This handbook provides you with an executive summary of the eCompendium, offering guidance on how to understand large urban distressed areas (LUDAs) and how best to approach the challenges they pose.

Handbook 1 addresses the following frequently asked questions:

• What are LUDAs?
• How can we identify the range and extent of the problems they pose?
• What actions can be taken to tackle the LUDA problem?
• How can community-based approaches for the sustainable regeneration of LUDAs be developed?
• How can the potential that participation and futures workshops offer, to make the regeneration of LUDAs sustainable, be unlocked?
• How can assessment be integrated into the sustainable regeneration of LUDAs?
• How can the LUDA Assessment Decision Support System help sustain the regeneration of LUDAs?
• What can we learn from the practical experiences of community-based approaches to the sustainable regeneration of LUDAs?
• How can we monitor the actions taken by cities to make the regeneration of LUDAs sustainable?
• What contribution does the Compendium make to our understanding of LUDAs and how can this be used as a means of sustaining their regeneration?

The material is aimed at politicians, citizens and professional experts or NGOs who want to develop their understanding of LUDAs and learn about the community-based approaches cities have developed to sustain their regeneration.