Inhabitants of Phoenix tend to think small but live big. They feel connected to individual neighborhoods and communities but drive farther to get to work, feel the effects of the regional heat island, and depend in part for their water on snow packs in Wyoming. In "Metropolitan Phoenix," Patricia Gober explores the efforts to build a sustainable desert city in the face of environmental uncertainty, rapid growth, and increasing social diversity.

"Metropolitan Phoenix" chronicles the burgeoning of this desert community, including the audacious decisions that created a metropolis of 3.6...