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Spatial inequality in basic service provision is a key challenge for smart city development strategies. With a focus on walkable accessibility, this paper proposes a new methodological approach to analyzing spatial inequalities in metropolitan cities. In addition to proving the effectiveness of the proposed methodology by using New York City as an empirical case, the insights offered by the analysis contribute to an improvement in the current understanding of the negative implications that spatial inequalities can have on public health. Policies concerning local public service rearrangement should consider spatial inequalities to promote more effective forms of public participation both in the United States and globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many major cities today are beginning to experience increasing water shortages. A major use of water is often in industrial production, and therefore its reduction should go a long way to correcting the situation. The composition of the whole local or regional industrial structure has a significant influence on this, with its combination of sectors of different resource-intensities varying in their scale of use. However, the form of industrial structure also has an influence on other aspects of city life – particularly its economic performance. Evaluating industrial structure, therefore, involves an optimization problem of, on the one hand, determining the appropriate proportions of various types of sectors that will best satisfy the objective of minimizing water consumption in the face of a range of economic and other constraints. Alternatively, it can be seen as an optimization problem with the objective of maximizing economic benefit under a range of water use and other constraints. In developing the optimization model, we first break down industrial water use into two objectives - (1) minimizing total consumption and (2) minimizing intensity (per unit) of consumption. Adding the economic objective of maximizing Gross Domestic Product (GDP), all three are then optimized retrospectively by a series of input-output analyses to evaluate the suitability of the industrial structure. The application of the model is demonstrated in a case study of Beijing that indicates that, while its industrial structures in 1992 and 2002 were far from optimal, the actual 2012 industrial structure was quite close to that determined by the model and augurs well for the city's future sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a large amount of population moved from countryside to cities in China during its urbanization in the past two decades. The majority of these people have no formal qualifications for city residency, and they are so-called ‘floating population’. The increase of this group of people has induced the pressure of land use in cities, and the contradiction between the demand and the supply of urban land has been intensifying particularly in those developed regions in China. This paper examines the impacts of floating population on urban land by presenting the interrelations between floating population and urban land expansion from the perspective of production land and living land. Structural equation model (SEM) is employed in conducting the analysis. The result shows that the floating population alone does not have direct effect on urban land expansion, but have indirect impacts through engaging in the production or living process. It is particularly interesting that floating people's living conditions have no direct positive effect on the increase of construction land. Based on the research results, suggestions are offered for improvements in government policy towards a more sustainable and integrated urbanization, including the provision of housing support, the formation of more urbanized society and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1990s, Chinese cities have been experiencing significant suburbanization with massive numbers of people moving out of city centers. Facing this background, this paper aims to identify the typology of residential resettlements in suburban areas, and analyze the mechanisms of each residential resettlement via archive studies, census tracks and field research instead of the traditional macro-demographic approach. Five types of resettlement are identified, comprising public housing districts for poor people with housing difficulties, low-end private housing districts for lower socio-economic people, multiple housing districts (containing public housing and low-end private housing) for displaced shantytown residents, and villa areas for the wealthy. This suburban residential resettlement pattern is generally different from that in Western cities, which is largely attributed to the Chinese governments' monopoly of land supply and public service provision. It is also concluded that the state power, capitalist actors (e.g., developers and private enterprises), and other professionals (e.g., planners and architects) have become the Chinese characterized ‘pushing’ factors and actors in driving the typology of suburban resettlement housing in the context of urbanization era of China. Besides, the five typology of resettlement housing has brought about socio-spatial consequences including a spatial mismatch for lower socio-economic groups in suburban areas, which may lead to the formation of poverty belts around Chinese cities. This may provide important implication for understanding the residential resettlement in other developing countries with similar context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

China is facing the challenge of sustainable urban redevelopment due to its massive economic transformation process. As a unique product of the rapid urbanization of past decades, urban village has become a major obstacle for sustainable redevelopment because of its sub-standard infrastructure and disordered built environment. Redevelopment of ‘villages in the city’ (ViCs) is distinct from normal urban redevelopment because it involves the change of collective land ownership without de jure property rights to state land ownership with de jure property rights. What site characteristics, what ownership type, what geographical characteristics, make village sites more likely to be redeveloped? This study addresses this question with particular reference to industrial sites in Shenzhen. An analytical framework is developed based on the concept of rent gap to analyze the possible effects of these factors. An empirical investigation is conducted based on a set of data that covers all 44 village-owned industrial sites in the Nanshan District in Shenzhen. The findings suggest that village sites with better accessibility to good transportation facilities and the city centre are significantly more likely to be redeveloped and thus will be integrated into formal urban areas earlier than those located in less accessible areas. It is also demonstrated that fragmented land ownership and lack of legal land rights are not significant barriers for the sustainable redevelopment of such sites. [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]

Sustainable land use policies are concerned with the kind of world we want to live in now, and in future, and therefore inevitably involve some form of community involvement or consultation process. Hong Kong's sustainable land use planning system is well developed, involving considerable community participation and therefore serves as a good model for similarly situated cities. However, although there are several recent studies involving aspects of its land use planning system, none has yet examined the system as a whole from the perspective of sustainability. To correct this, this paper describes the land use conditions of Hong Kong from both demand and supply perspectives, reviewing its statutory and administrative procedures of land development and allocation together with the sustainable urban renewal practices involved. Problems in current sustainable land use planning and management, such as difficulties in urban renewal, the inherent shortage of land and the lengthy time involved due to need for coordination and responsiveness to multiple stakeholders, and outdated and overcomplicated administrative processes were also analyzed. [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]

Abstract: The urban land use involves more severe sustainability challenges than agricultural land use. An effective approach for evaluating urban land use is essential for meeting this challenge to improve efficient land use management. This approach must fit into a coherent conceptual and analytical framework covering different aspects, including social, economic, environmental and rational land use structure. A major problem with this is the lack of the evaluation approach for objectively evaluating the sustainability of urban land use in practice. In this paper, an evaluation system for the sustainability of urban land use (ESULU) is presented aimed at rectifying this situation. This is based on 13 indicators drawn from previous literatures in consultation with a group of experts in this field. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is applied to assist in identifying the major factors for evaluating the sustainability of urban land use. Examination of the results provides a grouping analysis of the capital cities and municipalities, indicating a general disproportion between coastal and interior urban cities in China. The findings lead to further suggestions and recommendations for central and local government to design relevant policy in achieving the sustainable development of urban land use and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• 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]

A significant cause of economic recession and environmental change that has attracted the extensive attention of researchers and policy-makers worldwide is the land urbanization bubble (LUB) – a rapid and catastrophic growth and decline in urban development fueled by a mixture of misplaced exuberance and speculation. It is also an important topic for sustainable urban development and urban renewal, and is of particular interest to China, as one of the countries with the largest amount of urban land, most drastic change, and most prominent land urbanization conflicts in the world. This study analyzes the characteristics and presence of dynamic change in LUBs during China's urbanization process through a case study of the changing space-time rules in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province over the years 2004, 2007, 2010, 2015, and 2020. Based on a literature review and analysis of the mechanism driving Hangzhou's LUBs, we design a method for their classification and measurement. This reveals the existence of an overall 18.24 km2 LUB in 2010 and a predicted 40.62 km2 LUB in 2020. Locally, the Jianggan and Yuhang districts are expected to have a higher LUB risk by 2020, the Bingjiang and Xiaoshan districts a medium risk, the Shangcheng and Xiacheng districts a low risk, and the Xihu district having no LUB risk. Finally, three policy recommendations are proposed in consideration of Hangzhou's economic development and land use characteristics, comprising (1) reducing LUBs by promoting intensive urban expansion, (2) reducing the possibility of LUBs by building a market-oriented control system for construction land expansion, and (3) the dynamic control of LUB risks by differential regulation of the expansion of urban construction land. • These identified LUB areas are classified into two categories in this paper, including controllable LUB uncontrollable LUB. • This research found no LUBs in 2007 and 2015, but with an 18.24 km2 LUB in 2010 and an expected 40.62 km2 bubble in 2020. • The concept of LUB risk was introduced and calculated in this paper for decision makers' reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The spatial dynamics of urban construction land were explored by using a hybrid Logistic CA model. • We visualize how predictions on spatial expansion will benefit urban planners and policymakers. • The model could explain the underlying mechanism of urban growth in a spatial-economic and social way. • We indicate the effective quantification of land patches can improve the compact urban growth. • Effective quantification of the construction land patches could reduce the unordered urban growth. Why does some urban area grow faster than others? Although the role of spatial optimization of urban construction land is at the core of regional economic development, the question remains to be answered so far. This paper aims to explore the spatial dynamics of urban construction land in the central urban areas by integrating Logistic regression and cellular automata models. The combination of the two modeling approaches aims to investigate the evolving dynamics of urban land use patterns and further visualize how predictions on spatial expansion will benefit urban planners and policymakers. Simulation analysis emphasized to what extent do the influencing factors promote or inhibit urban growth. Theoretical frameworks tend to explain the underlying mechanism of urban growth in a spatial, economic and social way, taking the city growth as a self-organized organism with complex actors and rules. In this paper, we present a hybrid Logistic cellular automata model to examine the city's self-organizing spatial growth process from a bottom-up perspective and interpret why non-construction land was converted to construction land for urban development purposes at Hangzhou in the past two decades. We argue that although the construction land is dispersed irregularly across the city, the logistic cellular automata model will generate the underlying patterns of urban expansion and offer more facts-based implications. [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]

Urban agglomerations are considered as significant space typologies in the post globalization & digitalization era. The spatial linkage intensity of cities in urban agglomeration is an important basis for evaluating the development and compactness of urban agglomerations. The requirements associated with the major national strategy to achieve the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region and the research methods made possible by Big Data in the Internet era have created the realistic possibility of revealing the strength of spatial networks and the spatial differentiation rules of urban agglomerations. This study uses Web Crawler to obtain 500,000 sets of Weibo data in 13 cities of the BTH urban agglomeration. Three criteria and nine indicators are used to construct an index system and a model to quantitatively evaluate the strength of spatial networks in the BTH urban agglomeration. The results show that spatial network connections between cities in the urban agglomeration are not strong overall, reflecting the limited development of urban agglomeration; the spatial networks in the urban agglomeration have hierarchical and centralized characteristics, which reflect the imbalanced development of the city network; Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang are the centers of the social network connections in the BTH urban agglomeration, which means that Weibo's online space reinforces the existing urban system; there is a positive correlation between network spatial connectivity and the hierarchy of cities in the urban agglomeration, where cities with higher levels would have more urban network connections; Generally, Weibo network connections are stronger than economic or transport links between the cities, and the development of information technology may reduce the disparity of regional development. This research innovatively uses social network big data to reveal the strength of spatial network connections and spatial differentiation rules in the urban agglomeration. The methodology provided in this paper is systematic enough for generalization. • The spatial linkage intensity is an important basis for evaluating the development and compactness of urban agglomerations. • We construct a new index system using network big data to measure the strength of connection between cities. • The methodology can be applied to other regions when examining social network big data from Facebook or Twitter. [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]