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Globally, cities have become hubs for economic activity, productivity, and important platforms for achieving sustainable development goals. The potential of urban agriculture (UA) in improving urban local economies and urban micro-climate has been acknowledged in the literature. The study looked at how the concepts of UA, local economic development (LED), and climate change can be treated in unison. Based on the review of credible published papers on the various concepts of UA, LED, climate change and nature-based solutions (NBS), a proposed conceptual framework was developed in this paper showing the linkages. The paper established that UA could boost LED, build resilient urban settlements, and promote social inclusiveness, but with social challenges. It is therefore recommended that policymakers make UA a crucial aspect of their agenda in the coming years to address the local economic and climate challenges now and in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a tendency for debates around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to focus on particular Goals or Targets. What tends to get lost, however, is the bigger picture. In this paper we ask: to what extent and under what conditions do the SDGs offer a pathway to equality? Specifically, we focus on the potentials of the SDGs as a pathway to urban equality in the decade of delivery. We focus on the ways that three key interrelated development agendas, eradicating extreme poverty, promoting prosperity, and building resilience, are mobilised through the SDGs. Together these agendas reveal tensions and opportunities in the relationship between the SDGs and urban equality. In discussion, we reflect on the potentials of an urban equality lens to read the SDGs, and the conditions under which they might contribute to the realisation of fairer and more equal cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates sustainable urban aspects of the Great Bazaar of Tabriz (GBT) in Iran, classified as the world's largest covered bazaar. Qualitative and statistical research methods employed to analyze the sustainable features of the (GBT) and compare them against four dimensions of the sustainable development model. The results of the public satisfaction survey employed, calculated using SPSS for the GBT, show that the majority of approximately 78% of the interviewees are satisfied with the bazaar's environment, whereas a minority of approximately 16% declared that they are less happier with the environment. Accordingly, the 'friendly atmosphere' has the highest impact on satisfaction with approximately 92%, and the 'role of trade unions', with approximately 54%, is the lowest factor impacting public satisfaction with the bazaar's spatial configurations. Historical and vernacular architectural elements are the main strength of the GBT; the lack of infrastructures to expand e-commerce activities is seen as a weakness; the potential grow number of costumer shopping at the GBT is identified as an opportunity, and international sanctions are interpreted as a threat. Finally, recommendations regarding a more comprehensive approach toward the sustainability of the GBT and the flourishing tourism activity in the Tabriz, in general, are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring and comparing sustainable development levels of cities are essential procedures in creating and maintaining sustainable urban futures. This paper introduces a new urban sustainability assessment model: The Live-and-Work (LaW) City Index. It intends to enumerate/evaluate all targeted individual indicators in a simple, comprehensive manner, where all could be overseen solely, thus tracking their progress towards targeted values, assisting policymakers by providing an interpreted integrated sustainability assessment framework. The model incorporated all related domains affecting urban sustainable development; in a method that is further extended to gauge and rank cities' performance. A functional form of aggregated indicators is derived to compute the overall index, illustrated in the form of a pie/radar chart. For proofing and calibrating the effectiveness and reliability of the model, it has been applied to three different cities. The results have shown that the model has the communicative advantage in comparative levels of different values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Urban Agenda (NUA) and Agenda 2030's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognise the key role of 'sub-national entities', including cities, in achieving sustainable development. However, since these global policy agendas were agreed and signed by national governments, implementing them at the local level requires a process of localisation to fit local realities. This paper analyses the national guidance (or lack of) and the resultant collaborations emerging between various levels of government in the implementation of these agendas in African cities, namely Kisumu, Kenya and Cape Town, South Africa. It argues that effective implementation of the SDGs requires a strong framework for multi-stakeholder engagement and coordination at all levels of governance, which is possible if both top-down and bottom-up approaches are used concurrently and harmonised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a holistic approach for the implementation of reuse strategies on vacant urban lands is essential if cities are to optimize the potential utility of these untapped resources as public amenity spaces, at a neighbourhood-, community- or city-wide planning scale. Many cities across the globe struggle with the presence of vacant and underutilized land in the urban environment. This is a wasted resource that has significant potential to contribute to a city’s green infrastructure/amenity capacity if the suitability of reuse strategies can be better understood. This paper presents a prototype community-based decision support tool to assist neighbourhood groups in completing a user-customizable vacant and underutilized land inventory at a neighbourhood, community or city-wide planning scale. The purpose of this research is to create an inventory that captures the relevant neighbourhood and site attributes in a way that can be conveyed to the user as a ‘site suitability index’ (or score). This information can then be used to make more informed decisions with respect to which parcels of vacant land are most suitable for temporary reuse strategies. Developed in Microsoft Excel®, the prototype tool allows the user to evaluate up to 15 community-based reuse strategies across three broad categories – parks, urban food production and stormwater/ecosystems management – using a hybrid binary scoring methodology. The prototype tool was applied to 25 sites across the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to determine the validity of the method presented. The inventoried attributes of (i) neighbourhood quality, (ii) developability potential, (iii) visual quality, (iv) compatibility, (v) transportation and (vi) vulnerable populations were used to calculate a set of site suitability indices. The indices calculated appeared appropriate for most uses, which validated the hypothesis that the majority of the inventoried sites would have strong indices based on the fact that they currently function as public amenity spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we focus on the rationale for implementing the fare-free public transportation system (FFPTS) in Tallinn, Estonia, that took place on 1 January 2013. Through a series of interviews with relevant informants, we identify the main enablers and the FFPTS in Tallinn faced and the potential of such a system to contribute to the sustainable city development. Our analysis shows that the interlinking between local and national politics determines not only the type of initiatives implemented and the support they receive but also the degree of their success and their stability. We conclude that to be even more effective, it should be extended to the all potential users, not just to local registered residents as it has been recently applied in state-run bus travels in rural municipalities in Estonia. Finally, more restrictive private car policies should be considered to fuel a sustainable mobility transition and increase cities life quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic developments affect urban land-use changes. Using Lefebvre's production of (urban) space as a conceptual framework, this study investigated the industrialisation process and its urban spatial outcomes in three cities (Galan, Dukem, and Bishoftu) along the southern outlet of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. Landsat images were used to quantify the changing patterns of the three cities from the period 2006 to 2021. Interviews with key informants and document analysis were used to supplement these findings. The analysis reveals that in Addis Ababa-Bishoftu economic growth corridor, the unruly urban land-use changes have become a serious issue, challenging the sustainable development of cities. The study confirms that the proximity to Addis Ababa has contributed to the urbanisation process and urban corridor formation through investment expansion. This calls for a high level of expertise as well as integrated regional development for sustainable urban and industrial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research examined how technical capacity contributes to smart growth applications. Therefore, this research paper applies case study analysis to investigate the effects of the technical capacity of city/town planning agencies on applications of smart growth policies to reduce urban sprawl. The case studies include 10 cities/towns located in different counties within the State of Maryland, USA. They represent four pairs/groups with comparable population size but different smart growth profiles. First, the researcher conducted content analysis of city/town comprehensive plans to assess how they have embraced smart growth policies. Then, she interviewed city/town planners to explore factors contributing to policy applications. The analysis indicates that city/town technical planning capacity (PC) is the most important factor contributing to smart growth applications. It shows that county applications of anti-sprawl policies lead cities/towns to adopt smart growth policies to manage future growth. In addition, public preferences and concerns about rapid urban growth shape city/town land-use policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular development creates more resource efficient, adaptive, and ecologically healthy cities. Circular food and construction systems; the ecological regeneration of contaminated brownfield sites and circular tactical urbanism are just some of the processes and systems adopted by those implementing a circular development pathway. These produce benefits, however, there are many challenges to implementing circular development, demonstrated by two London cases. The research reveals the difficulties low-value, circular activities encounter when competing for space in London. It shows how the imbalance between local supply and demand for circular products prevents scaling-up. It suggest a lack of data monitoring the benefits of adopting circular development, undermines political support. It reveals the conflict between the reliance on civil society to engage with circular actions versus public resistance. It highlights the need for accountability and transparency in the process of implementation and for a regulatory framework to encourage circular development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are patterns, outcomes, and factors emerging from the urban environmental sustainability actions? To what extent do the conditions of action arenas facilitate urban environmental actions? In this research, the community-level public space named 'neighbourhood activity centres' in Taipei City is observed and investigated. Besides the field observation effort, a data set is established with the combination of subjective and objective data sources collected from a questionnaire investigation (255 units of observations) and the governmental open data systems. After employing ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis, the author concludes that environmental friendly facilities (such as aquaponics systems), environmental tendency of the communities, exhibition of policies or regulations and action networks among participants, could facilitate the outcomes of urban environmental sustainability movement. However, the diversity among the participants negatively affects the relationships between some external factors and action outcomes. The divergence in actor preference increases the required transaction costs in the consensus process due to time-consuming communication and compromise. This study thus proposes recommendations, such as benchmark Lis and neighbourhood associations, as policy application that could enhance municipal implementation of sustainability policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search for mechanisms that can bolster sustainable development governance is underway. Bilateral city-to-city partnerships (C2C) have been put forward as platform through which cities can strengthen sustainable development in urban landscapes. Here, we critically examine claims about the capacity of these international cooperative arrangements, originally designed and deployed as development aid delivery mechanisms, to promote sustainable development. Our systematic examination of the extant literature on bilateral North-South C2C in Latin America fails to provide sufficient evidence that C2C can deliver on its promise to promote robust governance, both generally and in the specific context of sustainable development. Instead, it seems that C2C is more likely to support than challenge entrenched practices which can weaken sustainable development governance. Identifying these tendencies is a first step in formulating strategies that may enhance C2Cs and other transnational partnerships aimed at improving urban sustainable development in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent international policy advocating for social innovation to be part of strategies to promote sustainable urban development has energised this emerging body of literature. However, there is a need for more sector-specific research to integrate findings on the spatiality of social innovation, co-operative processes, and place-scale relations. This article presents a review (2002-2018) of social innovation in urban spaces. Based on data from 114 publications, the review indicates that research in the spatiality of social innovation can be grouped into three major themes: (1) Spatial planning and community development; (2) Governance; (3) Co-production and service design. The findings suggest that in general the collaboration of end users in place-based development is central to this process of urban change and that process is as significant as the outcome. This article concludes with a research agenda to address identified lacunas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the best conditions for the success of a car-free neighbourhood and the profile of the potential residents who would live in it. In this context, questionnaires were applied to a sample of the population of Florianópolis. We attempted to determine the profile of potential residents through a logistic regression. The gathered data were complemented by the literature review regarding the already existent car-free neighbourhoods that led to some adaptations required by the Brazilian context in relation to the European car-free neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is widely agreed that technical innovation and behavioral changes have to be part of any sustainability strategy. Pursued in isolation, however, they miss out on the significant potential of strategic synchronization of technical and social change, in order to facilitate sustainable behavior through appropriate material infrastructures. Such strategies require detailed knowledge about people’s preferences and willingness to adopt new socio-technical settings. It is suggested that this knowledge is best acquired through participatory design processes because of an assumed causal link between decision-making process and sustainable outcome. A no-fuss, top-down approach with very little participation – as practiced in Singapore – could challenge this claim if empirical evidence showed that it is equally capable of providing urban infrastructures that facilitate sustainable behaviors. This article describes such a test. It detects an incongruence between normative preferences for participatory design and the actual result of Singapore’s approach. However, it also questions the implications of these findings, especially their transferability and the seemingly implied conclusion about the substitutability of public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – proclaimed in the year 2000 and aimed at guiding the planet's management and its priorities for the next 15 years – were widely based on the concept of ‘sustainable development’. This concept will be once again broadly discussed in 2012 on the occasion of the United Nations Rio+20 Summit. It will be an opportunity to decipher to what extent the city, as much from a spatial as from a societal point of view, is a stakeholder in such debate. After analysing the various interpretations of the concept of ‘sustainable development’, this article questions its implementation within the framework of the MDGs and the role assigned to urban actions. Due to its complexity and in spite of its economic and demographic prevalence, urbanism has been bypassed by a number of international global initiatives launched to date. A series of options have been proposed to finally give the city the high profile it deserves in any sustainable development analysis, aiming as much at the urbanistic and material production as at the social and economic balance of its inhabitants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fractal structure of a system suggests the optimal way in which parts are arranged or put together to form a whole. The ideas from fractals have a potential application to the researches on urban sustainable development. To characterise fractal cities, we need the measure of fractional dimension. However, if the fractal organisation is concealed in the complex spatial distributions of geographical phenomena, the common methods of evaluating fractal parameter will be disabled. In this article, a new model is proposed to describe urban density and estimate fractal dimension of urban form. If urban density takes on quasi-fractal pattern or the self-similar pattern is hidden in the negative exponential distribution, the generalised gamma function may be used to model the urban landscape and estimate its latent fractal dimension. As a case study, the method is applied to the city of Hangzhou, China. The results show that urban form evolves from simple to complex structure with time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]