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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]

In recent decades, our cities are increasingly expected to become more sustainable urban forms, with many added determinants. A multitude of city concepts has therefore been contrived. The most time-honored and prominent concept is the “sustainable city,” which is depicted as a model urban form and thereafter more city concepts have come into being. However, it is not clear for all the concepts, for instance, “eco-cities,” “smart city,” “sustainable city,” and “resilient city,” what are the underpinning building blocks within each concept and how these concepts correlate with each other. This bibliometric study organizes this in conducting a descriptive summary, a clustering analysis, and multidimensional scaling of major city concepts, by establishing a co-word matrix of high-frequency keywords occurring in the Science Citations Index (SCI) and Social Science Citations Index (SSCI) databases. In addition to summarizing the evolution of these concepts, it analyzes the composition of each city concept and the core issues addressed by each city type. Also investigated are the correlations between the city concepts with a statistical analysis of the clusters of literature in one concept that overlap or connect to other clusters in another. From this, it is shown that, under the two umbrella terms of “sustainable city” and “smart city,” the “? -city” literature has developed in a variety of distinctive ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regenerative sustainability is emerging as an alternative discourse around the transition from a ‘mechanistic’ to an ‘ecological’ or living systems worldview. This view helps us to re-conceptualize relationships among humans' technological, ecological, economic, social and political systems. Through exploration of ‘net positive’ or ‘regenerative’ development lenses and the traditional sustainability literature, the conceptualization and approaches to achieve sustainable development and ecological modernization are expanded to articulate and to explore the evolving sustainability discourse, ‘regenerative sustainability’. This Special Volume of Journal of Cleaner Production (SV) is focused upon various dimensions of regenerative sustainability (e.g. regenerative design, regenerative development, and positive development) applied to the urban built environment at scales, which range from individual buildings, neighbourhoods, and urban developments to integrated regional sustainable development. The main focus is on how these approaches and developments are evolving, how they can help us to prevent or adapt to climate change and how these approaches are likely to evolve in the next two to three decades. These approaches are addressed in four themes: (1) reviewing the theoretical development of the discourse of regenerative sustainability, its emerging principles and practices, (2) explaining how it can be measured and monitored, (3) providing encouraging practical pathways and examples of its implementation in multiple cultural and climatic contexts, and (4) mapping obstacles and enablers that must be addressed to help to ensure that more rapid progress is made in implementing the transitions towards an urban built environment that supports genuinely sustainable societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The sustainable development steers the green city campaign in the global stage, which has become an increasing challenge particularly to most developing countries in the next decades. This paper aims to investigate green-technologies applicable in the process of developing 2010 Shanghai Expo and the implementation of these green technologies in helping Shanghai city achieve building efficiency and sustainability. A list of green technologies applied in the World Expo has been investigated and key effective green technologies have been identified by using a questionnaire survey. This is followed by case studies to investigate the extent to which these green technologies have been applied to achieve the sustainable development of cities. The findings suggest that a paradigm shift in urban planning and building design is needed and proactive financial measures to encourage the application of green technologies should be formulated. The suggestions can help guide the future direction on the practical approaches towards green cities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Spatiotemporal pattern of habitat quality in Hangzhou was assessed by InVEST model. • Spatial distribution of habitat quality showed positive spatial auto-correlation. • Negative impact of urbanization on habitat quality varied with time and space. • Impacts of landscape pattern on habitat quality differed in magnitude and direction. China has experienced the most serious habitat degradation, especially in fast-growing metropolis cities. Although increasing attentions have been brought to this issue, we still lack the understanding of the quantitative impacts of urbanization and landscape pattern on habitats. In this study, we used the "Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Trade-off" (InVEST) model to evaluate the habitat quality in Hangzhou city. We further employed spatial auto-correlation to analyze its spatiotemporal pattern variation characteristics. Finally, the ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models were used to explore the impacts of urbanization and landscape pattern change on habitat quality. The results show that the habitat quality index of Hangzhou decreased from 0.608 to 0.577 during 2004–2015, and these areas mainly located around the suburb decreased significantly. The spatial distribution of habitat quality showed significantly positive spatial auto-correlation, and the overall spatial auto-correlation degree of the habitat quality increased during this time. Rapid urbanization has significant negative effects on habitat quality in various areas, while the magnitude and direction of the impacts of landscape pattern on habitat quality differed in time and space. These results provide decision-making criteria for formulating differential urban development policies and landscape management measures for urban ecological sustainability. [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]

Abstract: In recent years, there has been rapid urbanization worldwide, resulting in both benefits and problems. Sustainable urbanization has become an important aspect in promoting sustainable development. Existing studies have introduced various methodologies to guide urbanization towards sustainable practices. The application of these methods has contributed to improving urban sustainability. To further support the effective applications of the principles of sustainable urbanization, a tool is needed to evaluate whether a particular process of urbanization is sustainable. In this paper, we introduce an alternative model for evaluating sustainable urbanization by investigating the relationship between urbanization and urban sustainability. The practice of sustainable urbanization is defined as a dynamic process that enables urban sustainability to improve or to maintain a certain level of practice. By employing this definition, we introduce a sustainable urbanization elasticity coefficient eSU , which is defined by two parameters: urbanization velocity (VμR ) and urban sustainability velocity (VμS ). The sustainability of an urbanization process is measured by the value of eSU or read from the VμR –VμS coordinate. A case study demonstrates the application of the measure eSU and the VμR –VμS coordinate. The proposed model is an effective tool to help policy makers understand whether the urbanization processes they support are sustainable and thus whether to correct practices. The model also allows comparison of different urbanization practices and thereby encourages the sharing of successful experiences. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Smart city development plays an important role in achieving urban sustainability. This paper uses mapping of knowledge domain (MKD) analysis to review 965 studies concerning smart city development and urban sustainability (SCDUS). The most influential journals, scholars, articles, keywords, and regions in the SCDUS research field are identified. Research findings also reveal four prevailing topic clusters in the current SCDUS field, namely information technology, energy and environment, urban transportation and mobility, and urban policy and development planning. Potential research frontiers are further proposed. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the development of current SCDUS research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sharp increase in global urban population and rapid expansion of impervious urban surfaces is raising concerns over more than just the quality of human life; researchers are also worried about ecosystem services and the stability and security of urban ecosystems and the infrastructures. In this paper, we define “urban ecological infrastructure” and propose an integrated framework in which the infrastructure network provides ecosystem services and sustainable urban systems despite changing landscapes and climate. We define the urban ecological infrastructure (UEI) as an organic integration of blue (water-based), green (vegetated), and grey (non-living) landscapes, combined with exits (outflows, treatment, or recycling) and arteries (corridors), at an ecosystem scale. The UEI framework represents the biotic and abiotic interactions within an ecosystem, and stresses an integrated relationship between artificial and natural systems. It links the grey, blue, and green infrastructures, and integrates them via both exits and arteries. Its insights can help to improve the circulation and reuse of resources throughout the urban ecosystem. This comprehensive conceptual framework can facilitate more rational urban development, and can improve urban ecosystem services and regional sustainability. Although understanding the form and function of UEIs is an important first step, innovative strategies are needed to address challenging obstacles such as rigid thinking, institutional fragmentation and inflexible policies. New thinking and innovative ways of acting will be required to provide a more resilient, stable, and sustainable urban system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing awareness of the need to improve built environments in declined urban areas worldwide has raised the popularity of urban regeneration as a research topic. Various tools, such as questionnaire surveys, analytic hierarchy process, and fuzzy set theory, have been developed to measure the sustainability of urban regeneration and ensure that it follows the principles of sustainable development. However, these studies, which rely on the indicator system, assume that urban regeneration is a static and isolated state during the assessment process. Hence, this study aims to provide an alternative model for measuring sustainability of urban regeneration. Fuzzy set theory and Monte Carlo simulation were introduced to solicit critical measurement indicators that would lay a unified basis for comparison. Entropy method was also used to determine the weights of relevant critical measurement indicators to avoid subjective judgment. A general decision-making framework for dynamic monitoring of urban regeneration was developed based on the dynamic change of sustainability of urban regeneration ( V k ) and urgency of urban regeneration ( U k ). Four scenarios were discussed based on the four quadrants generated by V k and U k . Therefore, sustainable urban regeneration can be identified and compared through the V k – U k coordinate system, and the best practices of urban regeneration can be determined for global promotion. This model has the advantages to process the fuzzy and subjective nature in indicator assessment of sustainability of urban regeneration, which is an improvement compared with existing studies. As well, the decision-making framework could assist policy-makers in determining the sustainability of an ongoing urban regeneration as well in performing a dynamic and long-term monitoring of the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]