalization of inner ring suburbs should also be a major emphasis of planners and policy makers when considering metropolitan smart growth strategies.Current metropolitan trends of spatial decentralization may serve to increase the economic vulnerability of skipped-over inner ring suburbs since they have neither the centrality and attraction of the central cities nor the attractive residential environments of outer ring suburbs at the metropolitan fringe (Fitzgerald and

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