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Global warming is a worldwide concern, with buildings generating more than 40% of the annual global CO2 emissions. A commonly accepted system of global standards for zero-carbon buildings and communities has not yet been established. In this research, the development history, hotspots, and trends at the urban scale with theoretical and data support are summarized based on the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection. The review contains works from 1997 to 2022. A total of 19,014 papers were collected, with an overall increasing trend in the number of articles with specific keywords. The scope of the research is broad, covering the environment, sciences, ecology, chemistry, material science, physics, meteorology, atmospheric sciences, and so on. The hotspots in the low-carbon community (LCC) and zero-carbon community (ZCC) involve a wide range of disciplines, and collaborative research between related disciplines should be strengthened to propose practical solutions for the development of zero-carbon cities. The establishment of the ZCC mainly focuses on a zero-carbon-emission construction and zero-carbon operations. This research found approaches such as the choices of building construction and material, a waste recycling system, a regenerating energy system, transportation, and an examination of the community composition to realize the ZCC. In the literature it is presented that the difficulties in the construction of the ZCC are due to the lack of research in practice, operation, and subsequent maintenance. Moreover, other scholars can deepen the research on the hotspots of ZCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, in order to promote the construction of low-carbon communities (LCCs) in China, many scholars have proposed an evaluation indicator system of LCC. The existing indicator systems are mostly established from the macro perspective of environmental impact and resource conservation, but few are from the micro technical perspective. Thus, the aim of this study is to construct a micro technical evaluation indicator system for LCCs. Firstly, the index system was divided into three categories: low-carbon building, low-carbon transportation, and low-carbon environment. Then, the technical indicators were selected through empirical analysis. The indicator weights were assigned by the improved analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the multi-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was used as the evaluation method of the indicators. Finally, in order to examine the practicality of the indicator system, two typical communities in Tianjin and Shanghai were selected as case studies. The results showed that the indicator system gave a reasonable low-carbon level for the two communities, which was in line with the actual low-carbon construction status of each community. In addition, the evaluation results pointed out that the low-carbon community (LCC) in Tianjin needs to further strengthen the construction of the low-carbon environment, including community compactness, rainwater collection and utilization, and waste recycling. For the LCC in Shanghai, it was pointed out that the construction of the low-carbon building and low-carbon transportation needs to be strengthened. The indicator system can be used as a tool for urban planning and construction personnel to evaluate the construction progress and low-carbon degree of LCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]