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Of all sustainable city concepts, eco-cities and low-carbon cities have received a national endorsement in China, with such pilot towns under construction nationwide. However, the performance of eco and low-carbon cities in China has long been heatedly debated, with many negative arguments delineating them as profit-seeking and image-building projects simply capped with impressive names. In reality, while some projects have not fulfilled expectations, most are still at the first stage of construction, so it is too early to regard eco and low-carbon cities as a failure. In this paper, the question of how eco and low-carbon new towns differ from conventional ones in their social, environmental and economic characteristics is posed. Compared to conventional new town plans, the eco and low-carbon city plans incorporate more of a focus on sustainability principles. We examine such perceptions by comparing the master plans of eco, low-carbon and conventional new towns in various aspects ranging from general principles to specific design. The analysis indicates the master plans of the three groups of new towns vary in different ways. The eco-cities and low-carbon cities reflect two trends to promote urban sustainability. The eco new towns are more concerned with the promotion of a sustainable way of life, with its planning focus evenly distributed among all aspects. They particularly stress the creation of an aesthetically pleasing livable environment. In contrast, low-carbon new towns are concerned with the promotion of a sustainable way of production, with an uneven emphasis on the economic sectors such as industrial integration and transformation. However, the master plans only reveal how eco/low-carbon cities are originally intended to differ from non-eco/low-carbon-cities when they start and more comprehensive studies are needed for it to be possible to predict where they will go in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban resilience is increasingly considered a useful approach to accommodate uncertainties. As an important material basis of the urban system, the land is one of the most promising intermediaries to observe urban resilience and is useful to shape resilience potential through land use management. However, current research into the quantitative assessment of urban resilience on land is underexplored, leaving it largely unpracticed in contemporary planning and policy discourse. Here, we introduce an operational model for understanding city-level resilience on land expansion that integrates economic, social and environmental dimensions of ecosystems. Using multi-source data and employing spatial analysis methods, urban resilience is assessed from 1995 to 2015 in Tianjin, China as an illustration following the phases of the operational model. The results indicate that land expansion has a great influence on urban resilience, given economic resilience increases but simultaneous social and environmental resilience decrease. The findings suggest (i) urban resilience should be incorporated into the planning process that helps to balance the multiple tradeoffs involved; (ii) land use regulations are necessary to manage land by controlling the quantity and quality of land uses; (iii) local governments should be involved to make tailor-made strategies to enhance a concerted action of successful practice. • Provide an analytical framework for understanding city-level resilience no land expansion. • Recognized multiple tradeoffs in land expansion and suggest urban resilience helps to balance these tradeoffs. • It is necessary to use land use regulation as intervention for achieving urban resilence. • Propose local governments be involved to enhance a concerted action of successful practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]