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Economic sustainability is often addressed from the perspective of economic growth and at the national level. In contrast, this research attempts to examine the question of economic sustainability of human settlement at a local project level. Urban planners need to strike a balance between dispersal and over‐concentration of population in cities. The existing theories suggest that either excessively low or extremely high levels of household concentration is undesirable to a neighborhood. In this study, an economic assessment using machine learning (ML) techniques is used to identify the threshold scale of a housing estate, which comprises many privately owned residential units (like condos) with shared amenities. Using two decades of property transaction data in Hong Kong as our evidence, this study has found that a tipping point exists in the development scale of these housing estates. Housing values initially rise with the number of residential units in a housing estate but gradually fall when it increases beyond a critical limit. This nonlinear economic relationship is attributed to the per household share of common facilities, which does not increase sufficiently to match with the growing population density of the housing estates. The policy implication is that, to optimize housing supply, urban planning should not just focus on increasing the development bulk of housing but should also pay attention to the possible bottlenecks in the provision of shared amenities in the neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to integrate millions of migrant workers into local communities remains a core challenge in China's urban transformation. Recently some cities, driven by a national policy of integrated metropolitan development, have aggressively engaged in the redevelopment of urbanizing villages (chengzhongcun) to promote formalization and desegregation. This article adopts a historical micro‐perspective to examine the actual role of urbanizing villages in city making, through an in‐depth analysis of how migrants and villagers have struggled since the 1980s for symbiotic co‐existence during various stages of urbanization. It argues that state‐led village redevelopment has created more problems than it has solved. Redevelopment eliminates some of the spatial and institutional separations characterizing Chinese socialist villages by dismantling barriers hindering formalization and marketization of collective village land, but this produces new social inequalities and tensions as it uproots pre‐existing self‐governing communities to facilitate spontaneous grassroots rural‐to‐urban transition for villagers and migrants. To cope with these problems, intervention to resolve the emerging problems of Chinese cities must consider a fundamental policy shift, away from sole reliance on the means of formalization and integration, to greater emphasis on the benefits of informality and segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study evaluates the land-use zoning and development of open space in the hyper-dense, land-hungry city of Hong Kong. The existing literature has generally found that its open space provision is unsatisfactory in both quality and quantity. The study fills the research gap by undertaking an archive research and interpreting the past zoning data from a total of 1573 statutory town plans published between 1965 and 2006. It elucidates how the current ungenerous provision of public open space can be attributed to a number of historical, political and institutional factors including: inefficient division of government responsibilities, lack of public representation, pro-growth planning ideology, revenue-maximizing land sale policy and privatization of urban space. This study concludes that the development of public open space has been prejudiced under the statutory planning system and land allocation process. It suggests that the shrinking of public open space may cause excessive development density that aggravates the deteriorating urban climate in Hong Kong. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper examines the evolution, implementation and performance of the green belt in the compact and land-hungry city of Hong Kong. The green belt in Hong Kong comprises over 25% of all the land areas under the statutory land-use zoning plans. Its planning policy declares that there is a presumption against development in this land-use zone. Based upon historical study, cross-sectional examination of 109 statutory zoning plans and quantitative analysis of 1230 planning application cases, this study has evaluated whether the green belt was indeed treated as a non-building area for the purpose of landscape and countryside conservation. The conclusion is that the actual planning intention of the green belt has been ambivalent and flexible and it is a transition zone rather than a zone for conservation in Hong Kong. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: While the importance of urban management in achieving sustainable urban development is increasingly recognised as being significant by urban managers and the general public, there is still a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding in China about the substance of urban management, which impedes effective implementation. This paper examines some of the problems encountered in urban management practice in Chinese cities, and highlights the importance of a holistic conceptual understanding, and a strategic model for enhancing urban management capacities in the Chinese context. Focusing on a case study of Guangzhou Development District (GDD), the paper demonstrates that the application of a set of measurable evaluative criteria for assessing urban management performance is useful in improving urban management practice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract How to make a better use of derelict industrial sites mostly occupied by state-owned enterprises has presented an increasing challenge to urban regeneration of many Chinese cities. Drawing from the experiences of a landmark project (Xinyi Club) in Guangzhou City, this study examines the course of adaptive reuse of an industrial land and its repercussions on reshaping the urban renewal strategy of the city. We argue that industrial land restructuring requires a pragmatic partnership of the local state with the occupiers and market players, and its flexible decision-making to overcome the constraints of regulatory institutions. Urban regeneration strategy of Chinese cities requires some fundamental transformations of the governing institutions and systems to remove the barriers against bottom-up initiatives in order to expedite the pace of redevelopment. First-mover advantage of the project proponents and the support of local government accounted for the success of the development project in this study. It may not be easily replicable because it is an outcome of exception rather than norm. Highlights • Industrial land restructuring requires flexibility in local regulations. • Temporary land use permit was an exceptional tool in this adaptive reuse project. • Urban regeneration necessitates reforms to remove the institutional barriers. • First-mover advantage accounted for the success of adaptive reuse project. • Successful landmark projects may not be replicable without policy support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective evaluation on the coordination between socio-economy (V) and carbon emission (W) is essential for sustainable urban planning, and this study introduces an improved coupling coordination degree (CCD) model for conducting such evaluation. The limitation of the traditional CCD model has been examined. The effectiveness of the improved CCD model is demonstrated with its application in 30 case provinces of China by using the data collected for the period 1995–2015. The results show that: (1) The subjectivity embodied in the traditional CCD model in analyzing the coordination between V and W significantly distorts the true coordination between the two systems. (2) The improved CCD model is effective as its application can reflect the reality of the sample cases. (3) The average coordination degrees of the 30 case provinces for the surveyed period show an upward evolution, and the coordination statuses of these provinces have been transforming from low-grade symbiosis to high-grade symbiosis. (4) The spatial distribution of coupling coordination degree in China is characterized by a higher degree of coordination in the Eastern provinces. The results of applying the improved coupling coordination degree model can help decision makers formulate effective sustainable measures to balance socio-economic development with carbon emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of global urbanization, high-density cities faces enormous challenges on land supply. Hong Kong is a megacity with a long-term lack of land and housing supply. To increase the development intensity of built-up areas in Hong Kong, a minor relaxation of plot ratio/building height restrictions for twenty-one sites in the three target study areas of Kai Tak Development Area has been approved by the Town Planning Board in 2015. This study aims at providing scientific evidence on the impact of this relaxation and possible further relaxations using 3D spatial analyses and simulation technologies. After a 3D model of Kai Tak and surrounding areas being generated, effects of increased PR/BH on skyline, visibility, shadow and insolation, air temperature, and wind ventilation were successfully analysed based on five scenarios. Research findings indicated that, except the extreme case of Scenario 5, no significant changes were found in Scenario 2, Scenario 3 and Scenario 4 when compared with the original plan of Scenario 1. As a pilot study focusing in Hong Kong, this research may also serve to provide new methodological and theoretical insights to facilitate rational discussion and debate on changing land development density in other similar hyper-dense cities. • We measure impacts of minor relaxation of maximum plot ratio/building height restrictions. • 3D models of Kai Tak and surrounding areas are established in GIS virtual environment. • We simulate changes of visual and microenvironment using 3D spatial analyses under five scenarios. • The most recommended scenario and implications are discussed based on the analysis results. • The proposed approach can be applied to other cities in the similar context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]